Husband, father, and Anglican priest living in the North Georgia Mountains. Sermons, reflections, and articles promoting the "Ancient Faith for Modern Times". Subscribe below to get the latest posts in your inbox.
July 4. The BCP appoints Matthew 5:43–48 as the Gospel: love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, be perfect as your Father is perfect. The Church reads the hardest text in the Sermon on the Mount on Independence Day. The collect asks we exercise our liberties in righteousness and peace.
June 29: Peter and Paul. On the shore of Tiberias, Jesus asks Peter three times: do you love me? The same number he denied. Each question overrides a denial. Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep. And then: follow me. This is what restoration looks like.
June 29: Peter and Paul. One who denied and was restored. One who persecuted and was arrested by grace. They argued in Antioch. They were martyred in Rome. The Church has never thought it necessary to choose between them. That is what the joint feast says.
Proper 8. The cross-bearing of verses 37–39 is our calling as little ones. A cup of water given because a person belongs to Christ will by no means lose its reward. A double negative in the Greek: absolutely not, under any circumstances. No act of faithful service is forgotten.
June 24: the Nativity of John the Baptist. One of only two births celebrated in the Anglican calendar, the other being Christmas. The Church does not observe birthdays generally. That it has kept June 24 since the fourth century says everything about John’s place in salvation history.
June 24: the Nativity of John the Baptist, one of only two birthdays in the Church calendar. Born as the days shorten; Christ born as they lengthen. He must increase, I must decrease. Even the sun preaches John’s sermon.