PART 28 GOSPEL OF JOHN

In this video Dr. Kevin Hart opens to us John 10:1-18. Click on the picture below.

EASTER 2025

For the video with the Easter Collect, Epistle, Gospel and Sermon preached by Fr. Hart, click on the link below.

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Easter Fugue

Once again, I am sharing with my readers one of my sacred compositions for this time of the year. This coming Sunday (April 20, 2025) will be Easter - or as most Christians in the world who do not speak English call it, Passover. For this most holy of days, I composed a fugue that can be played in church on an organ. For those who like to understand the details of this musical composition, you may continue reading. Either way, I hope that you will enjoy the video and. even more so, the audio portion. It may be best to wait until Sunday for some of you.

I used for my fugue subject the hymn tune Salzburg, a melody that was harmonized by J.S. Bach. I chose it because it has two popular sets of lyrics, one for Epiphany and the other for Easter. The opening notes go to the words “At the Lamb’s High Feast we sing…” The first voice comes to us in D major, the second voice comes in with the notes just varied enough to be in the same key a fifth apart, while the countersubject is heard in the first voice in four notes descending. For the third and fourth voice entries the same pattern is used in different octaves. Beginning with the second voice, a short ascending episode separates each voice entry and continues to do so throughout when the subject is stated. The tempo is good and fast, an allegro tempo, to give the piece a feeling of joy.

I chose to use the standard modulation that I have used more often than any other in composing in this form. The piece opens in D major, with the third and fourth voice entries a fifth apart from the tonic (i.e., a fifth apart from D major) making it go from D to A both times. This goes on for several more measures, with each statement of the fugue subject still followed by the episode that I mentioned above. The key changes then to G major, that is the subdominant, then to B minor, the relative key to the tonic key (that is, as you recall, the relative minor of D major), then to F sharp minor because it is the relative key to the dominant (i.e. A major), then to E minor because it is the relative key to the subdominant (G major). Then it returns to the tonic, D major. 

To recap, this fairly standard modulation is as follows: Tonic, dominant, tonic, dominant (for a four voci), subdominant, relative key to the tonic, relative key to the dominant, relative key to the subdominant, then a return to the tonic. This is, as I say, a fairly standard modulation for fugues. It has a satisfying effect to the ear to move from key to key in this pattern. Plenty of fugues, however, do not follow this pattern, and among my fugues, my Advent Fugue on O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Veni Emmanuel) does not make use of it. So, while it is often used, it is not a necessary component for the form. 

This Easter fugue concludes, as a fugue, after the return to D major, when the anticipated ascending episode lands on a D major chord. But despite the obvious conclusion, it has happened so abruptly that the music just cannot be over. Indeed, notes in the bass suddenly begin to carry us up to loud happy sounds that are emerging into a tonic chord, which in turn yields to a recapitulation. The same notes play over and over in the bass (a good stretch of the legs for the organist) while the hands go crazy, deliriously happy with the news that death has been overcome because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. The piece concludes with the opening of the hymn on which it is based, using Bach’s harmonization as an ending. It works quite well that way.

MAUNDY THURSDAY 2025

To view this video with the Collect, the Gospel and a Sermon, click on the picture below.

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Just Like Abortion - When Morality and Politics Overlap

  When Morality and Politics Overlap.

We have the responsibility to be witnesses for Christ not only to our generation, but also to future generations who will learn about any role we play, or fail to play, when it becomes history.

Most of the men illegally deported by Trump’s Gestapo agents had NO criminal record in any country, and were here legally. But, even if some of them were criminals, this “cruel and unusual punishment” is pure evil, and anyone who condones such treatment is also purely evil. That includes any “Christians” and especially any members of the clergy.

By the way; If you think this is about “Liberals vs. Conservatives,” then you are too lacking in intelligence to learn anything. It has NOTHING to do with political partisan ideology. I am very Conservative about things like “Due process of law,” a phrase from the Constitution of the United States.

PART 27 GOSPEL OF JOHN

In this video Dr. Kevin Hart takes an in depth look at John 9:13-41. Click on the picture.

Seven Last Words : Holy Week music

I composed this piece in 1988 for Holy Week, and made this video in 2023. This year I have remastered the audio track for improved sound fidelity. Program music should always contain recognizable features that indicate a character, and the music should fit the story. I composed this piece in an A-B-A format. That is, the opening and closing theme is the same music that create “bookends” for the content in between. I always envisioned this music performed live with an actor who could recite the Seven Last Words, that is the things Jesus said during His crucifixion as recorded in the four Gospels. By using the video medium, I have included the words as written text, translated in the King James or Authorized Bible of the Church of England (1611) because it works best in a dramatic and artistic manner. Each time Christ speaks I make use of a classic painting of Christ from the various paintings of the crucifixion that were made by Matthias Grunewald (1470 to 1528), mostly because they portray the suffering of Christ. I believe that a straightforward depiction is far more moving, and produces greater feeling, than any attempt to overtly force or manipulate emotion. My intention is to create a work that creates feeling in the person who views the images, reads the words, and hears the music. 

As program music requires, I have selected a “voice” for Jesus. His words are always stated by a simple descent in the bass surrounded by a chord progression that suggests a halo, the presence of holiness even in the time of sorrow, pain, and cruel injustice. The Speaker remains elevated, Himself truly above the evil all around Him, unchanged, compassionate, but still vulnerable to the agony of the cross and the pain of death. Nonetheless, He prays for His persecutors, and grants mercy to His fellow sufferer. Thus, the musical imagery is from the heart of Christian belief: He remains divine, and is also suffering as a human being. This is my Holy Week music, especially appropriate for the coming week, especially Palm Sunday and Good Friday.

In this video Fr. Kevin Hart discusses John 9:1-12. You may click on the picture for this, the 26th installment of this study of the entire Gospel According to Saint John.

PASSION SUNDAY Lent V 2025

This video contains the Collect, The Epistle, the Gospel for Passion Sunday, and the sermon preached at Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church on April 6, 2025 at the 10:00 am Holy Communion service. Click on the picture.

To send an offering for the ongoing ministry of Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church you may use the link below (thank you).

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PART 25 GOSPEL OF JOHN

In this video Dr. Kevin Hart looks at John 8:48-59. Click on the picture below to get to the video.

GOSPEL OF JOHN PARTS 23 & 24

Click on the picture below for Dr. Kevin Hart's study on John 8:12-20, and the second picture below for his study on John 8: 21-30.

                                              

THE ANNUNCIATION 2025

The Sermon follows the Collect and the Epistle and Gospel readings, and was preached at Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church on Tuesday March 25, 2025 (the Feast of the Annunciation). Click on the picture below to be taken to the video.

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The Feast of the Annunciation

Isaiah 7:10-15
Luke 1:26-38

It is no accident that today's Collect summarizes the entire Gospel, both with its glorious history of Christ's saving acts, and with our sure and certain hope for the promise of the future.

WE beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an Angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

A few years ago, my friend and fellow editor of Touchstone, A Journal of Mere Christianity, Dr. William J. Tighe, professor of History at Muhlenberg College, presented in the magazine a thesis brand new to many. Whereas it has been assumed for a long time that Christmas is on December 25th, because it borrows the date of a pagan festival, the very opposite is true. The date was chosen by the Roman emperor to compete with the Christian holy day, the Feast of the Nativity. Tighe writes:

As things actually happened, Aurelian, who ruled from 270 until his assassination in 275, was hostile to Christianity and appears to have promoted the establishment of the festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” as a device to unify the various pagan cults of the Roman Empire around a commemoration of the annual “rebirth” of the sun. 

He goes on to explain the origin for the Christian date:

Second-century Latin Christians in Rome and North Africa appear to have desired to establish the historical date on which the Lord Jesus died. By the time of Tertullian they had concluded that he died on Friday, 25 March 29 [AD]...At this point, we have to introduce a belief that seems to have been widespread in Judaism at the time of Christ, but which, as it is nowhere taught in the Bible, has completely fallen from the awareness of Christians. The idea is that of the “integral age” of the great Jewish prophets: the idea that the prophets of Israel died on the same dates as their birth or conception. This notion is a key factor in understanding how some early Christians came to believe that December 25th is the date of Christ’s birth. 

Therefore, we have a triangle with points in succession: Good Friday-Annunciation-Nativity. That is, the day of his atoning death for the sins of the world, pointing back to the day of his conception (today's Feast), then leading to a day in which they came to celebrate his birth. It does not matter that these dates are likely not to be historically accurate; they represent three major events in the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that remain forever linked in the mind of his Church: Good Friday, Annunciation and Christmas. Indeed, if we see Good Friday as the first part of the Christian Passover, which includes the Resurrection and our whole liberation from sin and death accomplished by Christ's victory on the cross and his triumphal rising on the third day, this triangle of dates fits well with the brief but penetrating summary of the Collect. And, it cannot fail to be sufficient pledge to us that God intends good for us, even everlasting life as we enter fully into Christ's resurrection life on the day when he will come again.

It has been suggested, with irony, tongue in cheek, that the Incarnation is the "Anglican heresy." That is, based on what theology students are taught as a basic point: That over-emphasis of any single point of doctrine causes imbalance, and therefore neglect of other points of doctrine, resulting in distortion of the truth so severe that it becomes heresy. And, indeed if any single point of doctrine comes across as the one most strongly emphasized by authentic Anglican teaching, it is the Incarnation of the Word: Nonetheless, we must insist that the Incarnation and the Trinity are two points of doctrine that, by their nature, cannot be over-emphasized. It is impossible to say too much about the Incarnation; and frankly, impossible on a human level to say enough about it, ever.

Where would we be without this simple fact? "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." (John 1:14) The whole opening of John's Gospel is about the Trinity and about the Incarnation.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”

And we learn that this Person (ὑπόστασις) called the Word (λόγος) has both made and given life to the world and all mankind. Then we learn that this Person, the Word who is with God, who is God, and who is from the beginning with God (that is, he who who is eternally begotten of the Father as the Spirit is eternally proceeding from the Father-"from the beginning") was made flesh. As the Greek text says in the original, he pitched his tent (or his tabernacle) among us. Or, as the King James Bible translated it:

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

So we must ask this question:

What was God's purpose in making man? None other than what we see at the end of the Book of Revelation, foretelling the destiny of the saints when the Redemption will have been completed.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Rev. 21:3)

God made the human race to manifest his glory among us, and that is the essence of the Divine plan and his great love for a creature made as the icon of God, for "God created man in his own image." (Gen. 1:27) And this was very good. But, we know that our race fell into sin and death, all mankind thus plunged into death by sin as the due reward of being "in Adam." Therefore, the manifestation of God's glory among us as a human being took on emergency measures. So, the Son came into the world to bear the cross and die to take away sin, then to rise to immortality as the new and everlasting man, thus to conquer death.

As we saw in the portion read for this Feast from the Gospel of Luke, God Almighty sent his Angel Gabriel to announce the Divine will to a virgin whose purity reflected the faith of her father Abraham She obeyed with such courage as faith alone produces in the human heart. She understood that she would conceive as a virgin, that it would be a miracle; for so the angel had explained in unmistakable and clear language (as the text plainly says). But, knowing it would be a miracle did not remove the need for her courage; for what was presented was no easy path, certainly not easy by any estimation.

And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. 

This was the faith of Abraham, expressed perfectly in a purified and seasoned people, from the mouth of Israel's finest, the pure virgin mother. She now bore in her womb the conceived God, the embryo, the fetus, the baby; the Word made flesh sanctifying even the most helpless and earliest stages of human life, which human life deserves protection at every stage; (lest failing to protect the helpless ones in the womb, who share this with Christ himself who also was there, we hear it said to any of us: "Verily I say unto you, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels...Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me'"- Matt. 25:41 KJV).

What happened at that moment of Christ's conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary his mother? Did he diminish his own glory and Godhead? Did he distill it down so as to fit in a human container? Did he leave behind the fullness of Divine Nature? Not at all. As St. Athanasius put it in The Incarnation of the Word of God :

The Word was not hedged in by His body, nor did His presence in the body prevent His being present elsewhere as well. When He moved His body He did not cease also to direct the universe by His Mind and might. No. The marvellous truth is, that being the Word, so far from being Himself contained by anything, He actually contained all things Himself. In creation He is present everywhere, yet is distinct in being from it; ordering, directing, giving life to all, containing all, yet is He Himself the Uncontained, existing solely in His Father. As with the whole, so also is it with the part. Existing in a human body, to which He Himself gives life, He is still Source of life to all the universe, present in every part of it, yet outside the whole; and He is revealed both through the works of His body and through His activity in the world...His body was for Him not a limitation, but an instrument, so that He was both in it and in all things, and outside all things, resting in the Father alone. At one and the same time-this is the wonder-as Man He was living a human life, and as Word He was sustaining the life of the universe, and as Son He was in constant union with the Father. Not even His birth from a virgin, therefore, changed Him in any way, nor was He defiled by being in the body. Rather, He sanctified the body by being in it. For His being in everything does not mean that He shares the nature of everything, only that He gives all things their being and sustains them in it. Just as the sun is not defiled by the contact of its rays with earthly objects, but rather enlightens and purifies them, so He Who made the sun is not defiled by being made known in a body, but rather the body is cleansed and quickened by His indwelling, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." (1 Peter 2. 22) 3.17

Let me summarize his words thus: While Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, walked the earth as a man, he filled the heavens as God.

And, he gives us the promise of glorification in him; as St. Peter wrote:

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (II Pet. 1:2-4)

The drop that fell was human nature, and the ocean that it entered was Divinity. Christ did not lower himself; rather he raised us. He did not diminish himself; rather he made us into children of his Father. He took into his proper, uncreated and eternal Person, an alien, created and temporal nature. Properly, he is from everlasting to everlasting God, eternally begotten of his Father. He is God of God, Light of Light, very God of Very God, begotten not made; Being of homoousioun, that is, of One substance with the Father, and through whom all things were made..

He took human nature into his Godhead.

He took created nature into his uncreated Person.

He took time into his Eternity.

He gave back to us recreated, justified, redeemed, sanctified, and (at his coming again) immortal unending life.

No wonder, as we are told by St. John, the spirit of Antichrist refuses to confess this glorious doctrine (I John 4:1f). That spirit will never confess that "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," and will always deny either his Divine Nature as God the Son, or deny his full human nature. The spirit of error cannot deceive us once we know that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh; for then we can hear the whole Gospel with the fullness of this complete truth for us.

WE beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an Angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

—-

First posted in 2009.

GOSPEL OF JOHN PART 22

PART 22 GOSPEL OF JOHN In this installment Dr. Kevin Hart expounds for us on John 8:1-11. The origin of this text is unique to the Gospels.

PART 21 (Corrected Sequence)

Because of repeated technical difficulties I had posted Part 23 (which I will post again in its proper place) as Part 21. This is the correct Part 21 in corrected sequence. In this video Dr. Kevin Hart expounds on John 7: 37-51.

Fr. Robert Hart

FELLOWSHIP IN JESUS' SYNAGOGUE

THIRD SUNDAY in LENT 2025

For the video with the Collect, the Epistle and Gospel readings, and the sermon preached by Fr. Hart on March 23, 2025 at Saint Benedict's Anglican Church (Third Sunday in Lent), click on the picture below.

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CHRIST IN THE WILDERNESS First Sunday in Lent 2025

For the Sermon on Christ's temptations in the wilderness, you may click on the picture below for the link. It was preached on March 9, 2025 and is preceded by the Collect and two appointed scripture readings of the day.

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ASH WEDNESDAY 2025

Click on the picture for the video that contains the Collect appointed readings for Ash Wednesday, and the sermon preached by Fr. Hart at the Noon Ash Wednesday Mass on March 5, 2025 at Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church. 

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QUINQUAGESIMA 2025

To see the video with Fr. Harrelson's sermon, which follows the Collect and appointed readings, preached at Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church on March 2, 2025 (Quinquagesima), click on the picture below.

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ICE Raids Churches During Services

It would seems that it is not “the Left” who are willing to send jack boot government thugs into church services after all. 

As a man of God I am offended whenever Trump is praised as some sort of “messiah” or otherwise compared to Jesus. His 2020 tear-gassing of a church for a photo op with an upside down Bible (how symbolic) and his alleged concern about “anti-Christian” activities is all show-biz and no substance. Raiding churches is an attack on “the free exercise” of religion (First Amendment). The Right claims that the Democrats threaten religious freedom. But Trump’s ICE are invading churches during services! I have no doubt that his “Christian Nationalism” fans will, if they ever have the power they lust after, persecute the church in which I am a priest if only because they are anti-Tradition Fundamentalists. My local parish is significantly an immigrant congregation, and even has refugees as faithful members.

You may see the story at this link.