Author: CCW

Sermons

Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent

“Thy word is a lantern unto my feet, / and a light unto my path”

Strange as it may seem our Advent text from the psalms is even more appropriate for the Third Sunday in Advent. The readings for this Sunday highlight two interrelated themes which challenge us in very direct and important ways. First, we are being called to account about our faithfulness, especially the faithfulness of the ministry. Have we been “ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God”? Secondly, we recall the ministry of John the Baptist as attested to by Jesus in a series of repeated questions which underscore his significance and place in the economy of salvation. The questions of Jesus about John the Baptist highlight the darkness of our world and the idea that Advent brings light to our darkness, not the least of which is the uncovering of the things which in human pride and perversity we would like to keep hidden, if not from one another, then from God. Yet the light of Advent is greater than the darkness of the world; a point which finds its fullest expression in the great Christmas Gospel. “The light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended (or overcame)  it not.”

The Gospel is very much about the witness of Christ to the witness of John. John points us to Jesus while Jesus points us to John. Can anything better be said and suggested than this interplay of the twin themes of repentance and rejoicing?

In our parish teaching programme this Advent, we are focusing on the Advent saints of Andrew and Thomas whose feast days formally complement and, to some extent, frame the Advent season. Without taking away from their symbolic and theological significance, the greater saints of Advent, to whom they would readily defer, are John the Baptist and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Advent mantra, par excellence, is “repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” To be sure, but that reaches its highest expression in the Angel Gabriel’s salutation to Mary, “hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee”, remembered in the Advent Ember Days this week. And while Mary is “troubled at this saying, cast[ing] in her mind what manner of salutation this should be”, it signals the note of profound joy heard and felt in the ancient introit for this day which, in turn, is the Epistle for the Fourth Sunday in Advent. “Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again, I say, rejoice.” Hence this Sunday is sometimes known as “Gaudete Sunday,” meaning rejoice.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 13 – 19 December

Tuesday, December 14th
7:00pm Parish Council Meeting

Sunday, December 19th, Fourth Sunday in Advent
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Upcoming Event:

Tuesday December 21st, St. Thomas
7:00pm Holy Communion & Advent Programme II

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Prayers and liturgy

The Third Sunday in Advent

The collect for today, the Third Sunday in Advent, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O LORD Jesu Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee: Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
The Gospel: St. Matthew 11:2-10

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, St. John the Baptist PreachingArtwork: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, St. John the Baptist Preaching, 1732-33. Fresco, Cappella Colleoni, Bergamo.

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KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 9 December

Light in Darkness

The Advent Christmas Services of Lessons & Carols brought us to the end of the Michaelmas term in fine fashion and led us into the last few days of classes and the beginning of exams which are another way of concluding the term! I am most grateful for the enthusiasm, commitment, and seriousness with which readers, singers, instrumentalists, servers, and students conducted themselves.

The Junior School Advent Christmas Service has a rather special quality and feel to it. The Grade Six class under the direction of Mr. Kevin Simonar performed an intriguing and sweet version of ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ by Tom Race, a contrast to the more familiar tune by Gustav Holst. Anne MacQuarrie played a lovely version of ‘Angels We Have Heard on High’ on violin. The students who read in a dignified and serious way the scripture readings were Ruby Wheelock, Vincent Armstrong, Laila Violante Munoz, Dami Adeniji, Sofia Ning, Drew Zettler, and Will Larder. The eighth lesson was read by Mrs. Taya Shield, the Director of the Junior School. Hand candles were lit for the ninth lesson, sung by the Chaplain, and for the singing of ‘Silent Night’. The servers were the wonderful cadre of Jacob Fines-Belcham, Kelsey Griffith, Ryan MacDougall, and Dulce Upton. The service ended with Mr. Pat LePoidevin and Chaz Faucher playing ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ on bagpipes and leading the Junior School and Faculty out of the Chapel. A memorable event. Many thanks to Mr. Kevin Lakes for his help and assistance.

On Sunday night, the Grade 12s had their special Advent Christmas Service of Lessons & Carols, special because it is the last such service for them in their time at King’s-Edgehill School. Emma Toupe and the Choir, under the direction of Stephanie Fillman, contributed to the Matins’ Responsory of Palestrina which bracketed the entire service. The Choir played a leading role in the singing of the Carols and, especially,  in the verses of the Veni Emmanuel which were interspersed among the readings. The Choir members were Maya Faucher, Lucy Goddard, Emma Toope, Dakota Bagshaw, Lennon Rutledge, Evey Kennedy, Jessica Etou, Hannah Stillwell and Gabby Strickey.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The collect for today, the Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (source):

Almighty and everlasting God,
who stooped to raise fallen humanity
through the child-bearing of blessed Mary:
grant that we, who have seen thy glory
revealed in our human nature
and thy love made perfect in our weakness,
may daily be renewed in thine image
and conformed to the pattern 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 Lesson: Proverbs 8:22-35
The Gospel: St. Luke 1:26-28

Titian, Madonna of the RabbitArtwork: Titian, Madonna of the Rabbit (The Virgin and Child with Saint Catherine and a Shepherd), c. 1525-30. Oil on canvas, Louvre.

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Nicholas, Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Nicholas (d. c. 326), Bishop of Myra (source):

Almighty Father, lover of souls,
who didst choose thy servant Nicholas
to be a bishop in the Church,
that he might give freely out of the treasures of thy grace:
make us mindful of the needs of others
and, as we have received, so teach us also to give;
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: 1 St. John 4:7-14
The Gospel: St. Mark 10:13-16

Paolo de' Matteis, St Nicolas of Bari felling a Tree Inhabited by DemonsArtwork: Paolo de’ Matteis, St. Nicolas of Bari felling a Tree Inhabited by Demons, c. 1727. Oil on canvas, High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

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Prayers and liturgy

Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Second Sunday in Advent

Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on the Second Sunday in Advent.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent

“Thy word is a lantern unto my feet,/ and a light unto my path”

Our Advent text is particularly appropriate for this Sunday, sometimes called Bible Sunday in part because of Cranmer’s beautiful Collect which derives from Paul’s strong words about the purpose and nature of scriptural revelation. “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,” we are told. As Cranmer and Hooker note “scripture is a doctrinal instrument of salvation”. On this Sunday we contemplate the pageant of God’s Word coming to us as light and judgement which is hope and comfort for us in our lives but only if we will hear and read. That, of course, is Cranmer’s great insight and prayer: “Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them.” There is something great and powerful to be gained from the Scriptures.

And yet, reading, let alone reading the Scriptures, is one of the challenges and crises of our times. Paradoxically, students read more now than they did a decade ago but their reading is almost entirely digital; not the reading of printed texts which are now a considerable challenge for them. The crisis is about shallow reading at the expense of acquiring the capacities for deep reading. Alberto Manguel in his lecture to the editorial board of the TLS in 1995, subsequently printed as St. Augustine’s Computer, notes the shift in metaphors that belong to the history of the technology of reading. He was speaking and writing at a time when there was a serious worry that digital formats would render books obsolete and therefore journals about books would no longer thrive. And for a time e-books did overtake the sale of printed books but that has shifted back the other way. In other words, things have balanced out because there are benefits to both digital and print reading. It is not a matter of one replacing the other but there are significant differences with respect to the patterns of reading for each even in terms of brain activity.

Our modern metaphors are about browsing, surfing, skimming, scanning. They are all metaphors of the surface in contrast to the older metaphors to which Cranmer alludes in the Collect. “Read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” are metaphors that look back to Ezekiel’s eating of the scroll and to the idea of being turned into what you are reading, becoming a living book, as it were. As such books are more than objects. They speak to essential aspects of our humanity. The history of the technology of reading from cuneiform tablets, to papyrus scrolls, to the codex – the book, to Gutenburg’s 15th century revolutionary invention of the printing press, and now to the digital revolution, is all a part of the story of human culture. It belongs to our understanding and to our remembering of who we are and what it means to be human. Consider, for example, the analogy between a page and the human form where we speak of the page as being like a person with a ‘header’, a ‘footer’ and, in between, the body. Shakespeare, about a letter containing bad news, refers to “the paper as the body of my friend and every word in it a gaping wound issuing life-blood” (The Merchant of Venice).

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 6 – 12 December

Sunday, December 12th, Third Sunday in Advent
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

Upcoming Event:

Tuesday December 21st, St. Thomas
7:00pm Holy Communion & Advent Programme II

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Prayers and liturgy

The Second Sunday in Advent

The collect for today, the Second Sunday in Advent, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 15:4-13
The Gospel: St. Luke 21:25-33

John Martin, The Last JudgmentArtwork: John Martin, The Last Judgment, 1853. Oil on canvas, Tate Britain, London.

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