Month: September 2011

Prayers and liturgy

Theodore of Tarsus

St_TheodoreThe collect for today, the Feast of St Theodore of Tarsus (602-690), Archbishop of Canterbury (source):

Almighty God, who didst call thy servant Theodore of Tarsus from Rome to the see of Canterbury, and didst give him gifts of grace and wisdom to establish unity where there had been division, and order where there had been chaos: Create in thy Church, we pray, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, such godly union and concord that it may proclaim, both by word and example, the Gospel of the Prince of Peace; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Epistle: 2 Timothy 2:1-5,10
The Gospel: St. Matthew 24:42-47

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Sermons

Sermon for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

“Walk in the Spirit”

“Walk in the Spirit”, Paul bids us. “How do you read the Law?” Jesus asks before responding to the rhetorical question, “and who is my neighbour?” with the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Spirit and Flesh, Law and Grace. In the Epistle, Paul notes the opposition between the Spirit and the Flesh. In the Gospel, there is the contrast between Law and Grace. What does it all come down to? To the grace of God which causes the fruits of the Spirit to be manifest in our lives. To the grace of God which allows us to go and do as the Samaritan has done, for love is the fulfilling of the Law.

Paul elaborates on the opposition between Spirit and Flesh. It is important, I think, to be clear about what he is saying. He is not saying that the flesh, meaning the body or physical material reality, is evil. It can’t be in a Judeo-Christian and Islamic understanding since creation and everything in creation is by definition “good” and the whole of it “very good”. This is the fundamental perspective granted to us in The Book of Genesis and one which has profound consequences for how we think about good and evil.

What he teaches here is the ancient wisdom shared by Greeks, Jews, Christians and Muslims, among other religious traditions, which recognizes that the problem is about our attachments to things. This is heightened in the Christian view by seeing evil as really being about our wills, what Paul calls here “the desire of the flesh”. He provides a list of “the works of the flesh”. In every case it is about our relation to the body, to the world, and to one another, all of which involve a denial of our primary relation to God. In short, the problem is not the world or the flesh per se but our willful attachment and obsessions with the world and the flesh. From adultery to idolatry to witchcraft to wrath to drunkenness, each of the works of the flesh reveals a disordered relationship to the things of creation and, particularly, to one another, and, of course, to God. Ultimately, Paul’s list here will be given a more systematic expression in the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 19-25 September

Tuesday, September 20th, Eve of St. Matthew
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownies’ Meeting – Parish Hall
7:00pm Holy Communion
7:30pm Christ Church Book Club: ‘Descent of The Dove’ by Charles Williams and ‘Jesus through the Centuries’ by Jaroslav Pelikan

Thursday, September 22nd
1:30-3:00pm Seniors’ Drop-In

Friday, September 23rd, Ember Friday
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
3:30pm Holy Communion – Gladys Manning Home

Saturday, September 24th
7:30pm Classical Guitar Concert, Duo of Eugene Cormier and Matt Martin. Click here for more information.

Sunday, September 25th, Trinity XIV
8:00am Holy Communion
9:30am Holy Communion – KES
10:30am Morning Prayer
2:00pm AMD Service of the Deaf
4:00pm Choral Evensong at Christ Church

Upcoming Events:

Saturday, October 1st
7:00-9:00pm Newfoundland and Country Evening of Musical Entertainment – Parish Hall

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Prayers and liturgy

The Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity

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

ALMIGHTY and merciful God, of whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service: Grant, we beseech thee, that we may so faithfully serve thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain thy heavenly promises; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Galatians 5:16-24
The Gospel: St. Luke 10:25-37

Rossano Gospels, Parable of the Good Samaritan

Artwork: Parable of the Good Samaritan, Illumination from the Rossano Gospels (Codex Purpureus Rossanensis), 6th century.

 

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Prayers and liturgy

Ninian

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Ninian (c. 360 – c. 432), Bishop of Galloway, Apostle to the Picts (source):

Saint Ninian windowAlmighty and everlasting God,
who didst call thy servant Ninian to preach the gospel
to the people of northern Britain:
raise up, we beseech thee, in this and every land,
heralds and evangelists of thy kingdom,
that thy Church may make known the immeasurable riches
of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Lesson: Isaiah 49:1-6
The Gospel: St. Matthew 28:16-20

Read more about St. Ninian here.

Artwork: Saint Ninian, stained glass, Saint Margaret’s Chapel, Edinburgh Castle. Photo taken by admin, 24 July 2004.

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Prayers and liturgy

Holy Cross Day

The collect for today, Holy Cross Day, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O BLESSED Saviour, who by thy cross and passion hast given life unto the world: Grant that we thy servants may be given grace to take up the cross and follow thee through life and death; whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit we worship and glorify, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

With the Epistle and Gospel of Passion Sunday:
The Epistle: Philippians 2:5-11
The Gospel: St. John 12:31-36

Tiepolo, Discovery of the True Cross and St. Helena

Artwork: Giambattista Tiepolo, The Discovery of the True Cross and Saint Helena, c. 1743. Oil on canvas, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice. (Originally in the church of the Cappuccine, Castello, Venice, now destroyed.)

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Prayers and liturgy

Cyprian of Carthage

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Cyprian (c. 200-258), Bishop of Carthage, Martyr (source):

Saint Cyprian of CarthageO holy God,
who didst bring Cyprian to faith in Christ
and didst make him a bishop in the Church,
crowning his witness with a martyr’s death:
grant that, following his example,
we may love the Church and her doctrine,
find thy forgiveness within her fellowship,
and so come to share the heavenly banquet
which thou hast prepared for us;
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 Epistle: 1 St. Peter 5:1-4,10-11
The Gospel: St. John 10:11-16

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Sermons

Sermon for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

“Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.”

It is a healing miracle and one which excited great wonder and astonishment, so much so that Jesus’ charge to “tell no man” gets completely ignored! We sense the power of the occasion. One who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech is brought before Jesus. Those who bring him to Jesus want him to lay his hands upon him – signifying  a blessing and, perhaps, a healing.

Jesus’ response is intriguing. Curious actions and, then, a powerful word. The actions and the word go together. The healing is in some sense sacramental – words being used with the ordinary things of the world to effect something quite extraordinary, even supernatural or spiritual. What actions? Jesus takes the one who is afflicted aside, meaning away from the multitude – a bit like going into the privacy of a doctor’s office, I suppose. He examines him, physically it seems, putting his fingers into his ears which might seem a wee bit strange. Not so strange, though, as what he does next: he spit, and touched his tongue! Then there is one further gesture or action. Jesus looks up to heaven and sighs; only at that point does he speak, saying in Aramaic, “Ephphatha, that is, be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed and he spake plain.”

Ephphatha. It is one of the few places in the New Testament where we have an Aramaic word even though Aramaic was probably the actual language which Jesus spoke. Aramaic is a semitic language related to Hebrew. Mark transliterates the Aramaic word into Greek letters and then gives us the interpretation of the word in Greek. Be opened is the English translation of the Greek and the Aramaic.

Jesus the Son is defined by his relation to the will of God the Father. I love the picture here of Jesus looking up to heaven and sighing, especially after the intimate gestures of touching the ears and tongue with his fingers and spitting on the ground. There is something wonderfully hands-on about this entire scene, something empirical and tangible; in short, something quite real about Jesus’ engagement with our humanity. The spiritual is not something ethereal and remote but rather down to earth and ordinary. Paradoxically, that makes the scene all the more extraordinary and special.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 12-18 September

Tuesday, Sept. 13th, Eve of Holy Cross
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownies’ Meeting – Parish Hall
7:00pm Holy Communion
7:30pm Parish Council Meeting

Thursday, Sept. 15th
1:30-3:00pm Seniors’ Drop-In
3:00pm Service at Windsor Elms

Sunday, Sept. 18th, Trinity XIII
8:00am Holy Communion
9:30am Holy Communion – KES
10:30am Holy Communion
1:30-3:00pm Parish Picnic (potluck) – 220 Grey Mountain Road, Falmouth

Upcoming Events:

Tuesday, Sept. 20th
7:30pm Christ Church Book Club: Descent of the Dove, by Charles Williams, and Jesus Through the Centuries, by Jaroslav Pelikan. Click here for more information.

Saturday, Sept. 24th
7:30pm Classical Guitar Concert, Eugene Cormier and Matt Martin. Click here for more information.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Twelfth Sunday After Trinity

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

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 2 Corinthians 3:4-9
The Gospel: St. Mark 7:31-37

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