Year: 2012

Sermons

Sermon for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene / Seventh Sunday after Trinity

“Go to my brethren, and say unto them,
I ascend to my Father, and your Father; and to my God and your God.”

It is part of the remarkable exchange between Mary Magdalene and Jesus at the garden tomb after the horrifying events of the Crucifixion. She came full of grief and sorrow in the quiet of the early morning. She came looking for a corpse, the body of Jesus. She encounters the utterly unexpected reality of the Resurrection.

Jesus meets her at the empty tomb with the question of the angels, “Woman, why weepest thou?” and adds, “Whom seekest thou?” Mistaking him for the gardener, she repeats her request for the body of Jesus. Jesus’ response is to call her by name, “Mary,” to which she replies with a simple word of recognition, “Rabboni,” meaning master or teacher. This leads to the first command to her by the Risen Christ, a most curious command, “Touch me not,” he says, followed by the second command, her mission and his message. “I am not yet ascended to my Father,” Jesus prefaces his direction to her, “but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”

Occasionally, a major saints’ day, meaning in our Anglican understanding, a New Testament figure or event, coincides with a Sunday. Every Sunday is by definition a celebration of the Resurrection in relation to which particular themes or teachings of Christ are set before us. The major saints’ day serve to complement this fundamental emphasis, even more so with Mary Magdalene who is the first witness to the Resurrection and the first to proclaim the Resurrection. She is “the apostle to the apostles,” as the Fathers of the early church put it, the one who is sent by Jesus to those whom Jesus will send out into the world as the emissaries of his word and will of human redemption. The Church is nothing if not apostolic; that is to say, rooted and grounded in the word and will of Jesus authoritatively passed on to the apostles by the author of our redemption, Jesus himself. Mary cannot be ignored in relation to that idea.

(more…)

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Saint Mary Magdalene

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O ALMIGHTY God, whose blessed Son did sanctify Mary Magdalene, and call her to be a witness to his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by thy grace we may be healed of all our infirmities, and always serve thee in the power of his endless life; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Lesson: Acts 13:27-31
The Gospel: St John 20:11-18

Gaddi, Magdalene Washing the Feet of JesusArtwork: Taddeo Gaddi, Magdalene Washing the Feet of Jesus (from the fresco cycle Last Supper, Tree of Life, and Four Miracle Scenes), 1360s, Santa Croce, Florence.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

The Seventh Sunday After Trinity

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

LORD of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 6:17-23
The Gospel: St. Mark 8:1-9

Letterini, Multiplication of Loaves & Fishes

Artwork: Bartolomeo Letterini, Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, 1721. Oil on canvas, Chiesa di San Pietro Martire, Murano, Venice.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Margaret of Antioch, Virgin and Martyr

The collect for a Virgin or Matron, on the Feast of St. Margaret of Antioch (early 4th century), Virgin and Martyr, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Ludovico Carracci, Martyrdom of St. MargaretO GOD Most High, the creator of all mankind, we bless thy holy Name for the virtue and grace which thou hast given unto holy women in all ages, especially thy servant Margaret of Antioch; and we pray that the example of her faith and purity, and courage unto death, may inspire many souls in this generation to look unto thee, and to follow thy blessed Son Jesus Christ our Saviour; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Lesson: Acts 9:36-42
The Gospel: St. Luke 10:38-42

Artwork: Ludovico Carracci, The Martyrdom of St Margaret, 1616. Oil on canvas, Cappella di Santa Margherita, San Maurizio, Mantua.

Print this entry

Sermons

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

“Love your enemies”

I have had occasion to ponder the mystery of this Gospel. It is, to be sure, a melancholy object to contemplate the meanness and the mindlessness of our institutional culture and our individual dealings with one another at times. Hatred and death, love and life, are often on full display and not always in equal proportion and not just in the world of war and politics. This Gospel is really about ourselves in the division of our hearts.

“Love your enemies,” Jesus says. It seems impossible and it is and yet, it goes to the heart of the Christian understanding. Life and death, love and hate are totally intertwined in human experience. What we are being commanded here belongs to our Christian identity. “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful,” Jesus says, and beyond mere words, the whole life of Jesus is about mercy. “While we were yet sinners,” that is to say, while we were the enemies of God, “Christ died for us.” Such is his love. His love is love in the face of our enmity.

But we do not want to hear this. It seems so negative. Yet, it is the amazing grace of the Gospel. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” – loved us. The Cross shows us the real meaning of mercy and love. We see on the Cross what Jesus is saying about God: “for he is kind unto the unthankful, and to the evil.” It is an old biblical view. The sun shines upon the just and the unjust. To be sure. And while it seems grotesquely unfair, the wicked do sometimes seem to “flourish like green bay tree,” as the Psalmist puts it, and not just on Bay Street or Wall Street or the City (London). And there is the deeper philosophical question of Plato in The Republic, hinted at in myriad of ways in the Scriptures, the question about whether it is better to appear just while being unjust or to be just regardless of how you appear in the eyes of others.

This is where this Gospel passage comes into its own and shows us its real power. (more…)

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

The Sixth Sunday After Trinity

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

O GOD, who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass man’s understanding: Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 6:3-11
The Gospel: St. Luke 6:27-36

Artwork: Sermon On The Mount, 6th-century mosaic, Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Stephen Langton, Archbishop

The collect for a Bishop or Archbishop, on the Commemoration of Stephen Langton (c. 1150-1228), Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Stephen Langton StatueO GOD, our heavenly Father, who didst raise up thy faithful servant Stephen Langton to be a Bishop in thy Church and to feed thy flock: We beseech thee to send down upon all thy Bishops, the Pastors of thy Church, the abundant gift of thy Holy Spirit, that they, being endued with power from on high, and ever walking in the footsteps of thy holy Apostles, may minister before thee in thy household as true servants of Christ and stewards of thy divine mysteries; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Timothy 6:11-16
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:37-43

Artwork: Statue of Stephen Langton, Exterior, Canterbury Cathedral.

Print this entry

Sermons

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity

“Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing;
nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net”

Simon Peter’s words capture elegantly and poignantly the reality of Christian experience and faith especially in contemporary times. There is the haunting sense of nothingness, the fear that what we have been doing all the years of our lives is really worth nothing. And yet, as Simon Peter says, “at thy word I will let down the net.” We press on not just with a sense of stoic futility, not just because, but “at thy word.” That changes everything and makes all our doings something worth and something understood. It is really about the Providence of God which rules and moves in and through our lives.

The Collect prays “that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness.” The Epistle reading, too, from First Peter (the role and place of Peter are suggested in these readings which belong to the early part of the Trinity season and in close proximity to the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul) exhorts us to a certain outlook and behavior regardless of the material outcome and regardless of the realities of suffering. It concludes by bidding us to “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.”

The idea of Providence is a rich and important theological concept. It is not unique to Christianity, of course, but it takes on a certain colour and hue in the Christian understanding because of the figure of Jesus Christ. The three great Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all word-centered, we might say, but in different ways. For Christians, Jesus Christ is “the Word made flesh” and that gives special meaning and poignancy to what Peter says here: “nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net.” In the face of the emptiness of human experience, in the dark night of suffering and sorrow, too, I would add, there is this strong affirmation of the goodness of God who alone can bring good out of evil, and light out of darkness, the God who is no stranger to the darkness of human sin experienced as suffering and death, emptiness and loss.

(more…)

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

The Fifth Sunday After Trinity

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

GRANT, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St Peter 3:8-15a
The Gospel: St Luke 5:1-11

Rubens, Miraculous Draught of FishesArtwork: Peter Paul Rubens, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, 1618-19. Black chalk, pen and oil on paper, stuck on canvas; National Gallery, London.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Thomas More, Martyr

The collect for a Martyr, on the Commemoration of Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), Lord Chancellor of England, Reformation Martyr, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Holbein, Sir Thomas MoreO GOD, who didst bestow upon thy Saints such marvellous virtue, that they were able to stand fast, and have the victory against the world, the flesh, and the devil: Grant that we, who now commemorate thy Martyr Thomas More, may ever rejoice in their fellowship, and also be enabled by thy grace to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold upon eternal life; through our Lord Jesus Christ, 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

Artwork: Hans Holbein the Younger, Sir Thomas More, 1527. Tempera on wood, Frick Collection, New York City.

Print this entry