Sermons – St. Brendan's Anglican Church

Rev. Doug Floyd Trinity Sunday 2025Rev. Doug FloydJohn 16:12-15 St. Sergius of Radonezh's (ra-donesh's) whole life was devoted to the Holy Trinity.[1] He lived in the 14th century and believed that the divisions of the church and the world could only be healed through contemplation of the Trinity. Seventeen years after his death, Andrei Rublev was commissioned to paint an icon of…

Rev. Dr.. Les Martin Pentecost 2025 – They were all together in one placeRev. Dr. Les MartinActs 2:16 In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen Having migrated from the East after the flood, the peoples gathered on the plain of Shinar, all together in one place.  This is not a good thing. Back…

Rev. Doug Floyd Easter 7 2025Rev. Doug FloydRevelation 22 Today, we come to the end of The Revelation. As we come to the end of The Revelation, we realize we are back at the beginning. In Revelation 22:13, Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” [1] Iin Revelation 1:8, we…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Easter 6 – Its gates will never be shutRev. Dr. Les MartinRevelation 21:25b In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen As we continue our preaching series today, we we find ourselves in Revelation, Chapters 21 and 22. While concerned with the new heavens and the new earth more broadly,…

Rev. Doug Floyd Easter 5 2025Rev. Doug FloydRevelation 19 Kelly and I were talking the other night about her job. She's worked with the same company for many years. During that time, she's come in contact and befriended people throughout the organization. She told she's seen many people who once were passionate about their work have grown weary. They've lost their joy.…

Rev. Dr, Les Martin Easter 4 – Good Shepherd SundayRev. Dr. Les MartinPsalm 23, Revelation 7:9-17, Luke 10:22-29 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.John 10:27 In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen The book of Revelation is a kaleidoscope of images that keep changing and changing.…

Rev. Doug Floyd Easter 3 2025Rev. Doug FloydRevelation 5 John is weeping. He is not simply choked up. He is trembling. He is grieving. He is writhing with the grief of all creation because no one was found worthy to open the scroll. Why weep over a sealed scroll? Joseph Mangina writes, “If the scroll remains locked under its seven seals, there…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Easter 2 – Do not be afraid!Rev. Dr. Les MartinRevelation 1:17b In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. At two years old, our son Isaiah is speaking much more clearly.  As a result, our discussions are improving.  He is able to articulate his needs in a way that we…

Rev. Doug Floyd Easter 2022 (Updated from Easter Vigil 2016)Rev. Doug Floyd Back before. Before bombings in Ukraine. The bloodshed in Nigeria. Back before almost 100 million refugees and displaced peoples wandering the earth. Back before 24-hour news cycles. Back before never-ending political ranker. Back before Facebook and emails. Back before business lunches and late-night study sessions. Back before grandchildren, children. Back…

Rev. Lindsay Mizell Good Friday 2025Rev. Lindsay Mizell I'm Lindsay Mizell and the pastor at Vineyard Springbrook and since the beginning of Saint Brendan's, you all have invited us to be part of your Good Friday and we're grateful for your patience with us when we don't know your rhythms and customs is kind and gracious. Father Doug and Peter and Ash…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Maundy ThursdayRev. Dr. Les MartinDo you understand what I have done for you?John 13:12b In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. In Judaism, during the Passover Seder, there’s a section at the beginning known as The Four Questions. The most famous one being the one asked by the youngest…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Palm Sunday 2025Rev. Dr. Les MartinLuke 23:1-49 Types and shadows have their ending, for the newer rite is here– Tantum Ergo Sacramentum, St Thomas Aquinas In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. It was the week before Passover, and so the Jewish people were making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. …

Rev. Doug Floyd Lent 5Rev. Doug FloydIsaiah 43, Luke 20:9-19 Last week, Fr. Les exhorted us with the story of the Prodigal Son who wasted his inheritance and the Prodigal Father who pours out his love on both sons without restraint. As it turns out, Christ comes into the far country to pour out His love upon us and present us as…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Lent 4 – The Prodigal FatherRev. Dr. Les Martin
Luke 15 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. John 8:35 The whole of Luke chapter 15 is about lost things.  We have the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Parable of the Lost Coin, and the story we know…

Rev. Doug Floyd Lent 3, 2025 – Turning toward GodRev. Doug FloydExodus 3:1-15, Psalm 103, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Luke 13:1-9 Last week Fr. Les invited us into the story of Abram, God's promise of offspring, and Abram's lack of offspring. As he struggles, God reassures him and makes a one-sided covenant with Abram where God stands as surety for his own promise.…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Lent 2 2025Rev. Dr. Les MartinGenesis 15:1-18, Psalm 27, Philippians 3:17-4:1, Luke 13:31-35 In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen Jesus is moving towards Jerusalem.  It has been his destination in some sense for his whole life, but particularly since his encounter with Moses and Elijah on the Mount…

Rev. Doug Floyd Lent 1 2025Rev. Doug FloydDeuteronomy 26:1-11, Romans 10:4-13, Luke 4:1-13 We are following Jesus into the wilderness, into the haunts of the desert, among the wild beasts, and facing the devil. As we walk through the seasons of Lent, we meet all sorts of pilgrims. Abraham sent forth and leaving his world behind as he journeys into the great…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Ash Wednesday 2025Rev. Dr. Les MartinIsaiah 58:1-12, 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and deliverer.  Amen. Ashes are what's left. At the end of the night around the campfire, when the marshmallows are all gone. Ashes. When…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Last Sunday of Epiphany 2025Rev. Dr. Les MartinExodus 34:29-35, Luke 9:28-36 They were afraid to approach him.  Exodus 34:30b Veils blind.  They hinder our sight. Our reading from Exodus today concerns the matter of Moses and his veil. He wears it because of the reflected glory of God.  When he would speak with God, it seems Moses' face…

Rev. Doug Floyd World Mission Sunday 2025Rev. Doug FloydRomans 9:30 – 10:21 The Lord God is walking. Calling. Seeking his son Adam and his daughter Eve. He is calling, “Where are you?” His children hide from their sin, from their shame, from their good and gracious Father. His call, His Word, His question burns in their hearts. They must respond. Adam trembles,…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Epiphany 6 2024 – Trust in the LordRev. Dr. Les MartinJeremiah 17:5-10; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26 My blessing is on those…who trust in me, who put their confidence in me. – Jeremiah 17:7 (NET) We are in the early days of Jesus ministry.  He has just spent an entire night in prayer on the mountain, and named…

Rev. Doug Floyd Epiphany 5 2025Rev. Doug FloydJudges 6:11-24, Psalm 85, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11 Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. – 1 Corinthians 7:17I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day…

Rev. Doug Floyd Candlemas The Presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ in the TempleRev. Doug FloydMalachi 3:1–4, Psalm 84, Hebrews 2:14–18, Luke 2:22–40 For the Lord God is a sun and shield. – Psalm 84:11a The sun in the heavens enlightens the whole world, energizing all things and revealing all things in glory. The glory is all-consuming. If we were to stare…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Epiphany 4 2025Rev. Dr. Les MartinLuke 4:21-32 Isn't this Joseph's son?. Luke 4:22b In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen Our Gospel reading today picks up where last week's reading left off.  Let's just walk through it for a start.  As you remember from last week, Jesus read from…

Epiphany 3 2025Rev. Doug FloydLuke 4:14-21 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,because he has anointed meto proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captivesand recovering of sight to the blind,to set at liberty those who are oppressed,to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” And the eyes of all in the synagogue were…

Epiphany 2 2025 -The WeddingRev. Dr. Les MartinJohn 2:1–11 “You have kept the good wine until now.” – John 2:10 In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen There's something wrong at the wedding at Cana in Galilee.  Things go wrong at weddings. I've been a priest now for 30 years and the stories…

Rev. Doug Floyd Baptism of Our Lord Jesus ChristRev. Doug FloydLuke 3:15-22 Aert de Gelder paints a most unusual image of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist. The image is dim, and the only light is on Jesus as the heavens open and the Spirit descends, and the Father speaks. De Gelder's style follow his influence: Rembrandt. Though he was considered…

Eve of Epiphany 2025Rev. Dr. Les MartinMatthew 2:1-12 …they departed to their own country by another way. – Matthew 2:12b + In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today is Epiphany Eve. The Feast of the Epiphany- a word meaning “a revelatory manifestation”- is one of the 7 principal feast days on the…

Christmas 1 2024Rev. Doug FloydJohn 1:1-18 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”[1] Grant Osborne writes, “In my opinion, this is the single greatest sentence ever written in the history of the human language, the deepest theological statement ever written.”[2]…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Christmas Day 2024Rev. Dr. Les MartinIsaiah 52:7–12, Psalm 98, Hebrews 1:1–12, John 1:1–18 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. – Isaiah 52:7a + In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. After I was ordained, my mother went from being a lapsed…

Rev. Doug Floyd Christmas Eve 2024Rev. Doug FloydLuke 2:1-20 Every year cartoons and movies retell the same story: the story of a child or an adult who has lost the wonder of Christmas, “the Christmas spirit.” Every year the tale of innocence and experience is retold through the lens of Santa Claus and a heart that needs only believe. Christmas is the…

Advent 4C
Rev. Dr. Les MartinMicah 5:2-5a, Luke 1:39–56 Be strong, fear not, your God is coming with judgment, coming with judgment to save you. – Church of England, Common Worship, Canticle “A Song in the Wilderness,” verse 5 In the name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the 1991 Lawrence Kasden film Grand Canyon,…

Advent 3C 2024Rev. Doug FloydZephaniah 3:14-20, Luke 3:7-20 They've come to see him. They've come to hear this voice crying in the wilderness. Some have come to mock or to criticize. Some are spying on his words and actions. And some are desperate for the Word of the Lord. The sounding Word reverberates into the vast silence of the wilderness. Israel has…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Advent OneRev. Dr. Les MartinLuke 21:25-33 When all this begins to happen, stand upright and hold your heads high, because your liberation is near. – Luke 21:28, REB + In the name of the living God: the Father , the Son , and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today, we observe the first Sunday of Advent, the season in…

Rev. Doug Floyd Christ the King 2024Rev. Doug FloydDaniel 7:9-14, Psalm 93, Revelation 1:1-8, John 18:33-37 A few years ago, I saw a bumper sticker that said, “Jesus is coming look busy.” And also, “Jesus is coming and he is p*&#ed.” A more Evangelical version has been, “He came as a lamb the first time. When returns, he will come as a…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Pentecost +26 2024Rev. Dr. Les MartinDaniel 12, Psalm 16, Hebrews 10:31-39, Mark 13:14-23 We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and apart from your grace, there is no health in us. + In the Name of the Living God:  the…

Pentecost +25 2024Rev. Doug Floyd1 Kings 17:8-16, Psalm 146, Hebrews 9:24-28, Mark 12:38-44 Jesus is teaching in the Temple. He is engaging with Sadducees, Scribes, and his disciples. He sits down near the offering box and is watching people go into the Temple. Many fine people with long robes walk past and fill the treasury with large sums of money. If we…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin All Saints’ Day 2024Rev. Dr. Les MartinSirach 44:1-14, Revelation 7:9-17, Matthew 5:1-12 Today we observe the Feast of All Saints. It began in the fourth century as a catch all feast to remember all the martyrs of the Diocletian persecution. By the ninth century in the British Isles, it had moved to November 1 and later Pope Gregory…

Rev. Doug Floyd Pentecost +23 2024                                                              Rev. Doug FloydIsaiah 59:9-20, Psalm 13, Hebrews 5:11-6:12, Mark 10:46-52 …justice is far from us,and righteousness does not overtake us;we hope for light, and behold, darkness,and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.10 We grope for the wall like the blind;we grope like those who have no eyes;we stumble at noon as in the twilight,among those in full…

Pentecost +22 2024Rev. Dr. Les MartinIsaiah 53:4-12, Hebrews 4:12-16 But he was lifted up for our illnesses. He carried our pain in the name of the living God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. The first open heart bypass surgery where the heart is exposed, stopped, and life is sustained by a heart lung machine while the operation takes…

Pentecost +21 2024Rev. Doug FloydHebrews 3:1-6 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin St. Michael and All AngelsRev. Dr. Les MartinGenesis 28:10–17, Psalm 103, Revelation 12:7–12, John 1:47–51 Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on…

Rev. Doug Floyd Pentecost +18 2024 RevisionRev. Doug FloydMark 9:30-37 35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Pentecost +17 2024Rev. Dr. Les MartinMark 9:14-29 “I believe, help my unbelief!”+ In the name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Introduction Jesus, Peter, James and John have just been on the mountain.  There, Jesus had been transfigured in glory, and conferred with Moses and Elijah, who are the fullness of…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Pentecost +15 2024Rev. Dr. Les MartinEphesians 6:10-20 +In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today, we come to the end of our sermon series on Ephesians, with Paul's analogy concerning the “Full Armor of God.” Some might think I count myself lucky to have avoided last week's sometimes controversial…

Pentecost +14 2024Rev. Doug FloydEphesians 5:15-6:9 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.[1] N.T. Wright has suggested that Romans 8 draws upon the image of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness.[2] The Holy Spirit comes…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Pentecost+13 2024Rev. Dr. Les MartinEphesians 5:3-14 I am resolved to know nothing among you But Christ, Jesus and Him crucified. In the name of the living God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. We are continuing our study of Ephesians, and as I did last time I preached, I want to back up, because a…

Rev. Doug Floyd Pentecost +12Rev. Doug FloydEphesians 4:17-5:2 The story of the Good Samaritan begins with a question. Jesus declares that the heart of the law can be stated in the following commands, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor…

Pentecost +11Rev. Doug FloydEphesians 4:1-16 The book of Ephesians presents this glorious vision of God pouring grace upon grace into His people so that they become the very icons of grace. The Jew and the Gentile are gathered as one family, as one bride, the Beloved of God. In and through this Beloved, He will fill all the heavens and the earth…

Rev. Dr. Les Martin Pentecost +10 2024Rev. Dr Les MartinEphesians 3:8-21 In the name God the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, we’re continuing our study of Ephesians. But if you’re like me, when we study a book, we sometimes need to refresh before moving on. I’m going to back up a little real quickly. Looking back, in what…

Pentecost +9 2024Rev. Doug FloydEphesians 2 “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” Ephesians 2:19 In 1967, Armand Nicholi, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, began teaching a class on Sigmund Freud. Students asked their professor if he could talk about a counterpoint to Freud to help them…