St. John the Divine Anglican Church

“Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.” 1 Peter 3:18 Of the three Gospel accounts of the temptations in the wilderness, St. Mark’s is the shortest. And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited

Mar 9:7 And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” 8 And suddenly looking around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only. Today is the last Sunday after Epiphany in our calendar. The Season of Epiphany which we just concluded started on January 6, when we commemorated the revealing of Jesus to the world. The word

Mark 1:29-39 Last week we heard about Jesus teaching in the temple as one with authority, and not as the scribes. There was also a little story about how our Lord met a man with an unclean spirit. That is an interesting way to describe what seems to me to be a demon. The demon recognized Jesus as the Holy One of God. Isn’t it funny that he demons always

Mark 1:21-28 “They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching– with authority!” Of the many people who influence our lives, our school teachers are among the real heroes of this world. I know I was a real challenge to many of my teachers, and most of them exhibited a lot of patience with me. There were a few who I really

Last Sunday, we heard from the Gospel according to St. John how Philip and Nathanial were called to be disciples of Jesus. I also gave you some of the preceding verses about the calling of Andrew and Peter. Today, we heard from the Gospel according to St. Mark about how Jesus called Andrew and Simon, the brothers who were fishermen. Jesus told them this interesting word twist that has become

John 1:43-51 In the Gospel of St. John we heard today, Jesus is beginning to select his disciples. The first one we heard about was Philip. But there a few verses that precede today’s selection where the first of these disciples are chosen. Let me set the scene for you. John had just baptized Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, had come down and remained

St. John the Baptizer said, “I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” From the Gospel according to St. Mark (1:8.) Today we are celebrating the baptism of Jesus. The baptism consisted of the washing in the river, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. St. Peter mentions this in Acts 10:38: God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit. The Sacrament

Matthew 2:1-12 As we heard in the Gospel today, three wise men came from the East to find the new born king. We three kings of Orient are… It’s not quite Epiphany, the commemoration of their visit, but it’s close enough! Who were these wise men? The Greek word that is translated here as wise men, is “Magoi” which became the English word “Magi.” That word can be translated as

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God John 1:1 Today is the third day of Christmas and also the feast of our Patron Saint John the Divine. It was 29 years ago that I was ordained a Deacon by Bp. Clarence C Pope, of blessed memory. The Gospel according to John is a most fascinating account of our Lord. There

Something extraordinary happened on Dec 21. The Great Conjunction of 2020. Did you see it? What in the world am I talking about? On Dec. 21, Saturn and Jupiter were aligned with earth within 0.1 degrees of separation. To the naked eye they appeared as one very bright star. This has renewed interest in the theory of the Star of Bethlehem. Was there really a star in the East that