Christ Church

The collects for today, the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul the Apostles, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O almighty God, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst give to thy Apostle Saint Peter many excellent gifts, and commandedst him earnestly to feed thy flock: Make, we beseech thee, all Bishops and Pastors diligently to preach thy holy Word, and the people obediently to follow the same, that they may receive the crown of everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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 manifold labours 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 Epistle: 1 St Peter 1:1-9
The Gospel: St Matthew 16:13-19

Artwork: Saints Peter and Paul, 15th century. From a house in Fondamenta Cavour, Murano, Italy. Photo taken by admin, 11 May 2010.

“What went ye out for to see?”

He catches our attention, though not necessarily our affection, unlike St. Francis, the Hippie Saint of the sixties. He catches our attention and, yet, we are even drawn to him, attracted by something strange and yet compelling. “What went ye out for to see?” Jesus asks, highlighting the strange and yet compelling character of John the Baptist whose nativity is celebrated on June 24^th, and whose feast day marks the anniversary of the landing of John Cabot in Newfoundland in 1497. Thus he has become the patron saint of what has subsequently become Canada. His feast day also was the occasion for the baptism of Chief Membertou four hundred years ago in 1610, an event that marked the conversion of the Mi’kmaq to Christianity.

The figure of John the Baptist frames our summer sojourning; his nativity marks the beginning of summer, so close to the summer solstice; and his death, “The Beheading of John the Baptist,” coming at the end of August, marks the end of summer, being so close to the end of cottage season. We are talking about the Maritimes here!

Birth and death. Summer and winter. This birth points us to the winter’s birth of Christ, whose greater nativity signals all the summer of our lives in the grace of God towards us. In a way, that is the point of John the Baptist. He points not to himself but to Christ. The Nativity of John the Baptist signals the preparations which God makes for his coming into our midst as the Incarnate Lord in the Nativity of Jesus Christ. The summer solstice has just past; the long summer’s march to winter, yes, even to Christmas, dare I say, has begun!

Read the rest of this entry »

“What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you”

St. Paul’s sermon on the Areopagus is one of the most remarkable and influential sermons of all time. It illustrates wonderfully, I think, the contemplative theme of this Sunday, the theme of mercy, signaled in the Eucharistic Gospel. “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” But what is the mercy? It is the mercy of revelation. What was unknown has been made known. We walk in the light of what has been revealed. If we do not, then we walk in the darkness and lead others astray as well; “shall they not both fall into the ditch?” Such is the import of the Gospel parable of “the blind leading the blind.” Our self-righteous judgments point accusing fingers at the minor faults of others while being blind to the major faults in ourselves.

The point of the reading of the Scriptures in the public and common life of the Church is to reveal God to us and us to God. We learn about “the good, the bad and the ugly” of ourselves in the light of God’s mercy and truth. This requires our openness to the Scriptures and our willingness to engage and think the Scriptures. The Old Testament lesson from 1^st Kings is particularly instructive, too, because it illustrates the theme of mercy over harsh judgments in the reign of King Rehoboam who ignores the wise counsel of the old men in favour of the rash advice of the young men. It is a supreme instance of an abusive authority that imposes impossible demands.

“To your tents, O Israel” is the only response, a fleeing from what is persecutory and destructive but only so as to recall ourselves to what is primary and definitive. Ultimately, God has tented among us. “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us;” literally, “tented among us,” a phrase which picks up on the Old Testament image of the tent of meeting between God and man, the tent of meeting where the glory of God is made known.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Forgive and ye shall be forgiven”

Forgiveness. It is the hardest thing and yet it is one of the most free things that we can ever do, perhaps even one of the simplest things, in our lives. It is connected to that most free of all things: the power of God’s praise which brings the walls of presumption tumbling to the ground, like the walls of Jericho, for example. It belongs as well to the power of God’s love which moves in human loves; for instance, the love of friendship seen in David and Jonathan which remains a strong and precious bond even in the face of the enmity of a father and a king, namely, Saul. It is the abundance of divine charity that alone can open our eyes and soften our hearts.

What makes forgiveness so hard? It is our hypocrisy. It is not just our saying one thing and our doing another, but also our doing one thing and thinking another. We are divided within ourselves against ourselves, against one another and against God. There is our blindness and there is our judgmentalism – both of which are eloquently illustrated in the Gospel for today. “Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?…Cast out first the beam that is in thine own eye, then shall thou see clearly the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.” We presume to know what in fact we do not know. It is not just our ignorance but our arrogance that is the problem. It is a willful blindness, a kind of refusal to see what in fact we have been given to see and know, for instance, in the witness of the Scriptures. But then, again, we frequently refuse to act upon what we do know. It is not our knowing but our indifference or our stubbornness that is the problem.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday, June 29th, St Peter & St Paul
10:00 am Holy Communion

Sunday, July 4th, Fifth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion – Christ Church
9:0am Holy Communion – St Thomas’, Three Mile Plain
10:30am Holy Communion – Christ Church

Since the summer schedule is now in effect, there will be no more ‘Week at a Glance” posts until September. (The 2010 Summer Schedule is posted here.)

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

O GOD, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 8:18-23
The Gospel: St Luke 6:36-42

Artwork: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Parable of the Blind Leading the Blind, 1568. Tempera on canvas, Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples.

The collect for today, the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY God, by whose providence thy servant John Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of thy Son our Saviour, by preaching of repentance: Make us so to follow his doctrine and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching, and after his example constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Isaiah 40:1-11
The Gospel: St Luke 1:57-80

Artwork: Giotto, Birth and Naming of John the Baptist, 1320. Fresco, Peruzzi Chapel, Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence.

The June 2010 issue of the parish newsletter, Christ Church Chronicles, can be downloaded here as a pdf document. (Previous issues can be downloaded via this page.)

Sunday, July 4th, Fifth Sunday After Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion – Christ Church
9:00am Holy Communion – St. Thomas’, 3-Mile Plains
10:30am Holy Communion – Christ Church

Sunday, July 11th, Sixth Sunday After Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion – Christ Church
9:00am Holy Communion – St. Michael’s, Windsor Forks
10:30am Morning Prayer – Christ Church

Sunday, July 18th, Seventh Sunday After Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion – Christ Church
10:30am Holy Communion – Christ Church
7:00pm Evening Prayer – All Saints’, Leminster

Sunday, July 25th, St James/Trinity VIII
8:00am Holy Communion – Christ Church
9:00am Holy Communion – St. George’s, Falmouth
10:30am Holy Communion – Christ Church

Sunday, August 1st, Ninth Sunday After Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion – Christ Church
9:00am Holy Communion – St. Thomas’, Three Mile Plains
10:30am Holy Communion – Christ Church

Sunday, August 8th, Tenth Sunday After Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion – Christ Church
10:30am Holy Communion – Christ Church
7:00pm Holy Communion – All Saints’, Leminster

Sunday, August 15th, Eleventh Sunday After Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion – Christ Church
9:00am Holy Communion – St. Michael’s, Windsor Forks
10:30am Holy Communion – Christ Church

Sunday, August 22nd, Twelfth Sunday After Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion – Christ Church
9:00am Holy Communion – St. George’s, Falmouth
10:30am Holy Communion – Christ Church

Sunday, August 29th, Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion – Christ Church
10:30am Holy Communion – Christ Church
7:00pm Holy Communion – All Saints’, Leminster

(Fr. Curry Priest-in-Charge during July; Fr. Henderson during August)

“For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.”

The humility of God’s charity is all our theme on this day, and not for this day only, but also for the week that brings us to the celebration of the Nativity of John the Baptist. What is the humility of God’s charity? It is God’s reaching down to us so that his love may take shape in us.

The Nativity of John the Baptist signals the preparations which God himself makes for his coming into our midst as the Incarnate Lord in the Nativity of Jesus Christ. The summer solstice is upon us; the long summer’s march to winter is about to begin! Say it isn’t so! But, already, Christmas is in view! Yet, this summer’s feast, the Nativity of John the Baptist (on June 24) signals something more. Beyond the reminder of God’s coming to us, there is the purpose of his coming in us. The redemption of our humanity revealed in Christ is about the motions of his grace taking shape in our lives.  The humility of God’s charity in us means the “scattering of the proud in the imagination of their [our] hearts.” There are the practical lessons about the necessity of humility.

The humility of God’s charity calls us to humility against our pride. Pride is that grand delusion whereby we presume to be the center of everything either in our complacency or in our whining neediness. The self-giving love of God stands altogether opposed to the self-centeredness of our pride. Pride stands utterly opposed to God and to God’s ways with us.

Read the rest of this entry »