Christ Church

“Why are ye so fearful?”

Click here to listen to an audio file of the Service of Matins & Ante-Communion for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany.

It is the question for our times. That it comes in response to another question put to Jesus by those in the midst of the storm reveals an even deeper problem. “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” they ask. He arises, rebukes the wind and calms the sea, and then asks, “why are ye so fearful?” and answers with a rhetorical question, a question which provides the answer. “How is it that ye have no faith?”

Care but what kind of care and in what way? Our fear about what exactly? Our lack of faith in whom or what? These are the serious questions of the Gospel that challenge each of us and our contemporary world. My hope is that you would have been here today had there been no winter storm because you care about the care of Christ and his Church, that you would have been here not out of fear but out of faith, the faith that is grounded in love not fear, the faith that knows the deep care of God for our humanity and our world so magnificently signaled in this epiphany story.

Storms and tempests are nothing new, especially for a maritime culture. The storms and tempests of nature are an integral part of an older Canadian sensibility about finding ways to survive and not least how to survive the bleak, mid-winter! Our literature has been more about survival than conquest and more often than not that survival depends upon the reciprocity between those who govern and those who are governed. The juxtaposition of this Gospel story with the passage from Romans reminds us of a profound spiritual teaching. We are to “render to all their dues”, to all who are in power but only in the wisdom of knowing that all power belongs to God and that those who wield power do so only in a delegated sense. They are not omnipotent. The exercise of power by those in authority over us must be grounded in respect and toleration. It must be just and not vengeful. It must be aware of the uncertainties of the finite world and the limits of human justice and human reason. When those things are ignored or forgotten then authority overreaches itself and paradoxically undermines itself. Its claims to care reveal more about themselves and the systems of power with which they surround themselves. It is dominance rather than governance.

A problem about care is shown in this Gospel story. Those caught in a tempest at sea awaken Jesus asleep in the boat, not out of any sense that anything can be done, but to enroll him in their own fatalism and fear of death. He is awakened to be yet another fearful one. Not to be part of the culture of fear is to be an outsider and a threat to the dominating spirit of fear. But such is the culture of death; we are but the walking dead.

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Tuesday, February 1st, Eve of Candlemas
7:00pm Holy Communion

Sunday, February 6th, Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Upcoming Event:

Sunday, February 13th
Annual Parish Meeting, following the 10:30am service

Services to be held in the Parish Hall, January through March.

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

O 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: Oleg Supereco, Christ Calms the Storm, 2000. Oil on canvas, Artist’s studio, Treviso, Italy.

Blinded into sight

It is a paradox, to be sure. The light which blinds is the light by which we see more clearly and more fully, albeit always “through a glass darkly” as Paul says in 1st Corinthians (13.12). The light which blinds, as Paul says later in Acts, is “a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun”(Acts 26.13), something more metaphysical than physical, something more like Plato’s Sun as the child or image of the Good in The Republic.

“I could not see for the glory of that light,” Paul tells the Hebrew people on the stairs of the Temple (Acts 22.11). He speaks to them in Hebrew after having spoken in Greek to the Roman Tribune, Claudius Lysius, who is Latin speaking yet understands Greek, to get permission to speak to his fellow Jews. To add to the complexity of cultures and languages, Lysius initially thought that Paul was an Egyptian somehow connected to the Sicarii, Jewish zealots violently opposed to Roman rule, later known through another kind of linguistic confusion as the Assassins, a 12th century Arabic term in Nizari Ismaili Shia Muslim culture wrongly associated with hashish!

Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, marks the first use in English of the word, “assassination”. “If th’ assassination could trammel up the consequence”, contain as in a net the results of our actions, we would do whatever we could get away with even if we know it is wrong! Paul’s pursuit of what he thinks is right, the persecution of the followers of Jesus, a sect, brings him into collision with himself. The sufferings of Christ, he discovers, are not opposed to the glory of the Messiah but are contained in each other. The suffering is in the glory and the glory in the suffering.

The biblical scene is one of conflict and confusion and yet out of it comes the beginnings of “something rich and strange” (Shakespeare’s The Tempest) which will become the Christian religion. The story in Acts (21.40ff) belongs to the Christian Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (Jan. 25th), usually and wrongly taken to signify his conversion from Judaism to Christianity. That is mistaken because Christianity or the Christian religion does not actually exist at this point in any kind of distinct and clear way.

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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

Artwork: St. John Chrysostom, c. 1140. Mosaic, Palatine Chapel, Palermo.

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Apostolic Man, Martyr (source):

Almighty God,
who gavest to thy servant Polycarp
boldness to confess the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ
before the rulers of this world
and courage to suffer death for his faith:
grant that we too may be ready
to give an answer for the faith that is in us
and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Lesson: Revelation 2:8-11
The Gospel: St. Matthew 20:20-23

Church tradition holds that Polycarp was born c. AD 69 of Christian parents and was a disciple of St John the Apostle and Evangelist, who ordained him Bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp was arrested during a pagan festival in Smyrna (present-day Izmir, Turkey) and brought before the Roman pro-consul.

[W]hen the magistrate pressed him hard and said, “Swear the oath, and I will release you; revile the Christ,” Polycarp said, “Eighty-six years have I been His servant, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”

But on his persisting again and saying, “Swear by the genius of Caesar,” he answered, “If you suppose vainly that I will swear by the genius of Caesar, as you say, and feign that you are ignorant of who I am, hear you plainly: I am a Christian. But if you would learn the doctrine of Christianity, assign a day and give me a hearing.”

He was burned at the stake for refusing to renounce Christ.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp was written down by the church of Smyrna and sent as a letter to the church at Philomelium. It is the first Christian martyrology. Several translations of the text can be accessed via this page.

Artwork: St. Polycarp, stained glass, Parish Church of St John the Baptist, Cirencester, Gloucestershire. Photograph taken by admin, 18 August 2004.

The collect for today, the Feast of The Conversion of Saint Paul, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O GOD, who, through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Saint Paul, hast caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we beseech thee, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show forth our thankfulness unto thee for the same, by following the holy doctrine which he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Acts 21:40-22:16
The Gospel: St. Luke 21:10-19

Artwork: Hans Speckaert, The Conversion of St Paul on the Road to Damascus, c. 1570-77. Oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris.

The collect for today, The Feast of St. Timothy and St. Titus, Apostolic men, Companions of St. Paul (source):

Heavenly Father,
who didst send thine apostle Paul to preach the gospel,
and gavest him Timothy and Titus to be his companions in the faith:
grant that our fellowship in the Holy Spirit
may bear witness to the name of Jesus,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: 2 Timothy 1:1-8 or Titus 1:1-5
The Gospel: St. John 10:1-10

Artwork: Saint Timothy, c. 1100. Stained Glass, Musée de Cluny, Paris.

“Overcome evil with good”

Click here to listen to an audio file of the Service of Matins & Ante-Communion for the Third Sunday after Epiphany.

It epitomizes the essential message of the Epiphany in terms of the manifestation of the truth and goodness of God towards and with us in Christ Jesus and the radical meaning and purpose of our humanity as found in that truth and goodness. It is the triumph of the good not by way of opposition and division which is the way of the world but by way of the nature of the goodness of God itself. With God all is good. God overcomes all evil by good. Evil has no power over the essential goodness of God.

It is not an easy lesson, especially in our polarized world of opposition and division, yet it belongs to a central insight by Jew and Gentile alike, in terms of the Gospel, an ethical insight which belongs to the religions and philosophies of the world more generally speaking. It is a kind of epiphany ‘break-through of the understanding’ where we are allowed to look beyond the masques of the present to confront the sad reality of human suffering. Hence the power of the Gospel story which complements and completes the Epistle. It manifests the power of the good over the forms of human evil for both Jew and Gentile; in short, for all. Epiphany is for all. The truth and goodness of God are not confined to the limits of the finite. The infirmities of our humanity are universal as well. They affect us all.

“Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean“, a leper says to Jesus. “Speak the word only”, a centurion says to Jesus. These are epiphanies. They make known an insight into the truth and goodness of God manifest in Jesus which both have grasped. Such epiphanies are the only real antidotes to the miseries of our humanity. They manifest the overcoming of evil with good. Thus the Gospel story marks a further break-through of the understanding. Healing and wholeness are found in the motion of the Word of God towards us, the Word which is both creation and redemption.

This Sunday highlights our response to the creative and redemptive Word of God. As such it points to the resonance of that word in us by faith. The Gospel passage focuses on the remarkable exchange, first, between Jesus and the leper and, then, between Jesus and the centurion who seeks the healing of his servant. There are several points of interest here. First, this is the second healing in the passage, and secondly, in contrast with the first, it is moved by a concern for another and not simply for oneself. The healings are within and beyond Israel; they make manifest the universal principle of the goodness of God for the whole of our humanity. But they do so through the epiphany of prayer both for ourselves and for one another.

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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

Artwork: James Tissot, Lord I Am Not Worthy (Domine Non Sum Dignus), 1886-96. Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, Brooklyn Museum.