Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Fourth Sunday after Easter
Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on the Fourth Sunday after Easter.
Year: 2023
Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Easter
“My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me”
The fourth word of the crucified is the most intense of all the words of the Passion. It is the cry of dereliction, the sense of utter abandonment in being God-forsaken. Taken from the Passion accounts of Mark and Matthew it shows the real depths of sin and evil without which we can make no sense of the Resurrection. It is, I think, powerfully complemented by the classical Gospel for the Fourth Sunday after Easter which grounds human redemption in the mutually indwelling life and work of the Trinity. Here Jesus teaches us about the coming of “the Comforter” whom he names “the Spirit of truth,” the spirit and bond of the Father and the Son. But he does so by naming the depth and meaning of sin.
How are we to understand this disturbing word? Theologically and psychologically, I think, and by pondering its meaning through the readings for this day.
Christ’s Passion and Resurrection teach us about the radical and essential life of God, something which we come to understand and grow into by the Holy Spirit. In Christ’s comings and goings which belong to his humanity we are opened out to the abiding reality of God, the essential life that is greater than human sin and evil, greater than suffering and death. The Comforter, meaning the paraclete, who is called “another paraclete” or advocate along with Jesus himself, brings to light the radical evil that is overcome in the Passion of the Christ.
That radical evil is shown to us in the fourth word. Christ bears in himself the radical evil of our humanity and the world. We have sadly lost sight of this. We have domesticated sin and evil and reduced it to the sociological and psychological agendas and projects of our day which betray the true meaning of social justice for no other reason than we make it a matter of our doing. The deeper meaning of the Passion and the Resurrection has been co-opted to the managerial and therapeutic culture of our postmodern world and to the particular issues of sexism and racism which belong to the endlessly divisive nature of our culture of victimhood. Instead of redemption in its much more universal and radical sense, we have only guilt and blame; in short, division not unity. It is not that there aren’t real social and political problems. The problem is that we refuse to see these things as essentially theological and spiritual problems and thus reduce them to the politics of self-righteousness and sentiment.
In today’s Gospel Jesus is wonderfully clear about sin and evil, the very things which he takes upon himself on the Cross and especially in this word. It expresses the full meaning of sin which is far deeper and far darker than we can possibly realize on our own power and strength. He experiences the full weight of sin, the fullest expression of the distance and separation, and therefore the contradiction of sin and evil itself. He voices the words of Psalm 22 but this is not mere rhetoric. In his crucifixion we see their deeper meaning which we really only begin to come to understand through the constant teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Week at a Glance, 8 – 14 May
Tuesday, May 9th
7:00 Parish Council Meeting
Saturday, May 13th
1:00-3:00pm Mother’s Day Tea – Parish Hall
Sunday, May 14th, Fifth Sunday after Easter
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
Upcoming Events:
(The Currys are away for the burial of Marilyn’s mother, Bernice,
Thursday, May 18th to Saturday, May 20th)
Sunday, May 21st, Sunday after Ascension Day
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
Sunday, May 28th, Pentecost
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
The Fourth Sunday After Easter
The collect for today, The Fourth Sunday After Easter, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
O ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men: Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle: St. James 1:17-21
The Gospel: St. John 16:5-15
Artwork: Agostino Carracci, Last Supper, 1593-94. Oil on canvas, Prado, Madrid.
KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 4 May
Mercy seasons justice
The story of the raising of the only son of the widow of Nain and the raising of Lazarus provided the context for reflection this week on the Coronation of King Charles III and its significance with respect to the history and life of the School. How? Because these stories contribute to our understanding of the Resurrection as the opening out of essential life. They do so by showing us mercy and compassion in action.
“When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to her, weep not.” It is a powerful and poignant scene. Out of that look of compassion comes the raising of the young man and his being restored to his mother. We are not left in misery and grief; in short, to endless weeping. “Blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted.” And Jesus weeps with Mary and Martha, deeply moved at the loss of their brother Lazarus. He bids the company to take away the stone and says, “Lazarus, come out.” Literally, these are ‘resuscitations’ but they belong to the thinking about the Resurrection as revealing the underlying principle of essential life.
In every case there is a transformation from grief and sorrow, from ignorance and uncertainty, from sin and death to joy and life. God is essential life. In these stories we see the motions of compassion and mercy which are greater than the limits of our hearts and minds. “Lazarus, come out” speaks to the nature of education. It is about being led out of the prisons or tombs of our minds. These stories provide us with a way to face the difficult things of our world and day. They are not about a flight from reality. They are about the possibilities of mercy and compassion alive in us in our lives with one another.
The Coronation of King Charles III marks a significant and symbolic moment in the history and life of the School. He is the tenth monarch in the history of the School and the first King named Charles in its history. The School was born out of the American Revolution in its rejection of the English monarchy and was founded by a loyalist bishop, Charles Inglis. At issue were competing ideas about the nature of sovereignty: republican or monarchical? The idea of sovereignty refers to the fundamental principle of authority with respect to our lives in political communities. In a Republic, the principle of ultimate authority is diffused among the members of the community. In a Monarchy, it is concentrated in the person of the Monarch and its family dynasty. But it is not absolute monarchy. It is constitutional monarchy for England and the countries of the Commonwealth world-wide.
2023 Mother’s Day Tea
Christ Church is pleased to announce that a Mother’s Day Tea will be held at the Parish Hall on Saturday, 13 May, from 1:00pm until 3:00pm.
Click here for a larger version of the poster suitable for downloading and printing.
Monnica, Matron
The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Monnica (c. 331-387), mother of Saint Augustine of Hippo (source):
O Lord, who through spiritual discipline didst strengthen thy servant Monnica to persevere in offering her love and prayers and tears for the conversion of her husband and of Augustine their son: Deepen our devotion, we beseech thee, and use us in accordance with thy will to bring others, even our own kindred, to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever.
The Lesson: 1 Samuel 1:10-11,20
The Gospel: St. Luke 7:11-17
Artwork: Luca Giordano, Saint Augustine and Saint Monica, 1657. Oil on canvas, Real Monasterio de la Encarnación (Royal Monastery of the Incarnation), Madrid.
Athanasius, Doctor and Bishop
The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Athanasius (c. 293-373), Bishop of Alexandria, Theologian, Apologist, Doctor of the Church (source):
Ever-living God,
whose servant Athanasius bore witness
to the mystery of the Word made flesh for our salvation:
give us grace, with all thy saints,
to contend for the truth
and to grow into the likeness of thy Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Epistle: 2 Corinthians 4:5-14
The Gospel: St. Matthew 10:23-28
Saint Athanasius is one of the most inspirational figures of the early church. His dogged and uncompromising defence of the full divinity of Jesus Christ against the Arian heresy saved the unity and integrity of the Christian religion and church. He saw that Christ’s deity was foundational to the faith and that Arianism meant the end of Christianity.
Arius and his followers maintained that Christ the Logos was neither eternal nor uncreated, but a subordinate being—the first and finest of God’s creation, but a creature nonetheless. Despite being rejected at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, which Athanasius attended as deacon under the orthodox Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, Arianism remained popular and influential in the Eastern church for most of the fourth century.
Athanasius became bishop in 328 at age 33 and spent the next five decades fighting for Nicene orthodoxy. For his troubles, he was deposed and exiled five times, spending a total of seventeen years in flight and hiding, often shielded by the people of Alexandria. Six years of exile were spent in Rome, where he gained the strong support of the Western church, and another six years were spent under the protection of monks in the Egyptian desert.
Saint Philip and Saint James the Apostles
The Collect for today, The Feast of Saint Philip and Saint James the Apostles, with Saint James the Brother of the Lord, Martyr, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
O ALMIGHTY God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us perfectly to know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life; that, following the steps of thy holy Apostles, Saint Philip and Saint James, we may stedfastly walk in the way that leadeth to eternal life; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Additional Collect, of the Brethren of the Lord:
O HEAVENLY Father, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning: We bless thy holy Name for the witness of James and Jude, the kinsmen of the Lord, and pray that we may be made true members of thy heavenly family; through him who willed to be the firstborn among many brethren, even the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle: St. James 1:1-12
The Gospel: St. John 14:1-14
Artwork: Master of the First Prayerbook of Maximillian and Associates, Saints Philip and James (from Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain), c. 1500. Illumination (ink, tempera, and gold on vellum), Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio.
Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Third Sunday after Easter
Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on the Third Sunday after Easter.