Day: June 2, 2013

Sermons

Sermon for the First Sunday after Trinity, 10:30am Morning Prayer

“If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them”
& “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?”

A double text to capture two themes. Do we act out of what we have been given to see? Or do we demand that God be accountable to us? To act out of what we have been to see is captured in the first text, “if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them”; the other text expresses the vehemence of our hostility against God, “what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?”

We are confronted with the challenge and the refusal. There is the challenge to act out of what we have been given to see of the majesty of God and our blessedness, the divine charity that shapes our lives into holiness. Such is the vision of the Trinity. “Behold, a door was opened in heaven” and we are invited to enter into that vision through the charity of God alive in us. But then, there is our refusal to will that order and truth, preferring, instead, the vanity of ourselves that blinds us to the real needs and even the presence of others. We ignore Lazarus at our feet. He is the image of our wounded and broken humanity, the humanity which God restores but which man ignores. What has he to do with us? we may ask. But in so neglecting Lazarus we are really saying, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?”

The readings at the Eucharist order our understanding of all the other lessons of this day. The point, too, is very simple. The love that is shown is the love that is to be lived. (more…)

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Sermons

Sermon for the First Sunday after Trinity, 8:00am Holy Communion

“If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.”

Do we act out of what we have been given to see? “Behold, a door was opened in heaven,” we heard on Trinity Sunday. We are invited to enter into that vision through the charity of God alive in us. Against that stand our stubborn refusals to will that order and truth, preferring, instead, the vanity of ourselves that blinds us to the real needs and even the presence of others. We ignore Lazarus at our feet. Lazarus is the image of our wounded and broken humanity which God restores and man ignores. What has he to do with us, we may ask. But in so neglecting Lazarus, the parable suggests, we are neglecting God. “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.”

The lesson is very simple: the love that is shown is the love that is to be lived. The Epistle teaches us that love is of God because God is love. That love is manifested in Jesus Christ so that we might live in love through him. The only question is whether we will live the vision. The Epistle sounds the theme and the Gospel gives the crucial illustration through a parable about our relationship to the vision of God revealed. The Epistle is John’s treatise about that love. The Gospel is the powerful story of the Rich Man (Dives) and Lazarus.

What does it come down to? Simply this. The love of God compels us to love one another. This is not a may-be, but a must-be for our salvation. We are commanded and compelled to love out of the vision of love which has been shown to us. (more…)

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 3 – 9 June

Monday, June 3rd
6:00-7:00pm Brownies/Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, June 4th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place

Thursday, June 6th
3:15pm Service at Windsor Elms
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Sunday, June 9th, The Second Sunday After Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
4:00pm Evening Prayer – Christ Church

Upcoming Events:

Saturday, July 20th
7:30pm Christ Church Concert Series: Ensemble Seraphina

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Prayers and liturgy

The First Sunday After Trinity

The collect for today, the Second Sunday after Pentecost, commonly called The First Sunday after Trinity, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O GOD, the strength of all them that put their trust in thee, mercifully accept our prayers; and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without thee, grant us the help of thy grace, that in keeping of thy commandments we may please thee, both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St. John 4:7-21
The Gospel: St. Luke 16:19-31

Orley, Rich Man and LazarusArtwork: Bernaert van Orley, The Rich Man and Lazarus (left: The beggar Lazarus at the rich man’s door; right: The death of the rich man and his torment in hell; from Triptych of the Virtue of Patience), 1521. Oil on oak, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels.

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