Sermon for Trinity XIII, August 30th, 2026

“In that day the Remnant of Israel… will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 10:20)

Every time God’s people wandered, which seemed like every chance they got, whether it was into idolatry, exile, or apathy, God did not abandon the whole of Israel. He preserved a remnant. A small, faithful core who kept the fire lit until it could spread again. Elijah thought he was alone, but God told him: “I have reserved seven thousand” (1 Kings 19:18). Paul, writing to the Romans, said the same thing was true in his own day: “So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace” (Romans 11:5).

The word Remnant can seem scary, almost like the piecemeal leftovers of a once mighty thing. In Scripture, the Remnant is the seed. It’s the small, faithful core through whom God intends to renew the whole. 

This morning, I want to cast a vision for what it would mean for us, the Anglican Church of the Atonement,  to become that kind of remnant. The Faithful core through whom God intends to renew the whole. A people who actually pray, and whose praying reshapes everything else.

When we think of a Remnant, there are two ways that this can be misunderstood.

The Anglican priest and theologian Martin Thornton wrote about this remnant idea seventy years ago, and he was careful to name the wrong turn people take with it. It’s easy to hear “remnant” and picture a small, embattled group of insiders, people who pride themselves on being more serious, more correct, more zealous than everyone else. People who like to fight about the fine print of worship, or theology, or the news of the day, and call that faithfulness.

That is not the Remnant Scripture describes, and it’s not the Remnant I’m calling us toward………….