Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Month: October 2021
Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
“Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently”
This remarkable scene from Mark echoes the gospel setting for Luke’s Parable of the Good Samaritan. Yet one of the scribes hearing Jesus reasoning with others asks not “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” but rather “which is the first commandment of all?” There is a difference in the tone and intent of the questions. Unlike the scene in Luke where Jesus, asking two questions about “how readest thou?” and “what is written in the Law?” draws out of the cynical lawyer the truth itself, here Jesus responds himself and gives us the actual form of the words which we know in our liturgy as the Summary of the Law, part of the Jewish Shema.
Unlike the lawyer in Luke’s account, the unnamed scribe is genuinely interested in the truth of what is being said and responds with a kind of commentary which brings out the understanding of the radical nature of the unity of the love of God and the love of neighbour. In other words, the scribe explicitly draws out the meaning of what Jesus calls “the first commandment” and “the second as being like it” about which “there is none other commandment greater than these.” The scribe recognizes that this ethical teaching is the truth of the spiritual life “better than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” It is this ethical insight that impels Mark’s statement, “Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently,” meaning wisely or prudently.
The dialogue here and in what follows points out that God’s commandment to love is not arbitrary. It challenges the underlying premise of the ideology of liberalism, the reigning world-view of our times, which sees freedom entirely in terms of something negative, a freedom from all and every form of restraint and limitation. The paradox is that such a view leads to despotic authority that negates the true authority of divine reason. What is absent is any kind of positive freedom, a freedom to the good; such is the point of the Mosaic law which has to be the good for all and not just for the benefit of the few, as Plato, too, teaches. The struggle is to understand what the good is. That requires a true openness to the spirit of the law so that we may be, as Paul puts it, “enriched by [Christ], in all utterance, and in all knowledge.” The commandments here reveal the eternal truth of God as the truth for us in our lives as spiritual and intellectual beings. It is to be grasped by our minds. It is there for the understanding as shown by the scribe. It is itself wisdom.
Week at a Glance, 4 – 10 October
Sunday, October 10th, NIneteenth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
The Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity
The collect for today, the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
LORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:4-8
The Gospel: St. Mark 12:28-37
Artwork: Juan de Juanes, El Salvador, c. 1550. Oil on canvas, Prado, Madrid.
Remigius, Bishop
The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Remigius (c. 438-533), Bishop of Reims, Apostle to the Franks (source):
O God, who by the teaching of thy faithful servant and bishop Remigius didst turn the nation of the Franks from vain idolatry to the worship of thee, the true and living God, in the fullness of the catholic faith; Grant that we who glory in the name of Christian may show forth our faith in worthy deeds; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
The Epistle: 1 St. John 4:1-6
The Gospel: St. John 14:3-7
Remigius was consecrated bishop of Reims at age 22. The pagan Clovis I, who had married the Christian princess Clothilde, began his reign as king of the Franks about 20 years later, in 481.
Before entering combat against German tribes at Tolbiac, Clovis prayed to “Clothilde’s God” for victory. His soldiers won the battle, and Clothilde asked Remigius to teach the king about Christianity. Clovis was amazed by the story of “this unarmed God who was not of the race of Thor or Odin”. In the words of Remigius, the king came “to adore what he had burnt and to burn what he had adored”.
In 496, Remigius baptised Clovis in a public ceremony at Reims Cathedral. Three thousand Franks also became Christians. Under the king’s protection, Remigius was able to spread the gospel and build churches throughout Gaul.
Artwork: Giuseppe Bezzuoli, Saint Remigius Baptising King Clovis, 1821. Oil on canvas, Church of San Remigio, Florence.