Meditation for the Feast of St. Matthew
“For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”
The Gospel story for the Feast of St. Matthew is the call of Matthew to discipleship in Christ. In a way, his call is altogether about the resurrection of Christ in us and about our being with Christ. The commemoration of St. Matthew illumines the very nature of salvation for us.
And all because Jesus is simply passing by, the Jesus who is always passing by. It all seems so casual, so accidental, so incidental but, to the contrary, Jesus’ passing by is not casual; it is essential. That is to say, it belongs to the very principle of God who is life itself, who is always active, and never static, and whose activity is always purposeful and therefore, always requires a response.
For Jesus’ passing by is not without consequence. Something happens. He glances upon us. “Salvation begins by our being seen by Jesus, by his turning toward us his compassionate eyes”. Here Jesus “saw a man named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom,” at the tax collector’s bench. Everything unfolds from that glance of Jesus.
Saint Matthew the Apostle
The collect for today, the Feast of St. 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: Camillo Rusconi, Saint Matthew, 1708-18. Marble, Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome. Photograph taken by admin, 29 April 2010.
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
Click here to read more about Bishop Patteson.
Photograph of Bishop John Coleridge Patteson (c. 1867) from the National Library of New Zealand, reference number: 1/2-127104-F
Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop
The collect for today, the Feast of St Theodore of Tarsus (602-690), Archbishop of Canterbury (source):
Almighty 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
Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, 10:30 service
“Her sins which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much”
To my mind it is one of the most moving stories in the Gospels. In relation to our first lesson from Ezekiel it challenges us about our hearts: hearts of stone or hearts of flesh? What Ezekiel envisions, it is not too much to say, is what is illustrated in this Gospel story, namely, the hardness of our hearts of stone and whether we can be moved to compassion and seek forgiveness.
Ezekiel is speaking about the condition of Israel, about God’s strengthening and providential presence with his people in the places of their exile, about a change in them by his grace and spirit. One heart and a new spirit; a heart of flesh in contrast to a heart of stone.
There is just that sense of contrast between a hard and inflexible spirit and a forgiving and compassionate spirit that is also brought out ever so personally and powerfully in Luke’s story. It is not about being soft and wimpy; it is about something vital and living that moves in us if we will set aside the empty dogmatisms of our empty lives. In a way, this gospel story challenges us about what really matters and about what kind of hearts are actually in us. It brings us to some of the essential and central teachings of the Christian faith. Of course, that is the real challenge: to acknowledge and name the essential teachings which ultimately shape our lives.
It is this unnamed and unspeaking woman who teaches us so much. Jesus is at pains to show the importance of her action and its meaning. He knows what is moving in her heart. Her act, extravagant and moving, is an act of love in repentance. I cannot stress enough how powerful and important that is. I cannot stress enough the importance of the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins of which this Gospel story is such a compelling witness. Jesus says to her, “your sins are forgiven.”
Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, 8:00am service
“Be not anxious”
I like to think of this as “the anxiety gospel” but that runs the risk of only adding to the problem. “Behold, the fowls of the air,” Jesus says, “consider the lilies of the field” and “Seek ye first the kingdom of God”. Behold, consider, and seek are strong words that offer a compelling antidote to our anxieties.
What is Jesus saying here? He wants us to look at the world with new eyes. And it makes a difference for us in our lives. To behold what he wants us to see, to consider what he wants us to ponder, to seek what he wants us to desire counters the paralysis of our fears, the terror of our anxieties and even the anxiety about our anxieties.
Jesus says “be not anxious” and he says it more than once in this gospel. He knows our anxieties and how prone we are to being anxious, quite literally, about “a multitude of things”. It is “The Martha Syndrome” as Jesus diagnoses it elsewhere: “Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about a multitude of things” (Luke 10.41). We all have our fears and our worries, our troubles and our concerns, our heart-aches and our despairs. And we can worry ourselves, quite literally, to death about them.
Week at a Glance, 17-23 September
Monday, September 17th
6:30-7:30pm Brownies/Sparks – Parish Hall
Tuesday, September 18th
6:00pm ‘Prayers & Praises’ – Haliburton Place
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club, Coronation Room, Parish Hall
The Book of Common Prayer: Past, Present and Future
Thursday, September 20th, Eve of St. Matthew
1:30-3:00pm Seniors’ Drop-In
6:00-7:30pm Girl Guides – Parish Hall
7:00pm Holy Communion
Friday, September 21st
11:00am Holy Communion – Dykeland Lodge
3:30pm Holy Communion – Gladys Manning Home
Sunday, September 23rd, Trinity XVI
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
2:00pm AMD Service of the Deaf
4:00pm Evening Prayer at Christ Church
4:30pm Holy Communion at KES Chapel
Upcoming Events:
Saturday, September 29th
7:00-9:00pm Newfoundland and Country Evening of Musical Entertainment
Sunday, September 30th
4:00pm Choral Evensong
Friday, October 19th
7:30pm Christ Church Concert Series: Organ Recital, Elizabeth Harwood
Sunday, November 11th, Remembrance Day
9:00am Holy Communion – Christ Church
10:00am Cenotaph Service – King’s-Edgehill School
11:00am Cenotaph Service – Windsor Cenotaph
Saturday, November 24th
4:30-6:30pm Annual Parish Ham Supper – Parish Hall
Sunday, December 2nd
Advent/Christmas Services of Carols and Lessons with King’s-Edgehill
4:30pm Christ Church (Gr. 7-11)
7:00pm KES Chapel (Gr. 12)
Friday, December 21st
7:00pm Christ Church Concert Series: Capella Regalis, Men and Boys Choir
The Fifteenth Sunday After Trinity
The collect for today, the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
KEEP, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle: Galatians 6:11-18
The Gospel: St. Matthew 6:24-34
Artwork: Pietro Annigoni, Sermona della Montagna, 1953. Tempera on board, private collection.
Meditation for the Feast of the Holy Cross
“And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to me.”
The Cross is the meeting place of lovers. That “strange and uncouth thing”, as the poet George Herbert calls it, reveals the incompleteness of our human loves and the all-sufficiency of divine love. It signals what might be called the erotic liturgy of The Book of Common Prayer, a liturgy shaped and governed by the Cross, the liturgy of eros redeemed, the liturgy of the redemption of desire.
I have often been struck with the coincidence of the late summer with the Feast of the Holy Cross (September 14th) and especially with one of its early and associated titles, namely, the Invention of the Holy Cross. It speaks so profoundly and yet so paradoxically to the nature of the intellectual enterprise in the resumption of studies at our Colleges and Schools. Inventio crucis.
Invention? Yes, but not in the sense of something fabricated out of our fevered imaginations. The feast derives from the celebrated visit of Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, to Jerusalem and her so-called discovery of the Holy Cross in the early fourth century as well as the exposition or “Exaltation” of the supposed true cross in the seventh century. Inventio does not suggest fabrication and invention so much as discovery and disclosure.
In the Christian understanding of things, humility and sacrifice are de rigueur in the passionate search for understanding, the eros of intellectual life that belongs especially to academic communities. The cross is the meeting place of such lovers, too.