“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me”
There is something wonderfully providential about the concurrence of The Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude with The Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity. On the one hand, we have the wonderful vision in the lesson from Revelation of the heavenly city that anticipates the great spiritual harvest Festival of All Saints and, in the Gospel, grounds that heavenly vision in the life of the Trinity. The spiritual fellowship belonging to the redeemed human community is grounded in the life of God through his Word and Spirit. On the other hand, in the Gospel for Trinity Twenty-Two, we have the powerful yet instructive parable of the unforgiving servant which illustrates by way of the negative the whole point of having and keeping the commandments of Christ, namely, our abiding in the very love of God and acting out of that love towards one another. That is the very thing that the servant who is forgiven and indeed has been forgiven much doesn’t do towards others. With the words of forgiveness still ringing in his ears, he refuses to forgive others what little they owe to him. It is a refusal of love, of mercy and truth. Yet what is wanted, as the epistle reading from Philippians makes clear, is that our “love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgement.” That love is found in Christ and Christ in us; in short, it makes us part of a company of love.
Today’s Scripture readings remind us wonderfully of another kingdom, the kingdom of God. It is another city, the heavenly city, the City of God, which stands in such stark contrast to the disorders and confusions of our contemporary world, the city of man, as it were, the “unreal city” as T.S. Eliot suggests in The Waste Land. The Unreal City is the human community as more dead than alive, an image that follows immediately upon the image of the Church as nothing more than “a heap of broken images” because it no longer lives from God’s word. Yet these readings remind us of the apostolic fellowship of the Church which, if it is to be the Church, must stand upon the authority of God’s Word. “Only/ there is shadow under this red rock, (Come in under the shadow of this red rock),” as Eliot’s poem argues, signalling the only hope in the modern wasteland, the hope that is grounded upon the rock that is Christ and upon the apostolic foundations of the Church. This is what we celebrate today.
We end the cyclical celebration of the Apostles in the course of the year with Simon and Jude. Like so many of the Apostles, we know next to nothing about them historically or biographically speaking. Yet their significance lies in part in bringing to completion the twelve-fold apostolic foundation of the holy city, the City of God, which is the Church in its spiritual truth and being. But who are they? Simply two of those “twelve poor men, by Christ anointed” who “braved the rich, the wise, the great,/ all the world counts dear rejecting,/ rapt in their apostolate,” as a hymn puts it.“Rapt in their apostolate,” Apostolic rapture. It is all about their apostleship. What more needs to be said than that? This is what the lesson from Revelation emphasizes with the repetition of the number twelve: “twelve gates,” “twelve angels,” “twelve tribes,” “twelve foundations,” and finally, “twelve apostles of the Lamb.” It presents the idea of the apostolic fellowship and city. What matters is our commitment and faithfulness to the Apostolic doctrine and fellowship, the very thing that the Saints, especially the Apostles, constantly remind us.
How appropriate then that we bless two plaques here at Christ Church today that recognize the labours in the faith of Bev and Jacoba Morash, Cecelia Pascoe, Aggie Langille, Muriel Fraser, and Elizabeth Spurr. Their services as layreader and sexton and their labours in the Sanctuary Guild belong to that idea of faithful commitment and service to the apostolic faith which we have received and in which we live. We give prayerful thanks for their labours and service, honouring them in our own poor way for their faithful commitment to Christ and his Church. Thank you!
Like Simon and Jude, it is all about following Jesus’ teaching. Like Simon and Jude, it is about being defined not by our own words and deeds but by the word of God incarnate in Jesus Christ “himself being the head cornerstone” in the lovely language of the Collect which is complemented in turn by the Collect for Trinity Twenty-two which prays for “thy household the Church” to be kept “in continual godliness” and by divine “protection” kept “free from all adversities” so that it may be “devoutly given to serve thee in good works” and all “to the glory of thy Name.” What is that except our apostolic fellowship and mission? The Apostles are those who are sent. We live in the mission and we are to be the mission for that is what it means to be the Church. We live simply and profoundly in the sending forth of God’s Word and Spirit.
Their lives and ours are meant to be nothing less than a visible witness to Jesus Christ and to the power of his life in us through Word and Sacrament, through prayer and praise, through sacrifice and service, through repentance and forgiveness. That is our life in the mission, in the sending forth of God’s Word and Spirit. We are called to be the witnesses to that mission by the quality of our lives. The saints remind us simply and profoundly of the apostolic vocation of our humanity.
And yet the saints of the Church remind us, too, of the varied and different aspects of human personality as sanctified and perfected by the grace of Christ and of the different and varied forms of service that belong to our lives in faith such as what we celebrate today in those whom we have honoured. The saints illustrate particular qualities and activities that ultimately belong to Christ and to our participation in the life of Christ. That is what is meant by speaking of patron saints, saints who are associated with particular aspects of our humanity as redeemed in Christ. Quite apart from the paucity of historical information about the saints, even the apostolic saints, often it is their patronage of certain concerns that is paramount.
Simon is associated with zeal. A zealot is really a kind of fanatic, which of course greatly troubles us but in another way zeal or strong desire for God and his kingdom can hardly be denied or dismissed; it is more a question about what we strongly desire and seek and in what way. Will it be the things of God in mercy and truth or our twisted view of what we think is right in our self-serving pride and narcissism?
Jude, on the other hand, is associated with lost causes. That’s a sobering thought! Yet it reminds us precisely of the limits of this world and the limits of human ambition which can so easily distort even good desires and ambitions into something monstrous and destructive, not unlike the toxic conflicts of our contemporary world. I like to think that Simon and Jude belong together as a kind of counter and corrective to the destructive follies of our humanity when we think we know what is good for others and for our world but without proper regard for the very things which the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance, namely, the words of Christ, “whatsoever I have said unto you.” We cannot take the Gospel captive to human agendas, to the the vain imaginations of our hearts. Rather that Word takes us captive to itself and lets its resonance be seen and heard in our lives. That is to live apostolically, living in the love of the Trinity.
That can only happen by the grace of God through his Word having its resonance in us and in our lives. Only so shall we be made “an holy temple acceptable unto [God].” The temple theme resonates throughout our liturgy. We gather in this temple and are reminded of our calling to be temples of the Holy Spirit united in the doctrine, the teaching, of the Apostles. Only so shall we love and be loved, abiding in the love of God.
“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me”
Fr. David Curry
Feast of St. Simon & St. Jude/Trinity 22
October 28th, 2018