Today the Church celebrates James the Elder, Apostle.
O gracious God, your servant and apostle James was first among the Twelve to suffer martyrdom for the Name of Jesus Christ: Pour out upon the leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying service, by which they may have true authority among your people; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Art: Calling of Saint James and Saint John, James Tissot 1886-1894
Today at St. George’s Anglican Church Pastor Shane reminded us that pride is the source of judgmentalism, and that ultimately, no one has any cause to compare themselves to others.
All pride in ourselves is ultimatley misplaced, because we all miss the mark when it comes to what’s most important: eternal life now and forever.
God pours out his mercy on all, and that’s all that matters.
Hope for the renewal of all things in and because of Jesus is what keeps me going when I consider and experience the suffering of the world. I’ve also found light in the ways that ultimate renewal manifests in the present–in true worship, in acts of kindness between strangers, in the refusal to receive the injustices of the world as the status quo.
Christian brothers and sisters, Prayer for the world is an essential aspect of our vocation.
We must stand firm in prayer always, and especially in this terrible moment for our human family that is unfolding in Ukraine.
Let us pray:
Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but
the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength
of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples
may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace; to
whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
Almighty God, from whom all thoughts of truth and peace
proceed: Kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all people the true love
of peace, and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom those
who take counsel for the nations of the earth; that in tranquility
your kingdom may go forward, till the earth is filled with the
knowledge of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
O God, the Creator of all, whose Son commanded us to love
our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth; deliver
them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good
time enable us all to stand reconciled before you in Jesus Christ;
in whose Name we pray. Amen.
Prayers from BCP2019 p. 654-655
It’s the Third Day of Christmas. We remember St. John the Theologian.
He wrote:
“…the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, ESV)
This is an indispensable part of the Good News: God delights in humanity! Why else would he become one?
God doesn’t become something he doesn’t love.
And—get this—God delights in you!
We are told in the Scriptures that—by the Spirit—the Word of God dwells in all who will receive him, which is our guarantee of eternal life.
God doesn’t dwell where he doesn’t want to be.
“Shed upon your Church, O Lord, the brightness of your light; that we, being illumined by the teaching of your apostle and evangelist John, may so walk in the light of your truth, that at length we may attain to the fullness of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
Promise & presence. Light & life. This is Christmas.
Photo: www.blessedmart.com/shop/hand…
What makes a good king different from a bad king is the kind of power used and the way that power is used.
The thing that destines every king to fail is the unavoidable—and for every worldly king at some point irresistible—temptation to use their power to benefit themselves at the expense of others.
Devotional writer Jane Williams says,
“…what Jesus is offering as a description of his own kingship is truth—reality, you might say. Revelation calls it ‘the Alpha and Omega, who was and is and is to come’. If the actual reality of the world, from its creation to its end, is like Jesus, then this strange human obsession with power is an aberration. It has no ability to create, to redeem or to sanctify. Jesus’s challenge to Pilate’s kind of power is too slow and subtle for many of us, who long to use the weapons of worldly power to force victory for God. But if Jesus is the truth, then any other way is falsehood, and will fail. Reality, as it was and is and is to come, is shaped by a different kingship.”
Jesus lives as King over a kingdom that is certainly powerful, but he draws on a power not from this fallen world.
Jesus rules and reigns and fights battles in this world through the power of self-giving love and truth, which can only come from God himself.
His Kingdom is fundamentally spiritual in that it is conceived, birthed, and animated by the Spirit of Love who is God the Holy Spirit, but it is not merely spiritual because this Spirit takes up residence in his subjects, his followers, for the sake of the world.
“Deconstruction” is the topic du jour in the Christian social media space right now. It’s the recognition that many former “evangelicals” America–especially younger ones, and in large numbers–are rapidly rejecting parts of their evangelical faith and culture.
As someone who has had my own unique deconstruction journey (and in many ways continue that journey to this day) I want to say to those currently in the process:
I see you, and you are not alone, as disorienting, scary, painful, and disturbing as the process can be
I know you are probably in this for good reasons. We all have certain beliefs and values that need to be deconstructed and some that need to be outright rejected
To the extent you are deconstructing beliefs and values that do not align with the Jesus presented in the Gospel and witnessed to by the church catholic, you are on the right track
There is room within the Christian family for those who doubt, question, and explore
You are loved by Jesus. He is secure enough to welcome your questions, and close enough bear your uncertainty, and kind enough meet you where you are in this moment
No matter how much you feel like you are falling apart, there is hope and a path for “reconstruction” and most of all Resurrection because (see #5)
I’ll say it again, you are not alone.
Watched the Disney version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe last night with the kids. Haven’t seen it since it released in theaters. Haven’t read the book since just before that.
It’s far from perfect and the vfx are dated, but I still found it moving.
There’s no doubt for me–after this latest revisit to Narnia–that Lewis set the stage for me to be an Anglican, to recieve a patristic understanding of the atonement, to find echoes of Christ in all the great myths, to understand the Gospel as world-changing and beautiful and mysterious and tangible.
I think what was so moving for me this time around was a sense of gratitude for this childhood mentor that I never met and died before I was born, and still yet seems be a present friend.
We can have courage to confess our sins, because God in Christ in Christ gives us assurance of forgiveness.
It’s encouraging to see there are gestures in America toward a renewed humility in the so-called “prophetic” movement.
This idolotrous, nationalist strain of the charismatic world is essentially the same thing as what we see corrupting evangelicalism.
Both claim divine revelation in their effort to legitimize a “power-and-profit by whatever means necessary” mentality.
For charismatics, it’s a supposedly direct “word” asserted with unjustified confidence and unfounded authority; for evangelicals it’s a conveniently malleable set of “biblical principles.”
Both are false teachings with soul-poisoning consequences, because both are divorced from Jesus as the Supreme Revelation of God in the Gospels.
Both demand a very different kind of life than our Lord taught us to live, namely a life enslaved to fear instead of liberated, quiet confidence.
One of my profound regrets as a pastor and just as a Christian brother is not clearly and boldly doing constant ground work to address these destructive trends much earlier in the communities I am a part of.
I knew they were problems “out there”; I simply (and naively) didn’t imagine they would take root (or had already become embedded) among people I know and love.
I pray for grace and wisdom, true prophetic insight and evangelical zeal to follow the Spirit of the Lord and witness faithfully to the fullness of God in Christ, given for the world.
