Hear the messages that Father Jeremiah delivers each week
to the congregation of Grace Anglican.
The Good Shepherd gives to us everything that we need. He gifts us with the reality of salvation and everything that connects to that very salvation. He comes to us through his grace and creates rest for us that we might feed and be renewed by him. Hear more from Father Jeremiah about this psalm.
Image: Shepherd with Sheep, Thomas Sidney Cooper, Used under license CC0 1.0. Image Location:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2017-02_Thomas_Sidney_Cooper_-_Shepherd_with_sheep.jpg
When two disciples are traveling to Emmaus, they never expected the stranger to come and reveal to them the Savior of the World and then for the stranger with them to be revealed as the Savior of the World. How should we respond to such a glorious truth?
Image: by Duccio di Buoninsegna, Public Domain. Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duccio_di_Buoninsegna_Emaus.jpg
What happened to the Apostles when they encountered the risen Christ? How did they respond? How did Thomas respond to Jesus himself when he met him again? All of the Apostles were transformed by Jesus and the work that he accomplished on the cross for them and through his resurrection. And now, the question is, will you too be transformed as they were so long ago?
Image: The Maesta Altarpiece-The Incredulity of st.Thomas, by Duccio. [Public Domain] Image Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The-Maesta-Altarpiece-The-Incredulity-of-Saint-Thomas-1461_Duccio.jpg
Image: Icon showing the Resurrection of Jesus, at the inner side of the Resurrection Gate to the Red Square, Moscow, taken by Alvesgaspar, [CC BY-SA 3.0]. Located at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Moscow_July_2011-48.jpg
Image: The Crucifixion icon from medieval Svaneti, Georgia (public domain). Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mestia_Museum._Crucifixion._12th_c..jpg
Jesus washed his disciples’ feet in order to demonstrate to them their need to serve one another. But it is also a demonstration of the service that he was about to perform. Out his very divine nature, Jesus serves and loves his disciples and calls us to participate in that very same love to draw others into the salvation that he is bringing to us through his sacrifice.
Image: Christ Washes the Disciples Feet, Albrecht Dürer / Public domain. Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albrecht_Dürer_-_Christ_Washing_the_Feet_of_the_Disciples_(NGA_1943.3.3641).jpg
As Jesus was entering into Jerusalem, the people cheered and saw him as a king for them. They had their own kind of king in mind, while Jesus was going to become the kind of king they truly needed. They were, never-the-less, yearning for a king to save them. Likewise, we also desire a king, one who is in control and will care for us. What does our celebration of Palm Sunday help us to understand about this yearning?
Image: Entry of the Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, Unknown author / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en) Image Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Entry_of_Jesus_Christ_into_Jerusalem.jpg
The reality of this world is that it is broken and that there is a longing deep in our hearts for redemption. And yet, there is a deep set resistance within us to this longing, wanting us to believe that there is no fulfillment for that longing. Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is a small foretaste of that fulfillment of the longing. What can be done to answer this longing? What of the resistance within us to this longing?
Image: The Resurrection of Lazarus, Giovanni di Paolo (Public domain). Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giovanni_di_Paolo_-_The_Resurrection_of_Lazarus_-_Walters_37489A.jpg
In the anointing of David as king, God sees beyond the outside and sees his heart. Jesus heals a man born blind and tells the Pharisees that even though they can see physically, their spiritual eyes are blind to the truth. What does this mean for us? Can we learn something from this about ourselves? Listen to hear more from Father Jeremiah.
Image: From the book, Bible History: Containing the Most Remarkable Events of the Old and New Testaments, by the Rt. Rev. Richard Gilmour, page 76, copyright 1894. Found on Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=PTQXAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=richard+gilmour+anointing+of+david&source=bl&ots=8RmVCwRtTB&sig=ACfU3U0aYp4X1POeoYfFVGyJRF7cZpMhsg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj55tn96bjoAhUIOq0KHapcB84Q6AEwGHoECA0QAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
In Exodus 17, the people grumble and contend with Moses and God over being in a place where there was no water. In John 4, Jesus speaks with a woman at a well. What can these two stories tell us about ourselves and our needs and desires? Listen now to hear about the grumbling people and the living water that we all need.
Image: by Jacopo Tintoretto / Public domain. Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1563_Tintoretto_Moses_Striking_the_Rock_anagoria.JPG
Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. What must have been going through his mind when he saw him and heard. It all connects to Genesis 12 and Romans 4. Promise, faith, sacraments all swirl together to reveal God’s kindness and steadfast love, in short, his grace to sinners like us so that we might know him.
Image: Christ talking with Nicodemus at night, by Crijn Hendricksz Volmarijn. Public Domain. Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crijn_Hendricksz.jpeg
As Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted, he was going out to do what Adam had failed at doing. Jesus was going out to resist temptation on behalf of his people, so that all who are united to him, might become resisters of temptation as well. Paul explains this in Romans 5, that Jesus has become the second and greater Adam by his act of obedience. Father Jeremiah tells us more in this week’s sermon.
Image: Temptation of Christ by Vasily Surikov, 1872. Public Domain. Location: https://www.wikiart.org/en/vasily-surikov/temptation-of-christ-1872
Father Jeremiah expounds on the Collect for Ash Wednesday as a way for us to not lose focus on Jesus and what he has done for us during Lent. This prayer draws our eyes to our continual need to be sorrowful for our sins and to pray for a heart that is truly sorrowful from God for only God can give us that kind of heart through Jesus.
In Jesus’ transfiguration we are given a glimpse of the salvation that he is bringing to us through his death and resurrection. Because of this glimpse our eyes are to be drawn to Jesus only, to look upon he who has been pierced for us and to find the whole of our salvation through him. Listen now to hear more from Father Jeremiah
Image: Photo by Lawrence OP, Transfiguration of the Lord, Mosaic by Marko Rupnik SJ in the relic chapel of the National Shrine of Pope St John Paul II, Washington DC. Used under license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. No changes made.
In our Gospel today, Jesus goes about teaching, proclaiming, and healing. He does this as he looks upon the crowds with deep compassion. How does this come down to us today? What does Jesus’ response teach us about our own condition? What does Jesus’ actions toward our condition mean for us in response?
Image: Jesus preaching before a crowd, woodcut. Part of the Wellcome Collection. Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_preaching_before_a_crowd._Woodcut._Wellcome_V0034716.jpg and https://wellcomecollection.org/works/svbe5hgz?wellcomeImagesUrl=/indexplus/image/V0034716.html License: CC BY 4.0, No changes made.
Jesus speaks of us as being salt and light and then of his coming to fulfill the Law. How does his fulfilling the Law bring about our being salt and light? Listen now to find out from Father Jeremiah.
Image: Ywain and his lion fighting a dragon, an illumination from the 14th-century Italian copy. [Public Domain] Image Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ywain_and_his_lion_fighting_a_dragon.jpg
Jesus being presented in the Temple may seem like a random even from his life, yet it contains a great amount of redemptive significance. It pushes us to realize how seriously the writers of the New Testament took Jesus’ full humanity and how it was necessary that he be incarnate. It is a reminder that everything that he did was for us and our salvation.
Image: Presentation of Christ in the Temple, Stefan Lochner, 1447 (Public Domain). Image location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stefan_Lochner_-_Presentation_of_Christ_in_the_Temple_-_WGA13347.jpg
As Jesus enters into his Galillean ministry, he preaches about repentance in light of the coming of the Kingdom of God. What does this mean, especially when coupled with Amos 3.1-11? We see that God enters into conflict with his people in order to bring about their redemption. Find out more from Father Jeremiah in this sermon.
Image: Christ Preaching in the Temple, Russia (MSTERA). Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Icon_of_Jesus_among_the_Doctors_(Mstera,_c._1800).jpg
When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he called him the Lamb of God. What did he mean by this statement? Why did it draw his disciples from himself and to Jesus? How can this strange statement affect us today? Listen now to hear what Father Jeremiah teaches us from this passage.
Image: Behold the Lamb of God, by Lawrence OP (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). No changes made. Statue of John the Baptist pointing to the Lamb of God is located in Fribourg. Image Location: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/12028234743
When Jesus was baptized, he transformed what baptism was about. His baptism was unexpected for John the Baptist, but to do what was necessary and needful, he baptized Jesus and saw the transformation of baptism into something new and even more glorious. This is what we participated in when we were baptized and what we participate in when we remember that baptism.
Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay
Grace Anglican Church, Sundays @ 10 AM, 800 Robinson Rd, Gastonia, NC
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 551081, Gastonia, NC 28054
