St. Aidan's Anglican Church, Kansas City - Weekly Talks

During this 3rd Resurrection appearance (John 21), Peter is confronted with his limitations. Jesus accepts Peter's honest assessment of his own capacity to love, phileo (familial love) rather than agape (selfless love). Through Peter's failure, denying his Lord three times, and confessing his limited capacity to love, he is entrusted with Shepherding the flock of Jesus. Jesus transforms us through our failures. Image by Seiger Koder

This morning we have followed some of Jesus’ disciples to an upper room. There’s a deep sense of emptiness. They are still perplexed by the empty tomb, and now, as the night closes in, they are gathered in an empty room. The room is full of failure and fear. Rightly so, for Rome’s most effective tool for keeping order throughout the empire has been exercised on their Master. Despite the locked doors, the failures and the fears, Jesus breaks through. God’s grace expressed now in Jesus raised from the dead, can break through our fear and failures. “Peace be with you.” The Gospel is in the person of the crucified and risen Lord. By this one word, Peace, Jesus is announcing that the cosmic war is over. How is this peace given and received? “He showed them his hands and side.” His scars are the results of a darkened, sin sick world. The author of life came and we killed him. He took all that we could sling at him, Jew and Gentile … the horrors of Rome’s most intimidating instrument … hanging naked on a c

According to the ancient Passover structure, Jesus would have ended his last Passover meal on Maundy Thursday with chanting Psalm 118, today's responsorial Psalm. But is there a biblical allusion to this? Both Matthew and Mark's account of the Last Supper end with a delightful line, "And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives" (Matt 26:30; Mark 14:26). I love the image of Jesus singing, most likely chanting, this magnificent Psalm. The Psalm describes a day in which the Lord has acted (v. 24), we will rejoice and be glad in it." What day is the Psalm describing? This Psalm describes a mysterious event in which a great deliverance from death occurs (vv 14 - 21). The next verse, "The same stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone" ... is used throughout the NT as referring to Christ (vv 22 - 26). How does Christ, the rejected Stone in the quarry, become the Chief Cornerstone? By his birth, faithful life, death, resurrection and ascension. Our Eucharistic li

Fr. David poses the question, what's so good about Good Friday?

Passion Sunday: The Triumphal Entry -- Today we enter the holy city with Jesus and his disciples. We are coming to Holy Week. Given the events of Good Friday, the death of Jesus, why is today called the triumphal entry? Why did Jesus choose to voluntarily consent to suffer such psychological and physical torture at the hands of his enemies? C.S. Lewis says that he came as a weak, unassuming baby, voluntarily emptying himself of attributes of divinity (Phil 2 reading today)because he was being snuck behind enemy lines, into a dysfunctional, fallen world. And, therefore, as he began to emerge, he attracted opposition. We see the climax of this opposition to God’s covert operation in the Passion narrative. In reflecting on the success of this operation, God’s mission to redeem and restore fallen creation in the person of Jesus, Paul says that “we speak a wisdom (in Christ crucified), a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood

Today we reflect on Philippians 3:7-14. We hear through Paul’s expressed personal passion, the core of the Gospel, the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord. Paul is like a passionate coach, before a make-it or break-it game, attempting to instruct and inspire his team with an inexhaustible passion and value for the game in which they’re about to play. Paul’s chief aim is to impart to us the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ. He begins with his own story of moving from self-righteousness to Christ's righteousness: 1. JESUS SURPASSES EVERYTHING (a) Paul counts everything as loss for the sake of Christ (v. 7). There’s nothing more worthy in Paul’s life than Jesus Christ. (b) He counts everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus (8a). To know Christ is a journey of faith in which he becomes our intimate companion. Paul is writing in Greek but thinking in Hebrew … see Gen 4:1 Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived .... This is a knowing by experien

The Faith handed down to us by the apostles is not merely a set of beliefs, doctrines and propositions on which to sign off, but an integration of apostolic teachings expressing itself in a wide spectrum of holy practices as demonstrated throughout the NT writings. St. Paul concludes that nothing really matters in this life except “faith working (expressing itself) through love” (Gal 5:6). I believe this expression is both vertical and horizontal … as the great commandment prescribes, to love God with all and to love one's neighbor as oneself. To love others as oneself requires self-reflection, self-care and personal sacrifice (laying down our lives for one another). Jesus warns against ascetical frippery, to be impressive with one's spirituality; rather, Jesus lays out three holy practices, giving to the poor, fasting and prayer (Matt. 6:1-18), to be executed in a worshipful spirit before an audience of one, whether in private or corporate prayer and fasting. I want to submit to us that the phrase “pr

"Christianity should be seen not just as a set of beliefs, but as a set of practices," says Fr. Stephen Freeman. This is a paradigm shift for many. The Eucharist is one such practice, instituted some 15 years before any New Testament Scriptures were written … “Do this” in remembrance of me … an ancient practice central to Christian worship. Today’s Gospel addresses three holy practices in Matthew 6: Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen, ascetical frippery, summons us to a sincere practice of righteousness ... before an audience of One. 1. Generosity towards the poor Acts 10:1-4 Cornelius … The eyes of the Lord are upon this Gentile man for his devotion to prayer and alms to the poor. 2. Prayer 3. Fasting These three holy practices are foundational for the People of God. In the following talks, we'll explore these and other holy practices which unite faith and practice in our lives.

Jesus is retracing the roots of our fallen humanity by recapitulating both Adam and Eve’s interaction with the Serpent and Israel’s initial failure in the wilderness. This is part of why God became a human being … to experience life in a dark, broken world; as a real human being, to experience all the trials and temptations common to us, yet without sinning. To enter the desert to begin his life-long mission of overcoming and undoing the original temptation of Adam and Eve. Being tempted is an essential part of Jesus being a human being, a part of his downward journey into fellowship with us, into the depths of our need. His temptations do not end in the desert. The same three questions continue to resurface as fundamental considerations we all face in life. Thus, the sum total of Jesus’ temptations help us see the nature of his mission, a struggle we all share to align ourselves in communion with God, to be in the world but not of it. The way in which he handles his temptations show us the way to be human,

Lent, forty days of following Christ into the desert, is a means of drawing closer to God in preparation for Easter, the Resurrection of the Son of God. The call to the desert prompts us to carve out periods of time within the daily routines to attend to the condition of one’s deep heart. Lent is the Holy Spirit’s call to the universal Church to experience a desert-like time without thus having to abandon daily activities. For example, during commute times, turn off the radio, music, news, audio books, etc., and prayerfully retreat into the silence. This is part one of a four part series on Christ's journey into the Desert and how we follow him there together.

The story of the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain provides a vision of transformation, as we enter Lent this week. Peter, James and John caught a glimpse of the Kingdom of God, with the Transfigured Christ conversing with Moses and Elijah about his Exodus soon to be fulfilled. His Exodus has brought all of humanity from death into life. The promise of his presence remains until the end of the age. Then his sons and daughters will shine like the radiance of the sun in the Kingdom of the Father! Let us pray and listen to the Son.

A day in the life of Messiah: In the synagogue, Jesus stands up to read his mission statement, the congregation tries to hurl him off a cliff (Luke 4:14-30)! This is one response to the voice of Jesus. What's ours? We explore how God's voice still speaks from heaven (Heb. 12) in the liturgy of Word and Sacrament. The condition of the heart determines our response or lack thereof. For those who are attentive, hungry and open, the Word within the word is received. God loves us too much to be satisfied with leftovers. He longs for all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Our vocation, then, is to surrender all, to tear down the walls that divide our heart up into little closets and thus, provide a Great Room, an expansive heart, for his dwelling. Michael+

Today we reflect on Christ, the fulfillment of Israel’s Anointed One, proclaiming his mission statement from Isaiah 61 (Luke 4:18f). The Lectionary’s parallel OT passage, Nehemiah 8, provides an insight into discovering one’s identity and purpose in Christ. It is found in the story of the People of God according to the Scriptures. Both Ezra and Jesus stand up to read the Scriptures to the People of God who, in both epochs, had lost their way, forgetting their unique identity and vocation to be a light to the world. Jesus embodies this vocation and continues it, as he sends his many-membered Body, his Church, to be “moved with compassion”, to Christify the world.

The whole of creation is invited to a great wedding banquet. As we visit the Wedding at Cana, along with Jesus, Mary and a handful of disciples we discover that a much greater story is unfolding. "To live this celebration the waters of our humanity have to be transformed into the new wine of divine love." "Jesus came to renew all things, to change our broken humanity into a new unity as he changed the water into wine. He brings his disciples to a wedding feast to reveal to them and each of us the deepest thirst in us: our desire and need to love and be loved." John Vanier

At his baptism, Jesus provides a pattern for all who seek to follow him. Water baptism is the most primal of the sacraments. Drawing from the first creation account, it communicates a new creation in play. Genesis 1:1 describes an initial earth, formless and empty, with darkness over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light” and so forth. Our life begins in water and slides out into this noisy world very wet. Newborns are approximately 75% water. In the OT, water is the image of both chaos and life; Jesus uses water to describe being born from above, speaking to Nicodemus. Referring to baptism, Jesus tells Nicodemus that no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Jesus is drawing from the first creation story. He’s saying that plunging into the waters effects union with him in his death and coming up out of the waters effects union with him in his resurrection. Those who obey the command to be bap

In the visit of the Magi, outsiders worship while insiders conspire to eliminate the One True King. Fr. Michael offers a contemplation on what this visitation means for us today.

We reflect on the Virgin's Mary's response to the Angel as a paradigm for all who come to life in Christ. The conception of Christ, the Incarnation, becomes our missional pattern. St. Paul tells the Galatians that he is in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in them. The life of Christ dwells within the imperishable seed (Gk. Sperma) of the Gospel. The whole mission of Christ was to make disciples; likewise, Mary and Joseph would be responsible for raising and forming the humanity of Jesus. He would live an obscure life until age 30, beginning with his baptism in the river Jordan. Today's Gospel text draws us into the great Theo-Drama, from creation to new creation in Christ.

Fr. Les Barker shares from Philippians 4, the foundations of joy in Jesus Christ.

Liz Flowers, on the Feast Day of St. Nicholas, shares highlights of his life and the impact he's had on the world. Nicholas was present at the Council of Nicaea, 325 AD. Apart from the Virgin Mary, he is the patron saint of more churches than any other saint. His life of generosity continues to inspire us to love and good deeds. St. Aidan's is responding to the Gospel of Jubilee, the year of the Lord's favor, the season of grace between the first and final Advent of Jesus Christ. Lord, may be reflect the amazing generosity of the Father in sending his only begotten Son to reconciles us back to you. Thank you! Amen.

Fr. David explores the tension between the first and final coming of Christ into the world. Unless he reaches our hearts in his first coming, we cannot long for his final coming. Come, Lord Jesus.