St. John's Episcopal Church Montclair

What if Jesus had said yes. What if Jesus had said yes to the devil in the wilderness? After all, he had not eaten for 40 days...would it have really done any harm for him to turn a stone into bread so he could eat? Would we be in a better place if Jesus had said yes to ruling all the kingdoms of the world? Would more people have believed in Jesus if he had made a spectacular show by throwing hims...

Ash Wednesday, the season of Lent, even mid-week prayer are all invitations to interrupt the busyness of our lives. To step off the hamster wheel of achievement and autopilot and remember our mortality. To remember that our time on this earth is limited, but it is also a God-given gift. To consider poet Mary Oliver’s question: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious lif...

This week I heard Rev. Anne Russ, author of the Doubting Believer blog, talk about the story of the Transfiguration in a new way. She said that Jesus probably sensed a change was going to come on that mountaintop, and yet he only brought Peter, John, and James with him. I wonder, why might Jesus have only brought three friends with him to the top of that mountain? Maybe, Jesus only brought these t...

All Christians have the responsibility to care for those in need. This care can be expressed in many ways, such as giving someone a ride, running errands, prepare meals, watching a child or pet or shoveling a driveway. Stephen Ministry can be seen as an organized and informed type of care. Dr. Ho, the founder of Stephen Ministry, stated anytime you express Jesus' love in a way that meets people's...

What does it mean to be rooted? It is all too easy to feel blown about by the wind, or current events, or the ever changing weather forecast. To get caught up in to-do lists, calendars, and deadlines. But this morning, we heard two separate scriptures - Jeremiah and the Psalm - proclaim blessing on trees planted near flowing water. Rooted in a place where the sustenance they consistently receive a...

“If you say so.” These words are the skeptic’s yes. As if the speaker is reserving the right to say “I told you so” when things don’t work out. Words meant to convey that I don’t agree here, but you’re the one in power, so I guess we’ll do it your way. And yet, when we hear these words spoken to Jesus, they take on another quality. Because for all the resignation behind the words “If you say so,”...

All around the world, Episcopalians repeat Simeon’s song during Compline, the final prayer service of the day. For a long time I thought singing this song was simply a way to close out the day thanking God for sending us Jesus. But this week, I realized it’s also an invitation at the end of each day to pause and consider where we’ve seen evidence of God’s handiwork in our lives. After all, the bab...

This week I gathered with a handful of other clergy from across the Northeast to reflect on what it means to be spiritual leaders. Talk about divine timing. Early on in the retreat, they asked us the big question. “Why?” “Why are you a spiritual leader?” There were as many answers to this question as there were people in the room, but the first answer a colleague shared has remained with me this w...

There are a lot of predictions for what the year 2025 will bring. I won’t claim to know which are true and which are not. But I do believe, as Mary and all the faithful people in Birmingham in 1963 did, that how we start matters, and how we start will give us the tools we need to continue on the journey. We can become part of the change we want to see - we can become part of Jesus’ miraculous lega...

In a world where it is easier to stand against something, at baptism we boldly proclaim who and what we stand for. In a society where the individual is prized and praised, at baptism we acknowledge that we need God’s help and we promise to support one another in our walk of faith. In a world that seems to accept that tragedies happen with increasing frequency, at baptism we vow to strive to make a...

One of my favorite traditions around Epiphany is when people bless their houses. It is a reminder that while the wise men traveled a long way to encounter Jesus, it all started in their homeland by paying close attention to the things they did every day. Our journey with God often starts the same way - we don’t have to travel very far at all. We can welcome Christ into our homes and our lives ever...

In the church we have this repeated metaphor of light and dark. But we do a serious and harmful disservice if we assume that darkness is the absence of God, and light is the presence of God. In fact, as the Rev Dr Wil Gafney says, light and dark are not a binary at all. Instead, darkness is a space of holy creativity and generativity. It is where God does new and out-of-this-world things. Darkness...

In the midst of all of our humanness, God shows up. Even when it feels like there is no room at the inn, or no room in our hearts, God shows up. Each and every time. There’s nothing we have to do to make it happen - we already have everything we need.

In this season of Advent we prepare for God to do a new and miraculous thing. To come to earth in human form. To walk, and talk, and live among us. To choose to become vulnerable as a newborn baby in order to show us true love. As much as the story of Christmas is about God doing a new thing, it is also about God building on all that God has done before. It is about God’s love story to humankind,...

I'm convinced that joy is a spiritual practice, that joy is essential to experiencing life at its fullest, to living as God always intended us to live. Researcher Matthew Kuan Johnson says that when we experience joy, we become more fully ourselves. In the early days, advent was really taught and seen as a penitential season where we prepare for the coming of Christ by confessing our sins. But the...