Month: January 2018

Prayers and liturgy

Vincent, Deacon and Martyr

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

Jerónimo Jacinto de Espinosa, Saint Vincent of SaragossaVincent 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: Jerónimo Jacinto de Espinosa, Saint Vincent of Saragossa, 17th century. Oil on canvas, Private collection.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany

“Speak the word only”

It complements Paul’s final words in today’s epistle. “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” How? By letting the Word of God have its resonance and its presence in our lives. Letting God be God in us, if you will. Only so can good triumph over evil, even the evil of our own hearts. It complements, too, Paul’s first word here. “Be not wise in your own conceits,” the idea of trusting in our own wisdom rather than being open to the wisdom of God and letting that rule and move in our hearts and minds. Oftentimes it is our own cleverness that is the problem. We are too clever for our own good.

No Gospel story illustrates more profoundly the idea of God’s word resonating in our being and overcoming the evil of our own self-will. Here is Epiphany as Catechism. Catechism simply means instruction, an instruction about the fundamental teachings of the Christian faith. The word itself refers to an echo and, indeed, there was a time where even things like the Lord’s Prayer were prayed in the liturgy by being repeated phrase after phrase, first by priest and then by people.

Repeated. Saying the same things over and over again. However much that seems to go against the grain of more experiential forms of contemporary religion, it belongs to the deeper logic of the Christian faith and to the ways in which we participate in it. We could do a whole lot worse than catechism! It is really all about Christ in us; his word dwelling in us richly.

This year the Epiphany season ends with The Third Sunday after Epiphany and with a Gospel which presents us with an intriguing and important teaching. A double miracle, a healing within Israel – the healing of the Leper by word and touch – and the healing of the centurion’s servant, a healing outside of Israel, the healing not only of a non-Israelite but a healing, too, from afar, a healing by word only. Few stories concentrate for us more wonderfully the nature of the Epiphany, about the manifestation of Christ’s divinity, on the one hand, and about the making known of the divine will for the whole of our humanity, on the other hand. Such a Gospel story in the contrast between a healing within and without Israel sharpens the tension between the universal and the particular. Here is a healing outside of Israel which convicts and confirms an essential Jewish teaching. God is the God of all otherwise he is not God but merely some tribal deity.

And it is “at thy Word.” What is revealed here is the power and the truth of the divine word which by definition is not constrained to the limits of time and space. The healings are both near at hand and far away whether with or without the necessity of physical touch. At the risk of being a bit flippant, Jesus does not have to make house calls! Yet something about the power of the divine word is shown to us not only by the healing from afar of the centurion’s servant but perhaps even more by the centurion’s insight and comment.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 22 – 28 January

Monday, January 22nd
4:35-5:15pm Confirmation Class – Rm 206 KES
6:30-7:30pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, January 23rd
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-8:00pm Guides – Parish Hall

Wednesday, January 24th
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Thursday, January 25th, Conversion of St. Paul
7:00pm Holy Communion

Friday, January 26th
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders & Rangers – Parish Hall

Sunday, January 28th, Septuagesima
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
5:00pm PBSC Choral Evensong – St. George’s Halifax

Upcoming Event:

Sunday, February 11th
Pot-Luck Luncheon & Annual Parish Meeting following the 10:30am service.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Third Sunday After The Epiphany

Charles-Michel-Ange Challe, Christ and the CenturionThe collect for today, the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities stretch forth thy right hand to help and defend us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 12:16b-21
The Gospel: St. Matthew 8:1-13

Artwork: Charles-Michel-Ange Challe, Christ and the Centurion, 1759. Eglise Saint-Roch, Paris.

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Prayers and liturgy

Henry, Missionary and Bishop

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):

Saint Henry of FinlandO 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

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KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 15 January

Wist ye not that I must be about my father’s business?

It is an epiphany story. The only story of the boyhood of Christ speaks directly to our being a school, a place where a culture of learning is respected and sought. Jesus at the age of twelve is “found … in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions.” We are in the presence of mysteries. How do we think God?

Only by being in a place of learning. From the classical and orthodox perspective, this story is about Jesus as the Divine Teacher and the human student. Something about God is revealed to us through the humanity of Jesus, the Divine Son. His reply to Mary reveals his mission. I love the King James translation here following Tyndale. “Wist ye not?” Did you not know? Wist reflects the Germanic influence on English going back to Anglo-Saxon or Old English, to a form of the German verb wissen, to know. Jesus is emphatic that he has come for a purpose that has to do with his heavenly Father; in short, with God. He is, in every sense, teaching us about his purpose and in turn about who God is in himself and who he is for us. Powerful lessons that carry over into the other story read this week, the miracle story at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee.

It is the “beginning of signs”, John tells us, the first of the miracles which reveals the real purpose and meaning of the miracle stories, all our skepticisms notwithstanding. The miracles are really about the good which God seeks for our humanity, a good which is not just about the healing of infirmities but about what we are healed for. And what is that? God seeks our social joys. Our good is ultimately found in our fellowship with God and with one another. The things of the world are used to open us out to the things of God. We participate in God sacramentally and intellectually. But only by being taught and by acting upon what we learn.

There is always the sense in which what we are taught carries over into our lives of service. One of the windows in the Chapel nave is the Buckle window, dedicated to Pa Buckle after whom Buckle House is named. That window depicts one aspect of the story of Christ being found in the temple in Jerusalem and then going down to Nazareth with Joseph and Mary; Mary “keeping in her heart” what Jesus said about his purpose. As Luke puts it “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature”, humanly speaking. But something else is being signalled, namely the things that belong to our knowledge of God.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany

“Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it”

The story of the miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee where Jesus changes water into wine, indeed, the very best wine, has been read in the liturgical traditions as an Epiphany story. Something is made manifest, made known, about who Jesus is, about who he is for us and about what he seeks for us. In “this beginning of signs … he manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed on him.” It is a most powerful, a most intriguing, and a most instructive story. Like so many of the Gospel stories it arrests our attention and demands our thoughtful consideration.

Most intriguing, perhaps, even beyond the questions about miracles which are an important feature of Epiphany, is the dialogue between Jesus and Mary. It sets the context for the miracle and provides the key to its interpretation. More than that, though, it alerts us to the sacramental nature of the Christian faith with respect to the making known of the essential divinity of Christ and to the work of human redemption. Just as his divinity is made known through his humanity, so too the work of human redemption happens through the things of the world. The Christian religion is not about fleeing the world; it is about the redemption of the world. Word and Sacrament are intimately and inseparably entwined as essential aspects of Christian faith and life.

Christ’s Incarnation is God’s intimate engagement with our humanity. God enters into the conditions of our world and day. But why? The great 14th century German mystic theologian, Meister Eckhart, astutely observes that “the greatest good God gave to man was in becoming man.” It is in these stories that we see the goodness of God towards our humanity. Christ’s essential divinity, as one of our hymns highlights, is made “manifest in Jordan’s stream,” referring to his baptism by John. As we saw last week, huddled in the cold of the Hall, that does not mean that Jesus recognises himself as a sinner which is all that John’s baptism really means – a kind of metanoia, a recognition in us about ourselves that expresses a desire to be freed from sin.

Christ’s baptism is about his entering into the conditions of our sinful world. It signals the idea of the divine purpose of the redemption of our humanity. Christian baptism builds on the baptism of John but imputes Christ’s righteousness to us so that we are freed from original sin because we are in Christ. But only through his hour, the hour of his passion and resurrection. It is not just about the recognition of sin but redemption from sin through our incorporation into Christ’s death and resurrection.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 15 – 21 January

Monday, January 15th
4:35-5:05pm Confirmation Class – Rm 206 KES
7:00pm Religious Inquirers’ Class – Rm 206 KES
6:30-8:00pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, January 16th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-8:00pm Guides – Parish Hall
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club: Terry Eagleton’s “Culture” and William Deresiewicz’ “Excellent Sheep”

Wednesday, January 17th
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Thursday, January 18th
3:15pm Service – Windsor Elms

Friday, January 19th
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders & Rangers – Parish Hall

Sunday, January 21st, Third Sunday after the Epiphany
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

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Prayers and liturgy

The Second Sunday After The Epiphany

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

Giotto, Marriage at CanaArtwork: Giotto, Marriage at Cana, c. 1304-06. Fresco, Cappella degli Scrovegni, Padua, Italy.

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Prayers and liturgy

Hilary, Doctor and Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Hilary (c. 315-368), Bishop of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church (source):

Everlasting God,
whose servant Hilary
steadfastly confessed thy Son Jesus Christ
to be both human and divine:
grant us his gentle courtesy
to bring to all the message of redemption
in the incarnate Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: 1 St. John 2:18-25
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:8-12

Courtois, St. HilaryHilary was born in Poitiers, Gaul, of wealthy pagan parents. After receiving a thorough education in Latin classics, he became an orator. He also married and had a daughter. At the age of about 35, he rejected his former paganism and became a Christian through a long process of study and thought. Robert Louis Wilken describes his path to conversion in The Spirit of Early Christian Thought (p. 86):

[Hilary] found himself turning to more spiritual pursuits. In his words he wished to pursue a life that was “worthy of the understanding that had been given us by God.” Like Justin [Martyr] he began to read the Bible, and one passage that touched his soul was Exodus 3:14, where God the creator, “testifying about himself,” said, “I am who I am.” For Hilary this brief utterance penetrated more deeply into the mystery of the divine nature than anything he had heard or read from the philosophers. Shortly thereafter he was baptized and received into the church.

Around 353 he was chosen bishop of Poitiers and became an outspoken champion of orthodoxy against the Arians. St. Augustine praised him as “the illustrious teacher of the churches”. St. Jerome wrote that Hilary was “a most eloquent man, and the trumpet of the Latins against the Arians”. Hilary became known as “Athanasius of the West”.

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