Hear the messages that Father Jeremiah delivers each week
to the congregation of Grace Anglican.
When Jesus heals blind Bartimaeus, we get to see something new about discipleship, but also a juxtaposition between this blind man and James and John in the previous passage. Jesus asks both, “What do you want me to do for you?” How we each answer that question gives shape to our walk with Jesus.
Image: Christ Healing a Blind Man, by Eustache Le Sueur, public domain. Image location: https://www.wikiart.org/en/eustache-le-sueur/christ-healing-the-blind-man
When James and John ask Jesus to sit at his right and left hand, he confronts them with the reality of suffering that must come before glory. What does that mean for us today? Does suffering come before glroy? Father Jeremiah considers Jesus’ words in response to James and John and the other apostles.
Image: Fra Angelico, frescoes, San Marco, picture posted by Frans Vandewalle, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0, no changes made. Image location: https://www.flickr.com/photos/snarfel/4120035206/
When Jesus speaks of marriage and children, he sets out to correct his time’s misuse and misunderstanding of these things. Likewise today, we must hear his words and take them to heart as we approach these most holy of subjects.
Image: Portrait of a Married Couple with a Child, by Peter Paul Rubens, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
What does a blind beggar have to tell us about true discipleship? Quite a lot! Father Jeremiah looks at Bartimaeus, the blind beggar outside of Jericho, and what he can teach us about being a disciple of Jesus.
Image: Jesus Healing the Blind, Church of Britain, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
www.gracegastonia.com/sermon-blog/2021/10/24/the-model-disciple-mark-1046-52
When James and John come to Jesus with a request to sit on his right and left in the kingdom, Jesus tells them that while they will follow in his footsteps and make him known, they cannot sit where they desire. To cling to glory is to miss the humility necessary to walk with Christ. To receive glory means one must be humbled to the service of others.
Image: St. John and St. James the Greater, part of The Twelve Apostles: Saints Bartholomew, Andrew, Matthew, James the Greater, Thaddeus, Philip, James the Lesser, Simon, Peter, Paul, Thomas, and John, by Bergognone. Image location: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435657
www.gracegastonia.com/sermon-blog/2021/10/17/humbling-that-brings-glory-mark-1035-45
What should we make of the rich young man who asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life? Isn’t there something wrong with the idea of “doing something” to inherit something else? What is the condition of this man’s heart? How does Jesus show him compassion? These questions are thought about in this sermon from Father Jeremiah.
Image: Woodcut illustration of man rejecting the devil in the form of a serpent used by Heinrich Stayner of Augsburg. Public Domain. Location: https://www.flickr.com/photos/58558794@N07/6581247221/in/photostream/. Posted by POP
www.gracegastonia.com/sermon-blog/2021/10/10/stony-hearts-and-the-only-good-man-mark-1017-31
When the Pharisees asked Jesus about divorce, he led them to the beginning of the Scriptures and revealed that divorce ultimately flows, not from the command of God, but out of the hardheartedness of humanity. Our hardheartedness toward spouses is the outworking of our hardheartedness towards God himself and our very idolatry by which we forsake God.
Image: Undergrowth with Two Figures, Vincent Van Gogh, from the Cincinnati Art Museum. Public Domain (no changes made). Image Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Undergrowth_with_Two_Figures_(F773).jpg
www.gracegastonia.com/sermon-blog/2021/10/3/hardhearted-realities-mark-102-16
Grace Anglican Church, Sundays @ 10 AM, 800 Robinson Rd, Gastonia, NC
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 551081, Gastonia, NC 28054
