Hear the messages that Father Jeremiah delivers each week
to the congregation of Grace Anglican.
At Christmas Eve, we so often hear about Jesus being born in Bethlehem and the angels and the shepherds. What is the importance of this event? Why is it so important that we continue to read about it and hear about it 2000 years later? God Came Down at Christmas truly did happen and we hear about it now!
Image: The Adoration of the Shepherds, Ivan Honchar Museum [Public domain]. Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shepherds_Bow_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Micah has promised the coming of a ruler over Israel who will be born in the insignificant town of Bethlehem. This ruler will bring peace and comfort to God’s people. All of it is out of God’s great love for his people.
Image: Dr Mary Gillham Archive Project [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Located at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Berber_shepherd_at_10,000%27_clears_flock._Near_Fes_(23903400918).jpg
How do we come to know joy? Why do we rejoice? The prophet Zephaniah called the people of God to rejoice because God was going to remove the judgements against them and then God himself would rejoice over his people. How does God accomplish this in our lives? What do we do when we come face to face with God’s rejoicing over us?
Image: The Ghent Altarpiece: Singing Angels, Jan van Eyck [Public domain]. Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jan_van_Eyck_-_The_Ghent_Altarpiece_-_Singing_Angels_(detail)_-_WGA07642.jpg
Though we didn’t meet for church on Sunday due to inclement weather, Father Jeremiah recorded his sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Advent. How is it that we receive peace with God the Father? How does Jesus’ sanctifying of us relate to the peace that we receive by his coming? Father Jeremiah explores these questions and helps us all draw near to Jesus as our peace.
Image: By Neelaka, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) Located at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/33925187@N00/5102225210
During Advent we prepare for God coming to us through Jesus his Son. We begin a new series for Advent called: God Came Down at Christmas. In this first sermon, Father Jeremiah looks at Zechariah 14 and connects it to the coming of Christ and to our lives now. Listen now to find out more!
Image: UnknownUnknown author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1099_Siege_of_Jerusalem.jpg
What kind of king is Jesus? How is he different from all the rest of the kings and rulers of the world? On this last Sunday of the Church Year, Christ the King Sunday, find out what makes Jesus stand out when compared to all others.
Image: Christ before Pilate Again. Duccio di Buoninsegna [Public domain] Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duccio_di_Buoninsegna_-_Christ_Before_Pilate_Again_-_WGA06805.jpg
It’s the end of the World and the end of the age. How does this relate to us today? Jesus tells his disciples about judgment in Mark 13 and it’s coming to Jerusalem. We stand in awe in light of how this prophecy came to pass.
Image by: Jan van Eyck [Public domain]; Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Van_Eyck_-_The_Crucifixion;_The_Last_Judgment.jpg
What do two widows, a prophet, and a high priest tell us about faith? How does the work of Christ undergird all of our responses to that very work? Who are the main characters in these passages from 1 Kings, Hebrews, and the Gospel of Mark? Listen now to hear what Father Jeremiah is teaching about the work of Jesus on our behalf.
Image from: Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons. Located at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Bible_panorama,_or_The_Holy_Scriptures_in_picture_and_story_(1891)_(14598328380).jpg
The question echoes around us as we listen to St. Mark recount to us the story of Bartimaeus’ blindness. “What do you want me to do? We’ve heard it before. How do you answer it?
Image: Christ Giving Sight to Bartimaeus, William Blake [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Once again, the disciples are worried about being the greatest amongst one another in the kingdom. Once again, Jesus teaches his disciples about the nature of servanthood and what his calling is in light of being sent by the Father. What does that mean for us today? Listen now to find out more.
Image: Le Christ rencontrant la femme et les fils de Zébédée, Paolo Veronese [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
What can we do to inherit salvation? That’s the question of the rich young man in St. Mark’s Gospel today. What does Jesus tell him? Is there compassion in his words or is it harsh law heaped upon the man and us today? How do we respond to Jesus’ call to each of us? Listen now to find out more.
Image: Christ and the Rich, Young Man, by Andrey Mironov [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons. Image found at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_and_the_rich_young_man._A.N._Mironov.jpgIma
This Sunday, we had a guest preacher. Thomas Havilland-Pabst, a friend of Father Jeremiah’s from seminary, led us through Hebrews 2, allowing us to see how Christ is our present hope in the here and now. We hope you are blessed by his teaching today!
Image: Public Domain. Located at: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1215335
Father Jeremiah officiated his first wedding. It was his pleasure to preach this sermon for the couple he was marrying. In this, Father Jeremiah considers the foundation of marriage, its nature of Law and Gospel, and the mystical aspect of it being a foreshadow of what Christ has with his Church. He brings us all back into the continual need for forgiveness to flow between a husband and wife in the midst of submitting to one another in Christ.
Image: The Marriage of the Lamb, artist unknown, c. 1255-1260, public domain. Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Marriage_of_the_Lamb_-_Google_Art_Project_crop.jpg
We are in the midst of a war! We are fighting against the evil within ourselves and we are called to sacrifice in light of this. How do we make this sacrifice? How can we fight when the fight is with ourselves? What does Jesus mean by cutting off one’s hand and foot and tearing out one’s eye? Aren't these good things that God has given to us?
Image: From the book The War in Europe, It’s causes and consequences, by Rossiter Johnson, 1914. No known copyrights on image.
After Jesus teaches his disciples about his death and resurrection once more, they go on to argue about who is the greatest. What happens when we try to be the greatest? Who is really in charge of us then? Are we really following Jesus? Listen to find out what Father Jeremiah has to say today.
Image: The Last Shall be First, James Tissot [No restrictions or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_The_First_Shall_Be_Last_(Le_premier_sera_le_dernier)_-_James_Tissot_-_overall.jpg
What do we do about faith and unbelief? Are we in one or the other all the time? What are we to do when we find ourselves a mixed bag? Hear about the importance of the father’s confession to Jesus of his unbelief in Father Jeremiah’s sermon from Sunday.
Image: By Phlawton [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons. Location: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nineteenth_Century_Methodist_Hymnal_in_Barratt%27s_Chapel_Museum,_Frederica,_Delaware.jpg
What are we to make of Jesus’ healing of a deaf and mute man? Is there more to it than the not so simple healing? Can we relate to this story and apply it to ourselves? Father Jeremiah considers these questions and brings this story to bear upon us today.
Image: By unknown, (Markusmaler und Gehilfe) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. Located: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ottheinrich_Folio055v_Mc7C.jpg
Do traditions have anything to do with our faith? Can every tradition blind us to the truth of God's word? What about our hearts? What is to be done with our hearts? Listen to hear more form Father Jeremiah about this passage from the Gospel of Mark.
Image: illustrators of the 1728 Figures de la Bible, Gerard Hoet (1648–1733) and others, published by P. de Hondt in The Hague in 1728 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
When the people hear about Jesus teaching them to feed on his flesh, they begin grumbling. What will his disciples do? What will you do? Where will we go if we leave Jesus? Is there anywhere else to go?
Image: By Nheyob [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
In our passage from the Gospel of St. John, Jesus says that we are to eat his flesh and then that we are to feed on his flesh and drink his blood. What does Jesus mean? How are we to feed on Jesus? Father Jeremiah walks us through this passage and helps us to lay hold of the truth of what Jesus is telling us today.
Image: By Nheyob [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
Grace Anglican Church, Sundays @ 10:30 AM, 800 Robinson Rd, Gastonia, NC
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 551081, Gastonia, NC 28054
