Blessed Feasts of Blessed Martyrs
Remember
Commemoration of Saint Faith
16 October 2016
Saint Faith’s Anglican Church
Vancouver BC
She
was only twelve years old when her life faced its greatest challenge. The political winds that were ravaging her
city had passed her by, but now they blew her into the eye of the storm. She came face to face to the most powerful
political figure in her region. At first
he seemed to be anxious to spare her and treated her in an almost fatherly
way. After all, who wants to be seen
bullying a child or a young person? But
when she continued to refuse to trim her sails to the prevailing winds, he lost
his temper and condemned her to death.
When certain bystanders expressed their outrage at his decision, he
condemned them to death as well.
We
don’t know the exact year. It may have
been 287 ce or 290 ce or 303 ce. What we do know
is that this story, a story that has been repeated throughout human history in
one form or another, inspired Christians to remember a young woman whose name
was ‘Faith’.
For
Christians memory is a vital dimension of our religious belief. We even have a particular word for it: anamnesis.
Anamnesis is not an intellectual act of recalling a particular event or
a particular person from the past. Anamnesis
means invoking the memory of something or someone from the past in order to
bring into the present all that the past event or person means. Our ‘remembering’ has a future dimension as
well; we remember so that our present can be the foundation for our future.
Each
time we celebrate the eucharist we remember.
In the words we read and recite from the Scriptures we remember that we
are a community whose experience reaches thousands of years into the past and
whose future is only limited by the imagination of God. In the intercessions, petitions and
thanksgivings we offer we remember that we are a people for others, that we are
people with our own needs and that we are a people who receive from the bounty
of God. In the bread broken and the wine
poured we remember the witness of Jesus who has shown us a way of discipleship
of justice, of faithful love and of humility before God.
By remembering the Holy Spirit
empowers us to be God’s people in the here and now so that the future will grow
into the shape of God’s kingdom.
Today
we gather not only to remember our patron saint but to begin our annual fall
financial campaign. As your Rector I ask
to remember our Parish in your financial stewardship. Why?
Saint
Faith’s gathers people into life-giving community. Although worship is the most visible and
public way we gather people together, we gather people in other ways as
well. We gather preschool children
together with teachers, so that they can be nurtured into caring and
responsible adults. We gather our
neighbours together to make music, to learn new skills and to be supported in
recovery. In a metropolitan area where
isolation is experienced by many, we gather people into community.
We
transform people into agents of God’s love.
This transformation comes through baptism and eucharist and daily
prayer. But transformation also comes
through the children who discover the wonder of the world here and through the
ministry of our Community Pastoral Resource Centre where people are guided to
the services they need to thrive. In a
society where many people feel powerless, we transform lives.
We
send people forth to participate in God’s mission of renewal and
reconciliation. Whether through our many
outreach projects and initiatives or through our own sharing of the good news
in our homes, our workplaces, our neighbourhoods and our world, God works with
us to achieve God’s purposes. In a world
where challenges about, we send out people to work with God.
So
today remember Faith, the young woman who gave away her life but by doing so transformed
the future. Remember the Parish of Saint
Faith, a community who for sixty-nine years has gathered, transformed and sent
forth people to work for God’s kingdom in this place. Remember our past, live as God’s people in
the present and work with God for the future.
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