Ancient Anglican

Luke is the only Gospel that gives us the background of John the Baptist. In the other gospels, we first meet John beside the Jordan River. Here, Luke begins with his parents, Zechariah, a priest, and his wife Elizabeth.

Next Tuesday, we will begin our walk through Luke’s Gospel starting with the introduction and nativity of John the Baptist in Luke 1 and ending with the Resurrection and Ascension in Luke 24 and Acts 1. All you will need during our journey is a Bible.

Christ’s Kingdom is not simply about where we go when we die, but his Kingdom is about where we go now when we are still very much alive. Christ’s Kingdom is not somewhere out there, but it is right here with us and within us, right now.

Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise in Isaiah to bring all people into his restored holy city of the New Jerusalem.

In Luke, Jesus begins his ministry by reading from Isaiah 61:1-2. Throughout his Gospel, Luke will use the themes of these prophecies found in the last section of Isaiah (Isaiah 56-66) to tell us who Jesus is.

Tonight as we assembling Christmas stockings for children in Western North Carolina. Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

Instead of a formal lesson this evening, I have invited Bradley Hardee, the choir director at Kingston Presbyterian in Conway, to lead us in a hymn-sing after dinner tonight.

Paul’s manner of addressing Philemon gives us a good example of how to speak truth in love and with maturity to each other. Eph. 4:15. Paul addresses Philemon as an equal, with respect, and reminds Philemon who he is in Christ Jesus.

Living Christianity makes people more human, not less. No Christian should grumble at the extra demands of love. They are golden opportunities to draw on the reserve of divine love, and in so doing become more fully oneself in Christ, more completely in the image of God, more authentically human.

Paul ends his letter by reminding the Ephesians of our eternal, spiritual, incorruptible, immortal, death-defeating, teleological end. As the letter begins with God’s plan which was set forth from the beginning that all things would be united in Christ, so Paul ends this letter with this same teaching that death is defeated and God will be all in all.

The church’s military engagement with the powers and principalities of the heavenly realm is not about advancing or attacking but of standing firm and holding one’s ground. Christ is the one who wins the battle and the church militant is to hold those gains.

In the three examples of household relationships, Paul always addresses both parties to that relationship. In addressing the traditionally subservient party, Paul gives them a share in the responsibility to maintain the good order of the household. In addressing the traditionally dominate party, Paul gives him reciprocal obligations.