Prayers and liturgy

Saint Laurence

Titian_Martyrdom_LaurenceThe collect for today, the Feast of St Laurence (d. 258), Archdeacon, Martyr at Rome (source):

Almighty God,
who didst make Laurence
a loving servant of thy people
and a wise steward of the treasures of thy Church:
inflame us, by his example, to love as he loved
and to walk in the way that leads to everlasting life;
through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: 2 Corinthians 9:6-10
The Gospel: St John 12:24-26

Artwork:  Titian, The Martyrdom of St Laurence, 1548-59.  Oil on canvas, Chiesa dei Gesuiti, Venice.

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Sermons

Sermon for Evening Service, Ninth Sunday after Trinity

The Rev’d David Curry, Rector of Christ Church, preached this sermon at All Saints’, Leminster, 7:00pm service, Trinity IX.

“Thou art the man!”

‘You da man’, Nathan says, at least in contemporary street-talk! But what really is this story all about?

The story of David and Nathan suggests the interplay of two metaphors of understanding that belong to a theology of revelation. Scripture, we might say, is both a mirror and a window: a mirror in which we are allowed to see the truth of ourselves and a window through which we are privileged to glimpse something of the glory of God. A mirror and a window.

The story of David is not only one of the great narrative sequences in the Scriptures; it is also, as John Donne suggests, the story of Everyman. “His Person includes all states, between a shepherd and a King”, a poet and a warrior, too, we might add, one who sings and one who acts. In a way, David epitomises the whole of Israel and by extension the whole of humanity. That is partly why the Davidic lineage of Jesus is so important in the New Testament. But David epitomises the whole of Israel and the whole of our humanity, not only in its truth but also in its untruth. “His sinne includes all sinne”, Donne remarks, “we need no other Example to discover to us the slippery wayes into sin, or the penitential wayes out of sin, than …. David”.

We do not have windows into one another’s souls, as that wise woman theologian, Queen Elizabeth the First observed long ago. We hardly know ourselves. Those prerogatives belong to God and to God alone. “The Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart”, it is famously said. It is actually said about David. In the story of David we are given to see the heart of David which God sees and in it we are given to see something about ourselves. In this lesson from the story of David we are given to see the mirror in which David confronts himself in his sinfulness and the window through which he sees God in his chastening mercy. The mirror which Nathan holds up is the parable which he tells the King, the parable which challenges and convicts. What has David done? Well, everything and more.

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King's-Edgehill School Sermons, Sermons

Sermon for Reunion of the 80s, King’s-Edgehill School

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life”

Welcome back! And welcome back to the Chapel! And at an hour that at least must seem much more civilized than what you were once used to!

There is something quite special about reunions, a strange mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous, particularly with respect to our outlooks and memories about that most curious of all stages and states of our lives, namely, adolescence. Do we really want to remember those days of awkwardness and embarrassment, of promise and potential, of dreams and ambitions? And yet, somehow you do for here you are! Or is it the frisson of excitement about being able to do at least legally what you weren’t allowed to do when you were here? I heard about some of that last night. Reunions as the final liberation from the chains of adolescence? Or the return, some twenty-odd years later (or more), to what time has bathed in golden sheen as being somehow idyllic? Blessed it was to be young in those days? But I digress.

It strikes me as altogether remarkable and special that after so many years and decades you have returned to King’s-Edgehill. And, it seems to me, that perhaps, just perhaps, it is because what belongs to your experiences and the memories of those experiences has, well, to put in the language of the lesson which Jennifer read for us (John 6. 35-40), truly fed and sustained you. It is all part and parcel of who you are, part and parcel of your life, part and parcel of your spiritual and intellectual identity. How wonderful that you have made the effort to honour one of the most important things that you are given the freedom to honour, namely, to honour your derivations! In other words, to honour in your reunion the times, memories, associations, principles and people which have contributed, in some fashion or other, to who you are. And, importantly, to honour who you are in the sight of God.

Such is the purpose of this holy place, a place which has been a special part of your experience and where, perhaps, just perhaps, various seeds of holy learning and holy love have been planted in you and continue to bring forth fruit in your lives “to the glory of God and to the good of his church and people”, to use a beautiful expression. It is really a bit more than mere nostalgia, you see. Your gathering belongs to a mature recognition and celebration of the things that truly matter.

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Sermons

Sermon for The Ninth Sunday after Trinity

“Now these things were our examples”

The Collect captures wonderfully the complementary nature of today’s Epistle and Gospel readings about the practice of Christian life. We pray for “the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will.”

Our thinking and our doing are intimately related. What we think, what we believe, and what we know are to be realized in what we do. Our actions reveal our intentions. We are to be what we believe. We are pilgrims who know, in some fashion or other, our own incompleteness but acknowledge, too, our completeness in God through Jesus Christ. Our purpose lies in the Son’s love for the Father in the embrace of the Holy Spirit. Such an understanding impels an activity of purpose in our everyday lives. It is the note which the Gospel sounds.

The Gospel exhorts us to be prudent, not unrighteous. To be prudent means to discern the good, “such things as be rightful”, and to pursue it, “living according to thy will”. It means thinking and doing the right thing at the right time in the right way and for the right reason. It is, we may say, a tall order. The challenge is to get all those things together.

The unrighteous steward in the Gospel is simply all of us. We are all stewards – those to whom things are entrusted. It is a profoundly biblical view. Nothing we have is our own. We can only enter into what God has provided for us. Our wills and our actions apart from the will of God are never right. My ways and your ways, considered in themselves, are at best ways of self-righteousness, tinged and coloured by our own agendas and motives whether known or unknown to ourselves and to others. They are always less than the full righteousness of God; in short, they are ways of unrighteousness. I know, it seems so judgmental and negative but in our reformed understanding of things it is actually altogether positive. Why? Because it throws us into the mercies of God’s redemptive grace.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Ninth Sunday After Trinity

The collect for today, the 9th Sunday after Trinity, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
The Gospel: St Luke 16:1-9

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Dominic

The collect for today, the Feast of St Dominic (1170-1221), Priest, Friar, Founder of the Order of Preachers (source):

Almighty God,
whose servant Dominic grew in the knowledge of thy truth,
and formed an order of preachers to proclaim the faith of Christ:
by thy grace grant to all thy people a love for thy word
and a longing to share the gospel,
that the whole world may be filled with the knowledge of thee
and of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Epistle: Romans 10:13-17
The Gospel: St John 7:16-18

Fra Angelico, St DominicThe Order of Preachers (O.P.) founded by St Dominic is generally known as the Dominicans or Black Friars.

Born at Caleruega in Old Castile, Spain, not far from the abbey of St Dominic of Silos, after whom he was named, Dominic de Guzman was the youngest of four children. Spain at that time was struggling to free itself from centuries of rule by Muslim Moors, so life during Dominic’s childhood was austere and uncertain. He was trained for the priesthood from his youth. In 1199, he was appointed canon at Osma Cathedral, then ordained a priest, and rose to the position of sub-prior.

A turning point in Dominic’s life occurred in 1203, when he accompanied his bishop on official business to Denmark. Traveling through the south of France, he came in contact with the Cathari, a heretical sect based on teachings derived from Mani who lived in Persia in the third century. The Cathari, meaning pure ones in Greek, were known by other names in different parts of Europe. In France, they were called Albigensians because the centre of their greatest strength was the town of Albi in Languedoc.

The Albigensians taught a gnostic and dualistic religion, with a god of light (Truth, the god of the New Testament) and a god of darkness (Error, the god of the Old Testament). Life on earth was a struggle between those gods and their principal forces, spirit and matter. The good life for man required purification from matter. They therefore embraced extreme asceticism and condemned marriage, procreation, war, eating food (or, at least, meat), and the use of anything material in worship. Rejecting the medieval church and the sacraments, they had their own episcopal organisation. Their success was largely due to their austerity, commitment, and organisation; the simplicity and seeming holiness of the lives of Albigensian spiritual leaders formed a stark contrast to the worldliness of many orthodox Christians. The south of France at the end of the 12th century was in fact the centre of a flourishing Provençal culture based on the dominant influence of Albigensianism.

Fra Angelico, Christ on the Cross Adored by St DominicDominic believed that the highly organised and idealistic Albigensians could be combated by forming communities of disciplined and intellectually equipped men and women to spread the light of the Christian gospel among the people. The first Dominican community was established in 1206 in Prouille, France, made up of a group of devout women converts from Albigensianism who were assigned the task of educating and evangelising girls and young women in the area. Dominic also gathered together a carefully chosen group of men whom he trained as preachers. He and his followers organised public debates with Albigensian leaders that the orthodox often won.

In 1208, an agent of the Albigensian ruler of Toulouse murdered a papal legate, provoking a twenty-year crusade led by Simon de Montfort that crushed the heresy. St Dominic took no part in the violence but worked to reconcile heretics and bring them back into the church. He realised that the long-term solution to the challenge of Albigensianism was to provide better-educated and -trained clergy along with itinerant preachers. He received papal approval in 1216 to found the Order of Preachers with the then-novel vocation of study and preaching.

St Dominic spent the rest of his life traveling in Spain, Italy, and France, establishing communities of preachers and teachers with the mission of reviving the spiritual life of Christians. He was recognised as a devout man with firm faith, a passion for winning souls, and gifts for leadership and organisation. St Dominic saw the need to use all resources of human learning in the service of Christ, and he was convinced that preaching without prayer would not be effective. The Nine Ways of Prayer of Saint Dominic was written sometime between 1260 and 1288 based on testimonies of those who had known St Dominic. This is from the second way of prayer:

Saint Dominic used to pray by throwing himself outstretched upon the ground, lying on his face. He would feel great remorse in his heart and call to mind those words of the Gospel, saying sometimes in a voice loud enough to be heard: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” With devotion and reverence he repeated that verse of David: “I am he that has sinned, I have done wickedly.”

St Dominic encouraged no cult of personality in the order he founded, believing that the best way to honour his memory was to carry on “the holy preaching”. He was canonised by Pope Gregory IX in 1234. His remains are housed at the Basilica of San Domenico, Bologna.

(Most of the above is a slightly revised version of a post of December 2005.)

Artwork:

Fra Angelico, Saint Dominic de Guzman (detail from The Mocking of Christ), 1441. Fresco, Convento di San Marco, Florence.

Fra Angelico, Christ on the Cross Adored by St Dominic, c. 1442. Fresco, Convento di San Marco, Florence.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Name of Jesus

El Greco, Adoration of the Name of ChristThe collect for today, the Feast of the Name of Jesus, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

Almighty God, who by thy blessed Apostle hast taught us that there is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved, but only the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Grant, we beseech thee, that we may ever glory in this Name, and strive to make thy salvation known unto all mankind; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

For The Epistle: Acts 4:8-12
The Gospel: St Matthew 1:20-23

Artwork: El Greco, The Adoration of the Name of Christ (The Dream of Philip II), 1579. Oil on canvas, Monasterio de San Lorenzo, El Escorial, Madrid.

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Prayers and liturgy

The Transfiguration of Our Lord

Perugino, Transfiguration of Christ (1518)The collect for today, the Holy Day of the Transfiguration of our Lord, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):

O God, who on the holy mount didst reveal to chosen witnesses thy well-beloved Son wonderfully transfigured: Mercifully grant unto us such a vision of his divine majesty, that we, being purified and strengthened by thy grace, may be transformed into his likeness from glory to glory; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: 2 St Peter 1:16-21
The Gospel: St Matthew 17:1-9

Artwork: Pietro Perugino, The Transfiguration of Christ, c. 1518. Tempera on panel, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia.

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Prayers and liturgy

Saint Oswald of Northumbria

The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Oswald (d. 642), King of Northumbria, Martyr (source):

St OswaldO Lord God almighty,
who didst so kindle the faith of thy servant King Oswald with thy Spirit
that he set up the sign of the cross in his kingdom
and turned his people to the light of Christ:
grant that we, being fired by the same Spirit,
may ever bear our cross before the world
and be found faithful servants of the gospel;
through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

At the Battle of Heavenfield, AD 635, the army of Prince Oswald defeated the forces of king Caedwalla of Gwynedd (north Wales). Oswald was a Christian and nephew of King Edwin, the man Caedwalla had defeated a few years earlier to conquer the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Heavenfield proved to be a key battle in English history for it marked the end of paganism as a religious and political force in England.

Knowing that the fate of his kingdom would be decided on the following day, Oswald had a wooden cross erected beside which he and his men knelt and prayed to the Lord for victory. The badly outnumbered Christian soldiers defeated their apparently over-confident adversaries, and Oswald became King of Northumbria.

After his victory, Oswald invited monks to come from Iona and establish a monastery at Lindisfarne, the Holy Island. This was to become one of England’s most important centres of Christian scholarship and evangelism.

King Oswald was killed in battle in 642 defending his land and people against the pagan king Penda of Mercia.

More on St Oswald here.

Artwork: St Oswald, King & Martyr, 19th-century stained glass, from the East window, North transept, Cartmel Priory, England. The saint is depicted holding a cross in his left hand, representing the cross he erected before the Battle of Heavenfield.

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Sermons

Sermon for The Eighth Sunday after Trinity

“By their fruits ye shall know them”

Actions reveal intentions and purposes. Nothing could seem more obvious and more necessary to modern freedom. But is what is revealed good or evil? Are we good or bad? Is it simply fated? The Gospel is very clear that there is often a discrepancy between what is and what seems to be, between appearance and reality. Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing, not to mention “ravening wolves” in shepherd’s cloaks! Such warnings are not just with respect to others but also ourselves. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” In a way, it is what we constantly pray in the Lord’s Prayer: “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Margaret Visser’s 2002 Massey Lecture series was entitled “Beyond Fate”. In it she speaks of modern freedom as freedom from constraint and argues for the ways in which that freedom is increasingly circumscribed in contemporary culture, noting the different metaphors that speak about the forms of the inevitable, to what is somehow fated in our world and day. In the face of the various determinisms that are inherently fatalistic, we need a deeper understanding that sees human freedom as found within the order of creation and the divine will; beyond fate, perhaps, but certainly under Providence. As St. Paul suggests in his Letter to the Romans, human freedom has to do with our spiritual identity as “the children of God” in Christ and through union with him in his sufferings and glory. Who we are is very much about what we are called to be, hence the necessary correlation between the inward and the outward aspects of our lives.

Fate and destiny are not always or necessarily negative terms, terms that limit or determine human action, making us unfree. The recent movie, “Slum Dog Millionaire,” set in an Indian and Muslim context, graphically illustrates the theme of destiny in the touching and disturbing story of Jamal and Latika, a destiny that is worked out through hardship and suffering and certainly not without its dark side of great evil and corruption, cruelty and death. Central to the movie is the sense of destiny, of fate, but in a way that is more positive and not simply negative, not merely fatalistic.

A different word belongs to our meditations today. It is signaled in the Collect: “O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth.” Providence. What do we mean by it? How does it relate to our sense of personal identity and freedom? Is it the same as fate and destiny? Or does the term itself imply something more?

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