Christ Church

Reflections: Cadet Church Parade. May 2018
‘Teach us to care and not to care’

I. Teach us to care and not to care

Icons are images that belong to the understanding. They point us to ideas and ways of thinking that shape our ways of doing and being.

The dominant and central icon in the School Chapel is the image of Christ the Good Shepherd. The dominant and central icon in the Chapel at the University of King’s College in Halifax, our sister institution, is an image of the boy Christ as Teacher among the Doctors of the Law. The dominant and central icon here at Christ Church is the image of Christ Crucified. These three images are interrelated and speak to the culture and life of the School.

They contribute to another icon, the images of Christ Pantocrator that are present and visible in the Chapel and here at Christ Church. Pantocrator means the ruler of all, a biblical and philosophical reference to God as the intellectual and spiritual principle of all reality. “God is the king of all creation” as the Psalmist proclaims. In the Christian understanding that is concentrated in the figure of Christ and powerfully so in the icon of Christ Pantocrator. A central aspect of the spiritual imagination of the churches of Eastern Orthodoxy, icons are increasingly found in the churches of western Christianity as well. They help us to think about our life and our world as gathered to God.

As such these icons challenge the ways in which we use and abuse one another and our world through a kind of instrumental or technocratic reason, a reasoning which is about power and action but without regard to an ethical understanding. This is the “new barbarism,” as the French philosopher, Michel Henry terms it, a certain type of knowledge which is destructive of culture and humanity. These icons recall us to the transcendent principle of our knowing and our being that redeems all our doings and all our actions.

As the Canadian philosopher, Charles Taylor has noted, the question for our contemporary world is less about the  idea of what it is that is right to do and more about what it is that is good to be. This focuses upon a sense of ourselves in relation to the world and to one another that is not simply about using the world and one another which so often leads to abuse and destruction such as the last hundred years have shown in the devastations of war and the degradations of nature.

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“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”

Pentecost is a fascinating spectacle, perhaps even more fascinating than the fashion ‘fascinators’ of yesterday’s beautiful and moving royal wedding, a scene at once of pomp and circumstance and of piety and devotion, of joy and love. There is more to it than simply what meets the eye. Even more so with Pentecost.

It begins with the titles: “The Day of Pentecost Being the Fiftieth Day After Easter commonly called Whitsunday,” which at once recalls an ancient Jewish festival celebrating the first-fruits of the harvest of grain fifty days after the Passover and the Christian festival of Christ’s Resurrection, Christ being “the first-fruits of them that slept”. Pentecost has very much to do with the life of Christ in us, it seems, but that life is one that draws us into the very life of God as Trinity, the point which the Gospel makes clear. Through the coming down of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, Jesus says, “we,” meaning God, “will come unto him,” meaning those who “love [Jesus]” and “keep [his] words.” Only so will we find our abiding in the love of God.

The liturgical colour for this day in the tradition of the Church is red and yet Pentecost is commonly called Whitsunday, literally, ‘White Sunday’. That seems confusing and paradoxical. Why Whitsunday? Because this day, too, like Easter is about new life and new birth, a day in which baptisms and confirmations also took place, a day when souls were joined to the great spiritual company of the Church Universal “having washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” recalling Christ’s sacrifice and our participation in the work of human redemption. The colour red also refers to the tongues of fire which came down upon the disciples gathered in Jerusalem. And so it becomes the symbolic colour for the Apostles, meaning those who are sent having learned the things of God.

And if that is not confusing enough, we have the whole fascinating spectacle of Pentecost as “a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind” and “cloven tongues, like as of fire,” “rest[ing] upon each of them.” Wind and fire are strange and evocative images, elusive and yet significant, that speak profoundly to the spiritual mystery of God. There is more to Pentecost than what meets the eye. More than appearance there is the reality of Pentecost and its meaning for us in our lives, our lives in the spirit, our lives as spiritual beings. The Holy Spirit is often symbolised as a dove, the dove of heavenly peace. The presence of the Holy Spirit with us and in us is symbolised as wind and fire; not to be sure, the winds of war and destruction nor the fires of technological progress which equally enchant and destroy us. No. It is the wind and fire of God that transform us. These are all images that teach and act as metaphors and similes for the reality of the Spirit.

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Monday May 21st
6:30-7:30pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, May 22nd
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-8:00pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Wednesday, May 23rd
3:00pm KES Cadet Corps Church Parade
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Thursday, May 24th
3:15pm Service – Windsor Elms

Friday, May 25th
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders & Rangers – Parish Hall

Sunday, May 27th, Trinity Sunday
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

The collects for today, The Day of Pentecost, being the fiftieth day after Easter, commonly called Whit-Sunday, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

O GOD, who makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon thy disciples in Jerusalem: Grant that we who celebrate before thee the Feast of Pentecost may continue thine for ever, and daily increase in thy Holy Spirit, until we come to thine eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Acts 2:1-11
The Gospel: St. John 14:15-27

Artwork: Ambrosius Benson, Pentecost, 16th century. Oil on panel, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh.

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Dunstan (909-988), Archbishop of Canterbury, Restorer of Monastic Life (source):

Almighty God,
who didst raise up Dunstan
to be a true shepherd of the flock,
a restorer of monastic life
and a faithful counsellor to kings:
grant, we beseech thee, to all pastors
the like gifts of thy Holy Spirit
that they may be true servants of Christ and of all his people;
through 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: Ecclesiasticus 44:1-7
The Gospel: St. Matthew 24:42-47

Artwork: Roundel with Saint Dunstan of Canterbury, 1501-20. Colorless glass, vitreous paint and silver stain, The Cloisters Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep

It is a most familiar and, perhaps, a most comforting image. It is the classical and quintessential image of care for Christians and even for non-Christians. Yet, as is often the case with familiar images, we take them for granted and sometimes miss their more radical meaning.

It is not by accident that the central icon or image in the School Chapel is the image of Christ the Good Shepherd, visible in the central window above the altar. It signals an ideal and principle about the nature of the School and about the kind of education that it promotes. At issue is how well we live up to the expectation and idea that this image conveys. It is, I suggest, about an education that cares for the whole person. King’s-Edgehill School is, I hope, an institution which cares for you as students.

That care is signaled in a myriad of ways in and through the myriad of experiences that contribute to the learning ambience of the School. The question for you is: do you care? Do you care about the School which cares about you? Do you care enough to step up and take your place in the various things that belong to the busy life of the School? Do you care enough to take on duties and responsibilities towards the community as a whole and for others?

The powerful passage about Christ the Good Shepherd turns on the whole matter of care. The Good Shepherd is contrasted with the hireling, the one who is hired, “a wage-slave,” we might say. The hireling is in it for the money, for a kind of self-interest. “The hireling,” we are told, “careth not for the sheep.” This is in complete contrast to the Good Shepherd who cares for the sheep and who knows his sheep. The word for “care” here means “to bestow careful thought upon” something or someone. That is the challenge for all of you every day. How do you think about one another and by extension the community and the world around you?

The image of Christ the Good Shepherd draws explicitly upon a number of familiar images from the Jewish Scriptures, particularly the so-called “Shepherd’s Psalm,” Psalm 23. “The Lord is my Shepherd, therefore can I lack nothing.” It signals the idea of God’s care and commitment towards our humanity as the Good in whom we find our good. Several of our hymns are based directly upon this psalm, such as “The King of Love my Shepherd is,” connecting care with love. The Psalm shows us something of the divine love for our humanity. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” Why?“For thou art with me; thy rod and staff comfort me.”

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The end of all things is at hand

“The end of all things is at hand,” Peter tells us. It sounds rather ominous and threatening yet the central message of this day is all about our joy and delight in God and in the redemption of all things to God, the one who is without end. Such is the radical meaning of the Ascension of Christ and his Session, his “sitt[ing] at the right hand of God the Father Almighty” as the Apostles’ Creed puts it. That idea of having an end with God is part of the Ascension theme of Christ’s homecoming and thus our home. In our secular culture in Canada today is Mother’s Day. In Britain and in other parts of the commonwealth, Mother’s Day was on Mothering Sunday, the Fourth Sunday in Lent when we were reminded that “Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all.” In a way, the theme of home and especially the role of mothers is gathered into the radical meaning of Christ’s homecoming.

What do the Ascension and the Session really mean? They proclaim Christ as Pantocrator, as the ruler of all things. Several years ago, travelling in England and visiting a number of Cathedrals and Churches, I was struck with how many of them had icons. Icons are a particular feature of the churches of Eastern Orthodoxy and embody a kind of sacramental sensibility. They draw us into the mystery of God’s engagement with our humanity and our world. They suggest something which belongs to the Ascension of Christ, a way of seeing ourselves and our world in God.

It is that orientation and understanding that is so critical and necessary for our church and world, for our souls and our lives. Some of you will have noticed that we have an icon here at Christ Church in the crossing just in front of the organ pipes. It is an icon of Christ Pantocrator, Christ the Ruler of All, already pointed to in the theme of this morning’s gradual psalm, “for God is the King of all the Earth.” The Icon presents an image of Christ holding an open book. The words are written in Russian in the Cyrillic alphabet. The open book symbolizes the idea of Christ Pantocrator as Teacher. Other icons depict Christ as holding a closed book, symbolizing Christ Pantocrator as Judge, albeit the merciful judge of all creation.

The Ascension and the Session of Christ are what we celebrate on this day. They affirm in the fullest way possible the idea that who we are is found entirely in God through the redemptive work of Christ. We are gathered to God in Christ and live in that understanding. That requires our constant learning about what that means. Hence the significance of Christ Pantocrator as Teacher. Our lives are gathered into the life of Christ and thus into the rule of his life in us. Our vocation is to be the learners of Christ. Disciples, after all, means learners.

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Monday May 14th
6:30-7:30pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, May 15th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-8:00pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club – Coronation Room: Ross King, “Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of The Water Lilies” and Christian Madsbjerg, “Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm”

Wednesday, May 16th
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Friday, May 18th
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders & Rangers – Parish Hall

Sunday, May 20th, Pentecost
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Upcoming Event:

Wednesday, May 23rd
3:00pm KES Cadet Corps Church Parade

The collect for today, Sunday After Ascension Day, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O GOD the King of Glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven: We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 4:7-11
The Gospel: St. John 15:26-16:4a

Artwork: Valentin de Boulogne, The Last Supper, 1625-26. Oil on canvas, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome.

The collect for today, the commemoration of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), Nurse, Social Reformer (source):

Life-giving God, who alone hast power over life and death, over health and sickness: Give power, wisdom, and gentleness to those who follow the example of thy servant Florence Nightingale, that they, bearing with them thy Presence, may not only heal but bless, and shine as lanterns of hope in the darkest hours of pain and fear; through Jesus Christ, the healer of body and soul, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Lesson: Isaiah 58:6-11
The Gospel: St. Matthew 25:31-46

Artwork: Francis William Sargent, Florence Nightingale Memorial, 1913. Main Cloister, Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence. Photograph taken by admin, 17 May 2010.

Florence Nightingale was born in Florence to an English couple touring Europe. Her parents loved the city so much that they gave its name to their daughter.