Corpus Christi Anglican Church: Recent Episodes
Corpus Christi Anglican Church
Welcome to Corpus Christi Anglican Church. We are a new Anglican church plant in the Anglican Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic (part of the Anglican Church in North America) which serves the region of northern Virginia comprised of Springfield, Franconia, and Kingstowne. Our vision is to become a common people in common prayer for uncommon transformation. Thank you for joining us virtually!
We apologize for the sound quality. The preacher is outside and is speaking loud enough for everyone to hear.
Most of the sermon was written by the Rev. Susan Rockwell, but was delivered by Fr. Morgan Reed with her permission.
The Rev. Canon Tuck Bartholomew, the Canon for Church Planting in the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic (our Diocese), visited this week and gave a wonderful sermon. Unfortunately, the audio recording did not work this week, so instead of an audio recording, we have a manuscript of the sermon below.
The Resurrected Christ — Our Good ShepherdThe Reverend Canon Tuck Bartholomew
John 10:1-10
Delivered 4/21/24
IntroductionThis is the 4th Sunday of Easter where we celebrate 50 days of feasting as we learn to practice resurrection. This can be difficult in a world like ours in which suffering and injustice still feels far more normal than new creation.
Up to now we have mostly been in gospel stories of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances. These are stories of comfort, of assurance, of restoration (as with Peter), and they offer us a way to similarly enter into the joy of Jesus’ Resurrection amidst our own fears, anxieties, doubts, and struggles.
For the early church, these experiences anchored the imagination of their faith and practice not in optimistic thinking, but in the experience of Jesus back alive, bodily raised to life. Jesus wasn’t a ghost or a mere spiritual reflection on the life of someone they loved who has now passed.
Jesus is the Good ShepherdAnd we notice that Jesus keeps talking about his wounds which remained discernibly present even after his body is transformed and changed in the resurrection (somehow he goes through doors and such). There is continuity in the story of Jesus’ life as one who suffered, or as today’s reading said, who lays down his life for the sheep, but who also took it back up in resurrection. It is by his wounds, his suffering and death, that we are healed. We find room for our wounds in his. I have been listening over and over to one of the songs from the Porter’s Gate collection, Sanctuary - Christ is lower still, and this one line in particular, “In his wounds I find room for all of mine; when from grace I fell, Christ was lower still.”
Today, Good Shepherd Sunday, in John 10, Jesus had described himself to the disciples as The Good Shepherd and describes them as his sheep. It is an image that shows up richly in the Hebrew Scriptures, Psalm 23 most obviously, and Ezekiel 34, when God promised to shepherd his scattered sheep.
It's important to revisit this earlier description of Jesus as The Good Shepherd because even though Jesus is raised in a glorified body, he remains the Good Shepherd. N.T. Wright suggests we expand our notion of the word “good” beyond a strict moral focus of good vs. bad, to something like “beauty”, the beautiful shepherd. It is the resurrected Jesus that seeks his flock, scattered by discouragement, fear, doubt, sadness, and confusion. And, he still shepherds us similarly.
How Jesus ShepherdsNotice three obvious aspects of Jesus’ teaching: Self-giving love, Relationship, and other sheep.
Self-Giving LoveFirst, self-giving love. Jesus lays down his life for the sheep which this text says twice. At the time, Jesus understood everything about his life as just this type of loving care, and he knows that the suffering and death of his passion are on the horizon.
The point for us to linger on his self-giving love. This is the nature of his care for the sheep: self-giving love; for the disciples, His care for us. Jesus, as a shepherd, leverages all of his power through love for the well-being of his sheep.
Jesus stays with and near us in our most vulnerable moments of life. He contrasts his care with that of the hired hand. Jesus will not abandon when danger looms; he lays down his life.
The Orthodox priest and theologian Fr. John Behr says that “Self-giving love is God’s design for humanity. And in Jesus, God in person, in flesh, expresses the deepest truth of what it means to be human. When he loves like this, to the end of his own life, he reveals God and he reveals what it means for us to be most human.”
I appreciate Leslie Newbigin’s illustration of what happens when we are in a conversation with someone about a third person that is NOT presently in the room. We share our views and thoughts, knowledge of facts and detail, but if that person were to come into the room the conversation completely changes from talk about facts to encounter with the person who now speaks for themselves. And that is what happens in the incarnation: Jesus is in the room.
He is showing us what God is like and what those created in his likeness are similarly meant to be like.
It’s not surprising that in the earliest iconography of the church Jesus as the good shepherd features prominently. Jesus gently carries the lost sheep across his back safely home. Whatever you imagine to be true about Jesus, imagine this.
The resurrected Jesus is the good Shepherd and self-giving love is the way he shepherds.
RelationshipBut second - Jesus speaks of deep and real intimate connection between the shepherd and the sheep. Verse 4 says, “… I know my sheep and my sheep know me.”
The invitation for us is to realize that God desires relationship with us.
So think with me about the post-resurrection encounters with Jesus through this lens of the Good Shepherd. In each case Jesus meets these persons in the depth of their vulnerability and in ways unique to their stories.
Thomas, the twin, perhaps noted because twins know a great deal about mistaken identity, or maybe simply Thomas’s story shows up because of the sorrow and frustration he felt by now being included when Jesus first appeared. He named his doubt and named what he wanted; and Jesus — with grace and generosity — shows up and says “touch my wounds and believe.”
Or think of the disciples traveling home toward Emmaus — distraught, confused, discouraged — and Jesus gently enters the conversation, listens to their hearts and their stories, and begins to unravel the teaching of scripture, warming their hearts, and breaking bread with them.
Or, I love John’s telling of Mary in the garden after the empty tomb is discovered. She is there weeping — you can imagine the distraught nature of her tears — “they have taken my Lord’s body and we don’t know where they have put it.” Her life, so carefully rewoven together by Jesus’ earlier care, now fragile, and so here; the tender voice of Jesus the gardener calls her name, “Mary…”
Grace and forgiveness, the love Jesus has is not abstract, but particular to our lives; to our real-life stories. He knows us and we know him. This invites us into profoundly intimate relationship. We ask for this each week in the Eucharistic prayer: “that he may dwell in us and we in him.”
A.J. Sherrill, in his little book, Quiet, opens with a starting claim that “…Every moment of every day the most significant reality in the entire universe is the radical availability of God’s presence…” What would it mean for us to act on the truth of God’s availability to us?
Jesus sees and knows, and is radically present to his sheep. He has an intimate, vulnerable knowledge of us as persons.
Other SheepSelf-giving love, intimate presence and care, and one final thing we need to see is that Jesus has other sheep. Verse 16 says, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
The flock is larger than his first followers imagined. They would have naturally thought of scattered Israel, or perhaps their own small band of disciples; but the flock is larger; larger even than the slow fermenting growth of the early church; greater than all that claim the name of Jesus in our day; and Jesus seeks them.
And I think this last reference of Jesus reminded the disciples that He was always seeking those that did not yet belong; and so, the church is not a community turned in on itself — its own needs and interests — we too must be mindful of the other sheep Jesus is seeking. So weekly we take the blessing of our life with God into everyday life where we too seek the other sheep.
ConclusionAs we close, let’s circle back to Psalm 23. It is a psalm often associated with suffering and often read in the midst of suffering because of the powerful metaphor of shepherding. But it is a psalm to be practiced in life, now, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in — not just moments of suffering and death.
The famous ending, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever,” while comforting as we suffer and death looms, might also speak of the psalmist’s intention to live by faith; returning again and again and again to the house of the Lord for as long as he lives. This is how I will practice my life with the Good Shepherd, as one who listens to this voice, gathering with those that gather over and over again, ordering my life to the Good Shepherd.
Our reading this morning from 1st John opens with the profound declaration of our intimate life with God as children, and by the end of our reading we are thinking deeply about sin. “Those who belong to God do not sin,” we are told. John doesn’t mean that we live perfectly without sin, but that we return again and again in steady acts of repentance and faith as we follow the Good shepherd.
May God give us grace to so follow our Good Shepherd. Amen.
Our apologies that it sounds like we are yelling. The sermon was delivered outside with no amplification.
This was our final Eucharist at the Prince of Peace Lutheran School (8306 Old Keene Mill Rd, Springfield, VA 22152)
This was our final Eucharist in the chapel at the Springfield UMC. The next service will be at 10:30am at the Prince of Peace Lutheran School (8306 Old Keene Mill Rd, Springfield, VA 22152)
Apologies for the background buzz. The sanctuary was hot and we had to run fans the whole service.
Continuing our "Nations and Neighborhoods" series. God's plan for the nations includes the neighborhoods in which we live. Today, Fr. Ryan focuses our attention on the history of Springfield and our place in it.
Continuing our "Nations and Neighborhoods" series. God's plan for the nations includes the neighborhoods in which we live. Today, we focus on a Quaker family that settled the land between the Accotink and Pohick Creeks who held influence in the town of Accotink and the rest of Fairfax County during the Civil War and the period of Reconstruction.
Continuing our "Nations and Neighborhoods" series. God's plan for the nations includes the neighborhoods in which we live. Today, we focus on several families who began settling an area of Franconia just prior to the Civil War.
Continuing our "Nations and Neighborhoods" series. God's plan for the nations includes the neighborhoods in which we live. Today, our Bishop reminds us about the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. Two of those being received give a brief testimony after the Nicene Creed.
Continuing our "Nations and Neighborhoods" series. God's plan for the nations includes the neighborhoods in which we live. This sermon focuses on Old Keene Mill Rd. and the history of Springfield.
We begin this season of Epiphany considering the nature of faith and transformation as we look at God’s will for the salvation of the nations and the neighborhoods around us.
On this 2nd Sunday of Christmas we look at faithfulness in the lives of Mary, Joseph, Simeon, and Anna.
On this Gaudete Sunday we hear testimonies of hope from Christie Bettwy and Becca Elmore.
By anonymous - National Icon Collection (18), British Museum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7306236
This was a joint Eucharist celebration with our partner church, Christ the King Anglican, in Alexandria, VA.
Fr. Morgan Reed preached this homily at the Great Vigil of Easter 2021 in a joint service with All Saints’ Church in Woodbridge, VA.
This episode is the eighth and final in our Formation Group which meets Tuesday nights at 7:30 in person or 8pm on Zoom from 9/22/20-11/10/20. To sign up and participate, visit the group page. Thanks for listening!
This episode is the sevent in our Formation Group which meets Tuesday nights at 7:30 in person or 8pm on Zoom from 9/22/20-11/10/20. To sign up and participate, visit the group page. Thanks for listening!
This homily was originally preached on Sunday, 10/25/20, at Church of the Epiphany Anglican.
This episode is the sixth in our Formation Group which meets Tuesday nights at 7:30 in person or 8pm on Zoom from 9/22/20-11/10/20. To sign up and participate, visit the group page. Thanks for listening!
This episode is the fifth in our Formation Group which meets Tuesday nights at 7:30 in person or 8pm on Zoom from 9/22/20-11/10/20. To sign up and participate, visit the group page. Thanks for listening!
This episode is the fourth in our Formation Group which meets Tuesday nights at 7:30 in person or 8pm on Zoom from 9/22/20-11/10/20. To sign up and participate, visit the group page. Thanks for listening!
This episode is the third in our Formation Group which meets Tuesday nights at 7:30 in person or 8pm on Zoom from 9/22/20-11/10/20. To sign up and participate, visit the group page. There were some sound issues in this first episode, but they’ll be improved in the future. Thank you for listening!
This is one of our pre-launch Eucharist services at the Franconia-Springfield Mission. To join one of our monthly pre-launch Eucharist services, check out our upcoming events calendar.
Readings:
Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32
Psalm 25:1-14
Philippians 2:1-14
Matthew 21:28-32
Collect:
O merciful Lord, grant to your faithful people pardon and peace, that we may be cleansed from all our sins and serve you with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
This episode is the second in our Formation Group which meets Tuesday nights at 7:30 in person or 8pm on Zoom from 9/22/20-11/10/20. To sign up and participate, visit the group page. There were some sound issues in this first episode, but they’ll be improved in the future. Thank you for listening!
This episode is the first in our Formation Group which meets Tuesday nights at 7:30 in person or 8pm on Zoom from 9/22/20-11/10/20. To sign up and participate, visit the group page. There were some sound issues in this first episode, but they’ll be improved in the future. Thank you for listening!
This was our first pre-launch Eucharist service at the Franconia-Springfield Mission. To join one of our monthly pre-launch Eucharist services, check out our upcoming events calendar.
Readings:
Isaiah 51:1-6 || Psalm 138 || Romans 11:25-36 || Matthew 16:13-20
Collect:
Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.