Year: 2011

Sermons

Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, 10:30am service

“Speak the word only”

The Collect, Epistle and Gospel for each Sunday provide the interpretative framework for our understanding of the lessons at Morning and Evening Prayer. Indeed, they are at the heart of the Common Prayer tradition as embodying a creedal or doctrinal reading of Scripture. It is a good devotional practice before each service to pray and study the Collect, Epistle and Gospel for the day, regardless of whether the service is Morning Prayer or Holy Communion. They are at the heart of The Book of Common Prayer, itself the heart of Anglican Spirituality.

I want to make some remarks about the Gospel and to consider briefly this morning’s lessons in its light. The Gospel which orders our thoughts on the Third Sunday after Epiphany is the double healing of the leper and the Centurion’s servant by Jesus Christ. Epiphany season abounds in miracles. They belong to the making visible of the glory of God. A miracle, after all, is a sign of wonder. The healing miracles are a wonder. But what exactly do we see? Only the signs of the glory in the effects of what is said and done. The wonder, really, is the wonder of Christ.

Christ heals a leper and he heals the paralysed servant of the Centurion. He speaks and he acts. There is healing. The healings are within Israel and beyond Israel. “He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near”, as Paul reminds us. Through the history and meaning of Israel, the glory of God is not only made known to the world but for the whole world, which is Paul’s point later in The Epistle to the Ephesians, namely, that “all might see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God” (Eph. 3.9). The leper is healed within the context of Israel and is held to the requirements of the Law in Israel. With the Centurion’s request, Jesus acknowledges something more: there is the wonder of faith which coming out of Israel transcends Israel. “I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel”. For both the leper and the Centurion, Christ is the wonder. There is an epiphany. In a way, too, it complements the extraordinary chapter from Isaiah which actually speaks about Cyrus, the Persian king, who though he did not “know God”, was, nonetheless, the agent and instrument of God’s restoration of Israel from captivity in Babylon to Jerusalem.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, 8:00am service

“Speak the word only”

The Collect, Epistle and Gospel for each Sunday are at the heart of the Common Prayer tradition as embodying a creedal or doctrinal reading of Scripture. It is a good devotional practice before each service to pray and study the Collect, Epistle and Gospel for the day regardless of whether the service is Morning Prayer or Holy Communion. They are at the heart of The Book of Common Prayer, itself the heart of Anglican Spirituality.

The Gospel for today presents us with a double healing, the healing of the leper and the Centurion’s servant by Jesus Christ. Epiphany season abounds in miracles. They belong to the making visible of the glory of God. A miracle, after all, is a sign of wonder. The healing miracles are a wonder. But what exactly do we see? Only the signs of the glory in the effects of what is said and done. The wonder, really, is the wonder of Christ.

Christ heals a leper and he heals the paralysed servant of the Centurion. He speaks and he acts. There is healing. The healings are within Israel and beyond Israel. Through the history and meaning of Israel, the glory of God is not only made known to the world but for the whole world. The leper is healed within the context of Israel and is held to the requirements of the Law in Israel. With the Centurion’s request, Jesus acknowledges something more: there is the wonder of faith which coming out of Israel transcends Israel. “I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel”. For both the leper and the Centurion, Christ is the wonder. There is an epiphany.

(more…)

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 24-30 January

Tuesday, January 25th, Conversion of St Paul
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownies in the Hall
7:30pm Holy Communion

Thursday, January 27th
1:30-3:00pm Seniors’ Drop-In

Friday, January 28th
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
3:30pm Holy Communion – Gladys Manning

Sunday, January 30th, The Fourth Sunday After The Epiphany
8:00am Holy Communion – Parish Hall
10:30am Morning Prayer – Parish Hall
4:30pm Evening Prayer at Christ Church

Confirmation Classes: Rm. 204 at KES, 4:45-5:15.
The dates are January 10th, 17th; February 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th; March 7th. Please contact Fr. Curry, 798-2454.

Upcoming events:
Monday, January 31st
7:30pm Christ Church Book Club: “Atheist Delusions” by David Bentley Hart
Sunday, February 6th
Pot-Luck Luncheon & Annual Parish Meeting, following the 10:30 service
Tuesday, March 8th
4:30-6:00pm Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper

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Prayers and liturgy

The Third Sunday After The Epiphany

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 12:16-21
The Gospel: St Matthew 8:1-13

Morlaiter, Jesus and the Centurion

Artwork: Giovanni Maria Morlaiter, Jesus and the Centurion, 1754. Bas-relief, Chiesa di Santa Maria del Rosario (I Gesuati), Venice.

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Mission

Report on the ordination of Fr. Gethin Edward, St. Matthew’s, Tisdale, Sask.

The Rev’d Gethin Edward, rector of our prayer partner parish, St. Matthew’s Church, Tisdale, Saskatchewan, was ordained to the priesthood on 11 December 2010. The Right Rev’d Michael Hawkins, Bishop of Saskatchewan, presided at the service.

A report on the event, with photos, has been posted at the Saskatchewan Diocese website. Click here to read about the celebration.

UPDATE (26 Jan.): Two photos from the Diocese of Saskatchewan website have been added to our photo library. Click here to view.

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Vincent of Saragossa

The collect for today, the Feast of St 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

Click here to read more about Saint Vincent.

Martyrdom of Saint VincentArtwork: Anonymous Spanish artist, Martyrdom of Saint Vincent, 15th century, Prado, Madrid.

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Agnes of Rome

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Agnes (d. 304), Virgin, Martyr (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

Saints Agnes and Pudentiana

Artwork: Saint Agnes (left) and Saint Pudentiana (right), 9th-century mosaic, Chapel of San Zeno, Basilica of Saint Praxades, Rome. Photograph taken by admin, 25 April 2010.

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Henry of Finland

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

Saint Henry of FinlandALMIGHTY God, by whose grace and power thy Martyr Henry was enabled to witness to the truth and to be faithful unto death: Grant that we, who now remember him before thee, may likewise so bear witness unto thee in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of glory that fadeth not away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St Peter 4:12-19
The Gospel: St Matthew 16:24-27

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Statements and other writings

Fr. Robert Crouse – In Memoriam

Fr. Robert Crouse“They have no wine”, Mary says in today’s Gospel story, the story of the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee. As Father Robert Crouse observed, her statement captures the human predicament. We lack the means of joy in ourselves. We lack what he has called “the wine of divinity”.

Many of us may feel that we are at a loss, too, with the death of The Rev’d Dr. Robert Darwin Crouse. A great teacher and scholar of international standing and repute, he was a friend and a mentor to a great number of priests and scholars around the world. Many of us owe our love and what knowledge we have of such outstanding theological and poetic figures as Augustine and Dante, for instance, to Robert. Through his teaching in hundreds and hundreds of sermons over many years, many people, both clergy and lay, have learned a love of God and an understanding of Christian doctrine, particularly as expressed in the liturgy of The Book of Common Prayer. Acknowledged as “the conscience of the Canadian Church” by another theologian, Canon Eugene Rathbone Fairweather, Robert’s voice was the calm still voice of wisdom and understanding, a theological voice which has not always been heeded by the Anglican Church, but which lives on through his writings and teachings and, perhaps, in some small way through his many, many students.

He was, perhaps, the most outstanding scholar that King’s Collegiate School in Windsor, (now King’s-Edgehill) and the University of King’s College in Halifax ever produced. The School contributed to his love of nature, his love of music and his love of learning. They are the loves which stayed with him throughout his life: in the horticultural paradise of his gardens in Crousetown; in playing the organ at little St. Mary’s, Crousetown, the home of the famous Baroque concerts; in teaching at King’s and Dalhousie and in Rome. An outstanding teacher of patristic and medieval philosophy and literature, he was the embodiment of the ideal of the scholarly priest.

While a student at the School, he often came down to Christ Church to play the organ: it was his way, he told me, of getting out of rugby! He has left his mark, quite literally, on the inside wall of the organ chamber where his signature in chalk can still be seen. The smell of the wood and fabric of Christ Church, he once told me, has always stayed with him as evocating the very image and idea of the essential being of the Church.

Robert’s teaching was always, in some sense, sacramental. From Robert we learn something of what it means to have “no wine” in ourselves and, even more, to discover “the wine of divinity” in which we may find those joys celestial which have no ending. May he rest in peace and may his example inspire us all.

Fr. David Curry
Chaplain & Teacher, King’s-Edgehill School
Rector of Christ Church, Windsor
January 16th, 2011

Many of Fr. Crouse’s sermons and writings can be accessed via this link at St. Peter Publications.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany

“They have no wine”

Mary’s statement describes in a simple phrase our human predicament. We are without. We lack the means for our true joy, for our true blessedness. In the background to her remark there is an ancient Jewish saying: “without wine there is no joy”. “They have no wine” means, we may say, they have no joy. But ‘they’ are ‘us’. We have no wine, no joy.

The deeper point is that we can have no joy in ourselves. We lack, we might say, the wine of divinity, the source and the occasion of all joy, the wine that truly gladdens and rejoices the heart and soul. To know our lack, however, is saving knowledge. To know our limitations is to be alert to the possibilities of their being overcome – not by us but by the grace of God for us and in us. To know our lack is to be alert to the real presence of divine grace in our midst.

I cannot think of this gospel story without recalling the phrase “the wine of divinity” used by Fr. Robert Crouse in a sermon on this gospel. A great teacher and scholar of international standing and repute, he was a friend and a mentor to a great number of priests and scholars around the world. The Rev’d Dr. Robert Darwin Crouse passed away yesterday. Many of us owe our love and what knowledge we have of such outstanding theological and poetic figures as Augustine and Dante, for instance, to Robert. Through his teaching in hundreds and hundreds of sermons over many years, many people, both clergy and lay, have learned a love of God and an understanding of Christian doctrine, particularly as expressed in the liturgy of The Book of Common Prayer. Acknowledged as “the conscience of the Canadian Church” by another theologian, Canon Eugene Rathbone Fairweather, Robert’s voice was the calm still voice of wisdom and understanding, a voice which has not always been heeded by the Anglican Church, but which lives on through his writings and teachings and, perhaps, in some small way through his many, many students, of which I count myself one.

(more…)

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