Day: May 2, 2010

Sermons

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday After Easter

“Because I go to my Father”

“Elvis has left the building,” it is famously said, indicating that there would be no more encores. Well, here, I hope, Jesus has not left the building! But the question for our culture and day is whether we have left him in our indifference, if not our outright hostility to Christian doctrine and life.

There is a paradox in the last three Sundays of Easter that is captured in the recurring refrain signaled in the Gospels for those Sundays. The recurring refrain is “because I go to my Father.” Jesus prepares the disciples for his going away which is the condition of his being with us in his body, the Church. It is the so-called “farewell discourse” of Jesus in St. John’s Gospel.

The Gospel engages the world. That is not the same thing as being collapsed into the world or being conformed to the world. Nor is it about making accommodations to the world with respect to the agendas and issues of our day. There have always been such tendencies and temptations. They can be, perhaps, the occasion for the discovery or recovery of the deeper truths of the Gospel. “The Spirit of truth,” it is said in today’s gospel, “will guide you into all truth.”

But what is that truth? Is it simply something which we happen to agree upon today only to change our minds tomorrow? Is the truth simply our acquiescence to the loudest voices drumming their mantras of social and political correctness into our heads? Is truth simply the will of those in power? Is it simply our feelings and opinions? No. Complementary to this statement about “the Spirit of truth,” is the equally important statement that we will hear at Pentecost, namely, that the Holy Spirit “shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you.” Somehow truth is found in the divine relations between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; in short, in the divine life opened to view through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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King's-Edgehill School Sermons, Sermons

Reflections for Choral Evensong

Reflections for Choral Evensong on the Occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the King’s-Edgehill School Cadet Corps

I.

Words written on the wall. As we came into Christ Church we passed under the arch of the swords of the honour guard. But we also passed under these words, “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.” None of us read these words, probably because we were watching our feet! We are probably not the only ones who missed those words! What do they mean?

The words are taken from the Book of Ecclesiastes, the most philosophical book of the Jewish Scriptures. The passage goes on to exhort us to “be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools.” In other words, these words speak to our life as a School and a Cadet Corps. They mean, quite simply, “pay attention,” or, as Major Miles often says, “Listen up, youse guys!”

II.

Tonight we celebrate 100 years of the Cadet Programme at King’s-Edgehill School. The connection between the school and the military, of course, is much older. The commitment to leadership and public service is part of the educational project of the school. For over two hundred years, students from King’s have served in many of the great military contests throughout the world: in the wars of the Napoleonic era; in the battles of the rise and fall of the British Empire; and in the devastating wars of the twentieth century. The grandson of the Founder of our School, Sir John Inglis, for instance, was the hero of Lucknow, a battle fought in India, in 1858. The events of our past are inescapably part of our identity.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 3-9 May

Tuesday, May 4th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownies’ Mtg. in the Hall
7:00pm Choral Evensong – King’s College Chapel Choir

Thursday, May 6th
1:30-3:00pm Seniors’ Drop-In

Saturday, May 8th
4:30-6:00pm ANNUAL LOBSTER SUPPER

Sunday, May 9th, Fifth Sunday after Easter/Rogation Sunday
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
4:30pm Evening Prayer at KES

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Prayers and liturgy

The Fourth Sunday After Easter

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

O ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men: Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: St James 1:17-21
The Gospel: St John 16:5-15

Tintoretto, Last Supper (1594)

Artwork: Tintoretto, The Last Supper, 1592-94. Oil on canvas, Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

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