Ancient Faith for Modern Times: Weekly sermons, thoughtful articles, and pastoral prayer rooted in Scripture and the historic Christian faith. Questions and prayer requests welcome.
Husband. Father. Pastor.
Get Behind Me: Matthew 16:21-27. Peter confessed the right Christ and still tried to correct him. He wanted the Kingdom without the cross. Jesus said: “Get behind me.” The disciple’s place is behind Jesus, not in front of him setting the direction. The road is cross-shaped, but the destination is glory.
Sermon: August 24: Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle. Before Philip called you, I saw you. Nathanael discovered that Christ knew him before he came to Christ. That is where faith begins: not with our achievement, but with grace. Come and see. Believe. Serve.
1 Corinthians 4:13: "We have become the scum of the world, the refuse of all things." Paul is describing the apostolic life. The collect for Bartholomew asks the Church to love what he believed and preach what he taught. August 24 names the cost.
“The Confession of the Church” Matthew 16:13–20. The disciples had seen the works of Jesus. Peter confessed who Jesus is. And Jesus said the Father had revealed it. Evidence matters. But the confession of Christ is ultimately a gift of grace.
“Lord, Save Me.” Matthew 14:22–33. The disciples row through the night in a storm. Jesus comes to them walking on the water. Peter steps out of the boat. He sinks. The hand reaches immediately. And for the first time, the disciples worship: Truly you are the Son of God.
Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Transfiguration. On a mountain in Galilee, the face of Jesus shone like the sun. Moses and Elijah appeared. A voice spoke from the cloud. The same Jesus who healed the sick and bore the cross blazed with the glory that was always his.
August 6: the Feast of the Transfiguration. The collect asks not for strength to bear the cross but to behold the King in his beauty, delivered from the disquietude of this world. The Season after Pentecost is long. The mountain appears in the middle of it. Rise, and have no fear.
“He Had Compassion.” Matthew 14:13–21. The miracle begins not with abundance but with grief, and not with Jesus at his most capable but at his most human. He sought the desolate place because he needed to grieve. The crowd followed. He stepped ashore and had compassion. The desolate place became, for an evening, a table in the wilderness. The arithmetic changes entirely depending on who is holding the bread.
Sermon: Are You Able? The Feast of James, Apostle (Matthew 20:20-28) July 25. Jesus asked: are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? James and John answered: we are able. Jesus said: you will drink my cup. Acts 12:2 records the fulfillment in a subordinate clause. He did not flinch.
Article: The Feast of James the Apostle: An Anglican Perspective: July 25: Saint James. First among the Twelve to be martyred. Acts 12:2 gives him two verses. The man who was at the Transfiguration, who slept in Gethsemane, who asked for the seat of honor — gone in a subordinate clause. This is what drinking the cup looks like.
Sermon: 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".
July 22: Mary Magdalene. The risen Lord’s first word to any person on Easter morning is a name. He says ‘Mary.’ She recognizes him by her name spoken. The first Easter proclamation follows: I have seen the Lord. Four words spoken first by a woman who had been healed and refused to leave.
The wheat and the tares. Let both grow until the harvest. The patience God requires is not indifference to evil; it is the refusal to execute a judgment that belongs to the Son of Man alone. Creation groans. The righteous wait. The harvest is certain.
Isaiah 55:11: "My word shall not return to me empty." Matthew 13 shows most seed producing nothing. But the word accomplishes God’s purpose even when it does not visibly bear fruit in every hearer. In the good soil, it exceeds every expectation.
Matthew 11:29: take my yoke upon you. The yoke is not effortless but good, kind, well-fitting, shaped for the one who wears it. The burden of Christ is light not because following costs nothing but because he carries it alongside us.
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 falls in the Season after Pentecost, in the week of Proper 8. It arrives the day after the Sunday on which the lectionary appoints Matthew 10:34–42, the end of the commissioning discourse, the cost of following Jesus, the cup of cold water given in his name. Peter and Paul are the New Testament's two supreme exemplars of that commissioning: one who was sent to the circumcised, one to the uncircumcised, one who denied and was restored, one who persecuted and was arrested by grace. Together they do not merely illustrate the apostolic calling. They define it in its full range.
Not peace but a sword. Take up your cross. Lose your life to find it. And then: a cup of cold water. Nine verses; the full arc of discipleship.
Three times in six verses Jesus says do not be afraid, and each fear-not comes with a reason. The truth will be revealed. God alone holds eternity. And the Father who numbers the hairs of your head has not lost track of you. The theology of Christian courage.
