Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday, 15 August 2021, is the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XI, Proper 15B).
The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, as adapted in the Church of Ireland, for next Sunday are:
The Continuous readings: I Kings 2: 10-12, 3: 3-14; Psalm 111; Ephesians 5: 15-20; John 6: 51-58.
The Paired readings: Proverbs 9: 1-6; Psalm 34: 9-14; Ephesians 5: 15-20; John 6: 51-58.
There is a link to the continuous readings HERE.
There is a link to the paired readings HERE.
In the Revised Common Lectionary and in Common Worship in the Church of England, there are provisions for a Festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 15 August. Although these provisions do not extend to the Church of Ireland, there are separate notes at the end of this posting on this Festival and the lectionary and liturgical provisions that are available.
Introduction:
In Sunday’s readings, we are asked to consider where we find wisdom, and we are reminded that ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.’
But the purpose of wisdom, which Solomon asks for alone, is so that good and evil can be distinguished, especially when it comes to the needs of the people.
In the Gospel reading, Christ teaches and shows how he cares for the needs of the people, both spiritually and physically.
I Kings 2: 10-12, 3: 3-14:
This book (I Kings) begins when King David is an old and infirm man, his days as king are over, and a struggle for the throne breaks out between Adonijah, his oldest living son, and Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba.
This reading begins where David dies and is buried in Jerusalem. Solomon firmly established his kingdom by killing or banishing Adonijah and his supporters, an account in the missing verses (2: 13-46). Solomon’s reign now begins.
God appears to Solomon in a dream. Solomon in a child-like way, realises he is dependent on God, and asks not for long life or riches, or the lives of his enemies, but for the gift of wisdom or an ‘understanding mind.’ God grants this request, but also adds riches and honour above other kings, which Solomon did not ask for.
Solomon is also promised that if he follows God’s ways, he will enjoy a long life.
Proverbs 9: 1-6:
The Book of Proverbs consists of several collections. Some of the sayings may be pre-Exilic, but the book was edited in the post-Exilic period, and has acquired a legendary ascription to King Solomon.
The first part of the Book of Proverbs (1: 1 to 9: 18) contains mostly long poems, as opposed to short sayings, that serve as an introduction to the book. The person of Lady Wisdom stands in sharp contrast or opposition to Dame Folly and the ‘loose woman’ or ‘strange woman.’ These long wisdom poems in Chapters 1 to 9 differ from the short stacccato sayings that predominate in the rest of the book.
Chapters 1, 8 and 9 present a personification of Wisdom, a woman preaching to simple youth. She and her proclamation of life (8: 35) stand in sharp contrast to the ‘strange woman’ or prostitute (7: 10) and to Dame Folly (9: 13).
This reading is part of a public address by Lady Wisdom. Here, Lady Wisdom invites the unwise or ‘simple’ to her banquet (verses 1-6), while Dame Folly later in this chapter invites them to her ‘stolen water’ (verses 13-18).
Between these two invitations are aphorisms about scoffers and the wise (verses 7-18), some of which are included in this reading.
Psalm 111:
Psalm 111 is a hymn of praise, thanking God for his great deeds, especially for making and keeping his covenant with his people. The psalmist is a wise person, and for him holding the Lord in awe is the beginning of knowing God, for him wisdom comes from increasing knowledge of God.
He praises God for his works and deeds, his interventions in the world and his commandments. He is holy and awesome, and living by his commandments is the start to understanding him.
There is an opportunity too of linking the Psalm with the Gospel reading: ‘He provides food for those who fear him … The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ (Psalm 111: 5, 10).
Psalm 34: 9-14:
The readings from this psalm began last week in the paired readings, with verses 1-8. When King David was fleeing from King Saul, he took refuge in the Philistine city of Gath. There, however, he was recognised, and once again his life was in danger. Feigning insanity in order to appear harmless, he was dismissed by the king, and was able to escape (see I Samuel 21: 10-15).
Psalm 34 is written as an alphabetical acrostic. An extra verse was added at th end to avoid closing on a negative note.
Last week, we were told that when we bless the Lord, the humble hear and are glad (verses 1-2). We were invited to ‘taste and see that the Lord is gracious’ (verse 8). Religious experience precedes religious understanding.
The reading from this psalm cotinues in the paired readings this Sunday with verses 9-14. As the psalm continues, we are told that, as his ‘holy ones,’ we shall fear the Lord and lack nothing (verses 9-10), for God meets all our needs.
We are called to keep our tongues from evil, to keep our tongues from speaking deceit (verse 13), to depart from evil and to do good, and to seek peace and pursue it (verse 14).
Ephesians 5: 15-20:
Saint Paul has written to the Church in Ephesus, urging the new members of the Church there not to harbour anger, but to actively care for the poor, and to build up the community, forgiving and loving as Christ forgives and loves.
Now Saint Paul tells them that wisdom is a characteristic of Christian living, and we are privileged to share in God’s wisdom and insights through Christ. They are to live as wise people, not to be foolish, not to get drunk.
Before Christ comes again, we are to use this time wisely, effectively, to know the difference between wisdom and foolishness, to be filled with the Spirit instead of drunkenness, showing this joy among ourselves, and giving thanks to God at all times for the whole of creation.
John 6: 51-58:
This Gospel reading continues the discourse after the feeding of the multitude, in which Christ describes himself as ‘the living bread’ (verse 51).
This key ‘I AM’ saying in Saint John’s Gospel reminds me of two great sayings.
This Gospel reading develops one of the great ‘I AM’ sayings in Saint John’s Gospel, the first of these seven sayings, which we heard the previous Sunday.
In the previous Sunday’s Gospel reading, Christ said to the multitude: ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6: 35). And he emphasised it, not once but twice, when he said: ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven’ (verse 41) and again ‘I am the bread of life’ (verse 48).
Christ develops that theme in this Gospel reading when he says: ‘I am the living bread’ (verse 51).
These are emphatic declarations. In the Fourth Gospel, Jesus says ‘I am’ 45 times. But he uses this particular way of saying ‘I am’ 24 times. He says ‘I AM,’ ἐγώ εἰμί (ego eimi), explicitly including the Greek pronoun ‘I’ (ἐγώ, ego) which is not necessary in Greek grammar at the time.
Why?
What is Christ saying?
I want to avoid being obscure about finer points of Greek and Greek grammar. But it is a point that was immediately obvious to the first readers of Saint John’s Gospel.
In the Hebrew Bible, the meaning of God’s name is closely related to the emphatic statement ‘I AM’ (see Exodus 3: 14; 6: 2; Deuteronomy 32: 39; Isaiah 43: 25; 48: 12; 51: 12; etc.). In the Greek translation, the Septuagint, most of these passages are translated with ‘I AM,’ ἐγώ εἰμί (ego eimi).
The ‘I AM’ of the Old Testament and the ‘I AM’ of Saint John’s Gospel is the God who creates us, who communicates to and with us, who gives himself to us.
But it is worth asking ourselves, what does it mean to acknowledge Christ as ‘the bread of life’?
I was at a wedding recently that was celebrated within the context of the Eucharist or the Holy Communion.
In his sermon, the priest compared God’s self-giving to us in Christ’s body as an expression of God’s deepest love for us with the way in which a couple getting married give themselves bodily to each other … the most intimate loving action to be shown to each other.
Of course, for the love of God and the love of one another are inseparable.
It could be argued that the sublime sacramental theology in this part of the discourse would not have been understood by a Galilean audience at that time. It has also been argued that this part of the discourse draws on Eucharistic material from the Last Supper to bring out the deeper sacramental meaning of the heavenly bread, which can only be grasped in the light of the institution of the Eucharist.
In a deeper sense, the life-giving and living bread is Christ’s own flesh.
Verse 51:
John gives us the words: ‘The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ This appears to be a variant of the words of the institution in the Eucharist (see Luke 22: 19; I Corinthians 11: 26).
For the Apostle Paul, the Eucharist proclaims the death of the Lord until he comes again. But for John, the emphasis is on the Word that has become flesh and that gives up his flesh and blood as the food of life.
There is profound sacramental theology here. If baptism gives us that life which the Father shares with the Son, then the Eucharist is the food nourishing it.
Three illustrations:
1, ‘The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry’
I have spent some time in Cappadocia, in south-central Turkey. I was there because of my interest in sites associated with the three Cappadocian Fathers.
These were three key Patristic writers and saints: Saint Basil the Great (329-379), Bishop of Caesarea, his brother Saint Gregory (335-395), Bishop of Nyssa, and Saint Gregory Nazianzus (329-390), who became Patriarch of Constantinople.
They challenged heresies such as Arianism and their thinking was instrumental in formulating the phrases that shaped the Nicene Creed.
But their thinking was not about doctrine alone. It was also about living the Christian life.
So, for example, Saint Basil is also remembered for his challenging social values. He wrote: ‘The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.’
Sacramental practice must be related to the practice of Christianity, and doctrine and belief must be related to how we live our lives as Christians.
The memorial in Saint Matthew’s Church, Westminster, to the former curate, Bishop Frank Weston (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)2, The ‘folly and madness’ of Bishop Frank Weston
I have also stayed in Saint Matthew’s Vicarage in Westminster, where Bishop Frank Weston (1871-1924) is said to have written a key, influential speech just a year before he died.
Frank Weston, who was the Bishop of Zanzibar from 1908, held together in a creative combination his incarnational and sacramental theology with his radical social concerns formed the keynote of his address to the Anglo-Catholic Congress in 1923. He believed that the sacramental focus gave a reality to Christ’s presence and power that nothing else could. ‘The one thing England needs to learn is that Christ is in and amid matter, God in flesh, God in sacrament.’
And so he concluded: ‘But I say to you, and I say it with all the earnestness that I have, if you are prepared to fight for the right of adoring Jesus in His Blessed Sacrament, then, when you come out from before your tabernacles, you must walk with Christ, mystically present in you through the streets of this country, and find the same Christ in the peoples of your cities and villages. You cannot claim to worship Jesus in the tabernacle, if you do not pity Jesus in the slums … It is folly – it is madness – to suppose that you can worship Jesus in the Sacraments and Jesus on the throne of glory, when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of his children.’
He told people at the congress: ‘Go out and look for Jesus in the ragged, in the naked, in the oppressed and sweated, in those who have lost hope, in those who are struggling to make good. Look for Jesus. And when you see him, gird yourselves with his towel and try to wash their feet.’
Something similar was said in a letter in The Tablet three years ago [4 August 2018] by Father Derek P Reeve, a retired parish priest in Portsmouth: ‘The … Lord whom we receive at the Eucharist is the one whom we go out to serve, and, dare I say it, to adore in our neighbour …’
So sacramental life is meaningless unless it is lived out in our care for those who are hungry, suffering and marginalised.
The Clergy House and Saint Matthew’s Church, Westminster, where Bishop Frank Weston wrote his speech in 1923 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)3, Practical expression of Christian values in public action
Some years ago, the Anglican priest and former Guardian columnist Canon Giles Fraser visited the migrant camps in Calais and worshipped with them in a makeshift chapel served by Eritrean priests.
His visit stirred controversy in the red-top tabloids in England. There was speculation at the time in the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and other papers that the BBC was going to film Songs of Praise in Calais, and this caused furtive but feigned panic about public money, the licence fees, being used to tell the migrants’ stories.
Giles Fraser replied to his tabloid critics, saying: ‘The right-wing press keeps banging on about this being a Christian nation. But they hate it when it behaves like one.’
The public consternation in Britain was not calmed by politicians deploying words like ‘swarm’ and ‘marauding.’ The language become alarmist and increasingly racist, to the point that the Sun columnist Katie Hopkins descended to using the language of the Third Reich when she referred to migrants as ‘cockroaches.’
Despite hyped-up talk long before the ‘Brexit’ referendum about the ‘swarms’ of migrants supposedly trying to reach British shores from Calais, only four per cent of Europe’s asylum seekers are applying to stay in the UK. In telling contrast, a report in the Guardian showed that unemployed Britons in Europe are drawing much more in benefits and allowances in the wealthier EU member states than their nationals are claiming in Britain, despite British government arguments about migrants flocking in to secure better welfare payments.
At least 30,000 British nationals are claiming unemployment benefit in countries around the EU, the Guardian reported at the time. Four times as many Britons claim unemployment benefits in Germany as Germans do in Britain, and the number of unemployed Britons receiving benefits in Ireland exceeds their Irish counterparts in the UK by a rate of five to one.
That debate in Britain was in sharp contrast to the humanitarian work of the Irish naval vessels on the high seas at the time, saving hundreds if not thousands of lives in the Mediterranean waters between Italy and North Africa.
The crews of those naval vessels are hallowed expressions of public values in this society … and a practical expression of Christian values in public action.
Appropriately, the Collect on Sunday prays: ‘O God, you declare your almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity …’
Some conclusions
There are three points that might be drawn from Sunday’s Gospel reading:
1, God gives to us in Christ, and in the Sacrament, so too we must give lovingly.
2, Doctrine and belief must be related to discipleship, indeed they are meaningless unless they are reflected in how we live our lives, a point also made in the reading from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians.
3, Our sacramental practice must always be related to how we live our lives every day so that we make Christ’s love visible.
To summarise, our doctrines and creedal expressions, our attention to Scripture and our attention to sacramental life, find their fullest meaning in how we reflect God’s love for each other and how we express God’s love for those who are left without loving care. For they too are made in God’s image and likeness, and in their faces we see the face of Christ.
John 6: 51-58 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 51 ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ 53 So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’
Liturgical resources:
Liturgical Colour: Green (Ordinary Time, Year B)
The Collect:
O God,
you declare your almighty power
most chiefly in showing mercy and pity:
Mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace,
that we, running the way of your commandments,
may receive your gracious promises,
and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect of the Word:
Everliving God,
your Son, Jesus Christ, gave himself as living bread
for the life of the world:
give us such a knowledge of his presence
that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life
to serve you continually;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Post-Communion Prayer:
Lord of all mercy,
we your faithful people have celebrated
the memorial of that single sacrifice
which takes away our sins and brings pardon and peace.
By our communion
keep us firm on the foundation of the gospel
and preserve us from all sin;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Suggested Hymns:
I Kings 2: 10-12; 3: 3-14:
643, Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
533, God of grace and God of glory
Psalm 111:
84, Alleluia! raise the anthem
130, Jesus came, the heavens adoring
529, Thy hand, O God, has guided
373, To God be the glory! Great things he has done!
Proverbs 9: 1-6:
433, My God, your table here is spread
Psalm 34: 9-14:
507, Put peace into each other’s hands
372, Through all the changing scenes of life
Ephesians 5: 15-20:
346, Angel voices ever singing
454, Forth in the peace of Christ we go
92, How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
356, I will sing, I will sing a song unto the Lord
360, Let all the world in every corner sing
362, O God beyond all praising
708, O praise ye the Lord! Praise him in the height
364, Praise him on the trumpet, the psaltery and harp
710, Sing to God new songs of worship
369, Songs of praise the angels sang
313, The Spirit came, as promise
d 374, When all thy mercies, O my God
458, When, in our music, God is glorified
344, When morning gilds the skies
376, Ye holy angels bright
John 6: 51-58:
398, Alleluia! sing to Jesus
401, Be known to us in breaking bread
403, Bread of the world in mercy broken
407, Christ is the heavenly food that gives
411, Draw near and take the body of the Lord
220, Glory be to Jesus
647, Guide me, O thou great Jehovah
420, ‘I am the bread of life’
581, I, the Lord of sea and sky
422, In the quiet consecration
425, Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts
435, O God, unseen, yet ever near
624, Speak, Lord, in the stillness
449, Thee we adore, O hidden Saviour, thee
451, We come as guests invited
PART 2:
15 August and the Blessed Virgin Mary:
The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship and the Revised Common Lectionaryalso marks 15 August as a Festival or one of the Principal Holy Days, with the simple designation ‘Blessed Virgin Mary.’
It is one of those days on which the Church of England recommends the liturgical provisions should not be displaced, although, ‘for pastoral reasons,’ the Festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary may be celebrate instead on 8 September.
The readings provided in the Revised Common Lectionary and Common Worship are:
The Readings: Isaiah 61: 10-11 or Revelation 11: 19 to 12, 6, 10; Psalm 45: 10-17 (11-18); Galatians 4: 4-7; Luke 1: 46-55.
There is a link to the readings and other resources HERE.
Reflecting on the Dormition and the Assumption
The Orthodox Church celebrates the day as the Dormition of the Theotokos, and the Roman Catholic knows it as the Feast of the Assumption.
Although the Birth of the Virgin Mary is marked in the calendar of the Church of Ireland next month [8 September], many members of the Church of Ireland may be uncomfortable about commemorations on 15 August.
Traditionally, saints are named in the church calendar on the days they are said to have died. Christ, the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist are the only figures named in the calendar of the Church of Ireland on the days marking their birthday: Christmas Day or 25 December, 8 September and 25 June. We remember the death of Christ on Good Friday, but neither the death of Saint John the Baptist (29 August) nor the death of the Virgin Mary (15 August) appears in the Calendar of the Church of Ireland this month.
In the case of Saint John the Baptist, this may be because he is recalled each year in the Epiphany readings as well as on 25 June.
Perhaps this discomfort marking the death of the Virgin Mary on 15 August has less to do with post-Reformation debates about her and more to do with residual memories of how 15 August was used by the Ancient Order of Hibernians to counter-balance Orange celebrations a month earlier on 12 July.
The Orthodox Church marks this day as the Dormition, while the Roman Catholic Church refers to it as the Assumption. They are different names for the same event – the death of the Virgin Mary or her departure from earth – but the two feasts do not necessarily have an identical understanding of the event or sequence of events.
The Assumption is a recent doctrinal innovation in the Roman Catholic tradition, decreed in 1950. The tradition of the Dormition is much older in the Orthodox Church, where the day is a Great Feast and recalls the ‘falling asleep’ or death of the Virgin Mary.
The death or Dormition of Mary is not recorded in the New Testament. Hippolytus of Thebes, writing in the seventh or eighth century, claims in his partially preserved chronology to the New Testament that the Virgin Mary lived for 11 years after the death of Jesus and died in AD 41.
The term Dormition expresses the belief that the Virgin died without suffering, in a state of spiritual peace. This belief does not rest on any scriptural basis, but is affirmed by Orthodox tradition. It is testified to in some old Apocryphal writings, but neither the Orthodox Church nor other Christians regard these as possessing scriptural authority.
The tradition of the Dormition is associated with a number of places, including Jerusalem, Ephesus and Constantinople. In his guidebook, The Holy Land, the late Jerome Murphy-O’Connor points out that two places in Jerusalem are traditionally associated with the end of the Virgin Mary’s earthly life: a monastery on Mount Zion is the traditional site of her death or falling asleep; and the basilica in the Garden of Gethsemane is said to be the site of her tomb.
However, the first four Christian centuries are silent about the death of the Virgin Mary, and there is no documentary evidence to support claims that the feast of the Dormition was observed in Jerusalem around the time of the Council of Ephesus in 431.
Traditional Orthodox icons of the Dormition depicting the death of the Virgin Mary incorporate many apocryphal elements or details from writings known as pseudepigrapha. Many icons show the apostles and other saints, including four early Christian writers, gathered around her deathbed, with Christ and the angels waiting above.
In Greece, today is one of the biggest celebrations of the Orthodox Church, with people flocking to churches and monasteries to reverence icons of the Virgin Mary, with liturgical celebrations and processions, sometimes until late in the evening.
Some of the best-known celebrations in Greece are on the islands of Tinos, Patmos, Lesvos and Skiathos. It is not a day to mourn the death of the Virgin Mary, but a day of joy and dancing, celebrating the union of the mother with her beloved son.
The pilgrimage to the church on Tinos is probably the largest religious pilgrimage in Greece, and the festival there lasts until 23 August.
This is also the name day for Greeks with the names Maria (Mary), Marios, Panagiotis, Panagiota and Despina.
Liturgical Resources:
Collect (Common Worship, Revised Common Lectionary):
Almighty God,
who looked upon the lowliness of the Blessed Virgin Mary
and chose her to be the mother of your only Son:
grant that we who are redeemed by his blood
may share with her in the glory of your eternal kingdom;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Post Communion Prayer (Common Worship, Revised Common Lectionary):
God most high,
whose handmaid bore the Word made flesh:
we thank you that in this sacrament of our redemption
you visit us with your Holy Spirit
and overshadow us by your power;
strengthen us to walk with Mary the joyful path of obedience
and so to bring forth the fruits of holiness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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
The hymn suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000)
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
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