Because Jesus’s heart overflows with mercy and abounds with grace, therefore we are enabled to bind up the broken, heal the sick, search for the strays, bring back the lost, and strengthen the weak. This is not a task built upon retribution but a process soaked in prayer, covered in the name of Jesus, and teeming with divine love. Continue reading A Community of Character
Once God sees that Moses has turned aside and drawn closer, God calls out to him, calling him by name. God knew Moses before Moses ever knew God. You, my friends, were known by God before you ever knew him. God knows you intimately. He knows your deepest thoughts, your strongest fears, your most burning desires. He knows the number of hairs on your head, he knit you together in your mother’s womb. You are known by God and you will be known by God, world without end. Amen. Continue reading Call and Response
As Christians, we have been crucified with Christ through the waters of baptism and we have been raised to new life with him by his resurrection. This is why we renew our baptismal covenant at the Easter Vigil, this is a baptist liturgy. Resurrection means that God has provided us with new life, resurrection life, everlasting and eternal life in the here and now because of what he has done in Christ, because of what God has done in, through, and for him. Continue reading The God Who Always Provides
Maundy Thursday is charged with so much historical electricity, such thick theological meaning that you can’t take a step or two without bumping into a significant biblical theme. It’s like a one-pot meal: Passover, Eucharist, sacrificial lambs, foot washing, stripping the altar, pain, passion, servitude, glory, forgiveness, and divine love all mixed together. Continue reading Do You Know What I have Done To You?
The Sunday of the Passion isn’t about palms or donkeys or songs, beloved, it is about the cross. And in the shadow of the cross we come to the sickening understanding that we can sing, “All glory, laud, and honor” and then cry out, “Let him be crucified,” days later. Continue reading All Rise: The Passion and Killing a Mockingbird
nature of a covenant. No wonder Jesus is a priest in the line of Melchizedek forever and that he will reign on David’s throne, forever. Continue reading Stay Salty, My Friends
This was originally published in 2018 for our (then) parish blog. It has been altered and updated for St. David’s by the Sea Episcopal Church where I now serve as Rector. Memory and thanksgiving. They are part and parcel of the Christian life, friends. One could sum up the whole of Israel’s life in the … Continue reading All Saints and All Souls
My boys are growing up. Sure, they’re still little— not even teenagers at this point!—but they are getting older. The bittersweet reality of parenting is that children grow and transform before your very eyes and while you are excited about who they are becoming, you are also left with a sadness over each closing of … Continue reading A Return to the Familiar
Liturgy helps us answer the question, How then shall we pray? Continue reading A Liturgy During a Pandemic
Originally published by Resonance: A Theological Journal in Vol 4.3 on “The Trinity.” Trinitarian worship has often been described as “to the Father, through the Son, and by/in the Spirit.”[1] While this is true, very little has been articulated as to how this reality is envisioned and enacted liturgically. This essay will seek to examine the … Continue reading On Trinitarian Worship
Porter C. Taylor 