Month: January 2025

KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 30 January

Something rich and strange

“Be still and know that I am God,” the psalmist says (Ps. 46. 11). It speaks to the life of the School in the recognition of the need to be still and quiet within ourselves in order to begin to think reflectively. Such is Chapel. Quiet moments that are not about this and that in the busyness of our daily lives, not about the competing concerns that stir up emotions and excite distress and discord, but a time of contemplation and quiet about the universal aspects of our humanity.

We have been considering, in the context of ‘epiphany,’ the idea of ‘complementary universalities’ as opposed to conflicting or ‘competing universalities’. One example is the universality of suffering common to the human condition in one way or another but differently addressed by the various world religions and in the competing social and therapeutic ideologies of contemporary culture. We have tried to connect “the gift of myrrh,” in the classic Epiphany story of the Magi-Kings, with Jesus in the Temple making known to us that he “must be about [his] Father’s business,” and with the first miracle, “the beginning of signs” which turns upon his “hour,” an explicit reference to his passion and death out of which comes resurrection and life. All three speak to the radical meaning of ‘epiphany’ as the making known of the essential divinity of Christ and the idea of God’s will and purpose for our humanity. God seeks the ultimate good for our humanity which is not found simply in the circumstances and actions of our lives but in our being found in God’s all embracing will manifest as love. This way of looking at things has parallels with other religions and philosophical traditions.

Diotima, the fictional female philosopher in Plato’s Symposium, argues that “the object of [our] love,” meaning our desires, “is that [we] should have the good” and to “have it forever.” “Love,” she says, “is the desire to have the good forever.” Good here is not simply something subjective and personal. It concerns the good of all within which we find the good of ourselves. But how to attain that ideal? That is another question and one which the Epiphany stories undertake to show by way of the motion of God towards us that complements our desires for something universal. Epiphany is miracle, the miracle of life itself in God who is the source and end of all life. In the Christian view, this focuses on Christ. “In him was life; and the life was the light of everyone.”

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Prayers and liturgy

Charles Stuart, King and Martyr

The collect for today, the commemoration of Charles I (1600-1649), King of England, Martyr (source):

Anthony van Dyck, Charles I at the HuntKing of kings and Lord of lords,
whose faithful servant Charles
prayed for his persecutors
and died in the living hope of thine eternal kingdom:
grant us, by thy grace, so to follow his example
that we may love and bless our enemies,
through the intercession of thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
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 Martyr:
The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 4:12-19
The Gospel: St. Matthew 16:24-27

Artwork: Anthony van Dyck, Charles I at the Hunt, c. 1635. Oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris.

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Prayers and liturgy

John Chrysostom, Doctor and Bishop

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

Jean-Paul Laurens, St. John Chrysostom Confronts Empress EudoxiaArtwork: Jean-Paul Laurens, St. John Chrysostom confronting Aelia Eudoxia, Empress of Constantinople, 1894. Oil on canvas, Musée des Augustins, Toulouse.

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Prayers and liturgy

Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Third Sunday after Epiphany

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

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Sermons

Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany

“Overcome evil with good”

It is a strong statement about the power and nature of the good and a strong indictment of a form of false or incomplete justice that belongs to revenge. Revenge is about our wanting to get back at someone who has wronged or hurt us as we think or imagine. But if we are honest with ourselves it means recognizing that we do not simply want to get back, to do just as it has been done to us. No. What we really want is to annihilate or humiliate the other; to “nuke them till they glow,” as I recall some dyed in the wool theological liberals at Harvard saying at the time of the Iranians taking American hostages. Justice as getting ahead not getting even.

Paul suggests that is not the way to go. It is our way but not God’s way, quoting first, Deuteronomy on vengeance, and, then, Proverbs, about feeding and giving drink to your enemy. But what exactly is meant in saying that in so doing “thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head?” How is that good and just. It sounds more than a wee bit vindictive. But is it? Might it not rather suggest the conviction of conscience in countering evil with good and thus awakening that sense of the greater power of the good in the other, the enemy? It transcends the false and limited forms of human justice. The injunction at the beginning of the Epistle reading from Romans to “be not wise in [our] own conceits,” our own thinking, is complemented by the concluding injunction to “be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Such injunctions are far more than the chorus of empty platitudes that dominate our contemporary culture. Be kind, be nice, be good, be happy – all true but what do they mean? What does it mean to say to your children that you just want them to be happy without giving them any idea of what happiness is? That is to leave them alone and empty in themselves as if happiness is merely subjective. Aristotle, who uses the word eudaimonia, usually translated as happiness in his Nicomachean Ethics, means by it something far removed from our modern assumptions. It is a life of virtue lived in accord with reason; something substantial and more than simply something emotional and personal. As such the great traditions of ethical philosophy or theology provide us with something more and greater that shape and inform our lives in what is ultimately good even in the face of “our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities,” as the Collect wisely says. The good is the mercy of God who speaks to the truth of our desires and gathers us to himself, seeking our good and our wholeness; ultimately the healing of soul and body.

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Events, Month at a Glance

January – February 2025

(Services in the Hall until Palm Sunday, April 13th, 2025)

Tuesday, January 28th
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club: Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America, Pekka Hämäläinen, 2022.

Sunday, February 2nd, Candlemas/ Epiphany 4
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, February 9th, Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Sunday, February 16th, Septuagesima
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
Followed by Pot-luck Luncheon and Annual Parish Meeting

Sunday, February 23rd, Sexagesima
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

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Prayers and liturgy

The Third Sunday After The Epiphany

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

Louis de Boullogne II, The Centurion at the Feet of ChristArtwork: Louis de Boullogne II, The Centurion at the Feet of Christ, 1685. Oil on canvas, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Arras, France.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Conversion of Saint Paul

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

Peter Paul Rubens, The Conversion of St. PaulArtwork: Peter Paul Rubens, The Conversion of St. Paul, c. 1610-12. Oil on panel, Courtauld Gallery, London.

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Timothy and St. Titus, Apostolic Men

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

Norwich Cathedral, Saint TimothyHeavenly 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, stained glass, Norwich Cathedral. Photograph taken by admin, 3 October 2014.

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KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 23 January

Epiphany is miracle

We can, perhaps, learn a lot from heresies. Heresies claim partial truths as absolute. That entails a choice. The meaning of the Greek word, hairesis or heresy is choice, choosing a particular perspective or position as absolute to the exclusion of all else. But choice implies the priority of subjective opinion over considered and corporate reflection. How then do we learn from heresies? Because, at the very least, they point to the questions that are most important and thus contribute to the process of thinking things through more completely and more comprehensively. There is usually, if not always, something partly right in positions that are later called heretical because they are too limited or partial; in short, incomplete and inadequate.

Cultural relativism denies the very idea of heresy because it assumes that all perspectives are equally true and, consequently, that there really is no truth. The idea of heresy is heresy! Everything is relative, it is absolutely asserted. We might note the paradox of contradiction and the dogmatism inherent in the claim.

The earliest ‘heresies’ in the emergence of Christianity were Marcionism and Docetism. Marcion was a 2nd century thinker who saw the idea of God in the Old Testament as irreconcilable with the idea of God in the New Testament, opposing justice and goodness absolutely. This led Marcion to get rid of most of the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament and, for that matter, huge chunks of the New Testament, keeping only what suited his interests, namely Paul’s Epistles and parts of Luke’s Gospel. What is revealing in Marcion’s perspective is the refusal (or inability) to reconcile the testaments in the manner which was already at work in establishing the Canon of Scripture. In a way, his rejection forced the emerging Church to think more deeply about the unity of the Scriptures in and through their diversity of expression. In our times, the same tendency is inherent in the phenomenon of ‘cancellation culture,’ a kind of intolerance through the negation and proscription of ideas, persons, and texts.

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