The Third Sunday after the Epiphany
January 23, A.D. 2011
Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities stretch forth thy right hand to help and defend us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Pastor's Paragraph
We have been having discussions circling around what John the Baptist, Jesus, and St. Luke refer to as the "baptism of the Holy Spirit". For reasons, I suppose, that still need to be elucidated, there has been very little theology written about the Holy Spirit, at least as compared with the Father and the Son. The creeds address the Holy Spirit, not quite, but almost, as an afterthought. The "persona" (person in Latin) of the Holy Spirit does not emerge as clearly as the other two members of the Trinity.
I suspect that is partly because the Church has never developed those verses in Genesis, 1:27-8, very fully. In order to be God in the Bible, you must be two things, Creator and Sovereign. Biblical theology alone affirms that God is the Creator ex nihilo, making Him absolute Sovereign over all that exists.
It seems to makes sense, then, that when God tells us that we humans are made in His image, male and female, that God is in a sense dividing up what in Himself is eternally and absolutely united, the distinction between being creator (life-giver) and sovereign (decider of purpose for existence and thus also of the moral order).
Since women are the "life-givers", who bring forth new human beings, it makes sense to suggest that God is making women in the image of God as Creator, and thus embodying the feminine role. And so also, men are to embody God as Sovereign, the decider, the masculine role. The Hebrew word for 'father' is 'ab', the root meaning of which is 'the deciding one'. That fits exactly with God telling Adam that He will create a helper "meet" ("fit") for him. The fathering masculine needs the mothering feminine to be fully human, and to be a sacrament of the life of God on earth. That is why families are so fundamental to our human growth.
That, then, if properly developed, might help provide us with a more developed theology of the Holy Spirit. As the Creed says, "the lord and giver of life". The "power of the Holy Spirit" is fundamentally then the ability to be -- which we receive as a gift of the Holy Spirit. That is briefly described in Acts 1:1-8 where Jesus picks up on the earlier promised Baptism of the Holy Spirit. The kind of power needed to be a witness is the ability to be oneself with confidence and boldness and grace. We humans have a very hard time putting those together (if at all) without the help of God.
I hope that the congregation will work with me to discover what Jesus meant by the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, which I think is quite different from what we Christians have, often not wisely, made of it. But we cannot ignore what Jesus has given us. It will take some careful listening to God in Scripture, prayer, and through each other. Pentecost was clearly meant to give life to a body of disciples who were wondering what to make of all that had happened. We are in something of the same place, wondering what to make of what is happening to us. Something happened at Pentecost which is meant for all Christians of any sort. God has the answer, and we must covenant together to hear what He is saying to us.
Epiphany Blessings,
Fr. Fox
Western Anglicans Evensong
At our next Western Anglicans Evensong on Wednesday, February 9th, at 7:30pm, we will be privileged to have John-David Schofield, Bishop of the Anglican diocese of San Joaquin, ACNA, as our special guest. A leading figure in American Anglicanism, Bishop Schofield is revered both for his godliness and his uncompromising stand for orthodox theology and morals in Christ's holy, Catholic Church. He was awarded an honorary D.D. from Cranmer Theological seminary, several years ago, and has been friends with Bps. Grote, Sutton and Fincke for many years. Mark your calendars for this special night and plan to attend!
Congratulations
After many years of faithful diaconal service in the Riverside area, Randall Pierpoint was ordained to the Presbyterate on January 9th. Bp. Grote officiated and Rev. Robert Bowman participated in the ordination as Randall's presenter. Several visitors from out-of-state were able to attend. Reverend Pierpoint has a close connection to St. Luke's, having formerly been a senior warden of our parish. We rejoice that the Lord has been pleased to bestow him with this honor and we implore the divine blessing for his continued labors in service of the Gospel. Congratulations, Reverend Pierpoint!
Prayer Requests
Latest update on Susan Brown.
After consulting with her oncologist, Susan discovered that in addition to her colon cancer, there are three tumors on her liver. She began her first round of chemo therapy on Tuesday December 21st, and suffered almost no negative side-effects, except for a day or two of mild nausea. Thanks be to God! Susan's oncologist has prescribed a more aggressive schedule of chemotherapy, which will require her to receive treatments every two weeks (the normal schedule is one treatment every three weeks). Susan is also considering moving back to southern California, so that she can be treated at City of Hope hospital, one of the finest cancer care facilities in the U.S. By God's grace she is hoping for a complete cure. Please remember Susan in your daily prayers; humbly beseeching our blessed Lord to ever hold her within the embrace of His loving arms and to grant her a complete recovery and healing. If you would like to call Susan, she can be reached at 503-774-7954. Cards, gifts and flowers can be mailed to 5927 SE 40th Ave, Portland Oregon, 97202.
O merciful God, Giver of life and health; Bless, we beseech thee, thy servant, Susan, and those who administer to her of thy healing gifts. Bless the means made use of for her cure. Fill her heart with confidence, that though she be sometimes afraid, she yet may put her trust in thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
After struggling for years with colon cancer, our dear sister, Barbara Routh, wife of our former deacon, The Rev. Eric Routh, has been told by her physicians that further chemotherapy treatments will be of no avail. Barb and Eric have decided to look into alternate cancer treatments. The Routh family has endured so many travails these last seven years, and they need all the love and support that we can give them. Let us pray in hope that God will give Barbara a complete cure from her cancer. And let us earnestly pray that he will grant his perfect peace to Eric, Barbara and their five dear children.
Kelly Smith asks that continual prayers be offered for Russ' step father, Chuck Grant, who was hospitalized over a month ago with pneumonia. Chuck also has COPD and congestive heart failure, and his health has been tenuous for some time. Let us remember Chuck and his wife Betty in our daily prayers and supplications.
Join us in prayer for our brother Charles Hewgill, who has been diagnosed with Myelodysplastic syndrome, a very serious medical condition, normally requiring a bone marrow transplant for recovery. Let us pray in hope for Charles; beseeching our merciful Lord to provide all he will need, medically, financially and spiritually, for the successful treatment of his condition.
Our dear sister, Eve Menees, requests prayer for her son, who has been diagnosed with stage 7 testicular cancer. Let us hold Eve's son continually in our prayers and supplications.
Seminars at Road to Emmaus
Fr. Fox will has started a new series of live-streaming, broadcast seminars dealing with various topics which we Christians face in our efforts to spread the Good News of Jesus.
Visit http://www.emmausmall.org/seminars.html for details on the present and future seminars, and how the system works. The series costs $17 for five sessions, but members of St. Luke's get a free pass.
Try logging on at www.ustream.tv, to get your own free account. That way, you'll be able to participate in the chat room dialogue, during presentations. If you do not have your own account, you can still log on to hear and see everything, although you will not be able to interact.
You might also want to visit www.theInterAmerican.org to see a new ministry with which Road to Emmaus ( www.theroadtoemmaus.org ) is aligning to help create an inter-American resource for restoring the Biblical foundations of North and South America.
For Your Prayers this Week
National repentance and revival; Our Presiding Bishop, Leonard Riches; The newly-constituted Anglican Church in North America.
Saint Andrew's Academy, Lake Almanor, CA; Fr. Brian Foos, Headmaster; Flagstaff Anglican Fellowship, Fr. Earle Fox's apologetics ministry, The Road to Emmaus; Church of the Resurrection, ACNA Placentia; Fr. Neil Edlin, St. Mary Magdalene ACC; Fr. Bill Thompson, Bishop of the Diocese of Western Anglicans.
In the Diocese of Mid-America
Our diocesan bishop, Royal Grote; Our bishop co-adjutor, Ray Sutton; Christ's Chapel, Riverside, Fr. Randy Pierpoint, Vicar; Fr. Carl Lund, seeking a new call; The Reverend Chris and Bridgitte Parrish.
In St. Luke's Parish
The ministry of Dr. Earle Fox; the Bast family; Esther Chen & her mother; Charles Hewgill; Eve Menees, prayer for her continued recovery.
Friends Near & Far
Calvin Ainley; Nicholas Armitage; Todd Aylard & family; Charles & Amanda Bartlett; James Bartlett; Melody Bartlett; John Bothwell; Susan Brown, at stage IV colon cancer; the Brown family, mourning the loss of Jean Brown; Dr. Bowman & his mother; Tom Crist; the Fisher family; Rebecca Fox; Charles & Betty Grant; George and Jordan Haber; Norma Hake; Fr. Derrick Hassert; Lara Heneveld & her family; Gregory-Theophan Hoffberg; Paul & Michelle Hughes; Linda Kolb; Todd Larsen; Glen Lenardos; Cliff Lotzenhiser; Emma Lund; Ben Matthews; Eve Menees' son; Marianne Morse; David & Rita Moyer; Brandon and Jessica Murray; The Scott Plunkett family; Perry Robinson; Mary Rooney; Barbara Routh; Greg Santone; the Schwendimann family; Charles Steichen; Leon Streit; the Strom family; Charles and Margaret Templin; Cyndi Vanderpoel.
A Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany
by Dr. Robert Crouse
"Be not wise in your own conceits." (Rom 12:16- Epistle Lesson).
IF we consider the text of our Epistle lesson in the context of the whole twelfth chapter of Romans, including the Epistle Lessons for the past two Sundays, from the same chapter, we see that St. Paul's point is not just a warning against self-satisfaction; it is also-- and most importantly-- an argument about the essential mutuality and reciprocity of wisdom. He is saying, "Do not suppose that wisdom is your private possession, your individual achievement; do not think that you are wise just by yourself alone."
We have wisdom only as a common possession. We have many different gifts, just as "in one body we have many members, and all members do not have the same function". Genuine wisdom is a harmonic unity of differences.
One of the best illustrations I know of that point is Raphael's marvellous fresco of the 'School of Athens' in the papal apartments in the Vatican, a painting of which you may have noticed reproductions in several places in the university.
In the first decade of the sixteenth century Pope Julius the Second, a powerful reforming pope, il papa terribile, having laid the foundation stone for the new St. Peter's Basilica, summoned a well-known Florentine sculptor, Michaelangelo, to become a painter in the Sistine Chapel, and commissioned an unknown painter, Raphael, from Urbino, to redecorate the papal apartments. Julius wished to baptize the somewhat paganizing humanism of the Renaissance, and to show the essential unity and harmony of all ancient and Christian wisdom. In representing that magnificent conception, his young
artists served him well.
In the 'School of Athens', Raphael depicts a remarkable assortment of people, lively groups of masters and students, some of them busy taking notes, all of them arranged on the steps of a great portico. In one corner is Euclid, measuring a diagram, attended by Zoroaster and Ptolemy, astronomers, playing with celestial globes. In another corner sits the mystic mathematician, Pythagoras, looking over his shoulder at a chart of equivalents. And there, too, is Heraclitus, (looking very much like Michaelangelo), the very picture of the tortured poet, struggling for words. And so on.
At the apex of the assembly stand Plato and Aristotle, engaged in conversation, each clutching a book, surrounded by attentive students. Plato has a hand upraised, pointing to the heavens, while Aristotle has a hand outstretched, as though indicating the activity before him. People sometimes tell us that this means Plato the idealist contrasted with Aristotle the empiricist. But that's a very modern notion, and has nothing to do with Raphael and the Renaissance. The clue is rather to be seen in the books they carry. If you look very carefully, you can see the titles: Plato has the Timaeus, and Aristotle has the Ethics. Thus they represent speculative and practical philosophy, not in opposition, but mutually complementary.
In all its harmonic diversity of subject and colour and form and motion, the picture stands for wisdom's unity in difference, for that mutuality and reciprocity in human life which the ancients knew as friendship, and which Christians know under its more universal and divine dimension as the grace of charity, without which, as St. Paul explains (1 Cor. 13), all our efforts are "nothing worth"; not wisdom at all; just "sounding brass and tinkling cymbal"-- empty noise and nonsense. So, "be not wise in your own conceits."
But now, what does all that have to do with the season of Epiphany? Epiphany, as the word itself indicates, is all about manifestation, the showing forth of the divine glory in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Epiphany is about that showing, that manifestation, and that beholding of glory; and it is also about the effects of that beholding: so that "we all, with open face beholding as in a glass" (or mirror) "the glory of the Lord, are changed from glory into the same image from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord."
All the scripture lessons appointed for the season provide a logical explication, a continuing meditation on that theme: beholding the glory, and being changed thereby. The general pattern is this: the Gospel shows some facet of the manifestation of divine glory in Christ: divine wisdom, divine power, divine love; while each corresponding Epistle lesson shows a corresponding manifestation in our life as Christians.
Thus, on the First Sunday after Epiphany, our Gospel lesson was the story of Jesus, the child, manifesting the wisdom of God in the midst of the Temple in Jerusalem-- seen here in the window above the altar. The corresponding Epistle lesson (from Romans 12) urged upon us the manifestation of that wisdom in our own life in the Church: "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." That is to say, the divine wisdom, manifest in Christ, is to be manifest also in us, as the new basis of our life, not only as individuals, but as members of one another in the body of Christ, "according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."
On the Second Sunday, we had the story of Jesus' first miracle at the wedding feast in Cana, in Galilee: "the beginning of signs", as St. John says. The miracles of Jesus are always signs, symbolic acts, and in this case, even the occasion is a sign: the wedding feast is a sign of the mystical union between Christ and the Church. Jesus changes water into wine, a sign of the transforming power of God's grace. In the corresponding Epistle Lesson, again from Romans 12, St. Paul speaks of a renewed life for individual and community, a new life in brotherly love, water changed to wine.
In this week's Gospel Lesson we have further signs: stories of healing miracles of Jesus-- the cleansing of a leper, and the healing of the centurions' palsied servant; signs of the power of the grace of God to cleanse us of the leprosy of pride, to heal us of the palsy of wrath and alienation-- all those infirmities of which our collect speaks. Once again, the Epistle Lesson yet again from Romans 12, spells out the implications: "Be not wise in your own conceits"; "avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath"; "Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good."
These lessons constitute a cumulative argument, variations on a theme: the theme of manifestation and transformation. The wisdom of God, the mystery hidden from the foundation of the world is now manifest in Christ, and the wisdom is ours to behold, to believe, and to understand, and to make our own, by "the renewing of our mind". By faith beholding the glory, we are "changed into the same image" changed by adoration. Here and now the glory of God in Christ is manifest in word and sacrament, in wisdom and gracious power. It is by beholding, by the steady focusing of intellect and will, by the habit of adoration, that we are changed. That is the meaning of Epiphany, and that must be the basis of spiritual life in us.
So, "Be not wise in your own conceits", but behold the glory and adore.
The Rev. Dr. Robert Crouse, D.D.
During his life, Dr. Crouse did a great deal for the Anglican Church of Canada, especially in the Diocese of Nova Scotia. He served as a delegate to General Synod, an Examining Chaplain for the Diocese of Nova Scotia. He also served as the Bishop Short Canon Theologian for the Diocese of Saskatchewan. Doctor Crouse taught at the Augustinianum in Rome, Italy, as "visiting Professor of Patrology." He was the first non-Roman Catholic in history to be appointed this honor. The Rev. Dr. Crouse entered to the joy of his Lord this month.
Next Sunday is the Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Holy Communion & Sermon
Scripture Lessons
Deuteronomy 4: 5-13, 32-40
Psalm 66 (p. 354)
Romans 13: 1-7
St. Matthew 8: 1-13
Hymns and Service Music
Processional hymn # 532 "Father eternal"
Kyrie eleison (Nine-fold) #710
Sequence hymn # 329 "How bright appears the morning star" vss. 1,2
Gloria Tibi & Laus Tibi # 730
Sequence hymn vs. 3
Sermon hymn # 517 "Thine arm, O Lord, in days of old"
The Doxology #139
Sursum Corda & Preface # 734
Sanctus et Benedictus qui venit # 797
Agnus Dei # 712
Gloria in Excelsis # 739
Recessional Hymn # 553 "Go forward, Christian soldier"
Assisting us in Worship
Celebrant and Preacher - The Rev. Fr. Earle Fox
Lay-assistant - Mr. Skip Fraser
Crucifer - Mr. Andrew Matthews
Lector - Mr. Russ Smith
Usher - Mr. Les Jordan
Greeters - Mr. and Mrs. Ken Sammons
Organist - Mrs. Esther Chen
