Anglican Church of the Apostles

Hi Everyone,

Info during Church closure is available on this page. Below you will find links to liturgical texts and lectionary readings as well as statements from our Bishop and any other pertinent items, from proposed church reopening dates to prayer and reflection. We are also on face book, where you will receive the latest updates.  Check back regularly.

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                                                               Easter Morning 2020

The well known philosopher and atheist Bertrand Russell was once asked what he would say, if after death he found himself standing before God. Russell replied, “I probably would ask, ’Sir, why did you not give me better evidence?’” Richard Dawkins, who is essentially the pope of modern atheism, quoted Russell when asked the same question. I have never forgotten the day when as a young student minister, I arrived at the home of a parishioner to pay a visit, and found her husband digging in the garden. He was a kindly, welcoming elderly man with a ready smile and keen conversation. When he found out who I was however, things “went off the rails” real fast. He basically chased me out of the yard with a litany of anti-christian insults, his crowning challenge “Would your religion hold up in court?” Not enough evidence.

This is nothing new, people have always wanted signs and proofs of God’s existence particularly related to Christ. Jesus himself addresses this in Matthew, “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.” (Matthew 16:4) And so the answer that Jesus gave to and still gives to the Bertrand Russells of the world is His bodily resurrection from the grave. On Jesus own terms therefore, the proof of God, and who the Christ is, is not in “ontological philosophy” or “cosmological philosophy” or “esthetic philosophy”, or “visions” or any such thing. The evidence is far more solid, and far easier to understand and believe once seen. He will rise from the dead. There can be no surer proof.

But there are a couple of problems: namely limited number of eye witness, credibility of eye witnesses, and in our case historical distance. If the witnesses were talking about the something normal, such as someone giving a speech on a certain day, or where they built a house or anything else, there would be no problem. Resurrection of the dead? Well I suppose the point is that the unbelievable happened, so the very nature of it is a hard sell.

So here goes-

Limited number of witnesses- Sure on Easter morning there were only a few, but during the 40 days after, Paul says there were over 500 who saw Christ. That’s a lot to see a dead man walking.

Credibility of witnesses- The big objection here is oddly enough based around a conspiracy theory, that the Apostles falsely claimed resurrection to gain political advantage. As if they were all willing to die as martyrs so that 1000 years later some guy would live in a bishop’s palace. It is also true that people are willing to be martyred for false causes, but never for false causes that they themselves willfully fabricate. Also, witness the quality and dedication of writing of the New Testament. It’s wisdom, insight, skill, and weightiness demonstrates not only the authenticity of the author’s intent, but the sober and healthy state of mind they possessed. No Charlatan, criminal or disturbed individual authored any part of those books, they are intelligent, sane and of good character and yet they all attest to the resurrection.

Historical distance- The resurrection happened 2000 years ago. It transformed the ancient world. In an ironic twist, modern ethics, science, and philosophy, three most important foundations of modern advancement and quality of life, have by and large abandoned and in many cases become hostile to Christianity. Ironic, because western ethics, science and philosophy have their genesis and STILL foundation in the necessity of an underlying Christian world view. In short, echoes of the power of the resurrection can still be LOUDLY heard.

But it is Easter, and my purpose here is not to pit us against others who see things differently. I just think that the real reason the resurrection is doubted and has always been doubted, even by those who saw the living Christ, is not as Russell would say “not enough of evidence”. I am convinced that it is a frame of mind that for pride sake is afraid to hope. And so as Christians, our task is a joyful one. We are the bearers and witnesses of the reasonableness and efficacy of holy hope. This Easter, that message is more important than ever.

To go back to the old man in the garden, the answer is “maybe yes” with a good enough lawyer and a sympathetic judge, maybe yes.

Happy Easter.

Mark

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Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople 347ad

                                                                                  The Paschal Sermon

If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast. If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord. If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense. If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast. If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in nowise be deprived thereof. If any have delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near, fearing nothing. If any have tarried even until the eleventh hour, let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness; for the Lord, who is jealous of his honor, will accept the last even as the first; He gives rest unto him who comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has wrought from the first hour.

And He shows mercy upon the last, and cares for the first; and to the one He gives, and upon the other He bestows gifts. And He both accepts the deeds, and welcomes the intention, and honors the acts and praises the offering. Wherefore, enter you all into the joy of your Lord; and receive your reward, both the first, and likewise the second. You rich and poor together, hold high festival. You sober and you heedless, honor the day. Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast. The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously. The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.

Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness. let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.

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                                                           Sermon for Good Friday                         April 10

“Why did Christ have to die on the cross for our sins? Why didn’t God just forgive them?” 

This question which I am sure, to the annoyance of many a rector and Sunday School teacher, has been asked at some point in every Sunday School in every Church since the dawn of Sunday Schools. It is a very old question. When St. Anselm was formulating the doctrine of the atonement, one of his students, a fellow monk named Boso (from which we get the word bozo) asked his master why God could not have granted forgiveness from heaven, and there-by avoid the violence of the cross. But Boso was not a Bozo. It is a very Good question.

Up until the last 100 or so years, Anselm’s doctrine of “Substitutionary Atonement” was the standard teaching on the Cross. (The doctrine actually predated Anselm by centuries and find’s its genesis in the New Testament most notably in the writings of St. Paul. Anselm was an 11- 12th century English monk) Substitutionary atonement accounts for the necessity of Christ’s death on the cross by the requirement of a perfect blood sacrifice in order to pay the price for our sin, there-by purchasing our redemption. Every Sunday we see that doctrine spelled out in the prayer of consecration where it says “(Christ)…once offered a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world”.

Like Boso, many people in our own time will take umbrage with substitutionary sacrifice, noting the juxtaposition to the Christian God of love. Many fear that so understood, God becomes a divine despot and a sadistic filicidal maniac. The objection has had substantial influence in contemporary protestant theology which underwrites the move to sequester medieval doctrine to the presumably dark past. In essence I believe that many concede Boso’s objection, and proceed in the tacit theological move of God’s loving forgiveness from heaven…no need for substitutionary sacrifice. Is that a prudent theological move?

Firstly, let us get our terminology straight.

The word forgiveness is translated from the Greek, Apoluo which actually means to “set free”. Apoluo is not about God getting over a grudge, it is about us being set free from what Paul describes as the bondage of sin. This can easily be interpreted to refer to matters related to and about human character, about getting over ourselves and about dying our own “spiritual deaths”. Also, the Greek word Sozo, which is commonly translated salvation, is applied and in many ways essential to the theology of the cross. We say for example that Jesus “saves” (sozo) and that saving grace is tied in with his atoning substitutionary sacrifice. But sozo can also be translated to mean “healing”. There are infact a number of places in the New Testament, where sozo , is translated as such. When the woman in the gospels for example, touches Jesus cloak, she is sozo, that is, she is healed. Next time you read the bible, read the word save as the word healed. It will add dimensions to your understanding

And so the answer Anselm’s gave Boso. He said simply, “You have not considered the weight of sin.” One can understand for example how easy it would be to forgive a petty thief or someone who takes the Lord’s name in vain. One might even see the adulterer or the purger granted absolution. But what about the murderer. Or the rapist. Maybe. But down and down it goes into creepy things. Political tyrants, serial killers, mass murderers. I have held back in my description, you know there are dark place. There is much evil, and sin, and it is angry and vicious and it destroys, maims and tortures and does things we dare not bring ourselves to look upon. And what of the victims? God grant forgiveness from the safety of heaven? Dwell not among us? Be not with us? Join not with us in our burden? The weight of sin requires that God not simply forgive from heaven, but be with us in it’s defeat, in our healing, in Apoluo and Sozo

There is more to this day than, the promise of forgiveness, much less forgiveness from an angry God. God is with us in the darkest places. Places that need healing, and health and transformation, and cleansing which only he can give- places that can be transformed only by the grace, love and suffering of God himself.

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                                               Reflection for Maundy Thursday April 9 2020

Today is Maundy Thursday. The day upon which Jesus met with his disciples in the upper room and broke bread with them saying “This is My Body…This is My Blood, do that as oft as ye shall, in remembrance of me”. Now the word which we translate “remembrance” is the Greek word “anamnesis”. This word carries a nuance that the word “remembrance” does not reflect. When we say we “remember” we are referring to cerebral task such as remembering where I put my keys, or perhaps a feeling related to something in the past, like my wedding day, or my deceased grandmother. But anamnesis has far extending roots in Greek philosophy that has to do with platonic forms and actual “participation” in primal realities. Needless to say, the concept of “anamnesis” has a long complicated history requiring much exposition. No need or time to go down that road. Suffice it to say that Holy Communion, is not just an intellectual remembrance, or a sentimental recollection, but a way of making real the presence of Christ, in the same manor that he was present to his disciples on the first Maundy Thursday. Christ, in the sacrament of “Holy Communion” becomes a real presence in the world now, albeit, for Anglicans, in a spiritual manor. Any Church going Anglican will be familiar with this general understanding of the Holy Communion.

Underscored in the sacrament so understood, is the acknowledgment of our human need not only to recall in our hearts and minds a thing that we desire, but to actually be in the presence of, and to experience that person or thing in the real world. To give an example, if we have a favorite song by a particular artist, it is not enough to merely recall the words and melody and simply hum or sing to ourselves. We must actually hear the song, performed by the artist, and there are no substitutions…in most cases not even a close facsimile by another artist will suffice. So just remembering Christ is not enough, desire and receive the authentic experience.

It is interesting to note, that when Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament at the Last Supper he did so in the context of a shared meal, a communal event. The significance of this is not lost on us- we do, after all call the sacrament “Communion”, and it is our principle corporate act as a Church. The implication is profound and obvious, and it is that as human beings, striving to come to the fullness of what God has made us to be, we need not only the real presence of God, but also the presence of others.

At the core of our most basic spiritual act, as mandated by our God, is the natural, healthy and God given need to be around one another. Not to be sentimental about it, even if we are shy or easily annoyed by other people, the reality of our very being is that nothing has a visceral effect on our moods or state of mind like other people. How many times might we be determined to address a person with a particular request, or demand, or idea- say for instance demanding a pay raise from the boss, asking someone out on a date- only to realize, once corporally present our resolve is over ridden and we change our minds. No wonder public speaking is one of our greatest fears. The “wiring” for this runs very deep, is subtle and ubiquitous and no small part is played out in the largely unnoticed world of encountering passing smiles, frowns and general attitudes. The point is, human beings are, fundamentally and immutably communal creatures. As such, any disruption to our normal comings, goings and interactions will be noticed, and will affect us.

And so to my point.

Everyone has been self- isolating and social distancing for a month or so. By and large, we are resilient, and have phones, maybe computers and if we are lucky, family and or living companions, so that we are not so very alone and life goes on. Be that as it may, the situation is so unprecedentedly peculiar, I would like to offer the following.

We are a Communion based piety, but the Christian faith is a rich one and we have other resources as well. We are in the Triduum of Holy Week, the apex of the Lenten season. The spiritual discipline of Christ alone in the desert has been an example encouraged and spiritually replicated by Christians every lent for almost 2000 years. It is entirely possible to take this time apart from others and use it in the most efficacious of ways. As surely as Christ initiated communion, he also instituted a piety of solitude. As the Psalmist writes “Be still and know that I Am God”. Such refinements are rarely if ever offered. We are in the midst of what may be a soulfully rich time.

On the other side of things, if social isolation is taking it’s toll, remember that the Church is not closed…just the Church house. We are still brothers and sisters in Christ willing to avail ourselves for one another albeit in unconventional circumstances. We do not need to feel alone.

Such is the paradox of Maundy Thursday, and the Triduum

Father Mark

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                                            April 7 2020

A Brief reflection for Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday.

On these two days we read St. Mark’s Passion.

I am always struck by St. Peter. Such a juxtaposition- the stubbornly determined one whose pride and strength would never fail nor deny his most beloved Lord, hours later caves to the pressure of passersby and denies Christ not once but three times. As the cock crows, Peter bursts into tears and we all understand his regret, his remorse his shame, his defeat.

Peter’s denial, in a rare and pointed instance, lifts the veil off of humankind’s most ubiquitous lie and the struggle it masks.

Earlier today while searching YouTube for tutorials on posting my videos (pathetic I know) a “recommended” video of holocaust survivor, author and psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl popped up. I was reminded that Frankl made famous one of Nietzsche’ simplest and best known aphorisms “He who has a “why“ to live can bare almost any “how”.” This is a hard earned authentic wisdom for Viktor Frankl –he miraculously survived five years in Auschwitz.

As Peter stepped out into the crowd a sharp heavy cleaver would divide his soul. The threat of losing his life, was his obvious concern. Survival itself a sufficient “why”- a substantive reason to subvert any alternative priorities. Clearly there was no dark motive in the denial, just the preservation of life and a safe return to things as they had been before- but of a sudden, the terrible truth fell upon Peter. Survival alone is, when tested, not a substantive reason to exist. His substantive reason, his “Why” was no longer survival, but was in fact Jesus. He had denied his legitimate purpose and in so doing, rendered the lesser purpose obsolete. Through tears the truth was now intelligible, he had made a tragic error.

As you know, Peter would go on to be Christ’s chosen one upon whom the Church would be founded. His life and journeys a series of dreadful challenge met with virtue and courage. Each obstacle overcome not by inward strength and resolve as he had once sworn, but the deep purpose of the love of Christ. Thus untethered, Peter would finally know real courage and strength.

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                                                                           April 5

Sermon for Palm Sunday 2020

The celebration of Palm Sunday is always an ironic affair. Clearly, celebrating God’s victory over all that ensnares us is the superlative cause for celebration, but from our perspective (ie historical knowledge of the violence which is about to unfold) it is at least incongruous with the upcoming week. But the paradox of the day is not accidental, or inessential. As the Christ makes his way into the city, the crowd shouts out “Hosanna” (ie. salvation now!), They are quoting Psalm 118, where we see that the one who will deliver the nation, is sent to Jerusalem and is greeted with glad adoration for what is about to be achieved. But, amid the victory celebration is the troubling phrase “God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.” The fundamental demonstration is the primal truth of the necessity, of the way of the cross. The pattern of life indispensable to the Christian world view, acknowledged at the moment of baptism.

We are reading from Matthew today, and perhaps it is an unfortunate oddity of our lectionary that the events that take place immediately following Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, are not read out at the Eucharistic liturgies during Holy Week. For here we see explicitly the unfolding of events that lead from triumph to cross. So much narrative light Matthew sheds on the matter.

As you will know, the Hebrew law required all offerings made to God in His temple to be ritually pure. The idea is that God is worthy of the best we can offer, and that we cheerfully offer the sacrifice of our best to Him. Included on list of acceptable vs unacceptable temple sacrifice, was financial currency. Roman currency was decidedly an unacceptable offering. It was after all, the currency of the oppressor, and it did bear the image of the “god” emperor- but the fact that it was gentile was enough to defile it in any event. The only currency assuredly undefiled was the temple currency, known as the shekel (the shekel is still the denomination in modern day Israel). Since the standard trade currency for the Roman empire was the denarii, Jews, in making an offering to the temple had to convert their denarii to the shekel…hence the need for “money changers”. Now it was the case, as you can surmise, money changers and priests were in cahoots, gouging people with currency rates. Also, pigeons and turtle doves purchased in a local market, were named ritually impure, so that very expensive temple doves had to be purchased for sacrifice. Very lucrative. So essentially, God’s law, and the healthy spiritual union of “all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee” was used to exploit the piety of God’s faithful.

Now we understand Jesus’ fury.

Entering into the city with “loud hosannas”, it looks, in Matthew, as though an urgency which only anger can generate takes Jesus immediately to the Temple. Here is the scene,

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’[e] but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’[f]”

14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,

“‘From the lips of children and infants
    you, Lord, have called forth your praise”

So not only are the chief priests and teachers outraged at Jesus temple spectacle but further enraged at the insult of the cheering of children and admiration for Jesus from the blind and the lame. Further, Jesus, applies prophetic significance from the scriptures. The Pharisees are now “pushed to the edge”. Deicide is now their consuming ambition and the only recourse of action they desire. There was an easier option of course. They might have considered repenting.

The remainder of the week, up to Maundy Thursday, consists mostly of a combination of parables, and instances of the Pharisees and Sadducees trying to discredit Jesus and catch him up. It is worth noting one other event however…

The morning after cleansing the temple, Jesus passes by a baron fig tree, and curses it, saying “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. The disciples are astonished at his power “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked. This passage has puzzled us every bit as much as it does the disciples. What, has the poor sickly fig tree done? But clearly, it is a metaphor for what has happened the previous day… God’s wrath at the spiritual desolation and waste of the Temple establishment and the spiritual impoverishment imposed on it’s people has raised his ire. Now the fig tree foreshadows its end, and the rightness of God’s wrath.

So this day, “it’s on”. God’s wrath is about to unfold.

And now another paradox- His wrath is His perfect love, sacrifice and forgiveness.

I will send more to you throughout the week.

Father Mark

                                                                            April 2

Greetings everyone.

Just a couple of things. Firstly, the Bishop sent an update (April 1) regarding Church closure and other matters. Of first interest and surely no surprise, the Church buildings will remain closed until further notice. It may be one or two more months before reopening.

https://www.nspeidiocese.ca/pages/covid-19-in-the-diocese-of-nova-scotia-and-prince-edward-island--183

Secondly, I will continue to send sermon texts, and other messages via email, website and facebook. I will also be sending video presentations of the readings for Holy Week and Easter with short reflections. Please excuse, in advance, my shoddy technological abilities. I shall do my best.

In the meantime, here are a few prayers, which come from the BCP but I have been using in my personal daily devotions. Bless you all.

Mark

ALMIGHTY God, who art afflicted in the afflictions of thy people: Regard with thy tender compassion those in anxiety and distress; bear their sorrows and their cares; supply all their manifold needs; and help both them and us to put our whole trust and confidence in thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

PROTECT and prosper, O Lord, all those who labour at tasks of danger and difficulty especially those who work in hospitals, that they may be preserved in safety and health; and grant that, knowing the dangers which beset them, they may ever take thought one for another, and be sustained by a sure trust in thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O GOD, our heavenly Father, who by thy blessed Son hast taught us to ask our daily bread of thee: Behold, we beseech thee, the affliction of thy people, and send us relief in this our necessity. Increase healing of the earth by thy heavenly benediction; and grant that we, receiving with thankfulness thy gracious gifts, may use the same to thy glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given a day of rest to thy people, and, through thy Spirit in the Church, hast consecrated the first day of the week to be a perpetual memorial of thy Son’s resurrection: Grant that though a this time your people may not gather together, we may nevertheless keep the holy day of rest that, refreshed and strengthened in soul and body, we may serve thee faithfully all the days of our life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

LORD of all power and mercy, we beseech thee to assist with thy favour the Prime Minister of this Dominion, and the Premiers of the Provinces. Cause them, we pray thee, to walk before thee in truth and righteousness, and to fulfil their office to thy glory and the public good; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

NOW unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Ephesians 3. 20, 21.

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March 29, 2020                      Sermon for Passion Sunday                    Text:   John. 11:1-45 "The Raising of Lazarus"

Theology and preaching in contemporary Anglicanism has taken upon itself a decidedly “here and now” approach to the deepest questions of God and life. What I mean is that opposed to a traditional theology that spoke freely on death and the afterlife, we now focus almost entirely on ethics and quality of life here and now, with, I suppose, a tacit nod to universal salvation in the afterlife should such unsavoury subjects come up. (That admittedly is how I preach) Today’s Church goer would be gobsmacked if a rector stood with the children at the Advent wreath and taught “the Four Last Thing: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell.” But indeed, in the tradition, this is the focus of the start of the liturgical season, and the lead up to the incarnation and Nativity of Christ. It has been replaced by “Hope Peace, Love and Joy” which is not just a “softening” or light handed “rebranding”, but a theological shift away from death and the afterlife, to life so long as we are alive, and the present benefits of virtue and spiritual living. The Church has not been clandestine in championing this paradigm. It has been the foremost intention of synods, councils and seminaries for 60 years. Look for instance at some of your favorite hymns. The 20th century hymns “Sister Let Me Be Your Servant”, or “Shine Jesus Shine” are community and world based, as compared to old hymns such as “Holy, Holy, Holy” or “Jerusalem the Golden” which are about heaven and afterlife. I am not cherry picking- flip through your hymnals, look at the new hymns and the old hymns and compare. Not every hymn will exhibit this, but you will see a pattern. It is no aberration that in our own diocese, we recently unveiled an evangelism program called “It’s About the World”. When I was in theology school, the final credit coarse necessary for conferring the degree was titled “Church and World”. The wisdom in this is that it satisfies these pragmatic times, where people are looking for practical applicable spiritual things that make a tangible positive difference regarding, family, friend, neighbour, world, and self. Not a bad idea. BUT!

What are we to make of Bible stories of resurrection of the dead and these scriptural descriptions of the heavenly? More especially, what are we to make of our own death. All of the “here and now” theology in the world can’t take that question away. That question is arguably prior to every other and it is certainly much older than many of our current ethical queries.

In the Book of Job, Job asks “If a man dies does he live again?” concluding “My redeemer lives and shall stand at the latter day upon the earth” Daniel writes, “Those who sleep in the earth shall wake again”. Psalm 22, 23 and 49 speak about fear of death and promise of resurrection. Isaiah writes “But your dead will live, LORD; their bodies will rise— let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy— your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead”. Hosea promises ransom from the power of the grave. Then of course there is Ezekiel’s resurrection of “Valley of Dry Bones”

So the Old Testament contains the promise of life after death, but given that the Pharisees and Sadducees came to no consensus on resurrection, history finds these books on their own surprisingly insufficient to establish the doctrine of eternal life. 

The Age of Philosophy was born between the two testaments, and the question of life after death was pondered at length. If I were to caricature the philosophers on afterlife, I would simply say Plato believed in everything and nothing, and Aristotle believed in nothing and everything. Not much earth shattering insight teased out of philosophical method, mostly weird combination of wild speculation and sceptical doubt.

And so we come to the struggling world of the New Testament, where we see the question of eternal life taken up in John’s gospel. Here Lazarus, who, with sisters Mary and Martha shares the distinction of being explicitly named as friend of Jesus, dies and is buried. So dear to Jesus is Lazarus he is the only individual for whom Jesus is seen weeping. When Jesus arrives three days after the death of Lazarus, Martha runs to him saying “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.” Much as a statement of faith in Christ’s power as it was, it sounds to me like Martha is angry with Him. Jesus did after all delay his arrival. His reply is “Your brother will rise again”… At that point the world changed. “I am the resurrection and the life” Jesus claimed, and Lazarus was raised from the dead. At the center of what would become the Christian world view, from that point on, was resurrection from the dead in Jesus Christ. The definitive statement of course would be Christs own resurrection three days after the Passover. 

As much as the Christian faith is ethically pertinent on a daily basis, Christ’s power over death is a primary defining feature. 

The human body is fearfully and wonderfully made. If you factor in the human brain and consciousness, it is complex beyond anything else we know of. Blood pressure, body temperature, digestion, heartbeat and all these “automatic” things that “just happen” are not counted as miraculous only because of habit of mind. And so we are enraptured by this wonder. We serve our biological needs and pleasures and spend not only time and effort but spiritual predisposition on the wonder of the body. We protect it at all costs, and stave off its’ death to the bitter end if need be. Nevertheless, glorious as the body is, perfectly ordered as it is, we are not intended nor created only to live after its’ needs. The resurrection means that God did not intend that we be ruled by biological needs, but by Him and the way of the spirit. If I am bound up with the body, I am bound up with a losing game. I will die. That is the only thing I really know for sure. Oh yea, you will die too…that’s for sure. I am, while consumed with the body and the world, inevitably filled with fears, worries, paranoia, strife, maybe cynicism, selfishness, and if I am honest, ultimate despair, because I do in truth wish I could live and not die, probably more than anything. Though I choose not to think upon it. If I am after the spirit, if I trust in God, if I dare share in the optimism of Christian hope and trust in the resurrection to eternal life in Christ, there is peace, and freedom. Only those who live without being paralyzed by fear can be effective, and wise and consider others first. The ultimate ethical and meaningful life can only be achieved in the promise of eternal life and release from the great existential stress of eternal death. 

We are now in Passiontide. Victory over death is about to unfold.

I will write you again next week.

Fr. Mark

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March 26

Below is MARCH 25 Statement from the Bishop and pastoral video.  Of particular concern is the possibility of Church building closure for 2 more months.  Text is below, follow link for video and Diocesan COVID 19  Webpage . 

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March 25- The pastoral letter below is a draft of the letter being sent to the parish via mail. The mailout will include a note answering the question that many have asked regarding weekly offerings. 

Pastoral Letter  March 24

Prayer Books online - https://www.anglican.ca/about/liturgicaltexts/