Who is our master?

"How could one possibly support the Labour Party and be a Christian?" And that's a fair enough question, as one can ask the same question about the American Republicans and Democrats. What about Likud? The NDP? The Liberty Korea Party? The Nippon Ishin no Kai? The Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela? The Movimento Cinque Stelle?…

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The First Sunday After Easter, 2019

Lectionary: Acts 5:27-32; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31 St. Thomas the Apostle is a rather curious character. We only have recordings of his speech in the Gospel of John, and his very first words are delightfully laconic. After the news of Lazarus’ death reaches Christ and the Apostles, the Apostles are reluctant to return to Judea…

The Fifth Sunday in Lent, 2019

Lectionary: Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:4-14; John 12:1-8 Our Gospel reading today can be challenging, especially for us of the Church of Canada, because it resolutely refuses our general tendency to reduce the Christian faith into the language of ethics. The Christian must feed, clothe, and shelter the poor, and that this is a duty for…

In Nature Indifferent and Alterable: The Prayer Book, Missals, and Uniformity

"XXXIV. Of the Traditions of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one, and utterly like; for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversities of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word. Whosoever through…

The Early Christological Controversies: 1.1 Leading up to Nicaea

'Now at Lystra there was a man sitting, who could not use his feet; he was a cripple from birth, who had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking; and Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he…

And so we have become liturgical capitalists

The term "neoliberal" is notoriously tricky to work with because of both its varied use and the way it is now mired and often compromised in its polemical use in contemporary political debate (not unlike how the term "fascist" is thrown around perhaps a little too liberally to describe any kind of authoritarianism). Nevertheless, it…

Praying for the Dead

Today was All Souls' Day, which in the Western tradition has been the day of commemoration for all the departed. Although the great triduum of Allhallowtide has almost entirely collapsed with only the remnant of Halloween surviving, a very complicated adaptation of this continues in the Latin American holiday(s) of Día de los Muertos. I…

The Early Christological Controversies: Introduction

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we…

The Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity, 2018

An upbuilding discourse that was said on August 26th, 2018. A contribution to a summer sermon series that was being done at my parish. Lectionary: 1 King 8:22-30, 41-43; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69 As we come to the end of the “No Longer Strangers” series, I would like us to look back at where this…

The First Sunday in Lent, 2018

On February 18th, I spoke from the pulpit at all the services at my parish. The text I prepared for the occasion is reproduced below. Lectionary: Genesis 9:8-17; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15 Good morning, It is a privilege to stand before you today on the First Sunday of Lent. I would like to begin by…