Comments (0)

By Jordan Easley, March 26, 2011

Today is the 18^th day of Lent, so we’re nearly halfway through!  But if you are like me, there is a good chance that you have already broken your Lenten fast at least once (or more) or have fallen behind in reading the Jesus Creed .  If so, don’t be discouraged, and don’t give up!  Instead, take heart from these beautiful words from a great Christian thinker, Alexander Schmemann:

“Remember that however limited our fasting, if it is true fasting it will lead to temptation, weakness, doubt, and irritation.  In other terms, it will be a real fight and probably we shall fail many times.  But the very discovery of Christian life as fight and effort is the essential aspect of fasting.  A faith which has not overcome doubts and temptation is seldom a real faith. No progress in  Christian life is possible, alas, without the bitter experience of failures.

Too many people start fasting with enthusiasm and give up after the first failure.  I would say that it is at this first failure that the real test comes. If after having failed and surrendered to our appetites and passions we start all over again and do not give up no matter how many times we fail, sooner or later our fasting will bear its spiritual fruits.” [taken from Great Lent:  Journey to Pascha.]

This is my prayer for our St. Paul’s family in the coming days:  Come Holy Spirit and fill us with your fruits and gifts even as we fail.  Give us the strength to finish our fast no matter how often we fall, that we may bear fruit that lasts!

Jordan

The Rev. Jordan Easley

Assistant

On the Mark March 27th

Comments (0)

By Fr. Christopher P. Leighton, March 19, 2011

Now that I’m a Christian – actually celebrating the 40^th anniversary of my conversion – I feel like everything is new.  Maybe this is because it is Lent, or because it is Spring, but there is a newness in my spirit.  Could it be the fruit of the Year of Freedom is bursting forth?

Oh praise with me the God who makes all things new!  Come to Him.  He will cast off the old and bring on the new.  Imagine with me a new heart, a new body, a new church, a new world.  The old is old, and it is passing away.

Jesus is alive and He is carrying out His new work in us and through us.  He wants to make you fresh and new, alive and well.  This is a good thought to take on at this season:  Lord, how are you making me/us new?  I say “yes” to you and your desire for my life!

“Now that I’m a Christian” means “now that I am new! 

Behold, I make all things new! [Revelation 21:5]

Your brother in Christ,

Christopher

 The Rev. Christopher P. Leighton

Rector

On the Mark March 20th

Comments (0)

By Jordan Easley, March 12, 2011

This coming Thursday is St. Patrick’s Day, one of the few saints’ feasts that seems to be even more celebrated outside church walls than inside.  Almost every department store, grocery store, and shop window is covered in shamrock green.  In Boston, the celebration is so massive that the Catholic archbishop gives Irish citizens (and anyone who wants to be Irish for the day) special permission to break their Lenten fast so they can eat and drink to their heart’s content.  I sometimes have to remind myself that March 17 is, in fact, a church holy day and not just a secular holiday. 

God’s people really do have more reason to celebrate Patrick’s life than those who are looking for an excuse to party.  St. Patrick was father to a great missionary movement that brought the true party of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all over Europe.  Western civilization, much less Christianity, would literally not exist if it were not for the Celtic monks and missionaries who sacrificed their lives to spread the Gospel across the world.  St. Patrick truly understood the meaning of “to know Christ and to make Him known”.  He also understood the power of our Three-in-One God.  Below is part of St. Patrick’s Breastplate, which is attributed to him:

I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same:  the Three in One and One in Three.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger.

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

 May these words always be in our hearts and lips as we go out into the world as missionaries of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Jordan

The Rev. Jordan Easley

Assistant

On the Mark March 13th

Comments (1)

By Fr. Christopher P. Leighton, March 6, 2011

This coming Thursday, March 10, at 10:00 a.m., I will be meeting with the Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut, Ian Douglas, at his request, at the Diocesan offices.

 St. Paul’s has been given a deadline to report what we have discerned to be our relationship to the diocese and the Episcopal Church.  Over the past years, we have struggled on this very issue as the Episcopal Church, the diocese and the Bishop have departed from the catholic faith.  We continue to uphold our commitment to Jesus as Lord and the Head of the Church.  We continue to insist on the teaching of the Bible and the ancient tradition of the church as being clear and forthright about morality, including sexual ethics.  [It is interesting that Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, has declared unequivocally this week that although the United Kingdom has provided for the legality of same sex unions, there will be no such ceremonies taking place in any Anglican church].

 Please keep this meeting in prayer.  Please pray for the lay and clergy leadership of St. Paul’s.  We depend on you to hold us up – we are united and we will obey what the Lord declares.  Thank you.

 Your brother in Christ,

Christopher

 The Rev. Christopher P. Leighton

Rector

On the Mark March 6th

Comments (0)

By Jordan Easley, February 27, 2011

Today the global Anglican Church celebrates George Herbert, a pastor of souls, a poet, and priest in God’s temple.  Herbert was no stranger to sacrifice, so it is fitting to remember his life as we approach the season of Lent.  Herbert was born into a wealthy and artistic family, and he received a good education which led to a prominent position as orator of Cambridge University. He even served two years in Parliament – all by the age of 35.

 Yet Herbert abandoned his sky-rocketing political career to become the rector of an obscure little parish in rural England.  He was noted for providing unfailing care for his parishioners, bringing the sacraments to them when they were ill, and giving food and clothing to those in need.  Meanwhile, he composed some of the most beautiful poetry in the English language.  Take a moment to consider a few fragments from one such poem:

A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears,

Made of a heart, and cemented with tears…

A HEART alone

Is such a stone,

As nothing but

Thy power can cut…

O let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,

 And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine

This Lenten season our St. Paul’s family will be learning how to conform the altar of our hearts to an even more beautiful statement:  “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  AND you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  As we learn to shape our lives in the words of the Jesus Creed, ask yourself not just how you should sacrifice (“What should I give up for Lent?”).  But also ask yourself how you can be an altar (“What should I take up for Lent?”).

 God is moving at St. Paul’s, and I’m excited to see what He does in this next season as we move together with Him. 

Jordan 

The Rev. Jordan Easley

Assistant

On the MArk February 27th

Comments (0)

By Fr. Christopher P. Leighton, February 19, 2011

Although Ash Wednesday comes very late this year, we will be beginning Lent very soon, March 9^th.  It is good to think prayerfully now about your goals for the season.  What does God want to change about your life?  Are there certain things to lay aside or to pick up?  What will better glorify the Lord Jesus?

The days are lengthening – that is what Lent literally means.  As the hours of daylight increase our expectancy for Holy Week and Easter intensifies. 

The one thing I’d like you to do now is to take out your calendar and mark off Holy Week (beginning with Palm Sunday, April 17) as time to spend with the members of St. Paul’s in prayer and worship.  There will be something every day.  Plan to participate as fully as possible.

Here comes Lent, and here comes Easter.  You will get out of them as much as you put into them!  I am looking forward to spending these days together.

Your brother in Christ,

Christopher

The Rev. Christopher P. Leighton

Rector

On the Mark February 20th

Comments (0)

By Jordan Easley, February 13, 2011

Did you know that early Christians were accused of being atheists?  Because they refused to swear allegiance to Caesar, or to make sacrifices to other Roman gods, the surrounding culture believed they had no religion.  Because they said, “Jesus is Lord,” and not “Caesar is Lord,” everyone thought that they were freaks, that they might as well have believed in no god at all.

On February 23rd, the Church commemorates of the death of Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John, who was martyred by the Romans for his allegiance to Jesus. When asked to curse Christ, he replied: “Eighty-six years have I served him, and he never did me any wrong.  How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”

While you and I may never be faced with the choice to renounce Jesus or die, we have the far more difficult choice to affirm Jesus and live.  How does the statement “Jesus is Lord” make a difference in your life from hour to hour? Do your neighbors and your coworkers, think of you as an “atheist” for your daily allegiance to Jesus?   

In a few weeks St. Paul’s will be reading The Jesus Creed together as a church body.  We will be learning how to live in light of the two great commands of our Lord: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength, AND love your neighbor as yourself.”  If loving God and loving our neighbors makes “atheists” in the eyes of the world, then let us be “atheists” in 2011, the year of freedom.  My prayer for all of us at St. Paul’s is that each of us will more fully learn how to live Jesus’ Creed and more boldly proclaim,  “Jesus is Lord!”

Jordan

The Rev. Jordan Easley

Assistant

On the Mark February 13th

Comments (0)

By Fr. Christopher P. Leighton, February 6, 2011

 Have you ever thought about your life as a war in which there is winning and losing?  How are things going right now?

In every contest there are advances and setbacks.  The Bible often depicts our life in Christ as a struggle.  Jesus has won a victory which He offers to His followers (e.g., “to him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne.” Revelation 3:21)

St. Paul speaks of gaining salvation as we decide and take action to put aside the deeds of darkness and to put on the armor of light (Romans 13:12).  He goes on to say that we are to “behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.  Rather clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.” (verses 13-14)

Let us agree together to clothe ourselves with Christ;  that will be the way of winning!

Your brother in Christ,

Christopher

The Rev. Christopher P. Leighton

Rector

On the Mark February 6th

Comments (0)

By Jordan Easley, January 30, 2011

On February 5, 1597, in Nagasaki, Japan, twenty-six Christians – a group of missionaries and laypeople, including three young boys – were executed by crucifixion on the shogun’s orders.  Over 400 years later, the Church around the world still remembers the sacrifice of these our brothers and sisters, the Martyrs of Japan, on the same day, February 5^th.

Like these martyrs, King David also faced enemies who sought to take his life.  Again and again through the psalms, he cried out to God for vindication from his enemies.  And God did save him!  Was David somehow more worthy to be saved than the martyrs?  Of course not.  In the Holy Scriptures and in the sacred history of the Church, God has given us a great cloud of witnesses – many martyrs and many more who died peacefully – to encourage us on our journey with Jesus.

In this Year of Freedom, 2011, I want to encourage you to pick one Christian witness – whether it be David, the Martyrs of Japan, John the Baptist, or John Wimber – and use their lives as a daily encouragement to you.  God has given freedom to his saints in many years past, and he will do it again in 2011.

To you, O God, all angels, all the powers of heaven, Cherubim and Seraphim, sing in endless praise:  “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.”  The glorious company of apostles praise you.  The noble fellowship of prophets praise you.  The white-robed army of martyrs praise you.  Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you.

Jordan

The Rev. Jordan Easley

Assistant

On the Mark January 30th

Comments (0)

By Fr. Christopher P. Leighton, January 23, 2011

Every move of God is a mixture of divinity and dirt.  I said this last week in my sermon about David.  If you think about it, I’m sure you know people, and perhaps the person in the mirror, to whom these words apply.

 I’d like to tell you the story of Bob Pierce.  He lived in the 20^th century, and when he was young, he wrote in the flyleaf of his Bible, “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God.”  We sing a variation of these words in the song we love to sing, Hosanna:  “Break my heart for what breaks yours.”

 I heard Bill Hybels speak at St. Paul’s five years ago, that when Bob Pierce stood in India and saw a line of people across the way, he went to investigate.  A man ahead of him fell over and died.  He asked, “What happened?” and found that it was a line for food:  the food had run out, and the man dropped dead of starvation.

 Bob Pierce became so upset that he went out and founded World Vision.  For some time, he was President, but the travel and workload, ill health and substance abuse, and the suicide of his eldest daughter led to a gradual deterioration of his mental and emotional state.  In 1967, he was forced out of World Vision, and in 1970, he founded Samaritan’s Purse, another ministry St. Paul’s has supported.  Unfortunately, he became ill, and died in 1978.  But Bob Pierce was blessed to be reconciled with his family before he died.  These two great compassionate organizations that he founded continue to help many people.

 I tell you this story because I continue to think about the moves of God.  We are in the middle of a great move of God.  And once again there is a mixture of divinity and dirt.  I know, as we face this new Year of Freedom 2011, that the Spirit of God will put upon us the things that break the heart of God, and that our response, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, will be less dirt and more divinity.

 Think about what God might be calling you to take on, as well as to lay down, and join me in expecting God to give us freedom.

 Your brother in Christ,

Christopher

The Rev. Christopher P. Leighton

Rector

On the Mark January 23rd