Year: 2020

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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KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 29 January

It’s good to be here

“This is a country/where a man can die/ simply from being/caught outside,” Alden Nowlan observes, “the forgotten poet of Stanley,” Nova Scotia, as I once styled him. He was making an observation about January here in the Maritimes. There are, to be sure, the challenges of winter, of darkness and light, of cold and thaw, of ice and snow. There are also the anxieties and worries of our culture of fearful uncertainty in the great litany of fears that threaten to paralyze us, from viruses to wars.

This week in Chapel the story of the Transfiguration of Christ was read following upon the story of the Baptism of Christ. Both stories speak to the Epiphany theme of the  manifestation of the things of God revealed and made known in various ways: through nature, and, more specifically, through the humanity of Christ as shown in the Scriptures. Things are made known through what is sometimes called God’s Book of Nature as well as through the Book of Scripture, through Revelation. The emphasis is on what we come to know and in what way. Such things speak profoundly to the fears and anxieties of our day.

Epiphany season emphasizes what is made known through what is seen and heard. In the story of Christ’s Baptism and his Transfiguration there is something seen and heard: the Father’s voice, the Son seen coming out of the water of Jordan or transfigured on the mountain, the Holy Spirit coming down upon Christ, like a dove. “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased,” God the Father says in both stories. These are important images that arrest our attention. Guarda e escolta, as Dante says. Look and listen. To what? To what is seen and heard. Such is education. These stories speak to the Christian understanding of Christ as the Son of God – something which Islam and Judaism completely deny – and to the idea of God in his infinite self-relation as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, God as Trinity, something which they also deny. Yet something is made known about the infinite power, wisdom and goodness of God, insights and ideas which are more universal and belong to the world’s cultures.

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Prayers and liturgy

Charles Stuart, King and Martyr

The collect for today, the commemoration of Charles I (1600-1649), King of England, Martyr (source):

King of kings and Lord of lords,
whose faithful servant Charles
prayed for his persecutors
and died in the living hope of thine eternal kingdom:
grant us, by thy grace, so to follow his example
that we may love and bless our enemies,
through the intercession of thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

with the Epistle and Gospel for a Martyr:
The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 4:12-19
The Gospel: St. Matthew 16:24-27

Gonzales Coques, The Execution of Charles I of EnglandArtwork: Gonzales Coques, The Execution of Charles I of England, 17th century. Oil on canvas, Musée de Picardie, Amiens, France.

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Prayers and liturgy

John Chrysostom, Doctor and Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of St. John Chrysostom (347-407), Preacher, Doctor of the Church, Archbishop of Constantinople (source):

O God of truth and love,
who gavest to thy servant John Chrysostom
eloquence to declare thy righteousness in the great congregation
and courage to bear reproach for the honour of thy name:
mercifully grant to the ministers of thy word
such excellence in preaching
that all people may share with them
in the glory that shall be revealed;
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 Lesson: Jeremiah 1:4-10
The Gospel: St Luke 21:12-15

Joseph Wencker, St. John Chrysostom Preaching Before the Empress EudoxiaArtwork: Joseph Wencker, St. John Chrysostom Preaching Before the Empress Eudoxia, 1880. Oil on canvas, Musée Crozatier, Le Puy-en-Velay, France.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany

When Jesus heard it, he marvelled

From the “beginning of signs” which we heard last week, we come not to one but to two miracles and to what is, perhaps, an even greater wonder. Jesus marvels at what the Centurion says. Why? Because his words are such a profound illustration of divine grace at work in human hearts.

From that “beginning of signs” to the double healing of the leper and the servant of the Roman centurion, we come to the penultimate Sunday of the Epiphany season this year, a season which varies in length along with the Trinity season according to the movable date of Easter. At the very least there can be two Sundays after Epiphany or at the very most, six Sundays. This year we split the difference with four, though next Sunday will be somewhat eclipsed with Candlemas. The double healings in today’s Gospel are epiphanies, to be sure, and emphasize, yet again, the sense of the universality of Christ in his divinity, the sense that what is made manifest is for all people. It is for Jew and Gentile, for young and old, for Europeans, Asians, Africans, and the peoples of the Americas; in short, there is a global reach to the Epiphany idea that the “infinite power, wisdom and goodness” of God is known, glimpsed and participated in universally through the distinctives of culture and language. In a way, Jesus himself seems to marvel at that realization.

The exchange between Jesus and the Centurion is undoubtedly a critique of Jewish chauvinism – the idea of the superiority of one culture over another – but that doesn’t justify in the least the kinds of Christian chauvinism that have bedevilled our world as well. To be sure, Jesus here contrasts the faith of the centurion with that of Israel. Is his remark a criticism of the leper who from within Israel, it seems, said, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean”? Such a statement, surely, is just as wonderful as the centurion’s “speak the word only”. In a profound sense, these two miracles complement one another. Each are a kind of Epiphany marvel, an opportunity to delight in the insight of each about “the infinite power, wisdom and goodness” of God for our humanity. They both sense this. I find it hard to choose one over the other.

Jesus marvels at the centurion’s insight because it so refreshingly captures what also properly belongs to the Jewish relation to God’s will for our humanity (and not just for Israel). His remark is not directed, I think, against the leper whom he has cleansed but against the people of Israel in their complacency and spiritual chauvinism. He is making an important but general observation that challenges us about God’s will for our humanity.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 26 January – 2 February

Monday, January 27th
4:35-5:15pm Confirmation Class – Room 206, KES
6:30-7:30pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, January 28th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Friday, January 31st
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders/Rangers – Parish Hall

Sunday, February 2nd, Candlemas / Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
8:00am Holy Communion (followed by Men’s Club Breakfast)
10:30am Holy Communion

Upcoming Event:

Sunday, February 9th
Pot-Luck Luncheon & Annual Parish Meeting following the 10:30am service.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Third Sunday After The Epiphany

The 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

Adam Camerarius, Christ and the CenturionArtwork: Adam Camerarius, Christ and the Centurion, between 1644 and 1665. Oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

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