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by the Reverend Harry Leip Deacon Harry delivered this sermon at our Zoom worship service on Palm Sunday (March 28, 2021) Good morning everyone. It is such a blessing to be with you as we begin our great Holy Week journey once more. I am Deacon Harry and I serve at Trinity – Central West End, just a couple miles up Kingshighway from you. I want to thank Deacon Nancy for her invitation to share some reflections on Palm Sunday with you this morning. Beginning today and thru Holy Week, the Church re-tells some of her age-old stories about Jesus, his followers, his friends and those powers which try to crush the man and the movement. And in this act of memory and storytelling, I can’t help but think of my own family, both biological and chosen who, when we’re together for any length of time, start sharing our stories from the past.
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Editor's note: As we continue forward in our journey of transition to new clergy, it seems like a good idea to make sure we're all speaking the same language. So, each week for the near future, we'll present a "term of transition": a word or phrase related to ordained ministry, and the process by which parishes go about identifying and calling their clergy leaders. What is a Priest-in-Charge?
by Mtipe Koggani Mtipe delivered this sermon as a guest preacher at St. John's on Sunday, March 21. My friends, the gospel for today tells us about some Greeks who wish to see Jesus, and Jesus speaking about his death. This passage informs us that among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Why do the Greeks approach Philip? Some scholars suggest that perhaps it was because they were drawn by his Greek name for, he was named after the City of Philippi. Philip goes to tell Andrew. Incidentally, "Andreas" means "Andrew" in Greek.
Editor's note: As we continue forward in our journey of transition to new clergy, it seems like a good idea to make sure we're all speaking the same language. So, each week for the near future, we'll present a "term of transition": a word or phrase related to ordained ministry, and the process by which parishes go about identifying and calling their clergy leaders. What is a Deacon?
Want to learn more about deacons?
by the Reverend Michaelene Miller Good Morning, St. John’s! I am the Rev. Michaelene Miller and I serve as the Director of the Deaconess Anne House, a ministry of the Diocese of Missouri for young adults interested in cultivating lifestyles of intentionality, service, and social justice. When I was a corps member in the DAH program many years ago, I worshiped regularly at St. John’s and it was the first church I preached in so I thank you for the invitation to worship and preach with you again today. Today’s gospel passage from the third chapter of John takes me back. Kind of like time travel, I am transported back in my memory to the last time that I worshiped with a congregation in person, inside the sanctuary, just over a full year ago. Today’s gospel passage is the latter half of the conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader and prominent religious teacher in the Jewish community. It is a conversation that I dove into as I preached that last time I worshiped with folks in person, inside on the second Sunday of Lent last year, just a few weeks before in-person worship was suspended because of the unfolding pandemic of COVID-19, a suspension and a pandemic that have now lasted well beyond what any of us could have ever predicted.
 El Greco, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons by the Reverend Nancy Emmel-Gunn Our Gospel today teaches us that Jesus is the new temple, the very embodiment of God. We are invited this week to continue our Lenten journey in the wilderness, to look at ourselves as community, and to explore how to be Christ’s hands and feet today. John offers us the cleansing of the Temple narrative. We find this story of Jesus throwing tables around, casting out animals in the Jerusalem Temple, in all four Gospels. John’s version weaves in he Passover theme within the larger context of Jesus’ ministry. We can envision the sprawling, noisy, chaotic market place in the Temple, in and around the Temple courtyard and in the sanctuary. We can visualize the moneychangers, sitting at tables, abacus in hand exchanging coins with customers, merchants haggling over cattle, sheep and doves in exchange for the agreed price. We can hear the sheep bleating. We can smell the odor of wet wool. Jesus is outraged at this scene. He turns over their tables. He makes a whip of cords and chases the animals outside of the temple, shouting to the dove salespeople, “Take these things out of here. Stop making my father’s house a marketplace!”
By the Reverend Jon Stratton Father Stratton shared this sermon with us for our February 28, 2021, Zoom service. "Make it plain preacher, make it plain!" If you have a background in the Black Church tradition, or a Pentecostal denomination, or maybe even an evangelical or Baptist congregation, you might have heard the refrain to "make it plain" shout from the pews during a Sunday morning sermon. "Make it plain, preacher, make it plain." That’s not so much a request as it is an affirmation. An affirmation that the preacher has stepped away from mile-high theology, wrapped up the complicated Greek word study, and closed the books on the exegetical inquiry, and, perhaps finally, started speaking the clear, plain truth in a language that the people can understand.
By the Reverend Nancy Emmel-Gunn Our Gospel reading is found in the first chapter of Mark. This passage is immediately after the first verses of Mark, where we are introduced to John, who is doing the business of baptizing people. Mark doesn’t tell us what Jesus has been up to this point in his now adult life. Other Gospel writers tell us Jesus’ earthly parents knew from divine visitations that that was a special baby, the very son of God. But we are not provided a history of Jesus’ home life or vocation. We can, however, use our theological imagination. Perhaps Jesus was living with his parents, working in his father’s carpentry business, coming home each night to a nice meal cooked by Mom, spending time with his family and friends, and being a good, observant, young Jewish man.
Deacon Nancy Emmel-Gunn reads the Gospel (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21), and then Bishop Deon Johnson preaches the Ash Wednesday sermon. If you'd like to watch the entire Ash Wednesday service, it's available on the St. John's Facebook page.
 Bishop Deon Johnson will preside over our St. John's Ash Wednesday service. The service will be on Zoom; the link to join will be available in the eblast. Bishop Deon and Deacon Nancy will celebrate the service at St. John's but the readers will interface on Zoom. We will celebrate both Word and Table. Because of bad weather conditions, we have decided not to open the church after the service for the imposition of ashes as we had originally planned. We hope you can join us. But most importantly, be safe and take care! We will also livestream the service on FB LIve. If you've like to follow along there, go to our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/towergrovechurch The service bulletin is available to download below: 
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Editorial contactVarious members of the St. John's congregation contribute to this blog. For editorial suggestions, contact Jeff McIntire-Strasburg at jeff.strasburg1968@gmail.com Archives
March 2021
CategoriesAll Bishop Deon Johnson Book Group Congregation Members Deacons Diocese Of Missouri Episcopal Church Features General Information Parish Events Podcast Presiding Bishop Michael Curry Sermons Terms Of Transition Vestry |
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