Sunday Sermon: 1 September

This sermon was delivered at the 8:30am Christ Church Eucharist

I’d like to begin by saying how blessed, how truly fortunate I am, to have the privilege of beginning my pastoral life and ministry at St. John’s parish in this wonderful old and beautiful building. Having spent the last, almost 30, years of my life living and working at Lakefield College School, a school that was founded by the same people that established this Church, it is truly an honour. It feels destined. It feels right. I’d like to thank Patti for the time she spent with me this summer to teach me about this place and to everyone else who has welcomed me so warmly.  

Now, getting down to the business of a homily. It struck me that these readings weren’t exactly the most inspiring for my first sermon when I quickly perused them. But as I dug in and thought about them more deeply, I’ve actually found that they are quite appropriate for today.

The Song of Solomon, a beautiful love song, speaks of renewed love in spring, new hope after a long winter, the promise of an exciting future, and a call to “arise” and chase after it.

James also calls us to “chase after it” because hope isn’t enough. As has been often said these days, “hope is not a strategy”. We have to do something to realize our hopes. James reminds us to first take time to listen, to seek understanding, and only then pursue action. In James we are told to be “doers of the word.” To avoid the pitfalls of our selfish world and to make real our faith in action.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus and his disciples are called out by the Pharisees for not abiding by the food preparation and dietary laws of their religious tradition. And then Jesus really lets them have it. Using the teachings of Isaiah, he calls them hypocrites who act according to their religious dictates but have selfish and dark hearts. Jesus reminds us that our actions must be motivated by our divinely inspired purpose to follow God’s commandment of love-based action.

So today we have the hope of our new beginning together. As well as the reminder that hope alone isn’t enough, there must also be a call to action and that action has to be solely motivated by our purpose to serve God’s will as modeled by Christ.  This is exactly how I see my purpose in serving you all here at Christ Church and the rest of the St. John’s community.

I am so excited about starting this new ministry. I look forward to getting to know you all better. If you are interested, we are hosting a meet and greet, parish update, and Q&A after church at St. John’s on September 29. I’ll be open to answering any questions you may have for me in order for us to jump-start our relationship.  

I am full of hope. I know that I (dare I say ‘we’) have a lot of work to do in the days, months, and years ahead. This is our action. I’m so up for it and I hope you are too.  

As I was preparing this homily, I was also reminded of the words of the great philosopher Soren Kierkegaard who said “life can only be understood backwards but must be lived forwards.” So I took some time over the last couple of weeks to go backwards, to learn and reflect on the history of Christ Church and the St. John’s community. Having lived in the area for almost 30 years and having friends in this community, I was aware of much of the history. I knew it, but it wasn’t until I started to worship at St. John’s, got settled into my office, and talked to folks like Patti and others, that I ‘felt it.’  I felt the power of the history and great tradition of this parish community and I felt the yearning for hope. I felt people being prepared for a call to action. I felt the desire to believe again in the potential of this great community.  

I was reminded of the song If You’re Out There by John Legend, a poet, singer, songwriter and producer.  If You’re Out There is a song about bringing love and peace to the world. Legend sings:

Tomorrow’s starting now.

If you’re ready, we can save the world.

Believe again.

We should change the world that we want to see.

Just as the Song of Solomon reminds us to celebrate the hope of new relationships - our new beginning. Just as James’ letter reminds us to take action. Just as Jesus calls us to hold true hearts in all that we do. We believe again. We believe in the hope of renewed life. We believe in the potential of ourselves and our community. We believe that our loving actions made known to us in Christ will bring the change we want to see happen - in ourselves, in our parish community of Christ Church and St. John’s, and in our world. We believe and we know that we are up for it.

And we give thanks.  

Amen.