Audio file of 8:00am Holy Communion service, Septuagesima Sunday
Click here to listen to an audio recording of the 8:00am service of Holy Communion at Christ Church on Septuagesima Sunday.
Sermon for Septuagesima Sunday
“Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things”
Striving? Striving for what? Something that passes away – a corruptible crown, as it were? Or something which is everlasting – an incorruptible crown or end? Which is it? It makes all the difference.
Yet the paradox is clear. We strive for what we cannot achieve on the basis of our own merit. The Epistle calls us to the disciplines of spiritual life, specifically today to the virtue of temperance, the self-mastery of our appetites. It extends to all the exercises of mind and heart through the athletic metaphor of runners in a race. Yet the Gospel reminds us that the prize of eternal life is God’s free gift that can neither be taken for granted nor simply assumed. We labour by faith in the vineyard of God’s creation. We are not owed anything except what is right according to the Lord of the Vineyard, not according to the limits and vagaries of human justice. “Whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.”
This Sunday marks the transition from the Christmas cycle of feasts to the Easter Cycle which culminates in Ascension and Pentecost. The ‘Gesima Sundays are pre-Lenten Sundays that at one time marked the beginning of the penitential season of Lent in the early Church but have now become for us the necessary means of our preparation for the Lenten pilgrimage of our souls to God. We are to be like athletes in training for the games, engaged in the disciplines that belong to the perfection of human character. But for what end? Our end with God which is by definition not of our making but one which requires the activity of our souls in faith to grasp what God wills for us. For in so doing, we will what God wills for us and for the good of our humanity and “in all things,” as Paul notes. The classical virtues are the qualities of the excellence of character identified in the Greek poetic and philosophical traditions. They are not negated but transformed into forms of love in the Christian understanding.
Thursday past was the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul who was blinded into sight by “a light above the brightness of the Sun,” the divine light of the Epiphany, we might say. Next Friday will be Candlemas, the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Christ in the temple as an infant, a double feast at once of Mary and of Christ. It marks the fortieth day after Christmas but points us to Holy Week and Easter. Christ is at once “a light to light the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel,” as Simeon says. To Mary, he says, “a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also” in reference to Christ’s Passion. “This child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against … that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” Powerful images. And as if in complement to today’s epistle, the Candlemas Gospel includes Anna the Prophetess who “departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.” Fasting and prayer are some of the spiritual disciplines that belong to the pilgrimage of faith.
Month at a Glance, February
(Services in the Hall until Palm Sunday, March 24th)
Sunday, February 4th, Sexagesima
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
Sunday, February 11th, Quinquagesima
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
Tuesday, February 13th
7:00pm Christ Church Book Club
Wednesday, February 14th, Ash Wednesday
12noon Penitential Service, Imposition of Ashes & Holy Communion
Sunday, February 18th, First Sunday in Lent
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
Followed by Potluck & Annual Parish Meeting
Thursday, February 22nd
7:00pm Holy Communion & Lenten Programme: Reading with the Fathers I
Sunday, February 25th, Second Sunday in Lent
8:00am Holy Communion
10:30am Holy Communion
Thursday, February 29th
7:00pn Holy Communion & Lenten Programme: Reading with the Fathers II
Septuagesima
The collect for today, Septuagesima (or the Third Sunday Before Lent) from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
O LORD, we beseech thee favourably to hear the prayers of thy people; that we, who are justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness, for the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
The Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
The Gospel: St. Matthew 20:1-16
Artwork: Andrea del Sarto, The Vineyard Owner Paying the Workers, c. 1500-30. Drawing, Albertina Museum, Vienna.
John Chrysostom, Doctor and Bishop
The collect for today, the Feast of St. John Chrysostom (347-407), Preacher, Doctor of the Church, Archbishop of Constantinople (source):
O God of truth and love,
who gavest to thy servant John Chrysostom
eloquence to declare thy righteousness in the great congregation
and courage to bear reproach for the honour of thy name:
mercifully grant to the ministers of thy word
such excellence in preaching
that all people may share with them
in the glory that shall be revealed;
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 Lesson: Jeremiah 1:4-10
The Gospel: St Luke 21:12-15
Artwork: Cesare Mariani, St. John Chrysostom, 1866. Fresco, Chiesa di Santa Maria in Aquiro, Rome.
KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 26 January
Mine hour is not yet come
The weekend past marked the celebration of Mr. Kim Walsh’s many, many years of excellence in wrestling as he segues into retirement. Well done! The metaphor of wrestling complements the universal theme of pilgrimage, the idea of the journey of education, of learning. Both presuppose that there is something to be grasped and learned, something made manifest. In Chapel, morning after morning, we are engaged in wrestling with the images of Scripture in pursuit of wisdom and understanding. Epiphany is especially the season of ‘the pilgrimage of the understanding’ with respect to the things of God which ultimately belong to the good of our common humanity.
Such things as the concept of God’s infinite wisdom, infinite power, and infinite goodness are universal in some sense or another as refracted through a number of different philosophical and religious traditions. They require a journey, a pilgrimage into the concepts that belong to the structure of the reality of which we are a part. There is Arjuna wrestling, we might say, with Sri Krishna about his dharma, the sacred law of his being in the face of a great ethical dilemma in the Bhagavad Gita. There is the Buddha, Siddartha Gautama, stepping beyond the walls of his palaces to encounter and wrestle with a world of suffering, Dukka. There is Confucius wrestling in his Analects with the concepts of li and ren which cannot be reduced to simple means and methods of thinking what is good and right to do. There are, of course, the traditions of learning in the world of Plato and Aristotle and their successors about the eros, the passionate desire to know, that belongs somehow to the nature of everyone. And there are the teachings of Israel, of Christianity and Islam that draw upon such things each in their own distinctive ways.
One of the oldest works of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh gives us the first wrestling contest in human history: Gilgamesh wrestling with Enkidu out of which comes their friendship; a friendship which ultimately will lead Gilgamesh on his quest for wisdom concerning life and death. In Genesis, Jacob wrestles with an Angel (or God?!) and in so doing is changed and becomes Israel, which means “one who strives with God.” Wrestles with God, we might say.
This week, one of the traditional and classical Epiphany stories, which has been read in the epiphany season for more than a millennium and a half, was read in Chapel. It was the story of the Wedding Feast at Cana of Galilee, a story told only in John’s Gospel. It is, as he says, “the beginning of signs.” And yet it points to the end or purpose of all the signs and wonders of the Gospel. Signs and wonders mean miracles. It is a miracle story where Jesus changes the water into wine. Why? For the good of our humanity, for our social joy which God seeks for us. Wow.
Polycarp, Bishop, Apostolic Man, Martyr
The collect for today, the Feast of St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Apostolic Man, Martyr (source):
Almighty God,
who gavest to thy servant Polycarp
boldness to confess the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ
before the rulers of this world
and courage to suffer death for his faith:
grant that we too may be ready
to give an answer for the faith that is in us
and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Lesson: Revelation 2:8-11
The Gospel: St Matthew 20:20-23
Church tradition holds that Polycarp was born c. AD 69 of Christian parents and was a disciple of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, who ordained him Bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp was arrested during a pagan festival in Smyrna (present-day Izmir, Turkey) and brought before the Roman pro-consul.
[W]hen the magistrate pressed him hard and said, “Swear the oath, and I will release you; revile the Christ,” Polycarp said, “Eighty-six years have I been His servant, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
But on his persisting again and saying, “Swear by the genius of Caesar,” he answered, “If you suppose vainly that I will swear by the genius of Caesar, as you say, and feign that you are ignorant of who I am, hear you plainly: I am a Christian. But if you would learn the doctrine of Christianity, assign a day and give me a hearing.”
He was burned at the stake for refusing to renounce Christ.
The Martyrdom of Polycarp was written down by the church of Smyrna and sent as a letter to the church at Philomelium. It is the first Christian martyrology. Several translations of the text can be accessed via this page.
Artwork: Martyrdom of St Polycarp, Church of St. Polycarp, Izmir (ancient Smyrna), Turkey.
The Conversion of Saint Paul
The collect for today, the Feast of The Conversion of Saint Paul, from The Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962):
O GOD, who, through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Saint Paul, hast caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we beseech thee, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show forth our thankfulness unto thee for the same, by following the holy doctrine which he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Lesson: Acts 21:40-22:16
The Gospel: St. Luke 21:10-19
Artwork: Harry Clarke, Conversion of St. Paul, 1929. Stained glass, All Saints Church, Bedworth, Warwickshire, England.
St. Timothy and St. Titus, Apostolic Men
The collect for today, The Feast of St. Timothy and St. Titus, Apostolic men, Companions of St. Paul (source):
Heavenly Father,
who didst send thine apostle Paul to preach the gospel,
and gavest him Timothy and Titus to be his companions in the faith:
grant that our fellowship in the Holy Spirit
may bear witness to the name of Jesus,
who liveth and reigneth with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Epistle: 2 Timothy 1:1-8 or Titus 1:1-5
The Gospel: St. John 10:1-10
Artwork: St. Timothy and St. Titus, stained glass, Parish Church of St. John the Baptist, Cirencester, Gloucestershire. Photograph taken by admin, 18 August 2004.
Vincent, Deacon and Martyr
The collect for today, the Feast of Saint Vincent of Saragossa (d. 304), Deacon and Martyr (source):
Almighty God, whose deacon Vincent, upheld by thee, was not terrified by threats nor overcome by torments: Strengthen us, we beseech thee, to endure all adversity with invincible and steadfast faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
The Lesson: Revelation 7:13-17
The Gospel: St. Luke 12:4-12
Vincent is the proto-Martyr (first known martyr) of Spain and the patron saint of Lisbon. He was deacon of Saragossa, Aragon, under Bishop Valerius. Both were arrested during the persecution instigated by edicts of Diocletian and Maximian. Because Valerius had a speech impediment, Vincent testified to their faith in Christ, boldly and without fear.
Dacian, Roman governor of Spain, subjected Vincent to horrible tortures. The saint was thrown into prison and weakened by semi-starvation. After refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods, he was racked, burned, and kept in stocks. He died as a result of his sufferings.
St. Augustine of Hippo preached a sermon on Vincent’s martyrdom. Here is an excerpt:
“To you has been granted in Christ’s behalf not only that you should believe in him but also that you should suffer for him.” Vincent had received both these gifts and held them as his own. For how could he have them if he had not received them? And he displayed his faith in what he said, his endurance in what he suffered. No one ought to be confident in his own strength when he undergoes temptation. For whenever we endure evils courageously, our long-suffering comes from him Christ. He once said to his disciples: “In this world you will suffer persecution,” and then, to allay their fears, he added, “but rest assured, I have conquered the world.” There is no need to wonder then, my dearly beloved brothers, that Vincent conquered in him who conquered the world. It offers temptation to lead us astray; it strikes terror into us to break our spirit. Hence if our personal pleasures do not hold us captive, and if we are not frightened by brutality, then the world is overcome. At both of these approaches Christ rushes to our aid, and the Christian is not conquered.
Artwork: Leon Picardo, Martyrdom of Saint Vincent, 1524. Oil on wood, Retable of St. Casilda, Burgos Cathedral, Burgos, Spain.