Pastor Sullivan's Blog

Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Sin makes a lot of promises. Riches and wealth offer the promise of a comfortable life. Lusts, whether sexual lusts or the lust for a full belly, promise personal fulfillment in the satisfaction of every bodily desire. The world offers a good reputation, sometimes fame, but always acceptance, to those who go along with its thinking and promote its doctrines, from evolution to the syncretic doctrine that all religions and lifestyles are equally valid. Go along with these, promote them, nod your head in assent to them and everyone will heartily accept you. Sin makes all sorts of promises. Look no further to the Devil’s temptation in Matthew 4. “ The devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me ” ( Matthew 4:8-9). Follow the devil. Serve your...

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.  The Collect of the Day collects all the thoughts of the Sunday into one brief prayer. It’s tempting to think that because it’s brief it’s generic. But each prayer summarizes the main thought for each Sunday’s readings and ties them together. This makes the Collects good for more than just Sunday mornings. The Collect is for each day of the week, rooting each day in Sunday’s thought. If you use the Collect each day of the week you’ll find that it, and the readings for Sunday, conforms your prayers to its thought. Consider today’s Collect, the prayer for the seventh Sunday after Trinity. “O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in Heaven and earth, we humbly beseech Thee to put away from us all hurtful things and give to us those things which be profitable for us.” It sounds generic. It also sounds like something the prosperity preachers could pray. We pray for two things. Fi...

Catechetical Recitation Hymn #  263 O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe Hymn #  288 Lord, Help Us Ever to Retain  (St. 1-2) Hymn #  444 Rise! To Arms! With Prayer Employ You Hymn #  288 Lord, Help Us Ever to Retain  (St. 3-4) Hymn #  261 Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Thy Word Readings Jeremiah 31:23-25 Romans 6:19-23 Mark 8:1-9 Sermon In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. 1)          In today’s Gospel reading a great multitude, four thousand strong, gather to hear Jesus’ teaching. We often think of crowds flocking to Christ to see a miracle or that they migrate to where He is because He’s recently done a miracle. But that’s usually not the case. The people came to Jesus because “ He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes ” (Matthew 7:29). Such was the case in today’s Gospel reading. This multitude goes out into the wildernes...