Day: November 30, 2014

Sermons

Sermon for Atlantic Ministry of the Deaf, Christmas service

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, good will towards men”

They are familiar words that belong to the hopes and joys of the Christmas season. We forget, however, that they are Angels’ words, words conveyed on Angels’ wings to shepherds first and from them to us.

Christmas is far more than a one day wonder. Apart from the celebrated twelve days of Christmas, there is the interesting feature of Christmas itself, a festival that embraces three masses, three celebrations that emphasize certain distinct but interrelated features belonging to Christmas. The three masses are variously named but they focus on the Angels’ Mass, the Shepherds’ Mass and the Mass of the Divine Word, Mass here being a word referring to the liturgy. Christmas means simply Christ’s Mass, the celebration of the Incarnation, liturgically speaking, from which the term Christmas has carried over into the reality of the season and even into secular culture.

The Angels’ Mass focuses on the role of the Angels in bringing the news of great wonder to the Shepherds and rejoicing angelically in words which become the basis of the Gloria. “Glory to God and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” Such commemorations by no means exhaust the rich and deep and beautiful meaning of Christmas but they order our contemplations and serve to underscore the great wonder and mystery of Christmas.

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Sermons

Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent

“Cast off the works of darkness … and put on the armour of light”

Advent signals the coming of God towards us. But what is our response? Are we watching and waiting? Are we aware of humanity’s need for the coming of the one who alone can redeem? Are we looking for anything more beyond the dull, dark empty loneliness of our anxious and troubled lives? In short, are we aware of the Advent of Christ? That is the challenge of the readings on this day. Are we aware of the darkness? Not just the darkness of nature’s year but the darkness of sin and wickedness.

So often we think of Advent as simply the season of preparation for Christmas. To be sure, it is, but it is also something more. It is a season and a doctrine which has a real meaning and significance in and of itself. For Advent is the coming. The coming is about God’s challenging presence. There is the constant coming to us of God’s Word in proclamation and celebration.

In the great gospel for this day, Christ comes to Jerusalem. He enters the city triumphantly. It is a royal procession; the King comes to his own city. All is light and grace and glory. “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest”. It is the cry of “the multitudes that went before, and that followed”; in short, them before and us after! Yet at Christmas we will hear that “he came unto his own and his own received him not.” Here the whole city was moved to say in wondering ignorance and in perplexity, “Who is this?” We know the story. The King – God’s own Word and Son – will be rejected. All that is light and life ends in darkness and death; the darkness of Good Friday and Holy Saturday, the darkness of the cross and the grave.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 1 – 7 December

Monday, December 1st
4:45-5:15pm World Religions/Inquirer’s Class – Room 206, King’s-Edgehill School
6-7:00pm Brownies/Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, December 2nd, St. Andrew (transf.)
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownies – Parish Hall
7:00pm Holy Communion & Advent Programme I

Thursday, December 4th
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Sunday, December 7th, Second Sunday in Advent
8:00am Holy Communion (followed by Men’s Club Breakfast)
10:30am Holy Communion
4:00pm Evening Prayer

Upcoming Event:

Friday, December 19th
7:00pm Capella Regalis Christmas Concert, “To Bethlehem with Kings”. $10.00.

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Prayers and liturgy

The First Sunday in Advent

The collect for today, the First Sunday in Advent, being the Fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 13:8-14
The Gospel: St. Matthew 21:1-13

Beverly Minster, Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all peopleArtwork: Mine House shall be called an house of prayer for all people, stained glass, Beverley Minster. Photograph taken by admin, 2 October 2014.

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