Month: February 2020

Prayers and liturgy

Anskar, Missionary and Bishop

Trostbrücke, Hamburg, St. AnskarThe collect for today, the Feast of St. Anskar (801-865), Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, Missionary to Sweden and Denmark, Apostle of the North (source):

Almighty and gracious God,
who didst send thy servant Anskar
to spread the gospel among the Nordic people:
raise up in this our generation, we beseech thee,
messengers of thy good tidings
and heralds of thy kingdom,
that the world may come to know
the immeasurable riches of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Lesson: Acts 1:1-9
The Gospel: St. Mark 6:7-13

Artwork: Saint Anskar, Trostbrücke, Hamburg.

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Sermons

Sermon for Candlemas / Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany

“Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also”

It is a parenthetical remark, a literary device which, far from being a throw-away line, reveals profoundly the mystery that lies at the heart of Candlemas and wonderfully, it seems to me, to the end of the Epiphany season. Epiphany concentrates our attention on the mystery of God revealed in and through the humanity of Jesus. Mary, it seems, is an essential figure of the Christmas and Epiphany mysteries and beyond. She “kept all the sayings about Jesus and pondered them in her heart,” just as she “kept all these sayings in her heart” of Jesus, just as she calls our attention to what Jesus says and does. “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” And today, with Joseph, she “marvels at those things which were spoken of him,” by Simeon. It is the meaning for us of her fiat mihi, “be it unto me according to thy word.” She represents and embodies the very meaning of our humanity in relation to God. All these stories speak to the idea of being defined by the word of God. Nothing less and nothing more.

To end the Epiphany season with the double-barrelled feast of “The Presentation of Christ in the Temple commonly called the Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin,” mercifully concentrated for us in the term ‘Candlemas,’ along with the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, is especially wonderful. Why? Because it concentrates the Epiphany theme about the essential divinity of Christ revealed through his humanity and in his engagement with the natural world. It concentrates that for us through the figure of Mary, the very embodiment of what it means to be human. Here is Simeon’s word to her and about her and by extension for us.

The story of the Presentation and the Purification is somewhat complex and yet quite simple. A kind of service of dedication and thanksgiving to God for childbirth, it is about the customs and practices of ancient Judaism with respect to the Law and to the centrality of the Temple as the focus of worship and life and yet extends beyond that setting to something much more universal. It is found in the theme of waiting for the redemption not just of Israel but through Israel of the whole of our humanity. The cost of that is shown in Simeon’s prophecy about Mary, his insight into her character and witness: “yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also.” The reference is to Christ’s passion. “They shall look on him whom they have pierced.” Christ is pierced – crucified – in the body of our humanity as derived from Mary, thus she too is pierced. It signals the intimacy of Mary and Christ, of mother and son. There is no knowledge, no salvation apart from suffering, apart from the forms of our participation in the life of God. Candlemas signals that truth to us and in a way which complements the Gospel for Epiphany IV.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 3 – 9 February

Monday, February 3rd
6:30-7:30pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, February 4th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Friday, February 7th
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders/Rangers – Parish Hall

Sunday, February 9th, Septuagesima
8:00am Holy Communion – Parish Hall
10:30am Holy Communion – Parish Hall
Followed by Pot-luck Luncheon and Annual Meeting

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Prayers and liturgy

The Presentation of Christ in the Temple

The collect for today, The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, commonly called The Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin (also traditionally called Candlemas), from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everliving God, we humbly beseech thy Majesty, that, as thy only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh, so we may be presented unto thee with pure and clean hearts, by the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Malachi 3:1-5
The Gospel: St. Luke 2:22-40

Vittore Carpaccio, Presentation of Jesus in the TempleArtwork: Vittore Carpaccio, Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, 1510. Tempera on panel, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Fourth Sunday After The Epiphany

The collect for today, the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Jan Rombouts the Elder, Christ Stilling the TempestO GOD, who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright: Grant to us such strength and protection, as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 13:1-7
The Gospel: St. Mark 4:35-41

Artwork: Jan Rombouts the Elder, Christ Stilling the Tempest, c. 1520-25. Stained glass, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

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