Interview on CBC's Ottawa Morning Show

So HERE is the link for the audio file from my interview with Kathleen Petty this morning on CBC's Ottawa Morning program.

I was called yesterday for an opinion on the Vatican's announcement of an Apostolic Constitution allowing for disaffected Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church. I guess they liked my answers, because they asked if I would come on the show this morning. I had figured that I would be one of several on a panel or something, but instead it was just me and the host Kathleen Petty.

This was certainly not a great interview on my part (in my opinion) but it was my first time in this situation. So please be honest in your comments, but also gentle (us radio neophytes are easily crushed). I had wanted to say more about the fact that this announcement from the Vatican has provided external proof (i.e. from a body outside the Anglican Communion) that there it IS in fact a broken (or at least fragmenting) Communion. As much as the liberals and institutional loyalists will say that these issues (i.e. controversies over human sexuality, Scriptural authority, Jesus' uniqueness, and on and on it goes) are not really that big a deal, now we have the Pope recognizing that these issues have put many Anglicans "out on the street" as ecclesiastical orphans. It is NOT just "business as usual" as the Archbishop of Canterbury said on Tuesday. The Pope has just given us another sign that (forgive me for stretching this metaphor) that the emperor has no clothes. The Anglican Communion is fractured.

But regardless, as my wife said when I called her after the interview was done, I DID get to talk about the supremacy of scripture and give a micro testimony to Jesus' transforming work in my life on CBC!

Sermon on Marriage

You'll see that I now have St George's sermons (audio files) listed in the rss feed on the right hand side of this blog ( underethiopia.blogspot.com for those of you reading this on facebook ). We are blessed with a teaching team at St George's with at least 5 regular preachers. So each audio file lists the preacher's last name before the sermon date.

I preached this last Sunday on Mark 10:1-16 -- the assigned gospel lesson for the day (according to the Revised Common Lectionary). What a text to preach as my first in this parish!?!?

A Cup of "Cool" Water

So, I woke up today ready for the vilification to begin after my letter last night (see my most recent post). Instead, as I was making the girls their breakfast, my oldest my daughter hollered across the house, "Daddy, sdomeone's at the door!" It was only 7:30, so I hought to myself, "oh great, the arrows are flying at me early!" But when I went to the door, a parishioner was standing there with a cup of coffee in his hands. He said, "I read your blog, and agree with what you are saying, and I think your decision was courageous." At which point he held out the cup of coffee and said, "So, I brought you a coffee." We chatted for a couple more minutes, then he left. And as I walked inside I felt absolutely supported and loved by this brother in Christ. Jesus words in Matthew 10 rang in my ears (words about persecution for following Jesus):

Matthew 10:32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. 34 Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 40 Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. 41 The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. (ESV)