St. John's Episcopal Church Montclair

Who is someone whose faith has shaped your own - someone whose walk with God made you want to walk closer too? In a word or short phrase, what about them inspires you? I wonder, what do you feel as you consider these role models in your faith?

We started thinking about creating our own Little Pantry. A place where people can take what they need, and give what they have. A place where people can come any time because it’s outside. A place where people can get some help without feeling embarrassed. So, Russ Gallo made and installed one last Saturday and it is beautiful. But the sign was delayed, so we didn’t advertise it; we didn’t really...

It’s not very often that we hear the word “whore” in church. The first time I preached this text I wondered if the reader would shy away from it. But no, he spoke with bravado, sounding out “whoredom” in a loud, low voice, each time. Needless to say, there were some nervous giggles. As both a priest and a therapist I’ve learned it can be helpful to talk about the things we tend to skirt around in...

Don’t judge a book by its cover, or as Amos would say, don’t judge a society by its fruits. Once again, this week we have an obscure vision from the prophet Amos, using imagery and the Hebrew language to paint a very critical image of the ways God’s people have strayed from God’s commandments. In today’s vision, Amos sees a basket of summer fruit. Usually the indicator of a plentiful and successfu...

On the seventh day God rested all from that creating and declared that day holy. God had worked for six long and hard days… but people? We had only just been created the day before. And yet, God commands humankind to rest, to honor the sabbath day and keep it holy. We don't have to earn rest, because we were made for it. When we keep the sabbath day holy, when we step off the hamster wheel of prod...

Every week we say to each other, "May the peace of God be with you." But when I hear and say that phrase, I have for many decades now equated the word Peace with Piece. And here in Luke we hear of Jesus sending out 70 followers, sending them out as lambs amidst the wolves. This gives an image of people passing out pieces of God. The way we consume the host when we celebrate Communion - these are p...

This concept of a "Rule of Life" comes from the Latin word "regula," which literally refers to a straight piece of wood. But many scholars also believe it was the word used to describe a trellis. The trellis provides support that lifts the vine off the ground and allows it to grow longer than it would otherwise. It guides the vine to grow in a desired direction and provides the support needed to b...

A sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost by the Rev. Abigail King at St. John's Episcopal Church Montclair.

It is a humbling honor to bear witness to a God who affirms the LGBQ+ community. We spoke to therapists who seek to create safe spaces for those who have been hurt by their faith communities, parents striving to make sure their kids know just how loved they are, young adults struggling to find affirming places to worship. And towards the end of the day, one of the drag queens who had been performi...

A Pentecost sermon by the Rev. Abigail King at St. John's Episcopal Church Montclair.

When God changes someone's heart, when that person says yes to following Jesus, it is a powerful thing. Because it can change not just that one person, but everyone they meet. I don't know if any of us would be here today if God hadn't changed Paul's heart to spread the good news of a loving God not only to the jailer in Philippi, but to churches around the Mediterranean. When God changes a heart...

When Jesus heals, he heals not only the body but the mind. He opens people up to possibilities they were unable to see before. He helps us to move our gaze from the kingdom in front of us - full of corruption, competition, and pain - to the kingdom of heaven, where all things are possible and God's grace is freely given.

Religion and science agree that love is the way forward. But the power of love is a lesson we have to keep learning. After all, if 25 clergy singing and praying together outside of Delaney Hall can shut down business as usual for six and a half hours and instill enough fear to bring armored cars and barricades the next day, love and faith must be pretty powerful. The lines that mark who belongs in...

“My sheep hear my voice.” This week I’ve been meditating on how it is that we, Christians living 2000 years after Jesus, can not only hear Jesus’ voice, but recognize it. It is no small task. Especially in an age when anyone with a smart device can use an AI voice generator to make it sound like their favorite celebrity is “saying”…well, whatever they want. Technology aside, there are so many voic...

You can tell a lot about a space by the way it is designed. So, what piece of furniture seems to be the most important in our church? In some churches the place where people speak - the podium or pulpit - is front and center. But in our church, the altar or the table is front and center. That is because the most important thing we do in worship is share the feast of the Holy Eucharist.

Who among us could believe if the disciples had not first seen and touched the risen Christ? These stories of people seeing, touching, interacting with Jesus have been written down in scripture so that we may come to believe. Our faith depends on the faith of those who came before us. To some extent, we all live on faith borrowed from the disciples, the apostles, from family, friends, and mentors...

When Mary mistakes Jesus for the gardener, it is not a mistake at all. It is a proclamation of Jesus’ oneness with God. The one who knows how to look death in the face and create new life from it - because he has experienced it first hand. Jesus has not only experienced resurrection, he facilitates it. Author and minister Rohadi Nagassar writes that “Jesus is a gardener who cultivates life in all...

I wonder what the disciples did on that first Holy Saturday. After the public humiliation and death of their friend, their teacher, their God. After Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb. After it was finished. Did they hide away from the crowds, afraid anyone would recognize them as one of those Jesus followers? Did they start making preparations to go home, wondering i...

How did we get here? How is it that the newborn baby in the manger, who was wrapped in swaddling clothes and gifted with myrrh, who we proclaimed to be the Prince of Peace - grew up to be the man put to death on a cross, wrapped in burial linens and anointed with myrrh, all because he disturbed the peace?

“Everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Seems simple, doesn’t it? And yet, if Christians have a reputation around the world…I’m not so sure it’s for our love. At least not the type of love Jesus gave. The full hearted, embodied, break down barriers and risk it all type of love

If you have been to the Grand Canyon or someplace similar you’ve seen the layers showing centuries of change. If stones can see or sense the history they’ve lived through, they’ve seen a lot. And so when Jesus says that if the people were silent for his procession into Jerusalem the stones would have cried out, it signals something for us. It signals that God’s creation - even its inanimate parts...

Isn't it wonderful to have joy in church? And to have laughter and smiling, and things where we're goofy here in our faith community. Just being and having a lightness in community. That's what Cross Roads is.

"The Prodigal Son." This is the title most often given to the parable we heard from Jesus this morning. But there’s a self-righteousness to this title. It says: look how wastefully extravagant the youngest son was. That’s the meaning of prodigal after all, wastefully extravagant. He not only asks his father for his inheritance early - a gesture that says nothing less than “I wish you were dead so...

I am convinced that Jesus taught in parables because he knew they would endure. That they would be stories that would be told across time and space. Parables are the great equalizer in Jesus’ teachings because they are for everyone. You can access a parable whether you have studied scripture or not, whether you know fancy church words or not, whether you have spent years in a pew or are exploring...

Consider the next time you plan to take a train, bus, or subway. Would you rather spend the ride talking to a stranger or sitting in quiet solitude? As a lifelong introvert, I know which one I’d choose, hands down. So much so that last time I took a train I ran back home a block because I forgot my headphones. You know, the universal symbol that says “don’t talk to me” without having to say anythi...