September 2026
Spirit of the Eagle
St. John the Evangelist ACC
Spiritual Tidbits & Rector’s Reflections for
September 2026 from Father Tim
“That time of year thou mayst in me behold . . .When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang . . . Upon those boughs which shake against the cold . . .Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.” ~ William Shakespeare, from Sonnet 73. It is a beautiful reflection on aging, comparing the late-year cooling of nature to the twilight of a person’s life. September has arrived and the year 2026 is no longer young. The 22nd is the first day of Autumn. This month we celebrate the four Trinitytide Sundays (6th, 13th, 20th, & 27th), the seasonal Autumn Ember Days (16th, 18th, & 19th), S. Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist. (21st) and S. Michael & All Angels (29th). This particular September is also the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack on our country. That tragedy, back in 2001, reminds us that life is precious and fragile, and that freedom comes at a high cost. All of us old enough to remember the attack also remember exactly where we were that day as events unfolded. It sadly marks the single largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil. Those acts of terrorism are forever ingrained in our memories; we were witnesses of inexplicable evil on a massive scale. Evil made its move right before us, in real time, seeking to murder as much freedom, hope, and life as it could on a single day. On this 25th anniversary, we will have a quiet Mass on September 11th to remember and honor the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives during that attack. We will pray for and mourn alongside the thousands who, to this day, grieve the loss of a family member or friend. We will recall the powerful stories of those who courageously came to the aid of others, as well as the unknown heroes, and remember that beauty rises from the ashes of tragedy. We are also forever grateful to all who served, and to those who made the ultimate sacrifice afterward, during the War in Afghanistan, giving their very life to preserve that which we hold most dear. As Christians we will pray for a continued resolve to fight evil, and for the virtue of courage to always aid those in need. We will also give praise and thanksgiving to the Captain of our Salvation, the One who is with us always, leading us forward and higher, even in our darkest hours. ~ Father Tim
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Do you know any lost souls who are reflecting on their age and stressing over their world taking on the look of a “bare runin’d choir” as days go by? If yes, please invite them to church this September “to behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and to visit his temple.” ~ Father Tim
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True holiness does not make a Christian evade difficulties, but face and overcome them. Christ would have His people show that His grace is not a mere hothouse plant, which can only thrive under shelter, but a strong, hardy thing which can flourish in every relation of life. ~ J.C. Ryle, 1816-1900, Anglican Bishop of Liverpool
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Did you know?
Did you know St. John’s gave charitable donations to the Dayton Senior Citizens Annual Luncheon and Pregnancy Center West in August? Did you know Saint John’s has begun the process of being listed on the National Register of Historic Places? Did you know our September Book of Life Club will be discussing The Purgatorio, by Dante Alighieri in September? Did you know our new Sound System has been installed and is now operational?
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Saint John September Ordo Kalendar
Wednesday, the 2nd of September, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Sun., the 6th of Sept., at 9:45 AM, Psalm-Children Sun. School Class
Sun., the 6th of Sept., at 10:30 AM, Trinity XIV Mass, Philip Maycock Baptism
Wednesday, the 9th of Sept., at 5:00 PM, Focus Group Committee
Wednesday, the 9th of September, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Friday, the 11th of Sept., at 10:30 AM, Anniversary Mass for 9/11
Sun., the 13th of Sept., at 9:45 AM, Psalm-Children Sun. School Class
Sun., the 13th of September, at 10:30 AM, Trinity XV Mass
Wednesday, the 16th of September, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Sun., the 20th of Sept., at 9:45 AM, Psalm-Children Sun. School Class
Sun., the 20th of Sept., at 10:30 AM, Trinity XVI Mass, Vestry Meeting
Wednesday, the 23rd of September, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
Sat., the 26th of Sept., at 9:00 AM, The Office of Morning Prayer
Saturday, the 26th of September, at 9:45 AM, Bible Study
Sat., the 26th of Sept., at 11:00 AM, Book Club, The Purgatorio
Sun., the 27th of Sept., at 9:45 AM, Psalm-Children Sun. School Class
Sunday, the 27th of September, at 10:30 AM, Trinity XVII Mass
Wednesday, the 30th of September, at 6:30 PM, Evening Prayer
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If we are Christ’s indeed, we are called not to a holiday but to a campaign. Our tent is pitched on a field of battle. ~ H.C.G. Moule, 1841-1920, Anglican Theologian, Writer, Poet, & Bishop of Durham
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Do you know who you are?
Just what are we? What are you? There’s several views on offer on this point: physicalism (we are identical to or constituted by our bodies or brains), dualism (we are each an immaterial substance joined to another substance, our body), or idealism (we are one immaterial substance and our body is a collection of properties). That’s a rough breakdown of the major positions about man in metaphysics, as there’s variations of each view. St. Thomas Aquinas, for instance, sounds at times like a type of physicalist and at others like a dualist. His view is called hylomorphism, and it’s that the soul is the form of the body. No matter the specifics, most everyone can be pretty neatly sorted into three camps: physicalism, dualism, and idealism.
Now, this is a very complicated field of study. Philosophers spend their whole lives on these questions, but it is nonetheless an important issue in our day. The standard “scientific” account of humanity is that you are chemicals and matter interacting, basically a cosmic accident following from the Big Bang. But what if we’re more? I would say by my own experience that I know I am more. You can know by introspection that you are an immaterial, simple substance by your experience. Think about it: you have intentions, you have beliefs, and you experience those things. They are not physical objects, they are mental. Your experience of the world is unified, not fragmented, and this has persisted even as your body has replaced every cell over your life. (Some philosophers have actually gone as far as to deny that we have beliefs at all. When someone has to say that, that’s a clue that you’re not dealing with a reasonable person. Some things are so foolish that you have to be very well-educated to believe them.) You are not a “brain on a stick”, you are a mind that has been joined to a body and experiences things.
There’s philosophical arguments galore that could occupy you forever, but most importantly I consider Scripture to give us some powerful reasons to think that we are fundamentally immaterial. One passage I brought up last month (1 Samuel 28) is strong. Saul consults a medium in Endor to bring up Samuel, and the text says it was actually Samuel. Saul might have been foolish, but he wasn’t stupid: he knows Samuel’s body was many miles away in Ramah! Other Old Testament passages, such as Isaiah 14:9-10, depict persons in non-bodily places. In the New Testament, man can destroy the body but not the soul/spirit (Matt. 10:28), whereas God can destroy both. When Jesus appeared to the disciples, they thought they saw a ghost, but Jesus specifically said that a soul/spirit does not have “flesh and bones, as you see I have.” (Luke 24:36-39). Perhaps even stronger is 2 Corinthians 12; St. Paul said he was not sure if he was in the body or out of the body when he was taken up into the third heaven. But if Paul was a physicalist, he would know with absolute certainty that he was in the body, for there would be no other option! 2 Corinthians 5 is another knockout blow to any prospects for a biblical physicalism; St. Paul assumes that we can be away from the body and at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:1-8). Whether one is a dualist or idealist, a biblically-informed worldview must include a belief that I can exist without my body, which is only possible if I am not my body, but am something immaterial.
What’s the theological importance of all this? In a word: resurrection. We profess belief in the resurrection in the creeds. But who is going to be raised? Us, we hope! This is only possible if our identity, the self that is us, persists without our bodies. “Continuity of identity” is the turn of phrase, and is essential to making sure that resurrection is not just a creation of a whole new person. Thus, belief in an immaterial soul is crucial for the coherence of a Christian worldview. ~ Chris Stockman
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Don’t bear trouble, use it. Take whatever happens – justice and injustice, pleasure and pain, compliment and criticism – take it up into the purpose of your life and make something out of it. Turn it into testimony. Don’t explain evil, exploit evil; make it serve you. Just as the Lotus flower reaches down and takes up the mud and mire into the purposes of its life and produces the lotus flower out of them, so you are to take whatever happens and make something out of it. ~ E. Stanley Jones, 1884-1973, American Methodist Christian Missionary, Theologian, & Author
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September Birthdays & Anniversaries
Collin Dunn – Birthday – September 12
Robert Kleven – Birthday – September 12
Eliot Miller – September 15
Micheal Fraser – Birthday – September 26
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Why should we want to worship Jesus well?
In Christ we have: A love that can never be fathomed. A life that can never die. A righteousness that can never be tarnished. A peace that can never be understood. A rest that can never be disturbed. A joy that can never be diminished. A hope that can never be disappointed. A glory that can never be clouded. A light that can never be darkened. A purity that can never be defiled. A beauty that can never be marred. A wisdom that can never be baffled. Resources that can never be exhausted. ~ Unknown Author
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Thank God for the battle verses in the Bible. We go into the unknown every day of our lives, and especially every Monday morning, for the week is sure to be a battlefield, outwardly and inwardly in the unseen life of the spirit, which is often by far the sternest battlefield for souls. Either way, the Lord your God goes before you, He shall fight for you! ~ Amy Carmichael, 1867-1951, Christian Missionary with the British Anglican Mission Society
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The fall of man has created a perpetual crisis. It will last until sin has been put down and Christ reigns over a redeemed and restored world. Until that time the earth remains a disaster area and its inhabitants live in a state of extraordinary emergency. To me it has always been difficult to understand those evangelical Christians who insist upon living in the crisis as if no crisis existed. They say they serve the Lord, but they divide their days so as to leave plenty of time to play and loaf and enjoy the pleasures of the world as well. They are at ease while the world burns. ~ A.W. Tozer, 1897-1963, American Christian Pastor, Editor, & Devotional Writer
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Plumes of smoke from the World Trade Center, by Michael Foran
CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11785530
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When thou sleepest, think that thou art resting on the battlefield; when thou walkest, suspect an ambush in every hedge. ~ C.H. Spurgeon, 1834-1892, English “Prince of Preachers”
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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