St. John's Episcopal Church Montclair

St. John's Episcopal Church Montclair

di The Rev. Carrie Cabush

Stagione 2025

Making God Visible at Pride | June 15, 2025

It is a humbling honor to bear witness to a God who affirms the LGBQ+ community. We spoke to therapists who seek to create safe spaces for those who have been hurt by their faith communities, parents striving to make sure their kids know just how loved they are, young adults struggling to find affirming places to worship. And towards the end of the day, one of the drag queens who had been performing a few tents down stopped by our table and said "I want you all to know this is probably my favorite table at this whole event."

Pentecost, a sermon by the Rev. Abigail King | June 8, 2025

A Pentecost sermon by the Rev. Abigail King at St. John's Episcopal Church Montclair.

The Most Powerful Thing God Can Do Is Change a Heart | June 1, 2025

When God changes someone's heart, when that person says yes to following Jesus, it is a powerful thing. Because it can change not just that one person, but everyone they meet. I don't know if any of us would be here today if God hadn't changed Paul's heart to spread the good news of a loving God not only to the jailer in Philippi, but to churches around the Mediterranean. When God changes a heart it's like the giggles. Have you ever caught the giggles? What happens? They're hard to get rid of! And they start to spread, until soon enough the whole room is giggling, whether they know why or not. That's how God's love spreads - it starts with one person, and if we let it, spreads and spreads and spreads.

A Different Type of Healing | May 25, 2025

When Jesus heals, he heals not only the body but the mind. He opens people up to possibilities they were unable to see before. He helps us to move our gaze from the kingdom in front of us - full of corruption, competition, and pain - to the kingdom of heaven, where all things are possible and God's grace is freely given.

The Power of Love | May 18, 2025

Religion and science agree that love is the way forward. But the power of love is a lesson we have to keep learning. After all, if 25 clergy singing and praying together outside of Delaney Hall can shut down business as usual for six and a half hours and instill enough fear to bring armored cars and barricades the next day, love and faith must be pretty powerful. The lines that mark who belongs in our country keep moving, becoming ever more privileged and exclusive. As Christians we are called to remember that we belong not to any particular nation or political party, but to God and one another. And as Americans, we would do well to remember our history.

My Sheep Know My Voice | May 11, 2025

“My sheep hear my voice.” This week I’ve been meditating on how it is that we, Christians living 2000 years after Jesus, can not only hear Jesus’ voice, but recognize it. It is no small task. Especially in an age when anyone with a smart device can use an AI voice generator to make it sound like their favorite celebrity is “saying”…well, whatever they want.Technology aside, there are so many voices vying for our attention. The voices that we hear often enough - the voices that we give power and influence to - get inside and start to sound like just “thoughts.”

Easter as a Season of Feasting | May 4, 2025

You can tell a lot about a space by the way it is designed. So, what piece of furniture seems to be the most important in our church? In some churches the place where people speak - the podium or pulpit - is front and center. But in our church, the altar or the table is front and center. That is because the most important thing we do in worship is share the feast of the Holy Eucharist.

Borrowed Faith | April 27, 2025

Who among us could believe if the disciples had not first seen and touched the risen Christ? These stories of people seeing, touching, interacting with Jesus have been written down in scripture so that we may come to believe. Our faith depends on the faith of those who came before us. To some extent, we all live on faith borrowed from the disciples, the apostles, from family, friends, and mentors that have shown us the way of faith by example.

Easter Sunday: Resurrection in the Garden | April 20, 2025

When Mary mistakes Jesus for the gardener, it is not a mistake at all. It is a proclamation of Jesus’ oneness with God. The one who knows how to look death in the face and create new life from it - because he has experienced it first hand. Jesus has not only experienced resurrection, he facilitates it. Author and minister Rohadi Nagassar writes that “Jesus is a gardener who cultivates life in all who come to him.” He takes the death and decay of our lives and turns it into compost, the very stuff that helps bring forth new growth. Sweeter and richer than we could ever imagine.

Easter Vigil: Speaking Hope into the Dark | April 19, 2025

I wonder what the disciples did on that first Holy Saturday. After the public humiliation and death of their friend, their teacher, their God. After Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb. After it was finished. Did they hide away from the crowds, afraid anyone would recognize them as one of those Jesus followers? Did they start making preparations to go home, wondering if the families they had left would take them back? Or, I wonder…if that first Holy Saturday looked something like our Holy Saturday.

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