SEXAGESIMA 2008

Last Sunday, following the service, as I was driving Gary Sokolyk either to or from lunch, he mused about something that I mentioned in my cover message for the January Annunciator. In that message, I mentioned the topic of my Bachelor’s thesis in university having been in micropalaeontology, and Gary thought that there might be rather limited practical application for such an apparently esoteric topic. Perhaps not well known to non-geologists is that micropalaeontology is very important in the oil exploration business; the presence of certain types of micro-organisms being indicative of the possible presence of salt domes – salt domes themselves being indicative of the possible presence of fossil fuels.

However, I mentioned to Gary that my personal interest in micropalaeontology was much less profit oriented – my fascination being with oceanographic applications. Gary chuckled, and mentioned that I therefore shared that study interest with the current head of The Episcopal Church in the United States. The cause for Gary’s laughter is that Katherine Jefferts Schori has not been particularly well-respected as the head of the TEC, so much so that some Americans have taken to referring to her as the “presiding oceanographer”.

Then I had to chuckle when I looked ahead to the readings for today, with the very well known parable of the sower and the seed, as I recalled reading somewhere about an American bishop to whom reference was made, “As a bishop, he made a good horticulturist.” Actually, with my love of gardening, that observation hit rather close to home. Hopefully, when I have run the race and finished the course, I might be remembered for something other than “flowers by God, photographs by the bishop.”

Last Sunday, Fr. David reminded us that we had moved from one season of the Church year to another. Our focus has shifted from being centred on our Lord’s Nativity, to which we looked forward during Advent, and then, as it were, backwards during Christmas and Epiphanytide; now to Easter, looking forward through the preparatory and penitential seasons of Pre-Lent and Lent to our Lord’s Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection. Last Sunday, the theme shift was quite obvious with the Epistle encouraging us to focus on running the race so that we may obtain the prize – the prize being of course salvation; and the Gospel parable of the workers in the vineyard and the attendant “pay for their work” also being salvation. Salvation of course, being won for us by the events of Good Friday and Easter.

Today’s reading are somewhat less obvious – and for good reason. The propers for today date back to the sixth century when this Sunday’s Mass was sung in the Church of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome. In the Collect we hear an oft used phrase or exhortation from St. Paul in his letters to the Church, “put not your trust in any thing that we do.” The original form of the Collect was much clearer in its reference to St. Paul. Where our Prayer Book version reads, “Mercifully grant that by thy power”, the original form read, “Mercifully grant that by the protection of the Doctor of the Gentiles.”

The Epistle is of course that very graphically autobiographical narrative of Paul’s in his second letter to the Church in Corinth. When we come to the Gospel, we might suspect that the connection is far less obvious, until we consider that St. Paul was a very conspicuous sower of the Word in the early Church.

While it might seem clear now that the readings are very specific indeed to a remembrance of St. Paul, their inclusion at this particular time of year is equally fortuitous. As we know, because the date of Easter fluctuates over the space of more than one month, the date of Sexagesima Sunday will also fluctuate in kind. Still, Sexagesima will always fall on or after the calendar date of the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, January 25. This year we are very close indeed to that date, it having been just two days ago.

However, happily, the readings are just as appropriate to Pre-Lent. The Epistle is a clear reminder of that which our Lord told His followers – they should expect to be persecuted and to suffer for His Name’s sake. As did St. Paul, so might we. It has been mentioned before that the current mindset of far too many Christians, especially or particularly in the West, is that suffering of any kind is a bad thing and to be avoided at all costs. That hardly seems to echo truly against our Lord’s exhortation to take up our crosses and follow Him; and, in marked contrast we see many very clear examples of Christians around the world, where persecution rages, doing just that with the same kind of inexplicable joy as did the first Christians. We have much to learn from them.

Now I’m not suggesting here that we should spend these last 10 days before Lent planning on how we might suffer during those 40 days. If we are truly faithful to our Lord and His Gospel, we shall not have to seek out suffering. What I will suggest is that, as we look ahead to and through Lent, we should acknowledge the reality of suffering, even its benefits; and, most of all, not turn away from a deeply thoughtful sharing of our Lord’s suffering in His Passion when we arrive at the climax of the season. It has been said before that a good Lent involves at the very least that we walk with our Lord to His Crucifixion.

There are certainly different types of suffering, some of them inappropriate in terms of spiritual benefit, and it is for protection against those types of adversities that we pray in the Collect as we look ahead to our Lenten journey.

Which brings us to the Gospel for today, and of those for last and next Sunday for that matter. The three Gospel readings chosen for these “gesima” Sundays bring together so very much in terms of our individual responses to God: last Sunday and this, two of the most well-known parables that our Lord taught – the workers in the vineyard and the sower and the seed – both with highly symbolic but profoundly important messages about salvation. Next Sunday, clearly looking ahead through Lent to His Passion, we shall hear our Lord telling His disciples that He was going to be put to death – and yet, while trudging towards Jerusalem to that fate, still full of compassion towards the needs of others in turning aside to heal the blind man by the wayside. Surely a reminder to us that, regardless of whatever suffering, or burden, or Lenten discipline we might be undergoing, we should never be so self-consumed as to neglect others in any kind of need. “I can’t help you fix your furnace Mrs. Jones; I’ve given up chocolate for Lent, and it’s left me too weak to turn a screwdriver.”

In terms of specific reminders against today’s particular Gospel reading, we’ve been told often enough that the various types of ground, on which the seed cast by the sower falls, represent the ground of our hearts. In contemplating others, I personally have been wrong enough times in prejudging whether it’s worth sharing the Good News, the Word of God, the Seed, with this or that person whom I felt would be rocky ground, only for them to turn out to be more fertile than I am, that this parable holds a special place in my lexicon of important reminders. Which is to say, the different soils in which the seed of faith is sown are not always distinguishable at first; sometimes not even during catechism. We should never conclude that someone will not bring forth abundantly, remembering that while perhaps I or Moreen Morris or Jim Spencer have sowed, and Pat Bell, or Dr. Henry or Ruth Horrall have watered ... “God gives the increase.”

Lastly, let us remind ourselves that, particularly at this time of year, when we are but days away from Lent, it is most appropriate to look inwardly and ask ourselves, “What type of ground am I, have I been, and, with God’s help, might become?”

ANNUNCIATION OTTAWA 2008 +CR