Preaching among the Palms

Founded in 1885, St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Fort Myers, Florida, is the oldest parish in the diocese of Southwest Florida. We preach the Word of God with conviction and clarity. Listen for informative and inspiring sermons every Sunday in the City of Palms.

Preaching among the Palms is a religion podcast hosted by Fr. Jeffrey Hanson, with 58 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Fr. Jeffrey Hanson hosts Preaching among the Palms, a religion show with 58 episodes published.

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  Preaching among the Palms

  Proper 15—August 16, 2026

  Aug 17, 202614 min

  In today's Gospel reading Jesus ventures among outsiders, where he meets a woman in desperate need. Fr. Grady speculates that this Canaanite woman may have even heard about Jesus and is anticipating her encounter with him. She may have heard the stories of God's saving actions in history and hoped that meeting Jesus was the next opportunity she had for a blessing in her own life. The disciples try to make her go away, but Jesus, despite seeming at first unfeeling as well, is prevailed upon by this stranger of great faith. All people are thus welcome in the kingdom of God, the inheritors of the Jewish tradition and outsiders. From here on out Jesus is even more welcoming than before, and his disciples take his message of unearned grace around the world.

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  Preaching among the Palms

  Proper 14—August 9, 2025

  Aug 11, 202627 min

  In today's Gospel reading the disciples are being buffeted by winds and waves, an episode that is hard to see in any other way than as a parable for our own lives, which are beset by difficulties. Fr. Jeff decodes three uses of the word "immediately" in this passage to signal what Jesus is trying to teach to his disciples and to us when he walks on water to be with them in the midst of their difficulties. Peter also realizes he can walk on water, which he can, through faith in Christ. Only when his faith is overwhelmed by the difficulties of his life does he start to sink. In whatever difficulty we may be facing, the point of the story is that Jesus is with us no matter what, and that with faith in him we too can walk on water. Every Sunday we too worship Christ as his disciples did on the boat. Historically the church has always thought of itself as a kind of boat for the safety and hope of Christians navigating a harsh world. There are both liturgical and eschatological aspects of this reality, both of which are established by this incident of Jesus's walking on the water and Peter with him.

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  Preaching among the Palms

  Proper 13—August 2, 2026

  Aug 1, 202621 min

  All four Gospels report the miraculous feeding of the five thousand. Matthew's account particularly emphasizes the festal dimensions of this miracle, in which Fr. Jeff argues that we glimpse an anticipation of the Eucharistic meal. Matthew underscores the actions of taking, blessing, breaking, and giving away the bread of the banquet in the lonely place where Jesus feeds the crowds. These same actions are at the heart of our Eucharistic prayer. In this story we see some fundamental realities of God's actions in our world: God takes what we already have and turns it into a miracle. The miracle is almost unnoticeable, but we see that because everyone is satisfied at this meal and that twelve baskets of leftovers are retained by the crowds this incident is a rebuke of wasteful pagan feasting and an indicator of the bountiful feast that Jesus commands us to observe in church.

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  Preaching among the Palms

  Proper 12 Sermon—July 26, 2026

  Jul 25, 202619 min

  Matthew's Gospel continues to furnish parable after parable for our consideration. Fr. Jeff interprets four parables at the end of chapter 13 in light of Matthew's own commentary on Jesus's use of parables. Matthew connects Jesus's use of parables to the prophetic content of Psalm 78. Psalm 78 it turns out is a psalm of Asaph that recounts the history of God's interaction with his people Israel. Matthew connects this inner meaning of salvation history recounted in Psalm 78 with the work of Jesus, who brings salvation history to a final consummation in his own life and work. The kingdom of God it would seem comes to awareness almost imperceptibly but unmistakably a continuation of God's saving work in history.

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  Preaching among the Palms

  Proper 11 Sermon—July 19, 2026

  Jul 20, 202620 min

  St. Paul enigmatically refers to the eager awaiting of all creation for glorification, which Fr. Jeff interprets as an extension of the biblical promise that the saints in glory will become in the presence of God like heavenly beings. Jesus himself says that the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of God. Not only it would seem though are we human beings bound for celestial glory but also the whole of creation itself. The kingdom of heaven preached by Jesus from the first pages of Matthew's Gospel is therefore one that will be cosmic in scope. In the meantime, we are given a parable about how to act toward one another in our journey to final blessedness and the restoration of all things.

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