Sunday Homily

The prophet Isaiah cries out for God’s presence. He asks God to come down and put things right in Israel. This is what God did at Christmas. He came and was present. In this message we will look at the importance of simply being present for others. God gives us the gift of himself. You too can give the gift of self, yourself. Your presence may be the best present you can give. Make your present a high quality presence. Since you can only be in one place at one time it’s a “one at a time” kind of gift, a “one of a kind” kind of gift.

In this week we will introduce the value of generosity and how we naturally are in a giving mood in the Christmas season. The Gospel of Matthew reminds us that when we give, especially to those in need physically or spiritually, we are really giving to Jesus. We give because it gives to Jesus and because Jesus promises a reward to people who are generous with their time, their money and their energy.

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, we all have the opportunity to thank God by taking the Next Step with our financial giving. When you take the next step and thank God in this way, you will be affirmed, promoted, and invited to share your Master’s joy.

To serve means to be of use to God by being useful to others. To love God and love others by putting love into action. We can serve others in many ways. For Jesus, serving wasn’t just a good idea, it was the whole idea, the whole idea of his life..

For your faith journey and spiritual growth to have staying power, you need to be known and loved and supported by others who are also trying to live out their faith. Without Christ-centered friendships, our walk of faith will most certainly be a slower, less steady one, and we’re far more likely to fall and fail.

Sharing your faith helps you grow spiritually. It does this in 3 distinct ways. First, it helps you grow in love of God. Secondly, sharing your faith helps you grow in love of your neighbor. And, finally, sharing your faith grows your gratitude and enthusiasm for what God has done for you. Sharing your faith means working to bring the good news of God’s love and mercy to people who do not know it.

Prayer is the most widely accepted spiritual practice of all. This one, we can all easily agree on. This practice is a universal one among people of any and every faith found in every time and place. Even people of no faith are known to turn to this practice, at least from time to time. If you want to grow spiritually and as a follower of Jesus Christ, you want to pray. Prayer is both a conversation and an encounter with God in which we tune our hearts to him.

In this series, we will look at the power of commitment and the steps we invite people to commit to in our church community. We grow not only by the commitments we make but by those that we fulfill. Committing to a marriage, a job, or a friendship allows us to grow personally. Likewise, we mature as Christians by the faith commitments we make and keep. This is a series about how to grow in your faith as a follower of Jesus Christ and the commitments we want to help you make in order to do that.

We will end our series by looking at the passage from Matthew in which Jesus says, “The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.” We will delve deeper into the meaning of this phrase as a way to sum up the series. We will look at Jesus as the cornerstone of our faith. He is wonderful in our eyes. Our faith is not founded on human beings but on Jesus who was rejected at the crucifixion and rose from the dead to become the cornerstone.

Jesus came for the lost and this greatly upset the religious leaders. Jesus further upsets them as he stated that tax collectors and sinners were entering the kingdom of God before them. The lost were coming into a relationship with God before the religious leaders because they were repenting and doing what God wanted them to do. Often people who turn back to God are the most zealous for him. At Saint Mary, we want to keep focused not on religious people, but on the lost so that they can become fully devoted followers of Jesus

Jesus tells the parable of a landowner who hires laborers throughout the day. He brings more and more people on board as the day continues. This is an image of the church. It is to be a growing movement. As followers we must be going deeper, but it also means that God wants more and more people on board. There is plenty of work to be done in building God’s kingdom. In this message we will look at the importance of going deeper and wider as a church.

In this week message we will look at the parable of the unforgiving servant. A foundation of our church is that we are all in need of God’s mercy. We gain heaven because of God’s mercy and love and can do nothing to earn it. We are to extend that to others. A cornerstone of our faith is that we can all have access to God through the person of Jesus Christ and that no one is too far from him. We want to be a grace filled church.

Jesus is our cornerstone, and he tells us to share him with the world. That is his vision for us. Over the centuries the church has lost this vision. The Coronavirus presents us with the perfect opportunity to reclaim it.

When you live out your life by making disciples as you are called to do, your life becomes a ministry. And by doing so you lose your life for Christ and gain everything in the process. Not just in eternal life but in the quality and joy of your life now here on earth.

The beauty of intentional prayer and how it causes the one praying to search his/her heart and pour the heart out to God. When practicing intentional prayer in a group, also helps us understand other’s trials and joys.