Archive for January, 2009

Glory from all eternity

Posted on January 31st, 2009

I’d post this on the Historic Lectionary blog, but I need the Logomaniac to up my permissions (hint hint). St. Ephraem on the Transfiguration: He took them therefore up to the mountain, that He might show them His Kingdom, before they witnessed His suffering and death; and His glory before His ignominy: so that when He was made a prisoner, and condemned by the Jews, they might understnad that He was not crucified by them because of His own powerlessness, but because it had pleased Him of His goodness to suffer, for the salvation of the world. He brought them up to the mountain that He might also show them, before His Resurrection, the glory of His Divinity, so that when He had risen…

Categories: Theology

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Gerry Connolly's no-good, horrible, really bad joke

Posted on January 24th, 2009

Gerry Connolly was the chairman of Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors. Under his leadership, taxes have soared and the county is in deep trouble financially, with a projected $400,000,000 deficit in the new fiscal year. For this, the wise voters of nothern Virginia elected him to congress. There will be a special election on Tuesday, Feb. 3 to elect a new chairman. In this video, Gerry Connolly urges Democrats to lie about the date of the election to Republicans. Is it just a bad joke? Perhaps. But as Connolly makes clear in the continuation of his speech, he wants to make sure that Republican turnout is non-existent. In my book, there’s nothing “democratic” about that.

Categories: Theology

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Meditation on Psalm 17

Posted on January 21st, 2009

Resuming our midweek series on the Psalms at Evening Prayer: “Set a watch before my mouth, O Lord, and guard the door of my lips.” I cannot pray this prayer enough, because I know how my mouth is inclined to wickedness, and my lips to deceit. So it is surprising that tonight’s Psalm, 17, can begin, “Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!” Free of deceit? Hardly. I am an expert at deceiving others, deceiving myself, and imagining I can deceive God. I would be astonished if the same is not true for you.

Categories: Sermons

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And so it begins…

Posted on January 21st, 2009

Barack Hussein Obama’s campaign to destroy human lives has begun. Obama is planning on issuing an order on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade that will use our tax dollars to fund abortions outside of the United States. I know sincere, Christian, educated people that against all reason believed that Bush made no difference on pro-life issues, and Obama didn’t really believe the things he was saying regarding abortion and infanticide. Obama is anti-Christ, yet even those in the Church are cheering him on. How did it come to this? Douglas Johnson of National Right to Life said today, One effect of Obama’s anticipated order will be to divert many millions of dollars away from groups that do not promote abortion, and into the…

Categories: Theology

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If you were Job

Posted on January 21st, 2009

I gave my 7/8 grade Christian Faith class in our parochial school an assignment recently to read the first two chapters of Job and analyze it. The last part of the assignment was to answer this question: “Describe how you might respond in a similar situation [as Job's].” Most of the responses were probably what they thought I wanted to hear: “I would not lose my faith,” etc. Three of the students were more thoughtful, or at least more honest: A) If God took all these things from me and left me in this state I would question him. I would wonder why he would punish me this way. Thinking that the devil had something to do with it. I would not say I…

Categories: Theology

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Just read it from the book!

Posted on January 20th, 2009

Chief Justice Roberts, for whom I have the greatest admiration, botched the oath at the inauguration today. This is why I read the Lord’s Prayer from the book when I’m praying it in public, and why I always read the Verba at Divine Service, despite the fact that I’ve said the words many hundreds of times now. I know that, when put on the spot, I have the capacity to forget anything, including my own name. Thus my liturgical rule #1: Always, always, always read the words from the book.

Categories: Liturgy

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Overheard on NPR

Posted on January 20th, 2009

NPR was just interviewing a school teacher attending the Obama inauguration. Asked what her most important “issue” for the Obama presidency was, she replied: “Education. I’m anxious to see what [Obama] is going to do for education. ‘No Child Left Behind’ wasn’t working, because kids was being left behind.” And she’s the teacher!

Categories: Theology

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The horror

Posted on January 19th, 2009

On the eve of Obama’s inauguration, who takes office as the most anti-life president in history, a deeply tragic look at the evil of child-killing: +++Kyrie eleison+++

Categories: Theology

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Guest post: Epiphany sermon

Posted on January 19th, 2009

My friend, colleague, and elder brother in the faith, Chaplain Jonathan Shaw, often preaches for me when I am away from Immanuel. Here is his sermon for Epiphany:   Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Our text is the Epiphany Holy Gospel.  “Thus it is written by the prophet: But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.”  So far the text.

Categories: Sermons

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