News

As you will recall, my friend, Paul Vaughn had been scheduled for a hearing on January 10 following his arrest for his pro-life activities at an abortion clinic. As was perhaps expected, the date for the hearing was pushed. Less expected (by me, anyway) is that the hearing was pushed out by a year. The new date is January 16, 2024! So on the legal front, Paul and his family will wait in some sort of limbo for the next 12 months before it is known what reprisal there may be.

We may rightly lament the injustice and Paul’s right to a speedy trial that is not being particularly well observed, but in the providence of God, this may allow for some action in some other places. Paul was contacted by the House Judiciary Committee, asking about his availability for a phone call as they investigate the DOJ’s enforcement of the FACE act.

While Paul was actively looking to stay out of legal trouble, now that it is upon him, Paul has said, “not my will, but yours, Lord.” He asks that we pray for God’s leading and direction regarding this call and further proceedings with the House Committee.

And so, as we rightly celebrate the overturning of Roe v. Wade, let us continue to pray for the ongoing pro-life battle, and those who are on the front-lines. God has clearly provided the opportunity for Paul to testify for life, and he will surely provide for Paul and his family as they walk through this situation. And may glory be to God whatever the outcome!

Here at St. Mark, we are celebrating the miracle of new life that God brings to our midst with the safe arrival of Cohen James Bryant, and Thea June Carman.

God is so good to our congregation and our mothers and fathers for the gift of these precious little ones. We love little children, and that is why I often say we are pro-life in more ways than one. For while we oppose the taking of unborn life, we also support our mothers, pray for them, encourage them, and love them. To be fully pro-life is to love these precious little lives, to bring them to the waters of baptism, to bring them to the Lord’s table to be nourished with Christ’s body and blood, to instruct them in the ways of the faith, and to pray for them as they grow, that they may one day also be warriors for life.

As we now begin to see the lives of these little ones, and as they grow in the faith, look to them to be instructed in your own faith (even as we already do with all the little ones around us now). Remember Matthew 18: “Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, ‘assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.’”

The holidays have come to an end, the decorations are coming down, the diets are… well, maybe not back on track, but many of us feel the urgent need to get back to some, let’s say, simpler foods. Perhaps new resolutions have been made for the year, and it may be that you’re feeling a little down, what with all the fun and excitement in the rear-view mirror.

But be encouraged! Christmastide culminated in Epiphany on January 6^th, which we celebrate today. But what is Epiphany? It is the celebration of Christ revealed to the Gentiles in the visit of the Magi. Isaiah makes reference to this in chapter 60:2–3:

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the Lord will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.

This is the glory of the coming of Christ. For, from the Jews comes the salvation of all people, Jew and Gentile alike. And, as Paul later expounds in Romans 11 where he uses a tree to illustrate His people, we Gentiles were then grafted into that tree so that there is now neither Jew nor Greek (Gentile), for we are now one in Christ, and Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3). This is what we celebrate today. Praise be to the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ!

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. — John 3:16–17

Verse 16 is speaking first, and most fundamentally, to the love of God, and note that He loved the world in such a way that He gave. A supreme act of the giving love of God was demonstrated in the Incarnation and Crucifixion of His Son. Even as Paul declares in Romans, but God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for (5:8).

Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
born to set they people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.

For the Third Sunday in Advent, we find John the Baptist in prison (Matt. 11:2-15), but the question he poses regarding the ministry of Jesus leads to the declaration of the great works that Christ is doing. These works are foretold by the prophet Isaiah (35:1-10), particularly the giving of sight to the blind (v. 35; Matt. 11:5), a miracle unique to the Messiah. The turning back of the effects of sin and the curse of sin are evidenced in the miracles that Jesus performs and are reason for true joy. The Third Sunday of Advent is sometimes called “Gaudete Sunday,” for the Latin word Gaudete, meaning “Rejoice!” The work of God is reason for rejoicing. Repentance is reason for rejoicing. The Savior has come, bringing freedom and peace. And while we wait upon the Lord, we do so with patience, looking to the example of the prophets who suffered though they spoke in the name of the Lord (James 5:10-11). John the Baptist, the last of the OT prophets, suffered for the message of repentance that he preached. The church today, as it carries the prophetic mantel can also suffer for calling sinners to repentance. Nevertheless, the church is called to remain steadfast, for therein lies the way of blessing from our compassionate and merciful Lord. So let us continue to pursue repentance in our own lives, proclaim it to others, and rejoice in the continuing works of God by His Spirit and through the church.

The emphasis of the First Sunday of Advent is one of watchfulness and God fulfilling His divine purposes, even if it might not be according to our expectations. Matthew’s Gospel took us to the late stages of Jesus’ earthly ministry, which might seem like an odd way to begin Advent, but it helps to remind us of the faithfulness to which we’re called as His servants who do not know when He will return, a helpful perspective to maintain.

Our church year begins today as we usher in the season of Advent. How fitting, now as we turn our attention to that expectant and watchful season, that we do so here in the U.S. on the heels of our season of Thanksgiving. While Thanksgiving is not a church calendar holiday, it is a good and right celebration when we gather with friends and family to give thanks for all our Lord has done for us. And while we are, of course, thankful for all things, especially during Advent we remember and are thankful for the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He took on flesh and blood for us, His people. As we enter Advent, the Book of Common Prayer has these words for us to use in our own prayers:

When Israel, Yahweh’s bride, forgot her history, forgot her story – the story of redemption that God achieved for and through His people, especially the Exodus from Egypt – then she would inevitably forget the Lord who had redeemed her and go hoaring after false gods and idols. This story of redemption, this overarching story is made up of smaller stories all along the way. Think about how the Bible is written. It is written, primarily as narrative, as story. A helpful way for us to keep the story at the forefront of our minds, for us to remember is through the church calendar, which is a reflection of the Gospel story itself.

The word “saints”, which means “holy ones,” is simply a term to describe Christians. The apostle Paul in the opening of his first letter to the Corinthians, writes:

Today’s celebration of All Saints’ Day should be one of great encouragement to the church as a whole, and to each and every one of us as Christians who constitute the body of Christ. In the Lord’s providence, through the wisdom of our forebears who developed the liturgical calendar, we have this day of celebration, this day of remembering those who have gone before us in the faith.

I often make the dad joke — no, not often, I do it every year at Reformation time — “my thesis is that Martin Luther really nailed it, I hope you don’t find that too indulgent of me.” This joke has lost none of its charm for me. Regardless of your protestant tradition, be it Lutheran, Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian (and more), we all share the Reformation in common as an inflection point in history that God used to shape the church. And this inflection point is marked by October 31st, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his Ninty-five Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg. In his theses, Luther took on a believer’s life of repentance, what authority a minister has to forgive sins, indulgences, purgatory, the Roman doctrine of the treasury of merit, and more.