Month: January 2012

Sermons

Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany

“Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof,
but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.”

Mean thoughts, mean words and mean deeds result in a mean world of mean people. How great the contrast with healing words and deeds that arise from healing thoughts?

Words can make or break our day. A word spoken in kindness and truth can build us up and encourage us. A word spoken in disdain and hate can unsettle and disturb us.

Here is an Epiphany story of two miracles. It is simply about the power and the truth of the Divine Word which challenges us about our thoughts, our words and our deeds.

Two miracles. Miracles, we have suggested are part of the teaching programme of the Epiphany season. They belong to God’s will and purpose for our humanity, to our being able to take delight and find joy in one another and in God’s world. All the healing miracles of the Gospel point to that picture of the restoration and perfection of our humanity. They signal the idea of creation redeemed and sanctified. But only through the encounter with Christ. Only through the manifestations of his essential divinity communicated through his perfect humanity.

(more…)

Print this entry

Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 23 – 29 January

Monday, January 23rd
4:45-5:15pm Confirmation Class – Rm. 204, KES

Tuesday, January 24th, Eve of the Conversion of St. Paul
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
7:00pm Holy Communion

Thursday, January 26th
6:30-7:30pm Brownies’ Mtg. – Parish Hall

Friday, January 27th
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
3:30pm Holy Communion – Gladys Manning Home

Sunday, January 29th, Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany
8:00am Holy Communion – Parish Hall
9:30am Holy Communion – KES
10:30am Holy Communion – Parish Hall

Upcoming Events:

Sunday, February 5th
Annual Parish Meeting & Luncheon, following 10:30am service
Tuesday, February 21st
4:30-6:00pm Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper

Confirmation Classes: Rm. 204 at KES, 4:45-5:15pm. The remaining dates are Jan. 23rd, Feb. 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th, & March 5th. Please contact Fr. Curry, 798-2454.

Print this entry

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

Paolo Veronese, Jesus and the Centurion

Artwork: Paolo Veronese, Jesus and the Centurion, c. 1571. Oil on canvas, Prado, Madrid.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Agnes, Virgin and Martyr

Burne-Jones, St. AgnesThe collect for today, the Feast of St. Agnes (d. 304), Virgin, Martyr at Rome (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

Artwork: Edward Burne-Jones, Saint Agnes of Rome, 1887-88. Stained glass, St Paul’s Church, Irton, England. Photograph taken by admin, 8 August 2004.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Henry, Missionary and Bishop

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

Saint Henry of FinlandO GOD, our heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst call thy blessed Apostles and send them forth to preach thy Gospel of salvation unto all the nations: We bless thy holy Name for thy servant Henry, whose labours we commemorate this day, and we pray thee, according to thy holy Word, to send forth many labourers into thy harvest; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Epistle: Acts 12:24-13:5
The Gospel: St. Matthew 4:13-24a

Print this entry

Sermons

Sermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany

“This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee
and manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him.”

Epiphany is the season of teaching, we have said. It is, also, it seems the season of miracles. Epiphany abounds with the miracles of Jesus. Is there a connection? Yes. The miracles teach. They belong to what is being made manifest, to what is being made known to us about who Jesus is and what he means for us. Importantly, the miracles reveal God’s will and purpose for our humanity.

Yet, miracles may trouble us. Some have thought of them as being little more than the stuff of superstition and nonsense. Thomas Jefferson, for example, in the almost typical exuberance and arrogance of the reason of the Enlightenment, took his scissors to the New Testament and cut out of it all the miracles, leaving merely a kind of core of moral teaching as he thought. But this, I am afraid, to have missed the whole point of the miracles. Without them we miss the greater story of God’s will and purpose for our humanity and our world. After all, as theologians like Augustine pointed out long ago, the great miracle is the miracle of creation itself to which the miracles recall us in one way or another.

The miracle stories of the New Testament open us out to the truth of God as Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier and, perhaps, nowhere do we see that more clearly and more profoundly in this Gospel story of the Wedding Feast at Cana of Galilee where Jesus turned the water into wine. John tells us, and it is something he is at pains to tell us, that this was “the beginning of signs” which Jesus did, the first of the miracles as it were. I think he wants us to appreciate how much this Gospel story makes manifest – there is that Epiphany word again – the true meaning of all the miracle stories.

(more…)

Print this entry

Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 16 – 22 January

Monday, January 16th
4:45-5:15pm Confirmation Class – Rm. 204, KES

Tuesday, January 17th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
7:30pm Christ Church Book Club: Champlain’s Dream by David Hackett Fischer

Thursday, January 19th
3:00pm Service at Windsor Elms
6:30-7:30pm Brownies’ Mtg. – Parish Hall

Sunday, January 22nd, Third Sunday After Epiphany
8:00am Holy Communion – Parish Hall
9:30am Holy Communion – KES
10:30am Holy Communion – Parish Hall
2:00pm AMD Service of the Deaf

Upcoming Events:

Sunday, February 5th
Annual Parish Meeting & Luncheon, following 10:30am service
Tuesday, February 21st
4:30-6:00pm Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper

Confirmation Classes: Rm. 204 at KES, 4:45-5:15pm. The remaining dates are Jan. 16th, 23rd, Feb. 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th, & March 5th. Please contact Fr. Curry, 798-2454.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

The Second Sunday After The Epiphany

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

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of thy people, and grant us thy peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 12:6-16
The Gospel: St. John 2:1-11

Letterini, Wedding at CanaArtwork: Bartolomeo Letterini, The Wedding at Cana in Galilee, Chiesa di San Pietro Martire, Murano, Venice.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Hilary, Doctor and Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Hilary (c. 315-368), Bishop of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church (source):

Parmigianino, Saint HilaryEverlasting God,
whose servant Hilary
steadfastly confessed thy Son Jesus Christ
to be both human and divine:
grant us his gentle courtesy
to bring to all the message of redemption
in the incarnate Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: 1 St. John 2:18-25
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:8-12

Click here to read more about Saint Hilary.

Artwork: Parmigianino, Saint Hilary of Poitiers, 1522. Fresco, San Giovanni Evangelista, Parma, Italy.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Benedict Biscop, Abbot and Scholar

Saint Benedict BiscopThe collect for a Doctor of the Church, Poet, or Scholar, on the Feast of Saint Benedict Biscop (c. 628-89), Founder of the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, Scholar, Patron of the Arts, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962);

O GOD, who by thy Holy Spirit hast given unto one man a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, and to another the gift of tongues: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant Benedict Biscop, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Daniel 2:17-24
The Gospel: St. Matthew 13:9-17

Click here to read more about St. Benedict Biscop.

Print this entry