This morning we hear the profound story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness as described in Matthew’s Gospel. We need to recall that this event actually takes place right after Jesus is baptized by John, which of course we heard about right at the beginning of Epiphany. So picture it: Jesus is there with John and just as was reaffirmed last week at his transfiguration, we hear God the Father declare, “Jesus is my son, with whom I am well pleased,” and the Holy Spirit desce

One of the most influential fathers of the Christian Church, as well as of Western thought, St. Augustine, understood Jesus’s Transfiguration that we hear about today, as a necessary, yet temporary, glimpse of divine glory designed to strengthen the disciples for the suffering to come (suffering not just criticism or name calling; but arrest, imprisonment, torture and execution, all for their affirmation and proclamation that Jesus is God). So Jesus has decided to take three

Let me begin bluntly: your vocation (job) as a Christian, is not to deliver people from their sins with what you say or with what you do. Do you know why that’s the case? Because you are not God. Our gospel lesson this morning tells us that we are to be salt and light for other people not to see us - for we are not the food or the object that light illuminates; that would be Jesus - rather we are that the substance, salt and light, that entices others to seek Christ. This mi

I want to tell you a little secret. Are you ready for it? Those who boast of their own power; those who rely on their might - whether of wealth, of words, or of weapons - to accomplish things in this world, especially the will of God, will not, through these means, inherit the kingdom of God. Listen to Jesus’s warning to all whom he encounters - especially the religious and political ruling class - as he goes out on his three year mission: “Beware of false prophets who come

This morning we hear that soon after John is arrested, Jesus sets off to Galilee. He doesn’t do this to avoid confrontation. I mean, we know that ultimately he will confront those who refuse to recognize him and so hang him on a Cross. We also know that he has a mission to accomplish before that final confrontation occurs. And it needs to start in Galilee, apparently. Why? Because this is part of God’s promise unveiled in the Words of his Prophets, as we heard this morning in

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” John the baptist shouts, as he sees Jesus coming toward him. Last week we heard John declare in Matthew’s Gospel, that he was surprised that Jesus wanted to be baptised by him. And yet he fulfilled Jesus’s request and in doing so, he got to see the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus and heard the Father’s voice declare that Jesus was his beloved, with whom he was well pleased. And so John confirms again in John’s Gosp

Last week we celebrated Epiphany: the revelation to Gentiles just like us, that God fulfilled his promise to gather all nations to him by sending his Son into the world. We see in his birth that Jesus comes not merely as God, but is born a true human infant who will grow into a true human man. And this leads us to the strange episode of Jesus’s Baptism we hear in today’s Gospel lesson. Why on earth would God’s Son Jesus, who of course is God himself, be baptised by John, a me

Like most of us, the Jews we hear about in today’s Gospel were likely going about their daily routines, working, focusing on the political and social events of the day, conversations with friends and neighbours, frustrations with this or that person or situation, going about their regular worship routines. In the midst of these things, we often develop habits to harden ourselves against challenges to our expectations because they throw us off our routines; moreover, they ofte

One of the greatest illusions we all seem to share is that our lives are our own. That we can fully see and control our circumstances, that with just the right research and planning, with warding off those people and ideas, those rules and regulations and impositions of others on us, that we can determine not only our own fate, but that of others as well. The peril in believing this is that it keeps us from allowing the one who created us - God himself - to be borne in us. W

The story from Matthew’s Gospel this morning, of Mary’s pregnancy, seems quite matter of fact, shorn of the mystery and descriptive nuance that some of the other Gospels use in telling the story. And yet Matthew stripping the event down to its core reveals the central point clearly: obedience. Joseph’s obedience to God announced by his angel in Matthew’s Gospel, parallels Mary’s own, which we find in other Gospel tellings of Jesus's birth. We hear very matter of factly that