July 2024 - Page 2 of 3 - Christ Church

21 July 202430 March 2026Sermons

Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity

“We are children of God”

Our readings set before us, it seems, a series of binary opposites: in the Epistle, flesh versus Spirit, servitude versus sonship, suffering versus glorification, and in the Gospel, prophets outwardly “in sheep’s clothing” but “inwardly ravening wolves,” good fruit versus evil fruit, a good tree versus a corrupt tree, saying versus doing. But are we simply left with a series of binaries, caught in the back and forth, the to and fro of division and opposition? What would be the good in all of that?

We are being tasked with thinking through these binaries to grasp an underlying sense of spiritual integrity and wholeness, to who we are in God, and, as the Collect suggests, under the Providence of God. This transcends the binaries and oppositions though without negating them. The Epistle is emphatic that we have “received a spirit of sonship” that frees us from slavery and fear. “We cry aloud, Abba, Father; the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit, that we are children of God,” and “fellow-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.” Such is the greater vision and vocation of our humanity in the midst of the turmoils of our souls and our world.

Some of you will recognise this reading from Romans as one of the lessons provided for the Burial of the Dead in our corporate parish life. It speaks directly to us as mourners in the face of death highlighting the awareness of our own mortality yet reminding us of our life in God through the sufferings of Christ. In other words, it recalls us to our sonship as the children of God not in a flight from the world and the flesh but through our redemption and freedom in Christ.

This belongs to the radical meaning of the doctrine of the Incarnation, to the reality of the Word made flesh who is Christ Crucified, and to its meaning for us in the pilgrimage of our lives as eloquently expressed in the Eucharistic Prayer. Almighty God, our heavenly Father, gave his “only Son Jesus Christ to take our nature upon him, and to suffer death upon the Cross for our redemption.”

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21 July 202430 March 2026Events, Month at a Glance

Month at a Glance, July – August

Sunday, July 28th, Ninth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Friday, August 2nd
10:00am SSC Chapter Meeting for the St. John Vianney branch

Sunday, August 4th, Tenth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, August 11th, Eleventh Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, August 18th, Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, August 25th, Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Fr. Curry is priest-in-charge for Avon Valley Parish and Hantsport June 30th, July 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th; Fr. Tom Henderson will be priest-in-charge for Christ Church August 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th and Sept 1st.

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21 July 202430 March 2026Prayers and liturgy

The Eighth Sunday After Trinity

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

O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth: We humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 8:12-17
The Gospel: St. Matthew 7:15-21

Artwork: Fra Angelico, Sermon on the Mount, 1437. Fresco, Museo di San Marco, Florence.

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20 July 202430 March 2026Prayers 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):

O 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: Onorio Marinari (1627-1715), St.Margaret of Antioch, Oil on canvas, Private collection.

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15 July 202430 March 2026Prayers 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

Artwork: Saint Swithun, stained glass, St. Swithun upon Kingsgate, Winchester, England.

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14 July 202430 March 2026Sermons

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity

“I have compassion on the multitude”

Through a set of images which are essentially organic in character, we are gathered into an understanding which is spiritual and substantial, that is to say, it concerns the quality of our lives with God and as standing upon the truth of God revealed in Christ Jesus. What are these organic images? They are the images of grafting, growing, nurturing and preserving. They follow upon an understanding of God as the “Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things.” That understanding shapes the meaning of these images. It makes them profoundly sacramental.

The Collect prays the understanding which the Scriptures reveal, particularly in the interplay between the Epistle and the Gospel. The Epistle suggests the meaning of the sacrament of Holy Baptism: we are grafted into the life of God without which we are dead in ourselves. We pray, too, that we may ever be kept in this living relationship. The Gospel speaks to us about the sacrament of Holy Communion: there is our growth and nurture in the goodness of God, “the author and giver of all good things,” through the compassion of Christ who feeds us in the wilderness and sets us upon our way, “he in us and we in him.” Grafted into “that pattern of teaching whereunto you were delivered,” we are to live from that Word. It is a wonderful illustration of what Augustine calls the gemina sacramenta, the twin sacraments of the Church, baptism and communion which go together, an understanding that I fear we often forget.

This morning we have a wonderful practical illustration of these ideas in the Baptism of Alice Yvonne Profit. She is literally grated into the life of God through Baptism; She has a radical new beginning, a spiritual beginning that speaks to the dignity and truth of our humanity and its freedom. What begins in her incorporation into the life and death of Jesus Christ has its continuance in the life of prayer and praise, of Word and Sacrament.

“Graft in our hearts the love of thy name” suggests that Baptism marks the beginning of a dynamic relationship with God as Trinity which has its continuing in the Eucharist. The fruit of these organic, spiritual, substantial and sacramental relationships is holy lives and a holy end. Paul’s Epistle reading from Romans follows immediately upon last week’ reading from Romans about baptism as our being “baptized into Jesus Christ,” “baptized into his death,” and “buried with him by baptism into death,” but so as to be raised up in him that “we should walk in newness of life.” For being “with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” The Gospel today also complements the Gospel from last Sunday about loving our enemies. Such is the radical love of God which defines us. Here that love is shown in another register: Christ’s compassion upon the multitude in the wilderness, his compassion upon our awareness of our own emptiness and incompleteness. All these images speak to the meaning of baptism as “that which by nature [Alice and all of us] cannot have.” This challenges the tendency of our age to reduce things to ourselves, to our own projects and fantasies rather than to learn what God wants us to know.

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14 July 202430 March 2026Events, Month at a Glance

Month at a Glance, July

Sunday, July 21st, Eighth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, July 28th, Ninth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

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14 July 202430 March 2026Prayers 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

Artwork: Workshop of Baldassare Embriachi, Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, c. 1390-1400. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

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9 July 202430 March 2026Prayers and liturgy

Stephen Langton, Archbishop

The collect for a Bishop or Archbishop, on the Commemoration of Stephen Langton (c. 1150-1228), Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O GOD, our heavenly Father, who didst raise up thy faithful servant Stephen Langton to be a Bishop in thy Church and to feed thy flock: We beseech thee to send down upon all thy Bishops, the Pastors of thy Church, the abundant gift of thy Holy Spirit, that they, being endued with power from on high, and ever walking in the footsteps of thy holy Apostles, may minister before thee in thy household as true servants of Christ and stewards of thy divine mysteries; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

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

Artwork: Stephen Langton, stained glass, Southwark Cathedral, London. Photograph taken by admin, 20 October 2014.