Rise Again! Bearing Fruit That Will Last (Canada Day, 1 July 2018)

Here is the text on which my sermon will be based as I preach my first sermon as Vicar of Holy Trinity Cathedral (New Westminster) tomorrow.

Rise Again!

Bearing Fruit That Will Last

Canada Day

1 July 2018

Holy Trinity Cathedral

New Westminster BC

Click here to listen to the Sermon as preached at the 10.00 eucharist

on Sunday the 1st of July.

John 15.12-17

            ^15.12[Jesus said to his disciples,] “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you.  ¹⁵I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.  ¹⁶You did not choose me but I chose you.  And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.  ¹⁷I am giving you these commands so that you maylove one another.”

            On the 23^rdof June 1987 my family and I entered Canada at the Peace Arch crossing to begin our new adventure at Vancouver School of Theology. We thought that we would be here for three years and then return to the United States.  But three years became six, one child became three, my wife began preparation for the priesthood and was ordained, and then we chose to become Canadian citizens in 1995.

            When I began teaching at Vancouver School of Theology, one of the new students, Paul Borthistle, decided that his family would become our guides to Canadian context.  One of the first things he did was to share with us some cassette tapes of a Canadian folk singer by the name of Stan Rogers.  I’m sure that many of you have heard his songs and may even recognize his rich baritone voice.

            I remember listening to ‘Barrett’s Privateers’ and realizing that my ancestors, some of whom were American mariners who raided British shipping during the Revolutionary War, were the villains.  But the song that has always resonated with me is his ballad, ‘The Mary Ellen Carter’.  It’s a song about a love affair between a crew and their ship, a ship wrecked because of the drunkenness of its captain and first mate, a ship abandoned by its owners once the insurance money is paid, a ship worth saving because of the times it saved its crew.  And so the narrator and his friends begin a salvage operation whose success we do not hear, only the hope and the promise of new life.

            It’s the refrain that sticks in my mind and has never faded from my memory. It’s a refrain that a ship-wrecked Canadian sailor, adrift in the Atlantic, told the CBC he kept singing even as he was being winched into the rescue helicopter:

Rise again, rise again!

Though your heart it be broken and life about to end

No matter what you’ve lost, be it a home, a love, a friend

Then like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!

            In 1859 the Parish of Holy Trinity was established here in what was then a frontier settlement on the Fraser River.  The people built a church in 1860 that then was burnt to the ground in the fire of 1865. Rise again, rise again!  A second church, this time with stone walls, rose from the ashes in 1867, stone quarried from Salt Spring Island.  It became the cathedral of the newly-formed Diocese of New Westminster and witnessed the growth of the Lower Mainland as the railroad inched its way across Canada.  But then the disastrous fire of 1898 destroyed much of the centre of New Westminster, leaving only the stone walls of the Cathedral.  Rise again, rise again!  This church, the one in which we gather today, was built within the walls of the second church, and by 1902 our tower looked out over the city this parish was called to serve.

            This cathedral community of Jesus’ disciples have followed in the path of those first disciples to whom Jesus speaks in today’s gospel.  As they gathered for what would be their last meal with their beloved teacher, his disciples must have known that the possibility of trouble was lurking out in the darkness of the city.  No doubt some of them were hoping that this would be the last night of the old order and that the morning would bring the messianic age that they and many others hoped to see --- Rome banished from their land --- true faithfulness to the covenant made with the Hebrew people at Mount Sinai restored --- self-serving religious hierarchy put in its place --- justice, mercy and humility replacing oppression, hardship and arrogance.  But no one among them could have known what was to happen and how their lives would be changed forever.

                  Jesus tells them, ^“You did not choose me but I chose you.  And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.” [1]  And what fruit they bore!  There is no place on this planet where the faith of the followers of Jesus has not travelled.  There are very few languages and cultures who have not heard the good news of God in Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed.  Sometimes we have failed in spectacular ways to be true disciples of Jesus, but we have, time and time again, repented and returned to the way of Jesus by recommitting ourselves to doing justice, to loving mercy, to walking humbly with our God. Rise again, rise again!

            And now you and I have come to this time in the life of this community.  We are placing before our neighbours a vision of a renewed cathedral landscape where people who live in the heart of this city can gather, whether Christian or not, where people can find a home, whether wealthy or not-so-wealthy, where we can continue to be the physical presence of Jesus, whether in worship or in service.  This is fruitful soil and we have on many occasions faced challenges in order to bear the fruit of the gospel.  

            As I begin a new ministry among you as the Vicar of this venerable congregation, I cannot help but believe that we have a future here.  Our neighbours need us as a place of help, hope and home.  We are a visible symbol of God’s commitment to the fullness of life and dignity of every human being and to the promise of world in which all God’s children will be free.  It’s who we have been; it’s who we are; it’s who we will be.

Rise again, rise again!

Though your heart it be broken and life about to end

No matter what you’ve lost, be it a home, a love, a friend

Then like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!

---

[1]John 15.16

True Patriot Love: Reflections on Christian Citizenship (Canada Day, 2 July 2017)

True Patriot Love

Reflections on Christian Citizenship

Canada Day Propers

2 July 2017

Saint Faith’s Anglican Church

Vancouver BC

Click here to listen to the Sermon as preached at the 10.00 Eucharist on the 2nd of July.

John 15.12-17

[Jesus said to his disciples,] “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.  You did not choose me but I chose you.  And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.  I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

            When Paula, David and I crossed the border into Canada thirty years ago, we did not expect to stay longer than three years.  I had taken the position at Vancouver School of Theology as the first step towards an academic career in one of the seminaries of The Episcopal Church.  But three years became six, two more children were born and Paula began her own studies towards ordination.  Nine years after arriving in Canada we found ourselves at the Italian Cultural Centre becoming Canadian citizens.

            But I have learned that emigrating from one country to another does not mean that one is always considered ‘home’.  No matter how long one lives in another country, no matter how strongly one attaches oneself to that country, no matter how hard one tries to fit in, the immigrant is reminded that he or she was not born here.  Just this past week as I was returning to Vancouver after attending a meeting with the Bishop, the Regional Archdeacons and the Regional Deans in Sechelt, one of my colleagues asked a question that reminded me of my ‘other-ness’.  He asked whether I was planning a summer visit to ‘my own country’.  ‘I am already in “my own country”’, I answered, ‘and I plan no visits to the United States in the near future.’

            No matter how long we have lived in Canada, no matter how strongly we attach ourselves to this beautiful and complex country, no matter how hard we try to fit in with the culture of North American society, all Christians, regardless of the theological ‘tribe’ or ‘family’ with which they identify, are ‘resident aliens’, ‘landed immigrants’ in a world which is and is not our ‘home and native land’.  You may have once read a bumper sticker that proclaims, ‘Think globally.  Act locally.’  To my mind this describes the attitude that Christians bring to the task of living as people who have ‘a different world in view’, a world that has not yet been realized.

Think globally.

            To be a Christian is to belong to a movement that spans twenty centuries of human history, that includes people of every ethnicity and culture and that gathers, transforms and sends disciples on every continent.  It is a community that shares a common belief that God is the creator of all that is, seen and unseen, that in Jesus of Nazareth God acts to redeem and reconcile the world to God’s very self and that in the Spirit of wisdom and truth God continues to act in us, through us and, sometimes, despite us.  As Paul writes, ‘. . . for in Christ Jesus [we] are all children of God through faith . . . . There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of [us] one in Christ Jesus.’ (Galatians 3.26, 28)  It is this shared identity which commits us to look beyond national boundaries and tribal identities to seek the common good for all God’s creatures.

           

            To be a Christian is to belong to a movement that is not afraid to look beyond the boundaries of one’s own culture to discover how to become more fully human, to live more fully in the likeness of God.  When we gather for worship, Sunday after Sunday, we listen to Scriptures originally written in languages other than our own and intended to be read by people other than ourselves.  Yet we find in them wisdom for the present and guidance for the future.  We bring to our own communities experiences and insights from other contexts and discover how they might enrich our own discipleship.  Rarely does a year go by when one of you does not bring something to me, perhaps a resource for worship or stewardship, which finds itself becoming part of the mosaic of our life as a Christian community.

Act locally.

            At the same time Christians are not detached from the communities and cultures in which we live.  We bring our global perspective into the choices we make and the priorities we set as we go about our ministries.  This mean we are always engaging in what I might call ‘translation’.  We are also interpreting to our friends, families and neighbours what the good news of God in Christ looks like in Metro Vancouver 2017.  For us at Saint Faith’s it means that we made a choice more than forty years ago to welcome the full and equal participation of women in the leadership of our congregation, whether lay or ordained.  We chose to participate in the liturgical renewal of the Anglican Church of Canada from the very beginning and we continue to do so in how we worship today.  No doubt we have much translation still to do so that we reach out to those who have no faith and to those whose faith has cooled.

            The hardest part of being a Christian in the world, no matter where or when, is our vocation to challenge our own culture when we fail to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with God.  As we celebrate the sesquicentennial of confederation, we are compelled by our faith to acknowledge that we have yet to become ‘the just society’ that Pierre Elliot Trudeau spoke of more than thirty years ago.  We know all too well our failures to honour and respect the indigenous peoples who have dwelt in this land for millennia.  Although decades ago our federal parliament committed to eliminating child poverty, British Columbians still live in a province with one of the highest rates of child poverty in Canada.  These realities and others are only counsels of despair if we do not remember to give thanks to God ‘whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine’.

True Patriot Love

            It is right and a good and joyful thing that we celebrate one hundred and fifty years of confederation this weekend.  I give thanks almost daily that Paula, David and I crossed the border and that we made the choice in 1996 to become Canadian citizens.  Despite the occasional comments that remind me that I am an immigrant, this is my home and I choose to identify myself as a Canadian over all the other ‘identities’ I possess.  Perhaps some of you have similar stories to tell.

            But the one thing that none of us dare forget is that our primary identity is as members of Christ’s body, disciples who follow the way of Jesus.  This identity leads us to look beyond the boundaries that seem to be popping up all over the world today.  Christians do not build walls; we take them down.  Christians pray for our political authorities; we do not pray to them.  Christians know that true patriot love means working to keep our countries faithful to the vision of God’s peaceable kingdom even if that means challenging the status quo.

            We do this because we are friends, friends of each other, friends of every human being.  So, as God’s friends, let us clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.  Let us bear with one another and forgive others as we ourselves have been forgiven.  May we clothe ourselves with love, so that our ‘fragile earth, our island home’ may be bind together in perfect harmony.  For we do not stand guard only for Canada, we stand on guard for the world God has created, the world that God is redeeming, the world that God is bringing into being.

An Ordo For Canada Day 2017

On Sunday, 2 July 2017, we shall offer the eucharist with the intention of remembering the 150th anniversary of Confederation and praying for God's wisdom and strength to keep our country right when it is right and to put it right when it is wrong.  May we become agents of reconciliation and transformation so that all God's children may be free and the dignity of every human being is honoured and nurtured.

The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Canada Day Weekend

2 July 2017

The Gathering of the Community

Gathering Music

Announcements

Introductory Responses

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,

whose glory fills all the earth.

For the natural majesty and beauty of tis country,

we praise and thank you, O Lord.

For the many resources of this nation,

we praise and thank you, O Lord.

For the women and men in this and every generation

who have made this country strong,

we praise and thank you, O Lord.

For the freedoms we enjoy,

we praise and thank you, O Lord.

For the gifts of the First Nations

on whose unceded lands we live and worship,

we praise and thank you, O Lord.

For the settler cultures and peoples who followed

and who have woven and are weaving a rich tapestry,

we praise and thank you, O Lord.

For faith that renews and sustains us,

we praise and thank you, O Lord. [i]

Hymn of Praise

‘O Canada’  Common Praise #659 vv. 1, 2, 4

The Collect of the Day

Let us pray.

Almighty God,

whose wisdom and whose love are over all,

accept the prayers we offer for our nation.

Give integrity to its citizens

and wisdom to those in authority,

so that harmony and justice may be secured

in obedience to your will;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.  Amen. [ii]

The Proclamation of the Word

The First Reading

A reading from the prophet Isaiah (32.1-5, 16-18).

            ^32.1 See, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.  ² Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.  ³ Then the eyes of those who have sight will not be closed, and the ears of those who have hearing will listen.  ⁴ The minds of the rash will have good judgement, and the tongues of stammerers will speak readily and distinctly.  ⁵ A fool will no longer be called noble, nor a villain said to be honourable.

            ¹⁶ Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.  ¹⁷ The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.  ¹⁸ My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.

Thanks be to God.

The Psalm

Psalm 85.7-13 from Songs for the Holy One.

Refrain (sung twice):  Holy One, help us to listen and follow your teachings.

I will listen to what God says.

You surely speak of well-being for loving and loyal people,

who do not turn again to foolish ways.

Your saving help is near for those who revere you,

so that your glory may dwell in our land.

Refrain:  Holy One, help us to listen and follow your teachings.

Faithful love and truth have met together;

true justice and well-being have kissed each other.

Truth springs from the earth;

true justice looks down from heaven.

Holy One, you will indeed grant prosperity

and our land will yield its harvests.

True justice goes before you

and prepares a pathway for your footsteps.

Refrain:  Holy One, help us to listen and follow your teachings.

The Second Reading

A reading from the Letter to the Colossians (3.12-17).

            ^3.12 As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.  ¹³ Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  ¹⁴ Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  ¹⁵ And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.  And be thankful.  ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.  ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.

Thanks be to God.

Hymn before the Gospel

‘Let All the World in Every Corner Sing’  Common Praise #357 v. 1

The Gospel

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John (15.12-17).

Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

            ^15.12 [Jesus said to his disciples,] “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  ¹³ No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you.  ¹⁵ I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.  ¹⁶ You did not choose me but I chose you.  And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.  ¹⁷ I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

The Gospel of Christ.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Hymn after the Gospel

‘Let All the World in Every Corner Sing’  Common Praise #357 v. 2

The Homily

An Affirmation of Faith

Let us affirm our faith in God.

We believe in God the Creator,

from whom every family

in heaven and on earth has its being.

We believe in God the Word incarnate,

who lives in our hearts through faith,

and fills us with the perfect love which casts out fear.

We believe in God the Spirit of wisdom,

who strengthens us with power from on high.

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,

now and until the ages of ages.  Amen.  [iii]

The Prayers of the Community

Intercessions, Petitions and Thanksgivings

Confession and Absolution

Come, let us return to the Lord and say:

God of compassion and mercy,

in our sin we have avoided your call.

Our love for you is like a morning cloud,

like the dew that goes away early.

Have mercy on us;

deliver us from judgement;

bing up our wounds and revive us;

in Jesus Christ our Redeemer.  Amen. [iv]

May the God of love

forgive you and free you from your sins,

heal and strengthen you by the Holy Spirit,

and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord.  Amen. [v]

The Exchange of the Peace

May the peace of Christ be always with you.

And also with you.

The Holy Communion

Offertory Hymn

‘You Call Us, Lord, to Be’  Common Worship #450

Prayer over the Gifts

Let us pray.

Judge eternal,

accept all we offer you this day,

and grant to our nation unity and peace.

This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord.  Amen. [vi]

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.

We give you thanks and praise, almighty God, for the gift of a world full of wonder, and for our life which comes from you.  By your power you sustain the universe.

Glory to you for ever and ever.

You created us to love you with all our heart, and to love each other as ourselves, but we rebel against you by the evil that we do.

In Jesus, your Servant, you bring healing to our world and gather us into one great family.  Therefore, with all who serve you on earth and in heaven, we praise your wonderful name, as we sing,

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. [vii]

We give you thanks and praise, loving Creator, because in sending Jesus your Beloved to us you showed us how much you love us.  He cares for the poor and the hungry.  He suffers with the sick and the rejected.

Betrayed and forsaken, he did not strike back but overcame hatred with love.  On the cross he defeated the power of sin and death.  By raising him from the dead you show us the power of your love to bring new life to all your people.

Glory to you for ever and ever.

On the night before he gave up his life for us, Jesus, at supper with his friends, took bread, gave thanks to you, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “Take this, all of you, and eat it:  this is my body which is given for you.”

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, said the blessing, gave it to his friends, and said, “Drink this, all of you:  this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which is shed for you and for all people.  Do this in memory of me.”

Glory to you for ever and ever.

Gracious God, with this bread and wine we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, and we offer ourselves to you in him.

Send your Holy Spirit on us and on these gifts, so that we may know the presence of Jesus in the breaking of bread, and share in the life of the family of your children.

Glory to you for ever and ever.

Giver of life, you call us to be your servants; fill us with the courage and love of Jesus, so that all the world may gather in joy at the table of your kingdom.

We sing your praise, God our Creator, through Jesus, our Lord, in the power of the Holy Spirit, now and for ever.

Glory to you for ever and ever.  Amen. [viii]

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.

The Breaking of the Bread

We break this bread

to share in the body of Christ.

We, being many, are one body,

for we all share in the one bread.

These are the gifts of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Communion

The Hymn after Communion

‘Can I See Another’s Woe’  Common Praise #544

The Sending Forth of the Community

Prayer after Communion

Let us pray.

God of love,

may we who have taken holy things

grow in unity and peace.

We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord.  Amen. [ix]

Glory to God,

whose power, working in us,

can do infinitely more

than we can ask or imagine.

Glory to God from generation to generation,

in the Church and in Christ Jesus,

for ever and ever.  Amen.

The Blessing

May the Spirit of truth lead you into all truth,

giving you grace to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord

and to proclaim the wonderful works of God:

and the blessing of God the Author of creation,

God the Word of redemption and God the Spirit of wisdom,

be among you and remain with you always.  Amen.

Closing Hymn

‘Let Streams of Living Justice’  Common Praise #575

Dismissal

The Deacon sends the Community forth with an appropriate Dismissal.

---

[i] Introductory Litany prepared by the Rev’d Dr Richard Geoffrey Leggett and the Rev’d Paula Porter Leggett for Saint Faith’s Anglican Church (revised in 2017 by RGL+).

[ii] The Book of Alternative Services (1985), 413 alt.

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

[iv] Common Worship (2000), 128 alt.

[v] Common Worship (2000), 135 alt.

[vi] The Book of Alternative Services (1985), 413.

[vii] Common Praise (1995), #719.

[viii] The Book of Alternative Services (1985), 204-206 alt.

[ix] The Book of Alternative Services (1985), 413.