Patrick Comerford
For the next two Sundays, the Lectionary readings and the provisions in the Church of Ireland Directory offer two sets or options, and these may add to the confusion in planning liturgies, sermons, intercessions and the choice of hymns on those Sundays.
Next Sunday [24 February 2019] is the Second Sunday before Lent, and we are offered two options: Option A follows the theme of Creation, while Option B is ‘Proper 3.’ The following Sunday [3 March 2019] is the Sunday before Lent, when Option A follows the theme of the Transfiguration, while Option B is Proper 4.
The readings for Option A (Creation) next Sunday are: Genesis 2: 4b-9, 15-25; Psalm 65; Revelation 4; Luke 8: 22-35. There is a link to the readings HERE.
The readings for Option B (‘Proper 3’) are: Sirach 27: 4-7 or Isaiah 55: 10-13; Psalm 92: 1-4, 12-15; I Corinthians 15: 51-58; Luke 6: 39-49.
Dealing with confusion about the readings, once again:
Next Sunday, the Second Sunday before Lent, was known traditionally in the Book of Common Prayer as Sexagesima.
The Sunday Sexagesima, although falling 57 days before Easter, was given this name representing 60 days before Lent.
In the Western Church, these Sundays before Lent were a preparation for Lent: The refrain alleluia was forbidden in services, and the Alleluia acclamation at the Eucharist was replaced by the Tract, usually verses from the Psalms.
The liturgical colour was also changed, so that purple or violet vestments were worn.
In a very visible and audible way, the three Sundays before Lent became an extension to Lent, and the longer period was often called ‘the Greater Lent.’
However, while their traditional names have a certain nostalgic beauty associated with them, they have no real logical, liturgical foundation and they make no sense numerically.
In recent years, the ‘-gesima Sundays before Lent became part of Ordinary Time, and from the late 1960s on they were no longer regarded as a pre-penitential season, and this Sunday is now counted as the Second Sunday before Lent.
However, much confusion is created by the numbering of these Sundays and the readings if we hop and move between the Book of Common Prayer, Common Worship, the Revised Common Lectionary, the Church of Ireland Directory, the readings on the Church of Ireland website, and the correlation of Sundays, readings, hymns and dates in Sing to the Word.
This confusion is compounded if people are using desk diaries or pocket books produced primarily for use in the Church of England.
For clarity, these postings today and during the few weeks are based on the readings and calendar in the Church of Ireland Directory 2019 and the Book of Common Prayer (Church of Ireland, 2004).
There are obvious recipes for confusion here by picking and choosing between the two sets of readings, or by trying to follow the dates and readings in either Sing and Praise or various diaries and desk books produced primarily for use in the Church of England.
This posting seeks to bring clarity to these choices and to provide guidance by providing preaching and liturgical resources based on only on Option A in the Church of Ireland.
Genesis 2: 4b-9, 15-25:
This reading is a second account of the Creation narrative in the Book Genesis (for the first account, see Genesis 1: 1 to 2: 3).
Ancient peoples thought that there were waters under the earth, and that although this water seeped up into the earth, rains and rivers were needed for growth and cultivation. Without rain and without human presence ‘to till the ground,’ there was no growth in the soil.
This second account of creation therefore presents humanity as co-creators with God, or partners with God in God’s plan for bringing creation to full fruition and growth.
Humanity is given responsibility for creation, but there are limits on the use of creation. We are not to see everything as ours to do with it what we decide. We are created from the soil of the earth – the Hebrew name adam means ‘from the dust of the ground’ – and we are to cultivate and care for the earth (verse 15). Being God’s partners in the creation brings responsibilities for caring for that creation.
Psalm 65:
Psalm 65 is a song of thanks for the Earth’s bounty.
All flesh, all people, all humanity, praise God for the harvest of the earth. He answers prayers and he forgives us our transgressions. The place to thanks God for the goodness of creation is in prayer and in worship, for God is ‘the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas’ (verse 5).
This psalm praises him for creation, for the earth and the seas, for soil and the rain, for the pastures and the hills, for the meadows and the valleys.
Revelation 4:
In his exile on the island of Patmos, Saint John the Divine has been writing letters to the seven churches in Asia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.
Having written these seven letters, he has an ecstatic vision of the heavenly throne. But much of his vision has images that are unparalleled in other apocalyptic literature.
Around the throne of God are 24 thrones with 24 elders who are wearing white robes and golden crowns. The number 24 could be read as symbolising a new or perfect creation, doubling the number of disciples, who double the number of the days of creation.
Around the throne too are four living creatures – a lion, an ox, a human person and an eagle – who came in later iconography in the Church to represent the authors of the four Gospels.
God is worshipped by these 24 elders or priests and by these four living creatures or evangelists as the Lord God who has created all things and by whose will all things exist and are created (verse 11).
Later, as this vision continues to be described, we are told that this is Lamb on the throne (see Revelation 5: 6-8).
The elders on the thrones could also represent, in the Greek text of the Book of Revelation, the priests at the altar, robed liturgically, and the Lamb on throne also corresponds to Greek references to the Bread of the Eucharist on the altar. In our liturgy and worship, the Church invites the whole of Creation into the Kingdom of God.
Luke 8: 22-35:
This Gospel reading introduces two miracles of very different kinds. One shows that Christ is the Lord of Creation, the other shows he the Lord of humanity. Together they show that he has authority over chaos in nature and in humanity. We see the calming of the storm seas, and the calming of a stormy personality, the calming of the waves and the calming of the mind.
What are your worst fears?
Perhaps some of our worst fears at the moment may be related to Brexit, the Trump presidency, and the stormy instability these bring to the political and economic future of these islands, of Europe and the world. Or perhaps our worst fears for the future are centred on climate change and the future of our global environment.
As we grow up and mature, we tend to have fewer fears of the outside world, and as adults we begin to cope with the fears we once had as children, by turning threats into opportunities.
The fears I had as a child – of snakes, of the wind, of storms at sea, of lightning – are no longer the stuff of recurring nightmares they were as a child. I have learned to be cautious, to be sensible and to keep my distance, and to be in awe of God’s creation.
But most of us have recurring dreams that are vivid and that have themes that keep repeating themselves. They fall into a number of genres, and you will be relieved to know if you suffer from them that most psychotherapists identify a number of these types of dreams that most of us deal with in our sleep at various stages in adult life.
They include dreams about:
● Drowning.
● Finding myself unprepared for a major function or event, whether it is social or work-related.
● Flying or floating in the air, but then falling suddenly.
● Being caught naked in public.
● Missing a train, a bus or a plane.
● Being caught in loos or lifts that do not work, or that overwork themselves.
● Calling out in a crowd but failing to vocalise my scream or not being heard in the crowd or recognised.
● Falling, falling into an abyss.
There are others. But in sleep the brain can act as a filter or filing cabinet, helping us to process, deal with and put aside what we have found difficult to understand in our waking hours, or to try to find ways of dealing with our lack of confidence, feelings of inadequacy, with the ways we confuse gaining attention with receiving love, or with our needs to be accepted, affirmed and loved.
The plight of the disciples in this Gospel reading seems to be the working out of a constant, recurring, vivid dream of the type that many of us experience at some stage: the feelings of drowning, floating and falling suddenly, being in a crowd and yet alone, calling out and not being heard, or not being recognised for who we are.
Christ falls asleep on the boat and seems unaware of the peril at sea as they sail towards the other side of the lake.
When Christ shows his power over the stormy reality of creation, he challenges the disciples and asks ‘Where is your faith?’
They are afraid and amazed. Are they more afraid and amazed when it comes to Christ’s command of the wind and the waves than they are of the wind and the waves themselves?
Jesus and the disciples have left the crowd behind them (see Luke 8: 19), they get into the boat, and Jesus sends them to the other side of the lake crowd away. The act of sending is at the heart of mission. Mission begins with God so loving the world that he sends his only Son so that we may know that love. And Christ then sends those who care with him on a journey that is fraught with danger to a strange place where they expect to find disturbing realities and disturbing people.
Sending is the foundation of mission – and the sending of the disciples is a sending on mission, just as our dismissal at the end of the Eucharist marks, not so much the end of the liturgy, but the beginning of mission.
Jesus makes the disciples get into the boat and go to a strange place. From the writings of the Early Fathers, we know that the boat or barque was an early symbol of the Church (Apostolic Constitutions 2: 47; Tertullian, De bap., 12; P.L., 1: 1214; Clement of Alexandria, Pæd. 3: 2; P.G., 8: 633).
But the disciples, instead of finding that the boat or the church empowers them for mission, treat it as a place to take them away from the crowds and the world. They see it as their own cocoon, their safe territory.
How wrong they were. When the storm comes, when the waves batter them, when the wind rises up against them, they find that we cannot be in the church and be without Jesus and without the crowd.
In their rush to get away from the masses and the world, they left Christ behind too. And when the storm comes, they realise their need for him. But when he responds, they do not know who he truly is.
Their faith has been tested, and it has been found to be weak, in the deep waters it is found to be shallow.
On the other side of the lake, they arrive in the country of the Gerasenes. Gerasa was a city 30 km east of the Jordan, deep in Gentile territory.
Ancient ideas of dementia were very different from ours. Demons were spirits of an evil kind, thought to do battle, as a ‘legion’ with God and his allies (verse 30). They were thought to invade human bodies and personalities, causing mental and physical illnesses, taking control of people.
The wilds or the desert were regarded as places where demons and destructive forces lived, and the abyss was the realm of Satan and home to demons.
The man who wears no clothes and lives among tombs, lives both like a prisoner who has been deprived of his personal dignity and identity, and as someone who is ritually unclean. Unlike the nakedness of Adam and Eve in our Old Testament reading, this man is aware of his desperate plight. Yet, he falls down before Jesus in an act of humility and worship.
This man has recognised Jesus for whom he is, ‘Son of the Most High God’ (verse 28), unlike the disciples in the earlier part of this reading, who have just asked, ‘Who then is this …?’ (verse 25)
The swine are both ritually unclean and a symbol of both pagan religion and of Roman rule. Yet, they too are subject to Jesus and his authority.
When the people come to see Jesus, this man is now sitting at the feet of Jesus, like a disciple sits at the feet of a teacher or master. Like the disciples in the boat in the first miracle in this reading, they too are afraid.
Later, after this reading, we are told that this man becomes a missionary to his fellow Gentiles (verse 39). This is a dramatic story with dramatic consequences, and this man is about to tell people ‘throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him’ (verse 39).
Luke 8: 22-35 (NRSVA):
22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’ So they put out, 23 and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A gale swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger. 24 They went to him and woke him up, shouting, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?’
26 Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me’ – 29 for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) 30 Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered him. 31 They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.
32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.
Liturgical Resources:
Liturgical Colour: Green
The Collect:
Almighty God,
you have created the heavens and the earth
and made us in your own image:
Teach us to discern your hand in all your works
and your likeness in all your children;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who with you and the Holy Spirit
reigns supreme over all things, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God our creator,
by your gift the tree of life was set at the heart
of the earthly paradise,
and the Bread of life at the heart of your Church.
May we who have been nourished at your table on earth
be transformed by the glory of the Saviour’s Cross
and enjoy the delights of eternity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Suggested Hymns:
The hymns suggested for this Sunday (Option A, The Creation) in Sing to the Word (2000) edited by Bishop Edward Darling include:
Genesis 2: 4b-9, 1-25:
293, Breathe on me, Breath of God
58, Morning has broken
102, Name of all majesty
305, O Breath of life, come sweeping through us
34, O worship the King all-glorious above
Other hymns on the Creation theme are suitable
Psalm 65:
612, Eternal Father, strong to save
645, Father, hear the prayer we offer
42, Good is the Lord, our heavenly King
581, I, the Lord of sea and sky
709, Praise the Lord! You heavens, adore him
Revelation 4:
398, Alleluia! Sing to Jesus
346, Angel voices, ever singing
686, Bless the Lord, God of our forebears
688, Come, bless the Lord, God of our forebears
694, Glory, honour, endless praise
331, God reveals his presence
696, God, we praise you! God, we bless you!
221, Hark! the voice of love and mercy
355, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
321, Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty
714, Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might
715, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, the Lord Almighty
427, Let all mortal flesh keep silence
592, O Love that will not let me go
238, Ride on, ride on in majesty!
Luke 8: 22-35:
563, Commit your ways to God
612, Eternal Father, strong to save
553, Jesu, lover of my soul
584, Jesus calls us! O’er the tumult
652, Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us
588, Light of the minds that know him
528, Son of God, eternal Saviour
47, We plough the fields and scatter
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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