Author: CCW

Prayers and liturgy

The Ninth Sunday After Trinity

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

GRANT to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
The Gospel: St. Luke 16:1-9

Andrey Mironov, Parable of the Unjust StewardArtwork: Andrey Mironov, Parable of the Unjust Steward, 2012. Oil on canvas. © Copyright Andrey Mirinov and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Name of Jesus

El Greco, Adoration of the Name of ChristThe collect for today, the Feast of the Name of Jesus, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Almighty God, who by thy blessed Apostle hast taught us that there is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved, but only the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Grant, we beseech thee, that we may ever glory in this Name, and strive to make thy salvation known unto all mankind; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

For The Epistle: Acts 4:8-12
The Gospel: St Matthew 1:20-23

Artwork: El Greco, The Adoration of the Name of Christ (The Dream of Philip II), 1579. Oil on canvas, Monasterio de San Lorenzo, El Escorial, Madrid.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Transfiguration of Our Lord

The Collect for today, the Holy Day of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O GOD, who on the holy mount didst reveal to chosen witnesses thy well-beloved Son wonderfully transfigured: Mercifully grant unto us such a vision of his divine majesty, that we, being purified and strengthened by thy grace, may be transformed into his likeness from glory to glory; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 2 St. Peter 1:16-21
The Gospel: St. Matthew 17:1-9

Lodovico Carracci, The Transfiguration, 1594Artwork: Lodovico Carracci, The Transfiguration, 1594. Oil on canvas, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, Italy.

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Prayers and liturgy

Oswald, King and Martyr

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Oswald (d. 642), King of Northumbria, Martyr (source):

O Lord God almighty,
who didst so kindle the faith of thy servant King Oswald with thy Spirit
that he set up the sign of the cross in his kingdom
and turned his people to the light of Christ:
grant that we, being fired by the same Spirit,
may ever bear our cross before the world
and be found faithful servants of the gospel;
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 Martyr from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 4:12-19
The Gospel: St. Matthew 16:24-27

Jacopo de’ Barbari, St. Oswald of NorthumbriaIn AD 635, the army of Prince Oswald defeated the forces of pagan king Caedwalla of Gwynedd (north Wales) at the Battle of Heavenfield (near present-day Hexham, Northumberland). Oswald was a Christian and nephew of King Edwin, the man Caedwalla had defeated a few years earlier to conquer the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Heavenfield proved to be a key battle in English history for it marked the end of paganism as a religious and political force in England.

Knowing that the fate of his kingdom would be decided on the following day, Oswald had a wooden cross erected beside which he and his men knelt and prayed to the Lord for victory. The badly outnumbered Christian soldiers defeated their apparently over-confident adversaries, and Oswald became King of Northumbria.

After his victory, Oswald invited monks to come from Iona and establish a monastery at Lindisfarne, the Holy Island. This was to become one of England’s most important centres of Christian scholarship and evangelism.

King Oswald was killed in battle in 642 defending his land and people against the pagan king Penda of Mercia.

Artwork: Jacopo de’ Barbari, St. Oswald of Northumbria, 1500. Oil on canvas, Slovak National Museum, Bratislava, Slovakia.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Trinity

Audio File of the service of Matins & Ante-Communion for Trinity 8

We are children of God

O sacred Providence, who from end to end
strongly and sweetly movest! shall I write,
And not of thee, through whom my fingers bend
To hold my quill? shall they not do thee right?

Of all the creatures both in sea and land
Onely to Man thou hast made known thy wayes,
And put the penne alone into his hand,
And made him Secretarie of thy praise.

George Herbert’s poem, Providence, begins with a scriptural text upon which the whole poem hangs, a text from the Wisdom of Solomon: “Wisdom reacheth from one end to another mightily and sweetly doth she order all things”, fortiter et suaviter, strongly and sweetly (Wisdom 9.1). It is also the only scriptural reference in Boethius’ great classic, The Consolation of Philosophy, written in 529 AD while in prison, falsely accused and awaiting his death; the work itself is a treatise on Providence for that is our great consolation regardless of the times and circumstances.

Herbert writes of Providence with the awareness that this is itself a providence. Providence bids him write and that bidding extends to all humanity. It belongs to us to write of Providence. It is our vocation as “children of God”. It is about who we are in the sight of God.  Writing here is a metaphor for living out what we believe and know.

Yet the question is not at first how well do we write but what and how do we read. After all, Solomon, Boethius, Herbert, and a host of other thinkers and writers have all read and learned something of God’s Providence whether in Scripture, history, philosophy, or people’s lives. Only so can they then write of it as what moves so strongly and sweetly. Only then can we read so that we, too,  might be the “secretaries of thy praise”. But what and how do we read?

To contemplate the Providence of God is to discover the will that wields the world and beyond. It is what we acknowledge in the Collect: “O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth”. But what does it mean to contemplate the Providence of God?

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Prayers 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

Domenico Morelli, Sermon on the MountArtwork: Domenico Morelli, Sermon on the Mount, c. 1895. Oil on canvas, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Maccabean Martyrs

The collect for a Martyr, in commemoration of the Maccabean Martyrs (d. 166 B.C.), from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Almighty God, by whose grace and power thy Martyrs the Holy Maccabees were enabled to witness to the truth and to be faithful unto death: Grant that we, who now remember them before thee, may likewise so bear witness unto thee in this world, that we may receive with them the crown of glory that fadeth not away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Epistle: Hebrews 11:29-12:2
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:49-56

Michael Astrapas and Eutychios, Holy Martyrs Maccabees, their mother Solomonia, and their teacher EleazarThe Seven Holy Maccabean Martyrs are seven Jewish brothers who were tortured and killed by the order of Antiochus Epiphanes in 166 B.C. for refusing to participate in idolatrous worship and eat illicit food in violation of God’s laws. Their teacher, Eleazar the scribe, was also martyred at that time. Their mother was forced to watch her sons being cruelly put to death, and then she died. The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates her as St. Solomonia.

In 2 Maccabees, the account of Eleazar’s martyrdom is followed by the story of the seven brothers who submitted to martyrdom rather than transgress God’s law. One after another, they stated their willingness to be tortured and die based on a firm hope that God would raise them from the dead.

The episode can be found in 2 Maccabees 6:18-31 and 7:1-42. The valour of the Maccabean Martyrs is celebrated by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Artwork: Michael Astrapas and Eutychios, Holy Martyrs Maccabees, their mother Solomonia, and their teacher Eleazar, 1316-18. Fresco, Church of St. George, Staro Nagoricane, North Macedonia.

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Prayers and liturgy

William Wilberforce

The collect for today, the commemoration of William Wilberforce (1759-1833), English MP, Social Reformer, Abolitionist (source):

Let thy continual mercy, O Lord, enkindle in thy Church the never-failing gift of charity, that, following the example of thy servant William Wilberforce, we may have grace to defend the children of the poor, and maintain the cause of those who have no helper; for the sake of him who gave his life for us, thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: Galatians 3:23-29
The Gospel: St. Matthew 25:31-40

Sir Thomas Lawrence, William WilberforceArtwork: Sir Thomas Lawrence, William Wilberforce, 1828. Oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, London.

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Prayers and liturgy

Olaf, King and Martyr

The collect for a Martyr, in commemoration of Saint Olaf (995-1030), King and Patron Saint of Norway, Martyr, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Saint OlafO GOD, who didst bestow upon thy Saints such marvellous virtue, that they were able to stand fast, and have the victory against the world, the flesh, and the devil: Grant that we, who now commemorate thy Martyr Olaf, may ever rejoice in their fellowship, and also be enabled by thy grace to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold upon eternal life; through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 St Peter 4:12-19
The Gospel: St Matthew 16:24-27

Artwork: Saint Olaf, stained glass, St Olave’s Church, Hart Street, London. Photo taken by admin, 24 August 2004.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity

Audio file of the Services of Matins & Ante-Communion for Trinity 7

“How can anyone satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?”

“I can’t get no satisfaction,” Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones sang way back in 1965 in one of the great classics of rock’n roll. Yet what he sang long ago, the disciples hinted at even longer ago. Even if the song is, well, ungrammatical, and, no doubt, sexually charged, we get the point. Whether it is “useless information” on the radio, or dubious advertisements on the television, or “ridin’ round the world,” “doin’ this” and “signin’ that” in the parade of worldly fame and in the pursuit of sensual pleasure, such things just don’t satisfy. The phrase captures the human situation rather well. It serves to point to what we need and want and which is shown in the Gospel. We seek something more, something which only God can provide.

Today’s readings are particularly suggestive and wonderfully instructive about the realities of human life. Slaves to sin become servants of righteousness. How? By being freed from sin, the wages or outcome of which is death. How are we freed from sin? By becoming the servants of God. How is that accomplished? By “the free gift of God [which] is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Thus the wilderness of the world becomes a kind of paradise where we are satisfied with what the Lord provides for us; “bread in the wilderness.”

From slaves to servants. The shift in words is entirely about translation. It is really the same word that Paul uses throughout this passage from Romans; doulos in its various noun and verbal forms. In short, we are slaves either to sin or to righteousness, even slaves to God. Yet the transition from sin to righteousness signals something profound. Being slaves to God is our freedom. The classic Collect at Morning Prayer for Peace echoes the Epistle: “O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom” (BCP, p.11). Perfect freedom is found in our slavery or service to God “in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life.”

We live in the now of God through his Word and Sacrament. This is the counter to the false satisfactions of the ideology of progress which assumes that we are always  making everything better and better; always progressing upward and onward, always going forward, as we constantly hear. But neither is it simply its opposite, namely that we are always making everything worse and worse, regressing, as it were. These are two complementary yet contradictory ideologies that are duking it out in our current discontents. They are overly simplistic civilisational narratives united in one thing: no satisfaction. Either we haven’t got there yet in our attempts at progress or we are utterly condemned, forever and always, to misery and death, the death of ourselves and the natural world. These are the two competing narratives. No satisfaction either way.

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