Posted by stpauls on August 15, 2010 under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog | 
Luke 1.46-55 ~ Gospel Reading for August 15, 2010
Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Galatians 4.4-7 ~ Bible Reading for August 15, 2010
When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Isaiah 61.10-11 ~ Bible Reading for August 15, 2010
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD,
my whole being shall exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
to spring up before all the nations.
Posted by stpauls on August 8, 2010 under Sermons |
[This sermon was written and delivered by The Reverend Dr. Yazeed Said on August 8, 2010, Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost.]
Our readings this morning pull the imagination in two directions. We have Abraham’s faith longing and waiting for God’s promise in the letter to the Hebrews, whilst Isaiah proclaims God’s judgment on his people saying, “Trample my courts no more… Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates.” In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of the moment of recognising the coming of the Son of Man in an unexpected way. It is as if we are given to think that the coming of the Son of Man is the moment when the idols we build for ourselves will fall and shatter, revealing the ambiguity of our religious identity just as was the case with people of God in the Old Testament. On the one hand, we are, like Abraham, longing and hungry for God’s promise, because you and I long and hunger to be given a word of love; we know that there are things we cannot just do for ourselves, like knowing that we are loved. We need an “other” to tell us that. But, whilst we long to hear something, we have also collectively denied the possibility of hearing something from beyond our culture, we deny God, and we therefore become human beings who do not communicate with one another.
Here lies the moral failure of our age.
While we yearn to hear words to affirm us, we end up projecting on to the void that we have created the voice that we like to hear only. We generate simply an echo of the fact that we are all right and that really we have never fallen from grace with God and really there is no such a thing as original sin. But, when we do not hear a voice from beyond us, and do all the talking ourselves, we are doomed to a paralysing anxiety, burdened with the danger of illusion and the making of idols, which meet our needs.
On Friday, as I was walking on Haro Street, I overheard, to my dismay, a conversation in my back, of a young boy telling an older girl how his mother is finishing her PhD, and feeling happy after all the hard work that she has done. I was shocked when the older girl told the boy that his mother must feel rather strange given that, in her words, it is considered “retarded” these days to spend times with books!
The Israelites offer sacrifices, and God in the prophecy of Isaiah is saying: “what to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.” And Jesus warns in the Gospel: “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our task as human beings is not, like the girl seems to assume above, to relate to the world as our possession, which we can fashion and understand with unaided human thinking, but to let ourselves be given the proper sense by the real treasure and that is the call of God. In Isaiah, God is simply saying, the idols that we make to meet our needs cannot set us free, cannot give us a new and assured reality.
Jesus in the Gospel is calling us to be vigilant and expectant, like the people of Israel were called to be, because we cannot make God. We have to be surprised and led if we are to be kept from idolatry. On the one hand, “Do not be afraid,” says Jesus; “it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom,” it is an encouragement for us to remember that hope in things unseen is a joyful expectancy. But, at the same time, like Abraham, we are to acknowledge our poverty, knowing that we cannot provide life for ourselves, a poverty that stands with helplessness when faced with the tragedies of our world today, especially when we remember the tragedies of the twentieth century when human beings thought that they could bring about peace without God, and what a tragedy that was in the face of the Holocaust, and the massacres that carry us up to the present day.
But, we are here celebrating this joyful expectancy in Holy Communion because there has been a Word, which has unexpectedly interrupted the world and revealed the difference between the God whom we expect and the God who actually comes, the God who does not come to satisfy our illusions or our stylishness, but shatters our idols before his truth; for as Isaiah put it, our idols have become a burden on God. The Word that has been spoken has made us who we are today. But, “You do not know the hour of the coming of the Son of Man.” We do not know how this form of liberation we have from God will continue in the future. We are constantly giving thanks for something that is not of our own making, a newness that we can never imagine, yet that which transforms our lives.
This is what we have when we listen to the story of Israel in the Old Testament, and the story of Jesus in the New Testament. We are always as if on the eve of the coming of the Son of Man, knowing that he is with us now even in the Eucharist, but not knowing what it will be, and living constantly within this tension, so that every time we come to receive him in this Eucharist, we receive him as a truly new thing, not simply a pious cliché. What Isaiah is warning against, and what Abraham lives out is the knowledge that God remains God and that our deepest longing for God and the reality of God itself are so immeasurably different, and they can only come together through grace. Otherwise, we would be alone, with void and anxiety that destroy our humanity.
Here, we stand as a community of love and worship held in response to the unexpected coming of unconditional love among us. And we can only come to see this love’s newness, if we acknowledge that we are indeed fallen human beings and therefore have an urge to idolatry. Our liturgy sets before us the richness of our belonging with beautiful hymns and actions, as we express our longing to be loved, judged and accepted. But, in another aspect, our liturgy is also pushing us back into the experience of Israel’s struggle with idolatry, showing the danger of religious belonging, when it becomes simply another alibi for self-reflection.
Here at St. Paul’s, having the innovative option of a labyrinth for contemplation is important, in as much as it is a way to remind some of the surprising ways in which God may come to us, pulling people back to the Christian story and the Church, whilst keeping those of us in the Church away from claiming idolatrous religious belonging to the community. Everything we use to worship him speaks of God, but nothing that we use reflects God at all. This is the ambiguity of our religious belonging. We are here to look for mystery, grace and freedom; but we do so in the unexpected fleshly human face of Jesus, the real new event in history. In that human face, our hunger is met, and we are renewed and our desire is fulfilled, but only in so far as we let God be God, who surprises us in the way he comes to us and the way he will come to us in the future.
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Luke 12:32-40 ~ Gospel Reading for August 8, 2010
Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 ~ Bible Reading for August 8, 2010
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old– and Sarah herself was barren– because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.” All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.
Posted by stpauls on under Bible Readings, Webmaster Blog |
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 ~ Bible Reading for August 8, 2010
The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Hear the word of the LORD,
you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the LORD;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
When you come to appear before me,
who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more;
bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation–
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
Your new moons and your appointed festivals
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me,
I am weary of bearing them.
When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.
Come now, let us argue it out,
says the LORD:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured by the sword;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Posted by stpauls on August 2, 2010 under Webmaster Blog |
the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir at the 2010 International Choral Kathaumixw in Powell River, British Columbia, Canada!! Congratulations from St. Paul’s Anglican Church congregation in Vancouver’s West End!!
In all, they won
Peoples Choice Award
1st Prize Adult Mixed Choir
2nd Prize Youth Choir SSA or SATB
2nd Prize Folk & Cultural Traditions
New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir (New Zealand), Andrew Withington, conductor
The New Zealand Secondary Students' Choir perform Ngapo Wehi’s "Kua Rongo" at the Kathaumixw Awards Concert, Powell River, British Columbia, Canada, on July 9. Photo by Dan S. Thompson.
Anna Bowron, Manager of the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir sent the webmaster this post-competition press release in connection with their four big prizes:
Success in Canada for the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir
The New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir was awarded the People’s Choice Award at the 2010 International Choral Kathaumixw in British Columbia, Canada, held in early July. The award was created this year especially for the choir in recognition of the way thousands of festival goers and participants from around the world responded to their music during the six-day choral competition. The choir was placed first in Adult Mixed Choir and second in both Youth Choir and Folk and Cultural Traditions competition categories, but narrowly missed the Kathaumixw Choir of the World Award, won by another outstanding youth choir from Denmark.
The 54 members of the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir, aged 15 – 19 years, were overwhelmed by a standing ovation from an audience of over 2000 at the Awards Concert with their presentation of three New Zealand songs – Salve Regina by David Childs, Rise Out Your Bed arranged by Richard Oswin, and Ngapo Wehi’s Kua Rongo. The Musical Director of the choir is Andrew Withington from Christchurch, with Grant Bartley (Christchurch) as accompanist, and Morag Atchison and Kate Spence (both from Auckland) as Vocal Consultants.
The 17-day tour to western Canada marked the end of 18 months’ hard work together for the choir. Choir members are selected through nationwide auditions held every two years, with approximately one in five auditionees offered places in the choir. The 2009/10 choir included students from 32 high schools from Dargaville to Alexandra. Members gather for rehearsals, vocal tuition and public performances for one week of each school holidays, with the pinnacle of membership a tour to an international festival or competition. Other recent awards for the choir include The World’s Choir at the 2006 Hong Kong International Youth & Children’s Festival and Champion Mixed Voice Youth Choir at the 2006 World Choral Olympics, China.
The choir could not possibly have travelled and competed without financial support from Principal Sponsor Adrian Durham, the Sargood Bequest, Perry Foundation, the Southern Trust, ASB Community Trust and several individuals. Creative New Zealand is also a supporter of the choir. Thank you to them all.
All enquiries to:
Anna Bowron, Choir Manager, New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir
Ph/Fax 00 64 4 976 8557; 021 113 4520; email nzssc@xtra.co.nz
Thanks again for the wonderful concert at St. Paul’s on July 4! We loved you!
article by Nina Shoroplova, Webmaster
Posted by stpauls on August 1, 2010 under Contributors, Webmaster Blog |
St.Paul’s will be starting a study group this Fall with this excellent series of books designed to “help Anglicans deepen their understanding of the Christian faith.” Each volume in the series explores a different facet.
We will meet after the combined 10:00 a.m. service on First Sundays, beginning on October 3, 2010. Ross Bliss will lead the discussions, and we will proceed at a very manageable pace. There will be two sets of the New Church series in our library, and individual volumes can also be ordered from Vine and Fig at 4109 Macdonald Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6L 2P1. Used copies are also available on amazon.com and abebooks.com. More information will be provided soon, and you can also speak to Ross if you are interested in possibly participating in this opportunity for reading and reflection.
Posted by stpauls on under Contributors, Webmaster Blog |
Members of St. Paul’s congregation walked in the Integrity entry at the Pride Parade.
