St. John's Episcopal Church Montclair

St. John's Episcopal Church Montclair

por The Rev. Carrie Cabush

Temporada 2025

Good Friday: The Peace God Offers | April 18, 2025

How did we get here? How is it that the newborn baby in the manger, who was wrapped in swaddling clothes and gifted with myrrh, who we proclaimed to be the Prince of Peace - grew up to be the man put to death on a cross, wrapped in burial linens and anointed with myrrh, all because he disturbed the peace?

Maundy Thursday: Washing Feet and Loving One Another | April 17, 2025

“Everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Seems simple, doesn’t it? And yet, if Christians have a reputation around the world…I’m not so sure it’s for our love. At least not the type of love Jesus gave. The full hearted, embodied, break down barriers and risk it all type of love

Palm Sunday: Even the Stones Would Cry Out | April 13, 2025

If you have been to the Grand Canyon or someplace similar you’ve seen the layers showing centuries of change. If stones can see or sense the history they’ve lived through, they’ve seen a lot. And so when Jesus says that if the people were silent for his procession into Jerusalem the stones would have cried out, it signals something for us. It signals that God’s creation - even its inanimate parts - long to draw closer to God, like we do. And even the stones, who had “seen” self-proclaimed leader after leader, know that Jesus is different.

Camp Sunday, sermon by Anthony Briggs, Executive Director of Cross Roads | April 6, 2025

Isn't it wonderful to have joy in church? And to have laughter and smiling, and things where we're goofy here in our faith community. Just being and having a lightness in community. That's what Cross Roads is.

The Prodigal Father | March 30, 2025

"The Prodigal Son." This is the title most often given to the parable we heard from Jesus this morning. But there’s a self-righteousness to this title. It says: look how wastefully extravagant the youngest son was. That’s the meaning of prodigal after all, wastefully extravagant. He not only asks his father for his inheritance early - a gesture that says nothing less than “I wish you were dead so I could benefit from your riches” - he spends it all in record time. In the Greek, it says he “scattered his substance.” He lost not only the money he demanded from his father, he lost himself somewhere along the way. And he has the gall to go crawling back to his father to ask for more. Not repentant, mind you, but expectant; entitled. Titling this parable “The Prodigal Son” turns it into a tale of how not to be. It makes us feel better because surely we are better than this selfish, wasteful son. But this parable really isn’t about the youngest son.

The Parable of the Fig Tree March 23, 2025

I am convinced that Jesus taught in parables because he knew they would endure. That they would be stories that would be told across time and space. Parables are the great equalizer in Jesus’ teachings because they are for everyone. You can access a parable whether you have studied scripture or not, whether you know fancy church words or not, whether you have spent years in a pew or are exploring religion for the first time. All you need to access a parable is curiosity and patience. Because there is no right answer. No one interpretation. Parables are meant to be told and listened to time and time again. Because while the parable may not change, we do and so how we hear God speaking to us through the parable will change too.

Gathering the Village | March 16, 2025

Consider the next time you plan to take a train, bus, or subway. Would you rather spend the ride talking to a stranger or sitting in quiet solitude? As a lifelong introvert, I know which one I’d choose, hands down. So much so that last time I took a train I ran back home a block because I forgot my headphones. You know, the universal symbol that says “don’t talk to me” without having to say anything at all. But the thing is, we are comically bad at knowing what will make us feel better.

The Temptation to Let the Ends Justify the Means | March 9, 2025

What if Jesus had said yes. What if Jesus had said yes to the devil in the wilderness? After all, he had not eaten for 40 days...would it have really done any harm for him to turn a stone into bread so he could eat? Would we be in a better place if Jesus had said yes to ruling all the kingdoms of the world? Would more people have believed in Jesus if he had made a spectacular show by throwing himself off the temple only to be saved by God?

The Three Pillars of Lent Ash | Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Ash Wednesday, the season of Lent, even mid-week prayer are all invitations to interrupt the busyness of our lives. To step off the hamster wheel of achievement and autopilot and remember our mortality. To remember that our time on this earth is limited, but it is also a God-given gift. To consider poet Mary Oliver’s question: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” We might not venture off into the wilderness by ourselves for 40 days like Jesus did. But we are invited to spend these 40 days taking a deep look inward and spending more time with God. If you’re wondering exactly how to do that, the Church has identified three pillars of Lent, inspired by our gospel reading today. Three ways to disturb business as usual so that we might live with more intention.

The Transformation of Sharing Our True Selves | March 2, 2025

This week I heard Rev. Anne Russ, author of the Doubting Believer blog, talk about the story of the Transfiguration in a new way. She said that Jesus probably sensed a change was going to come on that mountaintop, and yet he only brought Peter, John, and James with him. I wonder, why might Jesus have only brought three friends with him to the top of that mountain? Maybe, Jesus only brought these three friends up to the mountaintop with him because they were the people he trusted the most. The ones he knew would see his true, transfigured, sparkly and vulnerable self and even if they didn’t understand, he knew they wouldn’t judge him.

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