SERMONS

"Rest as Restoration" Sermon by The Rev. Cameron Nations August 24, 2025 Our culture offers rest as “brain rot” or “optimization,” but neither brings restoration. God’s vision for rest is richer—restoration, liberation, and resilience, drawing us closer to God and one another. In Scripture, Sabbath rest is not absence but presence—God’s life-giving spirit that restores and sustains us. If you are weary, bent down, or burdened, hear Jesus’ words: Come to me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.

"Unstoppable Transformation" Sermon by The Rev.Ranie Neislar August 17, 2025 I am from Georgia, but I am putting roots down here in Birmingham, naming this city as our home. Birmingham was built on raw materials—iron, coal, limestone—that combined to make steel, earning it the name Magic City. Transformation and creativity are trademarks of God’s power and of this city. Like Sloss Furnace, once abandoned but reborn as a place for community, we too are called to be transformed. Fire can destroy, but it can also refine and strengthen like steel. All Saints has literally risen from the ashes, a prophetic community embodying God’s lasting word. We are like those rocks broken into smaller stones, renewed for new work. At heart, All Saints is a place of unstoppable transformation—a Magic City Church—where God’s power makes us stronger so we can go out and do God’s work. And so, if you had to make a statement about what God is saying to you here, how would you finish this sentence: And God said…

"Jonathan & Ruby's Faith" Sermon by The Rev. Kelley Hudlow August 10, 2025 I traveled to Montgomery for the 60th anniversary of Jonathan Daniels’ death, where we remembered him, Ruby Sales, and other martyrs of Alabama. Jonathan, moved by Mary’s words in the Magnificat, came to Selma in 1965, worked for civil rights, and ultimately gave his life shielding Ruby from a shotgun blast. Ruby, sustained by her faith, testified against his killer. In Hayneville, I reflected on Hebrews’ words—faith is assurance of things hoped for—and how Jonathan, Ruby, and the pilgrims there lived by a faith that looked beyond the brokenness of the world to God’s promised kingdom. We need that same faith today, one willing to sacrifice for justice and mercy.

 "A Crazy Dream and a Greater Reality" Sermon by The Rev. Kelley Hudlow August 3, 2025 I dreamed of cashing out my retirement to open a Blockbuster video store, holding on to 90s nostalgia. But that foolishness is like the rich man tearing down barns to build bigger ones, ignoring the Kingdom of God. I come to the Eucharist to set my mind on things above, where Christ calls me, forgives me, and shows me how I am connected to each other, to all creation, and to the heart of God.

"Pray Boldly, Without Shame" Sermon by The Rev. Cameron Nations July 27, 2025 Prayer is tender, vulnerable, and central to human experience—expressing longing, seeking wisdom, and shaping our will to align with God’s. Jesus teaches us not just the Lord’s Prayer, but to approach God with “shameless audacity,” not as wish-fulfillment, but as trust that God hears us and gives us what we need—even if not always what we ask. So pray boldly, dispense with propriety, and speak to God like a child to a loving parent: “Dad, be with me now, give me what I need, help me forgive, and never let me walk alone."

"Go and Do Likewise" Sermon by The Rev. Brad Landry July 13, 2025 Jesus’ parable pulls love of God and neighbor out of theory and into action, showing that even a Samaritan, unexpected and despised, can reflect God’s mercy. “It’s not just what’s in your head. It’s what’s in your heart. Go and do likewise.” Three words, pride, silence, unity, can be good or bad depending on how we use them. This church is called beyond loyalty to any priest to be a Christ-centered community, called to “embody Christ’s transforming love… and go and do likewise.”

"Commissioned and Sent" Sermon by The Rev. Cindy Carter July 6, 2025 Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem, marking a turning point that begins the journey to the cross and resurrection. Along the way, he sends 70 followers in pairs to spread the good news, emphasizing prayer, trust in God, singularity of purpose, and peaceable behavior. Though success is uncertain, their joy comes not from results but from their identity as God’s people, just as newly baptized Miley and Hazel are sealed and commissioned to begin that journey of faith.

"Following Jesus and the Daily Paschal Mystery" Sermon by The Rev. Brad Landry June 29, 2025 Over the past weeks, listening sessions have asked what it means to be an Episcopalian in Alabama, with some saying we are the Episcopal branch of the Jesus movement, a place where questions and doubts are embraced as faith. Faith asks us in return, “What does it mean to follow Jesus?” For some, it means leaving everything; for others, returning home to tell of God’s goodness. No matter how, it always involves the life, death, and resurrection—what Paul calls the Paschal Mystery. As Henri Nouwen said, our deepest vocation is to witness the glimpses of God we have been allowed to catch. So start small, start today, and ask how you have seen God, for this is how we follow Jesus.

"More to the Story" Sermon by The Rev. Brad Landry June 15, 2025 It’s hard to say what’s more difficult—preaching on the mystery of the Trinity or telling you that my time as rector of All Saints is coming to a close. If you haven’t yet, I hope you’ll read the letter I wrote last Tuesday. But for now, thank you. Thank you to everyone who has reached out with care and encouragement. No, I won’t be the next Archbishop of Canterbury—the commute would be brutal. In the meantime, as we mark Trinity Sunday, I invite us to reclaim words like “dogma” and “doctrine”—not as closed-mindedness, but as the best language we have for something disturbing and inexhaustible. The Trinity is not a puzzle to solve, but a relationship to experience. God is still speaking, still revealing truth. As Jesus said, “I still have many things to say to you.” And I believe that’s true for me, for you, and for this whole community.