Lenten Devotional: Matthew 5: 23-24
by the Rev. Jered Weber-Johnson “So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something
Welcome to the Church of the Open Door.
Come and join us as we grow in love for God
and one another.
St. John’s Spiritual Life Groups nurture the spirit in intentional communities.
In the wider community, we advocate for hunger relief, safe housing, and accessible health services. We pursue our mission through local and global partnerships, personal service, supportive prayer, and financial contributions.
We believe God is revealed in many ways, primarily through Scripture, the wisdom of the church and its history, and our own reason and experience. These are the “tools” we use to search for God.
Wherever you may be in your spiritual journey, we welcome you!
The music program at St. John’s engages people of all ages in a wide range of musical possibilities. Our ensembles provide a sense of belonging, a place where people care about one another. Together we discover what it means to sing and rejoice in the Lord through music.
The ministry of pastoral care is shared by every member of our parish. As Christians in community, we care for one another.
St. John’s ongoing impact relies on you — our parishioners — to commit time, talent, and financial support, to sustain the ministries that improve the lives of our members and the communities we support.
We are so glad you found your way to St John the Evangelist Episcopal Church. Whether you are a long time Episcopalian or have never stepped foot in a church, we welcome you!
by the Rev. Jered Weber-Johnson “So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something
“The spiritual greats of our faith tradition tell us that fasting is an opportunity to draw closer to God. In giving something up for a short season, we create necessary space to focus new or renewed attention on our connection with God. I wish I could say this has worked for me. But, more often than not, when I am fasting, I seem to become more keenly aware of my appetites, my hunger, my grumbling stomach or my fuzzy decaffeinated brain. So, how is it that we cultivate space for God? Or, more importantly, how do we cultivate the desire to find our way across the gulfs between us and the one who made us?”
“This is why we practice our faith together over and over with rituals and rites that affirm we are worthy of love and dignity, that we are created in the image and likeness of God. Because none of us can believe on our own, each and every day, that we are loveable and deserving of love. We have to hold this truth together in community, reminding and being reminded by one another, by the nearness of sacraments like Eucharist and baptism, by the stories of the saints and Jesus himself,.”
The Vestry is the committee of laypeople (meaning people who are not ordained clergy) who provide leadership for the parish. They help articulate the mission
Craig’s eyes were filled with tears, while a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and then I was swept up in that moment too, feeling all my own feels, in the candlelight and the fragrance of cedar and pine, and the music and the tears. It was, as the kids say, a whole mood! Well, ok, I’m told the kids don’t say that anymore. But, whatever. When I saw my dear colleague weeping and smiling, that was my first reaction, to resonate with it in all its emotional complexity. How could I not.
“… The call of God on our lives interrupts our allegiance to the often death dealing, sacrificial systems of the world. God’s call, interrupts the economies that exploit, interrupts the politics that prioritize power over generosity, that prizes our love of guns over the lives of our children, that puts “national interest” over the imperative to welcome strangers and immigrants. The call of the one true God, the God of Abraham and Sarah of Isaac and Rebekah and Leah, of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, is a call away from the all the plans we once had, interrupts the business as usual of the world and calls us into a faith that feeds the hungry, visits and cares for the sick, listens to the story of the lonely and the abandoned, that let’s Christ show up in all the interruptions of the life of ministry and discipleship…”
“The way to God, is not a way that leads us out of this world. God can be known and experienced, God’s power can be shared and apprehended, God’s face is available to us, right here, and right now. Jesus says, he is the way and the truth and the life, and invites us to know him. So look for him, friends, by loving others, by serving, by seeing and knowing that each face around you is shimmering with the glory and grace of a God who loves you and all of creation with a fierce and unending love. Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have seen the face of God.”
Becoming Beloved Community means all of us, across every line and barrier, white and black and brown, gay, straight, trans, gender queer, non-binary, poor, rich, Muslim, Christian, atheist, and Jew, spiritual or not – all of us get free together or we don’t get free at all. The work of creating beloved communities includes liberation for all people, and, indeed, on this Earth Day Sunday, we are reminded that the “network of mutuality” and “garment of destiny” includes this precious planet, our island home, all creatures and ecosystems, and neighborhoods – the land and the water and the air which sustain life – our liberation is connected to all that is. We cannot get free alone.
When you look in the mirror, what do you see? This body we are given, this flesh and blood and a heart that pumps, if our faith is to be believed, this body is made in the very image and likeness of God. When you peer into the mirror, is it the face of God you see blinking back at you?
A sermon for the funeral of Paula Cooey, by the Rev. Jered Weber-JohnsonSt. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, St. Paul, MN.March 30th, 2023 https://youtube.com/live/Nd6egxtImro A
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