But when [John] saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.                                       Matthew 3:7-10

Oh, Jesus, meek and mild, who is this fiery fellow who uses such fine pastoral language?  You brood of vipers indeed!  Sweet Lord Jesus, did you know that your cousin John was going around talking like that?  My, my…

Thank goodness we’re not like them, those awful Pharisees and Saducees.  What’s that, you say?  Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Cranmer and Hooker (and Luther) as our ancestors.’  We too face your wrath?  What have we done to deserve that?

Well, perhaps we might ask Nelson Mandela who has just died, who was imprisoned by a racist regime in South Africa for 27 years as a ‘common criminal’.  We don’t participate in racist systems in Canada, surely?  Or economic systems which favour a few at the very top and impoverish millions of others even as they poison this beautiful garden world of yours?

Cut down and thrown into the fire, you say?  But that’s so harsh!  All our systems are corrupt, aren’t they, Jesus, and you’re not so meek and mild after all?  There is much in all our systems, and in all of us, which needs to be thrown into the fire.  But because you have forgiven us – Did Tata Mdiba learn that from you? – and we experience reconciliation through you – Again, Mandela your disciple? – the fire is not something to fear but to welcome.

The Advent fire lights the way to Christmas, and beyond.  The rough wood of stable and manger reminds us that the Child born so long ago ends his earthly life nailed to a rough, wooden cross, and takes upon himself the sorrow and death of our existence.  The ‘wrath to come’ has already come, in Christ crucified.  So there is light beyond the gathering gloom, the light of Christmas, to be sure, but shining even more brilliantly is the light of Easter’s New Fire, kindled on that most holy night of the Great Vigil of Easter when the whole creation begins its rebirth in the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God!

South African President Jacob Zuma announced that Mandela, “the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed,” adding that he “passed on peacefully.”

“Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father,” Zuma said.

See full story here.

The Most Rev. Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, has already issued a statement on Mandela’s life and death.

It’s Advent again.  Happy New Year!

Yes, it’s a time of preparation for Christmas, for the High Holy-Days of the Nativity of Our Lord, when we rejoice in the Word become flesh in the baby of Bethlehem, through the Twelve Days of the Feast of Christmas.  But, it’s also a time of reflection about where that baby went when he grew up, and what his death and resurrection have accomplished, what has begun in him never to be reversed.

This New Year’s celebration on the Christian calendar reminds us that although God loves us and the whole wounded creation just as we are, God is not content with swords/guns/bombs and spears/planes/missiles.  God is bound and determined – and has begun it with unstoppable momentum in Christ Jesus – to change the world, the whole creation, into a place where God’s shalom truly reigns forever.  No need for swords and spears, the literal kind, or the other kinds which we fling at each other with dismal regularity.

Perhaps Advent is a time when we might better say, Happy New Creation!

Thanks be to God!

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers — all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.                ~ Colossians 1:15-18

The old year comes to a close, on the church calendar, that is, and on this Feast of Christ the King we are reminded that history itself will come to a close with the Reign of God finally and fully realized in all creation, in the Reign of Christ, the Sovereign who is defined by love beyond imagination, grace beyond amazing, and peace beyond understanding.

We get a glimpse of that love, grace and peace in the Gospel reading from St. Luke:  When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.  Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”  And again:  One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

To be Messiah/Christos, God’s anointed one, to be Sovereign, is to make of the Cross a throne as you give up your life for love of others, even those who enthroned/crucified you. (Cf. Jn. 3:14-15; 8:28; 12:32-33)  Luke also has the King on the throne of the Cross using his power, his ultimate authority, to forgive one the world deems unforgiveable, and to welcome that despised and rejected bandit/terrorist into paradise.  For that nameless criminal, the Kingdom becomes fully his, and that’s why Jesus says ‘Today’.

Then we open the new calendar…  

To Advent, and a new year for all disciples of Jesus.  Advent is the season of preparation for the coming one, a time of waiting in hopeful anticipation, a time of journeying across days and weeks and centuries to Bethlehem and the Twelve Days of the Feast of  the Nativity of Our Lord, the Mass of Christ, or Christmas, which begins on Christmas.

On Sunday, December 1^st, The First Sunday of Advent, look for changes in the drama of the liturgy.  For the Season of Advent we will use the high altar for the Eucharistic Liturgy; there will be a great distance between us and the Table of the Lord, symbolizing the distance of our waiting and the anticipation of the season.  The choir will move aside and open for us a way into the distance, a path for our Advent pilgrimage.  As we journey literally, step by step, to the communion table, so we journey in hope through the weeks of preparation for the Coming One:  Jesus of Nazareth who came long ago in Bethlehem as a helpless baby, and Jesus the Christ, risen in glory, who comes again in triumph to bring God’s Reign in completeness at the end of history.

Then we turn the page…

To Christmas, and when everyone else is done with Kris-Muss (as in Kris Kringle and All Muss, All Fuss!) and heading out for major Boxing events and getting ready for New Year’s we are just beginning our own celebration of God among us, of God in-carnate, of God in-the-flesh (which is what that Latin, churchy word means).

So, do you know why every Sunday we have a Gospel Procession, why the Gospel, the Good News about Jesus Christ the living Word, is brought down into the middle of the assembly?  Do you know why we don’t read it from somewhere high and lifted up, as was once done?  You see, it’s not the Procession that’s the thing; the Procession is really just another journey, but oh what a journey!  The reading of the Gospel right among us every Sunday is a weekly reminder of the spectacular news of Christmas!

Try as we might, try as we have for all of human history, we cannot ascend to God by dint of the mightiest efforts, by means of the most severe morality, even as a result of the very best good works of love…  None of it can free us from the muck and mire of sin and death.  But, remember, God doesn’t keep score!  No, God comes to us, knowing that we can never make it to God.  The Creator of all, the highest Holy One, immortal, invisible, knowable only dimly – even if wonderfully – through creation, comes to us in the mortal and frail flesh of a Jew, born to poor parents, in a remote and reviled corner of the Roman Empire two thousand years ago.

“Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν. / The Word became flesh and lived among us.”  That word, ἐσκήνωσεν (eskaynosin), translated here as ‘lived’ can also be translated as ‘tented’ among us, or even ‘set up camp among us, right in the middle of us, at the centre of our camp’.  And that, dear friends, is why we read the Gospel, the words of Christ and/or about Christ, right in the middle of the gathered assembly every Sunday.

So, on Tuesday, December 24^th, Christmas Eve, look for changes in the drama of the liturgy, changes which will remain in place through the season, the full Twelve Days – including Christmas Day, the Nativity of Our Lord, the First Sunday of Christmas, and the Baptism of Our Lord.

No longer will we have to journey so far; the time of preparation will be over.  God will be among us, fully present in the living Word Jesus Christ who comes to us in both word and sacrament.  The Table of the Lord will be down on the main level, on our level, below the nave platform, symbolizing visually the presence of God right among us in the flesh of Jesus the Christ.

The choir will move forward on the stage, behind the Table, you will be invited to sit in the transepts (the pews on each side of the cross in the building) and in the frontmost pews in the nave, the main area of the church.  Thus the assembly of believers will gather literally around the Table of the Lord as we do more figuratively every Sunday.

After the Twelve Days and the Baptism of Our Lord we will return to our customary set-up for worship… until the Great Vigil of Easter and the Week of Weeks to follow, and through the Great Day of Pentecost!

My prayer is that this will enrich our journey of faith in the next weeks; I hope that you might offer the same prayer for all of us and for yourself.

Thanks be to God!

The Canadian government has announced a matching grant program for donations to relief work in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan.  Between November 9 and December 9, 2013, all donations received for typhoon relief from Canadians by registered charities—including PWRDF—will be matched, dollar for dollar, by the Canadian government:

“For every eligible dollar donated by individual Canadians to registered Canadian charities in response to the impact of Typhoon Haiyan on the Philippines and other affected countries, the government will set aside one dollar for the Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund. The government will use the Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund to provide assistance through international and Canadian humanitarian organizations, employing established channels and procedures.”

Relief agencies including PWRDF will be able to apply to the Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund to enhance relief projects in the Philippines, although there is no guarantee that any project or agency will receive funding from the Relief Fund.

PWRDF is working through the ACT Alliance to provide food, water, medicine and hygiene items to those affected by the disaster.  As ACT members already in the Philippines receive more reports of the local situation, the relief efforts will be updated to address the particular needs of the affected communities.

To be counted for the purposes of the Typhoon Haiyan Relief Fund, donations from individual Canadians may not exceed $100,000 per individual and must be:

• monetary in nature;
• made to a registered Canadian charity that is receiving donations in response to the impact of Typhoon Haiyan;
• specifically earmarked for response to the impact of Typhoon Haiyan; and,
• be made between November 9 and December 9, 2013.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of November 10, Typhoon Haiyan has affected an estimated 9.5 million people. Over 615,000 people are currently displaced and over 1,200 people have died. These numbers are expected to increase as more affected areas become accessible.

You can support this relief work:

Online                                                                                                                         
You can designate your online donation for “Typhoon Haiyan”.

By Phone
For credit card donations contact:
Jennifer Brown
416-924-9192 ext. 355;  1-866-308-7973
Please do not send your credit card number by email or fax.

By Mail
Please make cheques payable to “PWRDF”, mark them for “Typhoon Haiyan” and send them to:
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund
The Anglican Church of Canada
80 Hayden Street
Toronto, Ontario  M4Y 3G2

PWRDF Donations Contact:
Jennifer Brown
416-924-9192 ext. 355;  1-866-308-7973

PWRDF Humanitarian Response Coordinator
Naba Gurung
416-924-9199 ext. 321;  1-866-308-7973

Story by Simon Chambers, PWRDF

http://pwrdf.org/2013/canadian-government-announces-matching-funds-for-typhoon-haiyan-relief/

“Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”  (Luke 20:36-38)

FOR THE FALLEN:  Robert Lawrence Binyon

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST:  Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

NOTE:  “The full saying [is from a poem by Horace]: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori – ‘It is sweet and right to die for your country.’  In other words, it is a wonderful and great honour to fight and die for your country.”

“I am more and more a Christian. . . Suffer dishonour and disgrace, but never resort to arms. Be bullied, be outraged, be killed: but do not kill.”  (Letter to his mother, May 1917)

Wilfred Owen was killed in combat, 4 November 1918:

“There were now no crucial military objectives, yet the crossing of the seventy feet wide Sambre and Oise Canal, just south of the tiny village of Ors was treated as such. The Germans held the east bank, and were well defended with machine guns. At 5.45 on the morning of 4th November, under a hail of machine gun fire, the Royal Engineers attempted to construct an instant bridge out of wire-linked floats so that Owen’s brigade and 15th and 16th Lancashire Fusiliers could cross and destroy or capture the enemy. Group after group of soldiers went forward and were killed or wounded. Wilfred Owen, standing at the water’s edge, was encouraging his men when he was hit and killed.

“Seven days later the war was over. Church bells rang throughout the country. As they were ringing in Shrewsbury, Susan and Tom Owen received the telegram announcing their son’s death.”

THE REGIMENTAL BAND OF THE ROYAL WINNIPEG RIFLES

Since their founding in 1883, The Royal Winnipeg Rifles have been connected to the Cathedral Church of St. John the Evangelist.  We welcome the band and other members of the Regiment with family on this Remembrance Sunday as we remember all those who have fallen for Canada, and all those who served, for our freedom and the freedom of others.  Everyone is welcome also to join the Regiment outside in the Church following the service, for Parade and for the Rededication of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles Memorial after its recent rebuilding.  Following that everyone is invited downstairs to the John West Hall for a time of refreshment and fellowship.

We give thanks for all who have served, and even given their lives for our amazing country, but, as Christians, we celebrate the Great Thanksgiving (Eucharist) for God’s supreme sacrifice in the death of Jesus Christ and find our hope for peace in a just and peaceful world and a healed creation in the resurrection of Our Lord.

Thanks be to God! 

It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden death of Peter Cogill, aged 77, of heart failure, while on a family holiday in Nottingham, England. He will be lovingly remembered by his wife of 54 years, Karin, his brother Stephen, sons Dieter and John, daughter Christa, and grandson Aaron. Peter was predeceased by his father Joseph, mother Mary, brother John, and sister Anne. Peter enjoyed a 62 year career in aviation, begun at age 15 as a Boy Entrant in the Royal Air Force. After emigrating from England to Canada, Peter was employed as an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer by TransAir, Pacific Western, Canadian Airlines, Air Canada, and Cargojet, and worked for Red River College’s Stevenson Aviation until his death.

In keeping with Peter’s wishes, cremation has taken place, and a memorial service will be held on Wednesday, November 13 at 2:00 p.m. at St. John’s Anglican Cathedral, 135 Anderson Avenue, Winnipeg.  The service will be a requiem Eucharist, The Very Rev. Paul N. Johnson preaching and presiding.  A light lunch will be served in the John West Hall following the service; all are invited for a time of fellowship and mutual consolation.

May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

From the obituary published in the Winnipeg Free Press on November 06, 2013

“In Holy Baptism God makes saints out of sinners. In Holy Communion God forgives the sins of all the saints. In the assembly today we give thanks for all the saints ‘who from their labours rest,’ who have fought the good fight, who have gained the crown. In the same breath we petition our God for the strength to hear and to heed the admonitions of the Lord Jesus in today’s gospel. Recalling that we have been sealed by the Spirit and sustained by the Saviour’s body and blood, we keep on keeping on as God gives us breath, to the praise of God’s glory.”  From sundaysandseasons.com for All Saints Day/Sunday.

saint (n.)   early 12c., from Old French saint, seinte “a saint; a holy relic,” displacing or altering Old English sanct, both from Latin sanctus “holy, consecrated” (used as a noun in Late Latin; also source of Spanish santo, santa, Italian san, etc.), properly past participle of sancire “consecrate” (see sacred). Adopted into most Germanic languages (cf. Old Frisian sankt, Dutch sint, German Sanct).  From the Online Etymology Dictionary.  

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours…                    (I Corinthians 1:2)

Today three children, wonderful gifts in and of themselves, are joined to that cross and resurrection in the waters of death and life, in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.  Lillia and Alexander and Ethan are made children of God and beloved of God always.  In the water and in the promise of God together – abundant life now and eternal life joined to Christ – we too are reminded of promises made long ago by our parents and by ourselves in confirmation.  Most especially, though, and most importantly for us, we are reminded of God’s promise for us, as well as for Lilli and Alex and Ethan, naming us and claiming us as God’s own, beloved children forever.  Truly, in Christ, and because of Christ, we are all saints together with that vast cloud of witnesses who have gone before, made holy, sanctified, sainted by Christ crucified and risen.

Thanks be to God!