Ash Wednesday 2022

 

Lent's begun and with it a confrontation with reality, Remember O man that thou art dust to dust thou shall return. And with that we're knocked firmly back onto the first rung of the ascent to holiness, humility and repentance. After all, the most exalted of human endeavor is dust and ashes before the perfection of God.

So we cry out, heartrended, have mercy on me a sinner and depart from me for I am a sinful man and Christ in his turn, lifts us up upon the Cross to the Father. Consummatum Est, it is finished. Dust and death, judgement, turns to mercy and redemption won by our Lord's sacrifice on Calvary. 

In union with that we find life, and ashes turn to glory.

God bless you all,

LSP

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Feast of the Ascension

It's the great, and all too sadly ignored, Feast of the Ascension today in which we celebrate the ascent of Christ into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father as our eternal mediator and High Priest. 

Austin Farrer reflects on this upwards movement:

WE are told in an Old Testament tale, how an angel of God having appeared to man disappeared again by going up in the flame from the altar. And in the same way Elijah, when he could no more be found, was believed to have gone up on the crests of flaming horses. The flame which carried Christ to heaven was the flame of his own sacrifice. Flame tends always upwards. All his life long Christ's love burnt towards the heart of heaven in a bright fire, until he was wholly consumed in it, and went up in that fire to God. The fire is kindled on our altars, here Christ ascends in fire; the fire is kindled in the Christian heart, and we ascend. He says to us, Lift up your hearts; and we reply, We lift them up unto the Lord.

And here's today's Collect:

GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

God bless,

LSP

Good Friday

Consummatum Est

ALMIGHTY God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified; Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before thee for all estates of men in thy holy Church, that every member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may truly and godly serve thee; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

MERCIFUL God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou hast made, nor desirest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; Have mercy upon all who know thee not as thou art revealed in the Gospel of thy Son. Take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy fold, that they may be made one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

God bless,

LSP

Cleansing The Temple

I preached this morning on Our Lord throwing the money changers and animal sellers out of the Temple. And I managed to include the words "bag limit," "Polled Herefords," and "cattle brokers" into the sermon. 

Random Money Changer

The Baylor faculty got a look-in, too. "If the Baylor Faculty were to sin, heaven forfend," I declaimed, "They could buy the finest bull from Mr.***** here, and kill it. But what difference would it make? None at all. It would be, at best, a symbol."

The homily was on atonement and sacrifice, obviously.

God bless,

LSP