Spiritual Journeys: Weekly Messages from St. Peter's Episcopal Church

God is the vine grower, the true vine -- the vine in the Old Testament prophets has become degenerate. And now Jesus comes along and says he's the true vine. And his father is the vine grower. So we know that we will have the energy to be the branches. We will bear fruit. And we will do it in the way that is comfortable for us.

And what does the shepherd do? He goes and finds him. That's right. Jesus goes and finds him. And they have a conversation and he becomes a disciple. And in the midst of this, we have Jesus say these beautiful words, which really speak to all of John's gospel, in which he says, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."

Love is the law. And we sin when we stop acting in love. God is waiting to forgive when, as the psalmist says, we speak to our hearts in silence and put our trust in the Lord by turning back to love. Jesus showed his hands and feet to his friends to reveal himself to them. But how does Jesus reveal himself in today's world?

"Ever since I first started to reflect on this story as a younger man, I haven't thought about Jesus words as a rebuke to Thomas so much as a comfort to me, 'Blessed are those who have not seen yet have come to believe.' Brothers and sisters in Christ, that's us. We have not seen the physical risen Jesus. We did not travel with him for three years during his ministry, hear his...

Beloved, this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It's just the beginning. And it's a story we are still writing. That verbal ellipse that Mark left at the real ending of his gospel is our invitation. It's our invitation to continue this story of transformation, of grace, of hearts and minds changed because they come to know how much God loves them becaus...

God's love continues, just as it has begun, and continues to pour into the world through the presence of the Holy Spirit. We know this in the story of Jesus' life and death and what will be his resurrection because we're people of faith. He gives us salvation, a path to forgiveness once and for all, a promise that he will come again, a model. A path to living a life of kindness and con...

By admitting our own vulnerability, we can understand and have compassion for the vulnerability of each other. And we can allow God to enter that tender space and heal us all.

Your personal covenant with God in Jesus Christ. What does that sound like? What does it feel like? What actions exactly are you committing to in your new covenant? What do you pledge as one of God's people? How will you witness in your own personal story of faith? What is God's protection in your life? Will the personal covenant you make to see Jesus more? Will it help you to see Jesus more clear...

As people who love God, as people who received the grace of that love, we have done nothing to earn it. We can do nothing to lose it. This is grace. Our call is to be so filled up with this love and so transformed by this love that indeed, when we go back out into that world that God loves so much, that love overflows from us into this world, that this world can indeed be the dream.

"Stop trying to sit at the tables that Jesus flipped." I think we can agree that every person deserves to know the radically generous, inclusive, expansive love of God. We can start by embracing the way of Jesus, and live into our own superpower and our own deep human connection. We'll need to change and grow and even break things open. But I know we can do it because we are going to...

"For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation."

Perhaps making a discipline of delight is just what we need to snap us out of the trance of doom, despair. Or just plain old crankiness. Imagine delight as a string on your finger. A reminder of God's mercy and goodness toward us and toward all living creatures. A reminder that we are made to delight in God as God delights in us.

"But this righteousness that we're called to pursue is such grace. This idea of aligning our very hearts with God. And I want to encourage us to engage this Lent and this this intention of aligning our hearts with God this year, especially with a sense of wonder. Of wonder. Because this is our God. This is our God who is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness. This is ou...

Listen attentively to the cries of those who are suffering. Listen to the cries of children in Tijuana. Listen to the cries of your neighbor beside you on your pew. Listen to the cries of your own heart, and you allow your listening to shape how you then live.

Have you not seen? Have you not heard? The same God who counts the stars is counting on us, each and every one of us, to be God's people, to be God's diakonos, to be God's people who serve in the world and who serve the reign of God for the healing and redemption of this world and that's what we hear in this great gospel story.

If you said, "I have a demon in my thought," or something like that, what would that mean to you?

You don't have to be a parson to be God's person. Every one of you is someone God yearns to work through. Wherever God has placed you in this world, whoever the people are in your life that you are interacting with on a daily basis, go be God's person for them. And bring God's love to them. And invite them to imagine a transformed world and a transformed life.

Each of us has been called by God to fulfill a purpose, a spiritual calling in this life. And the calling process can be divided into three steps. First, there's discovery. Second, there's decision. And third, there is action. May each of us proclaim, as Samuel did, "Speak, for your servant is listening."

God has a purpose for each of us, a mission, and in our baptism the Spirit gives us everything we need to live out the mission God has given us....

We are all born with a light in us. How will you share that light with the world this year?

God was Born for Us by the Rev. Paige Blair-Hubert

The Thin Places by the Rev. Susan Astarita

Advent for Busy People by Mary Via, Children & Young Families Minister

All We Need is Here by the Rev. Paige Blair-Hubert