Volume 9, Number 2, December 10, 2006
From the Rector: The Future
Our souls are like our bodies. At different points in our lives they need different things to develop the way they were intended to grow. When a child experiences spiritual privation he or she may never be fully free of the wrong done to them, even if they try, just as a child will never develop physically if he or she doesn’t get the right food at the right age. Cruelty can be a shadow that follows us all the days of our lives, just as love can be a strength all the days of our lives.
Some years ago the New York Times Sunday Magazine did a story on children who had survived the “killing fields” of the Communist regime in Cambodia. Part of the article that interested me was why these children had not been defeated by the evil that had been done to them. There was no one answer, but, if I recall correctly, they were oriented to the future, even when they could not forget entirely their past.
The second and third Sundays of the Advent season bring us gospels about John the Baptist. In all four gospels he is the one who prophesies the coming of the Christ and calls people to a baptism (bath) of repentance. In all four gospels he is the “voice of one crying in the wilderness,” echoing Isaiah 40:3-5. In Matthew and Luke he warns of God’s wrath. In John’s gospel, the Baptizer identifies Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (1:29). This Sunday we hear a proclamation from the Baptist that is made only in Luke, “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (3:5-6). This is the future on so many levels.
Repentance is a word that means quite literally “turn around.” John invited people in God’s name to turn their lives toward him in word and deed – and he was famously direct in his preaching. I hope that you and I can “see the salvation of God” in a fresh way in this new Church year. I wonder in what ways it is possible for any of us to be new.
When I was a child I was frightened by sin and guilt in the Southern Baptist Sunday School. I remember being especially frightened by the story of Lot’s wife (not to mention the slaughter from time to time of first born sons) who was turned into a pillar of salt just for looking the wrong way. In some ways I think it is fair to say that I didn’t turn out so badly as a Christian – and in part due to being brought to church Sunday after Sunday as a child. (And the knowledge that comes with having read the Bible leaves me with little patience with those who pretend they have read it.) But I still wonder if my own spiritual challenges of looking to be new are still shaped by the shadow of a Christian formation that invited me to be afraid instead of inviting me to joy simply because God loved me – and not because I had been a good boy.
As I write on Thursday morning, December 7, the quiet of Advent is about to be wonderfully interrupted by the joys of our patronal feast. Father Mead has already “candled up” the altar for tonight. Larry Trupiano is in the church tuning the organ. I know this church will be gathered in response to love, a glorious love of God and of the people God made and called to salvation. The Church in its wisdom provides us with many opportunities to address issues of sin in our lives. But the Church provides us with many more opportunities for real joy, every day at the altar of our church home and in the ordinary hours of our days. Stephen Gerth
PRAYER LIST . . . Your prayers are asked especially for Arturo, Ana, Gert, Chip, Harold, Robert, Gloria, Ray, Tony, Joy, William, Gabriela, Eve, Virginia, Mary, William, Gilbert, Rick, Thomas, priest, Louis, priest, and Charles, priest; for the members of our Armed Forces on active duty, especially Fahad, Barron, Joseph, Patrick, Bruce, Brenden, Jonathan, Christopher, Timothy and Dennis; and for the repose of the soul of MaryEllen . . . GRANT THEM PEACE . . . December 10: 2001 Helena M. Handy; December 11: 1962 Carol Elizabeth M. Irwin Hollister; December 12: 1961 Jeanette Bolton, 1962 Martha R. Townroe; December 14: 1952 Amy Florence Nicholas, 1997 Edward David Miller; December 15: 1989 Mrs. Lorel D. Brownell Britt; December 16: 1959 Emily Cooper Campbell, 1996 Viola Douglas.
AROUND THE PARISH . . . Reminder: Saint Mary’s on the Road is going to the Morgan Library on Saturday, December 9 . . . Give a Christmas gift that honors someone and helps others. Alternative Gifts for Honduras brochures are available in the church and at the mission section of the parish website . . . Father Peter Powell’s class on Luke’s Gospel continues this Sunday at 1:00 PM . . . Join the Spirituality and Reading Group after Solemn Mass on Sunday, December 17. The group will discuss My Antonia by Willa Cather . . . The 2007 Ordo Calendar is available in the gift shop . . . Confessions will be heard on Saturday, December 9, and on Saturday, December 16, by Father Beddingfield . . . Many thanks to Richard Theilmann for his work in polishing the stand for the Advent wreath . . . The Board of Trustees will meet on Tuesday, December 12, at 7:00 PM in Saint Benedict’s Study . . . Attendance Last Sunday 340.
THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH is Tuesday, December 12. Although the first service was held in our second and present church home on December 8, 1895, the church was consecrated on December 12 by the Right Reverend Henry Codman Potter, bishop of New York. As is our custom, there will be a Sung Mass at 6:00 PM on that day. The Rector will be celebrant and preacher. This is the address from The Book of Common Prayer (1892) that was used by Bishop Potter as the service began:
Dearly beloved in the Lord; forasmuch as devout and holy men, as well under the Law as under the Gospel, moved either by the express command of God, or by the secret inspiration of the blessed Spirit, and acting agreeably to their own reason and sense of the natural decency of things have erected houses for the public Worship of God, and separated them from all unhallowed, worldly, and common uses, in order to fill men’s minds with greater reverence for his glorious Majesty, and affect their hearts with more devotion and humility in his service; which pious works have been approved of and graciously accepted by our heavenly Father: Let us not doubt but that he will also favourably approve our godly purpose of setting apart this place in solemn manner, for the performance of the several offices of religious worship, and let us faithfully and devoutly beg his blessing on this our undertaking.
NOTES ON MUSIC . . . This Sunday at the Solemn Mass, the organ voluntaries are two settings of Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), BWV 659 and 661 respectively. This beloved Lutheran chorale for Advent is found in our hymnal as Savior of the nations, come. The setting of the Mass ordinary is Missa Sancti Joannis by Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741). Fux was a prominent Austrian Church musician, composer and music theorist. Though a Baroque musician, he is most famous for his treatise Gradus ad Parnassum, an instruction in the techniques of Palestrina-style Renaissance polyphony. The old-fashioned Missa Sancti Joannis shows the composer’s interest and knowledge of sixteenth century counterpoint. His compositional output was large, including around eighty masses. The motet at Communion is E’en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come by American composer Paul Manz (b. 1919) . . . The organ recital at 4:40 PM is played by Jason Roberts. Robert McCormick
Christmas Eve at Saint Mary’s
Christmas Music 4:40 PM
Sung Mass 5:00 PM
Sermon by the Rector
Christmas Music 10:30 PM
Procession & Solemn Mass 11:00 PM
Sermon by the Rector
Christmas Day at Saint Mary’s
Solemn Mass & Procession to the Crèche 11:00 AM
Sermon by the Reverend John Beddingfield
