June 2025
Spirit of the Eagle
St. John the Evangelist ACC
Spiritual Tidbits & Rector’s Reflections for
June 2025 from Father Tim
Spring is slipping away into Summer 2025. The month of June arrives on the Sunday after Ascension (1st), and Ascensiontide ends with the arrival of Whitsunday (8th), or Pentecost. Whitsuntide includes the seasonal Ember Days (11th, 13th, & 14th) and is then followed by Trinity Sunday on the 15th. Other days of note are S. Barnabas, Apostle & Martyr (16th Transferred), Corpus Christi (19th), Trinity I (22nd), Nativity of S. John Baptist (24th), Sacred Heart of Jesus (27th), S. Peter, Apostle & Martyr (29th), and finally the Commemoration of S. Paul, Apostle & Martyr (30th). Because of Corpus Christi and Sacred Heart I thought I would share a few words on the Eucharist. The Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, Holy Communion, is a personal encounter. Holy Communion is the place where God and man meet within the life of the Holy Church. God comes to man. The sinner meets his Savior. Christian Shriver, a 17th century German Lutheran author, wrote: Just as the sun shines most brightly at midday, so the love of the Son of God shines most gloriously in this wonderful Supper. Here He has opened His divine heart wide to us, like a rose in full bloom. He does not give me His garment or His picture, nor silver nor gold . . . but Himself. When I approach Him I see Him, in spirit, wounded for our sakes, and I hear Him say: ‘Come unto me, all of you . . .’ When I leave the table my soul saith: ‘My Friend is mine and I am His.’ We must think of the Eucharist as the act of the Church, as the central action of the whole Christian community, never as a private and even individualistic affair. But it is also true that there is no other act in which we become more fully personal than Holy Communion. A person may come to the Sacrament feeling they count for almost nothing in the eyes of other people. They may be lonely, though no fault of their own. They may have no self-confidence, they may not be clever, and may go unnoticed. They may be taken for granted at work, in daily life and, sadly, even in their church family. But when that person comes to Holy Communion they are not treated like this. They are welcomed, with an inexpressible personal love, for the Eucharist is the expression of God’s desire to draw near to His children. God loves us all. We are welcomed, forgiven, and restored because we are ‘endlessly loved’. So the most lonely, troubled, and tempted person finds in the Sacrament courage to face life, and Christ makes them someone who ‘counts’. ~ Father Tim
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Do you know someone who is lonely and unnoticed? If yes, please invite them to church this June, where they can come to the altar rail, draw near to God, where even the most discouraged finds hope. ~ Father Tim
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The benefits [the Lord’s Supper] confers are spiritual, not physical. Its effects must be looked for in our inward man. It was intended to remind us, by the visible, tangible emblems of bread and wine, that the offering of Christ’s body and blood for us on the cross, is the only atonement for sin, and the life of a believer’s soul. It was meant to help our poor weak faith to closer fellowship with our crucified Savior, and to assist us in spiritually feeding on Christ’s body and blood. It is an ordinance for redeemed sinners, and not for unfallen angels. By receiving it we publicly declare our sense of guilt, and need of a Savior – our trust in Jesus, and our love to Him – our desire to live upon Him, and our hope to live with Him. Using it in this spirit, we shall find our repentance deepened, our faith increased, our hope brightened, and our love enlarged – our besetting sins weakened, and our graces strengthened. It will draw us nearer to Christ. ~ J.C. Ryle, 1816-1900, Anglican Bishop of Liverpool
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Do you know?
Do you know Saint John’s gave charitable gifts to both Hosea House Echo Soup Kitchen and Samaritan’s Purse (for London, KY) in May? Do you know our Book of Life Club will conclude our discussion of The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis in June and then begin Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton? Do you know our Confirmation Classes are underway? Do you know Bishop Fodor will make his Episcopal visit in August? Do you know we are planning a trip to a Reds game in September as a church group?
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Saint John June Ordo Kalendar
Sunday, the 1st of June, at 10:30 AM, Sunday after Ascension Mass
Wednesday, the 4th of June, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Sunday, the 8th of June, at 10:30 AM, Whitsunday Mass, Pentecost
Wed., the 11th of June, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer, Ember Wednesday
Sun., the 15th of June, at 10:30 AM, Trinity Sunday Mass, Vestry Meeting
Wednesday, the 18th of June, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Saturday, the 21st of June, at 9:00 AM, Morning Prayer
Sat., the 21st of June, at 9:45 AM, Book of Life Club, The Weight of Glory
Saturday, the 21st of June, at 11:00 AM, Confirmation Class
Sunday, the 22nd of June, at 10:30 AM, Trinity I Mass
Wednesday, the 25th of June, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Saturday, the 28th of June, at 8:00 AM, Rule of Faith Meeting
Sunday, the 29th of June, at 10:30 AM, S. Peter, AP, M. Mass
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In the celebration of this sacrament we receive the renewed assurance of the forgiveness of our sins, and of our fellowship with Christ; unite with one another as members of His Body, and rejoice in the hope of His return to glory. Therefore, we will commune faithfully and thus renew our pledge of allegiance to Him. ~ Unknown Author
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June Birthdays & Anniversaries
Janet Hoyle – Birthday – June 1
Bill & Gayle Hill – Anniversary – June 4
Judy Denton – Birthday – June 8
Rick Hanson – Birthday – June 9
Sally and Sandy Thomson – Anniversary – June 11
Janet & Fr. Tim Butler – Anniversary – June 30
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Why should we want to worship Jesus well?
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ~ C.S. Lewis, 1898-1963, Anglican Lay Theologian, British Author, & Literary Scholar
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The Question of Divine Hiddenness
There are a lot of arguments against the existence of God that one may hear, which can sound intimidating, but in practice you really need only be ready for two, or at the most, three: the problem of evil, and the “science vs. religion” myth. A third one that has become more popular recently is called the problem of divine hiddenness. (A note on the terminology: in philosophy, the word “problem” just means “argument”, although in practice it presents as just being a question.) What hiddenness asserts is that God just seems absent. “Why is God hiding from me? I would believe in Him if he just gave me evidence. Christianity claims that God wants to save everyone and calls all people to believe. Well, if He wants me to believe, why hasn’t He made Himself obvious to me?” Such is the thought process, and it can sometimes appear sincere. The seeming puzzle, however, is of the skeptic’s own creation.
The first obstacle with this problem is the implied claim that there is a lack of evidence. The beginning of the universe, the fine-tuning of the universe for life, the design of the human body, beauty, morality, consciousness, the fact there is anything rather than nothing…none of that is evidence for God? (Remember, for a thing to be considered evidence, that thing must be more likely on one hypothesis than on another.) A completely fair response to the hiddenness argument is to just point out everything that does point towards God, and to tell the skeptic you do not think God is very good at the game of hide-and-seek. There is more to be said, however.
Jesus tells his disciples in John 16:7 that it is in their best interest that He go away. I’ll be honest, I have at times found that verse to be a tough one to square with inerrancy. Are you sure about that one, St. John? Am I really better off not having Jesus in the flesh like the disciples did? But, in the homily given by Father Tim on Easter IV on this passage, he made some strong points in response to this that can also be impressed into apologetic service against divine hiddenness. He said, “Let’s not forget that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people who were alive when Jesus walked the earth saw Him with their physical eyes. And yet, they never truly ‘saw’ Him in the most meaningful sense of that term.” People saw Jesus raise the dead and heal untold numbers of people, and that was not enough for them to fall at the feet of their King and Creator, because they had missed the point. As Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah, “the hearts of this people have grown dull” (Matt. 13:15; Is. 6:10), and because of that they could not understand Jesus’ teaching. Similarly, the skeptic has constructed their epistemology (structure of their beliefs and way of knowing) in such a way that they are not able to recognize what God has provided. Is it really “better” for the skeptic to have a full-on, unmistakable, see-and-hear-Him-in-the-sky-watching-over-us revelation of God? I submit to you that no, it is not.
Consider what God asks of us. Does He require us to believe that He exists? Well, sure, as Hebrews 11:6 says. But God’s goal is not merely that we accept as true the proposition “God exists”. As St. James says, the demons do that! Rather, God’s will for us is that we follow Jesus and be conformed to His image, something that being compelled by the painfully obvious to give lip service to a helicopter parent deity will not accomplish. To accomplish God’s will for us, it is better that we have the Holy Spirit in each one of us comforting us, convicting us of sin, giving us an encouraging word to share, bringing Scripture to our recall, and forming our characters so that we bear fruit worthy of repentance (Matt. 3:8) and are prepared for the full revelation of God we will receive someday (1 John 3:2-3). Further, the Spirit speaks through Scripture, in which we have not just a brief appearing of Jesus as 1st-century Judeans got, but, as Father Tim said later in his homily, “But we have the panorama of God’s revelation of Christ in the four gospels. We see and know far more of Him through this written record than most of the local population could ever have known.”
So, I reject the starting assumption of hiddenness that evidence of God is lacking. But also, I am persuaded that God has struck the optimal balance of making His presence available to all who really are open and humble before Him, a balance between ensuring no one ever finds Him and making Himself so obvious that He cannot possibly be rejected, and thereby compelling belief. What we have is better. ~ Chris Stockman
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We call this food the thanksgiving [Eucharist], and the only people allowed to receive it are those who believe our teaching and have received the washing for the remission of sins and for regeneration; and who live according to the commands of Christ. ~ S. Justin Martyr, 100-175 AD, Christian Apologist & Philosopher
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I am to show that it is the duty of every Christian to receive the Lord’s Supper as often as he can. … The First reason why it is the duty of every Christian so to do is, because it is a plain command of Christ. That this is his command, appears from the words of the text, “Do this in remembrance of me:” … A Second reason why every Christian should do this as often as he can, is, because the benefits of doing it are so great to all that do it in obedience to him; viz., the forgiveness of our past sins and the present strengthening and refreshing of our souls. ~ John Wesley, 1703-1791, Anglican Priest, Theologian, & Evangelist
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The seeking of Jesus Christ and the quest for chivalry combined lead directly to one place only: Anglican-Catholicism. Courage, honor, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help and defend the weak and the poor. Welcome to the Anglican Catholic Church. ~ Father Timothy Butler