Saturday, February 28, 2015

A Cross Called Hope (RCL Lent 2B, 1 March 2015)

RCL Lent 2B
1 March 2015

Saint Faith’s Anglican Church
Vancouver BC


A Cross Called ‘Hope’

            It’s no secret that I love books.  My love is so apparent that once, several weeks after doing a presentation in Nelson, I received the gift of t-shirt with a man surrounded by books.  The caption reads, ‘So many books.  So little time.’  It shouldn’t surprise anyone that I have, over the years, cultivated a relationship with Hager Books on 41st Avenue.  I rarely pop my head into the store without leaving with a book.

            A few years ago one of the staff took me aside and said, ‘I know the perfect book for you.’  She handed me a copy of William Dalrymple’s, From the Holy Mountain:  A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium.  Dalrymple is a Scottish travel writer and, in this book, he retraces the journey taken by Moschos, a Byzantine monk in 587 c.e.  Moschos’ journey took him to many important Christian communities in the Middle East in the century before the rise of Islam.  Dalrymple decided to retrace Moschos’ journey some fourteen hundred years later.

            As you can well imagine, the Middle East has changed since the days of Moschos and Dalrymple documents the decline and disappearance of Christian communities through the countries that once formed the heartland of Eastern Christianity.  One of the more poignant stories is that of a Christian woman who is the last Christian living in a small village in Turkey.  She is protected and cared for by a Muslim family who consider it their duty to ensure her safety and her well-being until she dies.

            As I have been watching events unfold in the Middle East over the past weeks and months, Dalrymple’s book kept re-appearing in my thoughts.  We are witnessing, I believe, an organized effort to rid the Middle East of its Christian population by whatever means seems most effective --- terror being the preferred option.  How this effort can be brought to an end without the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of people, Muslims and Christians, I do not know.  What I do know is that it puts the cost of being a Christian into perspective.

            34 [Jesus] called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.  (Mark 8.34-35 in The New Revised Standard Version)

            What does it mean to take up our cross in a world in which Christians have become targets of oppression and murder?  It must mean more than what we tend to say as people living in relative safety.  For example, how many of us have heard or have said, ‘That child is the cross I must bear’?  Or perhaps we’ve heard or said someone refer to some trivial difficulty in their life as the cross that they bear.  As I have struggled to understand this phrase, I realized that there must be something I was missing.  And then I found what I was looking for in Paul’s letter to the Romans.

            18 For I reckon that the sufferings we now endure bear no comparison with the glory, as yet unrevealed, which is in store for us.  19 The created universe is waiting with eager expectation for God’s [children] to be revealed.  20 It was made subject to frustration, not of its own choice but by the will of him who subjected it, yet with the hope 21 that the universe itself is to be freed from the shackles of mortality and is to enter upon the glorious liberty of the children of God.  22 Up to the present, as we know, the whole created universe in all its parts groans as if in the pangs of childbirth.  23 What is more, we also, to whom the Spirit is given as the [first fruits] of the harvest to come, are groaning inwardly while we look forward eagerly to our adoption, our liberation from mortality.  24 It was with this hope that we were saved.  Now to see something is no longer to hope:  why hope for a what is already seen?  25 But if we hope for something we do not yet see, then we look forward to it eagerly and with patience.  (Romans 8.18-25 in The Revised English Bible, alt.)

            You and I are called to bear a cross called ‘hope’.  What we hope for is what Paul describes:  we hope that the whole universe, visible and invisible, human and non-human, known and unknown, will be freed from its shackles and enter upon the glorious liberty of the children of God.  We hope that every person, Christian and non-Christian, believer and non-believer, will come to share in that fullness of life which is God’s intentions for all of us.

            Holding on to this hope in a world which sees daily the deaths and exile of innocent men, women and children is not easy.  Holding on to this hope in a world in which the rich are getting steadily richer and the poor steadily poorer is not easy.  Holding on to this hope in a world in which many consider people of faith part of the problem rather than as key to the solution is not easy.  Holding on to this hope in a world filled with charlatans who offer snake oil instead of truth, snappy answers rather than wisdom, is not easy.

            Bearing the cross called hope compels us to share this hope with people who sometimes think of us as well-meaning but delusional.  Their rejection weighs upon us.  Bearing the cross called hope compels us to do what we can to help a few even as we witness the suffering of many.  The frustration burdens us.  Sometimes, in our darker moments, we may even contemplate lifting the cross off our shoulders and finding some other way to face each day.


            But hope is what God has given us to carry.  Hope is what empowered Jesus to carry his own cross to his death.  Despite all the appearances to the contrary, God’s last word to us is ‘life’ not ‘death’.  When Muslims surround a Jewish synagogue in Norway, hope is renewed.  When a Muslim family in Turkey care for an aging Christian woman, hope is renewed.  The weight of the cross called hope is not the weight of despair in the face of this world’s pain.  The weight of the cross called hope is the weight of the glory promised to all God’s children.  It is a weight we gladly bear, in good times and in sad times, because it is the only weight worth carrying for the life of this world.

Friday, February 27, 2015

The Bible in Worship (25 February 2015)

Presentation Notes for 'The Bible in Worship'
The New Westminster Ministerial Lenten Series

The Rev’d Dr Richard Geoffrey Leggett
Rector of Saint Faith's Anglican Church Vancouver
and
Professor Emeritus of Liturgical Studies
Vancouver School of Theology


Introduction

Four hundred and fifty-nine years ago the first Book of Common Prayer was published by the authority of King Edward VI via the editorial genius of Thomas Cranmer, the then Archbishop of Canterbury.  On the Second Sunday of Advent in that year of 1549, the congregations of the Church of England heard the following collect:

Blessed Lord, which has caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; grant us that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them; that by patience, and comfort of thy holy word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our saviour Jesus Christ.  Amen.

In the centuries that have followed the first prayer book there have been many changes, but this prayer has remained an almost fixed feature, even if it has been moved from the Second Sunday of Advent to another occasion.  In the Anglican Church of Canada’s contemporary-language liturgical book, The Book of Alternative Services, Cranmer’s collect is appointed for use on the third Sunday before Advent:

Eternal God, who caused all holy scripture to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

For me this collect summarizes the Anglican attitude towards Scripture:  the Scriptures are to be proclaimed in worship, read and studied by all and, more importantly, be interpreted, that is to say, digested, because what Scripture says is not always what Scripture means.

One of the ways that Scripture is interpreted is by its use in worship.

(1)  The Four Uses

In 1992 the Rev’d Dr Paul Bradshaw published an essay entitled, ‘The Use of the Bible in the Liturgy’ in Studia Liturgica, the international journal of liturgical studies. [1]  Bradshaw identified four uses of the Bible in worship: (i) Doxological, (ii) Anamnetic, (iii) Parenetic and (iv) Didactic.  I want to flesh out these uses a bit more for you tonight. 

(a)  Doxological:  We use the Bible in worship to praise and to lament.

If you have ever uttered in worship the word ‘alleluia’ or the phrase ‘Lord, have mercy’, then you have experience the use of the Bible to express praise and lament.  Both the word and the phrase appear repeatedly in the Bible, especially in the Psalms.  By themselves they carry the freight of our intention.

Other expressions of this use of the Scriptures are too numerous to list here, but many are ones with which we are familiar:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might.

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

O come, let us worship the Lord; let us heartily rejoice in the Lord our maker.

(b)  Anamnetic:  We use the Bible in worship to connect the events of our time with the events in our shared Biblical past.

In the New Testament the word anamnesis means ‘to recall the past in order to release that event’s inherent power of transformation into our present’.  Every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper or Mass or Eucharist or Holy Communion, however you call this action with bread and wine, we claim that do so in ‘remembrance’, that is to say, in anamnesis, of Christ.

On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread and said:  Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.  Do this for the remembrance of me. 

After supper he took the cup of wine; and wine he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and said:  Drink this, all of you; this is my cup of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sins.  Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.

This is more than casual remembering, more than religious nostalgia.  These are, to use David Power’s phrase, ‘words that crack’.

When we gather for healing, we choose biblical texts that speak of God’s power to heal.  When we gather to set apart Christians for lay or ordained ministry, we tell the stories of other occasions when authority has been handed from one leader to another.  When we gather to celebrate the life of a Christian who has passed from this life into the hands of our compassionate God, we remember those times when other believers have grieved their friends and family.

(c)  Parenetic:  We use the Bible in worship to encourage certain attitudes and feelings.

Throughout the Scriptures of the Hebrew Bible and the Apostolic Writings, we find texts intended to encourage believers in their life of faith.  For example, in Daniel we hear the story of the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar commands to be worshipped.  These words were written at a time when the people of Israel were under great pressure to conform to the demands of foreign powers and religions.  What better words to hear than these:

                  16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter.  17 If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us.  18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.”  (Daniel 3.16-18)

When the early Christian movement was experiencing the beginnings of Roman imperial persecution, an anonymous writer exhorted his community in this way:

            1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
                  3 Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.  4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.  (Hebrews 12.1-4)

There are many occasions in the life of Christian communities when we seek to hear words from the Scriptures which give voice to those attitudes we find difficult to maintain and those feelings we desire most to find in our hearts.  Consider these words spoken at the beginning of some Anglican funerals:

                  1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.  2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.  (John 14.1-3)

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 8.38-39)

We recite these words to encourage, to comfort and to remember that we grieve not as others grieve but as those who have hope.

No doubt all of us have heard Paul’s famous words on the gift of love in 1 Corinthians 13 read during the course of a wedding.  I have always found it somewhat ironic that we use a text in the context of ‘romantic’ love that is actually written to a community in conflict and is intended as an admonition to get back on track!

(d)  Didactic:  We use the Bible in worship to teach.

This use of the Bible tends to be expressed in preaching, especially when the preacher chooses the text or texts that will be read in the context of worship.  It is also a feature found in the Revised Common Lectionary for those Sundays after Trinity and before the Reign of Christ.  But more on that in a moment.

(2)  How are these uses embodied in our worship?

(a)  In our lectionaries

(b)  In our prayers

(c)  In our choice of biblical translations

(d)  In our hymnody

(e)  In our preaching




[1] Paul F. Bradshaw, ‘The Use of the Bible in the Liturgy’, Studia Liturgica 22 (1992):  35-52.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

An Order for the Eucharist on the Second Sunday in Lent (1 March 2015)

The Second Sunday in Lent
1 March 2015

The Gathering of the Community

Gathering Music

Greeting and Litany

The Presider greets the Community from the door to the Nave.

Blessed are you, Lord God,
our maker and redeemer:
this is your world and we are your people;
come among us and save us.

During the procession to the Sanctuary, the biddings of the Litany are intoned and the response is sung using Common Worship #707.

When we willfully misuse your gifts of creation:
Holy God, holy and mighty, holy immortal one,
have mercy upon us.

When we see the ill-treatment of others
and do not go to their aid:
Holy God, holy and mighty, holy immortal one,
have mercy upon us.

When we condone evil and dishonesty
and fail to strive for justice:
Holy God, holy and mighty, holy immortal one,
have mercy upon us.

When we hear the good news of Christ
but fail to share it with others:
Holy God, holy and mighty, holy immortal one,
have mercy upon us.

When we do not love you with all our hearts
nor our neighbours as ourselves:
Holy God, holy and mighty, holy immortal one,
have mercy upon us.

The Presider then says the following,

May the God of love and power
forgive us and free us from our sins,
heal and strengthen us by the Spirit,
and raise us to new life in Christ our Lord.  Amen. [i]

The Collect of the Day

Let us pray.

God of Sarah and Abraham,
long ago you embraced your people in covenant
and promised them your blessing.
Strengthen us in faith
so that, with your followers in every age,
we may proclaim our deliverance in Jesus Christ
to generations yet unborn.  Amen. [ii]

The Proclamation of the Word

The First Reading

A reading from Genesis (17.1-7, 15-16)

            1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.  2 And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.”  3 Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you:  You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.  5 No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.  6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.  7 I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

            15 God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.  16 I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her.  I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God.

The Psalm

Psalm 22.23-31 (NRSV) with refrain from Songs for the Holy One

Refrain (sung twice):  O Holy One, in pain and sorrow we know we can turn to you.

23 Praise the Lord, you that fear God; *
            stand in awe of God, O offspring of Israel;
            all you of Jacob’s line, give glory.
24 For you, O God, do not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;
neither do you turn away from them; *
            when they cry to you, they are heard.
25 My praise is of you in the great assembly; *
            I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship you.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
and those who seek the Lord shall give praise: *
            “May your heart live for ever!”

Refrain:  O Holy One, in pain and sorrow we know we can turn to you.

27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, *
            and all the families of the nations shall bow before God.
28 For sovereignty belongs to the Lord, *
            who rules over the nations.
29 To God alone all who sleep in the earth bow down in worship; *
            all who go down to the dust fall before God.

Refrain:  O Holy One, in pain and sorrow we know we can turn to you.

30 My soul shall live for God;
my descendants shall serve God; *
            they shall be known as the Lord’s for ever.
31 They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn *
            the saving deeds that God has done.

Refrain:  O Holy One, in pain and sorrow we know we can turn to you.

The Second Reading

A reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans (4.13-25).

            13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.  14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.  15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

            16 For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) — in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.  18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.”  19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.  20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.  22 Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.”  23 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also.  It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God.

The Hymn before the Gospel

‘Teach Me, My God and King’ Common Praise #496

The Gospel

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark (8.31-38).
Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

            31 [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.  32 He said all this quite openly.  And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan!  For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

            34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.  36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?  38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

The Gospel of Christ.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

The Sermon

The Affirmation of Faith

Let us declare our faith in God.

We believe in God the Creator of all,
from whom every family
in heaven and on earth is named.

We believe in God the Word of redemption,
who lives in our hearts through faith
and fills us with love and compassion.

We believe in God the Spirit of wisdom,
who strengthens us
with power from on high.

We believe in one God:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.  [iii]

The Prayers of the Community

Intercessions, Thanksgivings and Petitions

The Exchange of the Peace

The peace of Christ be with you all.
And also with you.

The Holy Communion

The Offertory Hymn

‘In the Cross of Christ I Glory’ Common Praise #537

The Prayer over the Gifts

God our provider,
you have not fed us with bread alone,
but with words of grace and life.
Bless us and these your gifts,
which we receive from your bounty,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. [iv]

The Thanksgiving at the Table

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right to give you thanks and praise, O Lord, our God, sustainer of the universe, you are worthy of glory and praise.  Glory to you for ever and ever.

At your command all things came to be:  the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home; by your will they were created and have their being.  Glory to you for ever and ever.

From the primal elements you brought forth the human race, and blessed us with memory, reason, and skill; you made us the stewards of creation.  Glory to you for ever and ever.

But we turn against you, and betray your trust; and we turn against one another.  Again and again you call us to return.  Through the prophets and sages you reveal your righteous law.  In the fullness of time you sent your Son, born of a woman, to be our Saviour.  He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities.  By his death he opened to us the way of freedom and peace.  Glory to you for ever and ever.

Therefore we praise you, joining with the heavenly chorus, with prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and with those in every generation who have looked to you in hope, to proclaim with them your glory, in their unending hymn.

Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest. [v]

Blessed are you, Lord our God, for sending us Jesus, the Christ, who on the night he was handed over to suffering and death, took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, gave it to his friends, and said, “Take this, and eat it:  this is my body which is given for you.  Do this for the remembrance of me.”

In the same way, after supper, he took the cup of wine; he gave you thanks, and said, “Drink this, all of you:  this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sins.  Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.”  Glory to you for ever and ever.

Gracious God, we recall the death of your Son Jesus Christ, we proclaim his resurrection and ascension, and we look with expectation for his coming as Lord of all the nations.  We who have been redeemed by him, and made a new people by water and the Spirit, now bring you these gifts.  Send your Holy Spirit upon us and upon this offering of your Church, so that we who eat and drink at this holy table may share the divine life of Christ our Lord.  Glory to you for ever and ever.

Pour out your Spirit upon the whole earth and make it your new creation.  Gather your Church together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom, where peace and justice are revealed, so that we, with all your people, of every language, race, and nation, may share the banquet you have promised; through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ, all honour and glory are yours, creator of all.  Glory to you for ever and ever.  Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

As our Saviour taught us, let us pray,
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial,
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours,
now and for ever.  Amen. [vi]

The Breaking of the Bread

We break this bread,
communion in Christ’s body once broken.

Let your Church be the wheat
which bears its fruit in dying.
If we have died with him,
we shall live with him;
if we hold firm,
we shall reign with him.

The gifts of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.

The Communion of the Community

Communion Hymn

‘O Christ, the Master Carpenter’ Common Praise #479

The Sending Forth of the Community

The Prayer after Communion

Compassionate God,
you have fed us with the bread of heaven.
Sustain us in our Lenten pilgrimage;
may our fasting be hunger for justice;
our alms, a making of peace;
and our prayer, the song of grateful hearts;
through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord.  Amen. [vii]

Closing Hymn

‘The God of Abraham Praise’ Common Praise #347

The Dismissal

The Deacon sends the Community forth with an appropriate Dismissal.

Sending Music




[i] The Litany was crafted from the Confession for ‘City, World and Society’ and the Absolution from Common Worship (2000), 127, 135 alt.  The Trisagion is Common Praise #707.

[ii] The Liturgy Task Force, ‘Trial Use Propers:  Ash Wednesday to Palm/Passion Sunday 2015’, 2.

[iii] Common Worship (2000), 148 alt.

[iv] The Liturgy Task Force, ‘Trial Use Propers:  Ash Wednesday to Palm/Passion Sunday 2015’, 4.

[v] ‘Sanctus’ by George Black in The Book of Alternative Services Altar Book.

[vi] The Book of Alternative Services (1985), 918.

[vii] The Liturgy Task Force, ‘Trial Use Propers:  Ash Wednesday to Palm/Passion Sunday 2015’, 4.