Throughout the year the rector and other ministry leaders write columns that are featured in the parish newsletter, the Evangel. The columns have been catalogued on this webpage.
Ash Wednesday is less than two weeks away. Last Sunday was Septuagesima, seventy days before Easter; this coming Sunday is Sexagesima, sixty days before Easter; and March 2 is Quinquagesima, fifty days before Easter. If you are doing the math, you quickly discover these Latin titles are symbolic. These Sundays are often called Pre-Lent, and in some churches the color has already changed to violet, and the alleluias have been removed.
This past Sunday we celebrated the ancient feast of Candlemas. I mentioned in the homily that if this feast falls on a Sunday, it supersedes the Sunday after Epiphany. Some churches leave their nativity scenes out until Candlemas, as for many this is the feast that officially ends the Christmas cycle. Sunday was the fortieth day after Christmas, when we hear the final childhood story of Jesus - his presentation in the Jerusalem Temple where Simeon and Anna greet the Holy Family.
This Sunday is the fortieth day after Christmas, and according to the Gospel of Saint Luke, it was when Mary and Jesus brought the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem. It is there that Simeon and Anna greet the Christ Child with joy, for the Messiah has entered the Temple. The Kingdom of God has arrived.
I want to begin by thanking everyone for our joyful annual meeting last Sunday. Everyone was in good spirits, and the meeting ran smoothly. Thank you to the vestry for providing the lunch, and gratitude is due to Dr. Michael Ida for his financial presentation. It was also good to see the Parish Hall filled with our parishioners for the meeting.
The Annual Meeting of St. Mark’s is this Sunday, January 19, at 12:30 noon in the Parish Hall. We will hold elections for the Vestry and Diocesan Convention delegates, ministry reports will be shared, and the vestry will serve lunch. The meeting usually runs under an hour. When you arrive please sign in, so that the vestry may establish that we have a quorum consisting of the membership.
One of the challenges we face every year in the Church is that once Christmas Eve and Day have been celebrated, people have grown tired of Christmas. Because the secular world begins Christmas so early, by the time the Nativity of our Lord arrives, people are ready to be finished with Christmas. Add to this the great emphasis placed on New Year's Eve in our local cultures, and there is little energy left for a robust celebration of the Twelve Days of Christmas culminating with Epiphany Day on January 6.
We quickly caught our breath after Thanksgiving to welcome Advent this year. Such pace may have caught us unprepared for the riches of Advent. I have friends who struggled to fit family obligations into their calendars. To have control over our calendars is alluring. After all, managing time well is a hallmark of responsibility and an increasing social necessity.
A good mystery novel is a work of art. Every scene is significant–even those in which not much seems to be happening–and every detail, no matter how small, has a place in an intricately crafted plot. The same is true of the liturgies of the church. Not just the yearly cycle of seasons from Advent to ordinary time, but the cycles of liturgies that mark the special holy days in our parish life, like Easter and, most recently, Christmas.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. At St. Mark's we hear these words from St. John's Gospel at the conclusion of almost every mass. One of the exceptions is on Christmas Day when the Prologue of John is the main gospel of the mass, and at the end of the mass we hear the story of the Magi adoring the Christ. Many of us can say the Prologue of John from memory since we hear it almost every day.
