Advent is a time for preparation of the arrival of Jesus Christ and Christmas, but it is also a time when we deeply miss those whom we love but can’t be with due to the Covid Pandemic. We feel emptiness in the pit of our stomach that never seems to go away. This feeling is very palpable during the holidays. We long for those days when we were together.

Last week, I set the stage for our reading from Isiah: Jesus Christ came from heaven to live a fully divine and fully human life. God knows what it feels like to be lonely because Jesus cried out on the cross the prayer that we say from time to time. “Why have you forsaken me,” Jesus exclaimed when he felt separation from God. Mark’s Gospel says, “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Mark 1:2-3). You will notice an echo in the Old and New Testament readings today. The voice of God cries out through the prophets and through the Gospel. “Prepare the way of the Lord.” God comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ that we might know the way, the truth, and the life. There is lots of darkness and loneliness in the world, but God comes to bring us light.

Advent is the time of the year that we prepare for the coming of that light. It is the hope of something better to come that marks this time in history. The hope is that a light will come in our darkness. A messiah will soon come that will rid God’s people of this terrible separation that they feel. I wish it was just as easy as opening a present on Christmas morning. To prepare the way of the Lord, we must surrender to God's control. We need to be intentional about preparing for the coming of the Lord. We need to carve out some time for prayer and worship. Faith just doesn’t arrive on Christmas Eve. In many ways the rush and the push of the holidays makes it even more difficult to come into the nearer presence of God. The need to make room for God in our lives is a particular challenge for us on Christmas. The challenge is to get our lives aligned with God. Once we have made a decision to put Christ number one in our lives, we do not have to deal with the constant conflict of interests. The one who was born at Bethlehem will be the Lord of our lives, if we are willing to make room for him. All else that crowds our lives is measured by the standard of God’s love and falls short.

A defining event in the history of Judaic history was the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BCE and the exportation of its inhabitants. As the Babylonians conquered Israel, the people of God were given the stigma of being punished for their sins. They were devastated by the intolerance of this foreign power to their religion. Forty eight years later a new power emerged. Cyrus, ruler of the Persians, conquered the Babylonians in 539 BCE. Cyrus was a tolerant ruler. In 538 BCE, he would allow the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem and Judea and resume practicing their religion and traditions, as long as that they recognized his authority. Today’s Old Testament reading comes at this point in the history of the Israel when people were longing for things to return to how they once were. “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God...” A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40.1-3).

Times are very tough for us as they were for the people of Israel. Many of us are feeling that emptiness in the bottom of our stomach. Being separated from our loved ones and our church community is difficult. Many of us are feeling the pain and anxiety that this pandemic has caused. Please quiet your heart, pray for God to come, and make room for God in your heart. God will be with us very soon and before we know it, we will all be back together.

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan  

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I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power (Ephesians 1:17-19).

During the past four weeks, parishioners have witnessed to the joy and love that they experience at St. John’s. One of the common themes is the relationship we have with our Lord and the deep sense of family that we experience at St. John’s. In his convention address, Bishop Provenzano spoke of racial reconciliation and outreach to those who are hurting during this Covid Pandemic as two areas that our Diocese needs to focus on. I am thankful for our Sacred Ground team and the ECW for keeping our focus in line with the bishop’s vision. If we can continue to speak the truth of the Gospel and witness to the love of Christ, we can remain on our path to becoming a Beloved Community

God reveals to us the hope in which he has called us. When we work together for the benefit of others, God draws us into a deeper relationship with Christ, enlightens the eyes of our heart, and blesses our ministry. When this happens the hungry in our community are fed, the lonely are visited, and the sick are healed. When we read the stories and witness in our Sacred Ground Curriculum, we get together in circles that can have frank conversations about racial reconciliation.

In this week’s Gospel we hear, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me” (Matt. 35:34-36).

Each of us is called in this season of Hope, to help those in our community that are in the greatest need. Many of us feel the fear, loneliness, and separation of this Covid Pandemic. And yet through Christ, we are able to look at those in even greater need than ourselves. When we have compassion for those in need, we respond to the suffering of one another. This in turn makes us vulnerable. We begin to feel their pain and give out of Christ’s love. When we give because we care, we can have an impact just by being there. Have you ever wondered what to say to a person that has just lost something dear to them? You might listen carefully to their pain and then thank them for sharing. Your presence means more than any words that you might think will make the situation better.

I pray this holiday season that you will be blessed with good health, good friends, and a family that cares about you. St. John’s can be a family to all those who wish to join our community. With the eyes of our heart enlightened, we can love others as Christ loves us.

In Christ's love,

Fr. Duncan

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“Emily Dickinson is a famous American poet who lived a rather unusual life. As an adult she rarely left her home and during the time that she lived “hidden away” she preferred wearing white dresses. She wrote nearly two thousand poems, but she hid most of her poems away as well. Only five of her poems were published during her lifetime. After she died her sister found her poems and they were published into books of poetry. How fortunate for the world that her poems were found and that others valued them enough to see that they were published. All of the poems of Emily Dickinson have now been published and thousands of readers take pleasure in the beauty and rhythm of her words” (Richard Donovan).

In today’s Gospel, each disciple is given a sum of talents. A talent in Jesus’ time was a very large sum of money. Multiply your annual income by 15 and you will have a relative idea about the value of a talent in the first century. The first steward is given 5 talents. He is able to double the money before the man returns from his journey. The second steward is given 2 talents and also doubles the value while the man is away. The man says to the first steward, “Well done good and trustworthy servant, you have been trustworthy in a few things, I put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.” The man says to the second steward, “Well done good and trustworthy servant, you have been trustworthy in a few things, I put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.” The man has the exact same response whether the stewards make 2 or 5 talents. What is important is what you make of what you’ve been given. The third steward is given 1 talent and is so afraid of the man, he hides the talent and gives it back to the man when he returns. The man is very disappointed with the third steward and takes away what he has and throws him out in the cold. Our lesson for today is that living in fear can hold us back from God’s plan. Perhaps Emily Dickinson did not think her poems were worthy of publishing. Thank God that her sister knew the value of her gift.

In today’s Covid environment, we are tempted to live in fear and not continue with our mission or our ministry at St. John’s. Jesus tells us that we all have been given gifts and talents and we are called to use our gifts and talents in God’s service. When everyone is deepening their relationship with God and one another, we are following God’s plan. Zoom services are not like being at St. John’s. I miss giving the Holy Eucharist to all our parishioners. I miss the pancakes and the feeling of family at St. John’s coffee hours. I miss all the kids running around at church. I will miss not being with my brothers, nephews, and nieces on Thanksgiving. But we must focus on our ministry and mission at St. John’s to insure that we are healthy when we come our of this pandemic. Please send your pledge card into the church this week so the vestry can make plans for next year. I know times are tough, but we really need every member of our church to share their time, talent, and treasure in 2021. Our mission is to know Christ and make him known. Together, we can be steadfast in our mission in St. John's 276th year.

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan

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Just below are the words of a song written by Linda Snow to an old English folk tune. Please read the song before you continue.

You are beloved branches, I am the Vine.

Abide in me, my people, my gifts are thine.

Drink of my living water and be refreshed.

I will fill you with my Spirit, and give you rest.

Without the vine, the branches will never bloom.

They'll bear no fruit or flowers, they'll wither soon.

Without my love dear children, you'll do the same.

You need my living water as flowers need rain.

Let my words live within you, and there I'll be.

To glorify my Father, abide with me.

Whatever you shall ask me, it shall be done.

My joy shall be within you, and all my love.

Yes, my joy shall be within you, and all my love.

You will notice immediately that the singer of this song is Jesus and that the ones who are addressed are his followers, are you and me.

If you are not fortunate enough to hear this music at a service this morning, then you will need to absorb it from within because Jesus is singing about you and me, about us, about Saint John's, about how his people are living out his commission to know him and make him known. Now the song is certainly more than about us and our parish, individually and corporately, but it is not less. He sings about a relationship between himself and us, a relationship of such intimacy that we are his people, beloved branches nourished by that water that issues from the one who is the true Vine.

One of the things we learn in the gospels is that Jesus is not aloof, not just paying us a casual visit from some far off heaven light years away; rather, he is tabernacling among us; he is the light shining his glory in Saint John's and to its people and, in one of Tom Wright's best metaphors, we have become angled mirrors reflecting joyfully that glory back to him. Linda Snow is not hesitant to reveal the real intimacy that Jesus desires with each of us. We are beloved branches who are grafted into him; all of his gifts are accessible and available to us and the people of Saint John's have used those gifts to feed the homeless, clothe the poor, proclaim the gospel, refresh others with the living water that has been given them; and so many have prayed—daily—for others—so that the joy of the living Lord that lies within them may refresh others. As we sang on All Saints' Day, we rest in the sure and certain hope that our Lord is our Captain in the darkness drear of this world, the one true Light.

Linda has Jesus sing to us in the last verse, Let my words live within you and, if you do, there I'll be. In the midst of fear and chaos, in the midst of civil strife and violence, in the midst of plague and natural disaster, why are Saint John's and its people thriving? Because Jesus has promised that those who have chosen to follow him, to believe and trust in him, to drink of his living water, will be refreshed and fulfill his commission to be filled with his Spirit and be for others what he has been and is for them. I don't think that Tom Wright knows either this song or this parish, yet he summarizes succinctly what is transpiring in Linda Snow's composition and at Saint John's: “The living God is going to make his home, as Jesus promised, not just with us, but actually in us. We are the branches extending out into the world, brought to life by God's Spirit so that we too can feed the lambs and tend the mother sheep.”

Under the Mercy,

Fr. John+

The Vine & the Branches: Alex Pryrodny, piano

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Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

(Matt, 5:3-10 NRSV).

In 1980, I met a ninety year old neighbor named Old Man Stokes at our apartment complex. He used to love to listen to the Commodores and would ask me to turn up my stereo so that he could hear it from his balcony. His favorite song was “Unchained melody.” I used to talk to him about what it was like to grow up in the south at the turn of the century. He grew up doing the jobs that nobody else wanted to do to make a living. My favorite story that he used to tell was when he was a well digger as a young man. He would dig a hole about five feet in diameter and about twenty five feet deep. He would use a pick and a shovel to fill a bucket that was tied to a rope. They would use boards on each side to prevent the walls from collapsing, but that was always a danger. When the water was up to his waist, he would yell to his buddy to pull him out and they would fill the bottom of the well with small stones. Now those of us who are a little claustrophobic, ask, “How do you get out, if the walls cave in?” His answer was that, “you are completely dependent on the person holding onto the rope. Since they took turns digging, they needed to have faith in each other and to pay careful attention at all times to their buddy in the hole. If you have ever come to a situation in your life when you are looking up from the bottom of a hole, I hope you pray today’s Gospel from Matthew. Jesus offers us comfort in times of need.

The translation of the beatitudes in the Message also offers hope to all who are persecuted, sick, or in trouble that we might emerge from our experience with an even greater faith:

You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.

You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.

You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.

You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.

You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom (Matt, 5:3-10).

In Christ’s love,
Fr. Duncan

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They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

1 Timothy 6:18-19 NRSVA

This week, we sent out our annual pledge cards so that the vestry could plan the budget for next year. I humbly ask you to pray about your stewardship at St. John’s, fill out your pledge card, and send it to the office. Stewardship should be a joyful celebration of giving back to God what God has already given us. “God’s initiative is always to bless, and that blessing is never earned, it is freely given. Christians primarily know the blessing of God’s grace in the gift of our baptism. The Book of Common Prayer tells us that in our baptism the bond that is established cannot be dissolved. We share the same blessing given to Jesus in his baptism: 'This is my beloved, in you I’m well pleased.' By virtue of our baptism, we are blessed to be a blessing. We, in turn, bless God by offering praise and thanksgiving for the goodness of gifts given. To worship God is to offer something of value. We offer praise and thanksgiving not only with our lips but with our lives. The annual pledge campaign can be an opportunity to bless God and bless the community from the offerings of the labor of our lives. Through our commitment to proportional giving, we offer a pledge of thanksgiving for all we have received and for all we will become as we grow into the image of Christ” (Blessed to be a blessing). 

Give of your time, talent and treasure to God because you truly believe that Christ died that you might have abundant life. When a heart is filled with the love of God, the desire to give a portion back comes from deep within, not from a rational sense of obligation. We use the gifts that God has given us to do the work God is calling us to do. God will never ask you to do anything unless God provides the means for you to do it. You should give proportionately to God what God has given to you. If you have time, give of your time. If you have talent, give of your talent. If you have treasure, give of your treasure. God wants to bring you to wholeness in your life. Give from your heart and St. John’s will serve this community with generosity as we have for the past 275 years. Both for the individual and for the community, stewardship is a joyful act for the sake of God's world. Please give joyfully from your heart. God is well pleased when we give in this manner and will provide everything we need to do the work that God calls us to do.

God’s abundance is a feeling that what you do matters and that your life has meaning. God’s abundance includes our worship, our music, our pastoral care and our physical buildings and property. In a time of despair and worry, God offers hope and contentment. In a time of enmity and separation, God offers love and unification. In a time of uncertainty, God offers us eternal life. By the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we know that God’s unending love for us is real and that God’s promises are true. I urge you to see your life as a precious gift from God and to give of your time, talent and treasure accordingly.

In Christ’s love,

Rev. Duncan Burns

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“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:4-7).

Paul asks us to pray for one another in times of trouble. The early church had strong divisions very much like the divisions that exist today in our church and in the nation. We are asked to do everything in thankfulness. Each day I give thanks for this community and the way we support one another and the folks that live around us. While many are fighting with one another, we must press forward in the love of God. Bishop Curry tells us that, “The way of love is a commitment to seeking the good and well-being of others” (Love is the Way p.242). We all know the bible verse, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son” (John 3:16). This word love is translated from the Greek word agape. Bishop Curry defines agape love as “sacrificial love that seeks the good and well-being of others, of society, of the world” (Love is the way p. 14). He goes on to tell us that love is a verb that is meant to be fierce. Jesus told us that, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s own life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). We are starting our second session of Sacred Ground and I am thankful for all those that have continued to support this program as we continue on our journey to becoming a beloved community. This month I ask all parishioners to support our Harvest Fair any way you can. Buy your raffle tickets, donate a basket, help mark the White Elephant merchandize, buy some Vermont Cheese or St. Hilda’s handmade gifts.  

Today’s Gospel invites all of us to the heavenly banquet, but warns us to be wearing a wedding robe. A white robe represents our intention to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord, respect, and follow him by changing the way we live our life. We do this not for the church, but for our soul. Jesus offers forgiveness to all those who turn from sin. John Wesley said that all are called to glory, but we have a claim to glory only through the righteousness of Christ. Only through our faith in his redeeming grace, can we be saved from sin, made holy, and find everlasting life. We know that we are invited to the banquet, but how do we put on this wedding robe so that we will be holy in God’s sight at the heavenly banquet? We begin with the understanding that we were formed in the image of God’s love and given the whole world into our care. Unfortunately, throughout our history we have turned from God and each other. The Good News of the Gospel is that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life. God has forever shown his unconditional love for us and we are invited to attend the heavenly banquet by following the way of love. Presiding Bishop Curry asks us to walk in newness of life through the love of God, through the redeeming grace of Jesus, and through the power of the Holy Spirit. “Love can help and heal when nothing else can. Love can lift up and liberate when nothing else will. May God love you and bless you" (Love is the Way p. 248).

In Christ’s love,
Fr. Duncan

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And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death-- even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians10-13)

In bible study this week, we studied the profile and praxis of a prophet. N.T. Wright tells us that “if we are to follow Jesus as Lord, we must know more about the one we are to follow.” Jesus says in the temple, “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.” (Isaiah 61:1). Jesus explains the coming of the Kingdom of God through parables and more importantly, shows us what the Kingdom of God looks like by his actions. N.T. Wright says, “What Jesus was to Israel, the church must now be for the world.”

In today’s Gospel, we hear, “a man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go” (Matthew 21:28-30). Like the second son in the Gospel, many of us in the church want to do the right thing, but often we just get distracted. There are many factors to distract us today. If only one good thing comes out of this pandemic for you, I hope it is a rekindling of your faith in Jesus Christ. God brings us from bondage into freedom, from sin into righteousness, and from death into life.

You can bring the Good News to others by proclaiming that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Our church can bind up the brokenhearted by visiting one another or calling each other on the phone. Invite those you do not see on Sunday back to church again either on zoom, Facebook Live, or in person. We can proclaim liberty and release by letting our friends know that they are loved by God and forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ. We can clothe the naked by sending items from our Thrift Shop to Central Islip. We can feed the hungry by donating rice, beans, pasta, and other items to the local food pantry. We are bringing racial reconciliation and social justice through our Sacred Ground Program. Most of all, we can work together for our Harvest Fair on October 24, 2020. Please participate in any way you can. Buy raffle tickets, make a raffle basket, donate an auction item, volunteer to mark some white elephant items, or just pray that we will be able to support local charities and this church’s ministries as we have in the past. This COVID pandemic has made life and business very difficult for many of us in our community. Let us each do what we can to help one another get through it. Jesus taught us that if we share a little of what we have, there will be plenty for everyone. Jesus also taught us to love God and our neighbor. Loving everyone is difficult, but possible through the grace of God.

I give thanksgiving for Jesus Christ, who taught us to love one another as God loves us. I give thanksgiving for Coral, Claire, Fr. John, Jen, Alex, our nursery school teachers, and all our parishioners at St. John’s. I give thanks to all our parishioners, thanks to the ECW and Chris Boccia, thanks to Spirituality and Patti Aliperti, thanks to the Thrift Shop and Nancy Feustel, thanks for Laundry Love and Sue Cronje, thanks to Huntington Rapid Response, thanks to Racial Reconciliation and Social Justice and Heather Kress and Pat Ahmad, thanks to Sacred Ground and Bill Kiley, thanks for EFM and Leslie Valentine, thanks for Bible Study and Fr. John Morrison, thanks for St. Hilda’s Guild and Janice Burnett, thanks for Morning Prayer and Earl Matchett and Claire, thanks to the vestry and wardens, and thanks to Samantha Burns and Barbara Burns.

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan

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On the surface, today’s Gospel is about fairness. The landowner hires workers early in the morning and agrees to pay them a full day’s wage. He goes back in the early morning and hires more workers. At midday and in the afternoon he hires more workers. Even at the eleventh hour, he hires more workers. The landowner asks the steward to pay all the workers the same wage beginning with the ones that only worked for an hour. When the steward finally began to pay the ones who had worked all day, they were fuming mad. The fact is that we can be easily annoyed with trivial matters that we deem as unfair. Jesus gives us a prime example. The laborers in today’s Gospel got paid one day’s work, regardless of how long they worked. Those workers who worked the longest earned a fair wage, but they were upset by what the others received.

God turns our world upside down. Jesus is creating a community where the last are first and the first are last. The world isn’t fair and maybe God helps to even things out a little. Have you ever felt God’s generosity when it is unearned and undeserved? When the generosity of God exceeds our expectations, we are surprised in a way that fills our heart with the peace that passes all understanding.                         

When you understand life to be an incredible gift, God’s grace and mercy flows over us like a river. Jesus is teaching parables that turn our world upside down. Suddenly, everyone is eligible for God’s love! It is no longer just the outwardly religious folks that find God’s favor.. The workers that were hired late in the day might have needed money to buy food for their families. When they received their pay at the end of the day, they must have been elated. “Maybe this is the break I have been waiting for,” says the unemployed person trying to get back in the work force. “Finally,” says the child that is back at school with their friends. Someone shows up with cases of water after a wildfire because someone half way around the world heard their cry while praying to God. Someone remembers those essential workers that have served our needs right through this pandemic. We remember those who gave their lives on 9/11 and pray for those who put their lives on the line for our safety.

Have you ever felt blessed by God? When we receive our fair wage it feels right, but when we receive more than we deserve, it is a blessing from God. I give to this church because God has blessed me in so many ways. I receive blessing upon blessing. They just keep coming. I am blessed by my beautiful children, my lovely wife, my mom, my brothers, my friends, by our Morning Prayer group, for my home in this wonderful town, and by the ministry of St. John’s. The list goes on and on for me. I love my ministry and my call to St. John’s. Today is my sixth anniversary of serving at St. John’s. The year 2020 has been tough for all of us, but I believe that God will get us through it. We will begin Eucharist in October and slowly and safely, we will get back to church. I pray that God will bless me with many more years of service at St. John’s. Please join me in giving praise and thanksgiving to God every Sunday. We have an outdoor service at 8AM. We have an indoor service at 11AM. There is an 8 AM zoom Morning Prayer and a 9:15 zoom Morning Prayer with incredible music. If you have not joined the M-F Morning Prayer community at 9 AM, I highly recommend this service of praise and prayer. If you have been away for the summer we invite you back. If you are new, we invite you to be a part of our community. We are blessed at St. John’s and God calls us all to be a blessing to each other.

In Christ’s love,
Fr. Duncan

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In August of 2014, Susan and I sat in the packed church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Oxford and listened raptly to Baroness Caroline Cox speak about the persecuted church and the forgiveness extended by those persecuted to those who tormented them, sometimes to the point of martyrdom. Rather than comment, I will let these brief synopses speak for themselves and I hope that the witness will compel us to come to grips from within, not just as theory but in practice, with our Lord's command to forgive those who sin against us as we have been forgiven.

On the night before he was murdered, Martin Luther King, Jr. preached his “I have been to the mountain top” sermon.” His last words were “I have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” The Rev. Fleming Rutledge preached on Dr. King with these words: “It was not human happiness that he felt. It was not human hope that he held. It was not human promises that he trusted. It was God that he trusted, the God who makes a way out of no way. He trusted that God's glory would be shown forth in his weakness as he 'shared in the sufferings of Christ.'”

In October 2000, 21 year old Pastor Liu Haitao was beaten to death by the police in Henan province, China.

As he died, suffering injuries from torture, as well as denial of medical treatment, he told his mother: “Mum, I am very happy, I am fine. Just persist in our belief and follow him to the end. I am going now, Mum. Pray for me.” His final word before he died was a very weak, but unmistakable 'Amen.'

In the historic Armenian land of Nagorno Karabakh, Baroness Cox met a man who had vowed revenge for the death of a child, but when the opportunity arose he broke his vow. An American responded by saying that for the first time he understood what was meant by “Vengeance is mine saith the Lord”; thank you for the dignity you have shown.” The man responded, “Dignity is a crown of thorns,”

In Jos, Nigeria, the Most Reverend Benjamin Kwashi was away from home when militants came to kill him so instead they brutalized one of his sons and his wife. After visiting his wife in hospital he wrote that “we praised God that we had been found worthy to suffer for his kingdom; and we prayed that all Gloria's pain, humiliation, and anguish would be used for his kingdom, his glory, and the strength of his church.” Then he gave this challenge to the wider Christian Church: “If we have a faith worth living for, it is a faith worth dying for. Do not you in the West compromise the faith for which we are living and dying.”

Finally, the following poem, written by David Aziz, is a chilling illustration of “faith and forgiveness which shines like a light in the darkness.” The poem was published in a pamphlet entitled The Coptic Christmas Eve Massacre: A Youth Perspective—Please God, be our Guide, You decide/You are there as I die and my mother cries./I was looking forward to the fata,/But now I'm getting colder and wetter./l lie on this blood-stained road,/With my lifeless body on show,/I wanna be free, I wanna be free,/I wanna be free from this body, ye/I wanna be free, let my spirit roam free,/Lord please receive my spirit from within me,/I am filled with lead but I survive,/And though I am dead I am still alive,/I don't hate those who shot me so please don't be bitter (bold mine),/'Cos life with Christ is much better./But this is for the best,/When your faith is put to the test,/But it's all over now and I rest,/I said it's all over now and I rest,/...I can rest.

There are many other illustrations in Baroness Cox's little book The Very Stones Cry Out and, in its own way, each story cries out: How ready am I to respond to my Lord's command to forgive? How ready are you?

-Fr. John+

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In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples, “But who do YOU say that I am?"

So, I ask, “Who is Jesus for YOU?”

We come together each week – unique individuals – and we become the church. Just as St. Paul told us in Romans, “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” How can we be the church Jesus had in mind? What does it demand of us?

Christians are called to follow Jesus, just like the disciples. Where are each of you on that path? Are you still on it? Have you veered off in a different direction? What does following Jesus look like? What would you say if someone asked you why you are on the Christian path?  Do you have your elevator story ready?

Who do you say that I am? To answer this question, we need to be in relationship with Jesus – we need to find room in our hearts – allowing him to dwell there and then we need to listen. Many of us are using Facebook and other forms of social media in the hopes of making more friends and learning more about each other. But I maintain that we really need to be in personal relationships, where, in real time, we can have conversations that demand give and take. To listen. Our zoom morning prayer group has developed a deeper intimacy and trust with each other…enabling us all to grow. We also need to enter into a lifelong conversation with God – which is what prayer is all about, to immerse ourselves and inwardly digest the holy scriptures, and to attend Bible studies where together, we can further clarify our understanding of who Jesus is. This is how we begin to answer that “who” question.

The Church is made of individuals. We are made stronger, however, in coming together to support each other, to learn from each other, to challenge each other and then, collectively, with the help of the God and the Holy Spirit, to go out into the world and be Jesus’ voice, hands, feet to our hurting world.

We often hear criticisms of today’s church – our numbers are declining. We are no longer relevant. Our world is bursting with individualism – “I can find fulfillment by following my own path.” Religion is relegated to our own private sphere of personal values. People say, “I am not religious, I am spiritual.” We have become more isolated, fragmented, and polarized. We hide behind social media and voice our extreme positions when it comes to religion, politics, race, or our environment and then avoid considering the responses. We are not willing to engage in meaningful and heartfelt conversations with each other, where listening may be more important than speaking.

But, people of St. Johns, we are the Church. God is a living God, not frozen in the past. God doesn’t just exist in the memories of the good old days or the way things used to be. How is this living God moving and working in our world today? 

On this rock – we shall not build a nation where millions of children are homeless and hungry. On this rock – we shall not build churches (communities of faith) that oppress the poor and women. On this rock – we shall not turn a blind eye to the racial injustices and violence towards our black brothers and sisters. Thank God that Paul reminds us that, “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.” (Romans 12:6-8) What we each do on earth matters.

We are a strong church – when God’s heart becomes one with our own. To be Christlike, we must know Christ. We need to come together to recharge and then go back out into the world to be Christ in every encounter we have. As we widen our circle, all are enriched. I dare say, “We are NOT irrelevant.”

In Christ’s Love,

Claire Mis, Seminarian

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“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off” (Isaiah 55:10-13).

In today’s Gospel lesson, thousands of people follow Jesus to a rural location. The disciples tell Jesus that the crowds need to be sent back into town to get some food to eat. Jesus tells them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” It seems a popular thing in this day not to be satisfied with what you have and to complain about it with one another. Isaiah and Jesus tell us in the scripture readings for this Sunday that God has the power to complete God’s purpose through us. The people in today’s Gospel from Matthew had an abundance of food and were satisfied.  God provides all that we need when we follow the path of loving our Creator and one another.

This combination of the Corona 19 pandemic and the upcoming election has made this a very difficult time in our country. God has given us everything we need in Huntington and we are called to share that abundance with everyone in our community. I give thanks for our benefit concerts, food donations, laundry love, thrift shop yard sales, and all we have done to help one another through this crisis. I am especially thankful for the love and care that you have shown one another. Please continue to join us for Morning Prayer, Bible Study, Hilda’s Group, EFM, Sunday service in the Garden of Blessings, 8AM Morning Prayer on Sundays on zoom, 10AM Sunday Holy Eucharist on zoom, Coffee Hours, Huntington Rapid Response, Racial Reconciliation and Justice Meetings, Spirituality Group, and everything we do at St. John’s. God is working God’s purpose through you. We need to be steadfast in our faith, generous in our love, and patient with one another.

In Christ’s love,
Fr. Duncan

The Chalice

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

This is one of my favorite passages in the bible because it reflects the foundation of my faith. God created every one of us and we are called to be God’s children. God loves us with unconditional love and nothing can keep that love from us. I know that businesses are hurting, people are anxious, children are struggling, our nation is in chaos, and we are in the middle of the Covid19 pandemic, which has changed the way we do church. I am hopeful that there will be a vaccine this fall or winter and that slowly and safely, we will get back together again at St. John’s. In the meantime, we must cling to the love of God in Jesus Christ. Our community has become stronger and more connected because of this pandemic. I urge all our parishioners to join us for Sunday services in the Garden of Blessing or on Zoom. Please join us for Morning Prayer at 9am each weekday and feel the love of God in our community. Join us for bible study this Tuesday at 11am as we look at the New Testament in the context of the 1^st century. Join any of our groups or ministries and stay connected with the community of St. John’s. We invite anyone to join us in any of our ministries.

This week, we look at a group of parables. A parable is like a box with a lid on it. Sometimes parables are hard to understand. We come back to them again and again. One day, God reveals the truth to you in a way that changes you forever. Jesus told parables so that we might look deeper into our own lives. We might think we have it all figured out, but The Word of God challenges your world view each and every Sunday. The Gospel challenges you to make the world a better place, starting with you. The parable of the mustard seed teaches us that from small beginnings great things can happen. God’s reign spreads from a spark to a wild fire when we hear, accept, and grow in God’s love. Even a seed as small as the mustard seed will flourish when it is sown in the ground. The mustard seed is the love of God that is sown in our hearts. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that everyone that believes may have eternal life. Jesus love is sown into all of our hearts and each of us will make it through this pandemic if we stay connected to God and one another.

We will soon be opening a new box. It is the future of the church. Like the parable, sometimes it is hard to understand what is coming. There will be changes in our jobs, schools, churches, and every aspect of our lives. Change is a very scary thing. But what if we needed to be shaken from our feet upside down, so that we might take a fresh look at how we treat one another and how we treat this creation in which we live? Maybe God can work with this horrible situation and reveal a truth that will change us forever. Let us pray,

O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In Christ’s love,
Fr. Duncan

A fifteen-year-old Amish girl and her middle-aged mother were in a shopping mall for the first time in their lives. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and then slide back together again. The girl asked, “What is this, Mother?” The mother (never having seen an elevator) responded, “Sweetie, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don’t know what it is.” While the girl and her mother were watching with amazement, a heavy set middle aged, balding man in a dirty tee shirt moved up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened, and the man walked between them into a small room. The walls closed and the girl and her mother watched the small numbers above the walls light up sequentially. They continued to watch until it reached the last number, and then the numbers began to light in the reverse order. Finally, the walls opened up again, and a good looking 30-year-old guy in great shape with tight jeans walked out. The mother, not taking her eyes off the young man, said quietly to her daughter, “Quickly, go get your Father.”

I am afraid that there is no magic elevator that will get us out of this Covid19 pandemic. We have taken a survey of over a hundred in our parish and we overwhelmingly want to start having outdoor services at St. John’s. Our task force put guidelines in place, ordered the appropriate supplies, and set the church up to open. They proposed that we open for outdoor services on July 19^th. The vestry voted to start outdoor services at 8AM and the wardens and Rector agreed to start this Sunday. Please register online if you would like to attend a contemplative, outdoor Morning Prayer service in the Garden of Blessings. The vestry also voted to allow the Thrift Shop to open in the Garden of Blessings on Saturdays. In both cases, you will need a mask and need to socially distance yourself from others. We ask that you bring a chair and prayer book, if you register for the 8:00AM outdoor service. If you do not have a prayer book, we will loan one to you until this pandemic is over. I would like to thank everyone who took the survey, our task force, the vestry, the wardens, and Claire. We have come to a consensus on outdoor services as the best way to open back up at St. John’s while staying safe. We have prepared the church for services when the vestry, wardens, and Rector feel it is appropriate.

Last Sunday our choir had a friendship sing along with St. Augustine’s in Brooklyn. If you missed the Zoom and Facebook Live event, you can go to stjohnshuntington.org to watch the wonderful combination of our choir, the St. Augustine’s choir, steel drum band, and some songs that we sang together. My thanks to St. John's choir, Alex and all the good folks at St. Augustine’s.

Our youth interns completed their 6^th podcast that advises young people on the importance of voting. I urge you to click on the following link and listen to Jen Hebert, Jen Low, Jack Glicker, and Samantha Burns You might want to share it on your Email, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts.

 https://soundcloud.com/samantha-burns-617075477/spirituality-on-tap-6-the-importance-of-voting

Sunday schedule: 

• 8AM Morning Prayer in the Garden of Blessings (registration required)
• 8AM Morning Prayer on Zoom and Facebook Live
• 10AM Holy Eucharist on Zoom and Facebook Live
• 11:30 Alex will play his final Covid19 concert

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan

Micah said, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

In today’s Gospel story, the farmer spreads seeds. “Some seeds fell on the path, some fell on rocky ground, and some seeds fell among thorns. Many seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!” It’s not at all surprising that most of the seed didn’t grow. What’s surprising is that the farmer chose to spread the seed over areas that would have a low probability of success. Why would God throw seed on a path, rocky ground, or among the thorns? God loves every one of us. God loves those who are struggling and those who have messed up. God loves orphans, widows, and the poor. God loves the blind and the deaf. Good soil can be found anywhere hearts have deep faith. God sent his only Son to bring the broken to wholeness.

In his book, “The Road to Donaguile” Herbert O’Driscoll speaks of the memories of his childhood as the passing of an age. Ireland and the world were once in a place called Christendom, when the church was the primary force in many people’s lives. Father O’Driscoll reminisces, “I think too that I was touched by what I could not then name, and even now can only grope to call mystery and transcendence…The church that I watched passing by at that time glorious and confident, even imperial in its capacity to discipline and rule... But in spite of whatever faults are now ascribed to it in a very different age, it challenged the so called real world to halt its restless activities and dare to believe in a world even more real.”

We are both led and filled with the peace that “passeth all understanding” by the mystery and transcendence of God. As churches are closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, one thing always remains constant; God always loves us and yearns for our love in return. This hessed or steadfast love is the two way bond that we share with both God and our neighbor. Giving thanks to God for all that we have been blessed with keeps us grounded.

As the church has increasingly become less relevant in people’s lives, I hope you realize that it is your faith that makes St. John’s such a special place. Our ministry remains healthy because we remain faithful to spreading God’s love. I give thanks every day to be blessed to serve at St. John’s and always strive to make your worship experience more meaningful. Our Daily Morning Prayer, Sunday Morning Prayer, Sunday Holy Eucharist, EFM, Sacred Ground, bible study, Hilda’s Group and Spirituality Group have continued to faithfully gather on zoom. This week the task force met and recommended starting outdoor services in the Garden of Blessings on July 19^th at 8AM. The altar guild is setting up the flowers and filling the candles at St. John’s. We will begin outdoor services very shortly in the Garden of Blessings and we will try to add a 5PM outdoor service on Sundays. We will continue to do Morning Prayer at 8AM and Holy Eucharist at 10AM on Zoom and Facebook Live. The Thrift shop is busy preparing to have an outdoor yard sale on July 11 from 10-3 (weather permitting). Slowly and safely, we are coming back to church at St. John’s.

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Last week, Bishop Wolf preached that she has hope that we can overcome racism in America. I have hope that we can overcome racism, sexism, and homophobia. The reason that I believe this is that Jesus calls every Christian not just to welcome their neighbor, but to love them as God loves you. This call comes from our creator in heaven, who sent his only Son to be a model of love in the flesh. God empowers each of us through the Holy Spirit to see the world in a new way. I want you to reimagine church and reimagine racism from the perspective of the way of love.

My brother was playing golf with me the other day and I said something stupid. He said that I often have strong opinions and that nothing anyone could say would change the way I think. Well, this pandemic and the actions of the police around the country have opened my eyes. I admittedly did not agree with Colin Kaepernick disrespecting the flag that so many died for, but I am rethinking my worldview now. While I did not support his methods, I do support his cause. Maybe we all need to suck up our selfish pride and take a knee with the folks at Black Lives Matter. I will personally never disrespect the flag, but the issue is not patriotism, it is racism. The truth is that Jesus came in the flesh so that everyone might have abundant life. The fact is that we as a nation need to make some changes. We need to respect the dignity of every person that enters our church and welcome them with open hearts and an open mind.

In the second quarter of 2019, the top 1% of households and nonprofit organizations held 32.4% of all net worth in the United States. During the same period, the lower 50% of households and nonprofit organizations held 1.9% of all net worth in the United States. This has become not only a problem in terms of fairness to all of us but is exasperated by systematic racism. The median African American has a net worth of $11,000 and the top 1% have an average $42,000,000 in net worth. This disparity has led to issues in health care, education, housing and opportunity.  

There is a lot of anger, hurt and confusion in the world because of all the inequity. We have had to reevaluate what is essential in our lives. Richard Rohr says that we need to reclaim Jesus and find the deeper ground of self. In returning to God, we can reevaluate our world view. Please join our Sacred Ground folks in committing to racial reconciliation in our church, our town, our country, and the world. Think about how you can turn to the essential and walk in the way of love. Julian of Norwich said that love was the purpose of Jesus. I urge you to follow the way of love by reconnecting with Jesus, taking care of those who are in need, and striving for justice. Richard Rohr says that in order to to adjust our worldview, we must live our way into a new way of thinking. Let us spend the rest of our lives following the love of Jesus.

In Christ’s love,
Fr. Duncan

Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

This week has been particularly stressful for the clergy of the diocese. As we prepare to open our doors, we must make decisions that will not be popular with everyone in the parish. We all want to be together again, but how can we do that safely. The bishop asked us to restrict all vulnerable folks from coming into
the church. A clergy member immediately replied, “Bishop Provenzano, do you realize that half your clergy are 65 and older?” We have developed a survey to find out who wants to come to church, when they want to come, and what services we should offer. We have also put together a task force that will make recommendations to the vestry. This all sounds wonderful until you are one of the three dogs at the entrance to the ark. Please use compassion, kindness,  umility, gentleness, and especially patience.

We will be opening the church safely and slowly and it is going to be a very rough summer financially. I ask everyone that is financially able to support the church with online donations or sending a check to the church office. I rarely mention stewardship in the summer, but June, July, and August will be particularly
difficult this summer. My deepest and heartfelt thank you goes out to everyone who has been giving to St. John’s. Your donations have kept our church in a strong position and I just wanted to let everyone know how important your support is at this time. We will be buying audio and video equipment for streaming
and helping our older folks get online through a grant that Jack, Samantha and Jen put together this week.  Please listen to their weekly podcasts and share them with some young adults in your life. They can be found on our website at stjohnshuntington.org.

I also want to thank everyone who has given food to Helping Hands through St. John’s, everyone who has given to Alex’s concerts at 11:30 on Sundays, those who are involved in racial reconciliation and justice at St. John’s, those who pray for one another each day at Morning Prayer, and for Claire, Alex, and especially Coral. Please pray for our staff. We are a little worn out and frustrated like you are, but we need to get through this very important period of opening back up. Coral is going to take the first week in July off, so please be compassionate and gentle in asking for help in the coming weeks. Most of all listen to God’s call for what you can be doing to  support and love God and your neighbors. Make a difference by standing up against injustice, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, calling the lonely, and treating  everyone with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Most of all, stay safe enjoy this beautiful place we live, relax, enjoy your summer, and please keep your sense of humor!

In Christ's Love,
Fr. Duncan

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look

favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred

mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry

out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world

see and know that things which were cast down are being

raised up, and things which had grown old are being made

new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection

by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus

Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity

of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP Good Friday)

Bishop Robert Wright said that justice is love overthrowing everything that is not love. In fact, God works through the church to raise up those things that are cast down and to raise up those things which had grown old. It is difficult to read the realities that lie behind the curves ahead, but we go forth in the conviction that the Holy Spirit will guide us in the days to come, as we experience unparalleled change.

During this time of separation from the Holy Eucharist and from human contact, from our friends and family, many of you have drawn closer to God through Morning Prayer, reading scripture, prayers, service to others, and staying in contact with others through social media. But human contact is a necessary part of our existence and we long for the day that we will be together again with our family and friends at St. Johns.

Bishop Provenzano has appointed a task force to help us plan a safe resumption of our liturgy at St. John's. We have received their guidelines and are ready to plan an opening date for services at St. John's. This will not be an easy task. We have already seen a resurgence of Covid19 when people get back together again. We will need to have our own task force and I hope you will prayerfully consider being a part of it. This week, we will send out a survey for your preferences in opening the church. I ask that you put the safety of others as our top priority. Because of this, the Diocesan task force has asked that their be no celebration of the Eucharist and no live singing by the congregation in phase two. Maybe we could continue our Eucharist at 10:00 with music on zoom and Facebook Live for a few more weeks and offer Morning Prayer on Sundays. The St. John's task force will interpret the data from the survey and create safety guidelines for opening back up. As we reach the fourth stages of opening up, we will resume the Eucharist and live singing in church.

One of the real benefits of this pandemic has been our ability to pray together through social media. I urge you to join us for morning prayer or Sunday services. Alex has done a marvelous job with Leslie, Ken, Noelle, and George at recording your favorite hymns. Alex and Christine have offered concerts every Sunday at 11:30 that have raised over 15,000 to help those in need in our community.

We have hired three tech interns to support St. John's ministry through Technology. They are here to help you worship and connect through technology at St. John's. Samantha Burns, Jennifer Low, and Jack Glicker are producing a podcast called, "Spirituality on Tap" for young people and youth. In these weekly discussions they will address different topics of importance to a diverse group of young people, interviewing guests and experts to explore those things that are on the hearts and minds of the youth today. Next week, they will tackle racial reconciliation through interviews from our Sacred Ground folks. To listen to this week’s audio podcast on their experience with Covid19, click on the Sound Cloud link:

https://soundcloud.com/samantha-burns-617075477/spirituality-on-tap-1

Equipment - If you are need of a device to participate in online services and meeting, please let us know.

Support - If you have difficulty joining any online service or meeting and you would like some help, give the Parish Office a call at 631-427-1752 or email tech@stjohnshuntington.org. One of our interns will give you a call back to help you resolve the issue.

In Christ's Love,

Fr. Duncan

Unless the eye catch fire,

God will not be seen.

Unless the ear catch fire

God will not be heard.

Unless the tongue catch fire

God will not be named.

Unless the heart catch fire,

God will not be loved.

Unless the mind catch fire,

God will not be known.

— William Blake

There are many places where I experience the living presence of God. I love to worship God in familiar liturgy that survives the test of time like Rite I. I love prayers that I have been saying since I was young like the Lord’s Prayer. I love holy, beautiful, and magnificent spaces like Cathedrals. I love to hear God praised through prayer, chant, and song. I love to share Eucharist in community. I love to read the bible in community and discern what the Holy Spirit is saying. The Coronavirus has made this very difficult. We need to be socially distant for a little while longer. We are working on a plan to open the church!

But church is not the only place where I experience the eternal. I love to watch the sun rise and watch the sun set. I love to watch wind as it blows through trees. I watch wind as it forms ripples on the water and move across the sound. I love to see waves at the ocean and to hear the melody of the water crashing against the shore. I love to watch water flow from the top of a mountain, through a waterfall and form a river. I love to stare into a fire. I enjoy the smell of burning wood, the feeling of warmth on a cold night, and the crackling of a fire. I love to hike deep into the woods. I love to hike so far and high into the wilderness that the only sounds I hear are the birds singing, the water rushing, and wind dancing through the forest. I love having 25 people at Morning Prayer on Zoom each morning. I love our coffee hours and our bible studies. The fact is, God is everywhere.

The Holy Spirit is coming to you if you look towards his eternal truth and the presence of the One, Holy, God. Yes, God is found at St. John’s, in our outreach, our bible study, our Thrift Shop, Hilda’s Guild, and in our community at breakfast, but God is also in our food donations and our benefit concerts. People ask me how to experience the Holy Spirit in their lives. I like to use the example of Peter to explain how it happens. “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” (Matt. 14:28-30)

I tell people that the first step is to have faith that Jesus Christ is Lord. Faith requires a little shift from the frontal lobe of your brain and that is where the experience can be lost before it even starts. This shift only occurs when we express true love and thanksgiving to God. Please know that you have been forgiven through the giving of Jesus Christ on the cross. I wish it were easier for us, but God asks us for nothing less than our whole self. God responds by giving us a taste of the eternal. This love eventually burns in all of our senses. Our soul becomes a conduit through all our senses of the ever living God. So what are you waiting for? Get out of the boat (church). Go catch the fire of God’s love and share it with everyone you meet.

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan

So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." (Acts 1:6-11)

I find incredible meaning in the fact that Jesus Christ died on a cross, was resurrected three days later, and ascended back to heaven. It gives me comfort in these troubled times that God has the power to go back and forth from heaven. Jesus ascends to the God and promises us that he will not leave us orphaned. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to hear the Word of God. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He sets a path for us to walk. Part of this path is horizontal. We follow the commandments of God in our life by being the best person that we can be. We help each other when we are hurting and we invite everyone to join the family at St. John’s, Huntington. Through our prayer and worship we develop a vertical spirituality. This rarely happens if we are casual Christians. When we give our whole life to Christ, we develop a personal relationship with God. We have a conversation every morning. We pray for those who are hurting and God fills our heart with love, peace, joy, and a sense that our life has meaning. When things are tough for so many people both financially and mentally, God is especially present with us. We are able to do incredible things through the Holy Spirit and we can draw other’s hearts to relationship with God. I feel the presence of God when I am doing church together with all of you. This physical separation really tests our faith, but we have come together through zoom in new ways that have kept us close in heart.

We are going to throw the biggest 275^th Anniversary celebration next year when we are allowed to come back together! I want to still have the Harvest Fair in October. Some of the raffles might have to be online, but we need our ECW to have the resources to help our community. We are going to start getting back together at church in July in small groups, but it won’t be long until we are all back together. The bishop will set the rules, but have faith that we will emerge stronger than ever at St. John’s. We have faith that Jesus Christ died, rose again, and ascended into heaven. He will be with us every step of this uncertain Covid-19 path. We will continue to live stream with Facebook and YouTube. If you do not have the ability to get online with zoom, we are hiring interns to get you a computer that will easily get you connected. Please let Coral know of your situation and we will get back to you.

Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

“Alleluia, He Is Coming”
by Martha Butler

I looked up and I saw my Lord a-coming.
I looked up and I saw my Lord a-coming down the road.

Chorus:
Alleluia, He is coming.
Alleluia, He is here.
Alleluia, He is coming.
Alleluia, He is here.

I looked up and I saw my Lord a-weeping.
I looked up and I saw my Lord a-weeping for my sins.

I looked up and I saw my Lord a-dying.
I looked up and I saw my Lord a-dying on the cross.

I looked up and I saw my Lord a-rising.
I looked up and I saw my Lord a-rising from the grave.

I looked up and I saw my Lord a-coming.
I looked up and I saw my Lord a-coming on the clouds.

A frequent image in literature and music is that of sight, of clarity of vision, of beholding with so much more than merely our physical eyes and one song that is unashamedly explicit in its use of this recurrent image is Martha Butler’s “Alleluia, He Is Coming.” Simple and familiar, easy to learn, easy to sing, yet sometimes simple and easy are best. But it is also a song charged with meaning, a song about you and me and the way in which we behold our Lord Jesus Christ coming, weeping, dying, and rising, a song about the fact that in the resurrection the kingdom of God has been inaugurated in a new way and you and I are to be part of that kingdom.

What we behold is a glimpse of glory and, just when we think that we understand, we discover that it is only a preview of something more glorious that for now must elude our grasp. It’s a bit like the overture to a Broadway musical that announces briefly the major themes to come. It is to apprehend for just a moment that such seeing is what we are made for, but not quite yet. Such seeing is a gift, a vision that has the power to alter who one is on the inside as with cleansed sight one beholds the Lord coming, weeping, dying, and rising as part of an eternal present—“He is coming; he is here.” Alleluia! At each moment our response is one of awe and admiration, praise and thanksgiving, humility and worship.

My Christian friends, the neo-pagan, post-modern secularist culture and intellectual academe seek to limit our vision and diminish our gifts: what the world of fact can neither see nor corroborate must therefore not be. What a suffocating view of existence as one is reduced to a mere accumulation of information. But this short hymn invites us to look up and discover that eternity remains resonant in the present and that the living reality of what we see is given unto us by grace and thus assert truly that “the concrete is not the last word or the ultimate arbiter of what is real.” As Bishop Tom Wright points out so poetically and perceptively in Christians at the Cross, “If you want to know what Christ’s death and resurrection mean, you have to hear the music, to listen not just to the tune which says he died and rose, but to the harmony which says ‘and this is what it means.’”

To look and behold Jesus coming—and here—is to see the one marked out as the rightful ruler of the world. With each repetition in the refrain, one has the overwhelming sense that the incarnate Lord comes first into history, then into our hearts, then, finally, at the end of time, he sets in place the new Jerusalem, the new heaven and the new earth. We may look up and see only through a glass dimly now, but even dimly it is God, paradoxically, in his fullness: incarnate, among us, crucified, risen, ascended, the King of all kings, the Lord of all lords, or as C. S. Lewis puts it “the glorifier and the glorified, Glory himself.”

When we look up and behold Jesus, we get the awesome sense that this is what we’ve longed for, that this is what we were created for: this clarity of vision and purity of sight. Fools will attempt to give us a reason for this; the wise dare not even make the attempt; because to behold our Lord and embrace the life-giving, truth-imparting Spirit he has sent us is what it means to be truly human. To look up and behold Jesus coming, weeping, dying, and rising is to have the barren deserts of our lives irrigated by a living water so that the promise of eternal joy becomes the certain hope of our lives and the Lord of all becomes the cornerstone of our existences. “Alleluia, he is coming. Alleluia, he is here.”

-Fr. John+

‘The Bright Field’ by R. S. Thomas

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the

pearl of great price, the one field that had

treasure in it. I realize now

that I must give all that I have

to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

At our recent clergy conference, former Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold gave three lectures with Bishop Geralyn Wolf (who had planned to join us for Easter). They presented, “Going deeper in the Word and in Prayer.” Their talks aligned perfectly with our Gospel reading from John 14 for this week. Thomas asks the Lord, “How can we know the way?” Jesus replies, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” St. Augustine said, ““O Lord, do I love Thee. Thou didst strike on my heart with Thy word and I loved Thee.” This week in morning prayer, we have been reading the 5th chapter of Matthew. In the beatitudes we get an idea of the love, grace, peace, and hope of God in Jesus Christ. In bible study, we looked at Acts chapter 14. Paul is traveling in Turkey and the Holy Spirit is lighting a fire in the hearts of both Jews and Gentiles. I ask you to meditate on the words of today’s Gospel and follow the daily lectionary in morning prayer at 9AM with all of us. When we look at the Word of God daily, the Holy Spirit has a way of bringing a message to our hearts that offers comfort and direction when we are suffering and lost. You have told me that you miss the physical touch of one another and the Holy Eucharist on Sundays. The Word of God and prayer combine to help those who are hurting toward the new path that is ahead of us. We see angry people on the television that do not know where they are going. I ask you to turn your frustration to the Lord who says, “Come unto me, all ye who are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.” (Matt. 7:28) I promise you that if you follow Jesus Christ, you will be on the best possible path and together, we will get through this pandemic. St. John’s is strong because we love one another in community, but we are also strong because of our faith in the Word of God and in our prayer.

Bishop Wolf used the example of Moses taking off his sandals when he came to the burning Bush. She explained how you cannot go very far when you are not wearing shoes because the desert has many small pebbles that aren’t very comfortable to stand on in bare feet. In other words, we are stuck in our houses and are now a captive audience for our Lord. We are uncomfortable standing on the small pebbles where we are right now. We are suffering and in need of God. The ramifications of this Covid 19 pandemic for our future are unclear, but they are certainly scary to many. Bishop Wolf offers the Word of God and prayer as a way for the Holy Spirit to touch us deeply because many of us are in need and paying attention. The sun will break through the field again. Maybe you can’t see it right now, but if you look towards the burning bush or the treasure that we are willing to give everything to possess. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. God has seen your suffering and heard your prayers. God will strike your heart through the Word and prayer if you will just take a few moments each day. If you will be present with a contemplative heart in the coming weeks, you will witness the Living God in your presence, and you will be transformed forever.

“Abundant Life” by Lisa La Grange

Abundant life is knowing You;
enraptured by Your grace.
Your promises are always true.
Your joy, none can replace.

For You’re the treasure hidden deep
my passion will unearth.
Those searching for Your Kingdom reap
the pearl of matchless worth.

You gave Your life to rescue me;
Your mercy overwhelms
and gives to me ability
to walk in victory’s realms.

Your glory pours down from above
and saturates my life.
I’m captivated by Your love;
delivered from all strife.

Majestic King in splendor bright,
You reign forevermore.
To be with You, my deep delight;
Your presence, I adore.

In this week’s Gospel from John, the Good Shepherd promises to believers that they may have life and have it abundantly. Jesus is the gatekeeper who knows our voice because we pray to him. Jesus know us by name and lays his life down for us. In this pandemic, the St. John’s community can no longer use the gate of the church. We are asked to stay home and stop the spread of the virus. I have learned that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. We call one another, worship through Zoom, donate to those in our community that have no money for food right now, care for our families and those who are vulnerable, and pray together every day through morning prayer and the daily office. This experience has been financially devasting to some. Many families have lost loved ones. The virus has hit the population in Huntington Station the hardest and has impacted Latino and African American families harder than most. My prayers go out to all of you who are suffering. Maybe you are asking where this abundant life is?

Jesus Christ loves us dearly as a shepherd loves his sheep and was willing to die for our sins that we might have abundant life now and eternal life when we meet our Lord again. There is great hope in the resurrection and there is great hope in abundant life. Abundant life is finding the pearl of great price. A pearl so valuable that the merchant would give up everything else to have it. Relationship with Jesus Christ lets us know that we are rescued from a meaningless life and given purpose. Nurses and Doctors are giving themselves to those who are terribly ill. Nursing home workers risk their own health by caring for the elderly. Police and First Responders put their lives on the line for us. Our military stands between danger and our shore to preserve our freedom. Jesus teaches self-sacrifice and we need to support all those who are bravely putting themselves in danger for all of us. Most of all abundant life comes when we realize that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, walks with us when we are suffering.

Would you walk together with Jesus this week? Please pray for those who are hurting, pray for those who are vulnerable, pray for those who are hungry, pray for those who are broke, pray for your families, and pray that we all have the good sense to socially distance ourselves enough for a full recovery.

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things (Mary Oliver).

Please join us at 9:00 AM, Monday-Friday to pray the office of Morning Prayer. The discipline of praying every day draws our heart deeply to God and one another. When we share our deepest vulnerability with our family of St. John’s, God draws us together. Everyone is suffering right now in one way or another. When we watch the media, we become angry and polarized. When we pray together, we become one heart because Jesus dwells with all of us deep in our soul. It is in our pain and vulnerability that it is easiest to relate to one another. We pray in thanksgiving for the nurses and doctors that are caring for those who are sick. We pray for our police, fire fighters and every essential worker that puts their health on the line for our wellbeing. We give thanks for Coral, Claire, Alex, Jen, Fr. John and for the generosity of our parishioners through this crisis.

Please join us on Sunday morning at 10:00 am. We will be live streaming the Holy Eucharist from St. John’s. Alex will be playing our hymns on the piano in our church. I am sorry that we can’t be together, but I hope our service gives you hope that it won’t be long until we are together again. After the service we will have a time for sharing on our coffee hour. At 11:30, Alex will be playing a concert to benefit local charities helping those in need in Huntington. So far Christine and Alex have raised over $10,000. It really helps to share the link on your Facebook page.

We celebrated Earth Day this week very quietly, but maybe that is the best thing we can do for the environment. Although people are suffering all over the world, the earth is healing through the reduced carbon emission. The air, land, and sea are all on the mend because we have been forced to slow down. Please consider reducing your own carbon footprint when this crisis is over. God can heal the creation from generations of harmful pollution if we could only make this a priority. I can’t think of better stewardship than caring for the earth for our children and the generations to come.

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan 

Alleluia.  Christ is risen.  The Lord is risen indeed.  Alleluia.

 This Easter was different from any Easter I have ever celebrated. The Corona Virus has us locked up in our houses and apartments like the disciples were locked up in the upper room for fear that they would be punished by the ruling religious leaders. Our journey through Lent and Holy Week was possible because of the work of so many from our faith community. Thank you to Alex, the choir, Coral, Fr, John, Claire, Barb, and everyone that helped make the Holy Week and Easter Services a reality. Our church reflected who we are as a congregation.

At morning prayer this week Dr. Nina Grief shared some ways that we could all stay healthy. The first suggestion for those staying home is to stay on a schedule. The second idea is to get some fresh air even if is just for a few minutes. The third idea is to due prayer or meditation every day. For those who are essential workers, please take care of yourselves with good habits of eating, sleep and rest. If you are feeling depressed or overly anxious, please seek professional help. Each of us should try and come to terms with living in uncertainty in the coming months. I urge you to take care of yourself and one another. Be compassionate, kind and generous. 

Join us for Morning Prayer, Bible Study, St. Hilda’s, EFM, Sacred Stories, or at Sunday Eucharist. This is Eastertide – the fifty days from Easter through Pentecost.  Easter is not just a one-day celebration; it is a fifty-day celebration we also call the Easter Season. It is impossible to predict where we will be at the end of May, so live in the moment and focus on your physical and spiritual health.

This week Christine Dore will perform a piano concert on Facebook Live for emergency relief for food and shelter for those in need in Huntington. We have already distributed $9,200.00 through our connection with Huntington Rapid Response. Thanks to Susan, Pat and Heather for their connections in the community to insure that this money gets immediately to those in need. Thanks also to Project Hope with Dan our tenant that is preparing meals every day in our kitchen.

These fifty days hold special meaning as an entire season to intentionally celebrate new life in the resurrection of Jesus.  The friends of Jesus arrived at the tomb on that Easter morning and found that his tomb was empty.  The body of Jesus was not there because he had risen in victory to overcome death.  That is reason to celebrate!

Through our life in Jesus Christ, we too are raised from the dead to a new life; not just raised to the victory of salvation in eternal life but raised to victory in this life in the here and now.  The negative and dead ways of living and thinking no longer have control over us.  We are raised to live a new life of hope.  The resurrection offers us a new way to think and live in this world.  The resurrection gives us the way to overcome those defeating ways of life that slowly destroy faith and hope.  The First Letter of Peter says it well, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  (I Peter 1:3)

Continue to experience the awe and wonder of the resurrection this Eastertide.  Go for walks and take up new practices like yoga or meditation. Zoom in to the celebrations of the Holy Eucharist and Morning Prayer. Stay connected as a community of faith and look after those who are anxious, lonely, or afraid. We are Easter People at St. John’s because we choose a new life in Christ. Please stay safe and be the church to those who are vulnerable and afraid.

In Christ’s love, 
Fr. Duncan

First and last alike, receive your reward.

Rich and poor, rejoice together!

Conscientious and lazy, celebrate the day!

You who have kept the fast, and you who have not,

rejoice, this day, for the table is bountifully spread!

Feast royally, for the calf is fatted.

Let no one go away hungry.

Partake, all, of the banquet of faith.

Enjoy the bounty of the Lord's goodness!

Let no one lament persistent failings,

for forgiveness has risen from the grave.

Let no one fear death,

for the death of our Saviour has set us free.

—John Chrysostom

This week will be very different from how we have celebrated Holy Week at St. John’s in the past. On Palm Sunday, we will have Morning Prayer at 8:00AM and we will celebrate the Palm Sunday liturgy at 10:00. Please grab a few branches from your yard so you can participate in the blessing of the palms and branches. There will be a rehearsal at 4PM on Saturday April 4th for our children, youth, and young adults that are doing the Passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ on Sunday. Alex will be playing the piano from the church. At 11:00ish, we will have a coffee hour hosted by Claire. Alex will perform at 11:30 on Facebook Live. Donations will help those who are poor and vulnerable in Huntington. Last week we collected over $3ooo.  Alex will also be leading a Taizé service at 5:30 PM. Please join him for beautiful music, prayers and Taizé chants. Monday-Friday, we will have morning prayer at 9:00 AM. In fact, we will have morning prayer on Zoom from now on. Tuesday we will have bible study at 11:00 AM. We will study Mark 4:35-41. In case you have not noticed, Jesus has been present during this whole crisis and will “Still the storm.”

Palm Sunday and Easter are the core liturgical observances of the Christian year because we re-member what God has done, is doing, and will do for us. This is also the time when many people who have been away, come back to church. I urge you to call friends and parishioners that have not been joining us regularly and invite to observe Holy Week with us. Please tell them that our hope is in the Lord, nothing can separate us from the love of God and  “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). This is a real comfort to those who believe.

Maundy Thursday is a simple service in the tradition of the last supper. The Gospel from John is read and we wash our hands this year as a sign of our times, our servanthood, and our love of one another. Please have a bowl with soapy water and a towel ready for the hand washing. We will also have an agape feast and we will bless wine, bread, and dried fruit, not in a sacramental way, but in a manner very similar to our seder meal. The service ends with a dramatic stripping of the altar at St. John’s and we begin a prayer vigil through the night. Please take one hour and pray for our community, your family, your friends, hospital workers, and all essential workers

Good Friday is a somber reminder of the depth of God’s love for us. We pray at the foot of the cross with Mary and John. We pray in silence and ponder the incredible love of God in the act of Jesus death on the cross for our sins. Fr. John’s will pray a series of meditations and Alex will play many Good Friday hymns as we all venerate the cross and ponder what occurred as Christ suffered on a cross for our sins. We will have stations of the cross at 7:00 PM and a Good Friday service on Zoom at 7:30 PM.

Easter Sunday is a celebration of Christ’s resurrection and the hope that Christ gives to each of us. All are welcome to share with us in his resurrection. I will celebrate the Holy Eucharist from St. John’s by myself at 10:00. Alex has prepared beautiful music with the choir. There will be a coffee hour after the service. We will proclaim the resurrection.

Alleluia! Christ is risen.

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

These services help us to see ourselves as part of a community baptized into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I urge you to come to tune into as many Holy Week services as you are able, to invite guests, and to celebrate in a new way, the Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

In Christ’s love,

Rev. Duncan A. Burns

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go” (John 11:38-43)

This past two weeks have been very difficult for many of us. Some are sick, some have lost jobs, some have closed their businesses, and some of us feel like we have been in a cave for four days. St. John’s will continue to do Morning Prayer each day this week at 9:00 AM.  On Tuesday we will have Bible Study at 11:00 AM, Stations of the Cross at 5:30 PM, and Evening Prayer at 6:00 PM. We will celebrate Palm Sunday at 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM on April 5th, Maundy Thursday at 7:30 PM on April 9th, Good Friday at 12-3 PM and 7:30 PM on April 10th, and Easter on April 12th. We hope to throw in a few surprises also. The church will be closed, but our hearts will be open and Jesus will Rise. If you would like to participate in any of the services, please email me at dburns@stjohnshuntington.org.

On Palm Sunday we will re-member the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem without palms, a beautifully decorated altar, or a procession. We will celebrate Palm Sunday with a reading of the Passion of our Lord. If Jesus can raise Lazarus from the dead, he can be present in the Word of God.

The services of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter are referred to as the Paschal Triduum. They are the core liturgical observances of the Christian year because we re-member what God has done, is doing and will do for us. They are also the time of year when many people who have wondered away from God, come back to church.

Maundy Thursday service begins online at 7:30 pm. The Gospel from John is read and we usually wash each other’s feet as a sign of our servanthood and love of one another. The service usually ends with a dramatic stripping of the altar.

Good Friday is a somber reminder of the depth of God’s love for us. Our first service is at 12:00 noon. We pray at the foot of the cross with Mary and John. We pray in silence and ponder the incredible love of God in the act of Jesus death on the cross for our sins. At 7:00 PM, we follow the Stations of the Cross and at 7:30 PM we have a choral service.

Easter Sunday is a celebration of Christ’s resurrection and the hope that Christ gives to each of us. We sing one of our favorite hymns, “Jesus Christ is Risen Today.” These services help us to see ourselves as part of a community baptized into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Join us at all of the Triduum services and invite friends, family, newcomers, and guests to join us. Please re-member that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan

The Bishop of Long Island is directing all of our parishes not to resume public worship and events until at least May 17th. This means that we will not have Holy Week and Easter at St. John’s as originally planned. This will require us to connect differently than we have in the past. We are facilitating a virtual celebration of all services until at least May 17th. This will pose both challenges and opportunities. We will need to be creative and we will need to learn to do church differently for a few months.

Every weekday morning, we will pray together on Zoom with Morning Prayer. We will use Mission St. Clare on our phones to follow along with zoom on our computer. Please mute the sound unless you are reading the scripture or praying. It really helps to say the words out loud.

On Tuesdays we will have a Zoom bible study at 11:00 AM, Stations of the Cross will be streamed live at 5:30 PM and we will have a Zoom Evening Prayer at 6:00.

Sundays we will have Morning Prayer Rite I via Facebook Live at 8:00 AM, and Holy Eucharist Rite II will be live streamed at 10:00 AM on Facebook Live. Alex will be playing piano and Noelle and Leslie will be singing solos and duets.  

Our primary focus is the same as always, loving and caring for one another in our parish and our community. Claire Mis will be gathering the names of the vulnerable and sick for our daily prayers and we are reaching out to all those in need with delivery of food and medicine. Laundry Love is still providing money for laundry in our community. I am working with Pete on organizing the AA group. We are getting food cards for the homeless from our ECW. I ask everyone to call a few members of the congregation every day. Many of us are experiencing job loss, loneliness, isolation and anxiety because of this pandemic. Our witness and ministry is needed now more than ever.

Please know that we are working every day to keep in touch, to pray with you and for you, to connect you through Zoom and live streaming, and to encourage you to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ. We will make you aware of opportunities to serve in the community as they arise.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. This is a time to listen to the medical professionals, avoid all contact with others, and wash our hands thoroughly. Please look after each other, be kind to everyone, and spend some quality time with your pets. My dog just knows when things are tough and teaches me to focus on the present and not worry about the future. Before we know it, we will all be back together.

Hang in there and know that God loves you deeply and will get us through this. If you need pastoral support, please reach out via email, text or phone. We are here for you. If you know of someone else in need of support, please let us know.

In Christ’s love,                                                                            

Fr. Duncan

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from thy ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of thy Word, Jesus Christ thy Son; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (Collect for Lent II).

I know that there are a lot of people today that believe in God, but just can’t wrap their faith around the miracles, the resurrection, and that Jesus was the Son of God. This is probably the fastest growing religion in America right now. Loving God and your neighbor is the formula that Jesus recommended for all of us and I think that we would all agree to the two great commandments. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Again, it is easy for us to believe in a historical figure and we all want to go to some happy place after we die. But the unchangeable truth of thy Word is a little deeper than that. God is present in the water of our Baptism, in the bread and wine at the Eucharist, and in the Holy Spirit in the world. I believe that God claims us at our Baptism and anoints us with the Holy Spirit as a member of the Christian Church and that we are empowered with gifts that we will use to be the person that God calls us to be. Life is a spiritual journey and we are taking it together at St. John’s. Join us on Tuesday night for Journey to Freedom and Saturday, March 14th for our Lenten Retreat, “Journey with the Ammas: Words and Wisdom from the Desert” with Leslie Valentine. 

We celebrate the Eucharist by remembering the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The prayer of remembrance is called the Anamnesis. This Greek word for remembrance comes from one who has lost their amnesia. Those who have lost their identity or purpose need to re-member the mighty acts that God has done for them and to know to whom they belong. I urge you to call your friends and family who have wandered from the church and invite them to re-member that Jesus Christ is Lord. It takes steadfast faith to proclaim Jesus Christ as the one who died on a cross for our sins and rose from the dead to prove to us that we will have eternal life. This is the unchangeable truth that we must not only believe, but the truth that we must tell to the next generation. If we are falling into the group that feels that Jesus was a great human being and that he taught a wonderful pattern for us to follow then the future of our church is bleak.

One of the youth in our confirmation class asked me if the miracles in the bible were real. I told her that they are still real today and gave her several examples of miracles that I have witnessed to the power of God. The Holy Spirit is plain to see in the hearts of those who minister here and in the ministry that we do. We live in scary times with the coronavirus, the changing weather patterns, and the hostility that we have for one another. Re-member the marvelous things that God has done, open your eyes to what God is doing now, believe in the unchangeable truth of Jesus Christ, join us this Lent on a spiritual journey that will deepen your relationship with God, and help bring the next generation at St. John’s to Christ as our good folks have been doing for 275 years.

In Christ’s love,
Fr. Duncan

The Lessons

• Genesis 12:1-4a
• Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
• John 3:1-17
• Psalm 121

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith. I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word
(Book of Common Prayer).

Lent is the time when we realize that the distractions of the world have kept us from God’s purpose in our lives. If we want to be an authentic expression of Christ’s light, we need to pray, study, listen, and make God the center of our world again. For the first week of Lent please consider putting your full trust in God. Please observe a Holy Lent and take a few quiet moments to re-examine your commitment to God’s purpose. Please invite your family and friends to join you each Sunday in Lent. Please attend our five Tuesday night programs and our retreat on March 14th with Leslie Valentine. This is the season when those who have been away, come back to the love and mercy of God. The church offers the practice of fasting in the season of Lent. This is not recommended for seniors, children, or those with medical issues. Fasting means skipping a meal and using the time to pray. Some people will give up an expensive habit or extravagance like lattes at Starbucks and give quarters to Laundry Love. An even better practice would be to give up some TV or social media time and volunteer at the thrift shop or clean out your closet of cloths that you no longer wear and bring them to St. John’s. 

God is very near to us and loves us dearly. Each week I share the body and blood of our Lord with the good folks at St. John’s on Sunday morning. These sacraments are an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. When we can let go of our petty need for control over others and our enmity with others, we can live in love and charity with our neighbors. We are asked to lead a new life, following the commandments, and walking in Holy ways. The Holy Eucharist is essential during Lent to bring us back to the place where God can do the most good with us. During the recessional hymn there is an energy and spirit in the congregation that leads us to hospitality to our guests and sends us into the world with a mission to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. Please join for Sunday services as you are able in Lent.                              

I have preached the last two weeks how deeper relationships can bring us to a place of great joy, even in the midst of pain. Once we see each other as broken vessels in need of the love and mercy of God, we love all our neighbors because we know that they are just as broken as we are. We begin to walk the path that our Savior walked, who hung on a cross that he might know our pain and we might know the hope of the resurrection. Life can become more fulfilling and wonderful when we align our lives with the purpose of God. This is the true meaning of Lent, to align ourselves once again with God. God calls us to an abundant life and the only things we should give up are those things that draw us away from the love of Christ.                                                                                                                                                            

This Sunday is Newcomer Sunday. Please make a special effort to greet our newcomers with a radical hospitality. St. John’s is always about community. Please join us today for a cup of coffee and a few pancakes after the service in the Great Hall.

In Christ’s love,
Fr. Duncan

The Lessons

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

Romans 5:12-19

Matthew 4:1-11

Psalm 32

“Joy is the meeting place of deep intentionality and self-forgetting, the bodily alchemy of what lies inside us in communion with what formally seemed outside, but is now neither, but become a living frontier, a voice speaking between us and the world…Joy can be made by practiced, hard-won achievement as much as by an unlooked for, passing act of grace arriving out of nowhere; joy is a measure of our relationship to death and our living with death, joy is the act of giving ourselves away before we need to or are asked to, joy is practiced generosity. If joy is a deep form of love, it is also the raw engagement with the passing seasonality of existence, the fleeting presence of those we love understood as gift, going in and out of our lives, faces, voices, memory, aromas of the first spring day or a wood-fire in winter, the last breath of a dying parent as they create a rare, raw, beautiful frontier between loving presence and a new and blossoming absence. To feel a full and untrammeled joy is to have become fully generous; to allow ourselves to be joyful is to have walked through the doorway of fear…the sheer privilege of being in the presence of a mountain, a sky or a well-loved familiar face - I was here and you were here and together we made a world” (David Whyte).

In the Gospel, Peter, John, and James go to the mountain to pray. Jesus face changed in appearance and his clothes became dazzling white. Then they see Moses and Elijah, talking to him. It was obvious that they were outside the temporal realm. Do you believe in a world outside the temporal world in which we live? 

Last week I spoke of a path that brings us to wholeness in our lives. I explained that two of the characteristics of the abundant life are deep relationships and deep joy. The poet David Whyte helps us to understand what deep joy is. If we live our life (to the best of our ability) as God intends us to live, we are promised the peace that passes all understanding. This inner peace is the key to a life filled with joy. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life because if we follow him we will experience the abundant life that we are promised.

 The abundant life is filled with experiences outside the temporal realm. This fleeting presence of the Kingdom of Heaven is a foretaste of what we will experience in eternity after our resurrection. In today’s lesson Jesus crosses the temporal realm so that the disciples may have this foretaste, but the disciples are not in the right place to understand. I imagine that most of us miss out on the deep joy and peace that we are offered by God because we are too distracted by our egos, our anger, and other “stuff.” The trick in life for me is to let go of the “stuff,” give of ourselves to others, and to forgive others as we are forgiven by God. This deepens our relationship with God and our neighbor and allows us to experience the full benefit of God’s love and mercy. We are not only able to recover from bad things that happen to us, but somehow the glue that puts us back together makes us stronger than we had ever been. Once we see each other as broken vessels in need of the love and mercy of God, we love all our neighbors because we know that they are just as broken as us. We begin to walk the path that our Savior walked, who hung on a cross that he might know our pain and we might know the hope of the resurrection.

 In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan  

The Lessons

Exodus 24:12-18

2 Peter 1:16-21

Matthew 17:1-9

Psalm 2

or Psalm 99

"The great malady of our time, implicated in all of our troubles and affecting us individually and socially, is 'loss of soul.' When soul is neglected, it doesn't just go away; it appears symptomatically in obsessions, addictions, violence, and loss of meaning... The emotional complaints of our time, complaints we therapists hear every day in our practice include, emptiness, meaninglessness, vague depression, disillusionment about marriage, and family, relationship, a loss of values, yearning for personal fulfillment... All of these symptoms reflect a loss of soul and let us know what the soul craves." (Thomas More).

There is no doubt in my mind that our nation suffers from a loss of soul. David Brooks describes the problem as, “The foundational layer of American society — the network of relationships and commitments and trust that the state and the market and everything else relies upon — is failing,” he writes. “And the results are as bloody as any war.” The consequences of our rampant individualism — tribalism and social isolation reflected in an epidemic of suicide, addiction and despair — have reached crisis proportions, he writes. But personal renewal, second-mountain-style, can do more than save our souls. It can rescue us from societal collapse.” This second mountain or recovery of soul can be achieved if we allow the Gospel to change our thoughts and actions. Jesus says that our righteousness has to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees or you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. As we grow older, we realize that there is more to life than money, success, and recognition. We realize that relationships are the most important thing to revive our soul. Many of us have created barriers to loving our neighbor. We don’t like their politics, the color of their skin, or where they come from.

Today’s lessons ask us to love God and our neighbor. We are promised abundant life, the second mountain, the Kingdom of Heaven or whatever you call the feeling of deep contentment, relationship and joy. We must turn from the tribalism and individualism in this nation that are destroying our soul. St. John’s offers an opportunity to shine our light to the community of Huntington as we have for the past 275 years. Lots of people will hear our story and visit us during our 275th Anniversary celebration this year. I ask you to deepen your relationship with Christ and one another. Love those in need by volunteering for our Thrift Shop, Laundry Love, HIHI homeless ministry, or any of our many ECW activities. Treat one another with respect and dignity and welcome the stranger with radical hospitality. Teach our children that church still matters by attending regularly. Fill the church with your prayers, praise, and worship. 

In today’s Old Testament reading, Moses is talking to the people of Israel as they prepare to enter the Promised Land after forty years of struggling in the desert and leaving their captivity in Egypt. The People of Israel have sinned or turned from God again and again. Moses tells them, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the LORD your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess” (Duet. 30:15-16).

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan 

The Lessons

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Matthew 5:21-37

Psalm 119:1-8

“Shine in our hearts, Lord Jesus”

Since the year is 2020, one of the things that I’d like to do is explore briefly the theme of sight, of clarity of vision, of beholding with so much more than merely our physical eyes. The key to all this seeing is to behold the one who is the “light of the world” and then respond to his summons to us to follow him and fulfill our vocations and become light-bearers to the world.

In one sense, Jesus’ declaration that he is “the light of the world” can function as a song that signals an entrance into the acts and events of individual lives and out the other side, a journey that commences in response and concludes in glory. This is music that sings of a pilgrimage; it is a tune that is played with many variations throughout the world, but the theme is always the same: that Jesus died for our sins and that God raised him from the dead; it is a hymn whose music rises and falls until it finally erupts in action while there is still time; it is a composition that announces some of the great themes of our redemption. For us to fulfill our vocation, to be a light in the dark culture of the world, will be to “know the joy of Jesus.”

Perhaps an analogy will help. Do you remember the Robin Williams movie Dead Poets’ Society? At the beginning of that movie, the new and charismatic English teacher, Mr. Keating, takes his class from the security of their J. R. Pritchard text book with its suffocating definition of poetry and the sanctity of the classroom into the hall and invites them into a relationship with the “living presence of the past” and engage themselves with all those dead who are pictured on a corridor wall or memorialized in a trophy case. Then he asks his students to hear the voices of the dead calling to them “Carpe diem! Carpe diem! Seize the day.” Well, the music of the Sermon on the Mount functions in a similar way; it whispers to us to go beyond the hillside setting and some magnetic and mesmerizing words spoken by Jesus, beyond the narrow confines of a Sunday morning service snuggled in comfortable pews, and engage ourselves with a Lord and Savior who is eternally present, to see ourselves embracing intimately all that he has done for us as living Lord, and to fulfill our vocations to be “the light of the world.”

We sing that we want “to see the brightness of God, to look at Jesus,” and we ask the “Clear sun of righteousness” to “shine on [our] path and show [us] the way to the Father,” which means that we desire to be enabled to fulfill our vocations to be the light of the world. We look up and see, but sometimes we are mesmerized, sometimes we don’t stop to drink in or behold so in a hurry are we to get somewhere else and thus we lose all that the moment has to offer. Perhaps we’re just in a hurry to move on to the next part of the service. But such haste is a mistake because the landscape on the mount and the call to be the light of the world offers a pageant that takes time to unfold. This song opens up for us the entire drama of salvation through the acts of Jesus and our responses to those acts.

So, what are we to do? Well, again, we are to look up and see, but what are we to see? Let me suggest that what we behold is a glimpse of glory, a glimpse that teases and tantalizes because the complete composition is not yet fully unveiled. We sing; may we behold as well “the light that shines in our hearts through Jesus our Lord” so that we may be “a light to light all nations.” Can you and I apprehend for just a moment that such seeing is what we are made for, that such seeing is a gift, a vision that has the power to alter what one is on the inside as with cleansed sight one beholds the Lord who is the light of the world and obeys his summons. As Bishop Tom Wright points out so poetically and perceptively in Christians at the Cross, a marvelous collection of Holy Week meditations, “If you want to know what Christ’s death and resurrection mean, you have to hear the music, to listen not just to the tune which says he died and rose, but to the harmony which says ‘and this is what it means.’”

To look and behold Jesus coming as the light of the world and to fulfill our vocation to be the light of the world—well—it is to begin to see that it is he and he alone, this beaten, battered, broken, and shattered man—who holds the key to salvation and who is the sole response to the dominion of sin in our world.

To look and behold Jesus coming as the light of the world and to fulfill our vocation to be the light of the world—well—it is to begin to see that it is he and he alone, this beaten, battered, broken, and shattered man—who holds the key to salvation and who is the sole response to the dominion of sin in our world. Ecce—behold—look and see the Lamb of God “who takes away the sins of the world.” If you and I want to walk as children of the light, if we want to “see the brightness of God,” if we truly want to be the light of the world and “look for the coming of Christ,” then we must act and bring others to the Lord of all. As Bishop Wright argues, we must “Learn to see the glory in the cross; learn to see the cross in the glory.” If this is a lesson that we can manage, then the response to our Lord’s call is under way. That unmistakable voice will be a clear tocsin sounded with power and beauty and love.

“This is what I’ve longed for,” sings Emile De Becque in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. Well, when we become the light of the world, we get the awesome sense that this is what we’ve longed for, that this is what we were created for. Fools will attempt to give us a reason for this; the wise dare not even make the attempt. When everything is placed in its proper perspective, we are left with a clear vision, an awareness that to be called to be the light of the world is to be given a loving invitation to a new way of life. The eternal joy of Jesus becomes a living reality as he shines in our hearts.

“Shine in our hearts, Lord Jesus.”

Fr. John+

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

I would like to thank all our parishioners on a beautiful year in 2019 and encourage you to make 2020 even better at St. John’s. This will be our 275th Anniversary. Thank you for your leadership, your generosity, your ministry, and your continued faith in Jesus Christ. We are very blessed by your presence. I would also like to thank Coral, who has done an outstanding job as our administrator, Alex our talented musician and choir director, Jen, our St. John’s Nursery School superintendent, our wardens, Scott and Rob, our vestry, and committee chairs. We give a special thank you to Camille, who has faithfully served as our vestry clerk.

This week our service times on Sunday are 8:00 am and 9:30 am because we will have our annual meeting after the late service. Please join us for food, fellowship, a brief annual meeting, and a special Taizé service. We will elect a warden, a vestry clerk, and three vestry members. In 2020, our priorities are the 275th Anniversary, Growth, Children and Youth, Outreach and Mission, and Hospitality. We are especially focusing on living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Jesus Movement.

My hope for the coming year is that you will deepen your faith and love in Jesus Christ. Please live out your Baptismal Covenant by coming to church, helping those in need in our community through our ECW, striving for justice by supporting our racial reconciliation committee, and getting involved in the ministry of St. John’s.

I ask each committee to personally invite new members to join their group. If you are a new member or would like to help out please consider joining one of the following ministries: Laundry Love, Racial Reconciliation Committee, HiHi, Thrift Shop, ECW, Altar Guild, Lay Eucharistic Ministers, Youth Group, Christian Education, Readers, Breakfast Group, Spirituality Group, Nursery School, Ushers, Lay Eucharistic Visitors, Prayer Shawl Ministry, St. Hilda’s Guild, or one of our other committees.

1st Communion classes are beginning with Sue McGinnis on Wednesday February 12th at 5:00 and 1st Communion will be April 19th at the 10:00 service. Confirmation classes will continue on Sunday, February 23rd at 5:30pm. Confirmation is May 9th at 11:00am at the Cathedral in Garden City. Our Youth Group meets at 6:30pm on most Sunday nights with Ford Spilsbury and the rector.

Outreach is a focus again this year. Today is the Souper Bowl of Caring and our Youth Group is collecting donations to fight hunger in the Huntington Community. St. John’s will be hosting people who are homeless on February 14th through our HIHI program right here at St. John’s. Please bring in food for the Food Pantry and donations for our Thrift Shop. We are particularly looking for men’s jeans, t-shirts, boots, and sneakers. If you are interested in volunteering for the Thrift shop on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Saturdays, please see Nancy.

In Christ’s love,

Rev. Duncan Burns 

"Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return" (Annie Dillard).

In the book of Acts, we are told that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on earth is the joining of the earth and heaven in the Kingdom of God. We pray, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus proclaims, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” God is active at St. John’s and the Holy Spirit gives us the power to witness to the love of God and to be the light of Christ in a land of darkness.

The Good News is that Jesus came to show us that God loves us, equips us with the gifts we need to respect and love one another, and gives us what we need to live an abundant life. We are a healthy and active church in the Diocese of Long Island. If we are healthy, it is because of our relationship with Jesus Christ and our willingness to witness to that love. If we are active, it is through the grace of God, in the love of Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. We can shine a great beacon of light because everything we do comes through the peace, love, and grace of God. Ask yourself this, "If St. John's were not here, would it make a difference to this community?"

My hope for the coming year is that the 275th Anniversary will light a fire within our hearts. This past week a group from St. John’s went to St. Augustine’s to the MLK service. Fr. Anthony sang in the choir and gave the closing prayer. They sang of their love of Christ and of the hope that the work started by Martin Luther King Jr. will continue. But what really touched my soul was the passion in the dance and singing of the children, youth, and adults. They truly witnessed to their deep faith and love of God.

At St. John’s, we can witness to our faith by coming to church, worshiping and praising God, and being sent out to the community to love and serve Christ. We are a parish in an ever secular, fast moving, polarized, and violent world. Paul asks us to, “be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.” In other words, we are all one in Christ. Please be confident that God has the strength to bring us to the Kingdom, that place where heaven and earth intersect, if we will only allow ourselves to see the light of Christ and be drawn out to where we can never return.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian” (Isaiah 9:2-4).

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan

The Journey of the Magi - T. S. Eliot

'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp.
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away and wanting liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

When I think of the traditional story of the magi in the gospel, I most often recall pageants, at least the ones my children were in. Camera at the ready, all was recorded for posterity, that is if the flash attachment worked accordingly. Fifty years ago, I didn't focus on the deeper implications; no T. S. Eliot version for me, nothing that would call into question all too easy associations that didn't raise any important responses. Way back then, my journey into Christ didn't encounter any obstacles, largely because it was rather superficial, an equation grasped easily, a life without doubts, and certainly no voices telling me that the journey “was all folly.” Following the star seemed a piece of cake, at least on Sunday mornings, for an hour, until I actually began to encounter the “three trees” of Golgotha, the “white horse” of John's apocalypse, the “vine-leaves” of the Eucharist, the soldiers at the foot of the cross “dicing for pieces of silver.” And more, certainly. The encounter altered the nature of my journey, changed the course of my life, a slow process accompanied by occasional perplexity, but in the end leading to a new life in a risen Lord that was much more rewarding as well as more demanding. What is the nature of your journey?

Fr. John+

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching (Isaiah 42:1-3).

The Gospel of Mathew weaves together scripture from both the Old and the New Testament. Mispat in Hebrew means justice. Justice is relationship with God that brings the servant to do the will of God. As we explore the Gospel of Matthew in the coming year, we will constantly be looking at Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. At St. John’s, we celebrate our 275th by following our mission, To Know Christ, and Make Him Known. Please draw nearer to God by listening closely to the Word of God in the coming year that we might know Christ intimately and witness to his love, hope, and mercy.

Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem (Acts 10:34-39).

At St. John’s, we proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. By this we mean that the grace and forgiveness of God is offered to everyone. At St. John’s, we proclaim that “all are welcome” which means that we believe that God shows no partiality. This does not mean that God approves of everything that people do, but that we are called to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. Part of living in community is understanding that we do not all agree on what is right and acceptable to God, but that through the Word of God in the person of Jesus Christ, we can get a glimpse of God’s grace and mercy.

And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well please” (Matthew 3:16-17).

Jesus comes out of the river, still wet from the waters of baptism and goes to the margins of society. He heals the sick, gives hope to the poor, and becomes the servant that he is called to be. Jesus then teaches how to give your life for the sake of others. This is what we mean by the Epiphany. God’s will is manifested in the actions of the Son. Jesus doesn’t worry about what the powerful are going to do to him, he prays and heals everyone he meets with a broken heart, every person that is lonely, sick, hungry, alienated and suffering. Jesus gets into the muddy waters of our messy lives and shows us the way to new life. God up in heaven loves us so much, that God shows us this path of emerging from this water into new life. In Baptism we are fully initiated into the body of Christ by the pouring of the water and by the indwelling of the Spirit. God has acted in our lives in the waters of Baptism, filled us with the Holy Spirit, and we have the power to emerge, as faithful witnesses to the love of God.

In Christ’s love, 

Fr. Duncan

I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,
and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,
what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is
the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe. (Ephesians 1:15-19a).

It is my prayer that you will have the “eyes of your heart enlightened.” Paul begins with a compliment to the Ephesians because he has heard of their faith. He assures them that God is working through them and there is immeasurable greatness of his power. In the third chapter of Ephesians Paul said, “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.” This spirit of revelation and wisdom is the knowledge that God loves us and gave us God’s only Son that we might have abundant life in this world and eternal life in the next.

I was watching 60 Minutes last week and one of the people on the show came to the realization that love is the key factor in the world. He said that even though we all know the importance of love in the world, we often get distracted by all that is going on in our lives. He turned back to love as the most important factor in his life and his life took a tremendous turn for the better. At Christmas, we experience the eternal love of God in a crude manger in Bethlehem. Kings travel from the East to pay homage to Jesus Christ. God calls us to fill our hearts with this love and share it with others.

Our first act of love should be thanksgiving to God in heaven for the birth of Jesus Christ, who came to enlighten the eyes of our hearts. Our next act of love should be to those around us. When loving God and loving our neighbor are combined, our brain stops playing the fear and anxiety video that leads our reptilian brain to increased heart rate and stress. We play the hope video that leads our brain to a healthier pattern of rational, moral behavior. This in turn sends the signal to our reptilian brain to produce endorphins, lower our heart rate, and reduce our stress. Most of us are aware that when we listen to music that triggers happy memories, laugh, exercise, have sex, or eat certain foods, our brain triggers the release of endorphins and other chemicals in the pituitary gland which gives us that sense of being in a euphoric state. Likewise bad experiences and traumas trigger feelings of pain, fear, and anxiety. Since we all experience these triggers to different degrees, we need to love one another in the knowledge that we have all been damaged by the actions of others and are all in need of love and comfort. We especially need to care for those who are most vulnerable and least likely to be loved and comforted.

Christianity leads us down a rational, moral path that helps us to feel good about ourselves and trigger that feeling of contentment and satisfaction in our lives. Instead of selfish, egotistical, controlling and sometimes hurtful behavior, we follow Jesus Christ in self-giving, humble, loving behavior. This leads our brain to a healthy pattern of releasing chemicals that give us a sense of wellbeing. A healthy diet, lots of clean drinking water, loving relationships, exercise, and good sleep contribute to a happy and heathy life.

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan