Hebrews 4:14-5:10 Do you remember the vision of Jesus Christ thatSt. Johnhad in Revelation 1? I want that image to be seared into your memory forever. Maybe we should all go out and stare at the sun for a few seconds to remind us of who Jesus really is. He is not the baby-faced, Bearded Girly Man Christ of Victorian pictures: He is the visible glory of God the Father. He is the retina-dissolving sun! “And there is no creature... Read more
Hebrews 4:1-13 Having chronic fatigue, I can definitely relate to rest. It makes me tired just to think about it. And yet what a heavenly concept! Unfortunately, we are a culture and a people who can find no rest. Despite having more leisure than most people have had and despite having labor-saving devices, our lives are ones of constant activity. But unlike God, we can’t always find rest by being able to say what we have done with all of... Read more
Hebrews 3 Good day, partakers of Jesus Christ! Partakers, that is, if you hold the beginning of your confidence steadfast to the end and if you do not depart from the living God. But I am persuaded of better things for you. God has called you to be a partaker of Jesus Christ. If you partook of the Holy Communion recently, then you were a partaker of Jesus Christ at that time. But that’s not the only way we are... Read more
Hebrews 2:9-18 Jesus Christ, the God-man, is a mystery, but thankfully a mystery that God Himself has revealed to us. The God who made Himself man for us continues to amaze and mystify us. More importantly, He continues to save us! In Chapter 1, the writer of Hebrews composed a superb description of the supremacy and glory of Christ, who is the brightness of God’s glory – because He is God Himself. As with John’s illumination of Christ in the... Read more
Hebrews 1 Get your hymnals out now, because at the end of this meditation, you ought to feel like singing songs of praise to Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ is God’s Final Word to us (the “last days” actually occurred in the 1st century, according to the writer of Hebrews), who are to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. In the past, God spoke through the prophets, and God’s people were to listen to and obey... Read more
The Anglo-Catholic Spirituality In my last blog I presented the idea that among orthodox Anglicans there are now 4 spiritualities that are presenting problems of diversity for a coherent orthodox Anglican identity: Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical, Charismatic, and Global. There are 2 other, older spiritualities I should mention before I discuss the Anglo-Catholic spirituality. The first is what might be called the High Church or Reformed Catholic spirituality; the second is the old school version of the Evangelical spirituality. While adherents of... Read more
Mark 10:13-16, 23-31 I find it helpful in understanding the love Jesus has for children to remember that I am a child of God. Jesus loves the little children as children, but He especially loves all who come to Him as children, regardless of age. The main point about children and their relationship to Jesus, in the context of Mark 10 and the Feast of the Holy Innocents, is that children are helpless. They were helpless when Herod the Great... Read more
Revelation 1 Who is Jesus Christ? There are many ways in which He has revealed Himself to us, and all of these are important. Sometimes I think the dominant way contemporary Christians see Jesus is as a good friend. He’s kinda just one of the guys, though definitely the leader of the pack. We can almost picture Him in blue jeans, and we’re sure He would never be caught dead wearing vestments! At other times, particularly in contemporary praise choruses,... Read more
Acts 7:59-8:8 How blessed St. Stephen was to be the first Christian martyr, and how blessed the world was by his faithful witness and life! At the end of St. Stephen’s life, it becomes clear that he died like Jesus Christ: speaking the Truth in love, gazing into Heaven, asking the Father to receive His Spirit, and asking that the sins of his murderers be forgiven them. We don’t know much about the life of St. Stephen, but we can... Read more
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January 4 – Hebrews 6:1-12
Hebrews 6:1-12 Once again, the writer of Hebrews gives us a terrible warning about the ultimate sin of apostasy, or turning from God, having once been enlightened. Lest we become too snug and smug in our faith, we must remember the real possibility of our falling away from God. This is not a merely hypothetical possibility: it is the real-life tragedy of countless Christians, or else why would Scripture contain so many warnings against it? And you are not exempt... Read more