Sermons

Sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, 2:00pm service for Atlantic Ministry of the Deaf

“Friend, go up higher”

It is one of my favourite Scripture passages. It’s not about ambition or pretension. It’s about the hope of transformation. It conveys the sense that we are, indeed, called to something more, that we have a destiny beyond what we know is before us but will not face, namely, the grave and gate of death. And it signals ever so profoundly the necessary condition of soul for the realization of God’s will and purpose for our lives. The necessary condition is humility.

Here is a Scripture reading in which the operative words are “friend” and “go up higher”. Jesus calls us “friends”.  He does so here by way of a parable but elsewhere more directly. He calls us friends at the height of his passion, on the night of our betrayal. That is the wondrous thing that passes human understanding. God has made us his friends when we were his enemies! This turns the ancient world on its head. It turns our world on its head. We live in a hopeless and fearful world. Here is the antidote to our hopelessness and fear. It challenges us so that it can redeem us.

We are called out of ourselves and we are called to God. We are called to the service of God in our life together with one another in the body of Christ. It is really the purpose of our being here today, a purpose which is meant to extend into every aspect of our lives.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

“Friend, go up higher”

Spatial metaphors abound in the Scriptures. “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho” or “We go up to Jerusalem”, to take but two familiar examples, the one from the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the other from Quinquagesima Sunday just before Lent. The meaning of our comings and goings are captured in these metaphors; they are about the ups and downs of our lives but, even more, they are images about the nature of our relationship with God and with one another; in short, they are about sin and grace, about death and resurrection.

The Scriptural readings for today emphasize our identity in Christ. His grace defines us and in very dynamic ways. The Collect bids us pray to God that his grace “may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works.” Prevent here does not mean ‘hinder’ or stand in our way; no, it is about the grace of God going before us and then, following or coming after us. The point, too, is that our good works are nothing but the effects of God’s grace in us. It is really all about God’s grace but that does not eclipse, destroy or deny the reality of our human nature; quite the opposite, it is about its perfection. To use a wonderful theological phrase from Aquinas, “grace does not destroy nature but perfects it.”

What is required of us? Humility. There can be no perfecting of our being, no going up higher, no being raised up to glory, without humility. In a way, it is the way of grace in us making us lovely where once we were unlovely. Religion cannot be about mere duty, checking off the boxes of all the forms of social and political correctness, as it were. It is radically and fundamentally about the transforming power of God’s grace. This is the powerful point of the parable which Jesus tells as the counter to the ways in which we trust in our own presumption about what is acceptable and proper, our own judgments about ourselves and others, which is really about our own pride. Pride cuts us off from God and one another. It often disguises itself in how we think and look at others, thinking ourselves invariably to be better than others and deserving of special attention.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 23 – 29 September

Tuesday, September 24th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place

Thursday, September 26th
3:15pm Service at Windsor Elms
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Saturday, September 28th
7:00 – 9:00pm Newfoundland & Country Evening of Musical Entertainment – Parish Hall

Sunday, September 29th, St. Michael and All Angels (Trinity XVIII)
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
4:00pm Special Choral Evensong, St. Mary’s Crousetown, sponsored by the Prayer Book Society, Fr. Curry officiating.

Upcoming Events:

Friday, October 18th
7:30pm Christ Church Concert Series I, Violin(s) & Piano, Nellie & Stan Chen

Friday, November 1st
3:00pm 225th Anniversary Service of the Founding of King’s Collegiate School (now King’s-Edgehill)

Friday, December 20th
7:00pm Christ Church Concert Series II, Capella Regalis presents “To Bethlehem with Kings”

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Prayers and liturgy

The Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity

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

LORD, we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Ephesians 4:1-6
The Gospel: St. Luke 14:1-11

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Prayers and liturgy

St. Matthew the Apostle

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Matthew, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O ALMIGHTY God, who by thy blessed Son didst call Matthew from the receipt of custom to be an Apostle and Evangelist: Grant us grace to forsake all covetous desires and inordinate love of riches, and to follow the same thy Son Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle: 2 Corinthians 4:1-6
The Gospel: St. Matthew 9:9-13

Artwork: Lorenzo Ghiberti, St. Matthew, 1419-23. Bronze, Orsanmichele, Florence. (The photograph shows a modern copy of the original. The latter has been placed in the interior museum of Orsanmichele to protect against the elements and vandalism.) Photograph taken by admin, 18 May 2010.

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Prayers and liturgy

John Coleridge Patteson, Bishop and Martyr

The collect for today, the commemoration of John Coleridge Patteson (1827-71), Missionary, First Bishop of Melanesia, Martyr (source):

O God of all tribes and peoples and tongues,
who didst call thy servant John Coleridge Patteson
to witness in life and death to the gospel of Christ
amongst the peoples of Melanesia:
grant us to hear thy call to service
and to respond with trust and joy
to Jesus Christ our redeemer,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: 1 St. Peter 4:12-19
The Gospel: St. Mark 8:34-38

John Coleridge Patteson, Missionary, Bishop, MartyrJohn Coleridge Patteson was a curate in Devon when Bishop of New Zealand George A. Selwyn persuaded him to go out to the South Pacific as a missionary. In 1856 he journeyed to Melanesia. He encouraged boys to study at a school Selwyn had founded in New Zealand and later set up a school in Melanesia. He was very proficient in languages and eventually learned twenty-three different languages and dialects spoken in Melanesia and Polynesia.

In 1861 Patteson was consecrated Bishop of Melanesia; he travelled across his diocese constantly, preaching, teaching, confirming, building churches, and living among the people. On the main island of Mota most of the population were converted.

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Prayers and liturgy

Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop

The collect for today, the Feast of St Theodore of Tarsus (602-690), Archbishop of Canterbury (source):

St_TheodoreAlmighty God, by the faithful ministry of your bishop Theodore you bound up the wounds of the English Church and renewed its vigour in the works of peace. Teach us, we pray, the art of your healing grace, that we may know the true balm and remedy for the divisions which afflict your Church; through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: 2 Timothy 2:1-5,10
The Gospel: St. Matthew 24:42-47

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Prayers and liturgy

Ninian, Missionary and Bishop

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Ninian (c. 360 – c. 432), Bishop of Galloway, Apostle to the Picts (source):

Almighty and everlasting God,
who didst call thy servant Ninian to preach the gospel
to the people of northern Britain:
raise up, we beseech thee, in this and every land,
heralds and evangelists of thy kingdom,
that thy Church may make known the immeasurable riches
of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Lesson: Isaiah 49:1-6
The Gospel: St. Matthew 28:16-20

Saint Ninian windowNinian was the first apostle of Christianity in Scotland. Born in Cumbria to Christian parents, he went to Rome for his education. After being ordained a priest and then a bishop, Ninian was commissioned by Pope Siricus to return to Britain to preach the Christian faith.

Tradition holds that Ninian’s mission to Scotland began in 397, when he landed at Whithorn on Solway Firth. The stone church he built there was known as Candida Casa (“White House”). Recent archaeological excavations in that area have found white masonry from what could be an ancient church.

Saint Ninian’s ministry was centred in the Whithorn and Galloway areas of Scotland, but he is also remembered for bringing the gospel to the “southern Picts”—people living in the areas now known as Perth, Fife, Stirling, Dundee, and Forfar.

As early as the 7th century, Christians were making pilgrimages to St. Ninian’s shrine. By the 12th century, a large cathedral had been built at Whithorn, but it fell into ruins after the Reformation. Yet today, pilgrims still travel there to visit St Ninian’s Cave, where the saint would go when he needed to pray in solitude.

During his 2010 visit to the United Kingdom, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Scotland on Saint Ninian’s Day.

Saint Ninian’s Cathedral, Antigonish, Nova Scotia (“New Scotland”), is the Episcopal Seat for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish. This prayer is posted at the Cathedral Parish website:

Lord our God, You brought to Scotland the faith of the apostles through the teaching of St. Ninian. Grant that we, who have received from him the light of your truth, may remain strong in faith. We ask this through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

Artwork: Saint Ninian, stained glass, Saint Margaret’s Chapel, Edinburgh Castle. Photograph taken by admin, 24 July 2004.

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Sermons

Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, 10:30am Morning Prayer

“Have you considered my servant Job?”

In the Sunday Office of Morning Prayer, we begin to read from The Book of Job.  Job is the proverbial man of troubles. “All God’s children got troubles,” as the old gospel song puts it, but few have as many troubles as Job. Yet the point of The Book of Job is not simply the extent of his troubles. The point is more about the nature of Job’s dealing with his troubles, especially his faithfulness which takes the form of wrestling with God and for God.

The Book of Job is really a kind of play, a drama of the possibilities of salvation and grace which arise out of the awareness of our utter emptiness. Job, like Abraham, is put to the test. But unlike Abraham, with Job we get to see the inner struggle. We get to see how things look like from the inside of the man of troubles.

It is not about a whine, a whinge or a whimper. But neither is it about lying down and letting God, the world, and other people simply walk all over you. In short, it is not about our fatalistic surrender to the seemingly arbitrary and bitter pointlessness of life. If anything, The Book of Job is a resounding testimony to the justice of God which cannot be reduced to human calculation, whim and demand. For no matter how things appear God’s justice runs and moves through all things, including our hearts. As such The Book of Job is a radical affirmation of the doctrine of creation.

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at A Glance, 16 – 22 September

Tuesday, September 17th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club – Coronation Room (please use side entrance):
The Dean’s Watch, by Elizabeth Goudge, and Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by Helen Simonson

Wednesday, September 18th
6:00-7:00pm Brownies/Sparks – Parish Hall

Thursday, September 19th
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Friday, September 20th
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
3:30pm Holy Communion – Gladys Manning Home

Saturday, September 21st
2:00 Holy Matrimony – Megan Marie Coffill & Nelson Michel Paradis

Sunday, September 22th, The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
2:00pm AMD Service of the Deaf
4:00pm Evening Prayer – Christ Church
4:30 Holy Communion – KES

Upcoming Events:

The Parish Hall will be used this week for a clinic sponsored by Atlantic PATH, a cancer research project associated with Dalhousie University.

Saturday, September 28th
7:00–9:00pm Newfoundland & Country Evening of Musical Entertainment – Parish Hall

Friday, October 18th
7:30pm Christ Church Concert Series I: Violin(s) & Piano, Nellie & Stan Chen

Friday, November 1st
3:00pm 225th Anniversary Service of the Founding of King’s Collegiate School (now King’s-Edgehill)

Friday, December 20th
7:00pm Christ Church Concert Series II: Capella Regalis presents “To Bethlehem with Kings”

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