Our worship today centered on the Epiphany of Jesus as Son of God. We continue to hear the story, from John’s perspective, of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist and the onset of Jesus’ ministry and calling of his disciples. As he called the Disciples he asked them “what are you looking for?” Ironically, they […]
St. John’s Episcopal Church Suffolk, Virginia The First Sunday after the Epiphany – The Baptism of Our Lord The Rev. Leslie Ferguson, Rector Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17 A friend of a friend, call him Tim, spent most of his adult life associated with the church, he dutifully attended services, did […]
We heard the story of Jesus’ birth as told by Luke. Born in Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph who were relegated to a stable because there was no room in the inn. Our readings remind us that Jesus came to save all creation, but not from a place of power but from the place of […]
Yet, our worship still reminded us that there was part of the Christmas story to play out. After 3 weeks of John the Baptist we got to hear the story of one of the more unlikely characters in the Christmas story – Joseph. Joseph is a bit of an enigma, he is very human and […]
Today marked the continuation of our journey with John the Baptist, although this week his role is from the borders of the story. John, who has been faithful doing his job and pointing at the coming Messiah wonders if Jesus, who doesn’t look anything like the expected Messiah, is really the one. John’s future did […]
We’ve been looking at the season of Advent as a time of preparation. While, on the one hand, that is a good thing; yet on the other, considering we know the rest of the story (Jesus’ birth celebrated at Christmas and Easter) it is hard to truly prepare. Yet the gospel holds John the Baptist […]
What does the future look like? An age old question… Today, as we begin our preparation, we are reminded that, “About that time no one will know.” Our scripture was future focused and helped set the stage for where we are going in the future. Today’s readings helped remind us that what we are preparing […]
We have been blessed to celebrate the last Sunday after Pentecost in our liturgical year and prepare for the coming year with the First Sunday of Advent next week. But, in order to not get ahead of ourselves we are firmly focused on the “unofficial” celebration of Christ the King Sunday. The readings this morning […]
Today was a day that begins to bring our liturgical year to an end and, not surprisingly much of our readings had a focus on the coming end times and the restoration of creation by God. In our New Testament reading we heard Paul tell the Thessalonians that they should not grow weary doing what […]
The work we do on the physical plant of the church is a celebration of the life of our Parish. The life we live is a reflection of the presence of God in our lives and in our community. As with most churches, the life of our Parish and Congregation is marked with “successes” and […]