Blog Archives

7th Sunday after Epiphany

2/23/2025

This is a recording of our full service. Enjoy!

Is anyone tired?
Or is it just me?

Is anyone tired of the overwhelming “shouting” on the internet and in the
news?
The vitriol, the name-calling, and the finger pointing?
It’s exhausting.

And Jesus knew it.
Today’s Gospel text is a foundational one in the Christian story:
And it’s particularly timely in this moment in history.

We hear today:
Jesus’ command to love your enemies, to be merciful,
To forgive, and to not judge.

It’s the exact opposite of what we see taking place in our world all around
us.
More than 2000 years later, We still haven’t caught on to Jesus’ words.

Not much has really changed.

There were very similar divisions and polarization in Jesus’ time.
Even within Israel:
There were all sorts of factions:
Sadducees, Pharisees, Temple priests, Essenes:
And each insisted that they were right.
That only they knew the way to be a faithful Jew:
That only they had the answers for a better world.

In Jesus’ speech today,
He’s trying to get his listeners to imagine all of the infighting parties:
Sitting down together:
With even King Herod and Pontius Pilate:
And working out their differences:

Not pointing fingers:
But moving on to embrace his vision of the Kingdom of God.
A Kingdom where people really truly love their neighbors and one another.
If we think about it in today’s terms:

We might imagine Jesus urging Republicans and Democrats, Socialists
and Communists:
All in a room together:
Not pointing fingers:
But moving on (together) to embrace his vision of the Kingdom of God.

It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?
We still haven’t figured it out.

But maybe even that modern example is too far from home for most of us.
After all:
It’s very easy for us to point to the “higher-ups”
And expect them to fix it:
Or blame them for what’s wrong.

What if (instead) we truly took Jesus’ words seriously:
To not judge:
What if we worried about our own actions, responsibilities, and inactions?
I don’t mean that we shouldn’t call out injustice when we see it.
And I don’t mean that we shouldn’t hold others accountable.

What I DO mean:
Is that we must call out injustice, and hold ourselves accountable for our
own actions.

How many times do we say to a tattling child:
“Worry about yourself!”
But then as adults:
We like to point fingers, tattle, and place blame on others.

Today’s Psalm puts it well saying “Do not fret.”
“Do not fret yourself because of evildoers.”
“Do not fret yourself over the one who prospers.”
“Refrain from anger, leave rage alone, do not fret yourself; it leads only to
evil.”

The Psalmist basically says:
Do not fret over what other people are doing.
It seems like a more poetic way of saying:
“Don’t tattle on your sister! Worry about yourself!”

It reminds me of the Michael Jackson Song “Man in the Mirror.”

Released in 1988: It’s still timely (just like our Gospel text)

The chorus says:
“I’m starting with the man in the mirror,
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could’ve been any clearer
If they wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make a change.”

The truth is:
So much in this world is out of our control.
But what you can control:
Is YOU.

Notice in Jesus’ speech:
He is telling his listeners what they should do:
Love your enemies:
Do good to those who hate you,
Bless those who curse you
Pray for those who abuse you.

Give to everyone.
Be merciful
Do not judge
Do not condemn.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.

You can control your love:
Your mercy:
Your giving:
And your praying.

(But you can’t control anyone else’s)

In less than two weeks,
We’ll find ourselves in the season of lent:
The perfect time for each of us to take a deep look in the mirror.
To quit fretting over what other people are doing (or not doing)
And making our own individual changes to act with mercy, forgiveness, and
love:
Forsaking all judgment, blame and finger pointing.

And in doing so:
Jesus promises us that the measure you give, will be the measure you get
back.
Don’t fret about the measure that someone else might get back.
For fretting wont change them.
But following Jesus’ commands to love, pray, forgive, and let go of
judgment just might change and transform YOU.

And it’s reminiscent of the revival prayer that we’ve been praying.
Notice:
We haven’t been praying to change other people.
We’ve been praying that the Holy Spirit might change, transform, and
revive US.
And a lot of that work starts by taking a look at “the man in the mirror.”

So Let us Pray:
Holy and Gracious God,
Maker of all things:
You are the source of light and life
And for that we are supremely grateful.

Send us your light and your truth.

In the name of Jesus:
Dispel the darkness covering us;
Destroy the darkness around us.

Drive out all evil:
And bring us your eternal flame of light.

We cry out for you:
Come Lord Jesus;
Come heavenly light:
Come celestial brightness.

Renew us
Enlighten us.
Revive us.

Help us to love our enemies,
To have mercy and to forgive.

Help us to look deeply into ourselves:
Instead of blaming our neighbor.

Send us your Holy Spirit:
Bring us into being:
And create in us something new.
All in the name of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

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6th Sunday After Epiphany

2/16/2025

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The service was only partially recorded today due to technical difficulties.
Thanks for your understanding.

Today’s Gospel story from Luke picks up after Jesus had spent all night on the mountain
praying.
He came down, and was surrounded by people from all over the place.
Luke tells us that there were a lot of sick people in the crowd.
There were a lot of people with crazy looks in their eyes and others who clearly had not
eaten for a while.
They had heard about Jesus’ power--
How all you had to do was get near him and the demons would fly right out of you.
If you had a fever, he could make it go away,
And if your leg didn’t work right he could fix it.
They were all there trying to touch him:
And so its remarkable that he remained there, where everyone could get to him:
Patting him, pulling him, grabbing him, and poking him.

And then he opened his mouth to speak.
And what came out were the beatitudes--
A series of blessings he pronounce on those who were there.
The form of speech he used was a common one.
Beatitudes are short, two-part affirmations that sum up common knowledge about the
good life.
“Blessed are they who have goo 401(k) plans, for their old age shall be comfortable.”
“Blessed are they who floss, for they shall keep their teeth.”
(Stuff like that)

This form was familiar to the people.

He said, “Blessed are..”
And they all got ready for some nuggets of wisdom.
But the CONTENT of what he said shocked them.
Blessed are… you who are poor?
Who are hungry?
Who weep now
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and
defame you?

This was shocking.
A shocking substitution of bad things for good things:
In which blessedness was equated with the things that people did their best to avoid--
Poverty, hunger, grief, hatred.

In every case, Jesus made those equations even stronger by tacking a reversal of
fortune onto them.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.”

And that’s not even all:
Because Luke adds four “woeitudes”
Mirror images of the beatitudes, in which woe was equated with the things that people
did their vest to achieve--
Wealth, food, laughter, esteem.

In the same way that Jesus made the bad things sound good,
He made the good things sound bad.
“Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”

“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.”

We’re so used to hearing it, that we forget its shock value.
And the impact of the beatitudes has verything to do with who you are.

If you happen to be one of the hungry people,
Then what Jesus is aying sounds like pretty good news.
If you happen to be one of the well-fed people,
Then it sounds like pretty bad news.

The words themselves don’t change,
But they sound different depending on who happens to be hearing them.

And most of us hear them from the well-fed end of the spectrum.
Most of us are rich, by global standards,
And some of us are fabulously so.
So hearing these words from Jesus leads us to do two things:
One, just ignore these words
Or two, make us feel awfully guilty.

But here’s the catch:
The beatitudes are not advice.
When Jesus gives advice it’s pretty obvious:
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
Bless those who curse you,
Pray for those who hurt you.”
That’s advice:

Love, do, bless, pray:
And it has nothing to do with rich or poor, hungry or well-fed,
The advice is the same for everyone:
Whether they’re weeping or laughing.

The beatitudes are not like that.
In them, Jesus doesn’t tell anyone to do anything.

Instead, he describes different kinds of people:
Hoping that his listeners will recognize themselves as one kind or another,
And then he makes the same promises to all of them:
That the way things are is not the way they will always be.

The famous preacher, Barbara Brown Taylor describes this as “God’s ferris wheel.”
The ferris wheel will go around,
So that those who are swaying at the top, with the wind in their hair, and all the world’s
lights at their feet:
Will have their turn at the bottom,
While those who are down there right now,
Where all they can see are cand wrappers in the sawdust,
Will have their change to touch the stars.

It was not advice at all.
It was not even judgment.
It is simply the truth about the way things work,
Pronounced by someone who loves EVERYONE on that wheel.

No one can stay at the top forever:
What goes around comes around.
IT’s God’s own truth:
Pure blessedness for those on the bottom:
Who never really expected to get off the ground at all.

But there might also be some blessedness for those on the top:
Because there are some vitally important things about human life on earth:
That you simply cannot see with your feet so far off the ground.
To get a good look at them,
You have to come down:
Just as Jesus came down from the mountain at the beginning of this story.
Things may not look as pretty from down there:
People might be pushing, pulling and poking you.
You might see some things that make you cry:
But having your feet on the ground may teach you more than your good fortune ever
did.

Neither going up, nor coming down is under our control.
But wherever we happen to be,
The promise is the same:
Blessed are you who loose your grip on the way things are,
For God shall lead you in the way things should be.
Amen.

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5th Sunday after Epiphany

2/10/2025

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Enjoy our whole service.
If you prefer to just hear the sermon, scroll to 14 minutes and 30 seconds.

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3rd Sunday after Epiphnay/The Presentation

2/3/2025

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Today, I’d like to tell you what I believe.
Now, I believe a lot of things--
Each one of us does.
But Today, I’d like to tell you about one thing--
One thing--
That I truly, desperately believe.
What I believe with every fiber of my being.

Today, I want you to tell you that I truly, DESPERATELY,
Believe that God is doing something amazing.

Today’s Gospel reading speaks to this.
Although not quite directly.

This reading from the Gospel is a strange one.
First of all, it’s SUUUUPER long.
And it’s not your normal story about Jesus--

Where Jesus does something incredible.
Or where Jesus teaches us something—offering some sort of wisdom.

Instead, today’s story tells us about two fairly unknown people who offer up their
own wisdom.
Wisdom that expresses that God is doing something AMAZING.
Wisdom that expresses that Jesus—still a little baby--
Will do something AMAZING.

But first, we have to understand what’s going on in this story.
Today is yet another Church holiday, called
“The presentation of our Lord in the Temple.”
“The presentation” reminds us of the Jewish law from Exodus
Which is:
That every firstborn son had to be dedicated to God in memory of the Israelites’
deliverance from Egypt,
The deliverance when the firstborn sons of the Egyptians died and those of Israel
were spared.

Mary and Joseph, presented Jesus in the Temple.
Their offering to God was two young pigeons--

A poor families offering.

And something amazing happens.

They meet two elders in the temple.
One by the name of Simeon,
The other an old woman named Anna.

And upon seeing Jesus--
Both Simeon and Anna instantly know that through Jesus--
God will do something amazing.

And these two elders have a lot to teach us.
They did not look down on Mary and Joseph because they brought a small
offering—a poor offering.
They did not lecture Mary and Joseph on how to raise the child.
They did not lord over any power or authority.

Instead, they offered their gentle wisdom--
Loving wisdom.

Wisdom that recognizes both the joy and the pain of human life and love.
Wisdom that recognizes that God is doing something amazing.

Yet my heart aches every time I read or hear Simeon’s words to Mary.
He says to her, “and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

This is the amazing power of love.
Every parent, in one way or another, knows this pain of a sword to the soul.

It’s not a condemnation.
But it’s the truth.
The true power of what it means to truly, deeply, love another.
And sometimes, of what it means to let go.

We know what’s coming.
We know the end of the story.
That Jesus will die on the cross—for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus—dying on the cross—will BECOME the new offering in the temple.
Jesus will become the ONE AND ONLY offering.
No more need for pigeons and doves.

Yet a sword will surely go through Mary’s soul.

But that’s not the end of the story.
Because Jesus will also be resurrected from the dead--
Offering resurrection and eternal life to all people.
Offering eternal joy to all people.

And these elders—Simeon and Anna—These Wisdom-bearers:
Had the foresight to see the fullness of pain--
And the fullness of joy to come.
Even though, they didn’t know exactly how the story would end.
They still felt that somewhere, somehow, God was doing something amazing.

But today I want to tell you about what I believe.
That I believe that God is doing something.

That God’s amazing work does not end on the cross.
That God’s amazing work does not end with Jesus’ resurrection.

God is doing something amazing.
In our world.
In our church.
Right now.

And as I’ve been telling you lately:
I’m not exactly sure WHAT it is that God is doing.

But I KNOW that it’s something.
And I desperately believe that it’s something AMAZING.

We’ve found ourselves in this funny time:
A sort of “liminal space”
Of waiting to discover what god has in store for us.

And I know this would all be so much easier if I could just “Figure it out.”
If we could just suddenly understand what God is doing,
And what our role in it is.

But that’s not the way it works.

And if we look at the Gospel story today, we can see the honest truth:
In these wisdom bearers who meet Jesus in the temple.

The honest truth is that even Anna and Simeon didn’t know exactly what God was
doing.
But they desperately believed that it was SOMETHING BIG.

We can see small glimpses of God’s amazing work:
When people come together.
When people give to one another.
When people share their vulnerability.
When people share their joy.

But I have to believe, like Anna and Simeon,
That God is doing something even more.
Something even bigger.
Something that is so terribly amazing, we can’t yet comprehend it.

And that something allows us to see life in its fullest.
It’s fullest sword piercing pain,
and its fullest greatest most complete and utter joy.

But let me be clear:
That doesn’t come out of nowhere.
We can’t will it on our own.
We need the Holy Spirit.

So let me leave you with one other important detail in today’s Gospel story.
We’re told that the Holy Spirit Rested upon Simeon.
He came to the temple that day because the Holy Spirit guided him to do so.

I want the Holy Spirit to rest on US:
To guide us and teach us the way of the Lord:
To open our eyes to the amazing things that God is doing in our midst and
beyond.

Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to renew and revive us:
To help us discover the amazing work that God has in store for us.

Let us pray:
Holy and Gracious God,
Maker of all things:
You alone are the source of light and life:

And for that we are supremely grateful.
Send us your light and your truth.

In the name of Jesus:
Dispel the darkness covering us,
Destroy the darkness around us.

Drive out all evil:
And bring us your eternal flame of light.

We cry out for you and your great light.
Come Lord Jesus:
Come heavenly light:
Come celestial brightness.

Renew us.
Enlighten us.
Revive us.
Give us the Wisdom of Anna and Simeon.

Send us your Holy spirit:
And bring us into being.
Create in us something new:
All in the name of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

From Cannon Scott Leannah after his visit with St. John's on 1/25/25

Where Love Meets Service
Dear Friends,
“I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you offered me something to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked, you clothed me, sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me”. - See Matthew 25: 31-ff)

“I have a couple of announcements this morning,” the Sr. Warden at St. John’s Parish, New London, said this past Sunday morning. “First, we have received a note from Feeding America letting us know that in 2024 they sent us just shy of 47,000 pounds of food. This food, plus donations from our own parish and others, allowed us, through our pantry, to give the equivalent of 39,000 meals in the past year.”

“I have a couple of announcements this morning,” the Sr. Warden at St. John’s Parish, New London, said this past Sunday morning. “First, we have received a note from Feeding America letting us know that in 2024 they sent us just shy of 47,000 pounds of food. This food, plus donations from our own parish and others, allowed us, through our pantry, to give the equivalent of 39,000 meals in the past year.”

The 25 people present at worship responded with applause, smiles, and nodding heads. During the fellowship, many shared how, despite being small, St. John’s feels like it has a significant presence and a vital role in New London.

After taking my leave, I took a little drive in New London. Having visited the church and their priest, Portia Corbin, this past summer, I had an idea of where I was going. If you drive to the heart of the city's historic side, at 209 South Pearl Street, you’ll find a modest storefront with the words Christian Food Pantry on the front window. Inside are rows of shelves, freezers, and refrigerators filled with food. Hundreds of people receive food from this pantry every week. A few blocks away, the St. John’s Thrift Store (labeled “Segunda” in the window) at 107 W. North Water Street offers affordable clothing and goods. Proceeds from the store support the pantry, and both are staffed by parishioners and volunteers from the community.

When I asked, “How is New London doing as a city?” some parishioners talked with me about area businesses and schools and a growing sense of positivity. A few highlighted the Haitian and Latino communities, noting how their presence strengthens the town. Examples and stories of different experiences of connection, acceptance, and appreciation were shared.

As Christians, our vocation is to seek and love Christ in our neighbor. This is explicit in the Baptismal Covenant and woven into so much of our shared prayers. This is expressed through engaging in service. Loving Christ in our neighbor also means recognizing, naming, and lifting the sacred humanity of all people, no matter how different they may be from us. It’s about caring for those who are powerless and advocating for them. Loving Christ has about as many forms as there are people! In this small parish in a small Wisconsin city, I witnessed loving service and acceptance.

As we strive for justice and peace, stand up to coercive and abusive power, and advocate for those with no voice, we also lift and celebrate the many ways God’s people show love and serve. This has always been the case. As we work and pray for justice and peace, may we find strength and encouragement in the countless examples of Christ-like love and service that surround us.

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Weekly Lessons and Sermon

7th Sunday after Epiphany

6th Sunday After Epiphany

5th Sunday after Epiphany

Enjoy our whole service.
If you prefer to just hear the sermon, scroll to 14 minutes and 30 seconds.

3rd Sunday after Epiphnay/The Presentation

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Weekly Lessons and Sermon

7th Sunday after Epiphany

6th Sunday After Epiphany

5th Sunday after Epiphany

Enjoy our whole service. If you prefer to just hear the sermon, scroll to 14 minutes and 30 seconds.

3rd Sunday after Epiphnay/The Presentation

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Enjoy our whole service.
If you prefer to just hear the sermon, scroll to 14 minutes and 30 seconds.