Preaching among the Palms

In the third chapter of John's Gospel we meet Nicodemus, a secret follower of Jesus. In their conversation Jesus makes many mysterious pronouncements, including arguably the most famous verse in the Bible: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life." Fr. Jeff explains who Nicodemus is, how to think about his exchange with Jesus, and why it all matters in connection with Nicodemus's last appearance in John's Gospel, right before the resurrection of our Lord, where once again Nicodemus has an important part to play.

Fr. Grady discusses the temptation of Christ and how when the devil is confounded angels attend Jesus in the wilderness. This is still true for us today when by the power of the Word of God evil is routed help from heaven arrives. It was also powerfully true for Absalom Jones, abolitionist and the first African American to be ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1802.

Canon Lester presents us with four questions and one answer: Each is to do with stewardship, because today we bless the pledges collected by the parish for the upcoming year. Our giving is meant to be a response to God's gifts to us. The Bible teaches that everything is God's in the first place, and we give to him what is already his own. We give out of gratitude, not guilt or duty.

In today's reading from Matthew Jesus tells his disciples they are the salt of the earth, and he warns them that if salt loses its flavor it is good for nothing. But he literally says salt is worthless if it becomes foolish. Fr. Jeff explains what the ancient connection is between having flavor and being wise. This also explains why when we baptize a baby, as we do today, we put the "salt of wisdom" in their mouths!

The celebrated Beatitudes of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew proclaim radical truths about who is "blessed." But what does it mean to be blessed? Hebrew, Greek, and Latin all use two different words that we translate as "blessed." Fr. Jeff accounts for which of these meanings is at the heart of Jesus's famous teaching.

Fr. Jeff revisits Matthew's use of prophecy to explain how prophecy works in his Gospel generally. Tracing out the historic background to the reading from Isaiah helps us understand better how Matthew regards the unique mission of Jesus Christ and the dawning of new light upon all those who sit in darkness, both in Matthew's time and ours.

Fr. Grady considers the first encounter between Jesus and his first disciples in the Gospel of John. The eagerness of St. Andrew to share the good news of the manifestation of the Messiah is the model for our own stewardship: Disciples of Jesus give up everything that they have to bless other peoples' lives, and that is what we are called to do today—to come and see what God can do with what we have.

This Sunday the church asks us to meditate upon the baptism of Jesus. It is something of a puzzle why Jesus seeks out baptism at the hands of John the Baptist, but Matthew's account asserts that he does this to "fulfill all righteousness." In Peter's preaching from the epistle reading in Acts he says the story of salvation begins here, with the baptism of Christ, which establishes his sonship in relation to his Heavenly Father and commissions him for ministry. Fr. Jeff argues that our baptism does the same: It makes us true children of God and commission us for ministry.

The Christmas season celebrates the birth of Christ, about which we know a great deal from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Obviously we also know a lot about Jesus's mature ministry and mission. But we know almost nothing about the childhood of Jesus--except what we read in today's passage from Luke, which describes the twelve-year-old Jesus teaching in the temple to the surprise and dismay of his parents. Fr. Jeff explains what we can learn about the full humanity of Jesus Christ from this unique and revelatory story of his youth.

The church has for centuries commemorated the Holy Innocents, those unnumbered boys under the age of two who were slaughtered by Herod in the vicinity of Bethlehem in a failed attempt at murdering the newborn Christ. How can we understand this terrible evil and how it nevertheless fulfilled prophecy, as the Gospel of Matthew teaches? Fr. Jeff tries to account for the light of Christmas and the darkness that surrounded our Lord's infancy and still afflicts us today.