2020

Advent and Christmastide

January 24, 2021
Pastor: Steve Cannizzaro


January 17, 2021
Pastor: Skip Ryan
Reading: Luke 9:28-37 and Exodus 3:1-6


January 10, 2021
Pastor: Steve Cannizzaro
Reading: 1 Thess. 1:1-10


THE PRESENTATION OF JESUS AT THE TEMPLE

January 3, 2021
Pastor: Steve Cannizzaro
Readings: Luke 2:22-38


A 2020 Wrap Up: James, Knees, and Noah

December 27, 2020
Pastor: Dean Miller
Readings: James 5:7-20


THE KINDNESS OF GOD APPEARING

December 24, 2020
Pastor: Sam Ferguson
Readings: Luke 2:8-20


IN PRAISE OF MARY

December 20, 2020
Pastor: Skip Ryan
Readings: Luke 1:26-38


Christ’s Coming and Our Ambition

December 13, 2020
Pastor: Sam Ferguson
Readings: John 3:22-30 and Isaiah 9:1-7


The Coming King

November 29, 2020
Pastor: Steve Cannizzaro
Readings: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 and Mark 13:24-37


See also:
The Reign of Christ the King (click here)

November 22, 2020, Christ the King Sunday
Pastor: Skip Ryan
Text: 1 Corinthians 15:20-28

Together in Christ Amid Divisive Times

September 13

Together in Christ amid Divisive Times
Eph. 4:1–6; John 17:1–23
Here we introduce the tensions and divisiveness of this moment, consider how it impacts the church, and ask what unity looks like and why it is important at a time such as this. Click here to read the sermon.


Part I. The Nature of the Christ-Community
What is Christian community and how is it different from other communities we may be part of?


September 20

A Deeper Community
Eph. 1:1–23; Acts 2:36–37
What community finally determines who you are, what you’re here for, and where you are headed? Which web of relationships exacts the greatest influence upon you? Click here to read the sermon.


September 27

A Diverse Community
Eph. 2:11–22; Gen. 12:1–9
Our world is desperately trying to create an inclusive community; how does the Christian Community make possible a richer and real diversity?


Part II. The Habits of the Christ Community
How does the Christian community think and engage uniquely? What are its habits of understanding and acting with the world around it?


October 4

A Thinking Community
Eph 4:17–24; Prov. 1:1–5; 4:7; 15:22; 18:13; 20:5; 21:2; 23:12; 25:2; 27:27
Our culture does not teach us to think and understand issues well. Christians know that even our “minds are darkened,” so how do we as a community in Christ think and understand important matters with the mind of Christ?


October 11

A Doing Community
Eph. 2:1–10; 2 Cor. 5:16–21
As we understand issues around us in the light of Christ, when and how do we engage them? 


Part III. The Love of the Christ-Community
How does our community uniquely love, both each other and the world around us?


October 18

A Praying Community
Ezek. 3, Zech. 7, Isa. 50, Luke 9 & 19, 1 Sam. 12
We are called to be people of truth and love. How do we live well during polarized times? In what ways do we seek what is ‘easy’ over what God calls us to?


October 25

A Loving Community Part 1: A Humble Love
Matt. 11:25-30; Eph. 4:1-7
Our witness loses integrity if we don’t love one another, so what is the unique energy and manner of how the community loves one another? 


November 1

A Loving Community Part 2: A Building Up Love
Eph. 4:7-16; John 13:31-35
Our witness loses integrity if we don’t love one another, so what is the unique energy and manner of how the community loves one another? 


November 8

An Outwardly Loving Community
Eph. 5:1–21; Matt. 5:13–16
Our posture toward the world is bittersweet in that we lament and warn, while also laying down our lives in service; what does this Christ-like love of the world look like?


Introduction

Dear Church Family,

2020 has been a tough year! A pandemic, race and justice issues, upended social norms, protests and riots, and virtual everything, have made the past six months unexpected to say the least. Thrown into the mix will soon be a presidential election. In the Washington Metro region, the mood can feel tense, tired and a bit divisive.

How should Christians understand and engage a moment like this? We must renew our vision and commitment to the church, the heart of God’s mission for us and the world, for two reasons.

First, when a spirit of division moves about in a nation, it tends to sow seeds of division within the church. The vibrancy and witness of the church, however, issues from her members’ unity and bonds of love. The quality of our life together is part of the witness of the Gospel of Hope that we hold out to a weary world. This fall, for the sake of the world, let’s ponder Paul’s admonition to the Ephesians: “be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).

Second, you and I need the church. We are not ourselves by ourselves. Webs of relationships shape how we see and understand the world and our role in it. As Christians we are called to be shaped and to understand the world through Christ. In God’s economy of salvation, this shaping and transforming happens within a community of believers nourished by the Holy Spirit. Let’s live into, therefore, this truth: “though many, we are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Rom. 12:5).

Our fall sermon series, Together in Christ amid Divisive Times, aims at renewing our vision and commitment to this community created by Christ. Drawing heavily from the Letter to the Ephesians, we will consider these three aspects of the church: its nature, habits, and love. My prayer for us in these months is not only for a deepened unity around our life in Christ (Eph. 4:3), but a fulfillment of Ephesians 3:10, “that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”

In Christ's Love,
Sam Ferguson, Rector

Parables and Psalms

August 30

August 23


August 16, 2020

August 9, 2020


August 2, 2020


July 26, 2020

July 19, 2020

July 12, 2020


July 5, 2020

June 28, 2020


June 21, 2020


June 14, 2020


June 7, 2020


May 31, 2020

The Lord and His Prayer: Realizing the Kingdom through Prayer


May 24 • Deliver Us from Evil


May 18 • Forgive Us, as We Forgive


May 10 • Give Us This Day Our Bread


May 3, 2020 • Let His Kingdom Come


April 26, 2020 • Our Father, Hallowed Be Thy Name


Introduction

Some associate The Lord’s Prayer with rote religious tradition. How far from its original intent! Jesus taught this prayer as the path into the burning center of God’s Kingdom. Coming in the middle of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5–7), The Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9–13) is how disciples engage and enjoy their new life in God and live into His missional purposes here on earth. In praying these words, doctrine becomes life, teaching flows into kingdom.

Over the next five weeks, in our series The Lord and His Prayer: Realizing the Kingdom through Prayer, we will study this prayer, what it means, how we pray and live it, and why it matters for us today. 

Three goals excite me as we launch this series. The first has to do with experience: I want God and the realities of God’s Kingdom to become more real to our hearts through this prayer. Through Jesus we become God’s children (John 1:12–13), but it is through prayer, by the working of the Holy Spirit, that we experience our sonship. 

The second is about reorientation and engagement: I want us to become reoriented to what God is doing in the world, and increasingly to be His instruments in accomplishing it. Praying “Thy will be done” thrust us into the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom here on earth, reorienting us to see events, happenings, and spiritual things from God’s perspective. 

The third is all about rest: Jesus words just prior to The Lord’s Prayer are, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt 6:8). And His words soon after read, “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For … your heavenly Father knows that you need them all” (Matt 6:31–32). Praying this prayer is our rest.

Schedule

  • Our Father, Hallowed Be Thy Name (April 26)

  • Let His Kingdom Come (May 3)

  • Give Us This Day Our Bread (May 10)

  • Forgive Us, as We Forgive (May 17)

  • Deliver Us from Evil (May 24)

Holy Week 2020

Palm Sunday


Maundy Thursday


Good Friday


Easter Sunday


Credo: Truths That Shape a Christian Life

+ About Our Series

FROM THE RECTOR (Jan. 19, 2020)

Like vines climbing a latticework, our lives are supported and shaped by a few deep truths we cling to. It may be the wisdom of our parents, ideas of a beloved teacher, or the values of a popular ideology we hold to. More common today, we may simply believe in ourselves. Whether we realize it or not, we all live by a creed—some assortment of beliefs that shape the quality and direction of our lives.

Christians face squarely this dynamic between belief (faith) and life. From their earliest days they knew following Jesus meant reshaping life around a new creed. One enduring example of this is the ancient Apostles’ Creed, a succinct articulation of the truest truths according to Jesus Christ. Still recited worldwide, the Creed boldly begins, Credo in Deum (I believe in God).

In our sermon series over the next six weeks, Credo: Truths That Shape a Christian Life, we consider some essential doctrines (truths) of the faith as expressed in the Apostles' Creed (and Nicene Creed, CLICK HERE) by looking at how they arise from Scripture. Whether hearing these truths for the first or thousandth time, please join me these next weeks in asking two questions: What creed am I currently living by? What might life look like if I wholeheartedly believed the truest truths of Christianity?

I Believe in…

  • The Doctrine of God (Jan. 19)
  • The Doctrine of the Son (Jan. 26)
  • The Doctrine of Humanity (Feb. 2)
  • The Doctrine of the Cross (Feb. 9)
  • The Doctrine of Final Things (Feb. 16)
  • The Doctrine of the Spirit and the Church (Feb. 23)

+ On the Doctrine of Humanity (Introduction)

FROM THE RECTOR (Feb. 2, 2020)

What is man that you are mindful of him?" -Ps. 8:4

Inscribed across the ancient Greek portico of Apollo’s Temple at Delphi, a timeless maxim reads, "Know thyself." Long before the insights of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, we humans knew we were a knot in need of untangling. And for good reason! Answering who we are is important not only for meeting the woman or man in the mirror, it’s essential for knowing how we should act, interact, hope, love and ultimately find fulfillment.

As we continue our sermon series, Credo: Truths That Shape a Christian Life, we take up the Doctrine of Humanity, asking with Psalm 8, “What is man…?” Christianity requires a biblical view of being human. Scripture opens with God making humanity in His image (Gen 1:26–27) and for our redemption, as the Creed attests, our Lord “came down from heaven … and was made man” (Nicene Creed). Christianity sets forth a story that begins with man’s grandeur, plunges into his misery, then points to his future glory—all under the watchful eye of our Creator. Careful reflection upon the biblical view of humanity has never been more important in this age of confusion.

The modern Western self finds herself stripped of a creator, dislocated from any story with eternal purpose and meaning, and burdened with an unbearable weight of self-actualization. “Know thyself” has morphed into “create thyself.” Issues as far-ranging as justice, sexuality, gender, fulfillment, and hope are now held, not in the wise hands of God, but feeble fingers of man. The Church invites wandering Homo sapiens back home, where the question is not "Who am I?" but "Whose am I?" May The Falls Church Anglican be a place where the Doctrine of Humanity is reclaimed, rearticulated, and esteemed as the good news it is.







Christmastide



Dec. 29, 2019

 
 

Dec. 24, 2019