Day: February 24, 2016

Sermons

Scenes of Bethany – II

This is the second of four Lenten addresses on the theme Contemplation, Activity and Resurrection in the Passion of Christ. The first is posted here, the third here, and the fourth here.

“One Thing Needful”
Mary: Love-in-Contemplation

“Mary,” Luke tells us, “sat at the Lord’s feet” in Bethany “and listened to his teaching”. He portrays the precise image of Christian contemplation. It means sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to his word.

Contemplation in the contemporary discourse is an ambiguous word. It suggests at once something esoteric and intellectual, perhaps even gnostic, and something altogether useless and impractical. Yet, whatever one might say about the forms of spiritual hunger and the relentless demands of the practical, Christian contemplation counters such preoccupations with the self and the sensible by its strong attention to the reality of the God who has revealed himself.

Contemplation is an essential element in our Christian pilgrimage. It is the “one thing needful”, a good part which is even the better part. We need to recover our sense of its importance. It means to come to Bethany to sit with Mary at Jesus’ feet in the progress of his passion. There we may learn something of what it means to contemplate the passion of Christ.

The way of the pilgrim is the way of contemplation. Mark records Jesus’ charge to his disciples to take nothing for the journey except a staff and sandals. They are the basic gear of pilgrims. But are we really prepared to heed our Lord’s injunction to take virtually nothing? No bread, he says, no bagels, no biscuits. No bags for provisions, he says, neither Gucci nor Louis Vuitton; no money, he says, no credit cards, not even gold or platinum cards; and no cloak, he says, no extra clothing at all. Just a staff and sandals. And if that were not enough, Matthew goes further and disallows both staff and sandals – no brandy sticks, no birkenstocks! Yet, with or without staff and sandals, the point is really the same and it belongs to the character of contemplation in Christian pilgrimage. The “one thing needful” is what is really essential. With or without staff and sandals, Christ is the way of our journeying even as he is the end.

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Matthias the Apostle

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

O ALMIGHTY God, who into the place of the traitor Judas didst choose thy faithful servant Matthias to be of the number of the twelve Apostles: Grant that thy Church, being alway preserved from false Apostles, may be ordered and guided by faithful and true pastors; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Acts 1:15-26
The Gospel: St. John 15:1-11

Victoria and Albert Museum, St. MatthiasThe name of this saint is probably an abbreviation of Mattathias, meaning “gift of Yahweh”.

Matthias was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot after Judas had betrayed Jesus and then committed suicide. In the time between Christ’s Ascension and Pentecost, the small band of disciples, numbering about 120, gathered together and Peter spoke of the necessity of selecting a twelfth apostle to replace Judas. Peter enunciated two criteria for the office of apostle: He must have been a follower of Jesus from the Baptism to the Ascension, and he must be a witness to the resurrected Lord. This meant that he had to be able to proclaim Jesus as Lord from first-hand personal experience. Two of the brothers were found to fulfill these qualifications: Matthias and Joseph called Barsabbas also called the Just. Matthias was chosen by lot. Neither of these two men is referred to by name in the four Gospels, although several early church witnesses, including Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius of Caesarea, report that Matthias was one of the seventy-two disciples.

Like the other apostles and disciples, St. Matthias received the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Since he is not mentioned later in the New Testament, nothing else is known for certain about his activities. He is said to have preached in Judaea for some time and then traveled elsewhere. Various contradictory stories about his apostolate have existed since early in church history. The tradition held by the Greek Church is that he went to Cappadocia and the area near the Caspian Sea where he was crucified at Colchis. Some also say he went to Ethiopia before Cappadocia. Another tradition holds that he was stoned to death and then beheaded at Jerusalem.

The Empress St Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, is said to have brought St Matthias’s relics to Rome c. 324, some of which were moved to the Benedictine Abbey of St Matthias, Trier, Germany, in the 11th century.

Artwork: Saint Matthias, c. 1500-15. Clear and stained glass with paint and silver stain, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (originally at St. Mary’s Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire). Photograph taken by admin, 27 September 2015.

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