Best Christian Blog of The Week (2014)

Listed below are "Best Christian Blog of the Week" winners:::2014:: Dec 28: The Star of Bethlehem Dec 21: The Festival of Chanukah Dec 14: High-Ranking Bankers Dying in Large Numbers Dec 7: The Origin of the Antichrist Nov 30: rapha Nov 23: Jerusalem Intifada Is Underway Nov 16: If Everything...

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Dorothy Sayers on the Incarnation

"[Jesus of Nazareth] was not a kind of demon pretending to be human; he was in every respect a genuine living man. He was not merely a man so good as to be 'like God'�he was God. "Now, this is not just a pious commonplace: it is not a commonplace at all. For what it means is this, among other things: that for whatever reason God chose to make man as he is�limited and suffering and subject to...

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St. Bernard of Clairvaux: "A physician is coming to the sick"

"A physician is coming to the sick, a redeemer to those who have been sold, a path to wanderers, and life to the dead. Yes, One is coming who will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea, who will heal our diseases, who will carry us on his own shoulders back to the source of our original...

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Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Advent 2014

RCL Year BClick here to listen to the sermon.I think the Owen family has finally gone Louisiana native. Because just over a week ago, we made the best batch of chicken and sausage gumbo we�ve ever attempted.The gumbo took lots of preparation. In fact, it was really a two day affair. It started out on a Friday. I prepped a whole chicken with a homemade brown sugar rub. I then put it on the Big...

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Integrating God's Intensified Ethic and God's Love: Jesus vs. the Pharisees

The Pharisees, they looked at Jesus, they could not get their theological imaginations around the notion that Jesus could both actively intensify God's ethical demand in our lives on the one hand, and on the other hand reach out aggressively in love to the biggest violators of that intensified ethic. They concluded if Jesus is reaching out aggressively in love to the violators of that ethic that he...

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Comfort and Hope in the Face of Death: A Sermon

RCL Proper 27, Year ALast week we celebrated All Saints� Sunday, the day set aside for remembering that great �cloud of witnesses� to our faith we call the communion of saints (Hebrews 12:1). We baptized infants, welcoming new Christians into our fellowship. We remembered family members and friends who have died. And we celebrated the reality that in Christ we share communion with the whole family...

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Love God, Love Neighbor: Sermon for Proper 25A

Click here to listen to the sermon.A Sunday school teacher was discussing the 10 commandments with her 5 and 6-year-old students. After explaining the commandment �honor thy father and thy mother,� she asked: �Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?� One little boy answered: �Thou shalt not kill.�God�s law leaves nothing out. When we look in scripture, and...

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Musical Interlude with U2: "October"

OctoberAnd the trees are stripped bare Of all they wearWhat do I care? OctoberAnd kingdoms rise And kingdoms fall But you go on And on ...

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Wolfhart Pannenberg on a Root Cause of Church Decline

In the wake of Wolfhart Pannenberg's recent death, a clergy colleague shared a brief excerpt from the great theologian's 1991 book An Introduction to Systematic Theology:If theology does not properly face its particular task regarding the truth claims of the Christian tradition, then it easily happens that the clergy of the church are the first to become insecure and evasive about the message they...

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Bill Cosby slams Victoria Osteen

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The Virgin Mary is Necessary to Salvation

It has long been a tradition at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge to transfer certain Feast Days of the Church Calendar for observance on Sundays, and that includes the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin.  Since I became rector of St. Luke's in January 2013, and with the bishop's permission,...

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Remember Christian Soul

That today and every day you have God to glorify.Jesus to imitate.Salvation to work out with fear and trembling.A body to use rightly.Sins to repent.Virtues to acquire.Hell to avoid.Heaven to gain.Eternity to hold in mind.Time to profit by.Neighbors to serve.The world to enjoy.Creation to use rightly.Slights to endure patiently.Kindnesses to offer willingly.Justice to strive for.Temptations to overcome.Death...

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Fr. Tony Clavier on "the essence of Anglicanism"

In a brief essay entitled "The Anglican Way," Fr. Tony Clavier lays out his understanding of "the essence of Anglicanism." "None of these elements," he's careful to note, "are in themselves the exclusive property of our tradition, but taken together they express what our church - with a small c - has sought to be at its best.  As such these elements are always aspirational rather than accomplished...

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Groaning for Redemption: Our Resurrection Hope

The epistle reading assigned for today in the Revised Common Lectionary for Proper 11A is a very powerful passage  Here's an excerpt:I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own...

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Henry McAdoo: What is Anglicanism?

"[Anglicanism] is a liturgical and sacramental and devotional religion for everyday use by committed people. It is deeply aware that the individual is responsible for living his own life and doing his own decision-making in cooperation with the grace of the Spirit. Yet he is an individual who is a member of the eucharistic fellowship of the baptized and he is called to live 'the new life' of the imitation...

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YOU'VE REACHED THE END OF THIS BLOG!

 Yep. Maintaining a blog, a tumblr, instagram etc. is annoying, so something has to go. Using blogger AND tumblr is kinda redundant, so I've decided to abandon blogger. sadwhistleSo If you wanna (hint: you should) keep following me you can do that via tumblr http://christiannauck.tumblr.com and...

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"I Remember When You Were Jesus": A Lesson from Vacation Bible School

Here at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge, we recently had our annual Vacation Bible School.  About 90 children attended (twice as many as last year!).  And scores of teens and adults assisted.  It was a truly extraordinary experience that brought people of all ages together for a common purpose. As the rector at St. Luke's, it fills me with joy that our VBS touches the...

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Musical Interlude with Coldplay: "Midnight"

In the darkness before the dawnIn the swirling of the stormWhen I'm rolling with the punches and hope is goneLeave a light a light on Millions of miles from homeIn the swirling swimming onWhen I'm rolling with the thunder but bleed from thornsLeave a light a light onLeave a light a light on In the darkness before the dawnIn the darkness before the dawnLeave a light a light onLeave a light...

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weirdo dudes paintings

Uhhhh - what? Blogger totally fucks this image up: The original looks like this: http://christiannauck.tumblr.com/post/83222609...

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Instagram

I think I've never mentioned it here, but a couple of month ago I finally succumbed and started using instagram as well.I use it mostly for sketches and some process shots.--> http://instagram.com/christianna...

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