allsaintsjonesboro Sermons

From “Sight” to Blindness to Sight

A sermon for the Conversion of Saint Paul, from Father Josh Leigeber.

In this homily, we are reminded that our failure to recognize Christ is not merely ignorance, but spiritual blindness caused by sin. Paul’s conversion makes this clear: convinced he was serving God, he was in fact persecuting Christ Himself, and only the risen Lord could break through his certainty.

Yet Paul’s true sight did not come through the blinding light on the road alone. It came through God’s appointed means of grace. Sent by Christ, Ananias spoke the Word and baptized Paul, and only then did the scales fall from his eyes. In this way, Paul’s conversion teaches us how Christ still works today—revealing Himself and giving forgiveness, life, and salvation through His Word and Sacraments.

Having been shown mercy, Paul is immediately sent. The persecutor becomes a preacher, and the Gospel entrusted to him is carried beyond Jerusalem, across borders, and eventually to us. The Church celebrates Paul’s conversion not because Paul is the hero, but because Christ is faithful—faithful to confront sinners, to give sight to the blind, and to send His saving Gospel into all the world.

allsaintsjonesboro Sermons

Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul

Today (June 29) is the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the holy apostles “through whom we have received the beginning of our religion,” as we prayed during Mass in the ancient Collect of the Day. In Ephesians 2:20, we hear that as those who have been made members of the household of God, we are built upon the “foundation of the apostles.” What does all of this mean? How do the apostles–and these two men in particular–fit into a biblical, Christ-centered faith? Is the foundation upon which the Church (and we as members of it) are built the apostles as men (as important as they are) or is that foundation perhaps something, rather, which comes to us from the apostles but is more bound up with their doctrine and Scriptural writings? These two men teach us an important lesson today, a lesson which helps us remain on the via media and avoid the extremes of either papism or modern evangelical biblicism. Listen to the sermon below for more.