Grace Anglican Church of Wildwood

Grace Anglican Church of Wildwood A Bible-believing, Gospel-focused Anglican parish of the United Episcopal Church of North America.

08/22/2026

✨ Twelfth Sunday After Trinity ✨

The message from 2 Corinthians 3:4–9 and the Collect reminds us of a simple but life‑changing truth: we are not sufficient in ourselves—but God is abundantly sufficient for us.

The law shows us our sin, and our conscience often trembles at what it remembers. Yet the Gospel of Jesus Christ gives something far greater: forgiveness, righteousness, and life through the Holy Spirit. As Richard Ho**er wrote, “The mercy of God is greater than the misery of man.” And Thomas Cranmer reminds us that even our best works “have somewhat in them to be pardoned”—yet God gladly receives us through Christ’s merits.

Because of Jesus, we can come to God with confidence. Not confidence in our own goodness, but confidence in His. Not confidence in our strength, but confidence in the Spirit who gives life.

So what must we do?

Renounce self‑reliance and trust God’s grace.

Seek the Holy Spirit’s help every day.

Bring our guilty conscience honestly to God.

Approach Him through Christ’s merits, not our own.

This is the freedom and joy of the New Covenant: humble in ourselves, confident in Christ, and strengthened by the Spirit.

May God, who is always more ready to hear than we to pray, pour down upon us the abundance of His mercy this week.

✝️ Amen.

08/16/2026

This week our parish hears one of the most powerful truths in all of Scripture: “By the grace of God I am what I am.”
(1 Corinthians 15)

St. Paul reminds us that the Gospel is not an idea we invent or a ladder we climb. It is God’s gift — Christ died for our sins, was buried, rose again, and appeared to many witnesses. This Gospel has carried Christians for two thousand years. It carried the saints, the Anglican Reformers, and it carried my wife in her final days.

When she was told she was dying, she didn’t respond with fear. She responded with faith: “If it is God’s will, then Thy will be done.”
Those words were not spoken lightly. They came from a heart shaped by grace — a heart that trusted the God who knows us, loves us, and holds us.

Her faith was quiet but deep, simple but strong. It was the faith of someone who knew she could come to Christ just as she was
(“Just As I Am”) — with weakness, grief, and need — and be received by the Savior who died and rose again.

J. I. Packer once wrote: “What matters most is not that I know God, but that He knows me.”
My wife lived that truth. She trusted the God who knows His children by name.

Today I share her witness with you because her faith is a sermon in itself. It reminds us that the Christian life is not built on strength, but on surrender. Not on control, but on trust. Not on fear, but on grace.

Christ died. Christ rose. Christ will raise us.
And because He lives, she lives.

May her words become ours:
“Thy will be done.”
And may Paul’s confession become our hope:
“By the grace of God I am what I am.”

08/09/2026

🕊️ This Sunday we look at one of the most moving moments in all of Scripture — Jesus standing on the Mount of Olives, looking over Jerusalem, and weeping.
He didn't weep out of anger. He wept out of love. The people had the Temple, the Scriptures, the prophets, and the promises — yet they did not recognize the mercy of God standing right in front of them. They did not know the things that made for their peace.
Jeremiah had warned them. Washington and Adams warned us. Augustine, Luther, and Chrysostom all saw the same pattern across the centuries: when a people forget God, they lose their way — and when they lose their way, they lose their peace.
But here is the hope the sermon closed with: God has not drifted from us. He still calls. He still forgives. He still restores. He still saves.
The question is not whether our nation will return to God. The question is whether God's people will be faithful. 🙏
"May God give us grace to know the things that make for our peace."
📖 Luke 19:41–47 | Jeremiah 26:1–15
💬 What does it look like for you — personally — to "know the things that make for your peace"? Share your thoughts below.

08/02/2026

📖 This Sunday's Sermon | 1 Corinthians 10:1–13

Did you know the Apostle Paul looked back at Israel's wilderness journey and said, "This was written for us"?

The same people who walked through the Red Sea on dry ground… who followed the cloud of God's presence… who ate heavenly manna and drank water from the rock — most of them never made it to the Promised Land. Not because God failed them. But because they presumed upon His grace.

Paul's message to the Corinthians — and to us — is both sobering and deeply comforting:

⚠️ The warning: Don't mistake outward religious participation for inward faithfulness. Showing up isn't the same as standing firm.

✝️ The promise: "God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape." (1 Cor. 10:13)

No matter what wilderness you're walking through right now — God is not absent. He is faithful. He has already prepared a door.

💬 We'd love to hear from you — what "way of escape" has God provided in a season of trial in your life? Share in the comments below.

🙏 If this message encouraged you, share it with someone who needs it today.

07/26/2026

As we enter another election season, the words of our Lord in Matthew 7 feel especially timely: “Beware of false prophets… you will know them by their fruits.”

Election seasons are noisy, emotional, and often confusing. Promises multiply. Speeches get louder. Slogans get sharper. But Jesus reminds us that words are cheap — fruit is what reveals the truth.

The Church has always taught this.
St. John Chrysostom warned that false teachers “wear the clothing of virtue but inwardly are full of the poison of serpents.”
St. Augustine said a tree is known “not by its leaves, but by its fruit.”
Richard Ho**er wrote that character is revealed “not in sudden motions but in settled dispositions.”
And our beloved 1928 Book of Common Prayer teaches us to pray that God would “increase in us true religion” and “nourish us with all goodness” — the very fruit Jesus calls us to look for.

So as Christians, we don’t vote from fear, anger, or tribal loyalty.
We vote from discernment.
We look not at slogans, but at fruit.
Not at charisma, but at character.
Not at promises, but at patterns.
Not at appearances, but at the long-term evidence of a person’s life.

Ask simple, biblical questions:
• Does this person tell the truth when it costs them?
• Do they sow peace or division?
• Do they act with humility?
• Do they care for the weak?
• Do they show mercy and justice?
• Do they admit when they are wrong?

These questions are not partisan — they are Christian.

And after we vote, we pray for our leaders, whoever they may be:
that they may “truly and impartially administer justice,”
that God would “order their doings by His governance,”
and that righteousness, peace, and truth may flourish in our land.

Election seasons come and go.
Parties rise and fall.
Leaders appear and disappear.
But the Kingdom of God stands firm, and the wisdom of Jesus remains true:
Every good tree bears good fruit.

May we be a people of discernment, a people of peace, and a people who walk in the light of Christ.

✝️ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

07/18/2026

✝️ The Seventh Sunday after Trinity
"The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." — Romans 6:23

This Sunday's Epistle from Romans 6 confronts us with one of the most searching questions in all of Holy Scripture: not whether we shall serve, but whom.

Saint Paul draws a portrait of two lives — both defined by service to a master. The first yields its members to sin, and receives in return exactly what it has earned: shame in this life, and death at the last. The second yields its members to God, and receives something no wage could ever purchase — the gift of everlasting life.

Three great Fathers of the Church help us feel the full weight of Paul's words:

📖 St. John Chrysostom reminds us that sin fails even on its own terms. It doesn't deliver pleasure — it delivers disgrace. "What wages did you receive from it? Shame."

📖 St. Augustine draws the contrast that defines the Gospel: God does not give as one repaying a debt. He gives as one moved by mercy alone. The gift is not of ourselves.

📖 St. Ambrose speaks directly to the baptized: "Be what you have become. You are no longer a slave of sin; you are a servant of righteousness — and in that service you will find, at last, that you are free."

The Collect for this Sunday asks God to graft in our hearts the love of His Name — to nourish us with all goodness and keep us in the same. Every petition is a confession of dependence. And in that dependence, we find the only true freedom any soul has ever known.

A Study Guide with discussion questions, background notes, and the full patristic quotes is available for individuals and small groups. Message us here. 🙏

To the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: be all glory, now and for ever. Amen.

07/12/2026

"If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." — Matthew 5:22–24 (KJV)
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus doesn't just forbid murder — He goes straight to the root: anger, contempt, and the words we use against one another.
He tells us that worship and relationships are inseparable. We cannot stand before God with a heart full of enmity toward a brother or sister. Reconciliation isn't optional — it's a precondition for authentic prayer.
And what if the other person refuses? Jesus gives us a road map in Matthew 18:15–17 — go privately, bring witnesses if needed, and involve the church community. But St. Paul reminds us: "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." (Romans 12:18, KJV)
Our obligation is to seek peace — not to guarantee it.
St. Polycarp, who served Christ for 86 years and faced martyrdom without anger or contempt for his persecutors, shows us what this looks like in real life. Heroic virtue — not passive silence.
💬 Is there a relationship in your life that needs a first step toward peace today?

07/05/2026

On this Fifth Sunday After Trinity, the Collect and the Epistle give us a distinctly Christian way of living in a changing world. We prayed that “the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by God’s governance,” and we heard St. Peter call us to be “of one mind… compassionate… loving… humble… courteous.”
These two texts remind us that the world will change — culturally, politically, demographically — just as it always has. But Scripture teaches that the world’s course is not ours to control. It is God’s to govern. Our calling is not fear, resentment, or withdrawal, but Christ like character in the midst of change.
As our nation marks 250 years, we remember that God has guided its course through conflict, renewal, growth, and uncertainty. The Church flourishes not by numbers or comfort, but by faithfulness, holiness, and courage.
St. Peter shows us how to live in such a moment: unity of mind, compassion, brotherly love, humility, courtesy, and a calm witness to the hope within us. This is how Christians strengthen communities and bless the nation — not by resisting change, but by shaping it with Christian virtue.
May God grant us “godly quietness” — not passivity, but the calm confidence of people who trust His governance more than they fear the world’s course. And may our joyful service be a steady witness to Christ in this nation we love.

07/02/2026

As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation, we read in the Collect for the 5th Sunday After Trinity with new seriousness: that the course of this world — with all its cultural change, political tension, and demographic shifts — may be peaceably ordered by God’s governance. Not frozen, not feared, but ordered. And we hear St. Peter’s call us in the Epistle reading to be of one mind, compassionate, loving, humble, and courteous. These are not small virtues; they are the Christian contribution to national stability. They are how the Church serves God in “godly quietness,” not by retreating from the world, but by witnessing to Christ within it. Our duty as citizens and Christians is not to stop the world from changing, but to help ensure that its change is ordered toward peace, justice, and the glory of the one true and only God.

06/28/2026

This morning we were reminded of the bold truth of the Collect: “Without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy.”

St. Paul teaches that both we and the whole creation are groaning — not in despair, but in labor, awaiting the glory God has promised to His people. And in our own weakness, when prayer seems to fail, the Holy Ghost Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.

Because we have received such mercy, our Lord commands: “Be ye therefore merciful.”

As we pass through things temporal this week, may our patience, forgiveness, and compassion be signs of the new creation breaking in — firstfruits of the world God is redeeming.

To God be the glory.

Address

4971 E County Road 462
Wildwood, FL
34785

Opening Hours

Tuesday 9am - 1pm
Thursday 9am - 1pm
Saturday 9am - 2pm
Sunday 9am - 1:30pm

Telephone

+13522359693

Website

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