Tuesday, May 14th
6:30pm KES Cadet Church Parade
Thursday, May 16th
6:30-7:30pm Sparks – Parish Hall
Friday, May 17th
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders & Rangers – Parish Hall
Sunday, May 19th, The Fourth Sunday after Easter
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
Upcoming Event:
Tuesday, May 21st
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club: In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong, by Amin Maalouf, and From the Ruins of Empire, by Pankaj Mishra.
The collect for today, The Third Sunday After Easter, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
ALMIGHTY God, who showest to them that be in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness: Grant unto all them that are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s religion, that they may forsake those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 2:11-17
The Gospel: St. John 16:16-22
Artwork: Simon Ushakov, The Last Supper, 1685. Icon, Sergiev Posad State History and Art Museum Preserve, Moscow Oblast, Lavra, Sergiev Posad, Russia.
The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Cyril (826-69) and Saint Methodius (c. 815-85), Apostles to the Slavs (source):
O Lord of all,
who gavest to thy servants Cyril and Methodius
the gift of tongues to proclaim the gospel to the Slavic people:
we pray that thy whole Church may be one as thou art one,
that all who confess thy name may honour one another,
and that from east and west all may acknowledge one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
and thee, the God and Father of all;
through 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 Epistle: Ephesians 3:1-7
The Gospel: St. Mark 16:15-20
St. Cyril and St. Methodius were brothers born in Thessalonica who went to Constantinople after being ordained priests. (Cyril was baptised Constantine and did not become known as Cyril until late in his life.) Around AD 863, Emperor Michael II and Patriarch Photius sent the brothers as missionaries to Moravia, where they translated into Slavonic the Gospels, the Psalms, and the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. With his brother’s help, Cyril created an alphabet that later developed into Cyrillic, thus laying the foundation for Slavic literature.
German missionary bishops in the area celebrated the liturgy in Latin and opposed the brothers’ use of the vernacular. In 867, Cyril and Methodius participated in a debate in Venice over the use of Slavonic liturgy and were soon received with great honour in Rome by Pope Hadrian II, who authorised the use of Slavic tongues in the liturgy.
In 868, Cyril became a monk and entered a monastery in Rome, but died soon afterward and was buried in the church at San Clemente. Shortly after Cyril’s death, Methodius was consecrated archbishop of Sermium and returned to Moravia where he ministered for another fifteen years. He continued the work of translation and evangelisation, while continuing to face opposition from German bishops. Before his death in 885, he and his followers completed translations of the Bible, liturgical services, and collections of canon law.
St. Cyril and St. Methodius are honoured for evangelising the Slavs, organising the Slavic church, and pioneering the celebration of liturgy in the vernacular. For these reasons, in 1980 Pope John Paul II named them, together with St. Benedict, patron saints of all Europe.
Artwork: Statue of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Trebic, Czech Republic.
The collect for today, the Feast of St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329-89), Monk, Bishop, Theologian, Doctor of the Eastern Church (source):
Almighty God, who hast revealed to thy Church thine eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like thy bishop Gregory of Nazianzus, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of thee, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who livest and reignest for ever and ever.
The Lesson: Wisdom 7:7-14
The Gospel: St. John 8:25-32
Artwork: Domenichino, Saint Gregory Nazianzus, 1609-12. Fresco, Cappella dei Santi Fondatori (Chapel of the Holy Founders), Abbey of Santa Maria, Grottaferrata, Italy.
Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of the dry bones is dramatic and compelling. The prophet is carried in a vision to a valley in which there are a host of dry bones. “Son of man,” God says to Ezekiel, “can these bones live?” He is commanded to prophesy to the bones: “hear the word of the Lord.” The dry bones are an image of the people of Israel who are dead to the living Word and Spirit of God. They are being recalled to life and purpose.
What Ezekiel faces in the proverbial valley of dry bones is exactly what every teacher, preacher, coach and leader faces. We look out and wonder: ‘is this gathering a collection of dry bones, dead and un-alive to the challenges at hand?’ How to inspire and enliven them? The story is about the principles and ideals which properly belong to our life and being at once individually and collectively. We only live when the animating principles that belong to the integrity of our institutions are alive in us. All that one can do, of course, is to proclaim them and make them known. Whether they will live in you or not says everything about you. Are you dead or alive?
The passage from Ezekiel is about that idea of principles being alive in us inwardly without which they can have no expression outwardly. The story is powerfully and colourfully told: bone upon bone, “a great rattling of bones,” and then sinew and flesh coming upon the bones. It is a wonderful image about the formation of our bodies, we might say, and yet the point is that something more is needed. We are more than our bodies, it seems. The story intentionally recalls the Genesis story of creation about God forming our humanity from the dust but expands upon it in terms of bone joined to bone along with sinew and flesh. But that is merely external. The key point in Genesis a is the idea of God breathing his own spirit into our humanity so that we become living beings. And so, too, here in our being recalled to life, to living with purpose.
Ezekiel’s story is about Israel being raised back to life by God’s spirit being breathed into the dry bones. In other words, it is about Israel being recalled to the principles and ideals of the Law that properly belong to her identity and vocation. With Ezekiel there is now an emphasis upon what is no longer simply external but internal. Ezekiel argues that the Law must be engraven upon our hearts. The ideals and principles that are before us have to be realised in us. It is really a question about whether or not we are willing to let ideas live in us. It is an ancient question and one that remains for us.
The accounts of the Resurrection, especially in John’s Gospel, are particularly instructive about a fundamental feature of Christianity which extends to other religions. That is “a sacramental understanding,” which we attempted to explore in our Lenten series this year. A sacramental understanding, we suggested, connects to the idea of creation and to the idea that the things of God are made known through the things of the world and that our participation in the life of God is precisely through the things of the world becoming the instruments of grace and salvation. A sacramental understanding extends necessarily as well to the Resurrection, itself a new creation. In a way, the Resurrection is made known to us sacramentally, as it were.
We see this in Luke’s Gospel too in such things as the wonderful story of Christ and the disciples on the road to Emmaus where Jesus “opens their understanding of the Scriptures” about his death and resurrection but is really only made known to them “in the breaking of the bread;” in short, by recalling them to his words and actions at the Last Supper. In John’s Gospel after Mary Magdalene’s discovery first of the empty tomb and then her encounter with the Risen Christ, and after Jesus appears in the midst of the disciples twice behind closed doors and makes himself known directly to Thomas, there is the wonderful story of a beach barbecue breakfast with Jesus. This is not quite the same thing as the Men’s Club breakfast. “Have you any fish?” Jesus asks, and then invites us, “Come and have breakfast.” That story leads to the end of John’s Gospel where Jesus asks Simon Peter three times “do you love me?” and commands him each time “to feed my lambs,” “tend my sheep,” “feed my sheep.” Peter who had betrayed Christ three times is reconstituted in love three times. It is a wonderful statement about the radical power and nature of the Resurrection. Something new and wonderful is made out of the nothingness of our sins. The past is not denied nor forgotten but becomes the vehicle and vessel of new life. Such is redemption.
This brings us to today’s readings. Sheep and shepherds. We are the sheep who have gone astray; Christ is the Good Shepherd who gathers us and returns us to himself, “the Shepherd and Bishop of [our] souls.” The image of Christ the Good Shepherd is profoundly a resurrection image that belongs to our sacramental understanding. Today’s Collect speaks of Jesus as being “unto us both a sacrifice for sin and also an example of godly life”. He is the sacrifice for sin. He is the cure, the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. He stands in the face of the destroyer of the sheep – ultimately our sins are his destroyer. He is the shepherd who wills to be struck, not so that the sheep may be scattered but so that through his being struck and their being scattered he may gather them to himself. He is our care. He cares for us through his cure for us.
Tuesday, May 7th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
7:00pm Parish Council Meeting
Thursday, May 9th
3:15pm Service – Windsor Elms
6:30-7:30pm Sparks – Parish Hall
Friday, May 10th
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders & Rangers – Parish Hall
Saturday, May 11th
4:30-6:00pm Annual Lobster Supper
Sunday, May 12th, The Third Sunday after Easter
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
Upcoming Event:
Tuesday, May 14th
6:30pm Evening Service with KES 254 Cadet Corps
The collect for today, The Second Sunday After Easter, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
ALMIGHTY God, who hast given thine only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle: 1 St .Peter 2:19-25
The Gospel: St. John 10:11-16
Artwork: Cristóbal García Salmerón, The Good Shepherd, c. 1640. Oil on canvas, Prado, Madrid.
The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Monnica (c. 331-387), mother of Saint Augustine of Hippo (source):
O faithful God,
who didst strengthen Monica, the mother of Augustine,
with wisdom,
and by her steadfast endurance
didst draw him to seek after thee:
grant us to be constant in prayer
that those who stray from thee may be brought to faith
in thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Lesson: 1 Samuel 1:10-11,20
The Gospel: St. Luke 7:11-17
Artwork: Pietro Maggi, The Angel Appears to St. Monica, 1714. Oil on canvas, Chapel of St. Augustine, San Marco, Milan.
The accounts of the Resurrection in John’s Gospel are most intriguing. They provide much in the way of specific detail. They all turn on the idea of how we come to know and show us that process of a dawning awareness about how we come to see things in a completely new way that illumines the past and sets us in motion.
First, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb seeking a body and encounters the Risen Christ whom she mistakes as the gardener! She is told by Christ not to touch but to go and proclaim to the others that “I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God,” words which echo Ruth’s sense of the universality of God as the counter to a merely tribal or personal attachment to a deity or principle. Hence, don’t cling to me, Jesus is saying to her. She is to know him in a new and more universal way that doesn’t negate the personal but enlarges it.
Second, Christ appears behind closed doors and makes himself known to the disciples and especially Thomas, to whom he says “touch and see!” In other words, the mystery of the Resurrection is made known to us in ways that correspond to the different ways of our knowing, ways that honour our individuality and embodied experiences. Peace and forgiveness flow out of the Resurrection of Christ; they are the forms of the Resurrection in us even in the places and circumstances of fear and uncertainty. It is peace and forgiveness now and not by and by.
Third, Christ appears to the disciples on the beach while they are fishing. This last scene is particularly intriguing. It begins with the disciples not recognising Jesus who bids them cast their net on the other side of the boat where they enclose a great number of fishes, indeed, one hundred and fifty three. An awful amount of ink has been spilt in various speculations about the significance of this very precise number. For mathematicians it holds interest as the triangular number of seventeen but what is its symbolic meaning remains unclear. When they do recognise him, he invites them to breakfast; a barbecue on the beach with Jesus. “Come and have breakfast!”
