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.
The Transfiguration therefore gives the Church something she needs in every season: not an escape from ordinary life, but a clearer sight of the Lord who stands at its center. The green weeks continue, the Church descends again into ordinary discipleship, and the world remains disquieted.
“He Had Compassion.” Matthew 14:13–21. Jesus withdraws to grieve John’s death and the crowd follows on foot. Compassion moves before will does. Five loaves, two fish, five thousand fed. The only miracle in all four Gospels.
Proper 12. Five Kingdom parables. The mustard seed, the leaven, the hidden treasure, the pearl, the dragnet. The first two show how the Kingdom works: in hiddenness, from small beginnings. The middle two show what it is worth: everything. The last one shows what happens at the end.
The calling already contained the cup. When Jesus said, “Follow me,” beside the Sea of Galilee, he was not offering James a safe career. He was calling James into his own path. The boat, the Transfiguration, Gethsemane, the correction, the service, and Herod’s sword belong to one discipleship.
James’s life gives the Collect a particularly sharp edge. The man associated in Matthew 20 with the desire for a place beside the throne is remembered liturgically as a model through whom the Church learns that authority becomes true authority only when it is shaped by self-denying service.
Feast of Mary Magdalene, July 22. She came to the tomb in the dark, wept, asked where the body had been taken. Then Jesus spoke one word: Mary. The risen Lord’s first word on Easter morning was a proper name. She recognized him. And she said: "I have seen the Lord".