Sunday Sermon: Pentecost 2010

I used the following for my two sources to craft a sermon on Sunday morning.

Anthony De Mello says this about the needs of the Church: “The greatest need of the Church today is not new legislation, new theology, new structures, new liturgies – all these without the Holy Spirit are like a dead body without a soul. We desperately need someone to take away our hearts of stone and give us a heart of flesh; we need an infusion of enthusiasm and inspiration and courage and spiritual strength. We need to persevere in our love without discouragement or cynicism, but with a new faith in the future. In other words, we need the fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”

And from a man I knew as a student at St Thomas, The Rev. Stephen Stanley, at the time chaplain at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

If you are confused – Thank God!
If you do not have all the answers – Thank God!
If you do not know exactly what God is up to – Thank God!
If you have to wait up on the Lord – Thank God!

There are no shortcuts to grace.
Our home is NOT the destination, but the journey

St. Anselm said, “I do not understand so that I may believe, I believe so that I may understand.”

Trust precedes understanding.
Grace precedes acceptance.
Faith precedes works.

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