FOURTH SUNDAY after EASTER 2025

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PART 30 GOSPEL OF JOHN

In this video Dr. Kevin Hart opens for us John 11:1-27. Click on the picture for the link.

THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER 2025

For this week's video, with the Collect, Epistle and Gospel readings, and the sermon (preached on May 11, 2025 at Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church) click on the picture below.

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TO ERR IS DIVINE

Fr. Robert Hart

In his famous poem An Essay on Criticism (1711), Alexander Pope wrote, "To err is human, to forgive is divine." Whereas no one should presume to take issue with that sentence, I am about to write a sentence that, seemingly, deserves to be rejected on face value, but that really deserves to be heeded once it is explained. Therefore, I presume to write, and then to defend, a paradoxical and provocative line, after which you may see my point as essentially true, just as, when the meaning and context are considered, Saint Paul’s words say something worth hearing, “The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men (I Corinthians 1:25).” My sentence is this “To err is Divine.”

So, to explain why I would say something so audacious, I must assure you that I know and firmly profess that God is all-knowing and infallible. But just as Moses saw only the back of God (Exodus 33:23), foretelling that our Lord Jesus Christ would command us all in his often-repeated refrain, “Follow me,” our imitation of Christ requires us to learn how to reflect his glory in this fallen world as his lights in the darkness, and as his witnesses, and therefore ourselves to demonstrate what we know of the Father by looking carefully at the Son (John 14:9), so that, by the grace of God we may exhibit to the world some visible and tangible reality of just who He is. That is, just as priests are alteri Christi to the Church, so the entire Church, as the Body of Christ with every member, is called to be alteri Christi to the world (II Corinthians 5:20).

Therefore, we are called to be like God in this world, as Jesus taught us, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matt. 5:48),” or “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful (Luke 6:36).” But here we have a problem that God does not share: We, unlike God, are neither all-knowing nor infallible. If perfection is, as we see it is, to be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful, we must show forth this Divine attribute without any full assurance that every decision we make will always be absolutely correct. Therefore, we must resolve thus: In order to be as much like our heavenly Father as we can be by God’s grace, and as Jesus has shown us by example and has taught us in words (Acts 1:1), we must accept both our capacity to make mistakes, to err in our estimation and judgment, while at the same time following our Lord to make known to the world who God is. The solution is very simple: We must resolve to err, if we err at all, on the side of mercy. Indeed, we may err, but if we err on the side of mercy, this is right in the eyes of God. On the other hand, it is impossible for indifference or cruelty, for any lack of mercy, ever to be acceptable to God. Such attitudes are always sinful.

It is entirely possible, of course, that the poor person asking for assistance is to blame for his own circumstances, or that he is lying. In my experience I have learned that most of them, almost all of them, have been entirely honest, but that some have been dishonest. Generally, that dishonesty has not been about their need, but about promises to come to church, or the claim that they are Anglicans, or other things that would not have mattered anyway. The point is, on those occasions it was not my place to judge them; and if anyone has taken advantage of me, then I trust that God has used it to convict his conscience. For the most part, I know that I have helped people who were bringing to me real needs, and who knew of nowhere else to turn but to God’s Church. It is better, in the eyes of God, to err on the side of mercy: In the long run, such is no error at all really.

Again, it is not for us to judge. The commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ leave no wiggle room, no means for excuses and rationalization.

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:38-48).”

            We all know the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, the judgment before the throne of Christ when he comes as the King. “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me…Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me (see Matthew 25:31-46).” What we, in our weakness, as sinful creatures, may see as inconvenience, must be seen with renewed and regenerated eyes. These are not inconveniences. These are opportunities. Do we believe in the Incarnation? Do we fail to see that, when the woman poured the costly ointment on our Lord (Mark 14:3-39), she was showing her love for God and for her neighbor – the two objects that envelope every commandment of God – by pouring out her love on the one who is both fully God and fully Man? It is your opportunity, as Christ comes to you in the human flesh of those in need, the hungry, the ones in need of proper clothing, the stranger or immigrant or refugee, the one in prison, the one who is sick, to “work out your own salvation (Philippians 2:12).”

            Before discussing these things further, I must bring in another element of following Christ, one that needs to be always before our eyes so that we may see the Good Shepherd as he walks before us, so that we may indeed follow him. As modern people, part of how we perceive our duties in this world all too often involves a very worldly and carnal tribal identity, and, especially in America and Europe, a political or ideological loyalty that requires us to label every person and every thought by such empty notions as “Liberal,” “Conservative,” or more broadly, “Left” or “Right.” There are some people who are committed to applying those labels as a standard of judgment, and everybody is certain that God is on their side. But these labels have noting to do with the Kingdom of God. In fact, there are only two categories to be considered. The Psalmist foretold of Christ as the Bridegroom of the Church in Psalm 45 with these words:

“Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness (Pslam 45:7).”

Just as “In Christ there is no east or west,” I assure you, in Christ there is no Left and Right. The only categories are righteousness and wickedness. To be loyal to any political party will, eventually, require you to betray Christ in order to justify evil. It does not matter which party: The trap is laid for you. The deception that many of our own people wallow in is confusing what is righteous or wicked with what is Left or Right. I know that, fallible as I am as one who is not all-knowing, my position on matters of righteousness and wickedness are right in the eyes of God because they are based wholly on God’s commandments as taught by our Rabbi, Jesus.

Clearly, oh so very clearly, people who lean Left or Right see the wickedness on the other side. But God sees the wickedness on both sides, neither of which represent His kingdom, which is not of this world (John 18:36). If they must fight it out, neither side has the blessing of God. God will not bless sexual perversion or license, and will not tolerate the murder of children in the womb, sacrificed to the Molechs of convenience and greed. But neither will God bless those who hate the immigrant, who cheer on the use of a political prison called CECOT, the very existence of which constitutes a Crime Against Humanity, as the life-long hell for people who have been convicted of no crimes whatsoever. It is simply because they take refuge in  lies, in the Bearing of false witness against those young men, parroting the entirely unproved accusation that they are gang members or terrorists, that they allow their love to wax cold, and their hearts to become hard, evil, callous, and uncaring. Some imagine such a weak sinful state of mind to be strength: But it is cowardly weakness. The Left-wing apologist for “a woman’s right to choose” murder and the Right-wing apologist for mass deportation without even the minimum requirement of Due Process of Law, are equally wicked. Both will be sent away for mistreating Jesus Christ who has come to them in the flesh of their neighbors in need.

“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold (Matthew 24:12).”

Many of you are forming arguments and justifications and rationalizations in your minds. As a man of exceptional experience, as both an investigator and a journalist in my many years, I warn you now: The partisan lies you choose to believe, because those lies are convenient either for fueling your sinful hate or for justifying your endeavor to achieve comfort, for ignoring the pain of the unborn child who feels the sharp blade, or the agony of the young man forever imprisoned in a hellish nightmare, both of whom have suffered the loss of their futures, will not shield or protect you when you face Christ on his throne, when you must give an account of your soul to God. He commanded you to love him and to love your neighbor. But you chose a party, a label, a tribe, and rejected Christ your Lord because you would not recognize him. Repent now, before it is too late. Pray that God will circumcise your heart, give you a soft heart that, if it errs in judgment, errs on the side of the love of God: That alone is acceptable with Christ our God.

PART 29 GOSPEL OF JOHN

IN this video, Dr. Kevin Hart expounds for us on John 10:19-42. You may get to the video by clicking on the picture.

GOOD SHEPHERD'S MORTAL COMBAT Easter II 2025

GOOD SHEPHERD'S MORTAL COMBAT

Second Sunday after Easter ("Good Shepherd" Sunday) 2025

The sermon follows the Collect and the two appointed readings. It was preached on May 4, 2025 at Saint Benedict's Anglican Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina at the 10:00 am Mass. Click on the picture. 

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FIRST SUNDAY after EASTER 2025

For the video with the sermon (which follows the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel) click on the picture below.

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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.

GOOD FRIDAY 2025

The video contains the Collects, Epistle, and Passion reading for Good Friday, followed by a sermon from Fr. Nicholas Harrelson preached at Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church in Chapel Hill, NC. Just click on the picture below.

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MAUNDY THURSDAY 2025

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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.

PALM SUNDAY 2025

In this video you can hear the sermon preached by Fr. Nicholas Harrelson at Saint Benedict's Anglican Church on Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025. Click on the picture below for the link.

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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.

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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.

FOURTH SNDAY IN LENT

Fr. Nicholas Harrelson's sermon could be titled "Be Part of the Outworking of the Miracle." It follows the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel. You may see the video by clicking on the picture below. 

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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.

If you would like to send an offering for the continued ministry of our parish, please use the link below. Thank you.

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This video contains the Collect, the Epistle and the Gospel readings, followed by the sermon preached at Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on March 16, 2025, the Second Sunday in Lent. Click on the image.

The link below is for those who want to send money to help with the ongoing parish ministry of Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church (thank you).

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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.

To send an offering to the ministry of Saint Benedict's Anglican Church you may use the link below. Thank you.

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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.

If you would like to contribute to the ongoing ministry of Saint Benedict's Anglican Church, you may use the link 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.

SEXAGESIMA 2025

For the video with the sermon (which follows the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for the day) preached at Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church on Sexagesima, Sunday February 23, 2025, you may use this link.

To Send a  money offering to Saint Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church you may use this PayPal link. Thank you.

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In this installment Dr. Kevin Hart expounds on John 7:25-36 

Clarification

It has been stated by one Calvin Robinson “Fr. Robert Hart has been attacking me publicly.” Actually, I have not attacked him at all. I have simply defended myself by reminding people of my indisputable Cultural Conservative credentials to dispel the notion of some kind of relevant comparison. I am not a political figure, and I have never defied the archepiscopal authority to which I answer. My name has no more relevance to Robinson’s problems than that of any given ACC priest. Neither he nor anybody else has any business bringing my name up.

PREPARING FOR LENT Septuagesima 2025

This sermon (February 16, 2025) is a very practical guide to preparing your heart and mind for a holy and fruitful Lent. It follows the Collect and the appointed readings.  

If you would like to send along a contribution for the ongoing ministry of Saint Benedict's Anglican Church we hjave provided the linkl below for your convenience. Thank you.

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PART 19 GOSPEL OF JOHN

In this installment, Dr. Kevin Hart opens for us John 7:1-24

HERE WE STAND

Fr. Robert Hart on Opposing Caesar on Same-Sex "Marriage"

Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation, to join together this Man and this Woman in holy Matrimony; which is an honourable estate, instituted of God in the time of man's innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church. (Book of Common Prayer)

Following the news of the Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015, there have been warnings among the editorial writings in papers and posted on the internet to the effect that, having made same-sex "marriage" the law of the land, the courts might very well start taking away the religious liberties even of churches themselves. That may very well be true. Strange things are coming out of court rulings these days, and I would not dismiss anything as impossible anymore. What seems more likely in the foreseeable future, however, is that the government will take away tax-exempt status from churches that do not fall into line and that refuse to march in lockstep.

But whatever the powers-that-be may throw at us, no faithful Christian clergyman will ever, under any circumstances, perform a so-called same-sex wedding. It isn't going to happen; end of discussion. As St. Peter said, "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). In response to the times we live in, that means (among other things) that the Church has no authority to recognize or perform same-sex "marriages." This is a matter of doctrine, coming from God and recorded in Scripture.

Some people speak as if they have never heard of civil disobedience. For a Christian, those words of St. Peter in Acts 5 lay the foundation for civil disobedience. Some may ask, "But what if they make us comply?" Or, "What if they rule against us in some future court case?" The answer remains, "We ought to obey God rather than men." For ancient Christians, this meant dying as martyrs rather than offering incense to Caesar as a god. And, indeed, we are speaking of choosing to obey either human authority or God when the two conflict. So, what has God revealed?

Clarity in God's Word

In Matthew 19, we have been given God's word on the matter. Here, Jesus quotes Genesis 2:24, but he deliberately modifies that passage by inserting the word "two" into it, thus ruling out polygamy for his followers. What we have, therefore, from the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, is his word that marriage is between one man and one woman (Matt. 19:4–6).

A little later Christ says that "some have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake" (v.12). Christians have always understood this to mean there are two states of life for believers. One is marriage, and the other is complete abstinence from sexual relations, whether one remains open to marriage in the future or lives as a celibate by vocation.

Also, we have the teaching of sacramental marriage, that is, that marriage is God's own work. For, after declaring that the married couple are "no more two, but one flesh," the Lord says, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (v.6). Not simply the Church, not simply the power of the state, not simply the man and woman making a covenant between themselves, but God makes the man and the woman one flesh. This is the sacramental marriage that we celebrate and bless in the Church.

Clarity in Vocabulary

Moreover, the vocabulary in both Genesis and Matthew makes it clear that two people of the same sex cannot be married in the eyes of God. The Hebrew words in Genesis are unmistakable. The words for "woman" and for "wife" are one and the same: ishah. The word for "man" is ish. The same applies to the Greek original in Matthew. The word for "wife" is gyne (from which comes the English word "gynecology"), which means a woman of any age, and which also means "wife."

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Furthermore, this is in accord with the words from Jesus' own mouth: "Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female," making the following words obvious in meaning: "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain [two] shall be one flesh" (vv. 4–5). Sexual complementarity, something two people of the same sex do not have and cannot have, was created by God for marriage as a sacramental bond, to produce children and establish the family.

It is quite understandable why the English Bible translators used the word "wife" rather than "woman" in both Genesis and Matthew. In English, to say that a man shall cleave to his woman might suggest something other than marriage to lazy ears, even though it is clear from the context that the only possible understanding of the words is in reference to the marriage relationship. But in this day and age, we need to know that both in Hebrew and in Greek the words for "woman" and "wife" are the same, with the obvious meaning of a married couple derived from the context.

Absurd Redefinition

I was made aware of some celebrity championing same-sex "marriage" with the argument that its advocates do not want to change the definition of what marriage is. That statement is absurd on the face of it. Of course it is a redefinition. In the whole history of the world, every civilization has known that sexual complementarity—male and female—is of the very essence of what marriage is. It has never been understood in any other way. From the teaching of Scripture we see why: marriage is literally a part of God's creation and not a man-made institution. Its roots do not originate in jurisprudence. It is a part of human nature itself, as anthropology confirms.

This celebrity went on to bring up women's suffrage and the civil rights movement as if there were a connection between those important accomplishments and this new thing. But there is no genuine connection, none whatsoever; only what some want to create by the power of suggestion rather than by reason and logic.

One might as well argue that a triangle has the right to be defined as a type of circle, and that expanding the definition of the word "circle" to include "triangular circles" would not change the nature of circularity. But if a circle can be defined as either triangular or round, then we have lost the distinctive meaning of the word "circle." The new definition is too inclusive to be meaningful. If the cause of recognizing a triangle as a circle were fortified by the ruling of a court, all that would happen is that mathematics teachers could no longer teach geometry—at least not legally.

Well, the courts could force mathematics teachers to obey, I suppose, if it ever came to that. But if they tell us to disobey God and to obey them instead, they would be wise to get this message and never forget it: We will not obey you under any circumstances, no matter what force you bring to bear upon us. Christians have been persecuted many times, and are being persecuted even to the death in faraway lands today. "We ought to obey God rather than men," and so we will. • 

Robert Hart is Rector Emeritus of St. Benedict's Anglican Catholic Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (Anglican Catholic Church Original Province). He also contributes regularly to the blog The Continuum.