Posted by stpauls on April 29, 2010 under Staff Blog, Webmaster Blog | 
Some of you may remember Margaret Cornish when she was a student priest at St. Paul’s. She has since served three years at Christchurch Cathedral and has been the rector at St Alban’s in Richmond since 2004. She has done an enormous amount of work locally and internationally in social justice and women’s rights issues and will be honored with the Ethel Tibbits Women of Distinction Award on May 18 at the Westin Wall Centre Vancouver Airport Hotel in Richmond.
The Ethel Tibbits Awards are named after the founding publisher of The Richmond Review, a woman who was never afraid to speak her mind, even if her viewpoint wasn’t particularly popular in the early 1930s. She spoke out against the internment of the Japanese during World War II, for example.
This is a very proud moment for Margaret Cornish and we at St. Paul’s will certainly hold her in our prayers.
Posted by stpauls on under Staff Blog, Webmaster Blog |
Do you remember Scott Gould? Many of us will remember him when he was just a clean and fresh student priest doing his Student Placement and giving his talents as program coordinator at St. Paul’s from 1997-99.
He has since been rector at St. Andrew’s in Langley and after many successful years there has decided to move on and take the position of rector at St. Helen’s in Point Grey. For all those interested, and it may be a good opportunity to attend and give some St. Paul’s support, his induction service will be held on Tuesday, May 18th at 7:30 p.m. at St. Helen’s Anglican Church, 4405 West 8th Avenue, Vancouver.
He’d love to see us there.
Posted by stpauls on April 25, 2010 under Sermons |
[This sermon was written and delivered by The Reverend Dr. Yazeed Said on April 25, 2010, the Third Sunday after Easter.]
A middle-aged lady once rang my bell in Cambridge. I think she was from Jehovah’s witnesses. She said: “I have come to tell you about the Lord Jesus, and ask you to believe; for salvation is in him alone.” I thanked her, and said: “I was born in his hometown, dear, and I think that I know him a bit too. He has called me to be busy with other matters – that is preparing for a dinner party.”
Some of you may have come across similar calls around here. She was not saying anything strange herself. In the Book of Acts, we are told that “There is no name under heaven given by whom we must be saved.” One of the tragic paradoxes of Christian history and of present Christian practice, as with the lady who knocked at our door, is to employ these kinds of verses as a justification of Christian exclusivism, to use it as an abstract statement: only in Jesus is there salvation. Though I might commend this lady for her courage and commitment, I think that the biblical story is, as you will expect me to say, more complicated.
We have been following in this Easter season readings from the Acts of the Apostles that show how the proclamation of Jesus and his Resurrection is not abstract proclamation to people who might feel they would simply be excluded from salvation if they did not believe. Rather, it is a proclamation to the rulers and elders and scribes: not a pointless detail in the story.
Instead, we are reminded here of Jesus’ own trial, except that this time, it is not Jesus who is condemned. It is the friends of Jesus who stand before the same court that condemned Jesus. So the Apostles proclaim that Jesus has become the Judge of his Judges. The court that condemned Jesus is confronting his Church, and therefore, it continues to invite the judgment of its victim, whom God has approved and exalted. So, at the most basic level, the story is to do with reversal of roles: The condemned and the court change places, the victim becomes the judge.
And this is a familiar theme that can already be found in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the apocalyptic text of Daniel for instance, the poor and despised will at the end of day judge those who judged them. But, in the case of the Resurrection of Jesus, there is a further step. The exaltation of the condemned Jesus is presented by the disciples not as a threat, but as a promise and as a hope. In other words, the judgment of Jesus is about God’s will to save even those who have killed him. Grace is released when the judges turn to their victim and recognize him as their hope and their saviour.
The story of the raising of Dorcas is put in this wider context. Healing occurs “by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” It is a sign that the saving power of God is to be recognized and sought in the crucified – and nowhere else. Here we have the total opposite of exclusivism. What does it mean to hear the good news of salvation, to be converted? It is about turning back to the condemned and rejected, acknowledging that there is hope nowhere else. The Jesus who is the sole source of salvation is the particular victim of that court. And last Sunday, I pointed out that if we want to make a general rule out of this, it would be that salvation does not bypass the history and memory of guilt, but rather builds upon and from it. It is a distortion to read it away from this context, as a legitimation of oppressive strategies towards the unbeliever.
Therefore, the gospel of the Resurrection is inevitably about the gospel of the Good Shepherd, the one who is to answer for the lives of his sheep, which is the theme of this Sunday. And that answering for the lives of the sheep puts his own security at risk. Earlier in Chapter 10 of John’s gospel, we are told that the Good Shepherd doesn’t simply answer for the lives of the sheep we might expect him to answer for: he has ‘other sheep’, we are told, that do not belong to his fold, as he argues with the religious authorities of his day.
Religion was in Jesus’ days and continues to be today a system of exclusivity; but not for Jesus. The Good Shepherd does not fence around his sense of responsibility. The Good Shepherd accepts, it seems, that he is there to answer for the lives of many.
Like the disciples, we now stand within the Body of Christ, within the Church, and to do so also means to answer for the lives of others both inside and outside the fellowship. And in order to do so, the gospel tells us we need to listen to his voice: “My sheep hear my voice.”
When Christians do not listen to his voice, they end up excluding others, just as he was excluded. As we come together today, we open our hearts and minds to listen to Jesus in one another. We try to listen to Jesus through the mouths of strangers. We seek together to hear the word of God in scripture and in the voice of God’s people throughout history. And when we are silent enough, free enough, patient enough, loving enough, we shall hear his voice. Then, and only then, will we be able to be truly his flock.
This parish has a lot to be commended for, in its work and pursuit of people who are otherwise not accepted and received anywhere else, the homeless and the poor. But, this parish is called to do so, not for the sake of shameless show-off and pride, but with the awareness that it listens to the Good Shepherd and in doing so, it finds itself answerable to those around.
Remember how the Bible starts with two stories. The first is when God asks Adam: Where are you? Adam responds badly; he is hiding himself from God. Then we have the story when God asks Cain: Where is your brother? Cain also responds badly: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
But, for us who believe in Christ, it is Christ who makes the right answer. “Where are you?” says God to Christ, and he says, “I am here to do your will.”
“Where is your brother?” says God to Jesus. “I am with them carrying their sin and their suffering so that I may be responsible for their lives before you.”
That is why the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, for the Christian believer, turns around the whole logic of the human world, where we run away from making answer for each other. That is why the life and death and resurrection of Jesus sets in being a community that is and should be committed to making answer for life.
What we celebrate in this Holy Eucharist is the Jesus Christ who has made himself responsible for our healing. The blood and the misery and the guilt of human history are required at his hands: in his loving service and sacrifice he gives himself to the Father for us and life is outpoured. Of that fullness we receive here in Holy Communion, that fullness of life which gives us the freedom and the courage where we have failed to make answer for another, for the life of the universe in which we live, to renew our belief that it is possible through the Spirit of Jesus Christ to renew our promise to be there with the Good Shepherd, willingly to answer for the lives of others, friend and stranger, insider and outsider.
May we all be filled with that Spirit of Jesus that reminds us of that greater fellowship that we share even in the midst of the stresses of life. For Christ is risen, he is risen indeed. Alleluia.
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
John 10:22-30 ~ Gospel Reading for April 25, 2010
At that time, the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Revelation 7:9-17 ~ Bible Reading for April 25, 2010
After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Acts 9:36-43 ~ Bible Reading for April 25, 2010
Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without delay.”
So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive.
This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.
Posted by stpauls on April 18, 2010 under Sermons |
[This sermon was written and delivered by The Reverend Dr. Yazeed Said on April 18, 2010, the Second Sunday after Easter.]
St. Thomas Aquinas is said to have been quite large, to the extent that a special altar had to be cut to fit his shape so that he could celebrate the Eucharist.
Do you love yourself? Some people think negatively of loving one’s self; for, they think that if you are a good Christian, then you would not bother too much about loving yourself, for we love God. There are those who spend their time worrying about how they look and find it difficult to accept their own selves, or even their own bodies. Some may have a feeling that their body is graceless, that they have not done enough to look better, and start blaming others for not helping them to achieve what they should achieve. It becomes all messy when one is made to feel like that.
People may come to a point when, if they do not find a sense of grace in the midst of that which they dislike about themselves, in the past, or the present, they are reminded of their wounds in resentment, which is a recipe for ill health. After all, what is it to love God? If it is a love that is going to make us miserable about ourselves, then I do not want that, thank you very much.
The readings for this Sunday from Acts and the gospel of the Resurrection appearance in John, give us a different meaning to what it is to “love one’s self.” It tells us that we should know ourselves, our stories and our histories with all the things that we do not like about them, and yet also come to realize that we can love ourselves with all the things that we would rather not see in ourselves; for God transforms us into beauty and love as we learn to accept ourselves as Christ does, and more importantly as he reveals himself to his disciples in the Resurrection. We can in fact, enjoy ourselves and learn how to relax into our bodies and live in them, as risen with Christ. How is that so?
The story of Jesus’ appearance in today’s gospel reminds the disciples of their wounded past. Jesus appears in the upper room, in Galilee, on a hill, on the seashore. He meets them where he met them before. Peter says: “I am going fishing,” back to the beginning, to the old job, where they started. It is as if Jesus appears to heal and build them up after the devastations of Holy Week.
Peter’s threefold denial on Maundy Thursday is countered today with Jesus’ threefold charge to him. There is also a haunting short reference to “fire of coals” burning on the shore, just as there was in the High Priest’s courtyard when Peter denied Jesus. Peter smells again his failure, and on that rests his authority to feed the flock. He is brought to the memory of defeat in the presence of the undefeated and faithful Lord. This is where he called them, in Galilee, where he broke bread with them in the upper room, where they betrayed him; and where he still stands with them, calling them and breaking bread with them and giving them a future in his love. In facing the man they betrayed, they receive grace and healing, and authority.
Like I mentioned last Sunday, the resurrection appears again not as a reversal of history. Instead, the disciples’ failures are memories not to be forgotten; they are taken up to be healed. They are brought back by the gentle hand of Jesus. And so, when we speak of conversion, of our conversion, we should not omit the shame of the past either. The memory of wounds can be one of the most terribly destructive emotions known to human beings. They cannot be forgotten. But, they can be accepted and healed.
And so, we have the dramatic account of Paul’s conversion, which has something important to tell. Christians themselves have often acted like Saul before he became Paul, the one who persecutes others and who is concerned mainly about the security and maintenance of his own religion. Christ calls Peter to love him; but Christians have reinforced their sense of unity by cultivating a collective contempt or fear for others – Jews and Muslims, slaves and homosexuals. They have reinforced the unity of their own part of Christianity by agreeing to despise other Christians. And when this happens, we have to ask, “Is it the love of Christ that unites us? Or do we really love something quite different.” Perhaps what we love is our security; we want to be safe from meeting strangers, and facing surprises. If so, we guarantee to shut Christ away. Security is the underpinning reason for Saul’s actions too, eating away at the very roots of his humanity while he thought that it is all good and godly.
I quote Paul’s own words in his letter to the Galatians 1: 13-14: “You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the Church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.”
Paul then goes to say that “God was pleased to reveal his Son to me.” However, you will remember that, following this reading from Acts, this revelation of the Son is embodied in the victims of Paul’s violence. For the reply came: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
Jesus was not there physically when this happened to Paul; and Jesus is not an abstract idol figure either. He is those whom Paul is persecuting. Yet, later, this victim Jesus, the judge who causes Saul to go blind is himself the source of Paul’s subsequent recovery as well.
So Ananias tells Paul: “The Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” The victim Jesus was the judge, the source of Saul’s blinding; and yet, the same victim Jesus is the Lord who claims and restores not only his followers, but those who persecute them as well.
Therefore, here we have an account that should put into perspective all our talk about conversion, memory, shame fear, and security. This is not only a challenge to the Church. This is also a challenge to politics, especially to the frustrating political scene in our Lord’s land: the Holy Land, where I was born and lived most of my life.
As you may know, Israel celebrates Independence Day this week. Israel has made it clear so many times, and like any state has the right to do so: it wants to be utterly safe. But, from the perspective of people like me, this has often meant safe from strangers also. And so, it defends itself in such a way that no one is ever allowed to challenge what it does. It does so, because it genuinely believes, as their political leaders constantly say, that they surely cannot do anything wrong. All that is bad and all that threatens comes from outside, not from inside, so that the stranger, the other is always evil. Literally, they fight over territory, forgetting to live day by day on their own soil, the soil they are so eager to protect.
And this relates to another great danger, infiltrating both protagonists in the conflict, Israelis and Palestinians alike, and that has to do with being united around their suffering, when suffering becomes an alibi for self-righteousness. Palestinians have a history of oppression and displacement. As the State of Israel has been remembering last week, the Jews had a similar history too. Consequently, their whole sense of who they are is bound up with this history. They join to tell the same story of how inhumanly they have been treated. No one should deny that it is a true and terrible story on both sides of the divide. But, this does not justify any kind of action or reaction, as both sides seem to think.
Their actions and reactions are again similar to those of Saul, the persecutor, as each side considers their suffering greater than the other’s suffering; and their needs must, therefore, override the others. It is because of this, and of this only that it has never been possible for Israel and Palestine to come to a place where justice for everyone can be worked out, because we want first of all to have the justice that is ours alone, whatever the expense to anyone else.
In many ways, Israelis and Palestinians have grown so used to being victims that they cannot get used to acting for themselves. No one takes real responsibility for what happens, because someone else always has the initiative. Whereas the conversion, if you like, of both sides will only happen when they, like Paul, risk decision and change in meeting face-to-face with their victims, showing how bridges may be built from one’s suffering into the suffering of the others. It is only in this relational activity that Israel and Palestine may grow out, convert and heal their societies from the pathology of constant resentment. It is only in this relational activity that we can come to love ourselves properly too.
How do we learn this? We learn it from Jesus, who in this same context of his own land appears to surprise us; in response to our fear, and our self-defensive methods, Jesus comes back not for revenge, but to transform our fear and hunger and our shame into what beauty is. His resurrection teaches us to grow beyond the slavery of security and suffering and weakness. Only then, are we able to have a unique role in our community, when we show love for its own sake, and beauty for its own sake, not expecting anything in return – for our lives are made for beauty and for love at all times.
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
John 21:1-19 ~ Gospel Reading for April 18, 2010
Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way.
Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish.
That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off. When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Acts 9:1-6 ~ Bible Reading for April 18, 2010
Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Revelation 5:11-14 ~ Bible Reading for April 18, 2010
I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshipped.
