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Weekly sermons from Holy Trinity + Holy Cross Cathedral in Birmingham, Alabama.
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19 OCT 2025 · In today’s Gospel reading, Christ raises a widow’s son from the dead. Fr. Micah explains that this passage has three powerful insights into the divine reality, which also gives us insights into our own human reality and communion.
First, the passage teaches us that Christ is God. He does not call upon his Father to raise the man from death, but simply says, “Young man I say to you, arise.” And if Christ is God, this means that He has revealed himself to us and spoken to us. In response, we are to bless and praise and worship him. Second, it gives us the insight that God is love. It is his love that raises the widow’s son, and his love will raise us up on the last day. The same compassion that he had on the widow he has for us. Third, this Gospel reading teaches us that life is not merely biology, but it is communion. When Christ raised the man, he gave him to his widowed mother. This is a common theme throughout the accounts of raisings — immediately following the raising, communion is restored.
Fr. Micah emphasizes that life is communion and love, and he quotes Elder Vasilios of Mt. Athos, who said, “Man’s vocation in life is one. It is an exodus from the narrow prison of self-love into the promised land of my God and my neighbor — to live not for the self but for the other.” He connects this idea to today’s Epistle reading, in which St. Paul writes that he knows a man who was caught up into Paradise. Paradise, Fr. Micah explains, is an image of man’s right relationship with God, with each other, and with creation. This relates to how many church fathers speak of the Fall. Instead of placing the emphasis on the disobedience, they emphasize that our Lord searched for Adam and Even that he might lead them to Paradise. The true fall is when Adam says, “It is the woman that you gave me,” thereby breaking communion both with neighbor and God — a communion that’s restored when we love God with all our heart, mind, and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. This communion of love is what we must seek, the communion that gives our lives eternal meaning.
12 OCT 2025 · On this Sunday, the Church celebrates the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, who gathered in Nicaea in 787 to defend the veneration of the holy icons. In his sermon, Fr. Gregory discusses three main topics: seeing rightly, loving rightly, and being transfigured by the one whose image we bear.
First, he shows how the holy icons teach us about the restoration of right vision. Through Christ, our eyes are healed to see creation as it truly is — a world filled with divine meaning, a veil that reveals God’s glory rather than conceals it. Second, he explains how the holy icons call us to move from objectification to communion, to resist the iconoclasm of our age that sees others as objects. Instead, we can recognize in every human person the living image or icon of God. Third, Fr. Gregory discusses how we are invited to become living icons to allow the grace of Christ to renew the image of God within us so that we ourselves may reflect his light into the world.
5 OCT 2025 · In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, our Lord tells us “As you wish men to do by you, so do to them.” Fr. Micah emphasizes the importance of this command and how transformative it can be when we follow it.
Christ goes on to say, “If you love those who love you, what thanks do you have? For even the sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what thanks do you have? For even the sinners do the same.” It’s natural for us to love those who love us, but the Gospel takes it much further, teaching us to love the person who irritates us, to do good to them. Fr. Micah encourages us to put this into action, to write a list of the people who irritate us the most, and to do something good for them or speak a kind word to them.
Fr. Micah concludes by recounting the life of St. John the Russian, who shows us what it means to follow Christ’s words in today’s Gospel.
28 SEP 2025 · Fr. Gregory begins today’s sermon by recounting a story from the French Revolution. In 1793, the revolutionaries stormed the Cathedral of Notre Dame and created a mock ritual in which they consecrated and deified human reason on the altar. This was the religious conclusion of the Enlightenment, and human logic was enthroned above faith. Though centuries have passed since then, we still live in the shadow of this moment.
However, today’s Gospel reading, Fr. Gregory explains, shows how we can transfigure human reason by submitting to Christ’s word. After speaking to the crowds from Peter’s boat, Christ asks Peter to let down his nets for a catch. Given the context, this seemed nonsensical. Peter voices this, but adds the words that show his faith and heart of discipleship: “Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net.” At once, the nets are filled to breaking.
Fr. Gregory explains that human reason is a gift from God, but it cannot comprehend God. Faith is not irrational, but suprarational — higher than human reason and transfiguring it. Salvation isn’t found in human reasoning, but in trusting and obeying Christ’s word. Fr. Gregory encourages us to enthrone Christ in our hearts — above our pride, fear, and limited human logic — and obey his words.
21 SEP 2025 · In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Christ says, “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Fr. Micah believes that these words can be distilled into one word, the central theme of today’s homily: patience.
He gives examples of how we practice patience in our everyday lives — from fishing and farming to marriage and parenting. However, when we follow Christ, we must not only practice this self-denial for individual gain and for our friends and family, but also for the stranger. We must be patient with those whom we find difficult, listen to those with whom we disagree, and deny ourselves today for a future we may never see. When we endure, wait, and persevere, St. Paul says that what remains is faith, hope, and love. What will remain if we deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him will be faith in him, hope in him, and his love.
14 SEP 2025 · On this Sunday, we celebrate one of the twelve great feasts of the Church, the Elevation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross. Fr. Gregory begins his sermon by recounting the history of this feast, which began in the year 629.
He then focuses on the healing power of the Cross, on bringing our wounds and our sufferings to Christ. He encourages us to, instead of denying our pain, to offer it to God, who can transform it and heal us.
7 SEP 2025 · In this Sunday’s Epistle reading, St. Paul says, “But far be it for me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” Fr. Micah explores what it means for the world to be crucified to us and for us to be crucified to the world in today’s homily.
First, he addresses the phrase, “The world has been crucified to me,” explaining that it means the world is dead — that is, the world is not viewed as a tool for our use, an idol, or a distraction. Rather, it’s a gift, a wonder, that we celebrate with thanksgiving, recognizing the Giver.
Next, he addresses what it means to be “crucified to the world,” which means that one is free from corruption, death, and the passions. This is true freedom, not the ability to do whatever we want, but to be free from wanting itself — to transfigure out wanting into what Christ wants.
Fr. Micah concludes by encouraging us in how we live in this way, looking to the Cross of Christ, knowing that we are not worthy or deserving of that love that is stronger than death.
31 AUG 2025 · In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, we hear the story of the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus and asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life, to which Jesus replies, “Keep the commandments.” The young man asks Christ which commandments, Christ names familiar ones, and the young man tells him he has kept them all since he was a boy. He asks Jesus, “What do I still lack?” Jesus tells him to give up his possessions, giving to the poor, and to follow him. He goes away sorrowful, choosing to cling to the security of his many possessions.
Fr. Gregory encourages us to be like the rich young ruler, asking what we still lack — how we can go beyond the minimum and pursue the perfection of love. When Christ calls us to take the next step — to give without fear, to detach our hearts from our possessions, to trust without compromise — he also strengthens us. At the end of the Gospel reading, Christ says that it will be very hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven, and the apostles ask, “Who then can be saved?” Christ replies, “With men this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.”
The young rich ruler’s story ends in sorrow, but ours need not. Christ stands before us too, offering the same invitation: “Come, follow me.” May we loosen our grip on the things of this world, trusting God with our possessions, future, and life. May we continually ask ourselves, “What do I still lack?,” taking the next step toward Christ and knowing that with him, all things are possible.
24 AUG 2025 · In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, our Lord uses a parable of servants who are indebted to their master to teach us about forgiveness, which is central to how we should live our lives as Christians.
In today’s sermon, Fr. Micah encourages us to always remember the debt that we owe our Lord, and that everything we have is a gift from God that we’ve done nothing to deserve. Every Sunday, we gather together to thank God for these gifts, and in the pre-communion prayer we say, “I am the first among sinners.” Fr. Micah challenges us to ask ourselves if we truly mean this when we say it. If we do mean it and believe it, there’s no offense we could receive that we could not forgive. Fr. Micah continues, emphasizing the importance of forgiveness in our lives and its relationship to communion and resurrection, the heart of our faith.
17 AUG 2025 · St. Paul tells the Corinthians in today’s Epistle reading, “We are fools for Christ’s sake.” St. Paul was very respected, a Pharisee of Pharisees. However, when Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus, all human prestige became “rubbish” compared to the surpassing worth of knowing the Lord. In his sermon, Fr. Gregory addresses this statement and the concept of foolishness, which has deep Biblical roots.
This concept of foolishness applies to us today, too. In a world obsessed with competence, success, and image, Christ calls us to humility, obedience, and self-sacrificial love — a life that can sometimes be misunderstood, ridiculed, or called foolish. The prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, the saints, and our Lord most of all bore this burden. May we have the courage to follow them, accepting when necessary the world’s laughter, knowing that, in heaven, such fools are crowned with glory. “Let us all be willing to be considered a little foolish for Christ in the eyes of the world,” Fr. Gregory concludes.
Weekly sermons from Holy Trinity + Holy Cross Cathedral in Birmingham, Alabama.
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| Author | Parish Life Connect |
| Organization | Finding God |
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