Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Close Your Eyes and Listen for Singing

The appointed Epistle reading for the day is taken from the fifth chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, and it starts with words that you will easily recognize because they are often used as the Offertory Sentence:

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

But fornication and impurity of any kind, or greed, must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints. Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and vulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure person, or one who is greedy (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be associated with them. For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Eph. 5: 1-14).

The passage starts with words familiar to us from our liturgy, and it ends with words that were familiar to Paul from the liturgy of his day. The last line is, in all likelihood, taken from an early Christian hymn and is based on Isaiah 60: 1, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”

We don’t often think of the early Christians singing hymns, but they did. In their celebration of the Eucharist in the early Church, they would start out in the synagogue for the Liturgy of the Word where they would listen to God’s Word read to them from the Hebrew Scriptures, and then move to someone’s home for the Great Thanksgiving. The basics were the same then as they are now. The words of institution (“On the night before he died…”) are the same. The Eucharistic celebration is something that transcends time and space. Christ is just as present today when we “do Eucharist” as he was when on that night when he broke bread, gave it to his disciples and said, “take this all of you and eat it, this is my body. … Take this all of you and drink from it, this is the cup of my blood, the new and everlasting covenant which is shed for you and for the many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.” Jesus was present when the Ephesians “did Eucharist”. And if you close your eyes and listen, you can hear them singing: “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

CALENDAR REMINDERS

22 January at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church: funeral for Patrick Williams, 10 a.m.

5 February: Celebrating the Life of Absalom Jones, Eucharist Service, officiated by the Rt. Rev. Andy Doyle at 10:00 a.m. at Christ Church Cathedral. Special Guest: The Rev. Canon Harold T. Lewis – Luncheon speaker following the service. The luncheon, featuring Treebeards specials, will be at the Great Hall starting about 11:30 a.m. The Rev. Canon Lewis will also be book signing his new release A Church for the Future.

The Rev. Canon Harold T. Lewis, Ph.D., D.D., D.C.L. has been the rector of Calvary Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, since 1996. Since his ordination in 1971, he has served congregations in Honduras, England, Washington, D.C., New Haven, CT and his native Brooklyn, NY. From 1983 until 1994, he served on the staff of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church as Director of the Office of Black Ministries. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University, a Master of Divinity from Yale, and a Doctor of Philosophy (in theology) from the University of Birmingham (England). He has also been awarded two honorary degrees: Doctor of Divinity from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale; and Doctor of Canon Law from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. A former research fellow at St. John’s College, Cambridge University, he has also pursued graduate studies at Catholic University in Washington; the Center for International Documentation in Cuernavaca, Mexico; and St. George's College, Jerusalem. He is an honorary canon of the Diocese of Bukavu, Congo, and the first recipient of the Mikkelsen Prize for excellence in prophetic preaching, and of the Dean’s Cross for Servant Leadership from Virginia Theological Seminary. Currently an adjunct professor in church and society at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Dr. Lewis has also taught at the George Mercer School of Theology in Garden City, NY and the General Theological Seminary, and has been visiting lecturer at Anglican seminaries in the Congo, South Africa, Mozambique and Barbados. He was coordinator of the second International Conference on Afro-Anglicanism in Cape Town.

11 and 12 February: the 162nd Diocesan Council in the Woodlands.

12 February: St. Valentine’s Day Dance at St. Augustine.

13 February at the 9:00 a.m. Eucharist, the Renewal of Marriage Vows.


PLEASE REMEMBER EVERYONE ON OUR PRAYER LIST.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

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