Author: CCW

Prayers and liturgy

Polycarp, Bishop, Apostolic Man, Martyr

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Apostolic Man, Martyr (source):

St. PolycarpAlmighty God,
who gavest to thy servant Polycarp
boldness to confess the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ
before the rulers of this world
and courage to suffer death for his faith:
grant that we too may be ready
to give an answer for the faith that is in us
and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Lesson: Revelation 2:8-11
The Gospel: St. Matthew 20:20-23

Church tradition holds that Polycarp was born c. AD 69 of Christian parents and was a disciple of St John the Apostle and Evangelist, who ordained him Bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp was arrested during a pagan festival in Smyrna (present-day Izmir, Turkey) and brought before the Roman pro-consul.

[W]hen the magistrate pressed him hard and said, “Swear the oath, and I will release you; revile the Christ,” Polycarp said, “Eighty-six years have I been His servant, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”

But on his persisting again and saying, “Swear by the genius of Caesar,” he answered, “If you suppose vainly that I will swear by the genius of Caesar, as you say, and feign that you are ignorant of who I am, hear you plainly: I am a Christian. But if you would learn the doctrine of Christianity, assign a day and give me a hearing.”

He was burned at the stake for refusing to renounce Christ.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp was written down by the church of Smyrna and sent as a letter to the church at Philomelium. It is the first Christian martyrology. Several translations of the text can be accessed via this page.

Artwork: St. Polycarp, stained glass, Parish Church of St John the Baptist, Cirencester, Gloucestershire. Photograph taken by admin, 18 August 2004.

Print this entry

Sermons

Meditation for the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

“Brother Saul, receive thy sight”

There is something providentially wonderful about the celebration of the Conversion of Saint Paul in the last week of the Epiphany Season this year. For his conversion can be seen as a kind of epiphany, a making known to us about what God seeks for our humanity. It is all about light and life. His so-called conversion, so-called because there are a number of ambiguities about what is to be understood here about the word conversion, is nonetheless about a breakthrough of the understanding.

His conversion is not about a change of allegiance from Judaism to Christianity because the latter does not yet exist either notionally or institutionally. Paul, after all, is a critical figure in the ultimate development of what will come to be called Christianity. As the accounts make clear, his story is entirely within the context of late Judaism in its encounter with Greek language and thought and its domination by Roman law and order. Such is the real richness of The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. It reminds us that Christianity cannot be understood apart from the collision of those principles: Jewish religion, Greek philosophy and culture, as well as Roman order.

Luke tells us about the story of Saul on “the road to Damascus.” The phrase has entered into world culture as the image of conversion, a kind of breakthrough moment. In Luke’s Acts of the Apostles, Paul tells his story three times. The epistle reading for his feast day provides us with the third and, perhaps most moving account, especially when one considers the setting. It is one of hostility, the hostility of the Jews towards Paul who has to be rescued by the soldiers of the Roman legion and who is allowed to address his own people “speaking unto them in the Hebrew tongue” after having spoken in Greek to the tribune, Claudius Lysias, a Roman officer. We see the interplay of Hebrew, Greek and Latin in the story of Saul who by virtue of his experience will be renamed Paul.

What is his story? It is his conversion, and here the word must be used literally, from being the persecutor of Christ to becoming an Apostle of Christ. It is, also literally, about seeing former things in a new light. He is blinded into sight, into a new way of thinking about the Messiah, a new way of thinking about God’s engagement with our humanity in terms that without destroying the law transcend the law, especially in its narrow Pharisaic sense. His story is about his mystical encounter with the risen Christ. In a way, the critical moment lies in the exchange between Christ and Saul.

(more…)

Print this entry

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

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Conversion of St. PaulArtwork: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Conversion of St. Paul, 1567. Oil on panel, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Print this entry

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):

Saint Timothy and Saint TitusHeavenly 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: St. Timothy and St. Titus, stained glass, Parish Church of St. John the Baptist, Cirencester, Gloucestershire. Photograph taken by admin, 18 August 2004.

Print this entry

KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 22 January

Who is this?

Yearning for miracles is not the same thing as learning from miracles. The readings in Chapel of late have been about what is learned about God and about his will for our humanity. The miracles are not something accidental to that interest but belong fundamentally to it. The miracles teach. They do so, in part, by way of questions.

“Who is this?” A great question wonderfully explored in the hymn sung in Chapel on Monday and Tuesday where the first phrase of each four verses is the question, “who is this?” and which is repeated in the third verse. Thus, five times the question is raised “who is this?” in relation to the Christian story of the significant moments in the life of Christ. In each of the four verses of the hymn, there is a response, an answer given at the beginning of the second quatrain of every verse: “‘Tis our God.”

The question is at once an Advent and an Epiphany question albeit in different ways. In Advent, the whole city of Jerusalem was moved at the spectacle of Christ’s triumphant entry into the city to ask this question, “Who is this?” It is raised in the context of the one who comes to our world. In the Epiphany we have the same question, “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?” It is in the context of a story, a remarkable story about Christ rebuking the wind and calming the sea in the midst of a ship in a storm. The difference between the Advent question and the Epiphany question is that the latter is about an awakening that happens from within the conditions of our natural world, a world, too, of tempests and storms. There are not only the storms of nature but also the storms and tempests of the human heart and mind. What is so amazing about this story is the idea that God cares.

(more…)

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Vincent, Deacon and Martyr

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Vincent of Saragossa (d. 304), Deacon and Martyr (source):

Almighty God, whose deacon Vincent, upheld by thee, was not terrified by threats nor overcome by torments: Strengthen us, we beseech thee, to endure all adversity with invincible and steadfast faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Lesson: Revelation 7:13-17
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:4-12

Jerónimo Jacinto de Espinosa, Saint Vincent of SaragossaVincent is the proto-Martyr (first known martyr) of Spain and the patron saint of Lisbon. He was deacon of Saragossa, Aragon, under Bishop Valerius. Both were arrested during the persecution instigated by edicts of Diocletian and Maximian. Because Valerius had a speech impediment, Vincent testified to their faith in Christ, boldly and without fear.

Dacian, Roman governor of Spain, subjected Vincent to horrible tortures. The saint was thrown into prison and weakened by semi-starvation. After refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods, he was racked, burned, and kept in stocks. He died as a result of his sufferings.

St. Augustine of Hippo preached a sermon on Vincent’s martyrdom. Here is an excerpt:

“To you has been granted in Christ’s behalf not only that you should believe in him but also that you should suffer for him.” Vincent had received both these gifts and held them as his own. For how could he have them if he had not received them? And he displayed his faith in what he said, his endurance in what he suffered. No one ought to be confident in his own strength when he undergoes temptation. For whenever we endure evils courageously, our long-suffering comes from him Christ. He once said to his disciples: “In this world you will suffer persecution,” and then, to allay their fears, he added, “but rest assured, I have conquered the world.” There is no need to wonder then, my dearly beloved brothers, that Vincent conquered in him who conquered the world. It offers temptation to lead us astray; it strikes terror into us to break out spirit. Hence if our personal pleasures do not hold us captive, and if we are not frightened by brutality, then the world is overcome. At both of these approaches Christ rushes to our aid, and the Christian is not conquered.

Artwork: Jerónimo Jacinto de Espinosa, Saint Vincent of Saragossa, 17th century. Oil on canvas, Private collection.

Print this entry

Sermons

Sermon for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany

“Speak the word only”

It complements Paul’s final words in today’s epistle. “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” How? By letting the Word of God have its resonance and its presence in our lives. Letting God be God in us, if you will. Only so can good triumph over evil, even the evil of our own hearts. It complements, too, Paul’s first word here. “Be not wise in your own conceits,” the idea of trusting in our own wisdom rather than being open to the wisdom of God and letting that rule and move in our hearts and minds. Oftentimes it is our own cleverness that is the problem. We are too clever for our own good.

No Gospel story illustrates more profoundly the idea of God’s word resonating in our being and overcoming the evil of our own self-will. Here is Epiphany as Catechism. Catechism simply means instruction, an instruction about the fundamental teachings of the Christian faith. The word itself refers to an echo and, indeed, there was a time where even things like the Lord’s Prayer were prayed in the liturgy by being repeated phrase after phrase, first by priest and then by people.

Repeated. Saying the same things over and over again. However much that seems to go against the grain of more experiential forms of contemporary religion, it belongs to the deeper logic of the Christian faith and to the ways in which we participate in it. We could do a whole lot worse than catechism! It is really all about Christ in us; his word dwelling in us richly.

This year the Epiphany season ends with The Third Sunday after Epiphany and with a Gospel which presents us with an intriguing and important teaching. A double miracle, a healing within Israel – the healing of the Leper by word and touch – and the healing of the centurion’s servant, a healing outside of Israel, the healing not only of a non-Israelite but a healing, too, from afar, a healing by word only. Few stories concentrate for us more wonderfully the nature of the Epiphany, about the manifestation of Christ’s divinity, on the one hand, and about the making known of the divine will for the whole of our humanity, on the other hand. Such a Gospel story in the contrast between a healing within and without Israel sharpens the tension between the universal and the particular. Here is a healing outside of Israel which convicts and confirms an essential Jewish teaching. God is the God of all otherwise he is not God but merely some tribal deity.

And it is “at thy Word.” What is revealed here is the power and the truth of the divine word which by definition is not constrained to the limits of time and space. The healings are both near at hand and far away whether with or without the necessity of physical touch. At the risk of being a bit flippant, Jesus does not have to make house calls! Yet something about the power of the divine word is shown to us not only by the healing from afar of the centurion’s servant but perhaps even more by the centurion’s insight and comment.

(more…)

Print this entry

Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 22 – 28 January

Monday, January 22nd
4:35-5:15pm Confirmation Class – Rm 206 KES
6:30-7:30pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, January 23rd
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-8:00pm Guides – Parish Hall

Wednesday, January 24th
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Thursday, January 25th, Conversion of St. Paul
7:00pm Holy Communion

Friday, January 26th
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders & Rangers – Parish Hall

Sunday, January 28th, Septuagesima
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
5:00pm PBSC Choral Evensong – St. George’s Halifax

Upcoming Event:

Sunday, February 11th
Pot-Luck Luncheon & Annual Parish Meeting following the 10:30am service.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

The Third Sunday After The Epiphany

Charles-Michel-Ange Challe, Christ and the CenturionThe 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

Artwork: Charles-Michel-Ange Challe, Christ and the Centurion, 1759. Eglise Saint-Roch, Paris.

Print this entry

Prayers and liturgy

Henry, Missionary and Bishop

The collect for a missionary, on the Feast of St. Henry of Finland (d. 1150), Bishop, Missionary, Patron Saint of Finland, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Saint Henry of FinlandO GOD, our heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst call thy blessed Apostles and send them forth to preach thy Gospel of salvation unto all the nations: We bless thy holy Name for thy servant Henry, whose labours we commemorate this day, and we pray thee, according to thy holy Word, to send forth many labourers into thy harvest; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Epistle: Acts 12:24-13:5
The Gospel: St. Matthew 4:13-24a

Print this entry