Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Second Sunday after Easter
Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on the Second Sunday after Easter.
Author: CCW
Sermon for the Second Sunday after Easter
“Today thou shalt be with me in paradise”
The second word of the crucified Christ is to the penitent thief. It is a rather startling word. Paradise in the midst of the agony of the cross? The idea of the beauty and harmony of creation in the face of the ugly horror of sin and death? But is this not exactly what we have noted about the Passion and the Resurrection, namely, the opening out of eternal life as that which is prior and primary? And is it too much to see in this word something of the radical meaning of Christ the Good Shepherd who gathers us into his loving embrace even on the Cross? And is it possible to see in this second word from St. Luke its connection to the last word also from Luke’s Gospel, “Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit?” For the Eastertide refrain, as we shall see, is “because I go to the Father.” Everything is gathered into the love of God which is exactly what we see in the image of Christ the Good Shepherd.
We forget that the image of Christ the Good Shepherd is really a Resurrection image and one which conveys something of the ideas that belong to the Christian imaginary about paradise both biblically in terms of creation in Genesis and in antiquity in terms of Arcadia. They recall us to the ideas of a kind of peace and harmony between our humanity and nature and between our humanity and God. We forget the radical nature of this rather familiar and comfortable image of care though it is right before us. Jesus, who says he is “the good shepherd,” tells us that “the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” In other words, the Good Shepherd is the Lamb of God.
As the Epistle reading from 1st Peter reminds us, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” and goes on to emphasize the sinless purity of Christ and his sacrifice for us. For “his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” “For ye were,” he says “as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” Wonderful images that signify to us the deep love of God for us in the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. This passage, too, is the part of the second lesson read at Mattins on Holy Saturday. Thus Christ, as the Collect teaches, is “both a sacrifice for sin and also an example of godly life.” All under the embrace of the Good Shepherd.
The connection between the Passion and the Resurrection in terms of the image of Christ the Good Shepherd can also be seen if we consider what immediately precedes the gospel reading and what immediately follows it; in short, what frames the reading. First, “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn.10. 10). That abundant life is eternal life found in our being embraced in the arms of the Good Shepherd. Secondly, what follows the reading: “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father” (Jn 10. 17,18). Note too that the image of the Good Shepherd is seen in the context of bad shepherds, either thieves or hirelings, those who seek their own interest and not the good of others.
Week at a Glance, 24-30 April
Tuesday, April 25th
7:00 Christ Church Book Club: In God’s Path: The Arabic Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire (2015) by Robert G. Hoyland & The Republic of Arabic Letters: Islam and the European Enlightenment (2018) by Alexander Bevilacqua
Sunday, April 30th, Third Sunday after Easter
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
Upcoming Event:
Saturday, May 13th
1:00-3:00pm Mother’s Day Tea – Parish Hall
The Second Sunday After Easter
The collect for today, The Second Sunday After Easter, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
ALMIGHTY God, who hast given thine only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 2:19-25
The Gospel: St. John 10:11-16
Artwork: Mateo Gilarte, The Good Shepherd, c. 1680. Oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts of Murcia, Spain.
Anselm, Archbishop and Doctor
The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Anselm (1033-1109), Abbott, Archbishop of Canterbury, Theologian (source):
O everlasting God,
who gavest to thy servant Anselm
singular gifts as a pastor and teacher:
grant that we, like him,
may desire thee with our whole heart
and, so desiring, may seek thee
and, seeking, may find thee;
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 Epistle: Romans 1:16-20
The Gospel: St John 7:16-18; 8:12
Artwork: Saint Anselm, stained glass, Norwich Cathedral. Photograph taken by admin, 3 October 2014.
KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 20 April
Woman, why weepest thou?
There is all the difference in the world between education and indoctrination, the one opening us out to ways of understanding, the other compelling thought and expression. We live, it seems, in a world that looks more like George Orwell’s 1984 than Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Religion, like education, cannot be forced, a point which is constantly stressed in Chapel. Like classes, sports, and cadets, students are required to attend but no one can be compelled to believe, neither can Chapel affirm or confirm the various agendas and perspectives, personal beliefs or unbeliefs of students and faculty. It would be almost impossible to think how that could be.
The approach is rather that of the “dignity of difference” which has to do with a deeper sense of toleration. As Jonathan Sacks in a book written just after the events of 9-11 pointed it out, it means holding each form of religion accountable to its own principles. That requires having some understanding of different religions and the forms of their interaction.
Chapel belongs to the history and life of the School as an integral part of the educational project. While the service is Christian and derived from Anglican traditions that honour the School’s history, it is actually very generic and connects to the various practices in many other religious and philosophical cultures in terms of the reading of texts (scripture), of prayers and devotions and reflections, of ritual and symbol. There is not and cannot be any coercion of belief or thought, only the opening out of ideas and concepts that belong to questions that are perennial.
Religion or religions in their variety of expression have certainly been coercive and doctrinaire at times. Such is the sad and ugly truth of our brokenness and sin, our failures. And certainly, there are those who have very negative ideas about religion. Richard Dawkins regards the God of the Old Testament, as he puts it, as the most awful and vile figure in all literature. This prompted the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Jonathan Sacks, to observe, “Oh, I see that you are a Christian atheist.” The term Old Testament is a Christian way of speaking about the Hebrew Scriptures. And while there are many difficult and challenging passages in the Scriptures, Dawkins overlooks the forms of interpretation that highlight the nature of human sin and evil in contrast to the idea of the Law and creation as intrinsically good.
The religions of the world also provide a constant corrective and a rebuke to all forms of self-righteousness, of presumption and indoctrination. Christopher Lasch notes that the spiritual discipline [of religion] is against self-righteousness and that while religion provides comfort, first and foremost, it challenges and confronts us with our short-comings. It is always self-critical. We confront the forms of our unknowing and the limits of our thinking. Only so are we opened out to what is greater than ourselves.
Reflections for King’s-Edgehill School Cadet Church Parade, 2023
What is written? Reflections for the Church Parade, April 19th, 2023
What is written? And where? And how do we read? These are all questions that come to us through what is written. The word ‘scripture’ simply means what is written. What is written is an essential feature of the religions of the world.
There are the writings of Confucius in the Analects along with Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching of Taoism in China. There are the writings that belong to the Hindu tradition in the Vedas, the Upanishads and other writings such as the Bhagavad Gita in India. There are the many writings within Buddhism, both in classical or Theravada Buddhism, and Mahayana Buddhism, and Tibetan Buddhism. There are the writings of the Hebrews in the TANAKH, an acronym for the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. There are the writings of the Christian New Testament. There are the writings of the Recitation of Allah to Mohammed in the Qur’an for the cultures and people of Islam. Ramadan celebrates the giving of the Qur’an and ends with Eid al Fitr beginning on April 20th or 21st depending on the sighting of the crescent moon. Not to mention the many writings of the philosophers of antiquity who have contributed to the shaping of the ethical and spiritual imaginary that has been such a major part of our world, past and present.
What is written in the dust? Levi read the story about Jesus and the woman taken in adultery. It is the only time that Jesus is said to have written something. We hear about what he said as written down by others and even what he read as written in the Jewish scriptures, but what he wrote in the dust we do not know. Yet the image of him writing in the dust looks back to creation, to God breathing his spirit into the dust of our humanity such that we become living and thinking beings.
Here Jesus is the target of attack. His accusers set before him a woman accused of adultery to test him about his relation to the Law in its literal sense. He bends down and writes in the dust. What he wrote we do not know. We only know what he said. “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And all the accusers fade away convicted in their own consciences. To the woman he says, simply and gently, “Has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” These are powerful and moving words of life in the face of animosity and division. They are words of resurrection and forgiveness written in the dust.
Socrates, too, wrote nothing. But in Plato’s dialogue, The Meno, Socrates, not unlike Jesus, writes in the dust, or at least draws a diagram in the dust, to show that Meno’s slave boy who has never been to school nonetheless knows the Pythagorean theorem, meaning that it can be drawn out of him. It is a powerful scene about learning through a kind of remembering or discovering what is actually in us as spiritual and intellectual beings. These writings in the dust recall us to creation and speak to us about redemption and about who we are.
Alphege, Archbishop and Martyr
The collect for today, the Feast of St. Alphege (c. 953-1012), Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr (source):
O merciful God,
who didst raise up thy servant Alphege
to be a pastor of thy people
and gavest him grace to suffer for justice and true religion:
grant that we who celebrate his martyrdom
may know the power of the risen Christ in our hearts
and share his peace in lives offered to thy service;
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: Revelation 7:13-17
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:4-12
Artwork: Martyrdom of St. Alphege, carved painting, Canterbury Cathedral.
Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Octave Day of Easter
Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on the Octave Day of Easter.
Sermon for the Octave Day of Easter
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”
Throughout Holy Week we hung upon the words of Christ in the unity of the Scriptures, most especially, we hung upon the words of the crucified Christ. The tradition of the Devotions on the Seven Last Words of Christ developed, as we noted by the Peruvian Jesuit priest, Fr. Alonso Messio Bedoya in the late 17th century in Peru, carried over into Europe and then back again to the Americas. It belongs to the Church’s constant attention to the Passion of Christ. That ordering of the words of the crucified as drawn from all four Gospels also carries us into the Resurrection and into the Easter season. For the Resurrection does not eclipse the Passion; if anything, each intensifies our understanding of the other and brings to light the radical concept of eternal life shown in both. The ‘death of death’ of Christ crucified is eternal life. It is Resurrection.
The proper preface for Easter and Eastertide makes the connection between the Passion and the Resurrection quite clear. We praise God for Christ’s “glorious Resurrection” for he is “the very Paschal Lamb which was offered for us,” an explicit reference to the Passion, who “hath taken away the sin of the world,” hence the forgiveness of sins, and “who by his death hath destroyed death, and by his rising to life again hath restored to us everlasting life.” Such words explain the theology of the Passion and the Resurrection.
It is radical new life, a new birth. As John in his epistle explains “whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.” God, he says, “has given to us eternal life” through the Son of God who came “by water and by blood,” referring to Christ’s Passion. Out of the pierced side of the crucified and dead Christ came water and blood which become the symbolic means of our sacramental participation in the radical life of God. “There are,” he says, “three that bear witness, the Spirit, the water, and the blood.” The overcoming of the world is part of the teaching of Eastertide. On the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Rogation Sunday, the Gospel from John ends with the telling phrase that “in the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
What is this overcoming? It has nothing at all to do with our idolatry of technology in the illusions of control through the manipulation and destruction of nature and of human life. The overcoming means the breakthrough of the understanding about eternal life as the true and only source of all life and being and of all knowing and understanding. “The witness of God,” John tells us, “is greater than the witness of man.” Lent and Holy Week and Easter and Eastertide are profoundly self-critical of all the forms of human presumption. An essential feature of religion and especially the Christian religion is “the spiritual discipline against self-righteousness”. Thus in both the pageant of Lent and Holy Week and now in the Easter pageant, we are not only comforted but challenged. We confront ourselves in our own confusions and the limits of our own knowing. That is the condition of our being reborn, born upward into the things of the spirit. The overcoming is not a flight from the world, nor is it a flight from the body. It is the overcoming of sin whereby we pit the world against God and deny the truth and reality of creation and of ourselves.