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.
The Pharisees had the sacrifices exactly right. They’d lost the "hesed". Jesus quotes Hosea to the Bible scholars: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ Without the inner reality, the outward form is a morning cloud — gone before noon. This is where the Season after Pentecost begins.
The Trinity is not primarily a doctrine to master — it is a God to worship. On Trinity Sunday we look past the acts of salvation to the one who performed them. We have been receiving his gifts all season. Today we behold the giver.
Before Jesus was born, his presence was already causing joy. John leapt in the womb. Elizabeth prophesied. Mary sang the Magnificat. The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth is the gospel's first proclamation — and one of the church's most overlooked feasts.
The Season after Pentecost begins tomorrow. Twenty-six Sundays of Proper 5 through Christ the King lie ahead, beginning June 7. The Ember Day gift is this: we begin having seen the King on the throne, having had the coal touch our lips, having said ‘here I am, send me’ before the first Sunday arrives.
Christ gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers not to do the ministry for the congregation but ‘to equip the saints for the work of ministry.’ Ember Days: we pray for those being equipped, and we ask how faithfully we are doing the equipping ourselves.
Trinity Sunday stands alone among the church's great feasts — no event to commemorate, just the eternal mystery of who God is: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One God in three persons, the foundation of everything we believe and everyone we're called to be.
Moses saw two men prophesying outside the structure and said: would that all the Lord’s people were prophets. That prayer was answered at Pentecost. Now the question is whether the Church will steward the outpouring faithfully. The fields are white. The laborers are few.
Four times a year, the Anglican calendar sets aside three days for fasting, prayer, and intercession for the Church's ministry. Most Anglicans have never heard of them. Here's what Ember Days are, when they fall, and how to observe them.
This Memorial Day, we explore the heart of the Gospel through John 15: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” We honor those who served and gave their lives while fixing our eyes on Christ, the true Keeper and the Lamb who shepherds the multitude.
Mary Magdalene wept alone in a garden on Easter morning. By Pentecost she is gathered with the 120 in prayer, then stands with the whole community as the Spirit is poured out on all flesh — and three thousand more are added that same day. The arc of Easter does not end with a private encounter. It ends with a community sent.
Today is Pentecost Sunday — one of the seven Principal Feasts of the Anglican year. The Spirit comes with wind and fire. Three thousand are baptized. The Church is born. The mission begins. And every year the collect asks: pour out this gift anew.
Jesus doesn't pray for his people to be taken out of the world. He prays for them to be kept in his name and sent into it. The new creation is underway and we are part of it through kingdom work — and he is still praying for us at the right hand of the Father.
The ascended Christ is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion — not eventually, but now. Every power that frightens us, every force that seems to govern the world: he is above all of it. This Thursday.
The Feast of the Ascension celebrates not the disappearance of Jesus, but his exaltation — and not his distance from us, but the new and greater intimacy of his priestly presence before the Father on our behalf. The Feast Day still presses its claims on us today.
Jesus doesn't say try harder. He says abide. Stay connected. The branch produces fruit not by effort but by remaining on the vine. Apart from him we can do nothing. Abide in him, and your joy will be full. The fruit comes in its season.
Good Shepherd Sunday invites us to behold Jesus as the loving, sacrificial Shepherd who knows us by name and lays down His life for the sheep. Exploring John 10, Psalm 23, Anglican liturgy, and the call to follow Him, this reflection offers encouragement for every believer this Easter season.
In a world that hides dependence behind supply chains and packaged goods, Rogation Sunday does something quietly subversive: takes us outside, sets us on our feet, and teaches us to ask — holding out empty hands to the Lord of heaven and earth. Ancient faith for modern times.
Thomas asked for directions. Jesus gave him a person. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." One way — exclusive in that there is only one, but wide open to anyone who enters. The way is not a map. The way is Jesus himself.
Jesus doesn't say “I am a gate” — he says “I am the gate”. One narrow way in, open wide to anyone who enters through it. The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy. The Shepherd laid down his life so the gate could open and brings abundant life. Enter by him, and find pasture.
Two disciples walked away from Jerusalem — grieving, confused, hopes collapsed into past tense. Jesus drew near before they knew who he was, opened the Scriptures, broke the bread, and their eyes were opened. The road to Emmaus did not end in that village.
