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Never Forget
I was 11 years old and in the sixth grade. I heard the news at school but didn’t really understand. Kids kept being picked up by worried parents; rumours flew that Houston would be next. I got home that afternoon and sat in front of CNN until my parents got home while watching the planes–the footage Continue reading
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Upon a Suburban Morning
Upon a suburban morning I watched–green plumed and curious– a bird alight in my back yard. He noticed the sprinkler and he, seeking water to bathe himself, hopped beneath its glittering drops before floating to the fence and then to my neighbor’s hidden yard beyond the knowledge of the sky. –This, of course, whole I Continue reading
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Fall and Coming Renewal (2)
This is my annual post about how I hate the summer and love the fall. This year, I just updated to reflect my current context a post I had written on this topic two years ago. You can read the rest of the posts in this genre here, here, and here. * * * In the book Continue reading
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Anxiety and Sin
The anxiety has returned. It’s not like it was–I want to be clear about that. But it is bad. Worse than it has been since Ellie was born. I never know what to do with all of this, you know? I never really know what to do with the fact that my mind doesn’t obey Continue reading
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A Summer Sabbatical (of sorts)
Officially, my last day of work before the summer vacation is Wednesday, but I expect to be done with everything tomorrow. One of the perks of being a teacher is having summers off, though they aren’t as long as they used to be! This summer break, the first summer after Catherine’s birth and after moving Continue reading
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Addressing the Transgender Phenomenon: a Christian Response
***Updated February 2021 to reflect better terminology. ***Dr. Preston Sprinkle has an excellent series of interviews called The Diversity of Trans. You can find the first interview here. Introduction In light of the recent “bathroom bills” and debates over teaching the acceptance of trans accounts of gender identity in public schools (if you have questions about Continue reading
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The Virtuous Life: Education
Socrates: Education is not what the professions of certain men assert it to be. They presumably assert that they put into the soul knowledge that isn’t in it, as though they were putting sight into the blind. Glaucon: Yes, they do indeed assert that. Socrates: But the present argument, on the other hand indicates that Continue reading
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Summer
This is the time when the sky burns, longing for the cooling touch of ever greening trees, and when the sweaty noonday sun pours relentlessly into the streets, constrained only by iced tea and oscillating fans. This is the time when you and I sing out love through the steady rhythm of our blending voices Continue reading
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Historical Inquiry and the Resurrection
Historical inquiry into Jesus has not yet rigorously begun in our time[1]. It will not begin until the premise of theandric union–truly God, truly human–is entertained as a serious hypothesis by historians. The incarnate Son is always greater than our methods of investigating him. The living Lord breaks through the very historical limitations to Continue reading
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Spring Cleaning my Heart: Ditching my Smartphone for the Sanctified Life
We are about the enter the fourth week of Easter (I’ve taken to seeing time liturgically rather than secularly; it helps with my spiritual condition) and I am already tired of the alleluias. I’ve probably said this before, but I feel way more comfortable with Advent than Christmas, with Lent than Easter. I just think Continue reading
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Symbols in the Modern Age
Symbols themselves have lost much of their power to reverberate in the mind and feeling since this power depends on the existence e of a coherent world. Without such a world symbols tend to become indistinguishable from signs. Gas stations, motels, and eateries along the highway have their special signs which are intended to suggest Continue reading
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And We Think WE Have Political Problems?
What follows comes from my 8th graders’ history textbook: As Parliament still refused to give Charles money and soldiers to put down this rebellion, the king tried to frighten the members by marching into their place of meeting with his guards, to arrest five of the principal men, among whom were the patriots of Hampden Continue reading
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One Easter Morning (a poem for my daughter)
This poem was written three years ago, just a couple of months before Amanda and I got married. We obviously didn’t know specifically that Ellie was in our future, but underneath it all we knew. Alleluia, Christ is Risen! * * * not even married that Easter morning as some daddy’s daughter grinned through the Continue reading
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Holy Saturday: Burial of Jesus
When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: The furor of yesterday is ended. Those who demanded a drama have been satisfied. And Joseph, broken-hearted and cold, has come. He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the Continue reading
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Good Friday
Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? These men took a break from celebrating the Deliverance of God to charge an innocent man with a crime. They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. Continue reading
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Maundy Thursday: We Watch and We Wait
With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer. His brother-friends. One final time. Meat and drink and bread against the darkness ascendant. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them. And let the common become the divine. This is my body which is Continue reading
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Holy Wednesday: Judas Iscariot
I wonder when Satan first proposed the idea and how long Judas held out, how many times he said “I can no more betray him than betray myself, but that was a possibility Satan understood only too well. And was it jealousy of the woman at Bethany jealously of the promise that her story would Continue reading
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Holy Tuesday
On Holy Tuesday, the Orthodox Church celebrates the parable of the ten virgins, emphasizing the need to watch and wait–looking forward to the garden. This song is from Jon Thurlow, and I think it captures the sentiment exactly. (Disclaimer: Jon Thurlow is a musician with the International House of Prayer, an organization with which I have serious Continue reading
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Holy Monday
Today is Holy Monday. Traditionally, Jesus’s cursing of the fig tree is celebrated on this day. Growing up, I had no idea what Jesus was up to in this story, but it turns out that the fig tree is a stand-in for Israel. You see, Jesus’ critique of Israel is that it had failed to Continue reading
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Christian Marriage: Difference and Mutuality
This past week, my students and I began working our way through Merchant of Venice. In order to give my students a grid for reading the play, we spent a couple of class periods working our way through Louise Cowan’s conception of the genre of Comedy. In order to get to Comedy, however, I needed Continue reading
About Me
Gregory C. Jeffers
Anglican Christian | Husband | Father | Teacher | Scholar | Poet
G. C. Jeffers 