6/2/2019
Easter 7 Yr C

Every Sunday we offer a blessing for couples celebrating an anniversary of their marriage. The blessing we say come directly from our Book of Common Prayer (BCP 431). It begins with the words, “O God, you have so consecrated the covenant of marriage that in it is represented the spiritual unity between Christ and his church.” This unity with the ‘church’ is not the institutional church; it is the ‘body of Christ’ church; it is you and me; all of us who believe in Jesus, and all of us who do the best we can, to the best we can understand, to follow Jesus.The ‘spiritual unity’ of Jesus and his church is the central topic of this passage from John today. This is part of Jesus’ High Priestly prayer; the prayer he said aloud at the Last Supper, for all of his disciples to hear, so that we could know this amazing statement about the relationship that Jesus asked for God to allow.

5/26/2019
Easter 6 Yr C

Jesus was at the Last Supper, and was giving his Farewell message to his followers. He knew how alone and confused they would feel when he was gone. Jesus offered them a lasting, divine, peace. He told them that by his ascending to heaven, God would send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. This Advocate would be his ongoing presence for us. Through the Holy Spirit, his presence, his teachings, his stories about God and the Kingdom of God, would always be with us. Jesus said that through the presence of the HS, we are never left alone; never separated from Jesus and the Father.

5/19/2019
Easter 5 Yr C

Jesus had finished his last meal with his disciples. He dismissed Judas from them – to do his deed of betrayal. Then he said to them, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.”Is that clear to you? This confusing statement is worth some study. What it says directly relates to God’s reasons for creation, for Jesus becoming human, and for you and me being commissioned as the Body of Christ – the church.

5/5/2019
Easter 3 Yr C

Our Scripture readings since Easter morning have been witnessed experiences of Jesus’ resurrection; Easter morning: Mary Magdalene at the tomb; 1 Easter: the disciples behind locked doors in the upper room; and today: Saul, Ananias, and Peter.When we read about those first witnesses of the resurrected Jesus, none of them recognized him at first. There was something different about him – no scripture account describes what that difference was. But Jesus was not just brought back to life.