The Good Shepherd Blog
The Wedding Garment: Making the Most of What Christ Offers
Preaching on Father's Day, Sub Dn. Timothy Grace takes up the parable of the wedding feast and the guest without a garment. In the ancient world the host supplied the garments, so to arrive without one was not poverty but insult — and Christ, the great host, has supplied us with everything we need. Drawing on St. Symeon the New Theologian's call to run to the light while it still shines, he asks what excuse any of us will offer for not becoming holy. He closes with a word to fathers on steering between indifference and control, and on St. Paul as a model of invested, un-domineering fatherhood.
Tenants in the Vineyard: Saved by Grace, Made to Love
Preaching on the parable of the wicked tenants, Fr. Geoff Harvey holds together two truths that can seem to pull against each other: we are saved by grace and not by works, yet a faith that bears no love has no life in it. The tenants' great failure did not begin with murder but with forgetting whose vineyard it was. Fr. Geoff offers three simple charges — stand firm in the faith, serve one another in love, and show love to the Lord — and points us to the stone the builders rejected, who has become the cornerstone of our salvation.
The Rich Young Ruler: What Has a Hold on Your Heart?
In this sermon on the rich young ruler, Daniel McInnes asks what it really means when Christ tells the young man to sell all he has. The problem, he explains, was never wealth itself, but the hold that wealth had over the young man's heart. Whatever sits on the throne of our hearts in Christ's place becomes a weight around our necks, and the godly sorrow of seeing it clearly is the beginning of repentance. When Christ is at the centre, the good things of this world are not denied us but restored to their right place.
The Two Kinds of Suffering: Voluntary and Involuntary
In this sermon, Sub Dn. Timothy Grace explores the Orthodox understanding of suffering, distinguishing between the voluntary hardships we take on through the ascetic disciplines of the Church and the involuntary trials that come to us against our will. Drawing on the day's epistle and gospel readings, he shows how both kinds of suffering, when met with patience and the right attitude, can open the heart to the grace of God. He reminds us that the Church is the place where these two forms of suffering meet, and that even what feels like failure by the world's standards can become our victory in Christ.
What Will You Do? The Feeding of the Five Thousand
In this sermon on the feeding of the five thousand, Daniel McInnes reads St Matthew's account alongside the fuller detail of St John's Gospel, where Christ tests the disciples with the question, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" Daniel draws out how God chooses to work through people who bring the little they have, how the miracle foreshadows the Eucharist, and how the same question — "What will you do?" — meets us in the needs we encounter every day.
You Are the Light of the World: Holiness and the Faith of Chalcedon
Preached by Fr. Nicholas on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, this sermon joins two themes: Christ's call in the Sermon on the Mount, "You are the light of the world," and the faith defined at Chalcedon in 451. Fr. Nicholas shows how holiness and true doctrine belong together — the light of Christ shines through both holy living and the confession of Christ as fully God and fully man — and calls us to remove whatever hides that light so that our lives may lead others to glorify God.
Discovering Our Gifts and the Virtue of Filotimo
Preached by Sub Dn. Timothy Grace on the Sunday commemorating St. Paisios of Mount Athos, this sermon draws on St. Paul's letter to the Romans to explore both the unique gifts God gives each of us and the calling shared by all Christians. Through the lives of the saints, the Greek virtue of filotimo — a loving eagerness to do good — and the words of C.S. Lewis, Timothy shows how we grow in holiness by forgetting ourselves and losing our lives in Christ.
Christ Conquers: Freedom from Bondage and the Fruit of the Spirit
Fr. Geoff Harvey reflects on the deliberate contrast between this Sunday's Gospel and Epistle: the two demoniacs enslaved by evil, and the fruit of the Spirit that grows in those who follow Christ. Drawing on the sobering example of Judas, he calls us to stay close to Christ, cultivate one fruit of the Spirit, and bear one another's burdens.
The Faith of the Centurion: Humility and the Work of Repentance
Daniel McInnes reflects on the Gospel account of the Roman centurion who comes to Christ on behalf of his suffering servant. He draws out the centurion's remarkable humility, his compassion for one beneath his social standing, and his unwavering faith in Christ's authority to heal. Daniel challenges us to turn that same gaze back on ourselves and to take up the work of repentance and the life of virtue within the Church.
Where Is Your Heart Fixed? Seeking First the Kingdom of God
Fr. Nicholas Frazer reflects on the Gospel and Epistle readings and the single question they place before us: where is your heart fixed? Drawing on Christ's words about the eye, treasure, and anxiety, he shows how seeking God's kingdom first transforms worry into trust, resting our lives in the love of a faithful Father.
