March 2022

How much more does God love us, than even this bunny mother and her child?

The sermon for Sunday, March 20, 2022, was delivered by Michael Rader as a response to Luke 13.1-9. Michael is a lay preacher at St. Hilda St. Patrick and is heavily involved in mission and outreach to unhoused populations. Bless the Words of my mouth, O Lord – and may we have ears to hear

The whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith…Though we turn away, and our love fails, God’s love remains steadfast. Again and again, God calls us to return.

The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for Sunday, March 6, 2022, was preached extemporaneously based on the notes below in response to Luke 4.1-13. Every year, Matthew, Mark, Luke, 1 Lent ? On our own spiritual journeys back to the font to renew promises On our own

Our whole service today reminds us that we will die, and that even in that frailty God loves us and redeems us in Jesus. We should repent. We may fast or abstain. We may take on a spiritual discipline. We may give more. None of those things, though earns us salvation. None of them earns us God’s love. Through nothing we’ve done. As far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our sins from us.

While we probably don’t experience those specific events, we do have our own kinds of mountaintop experiences, where we write glowingly of sunrises, soft breezes, warm friends, music, and quiet time. Whether we do or not, God is available to us, even in all the troubles that swirl around us in this world from Ukraine to those whom our systems fail and need to use our pantry and sock box. God is available to us in Bread and Wine eating Jesus’ Flesh and Blood. And God is available to us when we sit and pray, like Jesus did on the mountaintop with his disciples.