So I met an older lady today and had a rather delightful conversation. She lives in New Hampshire but is originally from the South. It seems odd now reflecting on it, but we had plenty to talk about. Anyhow, I got ‘round to a good “religious” starter in the form of, “What’s the prominent church in your region?” A few steps further down that road, and she was telling me how New England folks are private about their religious beliefs and she likes that, which is one reason she became Episcopal. Well, in the kind providence of God, I was holding in my lap at that moment, The Second Adam & The New Birth by M.F. Sadler. So I endeared myself to this lady by noting an appreciation for the Anglican brother’s fine work. Well, of course, we ended up chatting about the proceedings in Ireland a bit, which led us right into: the election of an openly homosexual Episcopal bishop – Gene Robinson. As it turns out, this new acquaintance of mine was a lay-delegate from her parish at the meeting where Robinson was elected. I didn’t express disdain and I’m sure I didn’t look uncomfortable, but she felt it necessary to defend her involvement. Plenty of interesting stuff there that I won’t unpack here.
Eventually we spoke more about Sadler and this book on Baptism. She had a refreshing ignorance of any sort of hullabaloo in the Reformed world, and I was happy not to report it to her. It was very interesting to hear her comments on the Sacraments. Without any sort of prompting from me, she declared that too much of the modern church makes an idol of cognitive understanding, and they misunderstand faith and salvation.
I was quite pleased with God’s kindness in bringing our paths to cross in such a way.
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