Christ Church

“And the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee”

Epiphany means manifestation. It is about things that are being made known to us. It is about teaching. Teaching is transformative. “Be ye transformed,” Paul tells us, “by the renewing of your minds.” This story is utterly unique in the New Testament. Only John tells us that this was the “beginning of signs” in which Jesus “manifested forth his glory.” It speaks to the mystery of human redemption. It is really a story of transformation not just of water into wine but our humanity into community with God.

The real wonder of the Epiphany is about what God wants for our humanity. The real wonder of the Epiphany is that our humanity finds its greatest truth and greatest happiness in communion with God. The mystery of the Epiphany is a kind of marriage, the communion of God and man which is the basis for our communion with one another. It is not by accident that “this beginning of signs” happens at a wedding.

Yet this Gospel story is not simply about marriage as a state of life. It speaks profoundly to the whole reality of the human situation. It challenges us to pay attention to God’s engagement with our humanity.

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“For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard”

The Conversion of Paul is an epiphany and for that reason, in the Prayer Book, it is to be observed when it falls on a Sunday in the Epiphany Season. Paul’s story is quite a story, full of drama and intensity, controversy and struggle. The importance of his story for the life of the Church is wonderfully captured in this feast. Paul’s conversion is the only conversion celebrated among the principal holy days in the life of the Church.

And rightly so. With Paul, the Christian Faith goes global. With Paul, the Christian Scriptures come to birth – his writings comprise the largest part of the New Testament after all. He is, as some have put it, the second founder of Christianity. In a sense without Paul, there would be no Christianity. His conversion, then, is a matter of great significance.

We are told about his conversion in The Book of the Acts of the Apostles, a book which John Donne remarks, following Chrysostom, could just as easily be called “the Book of the Acts of Paul, so conversant it is with the life of Paul.” Paul’s conversion is told to us three times in Acts albeit in various ways. In our lesson this morning, we hear Paul himself tell his story. What is his story? Saul the Persecutor becomes Paul the Apostle.

There is a change from being the Persecutor of The Way, as the followers of Jesus were first called, to becoming the great preacher of the Gospel of Christ, the Apostle to the Gentiles, the one who takes the Gospel to Rome and by extension to the world. What his story reveals is conversion as transformation. It is an epiphany of the truth and power of Christ that transforms human lives. What is that transformation? It is really about becoming more truly and fully human. The truth of our humanity is found in communion with God. Nowhere is that more fully expressed than in the God/Man Jesus Christ and in our life with Christ. Paul’s conversion is his encounter with the Risen Christ, the one whom he is persecuting in persecuting the followers of Jesus Christ. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds,” Paul will tell us, echoing exactly his conversion. His conversion occurs through a vision on the Road to Damascus.

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Monday, January 26th
6:00-7:00pm Brownies/ Sparks – Parish Hall
7:00-7:30pm Confirmation Class – Room 206, King’s-Edgehill School

Tuesday, January 27th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownies/Guides – Parish Hall

Thursday, January 29th
3:15pm Service at Windsor Elms
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Friday, January 30th
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
3:30pm Holy Communion – Gladys Manning Home

Sunday, February 1st, Septuagesima
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Upcoming Events:

Sunday, February 8th
Annual Parish Meeting and Pot-Luck Luncheon, following 10:30am service

Tuesday, February 17th
4:30-6:00pm Annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper

The collect for today, the Feast of The Conversion of Saint Paul, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O GOD, who, through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Saint Paul, hast caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we beseech thee, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show forth our thankfulness unto thee for the same, by following the holy doctrine which he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Acts 21:40-22:16
The Gospel: St. Luke 21:10-19

Artwork: Luca Giordano, The Conversion of St. Paul, c. 1690. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy.

The collect for today, the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities stretch forth thy right hand to help and defend us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 12:16b-21
The Gospel: St. Matthew 8:1-13

Artwork: Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof, stained glass, Beverley Minister. Photograph taken by admin, 2 October 2014.

The collect for today, The Feast of St. Timothy and St. Titus, Apostolic men, Companions of St. Paul (source):

Heavenly Father,
who didst send thine apostle Paul to preach the gospel,
and gavest him Timothy and Titus to be his companions in the faith:
grant that our fellowship in the Holy Spirit
may bear witness to the name of Jesus,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: 2 Timothy 1:1-8 or Titus 1:1-5
The Gospel: St. John 10:1-10

Artwork: Ludwig Glötzle, St. Paul Ordains Timothy as Bishop of Ephesus, 1891. Fresco, Dom Sankt Rupert und Sankt Virgil (Cathedral of St. Rupert and St. Vergilius), Salzburg.

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Vincent of Saragossa (d. 304), Deacon and Martyr (source):

Almighty God, whose deacon Vincent, upheld by thee, was not terrified by threats nor overcome by torments: Strengthen us, we beseech thee, to endure all adversity with invincible and steadfast faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Lesson: Revelation 7:13-17
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:4-12

Vincent is the proto-Martyr (first known martyr) of Spain and the patron saint of Lisbon. He was deacon of Saragossa, Aragon, under Bishop Valerius. Both were arrested during the persecution instigated by edicts of Diocletian and Maximian. Because Valerius had a speech impediment, Vincent testified to their faith in Christ, boldly and without fear.

Dacian, Roman governor of Spain, subjected Vincent to horrible tortures. The saint was thrown into prison and weakened by semi-starvation. After refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods, he was racked, burned, and kept in stocks. He died as a result of his sufferings.

St. Augustine of Hippo preached a sermon on Vincent’s martyrdom. Here is an excerpt:

“To you has been granted in Christ’s behalf not only that you should believe in him but also that you should suffer for him.” Vincent had received both these gifts and held them as his own. For how could he have them if he had not received them? And he displayed his faith in what he said, his endurance in what he suffered. No one ought to be confident in his own strength when he undergoes temptation. For whenever we endure evils courageously, our long-suffering comes from him Christ. He once said to his disciples: “In this world you will suffer persecution,” and then, to allay their fears, he added, “but rest assured, I have conquered the world.” There is no need to wonder then, my dearly beloved brothers, that Vincent conquered in him who conquered the world. It offers temptation to lead us astray; it strikes terror into us to break out spirit. Hence if our personal pleasures do not hold us captive, and if we are not frightened by brutality, then the world is overcome. At both of these approaches Christ rushes to our aid, and the Christian is not conquered.

Artwork: Frei Carlos, Saint Vincent, 2nd quarter 16th century. Oil on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Agnes (c. 291-304), Virgin, Martyr at Rome (source):

Eternal God, Shepherd of thy sheep,
by whose grace thy child Agnes was strengthened to bear witness,
in her life and in her death,
to the true love of her redeemer:
grant us the power to understand, with all thy saints,
what is the breadth and length and height and depth
and to know the love that passeth all knowledge,
even Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Lesson: Song of Solomon 2:10-13
The Gospel: St. Matthew 18:1-6

One of the most celebrated of the early Roman martyrs, Agnes was only twelve or thirteen when she was executed in the Piazza Navona for refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods. Several early Christian leaders praised her courage and exemplary faith, including Ambrose, Pope Damasus, Jerome, and Prudentius. Although her story was embellished during the Middle Ages, it is certain that Agnes was very young and died as a Christian virgin.

St. Ambrose extolled her in his De Virginibus, written in 377:

[St. Agnes’ death was] A new kind of martyrdom! Not yet of fit age for punishment but already ripe for victory, difficult to contend with but easy to be crowned, she filled the office of teaching valour while having the disadvantage of youth. She would not as a bride so hasten to the couch, as being a virgin she joyfully went to the place of punishment with hurrying step, her head not adorned with plaited hair, but with Christ.

Because her name resembles agnus (‘lamb’), she is generally depicted in art with a lamb in her arms or by her feet. On her feast at Rome, the wool of two lambs is blessed and then woven into pallia (stoles of white wool) for the pope and archbishops.

Two notable Roman churches have been erected at locations associated with St. Agnes. The church of Sant’Agnese in Agone now stands in the Piazza Navona, the place of her martyrdom. The Basilica of Sant’Agnesi fuori le Mura (St. Agnes Outside the Walls) was built at her tomb in a family burial plot along the Via Nomentana, about two miles outside Rome.

Saint Agnes is the patron saint of young girls.

Artwork: Saint Agnes, stained glass, Holy Trinity, Sloane Square, London. Photograph taken by admin 20 October 2014.

The collect for a missionary, on the Feast of St. Henry of Finland (d. 1150), Bishop, Missionary, Patron Saint of Finland, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O GOD, our heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst call thy blessed Apostles and send them forth to preach thy Gospel of salvation unto all the nations: We bless thy holy Name for thy servant Henry, whose labours we commemorate this day, and we pray thee, according to thy holy Word, to send forth many labourers into thy harvest; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Epistle: Acts 12:24-13:5
The Gospel: St. Matthew 4:13-24a

“And the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee”

This, too, is an epiphany. This, too, is something transformative. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds” as we heard last week from Paul’s letter to the Romans and so here too is a Gospel story that is utterly unique and which speaks profoundly to the mystery of human redemption. It is really a story of transformation not just of water into wine but of our humanity into community with God, captured best by a word coined by Dante precisely about the great wonder of Christianity. Trashumanar – transhumanized – becoming who we are in the sight of God and by the power of his redeeming love.

Perhaps no story speaks more directly to the real wonder of the Epiphany. The real wonder of the Epiphany is about what God wants for our humanity. The real wonder of the Epiphany is that our humanity finds its greatest truth and greatest happiness in communion with God. The mystery of the Epiphany is a kind of marriage, the communion of God and man which is the basis for our communion with one another. It is not by accident that “this beginning of signs,” as John puts it, happens at a wedding.

“Let me not to the marriage of true minds/ admit impediments,” Shakespeare says famously in one of the better known of his sonnets. The idea of marriage as metaphor continues to have a strong hold on our minds and hearts almost to the point where there is only metaphor and nothing to which it attaches. The language of “impediment” in Sonnet 116 refers to the service of The Solemnity of Holy Matrimony in The Book(s) of Common Prayer, identifying what might stand in the way of the union of “this man and this woman” in “the holy estate of matrimony.” The service identifies the objective reasons for marriage as a state of life and, even more, as a state of sanctified or holy life, meaning that it concerns our relationship with God, with matters of eternal life. As a consequence there are impediments, things that stand in the way, things that belong to the disorders and confusions of our loves and our lives.

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