Author: CCW

KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 15 January

Wist ye not that I must be about my father’s business?

It is an epiphany story. The only story of the boyhood of Christ speaks directly to our being a school, a place where a culture of learning is respected and sought. Jesus at the age of twelve is “found … in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions.” We are in the presence of mysteries. How do we think God?

Only by being in a place of learning. From the classical and orthodox perspective, this story is about Jesus as the Divine Teacher and the human student. Something about God is revealed to us through the humanity of Jesus, the Divine Son. His reply to Mary reveals his mission. I love the King James translation here following Tyndale. “Wist ye not?” Did you not know? Wist reflects the Germanic influence on English going back to Anglo-Saxon or Old English, to a form of the German verb wissen, to know. Jesus is emphatic that he has come for a purpose that has to do with his heavenly Father; in short, with God. He is, in every sense, teaching us about his purpose and in turn about who God is in himself and who he is for us. Powerful lessons that carry over into the other story read this week, the miracle story at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee.

It is the “beginning of signs”, John tells us, the first of the miracles which reveals the real purpose and meaning of the miracle stories, all our skepticisms notwithstanding. The miracles are really about the good which God seeks for our humanity, a good which is not just about the healing of infirmities but about what we are healed for. And what is that? God seeks our social joys. Our good is ultimately found in our fellowship with God and with one another. The things of the world are used to open us out to the things of God. We participate in God sacramentally and intellectually. But only by being taught and by acting upon what we learn.

There is always the sense in which what we are taught carries over into our lives of service. One of the windows in the Chapel nave is the Buckle window, dedicated to Pa Buckle after whom Buckle House is named. That window depicts one aspect of the story of Christ being found in the temple in Jerusalem and then going down to Nazareth with Joseph and Mary; Mary “keeping in her heart” what Jesus said about his purpose. As Luke puts it “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature”, humanly speaking. But something else is being signalled, namely the things that belong to our knowledge of God.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany

“Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it”

The story of the miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee where Jesus changes water into wine, indeed, the very best wine, has been read in the liturgical traditions as an Epiphany story. Something is made manifest, made known, about who Jesus is, about who he is for us and about what he seeks for us. In “this beginning of signs … he manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed on him.” It is a most powerful, a most intriguing, and a most instructive story. Like so many of the Gospel stories it arrests our attention and demands our thoughtful consideration.

Most intriguing, perhaps, even beyond the questions about miracles which are an important feature of Epiphany, is the dialogue between Jesus and Mary. It sets the context for the miracle and provides the key to its interpretation. More than that, though, it alerts us to the sacramental nature of the Christian faith with respect to the making known of the essential divinity of Christ and to the work of human redemption. Just as his divinity is made known through his humanity, so too the work of human redemption happens through the things of the world. The Christian religion is not about fleeing the world; it is about the redemption of the world. Word and Sacrament are intimately and inseparably entwined as essential aspects of Christian faith and life.

Christ’s Incarnation is God’s intimate engagement with our humanity. God enters into the conditions of our world and day. But why? The great 14th century German mystic theologian, Meister Eckhart, astutely observes that “the greatest good God gave to man was in becoming man.” It is in these stories that we see the goodness of God towards our humanity. Christ’s essential divinity, as one of our hymns highlights, is made “manifest in Jordan’s stream,” referring to his baptism by John. As we saw last week, huddled in the cold of the Hall, that does not mean that Jesus recognises himself as a sinner which is all that John’s baptism really means – a kind of metanoia, a recognition in us about ourselves that expresses a desire to be freed from sin.

Christ’s baptism is about his entering into the conditions of our sinful world. It signals the idea of the divine purpose of the redemption of our humanity. Christian baptism builds on the baptism of John but imputes Christ’s righteousness to us so that we are freed from original sin because we are in Christ. But only through his hour, the hour of his passion and resurrection. It is not just about the recognition of sin but redemption from sin through our incorporation into Christ’s death and resurrection.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 15 – 21 January

Monday, January 15th
4:35-5:05pm Confirmation Class – Rm 206 KES
7:00pm Religious Inquirers’ Class – Rm 206 KES
6:30-8:00pm Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, January 16th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
6:30-8:00pm Guides – Parish Hall
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club: Terry Eagleton’s “Culture” and William Deresiewicz’ “Excellent Sheep”

Wednesday, January 17th
6:30-8:00pm Brownies – Parish Hall

Thursday, January 18th
3:15pm Service – Windsor Elms

Friday, January 19th
6:00-7:30pm Pathfinders & Rangers – Parish Hall

Sunday, January 21st, Third Sunday after the Epiphany
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion

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Prayers and liturgy

The Second Sunday After The Epiphany

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

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of thy people, and grant us thy peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Romans 12:6-16
The Gospel: St. John 2:1-11

Giotto, Marriage at CanaArtwork: Giotto, Marriage at Cana, c. 1304-06. Fresco, Cappella degli Scrovegni, Padua, Italy.

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Prayers and liturgy

Hilary, Doctor and Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of St. Hilary (c. 315-368), Bishop of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church (source):

Everlasting God,
whose servant Hilary
steadfastly confessed thy Son Jesus Christ
to be both human and divine:
grant us his gentle courtesy
to bring to all the message of redemption
in the incarnate Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: 1 St. John 2:18-25
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:8-12

Courtois, St. HilaryHilary was born in Poitiers, Gaul, of wealthy pagan parents. After receiving a thorough education in Latin classics, he became an orator. He also married and had a daughter. At the age of about 35, he rejected his former paganism and became a Christian through a long process of study and thought. Robert Louis Wilken describes his path to conversion in The Spirit of Early Christian Thought (p. 86):

[Hilary] found himself turning to more spiritual pursuits. In his words he wished to pursue a life that was “worthy of the understanding that had been given us by God.” Like Justin [Martyr] he began to read the Bible, and one passage that touched his soul was Exodus 3:14, where God the creator, “testifying about himself,” said, “I am who I am.” For Hilary this brief utterance penetrated more deeply into the mystery of the divine nature than anything he had heard or read from the philosophers. Shortly thereafter he was baptized and received into the church.

Around 353 he was chosen bishop of Poitiers and became an outspoken champion of orthodoxy against the Arians. St. Augustine praised him as “the illustrious teacher of the churches”. St. Jerome wrote that Hilary was “a most eloquent man, and the trumpet of the Latins against the Arians”. Hilary became known as “Athanasius of the West”.

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KES Chapel Weekly Reflections

KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 10 January

We saw…we came…and worshipped

In complete contrast to the most disturbing story of the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, there is the most attractive story of the coming of the wise men to Bethlehem, though the two stories are connected. There is, after all, a dark note of deceit in Herod’s questioning of the wise men about where the child king is to be found, claiming that he wants to know so that he, too, can come and worship. In fact, he sees in the story of a child King a potential rival to his power. That leads to the horror of infanticide, the slaughter of the Holy Innocents in his attempt to annihilate a threat to his rule.

But the story of “the magoi from Anatolia,” the wise men from the East, captures our imagination and excites all manner of forms of ‘holy imagination’. Three Kings? There is no mention of how many came to Bethlehem or that they were even kings. All Matthew says is “magoi from Anatolia.” The imagery of kings, crowns, and camels all derives from Isaiah’s prophecy about “kings coming to the brightness of thy rising”, journeying by camels and presenting gifts of gold and frankincense to the Messiah. Matthew’s account adds myrrh, the ancient burying spice; hence three gifts from which comes the idea of three wise men. They follow a star suggesting that they were astrologers or, as we would say, astronomers. Anatolia is a rather broad term hinting at parts eastward, and things exotic.

The coming of the wise men marks the Epiphany, the making known of Christ’s nativity in principle to the whole world, a world outside the confines of ancient Israel. But where and how many and who they were is left unsaid and unknown. It is here that ‘holy imagination’ has gone to work and in wonderful ways, elaborating on the already exotic qualities of Matthew’s simple narrative. An Armenian tradition a century or so later gives the wise men names and places of origin: Balthazar, Melchior, and Gaspar from Arabia, Persia and India respectively. Nothing of that is in the biblical story. Other traditions keep the names but differ about the places of origin. Some imagine different races, variously treating either Balthazar or Melchior as black, for instance. Others think of them as representing different ages of life: young, middle-aged, and elderly, sometimes with and sometimes without beards! In short, a whole mythology develops out of the work of ‘holy imagination’ which informs later traditions such as the Drei König in Germany, the three kings, and other stories that build upon this simple narrative.

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Prayers and liturgy

John Horden, Missionary and Bishop

The collect for today, the commemoration of The Right Rev. John Horden (1828-1893), first Bishop of Moosonee, Missionary to the First Nations of Canada:

The Right Rev. John HordenO God,
the Desire of all the nations,
you chose your servant John Horden
to open the treasury of your Word
among the native peoples of Canada.
Grant us, after his example,
to be constant in our purpose and care
for the enlargement of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Source of collect: Give Us Grace: An Anthology of Anglican Prayers, compiled by Christopher L. Webber. Anglican Book Centre, Toronto, 2004, p. 456.

Born in Exeter, England, to humble Christian parents, John Horden resolved to be a missionary while a young boy at school and, when he was 23, the Church Missionary Society (CMS) offered him a post as a teacher and missionary at Moose Factory on James’ Bay. He and his young wife set sail on 8 June 1851, arriving at Moose Factory on 26 July.

Horden gave himself whole-heartedly to his task. Within eight months he was able to teach and preach to the indigenous people in the Cree language. In the summer of 1852, Bishop David Anderson of Rupert’s Land travelled 1500 miles to visit his new minister, initially planning to bring him to Red River for theological training. The young man’s conscientiousness and maturity were so impressive, however, that Bishop Anderson changed his plans, ordaining John Horden priest on 24 August.

Rev. Horden ministered to the James Bay Cree and Hudson Bay Company employees for many years, visiting indigenous peoples all around the James Bay region. He translated the Gospels, a hymnal, and a prayer book into Cree, and sent them to England for printing. Because no one was competent to proof-read the master copies, the CMS sent him a printing press and told him to print the books himself. Horden needed many long, frustrating days to teach himself how to assemble and operate the press. His printing press was soon producing other Christian literature in Cree. He also wrote a grammar of the Cree language.

In 1872, Bishop Robert Machray of Rupert’s Land decided that his diocese had grown too large and should be sub-divided. Thus, at Westminster Abbey on 15 December 1872, the Archbishop of Canterbury consecrated John Horden the first Bishop of the Diocese of Moosonee.

Bishop Horden continued to travel across his vast diocese. By the end of his life, most of the Cree of James Bay had been converted, as well as many Ojibwa, Chipewyan, and Inuit. Also, he laboured on translating the Bible into Cree until he died unexpectedly on 12 January 1893. He is buried at Moose Factory.

Biographies of John Horden are posted here and here.

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Prayers and liturgy

Benedict Biscop, Abbot and Scholar

The collect for a Doctor of the Church, Poet, or Scholar, on the Feast of Saint Benedict Biscop (c. 628-89), Founder of the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, Scholar, Patron of the Arts, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962);

O GOD, who by thy Holy Spirit hast given unto one man a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, and to another the gift of tongues: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servant Benedict Biscop, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Lesson: Daniel 2:17-24
The Gospel: St. Matthew 13:9-17

Norwich Cathedral, St. Benedict BiscopSaint Benedict Biscop is remembered as a church leader instrumental in preserving and disseminating Western civilisation during the so-called “Dark Ages”.

Born into a noble Northumbrian family, Benedict spent many years in Frankish monasteries, becoming a monk at the Abbey of Lérins, off the southern coast of France. He also travelled to Rome six times. At the conclusion of his third visit in 668, he accompanied St. Theodore of Tarsus, the Greek monk newly commissioned as Archbishop of Canterbury, to England. For two years, Benedict served as abbot of the monastery of St. Peter & St. Paul (later St. Augustine’s), Canterbury, but soon wanted to establish his own foundation.

Receiving papal approval to establish monasteries in Northumbria, Benedict founded the twin monasteries of St. Peter’s at Wearmouth in 674 and St. Paul’s at Jarrow in 681. He travelled to Rome and returned with an “innumerable collection of books of all kinds”. He also brought with him John the Chanter, Archcantor of St. Peter’s, Rome, who taught the monks the Roman liturgy and Gregorian chant.

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Prayers and liturgy

William Laud, Archbishop and Martyr

The collect for today, the commemoration of William Laud (1573-1645), Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr (source):

St. Botolph's, William LaudKeep us, O Lord, constant in faith and zealous in witness, that, like thy servant William Laud, we may live in thy fear, die in thy favor, and rest in thy peace; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Epistle: Hebrews 12:5-7,11-14
The Gospel: St. Matthew 10:32-39

A Prayer for the Church by William Laud:

Gracious Father, I humbly beseech thee for Thy holy Catholic Church, fill it with all truth; in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purge it; where it is in error, direct it; where it is superstitious, rectify it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it; where it is right strengthen and confirm it, where it is in want, furnish it; where it is divided and rent asunder, make up the breaches of it; O Thou Holy One of Israel. Amen.

Source: Give Us Grace: An Anthology of Anglican Prayers, compiled by Christopher L. Webber. (Anglican Book Centre, Toronto, 2004), p. 55.

Artwork: William Laud, stained glass, St. Botolph’s Church, Boston, England. Photograph taken by admin, 3 October 2014.

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Sermons

Sermon for the First Sunday after the Epiphany

“Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”

Throughout the Advent and Christmas season, we have largely been in the company of Luke and Matthew and John with respect to the Gospel readings. So, too, with the Epiphany. Christmas reaches a kind of climax with Matthew’s evocative account of the coming of the Magoi from Anatolia, the wise men/kings from the east who come to Bethlehem, at last, it seems, to complete the rich tableaux that belongs to all our Christmas imaginings. With the coming of the Magi, the Christmas mystery is complete.

Epiphany marks the making known to all of the Christmas mystery which is why for one half or more of the Christian world, Epiphany is the Christmas celebration. For the Churches of Eastern Orthodoxy – Russia, the Ukraine, Greece, Georgia, Egypt, Armenia, and so on, Epiphany is Christmas. Why? Because it marks the making known, the manifestation of Christ’s nativity to all the world. With Epiphany, Christmas is omni populo, for all people. What is proclaimed to the Shepherds in the fields surrounding Bethlehem by the Christmas Angel about “good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” comes to pass with the journey of the proverbial “Come-From-Aways” and “Johnny-Come-Latelies” to worship the child Christ. They come bearing gifts, “sacred gifts of mystic meaning,” gifts which teach us about the meaning of Christmas.

There is a certain logic to these differences of celebration between East and West as well as some common concerns. For the Churches of the Western world, both Catholic and Protestant, Epiphany recognizes and celebrates the universal aspect of Christ’s nativity but also focuses on a new theme. There is a shift of emphasis from the Word made Flesh, a focus on the humanity of Christ in the Incarnation, to the divinity of the One who becomes human. Epiphany is all about the making known of the essential divinity of Christ revealed in and through his humanity in its engagement with us. Thus, for East and West, Epiphany is really Theophany, a manifestation of God.

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