Hear the messages that Father Jeremiah delivers each week
to the congregation of Grace Anglican.
Father Clay Thompson is our guest preaching for this Sunday. In this sermon, he leads us through the Armor of God as presented to us in Ephesians 6. He reminds us that the purpose of this armor is to enable us to fight the good fight of faith through our prayers and confession of the Gospel. May we all take to heart the calling to fight through prayer!
Image: Eric Enstrom, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
St. Paul continues to direct us to the work of the Spirit in our passage today. Here the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and encourages us through his work in us that for those who love God, all things will work together for their good. We are united with Christ and thus he dwells in us and we in him and through the intercession of the Spirit, we are strengthened in our prayers by his work in us. We can have assurance and comfort in this reality as believers. And this even includes our waywardness in the all things when we are drawn back by the love of Christ for us.
Image: Veni Sancte Spiritus, photo taken by Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP, used under license CC BY-NC 2.0, no changes made. Image location: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/1103809343
The Psalms have been known as a prayer book for thousands of years. They were part of the regular Jewish prayer life. These were prayers that Jesus himself prayed and yet, the psalms are about Jesus. All that the psalms are seeking God for, Jesus fulfills. This psalm specifically prays for the peace of Jerusalem and as we think about Jesus praying this very prayer, we know that he was going to become that peace that Jerusalem truly needs.
Image: TU REX GLORIAE CHRISTE, William Earley, photographed by Andreas F. Borchert (CC BY-SA 4.0). Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Toomyvara_St._Joseph%27s_Church_Window_Tu_Rex_Gloriae_Christe_by_William_Earley_1933_2010_09_08.jpg
On the night before Jacob was to meet with Esau, a stranger started a wrestling match with him. In our Gospel lesson, Jesus tells a parable about a persistent widow. What do these two stories have to do with one another? What do we learn about prayer from these things? How does God change everything about us as we pray? Father Jeremiah works through this and helps us to see how prayer is meant to dislocate us and renew our faith in Jesus.
Image: Woodcut for "Die Bibel in Bildern", 1860 by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld [Public domain]. Image Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schnorr_von_Carolsfeld_Bibel_in_Bildern_1860_036.png
When you think of prayer, where are your thoughts drawn? Are they drawn to how you should pray? Do you think about the way in which you pray? Or do you consider the character of the one to whom you pray? Father Jeremiah reminds of the importance of basing our prayers not on how we pray, but on the one we pray to. Remembering the kind of God we pray to undergirds our prayers continually.
Photo: Grace, by Eric Enstrom [Public domain], taken in 1918. Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eric_Enstrom_-_Grace_-_bw.jpg
Grace Anglican Church, Sundays @ 10 AM, 800 Robinson Rd, Gastonia, NC
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 551081, Gastonia, NC 28054
