Hear the messages that Father Jeremiah delivers each week
to the congregation of Grace Anglican.
When Jesus receive the Holy Spirit in his baptism, that very Spirit drove him into the wilderness. There Jesus resists Satan for his people and brings to us who trust in him, deliverance from temptation and, ultimately, sin itself through his death and resurrection.
Image: The Temptation by the Devil by Gustave Dore, engraving, 1865. Public Domain. Image location: https://www.artbible.info/art/large/18.html
In Mark 1:21-28, Jesus enters a synagogue to teach and then rebukes and casts out a demon. What does this mean for his day and what does it mean for us today? Father Jeremiah considers that Jesus’ authority is one that enables us to rebuke ourselves and embrace the transformation that he brings to us through the Holy Spirit.
Image: Die Bibel in Bildern [Picture Bible] von Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld. Leipzig: Georg Wigands, 1860. Hathi Digital Trust Library online version of a copy in the Getty Library. Web. 30 June 2016. Location: https://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/german/schnorr/82.html
Jesus went forth preaching about the Kingdom of God being at hand and calling disciples to follow him. Are we all called to drop the work we are doing to follow Jesus or can he call us to follow him in the midst of the work he has given us? Father Jeremiah considers this as he teaches about the change that Jesus brings to us through his work.
Image: Calling of Peter and Andrew, by Duccio Di Buoninsegna. Public Domain. Image Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duccio_di_Buoninsegna_-_Calling_of_Peter_and_Andrew_-_WGA06774.jpg
Jesus came to be baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist so that the Holy Spirit would descend upon him. Now, through Jesus, we receive the very same Holy Spirit. Father Jeremiah helps us to see the connection between Jesus’ baptism and our own baptisms, that we might be more and more renewed by Jesus.
Image: The Baptism of Christ, James Fuller Queen. No known restrictions. Image location: https://www.loc.gov/item/2003677556/
As St. Mark opens his Gospel he reveals just what he thinks of Jesus Christ. Along with that we are directed in how to prepare the way of the Lord through the words of John the Baptist, who is the Elijah to come predicted by the prophet Malachi.
Image: Saint John the Baptist Bearing Witness, by Annibale Carracci, CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_John_the_Baptist_Bearing_Witness_MET_DP220449.jpg
In our readings for the First Sunday in Lent, we hear not only about Jesus’ temptation, but also about the promise of Yahweh after the flood and the work of baptism in us. How do all of these things come together for us? What can we apply about these passages to our lives today? Listen to find out what Father Jeremiah says.
Image: Jesus’ Temptation, St. Benedict’s Catholic Church, T Kean, CC BY-SA 3.0, <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Benedicts_Catholic_Church_-_Inside_-_Temptation_of_Jesus.JPG
Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JesusCuresamute.gif
Jesus’ preaches the kingdom and repentance and in this preaching calls his disciples. When Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John, it isn’t the first time they’ve met. They have all recognized him as the Messiah previously, but now, Jesus calls them out of their daily lives into ministry and discipleship apart from their everyday lives. Not all of us receive this kind of call into ministry, but we all receive the call into the kingdom just as his first disciples did. How do we respond? How do we react?
image: A print from the Phillip Medhurst Collection of Bible illustrations, Pieter van der Borcht (ca. 1540-1608), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:77_Life_of_Christ_Phillip_Medhurst_Collection_3543_Simon_Peter_%26_Andrew_with_Christ_Matthew_4.18-20_Mortier.jpg
When Jesus was baptized, many things happened! Father Jeremiah looks at this event and helps us to understand how all of it relates to our own baptisms.
Yahweh commands his people to take comfort from what he is going to do. And what is he going to do? He is going to forgive their iniquities that there might be peace between them and him! John the Baptist brings the same message to the people: Forgiveness of sins and peace with God. But in John’s time he can point directly to Yahweh walking in their midst, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Image: St John the Baptist in the Wilderness, Cornelis Cort, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_John_the_Baptist_in_the_Wilderness_MET_DP874337.jpg
Grace Anglican Church, Sundays @ 10 AM, 800 Robinson Rd, Gastonia, NC
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 551081, Gastonia, NC 28054
