Year: 2023

Prayers and liturgy

The Seventh Sunday After Trinity

The collect for today, The Seventh Sunday after Trinity, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

LORD of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 6:17-23
The Gospel: St. Mark 8:1-9

Willem van Nieulandt II, Multiplication of the Loaves and FishArtwork: Willem van Nieulandt II, Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish, 17th century. Oil on canvas, Stadtmuseum Simeonstift, Trier, Germany.

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Mary Magdalene

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

El Greco, Mary Magdalene in Penitence ALMIGHTY God, whose blessed Son did sanctify Mary Magdalene, and call her to be a witness to his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by thy grace we may be healed of all our infirmities, and always serve thee in the power of his endless life; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Lesson: Acts 13:27-31
The Gospel: St John 20:11-18

Artwork: El Greco, Mary Magdalene in Penitence, 1576 – 78. Oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.

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Prayers and liturgy

Margaret of Antioch, Virgin and Martyr

The collect for a Virgin or Matron, on the Feast of Saint Margaret of Antioch (289-304), Virgin and Martyr, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Annibale Carracci, St. Margaret of AntiochO GOD Most High, the creator of all mankind, we bless thy holy Name for the virtue and grace which thou hast given unto holy women in all ages, especially thy servant Margaret of Antioch; and we pray that the example of her faith and purity, and courage unto death, may inspire many souls in this generation to look unto thee, and to follow thy blessed Son Jesus Christ our Saviour; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Lesson: Acts 9:36-42
The Gospel: St. Luke 10:38-42

Artwork: Annibale Carracci, St. Margaret of Antioch, c. 1599. Oil on canvas, Chapel of Santa Margherita, Santa Caterina dei Funari, Rome.

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Prayers and liturgy

Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Sixth Sunday after Trinity

Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on the Sixth Sunday after Trinity.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

“Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you”

This morning’s Gospel ends where we began two weeks ago. “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” The radical meaning of that mercy is expressed in our text: “love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.” Nothing could be more counter-culture. Nothing better expresses the ultimate ethical statement that belongs to the truth and dignity of our humanity. And yet, this commandment, the impossible somehow made possible, is but the illustration of the Epistle reading from Romans about the nature of our reconciliation and life in Christ.

“Know ye not,” St. Paul asks us, with a rhetorical flourish, “that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” Death and resurrection lead to “newness of life”, having crucified “our old Adam,” having destroyed “our sinful self,” “that we should never again be slaves to sin.” Powerful ideas that belong exactly to the radical meaning of our life in Christ, “alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” What does that mean? Simply that Christ lives in us.

We are only alive when we live in the reconciling love of Christ. This transcends the oppositions of our souls and lives, our enmities and hatreds. For that is the real meaning of sin: our opposition and hostility to the deeper truth of our humanity as found in God. No one expresses this better than the great second-century theologian, Irenaeus: “The glory of God is humanity alive and the life of man is the vision of God.” God in man and man in God. To have a glimpse of this changes how we see everything. It signals the overcoming of all division and opposition, all animosity and enmity. This is truly radical because it is God’s truth and life in us. And it is equally the counter to the so-called ‘transhumanisms’ of our contemporary world which are really anti-human and anti-life, turning ourselves into machines and/or negating our embodiment as living beings.

This word challenges our world of endless divisions and strife both ancient and modern. Socrates in Plato’s Republic counters both the conventional views of justice and the ‘sophistic’ rejection of justice which is really anti-human as well. The conventional view, then and now, is that justice means “doing good to your friends and harm to your enemies.” As Socrates points out with great clarity, justice as a virtue, a quality of excellence, cannot result in doing harm to anyone or anything. He also attempts to counter Thrasymachus’ claim that justice is “the interest of the stronger;” in short, that might equals right. That really means there is no justice, no truth, just power and domination which is predicated upon division and enmity; it is ultimately anti-human. Here we are opened out to a greater vision and a greater truth not simply about our being in the world but about our being in Christ, our life in the vision of God, to put it in Irenaeus’s terms.

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Events, Month at a Glance

July at a Glance

Sunday, July 23rd, Seventh Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, July 30th, Eighth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Fr. Curry is priest-in-charge for Avon Valley Parish and Hantsport during July; Fr. Tom Henderson will be priest-in-charge for Christ Church during August when I will be on vacation.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Sixth Sunday After Trinity

Girolamo Michelangelo Grigoletti, Sermon of JesusThe collect for today, the Sixth Sunday after Trinity, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O God, who hast preparest for them that love thee such good things as pass man’s understanding: Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 6:3-11
The Gospel: St Luke 6:27-36

Artwork: Girolamo Michelangelo Grigoletti, Sermon of Jesus, 19th century. Oil on canvas, Duomo Nuovo, Brescia, Italy.

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Prayers and liturgy

Swithun, Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Swithun (d. 862), Bishop of Winchester (source):

Almighty God,
by whose grace we celebrate again
the feast of thy servant Swithun:
grant that, as he governed with gentleness
the people committed to his care,
so we, rejoicing in our inheritance in Christ,
may ever seek to build up thy Church in unity and love;
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.

With the Epistle and Gospel for a Bishop or Archbishop, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

The Epistle: 1 Timothy 6:11-16
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:37-43

Southwark Cathedral, St. SwithunArtwork: Saint Swithun, stained glass, Southwark Cathedral, London. Photograph taken by admin, 20 October 2014.

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Prayers and liturgy

Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Fifth Sunday after Trinity

Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on the Fifth Sunday after Trinity.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity

“At thy word”

“‘Take my camel, dear’, said my Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.” It is a famous opening line from Rose Macaulay’s novel The Towers of Trebizond, an Anglo-Catholic classic. There are also great ending lines, too. “Grace is everywhere” or “all is grace” (tout est grâce) ends George Bernanos’ The Diary of a Country Priest. There are beginnings and endings that evoke a whole pattern understanding and which illustrate the character of our lives in media res, in the midst of things. And sometimes, mirabile dictu, there are opening and ending lines which go together and complement each other like what we have with this morning’s Epistle and Gospel.

The Epistle reading from 1st Peter begins with the strong phrase, “be ye all of one mind” and ends with “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.” The Gospel reading from Luke begins with the strong and compelling image of “the people press[ing] upon Jesus to hear the word of God” and ends with Simon Peter, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and others “for[saking] all and follow[ing] him.” In each case everything in between is held together by these phrases. In the Epistle, what is in between is an exhortation to a godly life against the explicit forms of wickedness which so easily arise not only in our hearts, but also in the forms of suffering and persecution, terror and trouble, fear and anxiety that are part and parcel of human experience in a our common life together. In the Gospel, what is in between is the equally compelling image of the empty frustrations that belong to human experience: “ we have toiled all the night,” Simon Peter says, “and have taken nothing.” We have but laboured in vain, it seems.

“Be ye all of one mind,” Peter tells us. But what is that one mind? Is it mere unanimity regardless of what one is agreed about? Surely not. Peter is talking about the mind of Christ for he goes on to describe the qualities of the love of Christ towards us which must become the form of his life within us. Such is sanctification. But as the Gospel reminds us that is not simply about our doing, a human enterprise. It is and can only be the work of God’s grace in us. “Apart from me you can do nothing,” Jesus tells us.

Being of one mind is not simply about consensus. It is about truth as life in us corporately and individually. Within state and church, within society and parish, we can be of one mind about things which are wrong and unethical, for example, or we can arrive at a good and fine decision but in questionable and coercive ways. Do we not all with one mind cry out “crucify him, crucify him” in the drama and spectacle of Holy Week?

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