Christ Church

“Speak the Word only”

The grandeur of God meets the misery of man in the bleak mid-winter of all our discontents. Such is Epiphany. The season of teaching is also the season of miracles. The miracle stories of the Scriptures make manifest something about the nature of God and about our humanity. The miracles make known what God seeks for our humanity, namely, our healing and our wholeness. Here we have the story of the healing of the leper and the healing of the Centurion’s servant, a story which complements it seems to me the familiar Epiphany story of the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee where Jesus turns the water into wine, the very best wine.

That story in John’s Gospel was the “beginning of signs” which Jesus did “and manifested forth his glory”. That is an Epiphany but within that story there were some other epiphanies captured especially in the exchange between Jesus and Mary. “They have no wine”, she says to Jesus and, then, she says to the disciples (and us) “Do whatever he tells you”. In between those two statements is Jesus’s seemingly strange and disconcerting remark. “O woman what is that to me and you. Mine hour has not yet come.”

“They have no wine” is an epiphany, a making known of the human predicament. More than just a factual statement about the wine running out – party gone bust, as it were – it is a symbolic statement about human emptiness and futility. We lack in ourselves what we need for our ultimate good and happiness. We lack the wine of divinity that gladdens the heart of man and that brings joy to our lives. How shall we achieve that which we desire but cannot get on our own because of the disorders and disarray of our lives? Only through his “hour”. What is his “hour”? The passion and crucifixion of Christ which belongs to the purpose of God’s engagement with our humanity in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. “This beginning of signs” is connected to the central event in the story of Christ, his sacrifice for us.

Do what he tells you is our response to what God seeks for us. What is asked of us is our response to his word and will.

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“He sent them into his vineyard”

January, the forgotten poet of Stanley, Nova Scotia, Alden Nowlan, remarks, signals a truth about Maritime winters, “a truth that all men share but almost never utter. This is a country where a man can die simply from being caught outside.” He was speaking about this kind of week and day here. Charles G.D. Roberts, a celebrated Canadian poet from New Brunswick and a professor at King’s College when the University was located here in Windsor, captures the winter scene as well in a poem entitled The Winter Fields written for the Centenary of Shelley in 1890.

Winds here, and sleet, and frost that bites like steel.
The low bleak hill rounds under the low sky.
Naked of flock and fold the fallows lie,
Thin streaked with meagre drift. The gusts reveal
By fits the dim grey snakes of fence, that steal
Through the white dusk. The hill-foot poplars sigh,
While storm and death with winter trample by,
And the iron fields ring sharp, and blind lights reel.

“Winds here,” he says. I like to think that “here” means the winter fields of the environs of Windsor. But while the octet – the first eight lines of the sonnet – evokes the harsh realities of winter, the sestet, which completes the sonnet, opens us out to another reflection. Hid “in the lonely ridges, wrenched with pain” of the bleak mid-winter landscape is “the germ of ecstasy – the sum/ of Life that waits on summer, till the rain/ Whisper in April and the crocus come.” Lurking beneath the snow and ice of the cold death of winter lies the hope of spring – “the sum of Life that waits on summer”.

These poetic reflections complement the Scriptural readings for this Sunday, a day designated and adorned with what might seem to be a rather antiquated and awkward term, not a little mysterious and strange, Septuagesima. It signals a shift in emphasis. The contemplations of divinity that are so much a strong feature of the Epiphany season with its concentration upon the essential divinity of Jesus Christ give place to the ground of creation, to the vineyard of human labour and work.

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Monday, January 25th, Conversion of St. Paul
4:45-5:15pm Confirmation Class – Rm. 206, KES
6:00-7:00pm Brownies/Sparks – Parish Hall
7:00 Holy Communion

Tuesday, January 26th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownies/Guides – Parish Hall

Thursday, January 28th
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Friday, January 29th
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
3:30pm Holy Communion – Gladys Manning Home

Sunday, January 31st, Sexagesima
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
5:00pm Choral Evensong – St. George’s, Halifax
Sponsored by the PBSC NS PEI, Fr. Curry preaching

Upcoming Events:

Sunday, February 7th
Pot-Luck Luncheon & Annual Parish Meeting following the 10:30am service

Tuesday, February 9th
4:30-6:00pm Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper

Wednesday, February 10th
Ash Wednesday

The collect for today, Septuagesima (or the Third Sunday Before Lent) from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O LORD, we beseech thee favourably to hear the prayers of thy people; that we, who are justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness, for the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
The Gospel: St. Matthew 20:1-16

Artwork: John Everett Millais, The Labourers in the Vineyard, from Illustrations to `The Parables of Our Lord’, 1864. Wood engraving on paper, Tate Collections, London.

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint 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

Vincent is the proto-Martyr (first known martyr) of Spain and the patron saint of Lisbon. He was deacon of Saragossa, Aragon, under Bishop Valerius. Both were arrested during the persecution instigated by edicts of Diocletian and Maximian. Because Valerius had a speech impediment, Vincent testified to their faith in Christ, boldly and without fear.

Dacian, Roman governor of Spain, subjected Vincent to horrible tortures. The saint was thrown into prison and weakened by semi-starvation. After refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods, he was racked, burned, and kept in stocks. He died as a result of his sufferings.

St. Augustine of Hippo preached a sermon on Vincent’s martyrdom. Here is an excerpt:

“To you has been granted in Christ’s behalf not only that you should believe in him but also that you should suffer for him.” Vincent had received both these gifts and held them as his own. For how could he have them if he had not received them? And he displayed his faith in what he said, his endurance in what he suffered. No one ought to be confident in his own strength when he undergoes temptation. For whenever we endure evils courageously, our long-suffering comes from him Christ. He once said to his disciples: “In this world you will suffer persecution,” and then, to allay their fears, he added, “but rest assured, I have conquered the world.” There is no need to wonder then, my dearly beloved brothers, that Vincent conquered in him who conquered the world. It offers temptation to lead us astray; it strikes terror into us to break out spirit. Hence if our personal pleasures do not hold us captive, and if we are not frightened by brutality, then the world is overcome. At both of these approaches Christ rushes to our aid, and the Christian is not conquered.

Artwork: Bernat Martorell, Altarpiece of Saint Vincent, c. 1438-40. Tempera and gold leaf on wood, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona.

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Agnes (c. 291-304), 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

One of the most celebrated of the early Roman martyrs, Agnes was only twelve or thirteen when she was executed in the Piazza Navona for refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods. Several early Christian leaders praised her courage and exemplary faith, including Ambrose, Pope Damasus, Jerome, and Prudentius. Although her story was embellished during the Middle Ages, it is certain that Agnes was very young and died as a Christian virgin.

St. Ambrose extolled her in his De Virginibus, written in 377:

[St. Agnes’ death was] A new kind of martyrdom! Not yet of fit age for punishment but already ripe for victory, difficult to contend with but easy to be crowned, she filled the office of teaching valour while having the disadvantage of youth. She would not as a bride so hasten to the couch, as being a virgin she joyfully went to the place of punishment with hurrying step, her head not adorned with plaited hair, but with Christ.

Because her name resembles agnus (‘lamb’), she is generally depicted in art with a lamb in her arms or by her feet. On her feast at Rome, the wool of two lambs is blessed and then woven into pallia (stoles of white wool) for the pope and archbishops.

Two notable Roman churches have been erected at locations associated with St. Agnes. The church of Sant’Agnese in Agone now stands in the Piazza Navona, the place of her martyrdom. The Basilica of Sant’Agnesi fuori le Mura (St. Agnes Outside the Walls) was built at her tomb in a family burial plot along the Via Nomentana, about two miles outside Rome.

Saint Agnes is the patron saint of young girls.

Artwork: Master of San Hermenegildo (Follower of Zurbarán), Saint Agnes, c. 1630-40. Oil on canvas, Private collection.

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):

O 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

“Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it”

It is a most wonderful and yet a very challenging gospel scene. Mary, the Blessed Mother of God, says two things. “They have no wine” and “whatsoever he saith unto you, do it”. Both statements are an epiphany – the making known of the barren, empty reality of the human situation, on the one hand, and the revelation of the conditions for the divine perfection of our humanity, on the other hand. “This beginning of signs” manifests God’s purpose for our humanity, a purpose which ultimately has to do with our being with the one who has come to be with us.

In between Mary’s two statements stands the profound yet disturbing response of Jesus to her first remark. “They have no wine”, she says. “O woman, what is that to thee and to me? Mine hour has not yet come”, Jesus says. What does he mean?

We hear this gospel story in the Epiphany season, a season which is variable in length according to the date of Easter, whether early or late. This is the last Sunday in the Epiphany season this year which is as short as it can be. Yet this story is always read regardless of the length of the Epiphany season. Why? Because it captures something of the fundamental meaning of the Epiphany. “This beginning of signs” contains the meaning and significance of all the signs and wonders and all the words and deeds of Jesus in the gospels.

It seems that “this beginning of signs” extends beyond a simple country event to touch upon the larger meaning of our lives together in the body of Christ. “This beginning of signs” includes all the signs, and indeed, most especially, those signs which are what they signify, the signs which we call the sacraments, “the outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace”.

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Monday, January 18th
4:45-5:15pm Confirmation Class – Rm. 206, KES
6:00-7:00pm Brownies/Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, January 19th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-7:30pm Brownies/Guides – Parish Hall
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club: The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science (2014), by Armand Marie Leroi, and The Tulip (1999), by Anna Pavord.

Thursday, January 21st
3:15pm Service at Windsor Elms
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Sunday, January 24th, Septuagesima
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
2:00pm AMD Service of the Deaf

Upcoming Events:

Sunday, February 7th
Pot-Luck Luncheon & Annual Parish Meeting following the 10:30am service

Tuesday, February 9th
4:30-6:00pm Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper

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

Artwork: Wedding at Cana, St. Augustine Kilburn, London. Photograph taken by admin, 26 September 2015.