Sermons

Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent, 10:30am service

“Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness,
to be tempted by the devil”

The Christian season of Lent traditionally begins with the temptations of Christ on the first Sunday of Lent. The whole idea of Lent, the quadragesima, is derived in part from Christ’s going into the wilderness and fasting for “forty days and forty nights.” It recapitulates the themes of the Exodus journey of the ancient Hebrews; the forty years of wandering in the wilderness of Sinai. It takes on a symbolic significance. At once a liberation from the yoke of slavery under the Egyptians, it was also a time of testing, and, above all, a time of learning. Learning what? Simply what it means to be the people of God, defined ultimately by God who reveals himself and his will in two ways: first, in the burning bush, and secondly, in the Ten Commandments, the moral code for our humanity, if you will.

These are astounding stories. And in a way they are recalled and reworked in the story of the temptations of Christ which sets us upon the Christian journey of life, a journey into the greater promised land of our redeemed humanity, our humanity forgiven and restored, like the paralytic in the lesson from Matthew’s Gospel, our humanity called and empowered, like Matthew, to follow Christ at his word to challenge and proclaim the new reality of God’s absolute mercy for our wounded and broken humanity. Somehow in the season of Lenten fasting we are also reminded of the joy of the new life of redemption. “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” Jesus asks. It is a provocative question which calls attention to something new and wonderful in Christ which at once corrects and completes all that belongs to the rigour of the law and to the disciplines of Lent.

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Sermons

Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent, 8:00am service

“Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve”

The Christian season of Lent traditionally begins with the temptations of Christ on the First Sunday of Lent. The whole idea of Lent, the quadragesima, is derived in part from Christ’s going into the wilderness and fasting for “forty days and forty nights.” It recapitulates the themes of the Exodus journey of the ancient Hebrews; the forty years in the wilderness of Sinai. It takes on a symbolic significance. At once a liberation from the yoke of slavery under the Egyptians, it was also a time of testing, and, above all, a time of learning. Learning what? Simply what it means to be the people of God, defined ultimately by God who reveals himself and his will in two ways: first, in the burning bush, and secondly, in the Ten Commandments, the moral code for our humanity, if you will.

These are astounding stories. And in a way they are recalled and reworked in the story of the temptations of Christ which sets us upon the Christian journey of life, a journey into the greater promised land of our redeemed humanity, our humanity forgiven and restored.

(more…)

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Events, Month at a Glance

Week at a Glance, 18 – 24 February

Monday, February 18th
4:45-5:15pm Confirmation Class, Room 206, KES
6:00-7:00pm Brownies/Sparks – Parish Hall

Tuesday, February 19th, Eve of Ember Wednesday
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
7:00pm Holy Communion & Lenten Programme: The Kiss of Judas: Themes of Betrayal & Forgiveness in the Scriptures – I

Thursday, February 21st
6:30-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall

Friday, February 22nd, Ember Friday
11:00 Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge

Sunday, February 24th, Lent II
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
2:00pm AMD Service of the Deaf
4:30pm Holy Communion at KES

Upcoming Events:

On Tuesday evenings throughout Lent, there will be special Lenten Services of Holy Communion with reflections on ‘The Kiss of Judas: Themes of Betrayal & Forgiveness in the Scriptures‘. The services are at 7:00pm on the following Tuesday evenings: Feb. 19th, Feb. 26th, Mar. 5th, Mar. 19th.

Saturday, March 9th
9:00am-4:30pm Quiet Day at King’s-Edgehill School: Praying the Scriptures: What, When, and How? All welcome.

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Prayers and liturgy

The First Sunday in Lent

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

O LORD, who for our sake didst fast forty days and forty nights: Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey thy godly motions in righteousness and true holiness, to thy honour and glory; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Epistle: 2 Corinthians 6:1-10
The Gospel: St. Matthew 4:1-11

Kramskoy, Christ in the WildernessArtwork: Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy, Christ in the Wilderness, 1873. Oil on canvas, Tretjakov Gallery, Moscow.

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Prayers and liturgy

Valentine, Bishop and Martyr

The collect for a Martyr, on the Feast of Saint Valentine (d. c. 269), Bishop, Martyr at Rome, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Pamer, St. ValentineO 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 Valentine, 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: Georg Pämer, St. Valentine, 1696. Polychrome wood statue, Pfarrkirche Mariä Himmelfahrt (Parish Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary), Grassau, Chiemgau, Bavaria.

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Sermons

Ash Wednesday Meditation

“Behold, something greater than Jonah is here”

The Penitential Service for Use on Ash Wednesday and at Other Times, found in the Canadian BCP (p. 611ff.) calls us “in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance, by prayer, fasting, and self-denial, and by reading and meditation upon God’s holy Word.” Locating the disciplines of Lent within the tradition of the Church and in its relation to Scripture, it provides a clear and concise explanation for the meaning of Lent. It is a challenge, to be sure.

Lent, in a way, concentrates the Christian journey of Faith into the span of forty days, forty days of a certain kind of focus and rigour, a focus and rigour that by definition belongs to the essence of the Christian Faith. We participate in nothing less than the Passion of Christ. And that is nothing less than the pageant of human redemption.

One of the prayers of the Penitential Service recalls The Book of Jonah, the story of the most reluctant prophet, no, let’s be clearer, the most recalcitrant prophet of all times! God says, ‘go to Nineveh,’ and Jonah jumps on a boat heading to Tarshish, trying to get as far away from God as possible and as far away from Nineveh, as well. Utter folly of course, as The Book of Jonah is at pains to teach us. What kind of God would God be, after all, if you could run and hide from him? Adam and Eve already tried that trick in the Garden of Eden, having hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God. “Where art thou?” God asked, knowing full well where they were but highlighting their sin and mistake. Nothing can be hidden from the sight of God. Our attempt to do so only proves our sin. Such is our predicament.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Lenten Journey

The season of Lent concentrates the meaning of the Christian pilgrimage to God and with God into a span of forty days (excluding Sundays!). It is really the journey of the soul in love; the love of God and that love as moving more and more within us.

We go up to Jerusalem, Jesus tells the disciples on Quinquagesima Sunday, the Sunday before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. We go up with Jesus and we go up in the increasing and growing awareness of what Jerusalem means. A journey in love, to be sure, but one in which we confront all the forms of our unloveliness. Ultimately, the divine love bears all our unloveliness on the Cross of Christ Crucified. What really is our unloveliness? Sin, in all its endless forms, to be sure, but which can be brought under the one heading of the one central theme of betrayal, ultimately our betrayals of love.

It will be our challenge this Lent to contemplate the forms of betrayal in the witness of the Scriptures belonging to the ultimate betrayal that results in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The kiss of Judas is an image that includes us all in its scope and meaning.

To contemplate the forms of betrayal through the witness of the Scriptures shall be for us, I pray, the occasions of the deepening of our penitential adoration; our love for God borne out of his deep love for us signaled so sweetly and strongly in the crucifixion of Christ.

It is really all a question about the direction of our loves and our lives. We begin, to be sure, with the dust and ashes of Ash Wednesday, the reminder to us of what John Donne calls ‘the creeping serpent’, but we go up to Jerusalem with Christ, ‘the exalted’ and the ‘crucified serpent’ who is raised up to draw us all to him in whom we find our salvation.

Fr. David Curry

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Events

Lenten Programmes & Events at Christ Church

On Tuesday evenings throughout Lent, there will be special Lenten Services of Holy Communion with reflections on ‘The Kiss of Judas: Themes of Betrayal & Forgiveness in the Scriptures’. The services are at 7:00pm on the following Tuesday evenings:

Tuesday, February 19th
Tuesday, February 26th
Tuesday, March 5th
Tuesday, March 19th

On Saturday, March 9th there will be a Quiet Day held at King’s-Edgehill School from 9:00am-4:30pm; Praying the Scriptures: What, When, and How? All welcome.

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Prayers and liturgy

Ash Wednesday

The collect for today, The First Day of Lent, commonly called Ash Wednesday, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: St. James 4:6-11a
The Gospel: St. Matthew 6:16-21

Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressArtwork: “He hath given me rest by his sorrow and life by his death” (from The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan), stained glass, Bunyan Meeting Free Church, Bedford, U.K. Photograph taken by admin, 16 July 2004.

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Prayers and liturgy

Caedmon, Poet

The collect for a Doctor of the Church, Poet, or Scholar, in commemoration of Saint Caedmon (d. 680), Monk of Whitby, first English poet, 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 Caedmon, 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

geograph-263793-by-RichTeaSaint Caedmon is the first English poet whose name is known. Saint Bede the Venerable tells Caedmon’s story in Book IV, Chapter 24, of The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Bede records that Caedmon was a herdsman who at an advanced age suddenly received the gift of poetry and song. Someone appeared to Caedmon in a dream one night and asked him to sing. In response, he spontaneously sang verses in praise of the God the Creator. When he awoke, he remembered the words of his song and added more lines.

He went to speak with Hilda, Abbess of Whitby. She and several learned men examined Caedmon and affirmed that his gift was from God.

Caedmon became a monk at Whitby and composed a large body of poetry and song on many Christian subjects, including the Creation story, the Exodus, the birth, passion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the teaching of the apostles.

Unfortunately, almost none of Caedmon’s work survives. Only his Hymn, recorded by Bede in Latin and Old English, is known to us. Here is a modern English translation:

Praise we the Fashioner now of Heaven’s fabric,
The majesty of his might and his mind’s wisdom,
Work of the world-warden, worker of all wonders,
How he the Lord of Glory everlasting,
Wrought first for the race of men Heaven as a rooftree,
Then made he Middle Earth to be their mansion.

Source: Bede, A History of the English Church and People, translated by Leo Sherley-Price, rev. ed. 1968, Penguin, p. 251.

A humble and holy monk, Caedmon died in perfect charity with his fellow servants of God.

Photograph: Memorial to Caedmon, St Mary’s Churchyard, Whitby, North Yorkshire, Great Britain. The inscription reads, “To the glory of God and in memory of Caedmon the father of English Sacred Song. Fell asleep hard by, 680”. © Copyright RichTea and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

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