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Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?

Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?

Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known,

will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name.

Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.

In Your company I’ll go where Your love and footsteps show.

Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you and you in me (The Summons).

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Lent is a time of preparation, when we teach our children and youth to draw closer to the one we love. At St. John’s we offer Confirmation, First Communion and Adult Education for children, youth, and adults to be followers of Jesus Christ. It is by our example of worship, study, prayer, and outreach that they will see that Jesus Christ came that we might have life and live it abundantly. We also offer prayer, worship, and a Lenten program of healthy lifestyles. Jesus Christ came that we might be transformed into the beautiful children of God that we were created to be. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Eternal life begins today and never ends. Please use these next few weeks of Lent to draw closer to the one who loves you deeply. In the back of the church, there are new Lenten Meditations from Bishop Shin. Please take one or take a Day by Day daily meditation booklet. Jesus could only meet a finite number of people in his life. The Good News is now spread by his followers. The most significant preacher in a congregation is not the person in the fancy vestments in the pulpit, but the people in the congregation going out into the world. Apostles have been transformed by the self-giving love of Christ, to do the will of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit. The fact of the matter is that priests come and go, but the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the lives at St. John’s goes on from generation to generation for the last 278 years. This is your generation and now is your time. Our clergy provide resources, but you must individually decide to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

Our vestry understands that the Diocese of Long Island has been losing members for many decades and that the Episcopal Church (like all mainline denominations) has lost some folks since Covid. Many folks are not physically coming to church, but worship online. We are putting together a strategic plan to encourage young families to baptize their children, confirm their teenagers, and expose everyone to the Good News and the love of Christ. If our mission is to know Christ and make him known, then we all need to shine the self-giving love of Christ to the world. Jesus says that we must take up our cross and follow him. I encourage you to attend our Lenten programs and faithfully worship God at St. John’s. We have the power to transform the nightmare that the world can be into the blessing of the Kingdom of God. We are transformed through a relationship with Christ, and we become the transforming power in the world.

In Christ’s love,
Rev. Duncan Burns 

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Lenten Journey

This week’s Gospel from Mark is true to form – hastily moving through some significant events and offering few details. Jesus is baptized by John and as he comes up out of the water, the Spirit descends like a dove. Jesus alone hears a voice from heaven, which undoubtedly serves to solidify his identity and purpose. Immediately the Spirit drives him into the desert for 40 days and the only information we have about his experience there is that he is tempted by Satan and surrounded by wild beasts and angels, who waited on him. What happened then?

Lent is a journey that calls us to repent – to turn from familiar ways, even if we fear getting lost. We dread being surrounded by beasts – beasts that can overpower us. “Where am I, Lord? The wilderness journey I am on this year is new, and I am scared.”

What and who are your beasts? Be assured that 40 days well spent will end in unbounded joy!

For most of us at St. John’s, this is not our first Lent. We have ventured with Jesus into wildernesses of our own each year. This year, it is our hope that we can use this time to slow down from Mark’s rapid pace. To breathe. Breathing in God who yearns to deeply touch and heal us. We are being encouraged to open our minds and hearts to new ways of praying – new ways for some of us to be with God. Perhaps becoming more contemplative. According to Richard Rohr, “Contemplation is the practice of being fully present—in heart, mind, and body—to what is - in a way that allows you to creatively respond and work toward what could be. Contemplative prayer is a practice for a lifetime, never perfected yet always enough.”

Our individual journeys will take us each into our own matchless wilderness. As we allow God to grow our faith, we are gently urged to stretch a little more, to venture a little further – to take the risk of facing the temptations that distance us from God and to seek repentance. This can be scary and lonely, even when we do it as a church family through retreats and Lenten programs. But our readiness to be with Jesus in our wildernesses will deepen our relationship with God. Can you even imagine? Psalm 25 invites us to be led into God’s truth – to allow ourselves to be taught - inviting us into a deeper trust.

And 1st Peter reminds us that Christ suffered for all of our sins – once for all – in order to bring us to God. That is a love so great that it cannot be lost – we cannot lose it, so we might as well live into it as revealed to us each moment of Lent! Remember.... we are headed for Joy!

Journeying with you,
Deacon Claire

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Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them (Mark 9:2-3).

This week’s Gospel is the other bookend to the resurrection on Easter morning. Jesus is letting Peter, James and John know what is about to occur. He will soon tell them that he must suffer and die and after three days rise again. They will not understand the path that Jesus must follow. There was a common understanding amongst the Jewish folks that the messiah would raise a great army, conquer the Romans, and free their people. Jesus walks the path of self-giving love, not the path of power and dominance. On this last Sunday after Epiphany, we prepare ourselves for the upcoming Lenten season. Ralph Waldo Emerson once explained, “That which dominates our imaginations, and our thoughts will determine our life and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.” Lent begins on Ash Wednesday next week with a 12 noon and a 7:00 PM service. Our plan for Lent at St. John’s is to offer ways to pray and information on health and wellness.

In today’s Gospel Jesus was transfigured to a dazzling white. He has a conversation with Moses and Elijah in a Kingdom of God moment that can only be described as supernatural. Peter says, “Rabbi, it is good to be here.” Peter is very confused, a cloud comes over, and a voice comes from heaven, “This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him!” When God’s glory is revealed to us, it seems out of the realm of the ordinary and we often do not know what to make of it.

In Sunday’s collect we will pray, “O God who before the passion of your Son revealed his glory on the Holy Mount, that we may we be strengthened to bear his cross.” God sustains us with an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus wants us to walk none other than the way of the cross. The way of the cross often begins in Lent. Lent is the time when we ponder the work that God has called us to do. We realize that the distractions of the world have kept us from God’s purpose in our lives. If we want to be an authentic expression of Christ’s light, we need to pray, study, listen, and make God the center of our world again.

For this season of Lent, please consider listening to God. We come together to give thanks and pray that we might recognize God in our midst and follow this path of healing and wholeness. In my experience, God is working in the life of our congregation in ways that we cannot ask for or imagine. Some of you have experienced prophetic voices, incarnational events, and brushes with angels. Please share them with each other. They lead to the Kingdom of God. The point of this passage to me is that although we cannot see God, God is always nearby. When we love God with all our heart, mind and soul, we begin to see the edge of God’s robe. When we truly listen to the Word of God, we are slowly transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. 

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan

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In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted

place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him.

When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He

answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the

message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” (Mark 1:35-38)

Jesus heals the man with an unclean spirit and then goes out and heals many people. God’s sovereign power is bringing the world to wholeness and the renewal of all creation. Jesus is given the power of God to do the purpose of God so that you and I will believe in God, believe in the gifts given to us by God, and that God might be manifest in the way we live our lives. Jesus went out to the margins of society, respected the dignity of everyone, healed the sick, forgave the penitent, and ate with sinners and outcasts. His words were so revolutionary that they transformed the community. His action of giving up his life on a cross that they might have life was also transformative because it means that we are forgiven and loved by God, even when we mess up. Please come to church, listen to the Gospel, be transformed by the revolutionary words of Jesus Christ, and shine the light of Christ so brightly that it will transform others to the love of God. If we are all made in the image of God and beloved by God, there is no reason to judge others. We are called to become a Beloved Community of God.

Prayer was the foundation of everything Jesus did and prayer is the foundation of everything we do at St. John’s. Our Morning Prayer group meets every weekday at 9:00 am and prays for our friends, neighbors, and for all in need. This week our service times on Sunday are 8:00 am and 10:00 am and we will have our annual meeting after the late service in person only! We will elect one warden and three vestry members. I ask each committee to personally invite new members to join their group. If you are a new member or would like to help out please consider joining our Altar Guild, Thrift Shop, EFM, Racial Reconciliation and Social Justice Ministry, HIHI, ECW, Lay Eucharistic Ministers, Youth Group, Christian Education, Readers, Spirituality Group, Nursery School Steering Committee, Ushers, Lay Eucharistic Visitors, Prayer Shawl Ministry, St. Hilda’s Guild, or one of our other committees. 

This lent we will focus on health, wellbeing, and prayer. There will be Ash Wednesday services at 12 noon and 7:00 pm on February 14th. On February 18th and March 5th, we will have Stations of the Cross in person at 6 pm, Dinner at 6:30 pm and a program on health, wellness, and prayer at 7:00 pm. On Tuesdays from 5:30 pm to 6:00 pm we will join the Spiritual Imagination Center for Meditation and Contemplative Prayer Online. Our time together will include a guided meditation based on an ancient monastic prayer practice, time for intercession, silence, and beautiful ancient chants.

Our Sunday school starts at 9:45 am and we would love to get a few more new families to attend regularly. 1st Communion classes are Wednesdays at 5:00 pm. 1st Communion will be April 7th at the 10:00 am service. Next Week, February 11th is the Super Bowl and our Youth Group is collecting donations to feed the homeless in the Huntington Community. We will cook for the homeless in Huntington on February 13th and 15th. Please join us in the kitchen at 3:00 pm. If you are interested in volunteering for the Thrift shop on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Saturdays, please drop by on one of those days from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm.

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan