If you are not a regular St Martin’s supporter we invite you to

DONATE HERE

Thank you for supporting our ministry during this period of physical distancing.

Order of Service

The Liturgy of the Word begins on page 355 of the Book of Common Prayer or online Eucharist Rt II here.

Prelude:  Variations on “Coronation” by Robert J. Powell (b. 1932) with Steven Young on the St Martin’s Organ

Welcome, The Rev’d Mark Sutherland, Rector

Introit: “Come Ever-Gracious Son of God” by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) sung by members of the St Martin’s Chapel Consort

The Greeting: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; And blessed be God’s Kingdom, now and for ever.

Hymn: 518 “Christ is made the sure foundation” (vv. 1, 4), Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young, organ

 1 Christ is made the sure foundation, 
Christ the head and cornerstone, 
chosen of the Lord, and precious, 
binding all the Church in one; 
holy Zion's help for ever, 
and her confidence alone.  

4 Here vouchsafe to all thy servants 
what they ask of thee to gain; 
what they gain from thee, for ever 
with the blessèd to retain, 
and hereafter in thy glory 
evermore with thee to reign.

Collect for Purity

The Gloria S277, St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young accompanying

The Collect of the Day

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord,who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading: Jeremiah 28:5-9 read by David Blake

Psalm 13 sung by members of the St Martin’s Chapel Consort

Refrain: I will put my trust in your mercy.
1 How long, O LORD? will you forget me for ever?
    how long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long shall I have perplexity in my mind, and grief in my heart, day after day?
    how long shall my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look upon me and answer me, O LORD my God;
    give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
4 Lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him,"
    and my foes rejoice that I have fallen.
5 But I put my trust in your mercy;
    my heart is joyful because of your saving help.
6 I will sing to the LORD, for he has dealt with me richly;
    I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High.
Refrain.

Second Reading: Romans 6:12-23, read by Pat Nolan

Gradual Hymn: Hymn 359 “God of the prophets” (v. 1,2) sung St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young, organ

1 God of the prophets, bless the prophets' heirs!
Elijah's mantle o'er Elisha cast:
each age for thine own solemn task prepares,
make each one stronger, nobler than the last.
 
2 Anoint them prophets! Teach them thine intent:
to human need their quickened hearts awake;
fill them with power, their lips make eloquent
for righteousness that shall all evil break.

The Gospel: Matthew 10:40-42 proclaimed by Linda+

Gradual Hymn: Hymn 359 “God of the prophets” (v. 5

5 Make them apostles, heralds of thy cross;
forth may they go to tell all realms thy grace:
inspired of thee, may they count all but loss,
and stand at last with joy before thy face

The Sermon: Mark+  (a stand alone sermon recording and text also appear below on this page)

The Nicene Creed:  -(we recite together)

We believe in one God,
    the Father, the Almighty,
    maker of heaven and earth,
    of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
    the only Son of God,
    eternally begotten of the Father,
    God from God, Light from Light,
    true God from true God,
    begotten, not made,
    of one Being with the Father.
    Through him all things were made.
    For us and for our salvation
        he came down from heaven:
    by the power of the Holy Spirit
        he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
        and was made human.
    For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
        he suffered death and was buried.
        On the third day he rose again
            in accordance with the Scriptures;
        he ascended into heaven
            and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
        and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
    who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
    With the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.
    She has spoken through the Prophets.
    We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
    We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
    We look for the resurrection of the dead,
        and the life of the world to come. Amen.

The Anthem: “A Prayer of St. Richard of Chichester” by L. J. White (n.d.) , sung by the St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young at the organ

O holy Jesus, most merciful redeemer, friend and brother, may I know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly and follow thee more nearly. Amen.

Prayers of the People: led by Linda+

The Lord’s Prayer

The General Thanksgiving

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, 
we your unworthy servants 
give you humble thanks 
for all your goodness and loving-kindness 
to us and to all whom you have made. 
We bless you for our creation, preservation, 
and all the blessings of this life; 
but above all for your immeasurable 
love in the redemption of the world 
by our Lord Jesus Christ; 
for the means of grace, 
and for the hope of glory. 
And, we pray, give us such 
an awareness of your mercies, 
that with truly thankful hearts 
we may show forth your praise, 
not only with our lips, but in our lives, 
by giving up our selves to your service, 
and by walking before you in 
holiness and righteousness all our days; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord, 
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, 
be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.

The Peace

Final Hymn: “The God of Abraham praise” (vv. 1, 4) sung by the St Martin’s Chapel Consort with organ

1 The God of Abraham praise, who reigns enthroned above;
Ancient of everlasting days, and God of love;
the Lord, the great I AM, by earth and heaven confessed:
we bow and bless the sacred Name for ever blest.
 
5 The whole triumphant host give thanks to God on high;
“Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” they ever cry;
hail, Abraham’s Lord divine! With heaven our songs we raise;
all might and majesty are thine, and endless praise.

Final Blessing

The Postlude:  Trumpet Tune by Martha Sobaje (b. 1948) Steven Young on St Martin’s organ

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By Babylon’s Rivers

I love history as I know do many of you. History is the great teacher if only we have eyes to see and ears to hear. Much of the Old Testament is Israel’s history book. But from our point of view, it’s a particular kind of history; a history of the ups and downs in the relationship between God and a chosen people; the relationship between human and divine.

We too, are also a people in relationship with the divine, the God of Israel and the God and father of Jesus. In that respect biblical history is our history also. The times and places may change between then and now, but the context for human experience – lived out in relation to the divine presence of God in the world – remains either alarmingly or reassuringly the same. God invites, we sometimes respond, but mostly we go our own way until the disaster forces us back – crying to God for deliverance from the consequences of our own follies.

The prophet Jeremiah began his prophetic ministry to Judah about 627 BC and ended it about 570 BC. His career spanned the period of political turmoil that culminated in Judah’s final defeat by the Babylonians (587 BC) and with it the destruction of Jerusalem, the burning of the temple, and the exile of the significant parts of Judah’s religious and civic leadership. The nation lay broken.

In chapter 28 we find Jeremiah arguing that true prophets have always delivered the hard message of God’s truth as a mirror held up to reveal the real state of things in contrast to the convenient and comfortable message of God’s peace lulling people into believing that all continued to be well. With a hint of sarcasm he chides Hananiah: when we see the peace you prophecy then it will be known the Lord has truly sent a prophet.

The disputation between Jeremiah and his fellow prophet Hananiah can be roughly dated approximately seven years after the exile has begun. Jeremiah and his opponents who are still in Jerusalem offering alternative versions of what God is doing. Hananiah, perhaps to inspire a sense of revolt against Babylon, has prophesied the exiles return in two years. With the full restoration of the temple, God will once again grant peace to the nation. Jeremiah represents the minority opinion – revealing the feel-good message of make Israel great again for the dangerous and ultimately futile distraction for what it was.

Like the profusion of today’s political pundits and religious commentators, at any one-time Israel always had many prophets – whose messages competed for public attention. A common mistake we make is to view the work of Israel’s prophets as predictors of the future. This is a misleading notion. In reality they were less predictors of the future and more promoters of God’s agenda in the politico-spiritual crises facing the nation the present time. They tried to call attention to what God wanted and what God was doing.

Because all prophets claimed to be delivering God’s message, it was always difficult to tell whose message was the true one.  Because we are no strangers to competing truth narratives peddled by today’s politicians – amplified by media pundits and social commentators of all persuasions, the situation outlined in Jeremiah 28 rings with an uncanny familiarity. The point of biblical history is to remind us that there is nothing new under the sun; as it was then, so it is now.

We are hearing at the moment the message America is broken. This is a particularly painful message to hear because it’s a negation of all we want to believe. From the far extremes of right and left and just about every position in between, we hear a similar message: America is broken. However, there is no consensus on what it is that is broken and how to fix it.

Israel had been utterly broken leaving the Jews two possible responses – acceptance or denial of reality. The denial faction led the prophet Hananiah sought to distract public attention with a set of alternative facts that predicted the immanent decline of Babylonian power to be followed by a full restoration of Israel – pretty much as it had been before Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem and temple. We know about the wishful thinking of denial in high places – there’s no need to worry, the virus is beaten and we will open up the country to be the best and even better than ever best – the best nation in the history of the whole world!

Hananiah and his cohort circled Jeremiah like gloating vultures, mocking his message of doom and gloom as unpatriotic. They took him to court, they had him imprisoned – all in an attempt to silence him. Jeremiah’s message was – listen up people, the nation really is broken, and this situation is not going to be easily fixed any time soon. For Jeremiah knew that the only true fix was repentance leading to root and branch reform. He also knew that a true fix would take time. He was correct, it took 70 years before the exiles returned.

Sometimes it’s the unpatriotic message that contains the only real seeds of hope.

Sometimes it’s the unpatriotic message that contains the only real seeds of hope. Jeremiah encouraged the exiles in Babylon to build houses, to marry and have children, to serve the city to which they had been exiled, and to get on with rebuilding their lives in as foreigners in strange place. In other words, there was no alternative to getting on with life in changed circumstances and accept of the unpalatable reality: Judah was broken.

Gradually the exiles heard Jeremiah’s message of hope. The community settled down by the rivers of Babylon and while they wept when they remembered Zion, they actually got on with the kind of root and branch religious and cultural reform that laid the foundations that enabled the Jews to survive as a community into modern times.

At the local level –within the maelstrom of the crisis, the prophet’s message sounds dire – some might even say unpatriotic. But crisis -when correctly viewed against the backdrop of God’s intention and purpose for the world – becomes opportunity.

But crisis -when correctly viewed against the backdrop of God’s intention and purpose for the world – becomes opportunity.

The Coronavirus aside, there is nothing in America that is broken which cannot -given courage, hope-filled vision, and perseverance – be fixed. We trust that given time even the virus itself will eventually be neutralized as the eradication of plague, smallpox, polio, measles, AIDS, etc shows.

A modern-day Jeremiah would counsel us to take the crisis of brokenness seriously – not as a counsel of despair – but as the rallying point for the unleashing of the creativity and ingenuity that Americans excel at. The modern-day Jeremiah, a he or she, would counsel us to overcome our sense of helplessness and fear; to give up the illusion of seeing things as we want them to be and begin to see things as they really are. He or she would redirect our attention to the unleashing of American knowhow, the spirit of our creative and bold innovation, our courageous and incurable hopefulness. A modern-day Jeremiah would encourage us to believe that the glaring stain of racism is not stronger than our inherent sense of natural justice, and that when accepted with repentance crisis is reframed as opportunity. Speaking metaphorically, he or she would encourage us to build houses, marry and have children, and serve as agents for the evolution of justice in our society, and the repair of the creation.

By the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept when remembered Zion. There on the trees along the water’s edge we hung up our harps – and then we got on with the task of fashioning a new future for ourselves in which all our people can flourish.

If you are not a regular St Martin’s supporter we invite you to

DONATE HERE

Thank you for supporting our ministry during this period of physical distancing.

Order of Service

The Liturgy of the Word begins on page 355 of the Book of Common Prayer or online Eucharist Rt II here.

Prelude:  Meditation, Op. 39, No 2. Karl Hoyer (1891-1936) with Steven Young on the St Martin’s Organ

Welcome, The Rev’d Mark Sutherland, Rector

Introit: “Praise be the Lord” by Dr. Maurice Greene (1695-1755) sung by members of the St Martin’s Chapel Consort

Praise be the Lord daily,  Ev’n the God who helpeth us,  And poureth His benefits upon us.

Hymn: 372,, “Praise to the living God!”(vv. 1, 4) St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young, organ

1 Praise to the living God!
All praised be his Name
who was, and is, and is to be,
for ay the same.
The one eternal God
ere aught that now appears:
the first, the last, beyond all thought
his timeless years!
 
4 Eternal life hath he
implanted in the soul;
his love shall be our strength and stay
while ages roll.
Praise to the living God!
All praised be his Name
who was, and is, and is to be,
for aye the same.

The Greeting: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; And blessed be God’s Kingdom, now and for ever.

Collect for Purity

The Gloria S277, St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young accompanying

The Collect of the Day

O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your
holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom
you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading: Jeremiah 20:7-13, read by Fla Lewis

Psalm 69:8-11, 18-20  sung by members of the St Martin’s Chapel Consort

Refrain: Zeal for your house has eaten me up; the scorn of those who scorn you has fallen upon me.
 
8 I have become a stranger to my own kindred,
an alien to my mother's children.
 
9 Zeal for your house has eaten me up;
the scorn of those who scorn you has fallen upon me.
 
10 I humbled myself with fasting,
but that was turned to my reproach.
 
11 I put on sack-cloth also,
and became a byword among them.
 
12 Those who sit at the gate murmur against me,
and the drunkards make songs about me.
 
18 "Hide not your face from your servant; *
be swift and answer me, for I am in distress.
 
19 Draw near to me and redeem me; *
because of my enemies deliver me.
 
20 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor;
my adversaries are all in your sight.

Second Reading: Romans 6:1-11, read by meg LoPresti

Gradual Hymn: 296, “We know that Christ is raised” (V1,2) sung St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young, organ

1 We know that Christ is raised and dies no more.
Embraced by death, he broke its fearful hold
and our despair he turned to blazing joy. Alleluia!
 
2 We share by water in his saving death.
Reborn we share with him in Easter life
as living members of a living Christ. Alleluia!

The Gospel: Matthew 10:24-39 proclaimed by Linda+

Gradual Hymn: 296 “We know that Christ is raised” (v 3-4)

3 The Father’s splendor clothes the Son with life.
The Spirit’s power shakes the Church of God.
Baptized we live with God the Three in One. Alleluia!
 
4 A new creation comes to life and grows
as Christ’s new body takes on flesh and blood.
The universe restored and whole will sing: Alleluia!

The Sermon: Mark+  (a stand alone sermon recording and text also appear below on this page)

The Nicene Creed:  -(we recite together)

We believe in one God,
    the Father, the Almighty,
    maker of heaven and earth,
    of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
    the only Son of God,
    eternally begotten of the Father,
    God from God, Light from Light,
    true God from true God,
    begotten, not made,
    of one Being with the Father.
    Through him all things were made.
    For us and for our salvation
        he came down from heaven: 
by the power of the Holy Spirit
        he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
        and was made human.
    For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
        he suffered death and was buried.
        On the third day he rose again
            in accordance with the Scriptures;
        he ascended into heaven
            and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
    He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
        and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
    who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
    With the Father and the Son she is worshiped and glorified.
    She has spoken through the Prophets.
    We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
    We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
    We look for the resurrection of the dead,
        and the life of the world to come. Amen.

The Anthem: “It Is a Precious Thing” by Johann Friedrich Peter (1746-1813) Sung by the St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young at the organ

It is a precious thing when the heart 
is fixed and trusteth in God,
Through the mercy of God 
and our Savior Jesus Christ.
 
My heart is resting, 
O my Savior, in thy loving care, 
my trust is every stayed on Thee.
O hear my earnest prayer that ever faithful I may be, 
and ever do Thy will.
O grant this in Thy mercy still, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayers of the People: led by Linda+

The Lord’s Prayer

The General Thanksgiving 

Almighty God, Father of all mercies, 
we your unworthy servants 
give you humble thanks 
for all your goodness and loving-kindness 
to us and to all whom you have made. 
We bless you for our creation, preservation, 
and all the blessings of this life; 
but above all for your immeasurable 
love in the redemption of the world 
by our Lord Jesus Christ; 
for the means of grace, 
and for the hope of glory. 
And, we pray, give us such 
an awareness of your mercies, 
that with truly thankful hearts 
we may show forth your praise, 
not only with our lips, but in our lives, 
by giving up our selves to your service, 
and by walking before you in 
holiness and righteousness all our days; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord, 
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, 
be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.

The Peace

Final Hymn: 537, “Christ for the world we sing” (1, 4) sung by the St Martin’s Chapel Consort with organ

1 Christ for the world we sing!
The world to Christ we bring with loving zeal;
the poor and them that mourn,
the faint and overborne,
sin-sick and sorrow-worn, whom Christ doth heal.
 
4 Christ for the world we sing!
The world to Christ we bring with joyful song;
the newborn souls, whose days,
reclaimed from error's ways,
inspired with hope and praise, to Christ belong

Final Blessing

The Postlude:  Poco vivace (from Op. 9) by Hermann Schroeder (1904-1984) with Steven Young on St Martin’s organ

It’s a Choice

This year the third Sunday after Pentecost is Father’s Day. This is a day on which to show appreciation for our earthly fathers.

Many of us are able to love our fathers and to want to show gratitude for all we have received from them. Not all of us will be so fortunate. Some of us may have had or still have fathers towards whom we have a complex mix of emotions. We can love or hate our fathers – hopefully most of us have experience of loving or at least non abusive fathers embodied by the men who played such a huge role for good or not so good in our childhood lives.

Father’s Day can take on a Hallmark Card sentimentality.  Yet, underneath Father’s Day runs the significant theme of Fatherhood. Fatherhood is the principle of emotional containment and protection. If mother is the primary focus for the newborn and developing infant, then father is the provider of a protective emotional environment that allows mother and infant to bond securely. In Eastern philosophy fatherhood is the Yang energy – the energy of creativity that is balanced by the counterpoint of Yin energy – the energy of receptivity.

As Westerners, we live increasingly into a post gendered world in which the archetypal energies of Yin and Yang – of feminine and masculine – are no longer exclusively associated with gender -with Yang being male and Yin being female. For us the principle of fatherhood alongside that of motherhood can be expressed by both men and women given the appropriate relational context.

I hope for many of us this Father’s Day will be an opportunity to celebrate our human fathers. Yet, it’s ironic the Gospel for Father’s Day contains these words of Jesus:

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother…. And one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

Jesus’ paints a picture of conflict between the different members of a family and by extended implication, conflict between the members of society. The passage concludes with this dire warning:

Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Love is the abiding principle by which Christians should let their life choices be guided. If the social expression of love is justice, then at an interpersonal level the expression of love will take the form of loyalty.

I’ve spoken over last weeks about justice being God’s issue. Justice is the barometer by which we can judge the quality of a society. The quality of our interpersonal relationships can be measured by the expressions of love, but more generally it’s not possible to love everyone quite in the way the world love suggests. As justice is the societal expression of love. Loyalty is the more objective expression of love – by which to measure the quality of our interpersonal relationships.

Reflecting on Matthew’s presentation of Jesus’ words in chapter 10, I read them as hinting at the importance of loyalty. Jesus is asking us to examine where we place our loyalty? His words invite us to yet again examine the stories that often inadvertently and with astonishing subtlety, claim us; stories that without our noticing divert our loyalty away from a primary focus on God and the way of love.

In our world so much that is important is presented to us as a set of binary choices. A world split between the crude binary choices of this party or that party, this world view or that world view, either freedom or servitude, rights or obligations. Ours is a world in which the slogan black lives matter is heard by some as only black lives matter and is countered by all lives matter – with the intension of watering down or belittling the urgency of the call for racial justice. On the Sunday after the commemoration of Juneteenth, this should give us all pause for thought.

Is Jesus asking us to make another binary choice; a for Jesus or an against Jesus choice? This cannot be so for such a request smacks too much of the world as we know it and detest it for the way it enslaves our thinking. For Christians, Jesus is not a choice. But the manner of the choosing – how we chose Jesus – is what ultimate matters.

In a world in which we are all increasingly enslaved to partisan rhetoric, Jesus’ request to choose him can play into the hands of those who want to make him an object of partisan choice – like everything else.

We see how turning Jesus into a partisan choice of – for or against – works out. Those who are most vociferously in favor of Jesus often paint a picture of him as someone firmly under their control. Someone who is in lock step with their social world view – Jesus my buddy as well as my savior. They paint a picture of a Jesus who approves of racism – cause after all he’s said so in the Bible; a Jesus who hates homosexuals as much as they do cause after all – he’s said so in the Bible; a Jesus who believes a woman’s place is in the home under the firm thumb of her husband – because hasn’t he said so in the Bible? It’s sobering to recall that Jesus omits to speak on any of these issues.

Whereas those who most vociferously reject Jesus do so primarily as an expression of their rejection of this kind of Jesus acclaimed by the most partisan Christians. For them the whole of Christianity is something to be ejected from contributing to the civic debate of the public square.

Then there are those who don’t outwardly reject Jesus but who proclaim a kind of wishy-washy Jesus. Jesus the lover of little children and champion of doormats – Jesus who always counsels turn the other cheek as a response to abuse. At the most, they portray a Jesus who always seeks to avoid causing offence by asking too much of us. Theirs is a Jesus who wants us never to upset the apple cart by talking religion and politics in polite social settings.

Is this not also a stereotyping of Jesus as worthy of criticism as the partisan image of him? Again, it’s sobering to recall that Jesus speaks most often about social and economic justice and in doing so he projects himself into the heat of controversy in a way that the proponents of wishy-washy- Jesus assiduously avoid emulating.

Jesus continues:

Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

My reading of this text leads me to think that it’s not Jesus who is threatening to bring the sword – as in – I am going to bring violence to the world as part of my doing God’s will. This is an image of Jesus that many of his more militant followers willingly embrace. Yet, this reading flies in the face of everything else Jesus said and did. The point here is that Jesus does not cause division – but that division will inevitably follow from our response to the challenge of his teaching. Jesus, in other words, knows who he is and what he’s come to do, and the likely consequences of being and doing so.  

Jesus’ radical teaching of the way of love is not a gentle, hippie-like creed, but a hard and confrontative message that calls us to be God’s champions of societal justice and prize interpersonal loyalty. It’s a message that like paint stripper, dissolves away the veneer of our self-deception and the easy peace we make with ourselves to avoid the experience of discontent.

We cannot speak of racial oppression of black and brown people without addressing white guilt. We need to become highly discontented with white privilege and the subtle guilt it instills in most of us who are white. Discontent is the first stage in the agitation required to confront our complicities. Our complicity with attitudes and systems that perpetuate the oppression of our sisters and brothers, whether it be on the basis of race, gender, or sexual orientation. Our complicity in an unjust society that apportions access to justice and healthcare on the basis of buying power.

To gain life by following Jesus is to love him and to be loyal to his message by putting his proclamation that the kingdom of God is already here – into action.  It’s not a matter of us making crude binary choices for this or for that. Simply following Jesus brings its own rejections.

To lose life is to ignore his message, and thereby remain complicit with the way the values of this world are set up in outright denial of the expectations of God’s kingdom.

On Father’s Day – when we celebrate not only our human fathers but honor the protective principle of fatherhood, this is a timely message.

In 2020, the significance of Juneteenth emerges from the neglect of white history. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, though highly symbolic was in effect only a partial beginning. It freed some slaves and paved the way for the 13^th Amendment that freed all slaves. Yet, are we not all still growing into the promise of a freedom for both white and black Americans from the curse of racism?

A Confession
Dear God, we reach out to You to express our wrong. But we pray for more than conviction. We pray, O Lord, for change. Change the easy peace we make with ourselves into discontent because of the oppression of others. Change our tendency to defend ourselves into the freedom that comes from being forgiven and empowered through your love. Change our need for disguises, excuses, and images into the ability to be honest with ourselves and open with one another. Change our inclination to judge others into a desire to serve and uplift others. And most of all, Lord, change our routine worship and work into genuine encounter with you and our better selves so that our lives will be changed for the good of all into a joyful community of justice and peace. In Jesus' Precious Name. Amen
From the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri (Kansas City)

If you are not a regular St Martin’s supporter we invite you to

DONATE HERE

Thank you for supporting our ministry during this period of physical distancing.

The Liturgy of the Word begins on page 355 of the Book of Common Prayer or online Eucharist Rt II here.

Prelude:  Allegro (Concerto in B minor),  Johann G. Walther with Steven Young on the St Martin’s Organ

Welcome, The Rev’d Mark Sutherland, Rector

Introit: “O frondens virga” by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) sung by members of the St Martin’s Chapel Consort

O blooming branch, you stand upright in your nobility, 
as breaks the dawn on high: 
rejoice now and be glad, 
and deign to free us, frail and weakened, 
from the wicked habits of our age; 
stretch forth your hand 
to lift us up aright.

Hymn:686, “Come, thou fount of every blessing”(vv. 1, 3) St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young, organ

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it
mount of God's redeeming love.
 
Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee:
prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above

Greeting: Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever.

Collect for Purity

The Gloria S277, St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young accompanying

The Collect of the Day

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast
faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim
your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with
compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now
and for ever. Amen.

First Reading: Exodus 19:2-8, read by Laura Bartsch

Psalm 100 sung by members of the St Martin’s Chapel Consort

Refrain: Come before God’s presence with a song.   
1 Be joyful in the LORD, all you lands; serve the LORD with gladness and come before his presence with a song.               
2 Know this: The LORD himself is God; he himself has made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.   
3 Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise; give thanks to him and call upon his Name.               
4 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his faithfulness endures from age to age.

Second Reading: Romans 5:1-8 read by Samantha Muther

Gradual Hymn: 583, “Fairest Lord Jesus” (V1,2) sung St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young, organ

 Fairest Lord Jesus,
ruler of all nature,
O thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish,
Thee will I honor,
thou, my soul's glory, joy, and crown.
 
Fair are the meadows,
fairer still the woodlands,
robed in the blooming garb of spring:
Jesus is fairer,
Jesus is purer
who makes the woeful heart to sing.

The Gospel: Matthew 9:35-10:8 proclaimed by Linda+

Gradual Hymn: 583, “Fairest Lord Jesus” (v 3)

 Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight, and all the twinkling starry host: Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer than all the angels heaven can boast.

The Sermon: Mark+  (a stand alone sermon recording and text appears below)

The Nicene Creed: (pg 358 BCP) -(we recite together)

The Anthem: “Lord, I Lift My Soul to You” by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759, arr. Hopson) Sung by the St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young at the organ

Lord, I life my soul to you;
My trust is ever in your word.
O, make me know all your ways.
 
Lord, I claim your boundless love;
Your deeds are known from days of old.
You guide the humble in peace, truth, and light.
 
Those who revere the Lord live in joy.
Peace shall be upon their way;
The Lord will be their constant hope;
The Lord is ever their guide and stay.

Prayers of the People: led by Linda+

The Lord’s Prayer

The General Thanksgiving (pg 101 BCP)

The Peace

Final Hymn: 377, “All people that on earth do dwell”  sung by the St Martin’s Chapel Consort with organ

All people that on earth do dwell,
sing to the LORD with cheerful voice.
Serve him with joy, his praises tell,
come now before him and rejoice!
 
To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
To God whom heaven and earth adore,
From men and from the angel host
Be praise and glory evermore.

Final Blessing

The Postlude: Prelude in D minor, Opus 7a, Richard Bartmuss with Steven Young on St Martin’s organ

New Beginnings

We now enter the second half of the Christian Year. We refer to this period as the Sundays after Pentecost or Ordinary Time, meaning that period outside the great cycles of Christmas, Lent, and Easter. We sometimes refer to this as the green season because the liturgical color of hangings, frontals, and vestments shifts to green.

On a more personal note Al and I moved home this last week. We have enjoyed being the curators of a 200-year-old house with an extensive and labor-intensive garden, but enough is enough, and having made considerable improvements to the house we felt it time to hand on to the next curators of this beautiful example of a Rustic New England Colonial.  

Beginning Ordinary Time and moving to a new house may seem to be only tangentially connected. Yet, for me, they both represent new beginnings – and it’s about new beginnings I want to speak.

Each Sunday the Ecumenical three-year lectionary appoints three texts and a psalm – not of our own choosing. This means that each Sunday we receive an invitation from God through the appointed readings to engage in a conversation of God’s choosing and not ours. Otherwise we would tend to only self-select readings that support us in the comfortable conversation we always prefer to have with ourselves.

In the readings appointed for the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, God seems to invite us into a conversation about new beginnings. Excluding the psalm, which is more of a liturgical text, we normally find the clearest and most obvious connections lying between the Old Testament and Gospel readings. Jesus’ teaching found in the Gospels either affirms or challenges the Old Testament theme. The function of the New Testament reading is to act as a kind of side-ways commentary on the nature of living the Christian life. Thus, its content sits in a less direct relationship with the more narrative oriented readings on either side of it.

So, let me begin with Exodus and Matthew, before going onto Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Exodus, chapter 19 opens with Israel’s arrival at the foot of Mt Sinai. Israel’s arrival at Sinai constitutes a new beginning. It’s here that we glimpse the beginning of the slow and painful transformation of Israel from a loose and chaotic collection of kinship units into a nation. However, it’s not nationhood like that of other peoples. It’s a nationhood specifically defined by the centrality of Israel’s relationship with God – enshrined in a constitution known as the Covenant.  

It’s a new beginning, but what is a beginning if not to set out on a road where each obstacle along the way invites two possible responses -either a challenge to be daunted by or an opportunity through which to grow. In response to God’s invitation the Israelites -with one heart and one voice respond – yes, everything that the Lord has spoken we will do. Oh, that life was so simple.

The point about Israel’s constitution as a priestly kingdom and a holy nation is that in return for God’s love and protection the people are expected to follow a particular way of life guided by the laws and ordinances that will lay the foundations for a unique experiment in a society based on principles of social justice.

In Matthew 9:35 we find Jesus teaching and preaching about the good news of the kingdom. This is not just any good news of any kingdom but the good news of God’s kingdom – rooted in Israel’s foundation experience recorded in the book of Exodus. In his selection of the 12 disciples we find the echo to the 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus, at this stage of his ministry, draws a tight connection between the work of the 12 disciples and the reclaiming of the lost among the 12 tribes of Israel. He instructs them to go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.

When we read Matthew, we need to bear in mind that his is the Gospel most concerned with Jewishness and the renewal of the covenant between God and Israel. For Matthew the covenant made through Moses is being renewed through Jesus, who for him is the new Moses, come not to abolish but to perfect the Law given by God to Israel.

The direct connection between Matthew 9 and Exodus 19 lies in the notion of a new beginning. By sending out the disciples, Jesus is inaugurating a new beginning with the disciples instructed to share their peace – their shalom with those in any house they enter.

The concept of shalom is the sharing of peace. But sharing requires reciprocity and so Jesus tells his disciples – where their shalom is not received, they are to shake the dust from their feet and move on – for not only are the laborers of the harvest too few in number, but there is no time to be lost in staying where you are not received.

Hence the wider commission to go to all nations with which Matthew concludes his gospel in chapter 28 is foreshadowed here by the failure of many in Israel to receive Jesus’ shalom.

The challenges along the road for any people as they grope towards nationhood hinge on the caliber or deficit of leadership. Jesus, drawing on the image of God as shepherd of his people – imagery which abounds throughout Exodus and the Old Testament – gives voice to what he finds. He finds not a priestly kingdom and a holy nation, but a people harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd – a people failed by their leaders – a condition arousing in him the deepest compassion.

The conversation God is inviting us into through the relationship between Exodus 19 and Matthew 9 concerns the nature of a new beginning. We find we have awoken to a new world in which the failure of leadership confronts us like a bucket of ice-cold water thrown in our faces. With few exceptions, across the world the cliché of the emperor’s new clothes exposes the nakedness of populist leaders. Nature is a great leveler. The illusion of the populist leader’s appeal with its crude manipulation of a people’s discontent lies naked and exposed before the ravages of nature’s onslaught.

In today’s America the picture is reassuringly mixed. Jesus’ description of a people harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd describes our experience as we witness the disarray of presidential leadership. Yet, at state and local levels, leaders are stepping up, offering imaginative and courageous responses that address the needs of the common weal – a society defined as a commonwealth.

At a time when we are exposed and helpless before the Coronavirus onslaught, millions are rallying to the call for racial and economic justice. In the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges, the energy for new beginnings is powerfully astir.

If the Sunday lectionary enables the conversation God is calling us to have with ourselves, the connective outlines of that conversation can usually be found in the dialectic tensions between the Old Testament and Gospel texts. Between them sits the New Testament text which I have described as a kind of side-ways commentary on the nature of living the Christian life.

On the 2^nd Sunday after Pentecost, through the dialogue between the Exodus and Matthew texts, God is inspiring us to recommitment to the divine vision of a just and equitable society. For justice is not simply a political or an economic issue – it’s a God issue – and God is calling us to address the hunger in our society for justice and equality, and thereby to make yet again, a new beginning.

Into this conversation Paul’s letter to the Romans defines the Christian response in amidst the uncertainties of new beginnings. Confronting the widespread suffering of his Roman Christian readers, Paul reminds them that in the face of their tremendous suffering it is the centrality of character that matters. He writes: Suffering produces endurance, and endurance builds character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Historically, as a people we bear many sins. We are currently being reminded that the blot of slavery and its legacy of racism is a sin that keeps on revisiting us until we have the courage to finally atone for its evils.

Yet, historically speaking, the relatively short experiment known as the American Republic has built a unique national character forged through endurance and convinced by hope. Where we find ourselves – amidst the dislocation and tumult of the present time – is simply the place to commit ourselves to making a new beginning, empowered by the qualities of Christian character inspired by God’s Holy Spirit.

But what is a new beginning if not to set out on a road where each obstacle along the way invites two possible responses -either a challenge to be daunted by or an opportunity through which to grow. In response to God’s invitation, infused with the qualities of our Christian character may we echo the Israelites cry and with one heart and one voice respond – yes, everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.

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Order of Service

The Liturgy of the Word begins on page 355 of the Book of Common Prayer or online Eucharist Rt II here.

Prelude:  Sarabande (Suite for Organ), Gerald Near with Steven Young on the St Martin’s Organ

Welcome, The Rev’d Mark Sutherland, Rector

Introit: “I Will at All Times Bless the Lord”, F. Handel (1685-1759), Soprano, Lori Istok, St Martin’s Chapel Consort

I will at all times bless the Lord,
My voice shall sing his praise.
I sought the Lord, God heard my prayer.
Let all exalt God’s name.
O taste and see the Lord is good!
In God is lasting hope, in God is joy,
My voice shall sing God’s praise.
I sought the Lord, God heard my prayer.
Let all exalt God’s name.

Hymn:48, “O day of radiant gladness” (vv. 1, 4), St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young, organ

1 O day of radiant gladness, O day of joy and light,
O balm of care and sadness, most beautiful, most bright;
this day the high and lowly, through ages joined in tune,
sing "Holy, holy, holy" to the great God Triune.
4 That light our hope sustaining, we walk the pilgrim way, at length our rest attaining, our endless Sabbath Day. We sing to thee our praises, O Father, Spirit, Son; the Church her voice upraises to thee, blest Three in One.

Greeting: Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever.

Collect for Purity

The The Gloria S277, St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young accompanying

The Collect for Trinity Sunday

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us
your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to
acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the
power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep
us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to
see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with
the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.

First Reading: Genesis 1:1-2:4 read by Beth Toolan

Canticle: 2 (Pg 49 BCP) sung by members of the St Martin’s Chapel Consort

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, read by David Whitman

Gradual Hymn: 362, Holy, holy, holy! vv1-2, sung St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young, organ

1 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

2 Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
who wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.

The Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20 proclaimed by Mark+

Gradual Hymn: 362, Holy, holy, holy! vv1-2, vv3-4

3 Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee
perfect in pow'r, in love, and purity.

4 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

The Sermon: Linda+  (a stand alone sermon recording and text appears below)

The Nicene Creed: (pg 358 BCP) -(we recite together)

The Anthem:  “Let all things now living” txt/arr. Katherine Kennicott Davis, 1892-1980, Sung by the St Martin’s Chapel Consort with Steven Young at the organ

Let all things now living To God the Creator triumphantly raise, Who fashioned and made us, Protected and stayed us, Who guides us and leads to the end of our days. God’s banners fly o’er us; God’s light goes before us, A pillar of fire shining forth in the night, Till shadows have vanished And darkness is banished, A forward we travel from light into light.   His law he enforces The stars in their courses, The sun in his orbit obediently shine. The hills and the mountains, The rivers and fountains, The deep of the ocean proclaim Him divine. We too should be voicing our love and rejoicing; With glad adoration and song let us raise, Till all things now living Unite in thanksgiving To god in the highest, Hosanna and praise!

Prayers of the People: led by Mark+

The Lord’s Prayer

The General Thanksgiving (pg 101 BCP)

The Peace

Final Hymn: 368, “Holy Father, great Creator vv1,4 sung by the St Martin’s Chapel Consort with organ

1 Holy Father, great Creator,
source of mercy, love, and peace,
look upon the Mediator,
clothe us with his righteousness;
heavenly Father, heavenly Father,
through the Savior hear and bless.
  
4 God the Lord, through every nation
let thy wondrous mercies shine.
In the song of thy salvation
every tongue and race combine.
Great Jehovah, great Jehovah,
form our hearts and make them thine.

Trinity Blessing

The Postlude: Final (Suite for Organ), Gerald Near with Steven Young on St Martin’s organ

• 

Invitation to the Dance

May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

In the beginning, God. In the beginning, God; pouring forth God’s Self, divine into the material—the first incarnation—the holy spark infused into every atom, every particle of stardust. In the beginning, God; loving Creation into being; light and dark, day and night, sun moon and stars commencing their eternal dance; sea and land ebbing and flowing with the tides; plants and all creatures brought forth into their own rhythms of birth, death and renewal.

In the beginning, God; breathing life into God’s first human children:  “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.”

… and indeed, it all was very good.

What does it mean to be made in the image of God?  What does it mean to be created in the image of the loving, outpouring, life-giving source of All That Is?

Early Church theologians wrote of Perichoresis—an articulation of the way the three divine Persons dwell within and between one another in perpetual fellowship and intimacy.

In the beginning was Relationship.

Humankind was created in relationship. We were born into relationship. We were baptized into relationship—in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit–and welcomed into the Household of God.

The fourth century Cappadocian Fathers of the Eastern Church used the metaphor of a flow of love and communion between coequal, coeternal, yet separate Persons of the Trinity. Picture them endlessly giving and endlessly receiving, subject-to-subject, I to Thou, again and again and again. The movement is not hierarchical, it is circular; one part does not dominate the others at any point. Richard Rohr calls this a Divine Dance and cites the beautiful icon by Andrei Rublev—the figures perpetually gesturing and gazing lovingly toward one another.

We’re part of the Divine Dance. And on this Trinity Sunday of 2020 there is a lot riding on how we understand this reality—this image in which we were created– and how seriously we take its challenge and invitation.

The Holy Trinity is a paradigm, a template, for Beloved Community; a community of love, generosity, creativity and healing. To be in God’s image is to be in community. There is no true community where there is no mutual respect, trust, compassion and justice. There is no community in the person who is unaware of their own vulnerability, dependence upon and responsibility for the well being of others. If we envision being in the image of God as being a mirror of God’s self then a community without mutual respect, trust, compassion and justice is like a broken mirror—skewed, fractured, incomplete, with shards that slice, leaving deep scars.

Where to begin with how this image of fracture and wounding reflects our own communities now? Where to begin when stories of violence, injustice and hubris pummel us faster than we can take them in and process them? Where to begin when a parishioner sends me a cartoon of a white policeman smiling down at a small Black child, asking, “So, young man, what do you want to be when you grow up?” and the child looks up, raising his hands in the air, and says, “Alive.”

Where to begin?

In the beginning, 1619. The year the first enslaved children of God came to our shores. It is our country’s original sin, with a four-century legacy of cruelty, bigotry and system-spanning injustices that have continued long after Emancipation; Jim Crow laws, lynchings, housing and employment discrimination, mass incarceration, voter suppression, health care disparities, especially in the context of COVID-19, and name after name after name of Black men and women victims of police brutality.  “I can’t breathe”.

God’s image is broken in pieces.

I keep hearing these words from James Baldwin, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

We need to look in the mirror and see where we have fallen short of the image of God. We need to confront, and be confronted by, the reality that the edifice of white privilege has been built upon the backs of our Black brothers and sisters. We need to repent our country’s blindness to the worth and dignity of Black children of God, and, in the words of the Center for Reconciliation, the sinful pattern of “treating Black lives and Black bodies as criminal, disposable, and outside of the human family. “

The voices of protest and anguish in our streets are calling us to get back in step with the Divine Dance; to remember who and whose we all are.

Not everyone has forgotten. Even among the chaos we see people joining the dance—sometimes literally. In Flint Michigan, the Genesee County Sheriff laid down his baton and helmet and joined the march. At a Newark protest law enforcement officers joined the crowd kneeling in a moment of silence. As the gathering gradually transformed into a community dance party, a police officer joined in. In Minneapolis Ruhel Islam, a Bangladeshi immigrant, heard that his restaurant was on fire in the protests, and said, “Let the buildings burn. Justice needs to be served.” Standing amid the ruins he said, “We can rebuild a building. But we cannot give [George Floyd] back to his family.” And then he and his daughter went to work in the Interfaith Garden that they had planted nearby. Tending to the cilantro and bean plants, he said, “I’m going to plant in the garden and pray for everyone.”

We can remember the Dance. We can march in our holy anger at injustice. We can step forward to learn the name and story of our neighbors. (We may be wearing masks, but that doesn’t stop us from looking people in the eye and seeing the spark of the Divine.) Moving harmoniously, acknowledging each other subject to subject, I to Thou, we can draw the circle wider and wider until all of God’s children are part of the flow of mutual respect, trust, compassion and justice.

“Let us make humankind in our image.”

What does it mean to be made in the image of the Trinitarian God in this shattered time?

It is to hear the invitation to the Dance. It is to know that we have been baptized into a faith that has called us into this moment; to be a community of love and compassion; to be agents of holy listening, truth-telling and reconciliation.

It is to become what we believe.

May we dance in the name of the Lover, the Beloved, and the Love-Sharer, Amen.

If you are not a regular St Martin’s supporter we invite you to

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Thank you for supporting our ministry during this period of physical distancing