Part 3 of the church year is Epiphanytide. This is part of my year-long video series on the church calendar, check it out:
For further reading:
Readings Review – The Epiphany Special
Our usual Monday fare is going to look a little different today. Instead of looking at the lessons of the whole weeks (past and present) we’re just going to narrow in on the feast of the Epiphany. But first, the quick run-down…
Last week: Wisdom 9-11 Genesis 1-4, Revelation 21-22, John 1-3:21, Song of Songs 6-8, Jeremiah 1-3, Luke 23-24, Galatians 1-4
This week: Genesis 5-11, John 3:22-6:21, Jeremiah 4-10, Galatians 5-6, 1 Thess. 1-4:12
Special reading for the Epiphany on Monday morning: Matthew 2:1-12
Special reading for the Epiphany on Monday evening: John 2:1-12
As I noted last week the Epistles of St. Paul in evening prayer are being read in their estimated chronological order, so after Galatians we’re moving to 1 Thessalonians.
The Epiphany Lessons
The major highlight this week is today – January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany. It’s one of the seven Principle Feasts listed in the 2019 Prayer Book on page 688, putting it essentially on par with Christmas and Easter (and four other holy days). As a result, both Morning and Evening Prayer get a special reading, out of the daily sequential sequence, to mark this day.
In the morning is the obvious choice: Matthew 2:1-12, in which we read of the magi and their journey and the gifts for the young Jesus. This is the “primary” celebration for the Epiphany. It’s also doubling with today’s gospel lesson at the Communion, which previous daily lectionaries never really did before, but ours does due to the sad reality that very few churches hold communion services on weekday feasts anymore.
The other special reading, in Evening Prayer, is John 2:1-12, which is perhaps less obvious: the Wedding at Cana. If you go back to the original prayer book daily lectionary you will see three major gospels featured: The adoration of the magi (at the Communion), the baptism of Jesus (in Morning Prayer), and the Wedding at Cana (in Evening Prayer). Those are three big “epiphanies” that start off the season. Each of these gospel stories, in their various ways, proclaim the divinity of Jesus – his reception of gifts, the testimony from God the Father, and finally the power at Jesus’ own command. The wedding at Cana would go on to be the gospel lesson for the Communion in one of the early Sundays of the Epiphany season, and in the 20th century the baptism of Jesus began to take over the first Sunday of Epiphanytide also. But in the modern lectionary that we have in the 2019 Prayer Book, the wedding at Cana in John 2 is no longer a mainstay gospel. It’s read on the second Sunday in Year C, but not not Years A & B. Therefore our lectionary makes a point of retaining this story on Epiphany Day itself to make sure it’s still part of our annual observance of Epiphanytide.
The Circumcision & Holy Name of Jesus
It’s January 1st, and you know what that means… it’s the eighth day of Christmas, when our Lord Jesus got circumcised! Happy Feast of the Circumcision, everybody! Let’s turn to the Bible:
And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Luke 2:21
Yeah, I’m not kidding.
The handling of this holy day in the 2019 Prayer Book is actually one of the last-minute changes that have proved a pleasant surprise for me to discover. Last year, as I described it here, the draft texts suggested that this would be the feast of the Holy Name and Circumcision, but in the actual book the order has been switched to Circumcision first, Holy Name second. This represents a rare recovery of old tradition that had been largely lost in the course of modernist revision. The 1979 Prayer Book replaced the Circumcision with the Holy Name. Even the Roman Catholics replaced the Circumcision, in their case with a solemnity of Mary, because apparently they didn’t have enough Marian feasts already, I guess?
If you’re new to the concept of this holy day, or to the idea of circumcision in general, consider checking out this write-up I made two years ago. Some of its liturgical references are out of date, or non-applicable to the 2019 Prayer Book, but that’s alright, the information is still useful, and Scripture is still Scripture.
So how do we go about celebrating the circumcision of Christ according to the 2019 book? Let’s start with the Collect of the Day, which should be read last night (Evening Prayer on December 31st) at at Morning Prayer, the Communion service, and Evening Prayer today.
Almighty God, your blessed Son fulfilled the covenant of circumcision for our sake, and was given the Name that is above every name: Give us grace faithfully to bear his Name, and to worship him with pure hearts according to the New Covenant; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
The daily office, sadly, only give us one special reading for this day, where the historic prayer books always had more. It’s Luke 2:8-21, which is simply the post-birth narrative of Jesus, leading up to his circumcision and naming in verse 21. This serves as the Gospel lesson at the Communion service as well. If you follow this customary’s midday prayer supplemental lectionary then you’ll get back one of the historic readings for this feast day, Genesis 17:9-end, in which Abraham first receives the covenant of circumcision from God.
Turning to the Communion lessons, we’ve got Exodus 34:1-9, Psalm 8, Romans 1:1-7, and Luke 2:15-21. The Gospel is a shorter version of the Evening Prayer lesson already mentioned. The reading from Exodus 34 tells of the re-establishment of the covenant with Moses during which God declares one form of his name: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Psalm 8 responds with a celebration of how majestic God’s Name is, and Romans 1 opens a striking christological statement. The line about “the obedience of faith” is a key tie-in with the Old Covenant concept of circumcision, and the call to “belong to Jesus Christ” is a pointer to the New Covenant.
Something that is, perhaps, a missed opportunity, is the Epistle lesson appointed for this day in the classic prayer books, before 1962. It was Romans 4:8-14, which deals more directly with the question of circumcision and its relation to the justification offered in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
If you have time today, I encourage you to look at the articles and pages linked to in this entry, as they will help you explore and discern the richness of this ‘unlikely’ holiday.
Renewal of Baptismal Vows
Coming up in a couple weeks is the First Sunday of Epiphany, which is one of the four traditional Baptismal occasions of the church year. I say “four traditional occasions,” but take that concept gently: any day is a good day for a baptism. Don’t turn people down because it’s Advent or Lent; as it says on page 221, The minister shall encourage parents not to defer the Baptism of their children (emphasis added). That being understood, when dealing with baptismal preparation for those of a riper age, there are four big days scattered fairly evenly throughout the year that have been identified as especially appropriate for Baptism and Confirmation: The Baptism of our Lord (the modern Epiphany 1), the Easter Vigil, the Day of Pentecost, and All Saints’ Day. Of course, any day, a holy day or otherwise, is appropriate for such life-giving rites as baptism and confirmation, but insofar as a parish is able to plan and prepare for these milestones, those are the “best” four days in the year to aim for.
One of the interesting features of the 2019 Prayer Book, adapted from the 1979’s use, is the “Renewal of Baptismal Vows” – a rite appointed for use when there are no actual baptisms to be had. Our prayer book, on page 194, notes that
If there are no baptisms or confirmations at the Easter Vigil, the Renewal of Baptismal Vows takes place after the Service of Lessons or the Sermon. On other occasions, the Renewal of Vows follows the Sermon. The Nicene Creed is not said.
This means that we are expected to use this rite at the Easter Vigil when no baptisms and confirmations are taking place, and we are permitted to use it at other times. The four “big baptismal days” – Epiphany 1, Easter Vigil, Pentecost, All Saints’ – are arguably the “best” times to pull this rite out and observe it with your congregation.
The Incarnate Word
Happy Christmas Eve!
Here’s a brief homily for Evening Prayer today, looking primarily at the Psalm appointed (the beginning of 119). I hope you enjoy the holidays ahead!
Walk-through of the Communion liturgy (BCP 2019)
Over the past few months we’ve been walking through the Communion liturgy in the 2019 Prayer Book, step by step, and just finished last week. Now it’s time to share the full index of this summary so you can go back, catch up on anything you missed, or revisit what you might want to revisit.
This is not, of course, a complete commentary on every portion of the liturgy. But it does give you something to think about, or context to consider, for each section of the worship service. Plus some advice along the way!
- The Trinitytide Acclamation or The Advent Acclamation
- The Collect for Purity
- The Penitential Rite (Decalogue or Summary of the Law)
- The Gloria in Excelsis
- The Number of Collects and Lessons
- The Nicene Creed (translation)
- The Order of the Sermon & Creed
- The Prayers of the People
- The Exhortation
- The Confession
- The Comfortable Words
- The Offertory Sentences
- The Sursum Corda
- The Proper Preface
- The two(ish) Prayers of Consecration
- The Epiclesis
- The Fraction
- The Prayer of Humble Access
- the Anthem
- What the Minister says to the Congregation at the Communion
- The two Post-Communion Prayers
- The Blessing
- The Dismissal
Let’s talk about the Christmas Season
Entry #2 of my video series on the basics of the Church Calendar has been on YouTube for a week or two now, and it’s time to share it here. Yes, most of you who read this already know that Christmas doesn’t start until Christmas Day (or Eve, technically), but I’m putting this out there now in preparation – I know a lot of people tend to get quite busy during the week in which Christmas lands.
Christmas is best known as the celebration of the birth of Jesus, but theologically (as the Collects and Lessons elucidate) the application of the Christmas celebration is far more theologically rich: we celebrate God the Son taking on human nature and thereby sharing his divinity with us! Thus we celebrate the beginning of our redemption, our salvation, without even having to bring the Cross into the picture.
A resource that may be useful is last year’s write-up observing the differences between Christmas Day and Christmas Sunday: https://saint-aelfric-customary.org/2018/12/29/christmas-day-versus-sunday/ Apart from that, here’s the video:
Sirach’s Wisdom anticipates Jesus
We don’t typically have entries on this blog on Sundays; most of the readership is busy on Sunday morning and I don’t want to distract you on the Lord’s Day (or distract myself promoting a post on Facebook or whatnot). So today we’re looking at something that’s show up in one of tomorrow’s lessons.
At Morning Prayer on December 15th we read Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 51, the final chapter of that long book. The last chapter and a half, like the prologue, make for great reading because we get to see the author step out from behind the shadows and talk briefly about himself and his work, giving us an unusual amount of insight into the purpose and making of this book – very few biblical writings provide us with such opportunities, the opening verses of Luke and Acts being shorter examples.
Specifically, the very end of chapter 51 has a lovely little wrap-up:
Draw near to me, you who are untaught, and lodge in the house of instruction.
Why do you say you are lacking in these things, and why are your souls very thirsty?
I opened my mouth and said: Get these things for yourselves without money.
Put your neck under the yoke and let your souls receive instruction; it is to be found close by.
See with your eyes that I have labored little and found for myself much rest.
Get instruction with a large sum of silver, and you will gain by it much gold.
May your soul rejoice in his mercy; and my you not be put to shame when you praise him.
Do your works before the appointed time, and in God’s time he will give you your reward.
Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 51:22-30
A host of references to other parts of the Bible can be found here. The first three verses echo Proverbs 1:20-33 and Proverbs 8, in which Wisdom is personified, calling out on the streets to the simple who would come and learn from her. Ben-Sirach does not depict Wisdom as a woman in this closing poem, but puts himself forth as a sage, one who teaches wisdom to others, but he is clearly well-schooled in Hebrew wisdom given his fluent use of the language of the proverbs in issuing his invitation to learn from the great tradition through him.
He then speaks of learning in terms of a “yoke” and “little” labor. A little study in wisdom goes a long way! Our Lord Jesus himself would take up this language from Ben-Sirach when he said “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). The similarities are remarkable; it’s likely that either this set of images was commonplace in Hebrew teaching language, or Jesus was simply paraphrasing Sirach.
Even the line about paying silver to gain instruction and “much gold” lays the foundation for some of Jesus’ parables about the Kingdom of God – the buried treasure, the pearl of great price – the idea that what we have to gain is far greater than what we could ever spend to gain it.
Of course, there is a difference between the wisdom and teaching of Ben-Sirach in his book called Ecclesiasticus, and the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. The former was a brilliant compiler of the Hebrew wisdom tradition and well-schooled in the grand sweet of the Hebrew Bible, able to write of the great heroes of the faith from Enoch in the mists of the past all the way to Simon the High Priest who saw the consummation of the Maccabean rebellion. If there was no New Testament, this book could almost be treated as the capstone for the entire Hebrew Bible. But we do have a New Testament, and we do have Jesus the awaited Messiah, or Christ. As effective a teacher as Ben-Sirach was, he was not God-in-the-flesh. As Christians, we turn to Jesus to show us the perfect way to understand the Old Testament.
In the meantime, it’s great to see moments like this, in chapter 51, where Ben-Sirach’s stand so clearly and brightly between the Old Testament and the New. (This is why this book, with the other Ecclesiastical Books, belongs between the Testaments in print, unlike its strange placement in the new one from Anglican Liturgy Press.)
Dismissals
The very last act of worship in the Prayer Book’s Communion service (unless you have a hymn or other music after this, as the rubrics permit) is the Dismissal on page 122 and 138. This is an import from the Roman Rite (and the 1979 Prayer Book); the classical Prayer Book tradition didn’t include a dismissal, but ended with the Blessing. That being said, most (if not all) of the 1928 Prayer Book parishes that I’ve visited have tacked on a Dismissal to the end of the liturgy anyway! I guess it really helps for the celebrant, or deacon, to tell people that the liturgy is over.
The rubrics state “The Deacon, or the Priest, may dismiss the People with these words“. This indicates three things:
- If there is a deacon serving, he is the one should say this. The priest only says it in the absence of a deacon.
- The Dismissal is optional, and may be left off, according to the historic Prayer Book pattern.
- The Dismissals provided are the complete list of approved dismissals; we’re not technically supposed to re-word them or make up different ones. (Not that this is a massively critical piece of the worship service that will undermine the entire Christian Faith if we mess it up, but at the very least it avoids confusion if we don’t go “off-script” too far.)
The four dismissals all have the same response by the congregation: “Thanks be to God.” though “Alleluia, alleluia” is indicated to be added from the Easter Vigil through the Day of Pentecost. “It may be added at other times, except during Lent and on other penitential occasions.” This is a concession to popular practice, I suspect; traditionally, additional Alleluia’s are only found in that Easter-Ascension-Pentecost block of time.
Identifying the choices and when to use them
The four dismissals provided are not accompanied with any suggestions about times of year for use, allowing a parish or deacon to stick to one favorite all the time, use whichever one catches the deacon’s fancy at the time, or make a choice according to liturgical mood or tone.
Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.
This is perhaps the most straight-forward dismissal, and the one I find myself using the most often. The word “Name” is capitalized here, as it often is in liturgical texts, because “the Name of Christ” or of God is of particular theological significance. The Name, in ancient understanding, is representative of the power, authority, even presence, of the one named. Regarding both the Tabernacle (or Tent of Meeting) and the Temple in Jerusalem, God said he would make his Name dwell there. So when we depart in the Name of Christ, the implication is that we carry Christ with us, out from the church gathering and into the ordinary world around us.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
The second dismissal is more like a “mission statement reminder”, giving the people particular instructions on their way out. The call to love and service may make this dismissal particularly appropriate in penitential seasons, when there are concrete spiritual disciplines being preached from the pulpit, or otherwise commended in the lessons.
Let us go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is the longest and most specific dismissal. It points us out into the world, like the first two, but, rather than emphasizing good works like the second, it suggests a continued life of worship like the first. Rather than centering us on Christ, though, this dismissal centers us on the Holy Spirit. This perhaps makes it particularly appropriate for the Day of Pentecost and other occasions that share that emphasis. And, lest one misconstrue a Pentecostal excess, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).
Let us bless the Lord.
The appearance of this stark and brief dismissal in some of the Holy Week services in the 1979 Prayer Book suggested that this is an appropriate dismissal for that time of year, but I haven’t found it there in our new prayer book, which frees this dismissal to an “any time” status. As it is found at the end of the Daily Offices too, this simplest of dismissals may find their natural home in brief weekday Communion services or the ordinary Sundays of Trinitytide.
The Dismissal historically
The most common nickname for the service of Holy Communion among the Papists is “the Mass”. That name comes from the usual traditional Latin dismissal “ite, missa est.” I have often heard it said that the word missa indicates “mission”, that we’re being sent into the world bring the Gospel to all nations. While this is a fine sentiment, and perhaps even an implication of the idea of the dismissal, that’s not what the word really is. There is some linguistic discussion on its precise etymology and origin, which you can read about on the Wikipedia page linked above, but basically the missa here refers either to the congregation which is being sent, or to the dismissal being said. Mission is a fine and proper implication, but not the direct meaning of that dismissal.
This background insight translates pretty well into our four dismissals, in that some of ours indicate a “missional” character and others don’t. Both are valid interpretations of the purpose and message of the dismissal. In your own ministry context, be sure you don’t pigeon-hole the dismissal into an overly-narrow field of meaning.
About that Magnificat…
One of the ancient staples of Christian prayer is the Song of Mary, the Magnificat, found in Luke 1, after Mary and Elizabeth have their encounter with their respective unborn sons recognizing one another in utero. It has been associated with Vespers, or Evening Prayer, for many centuries, and the Anglican Prayer Book tradition is no exception. The 1662 Prayer Book appoints it for Evening Prayer every day, all year, only replacing it with a Psalm when its text will appear in a lesson that day. Subsequent Prayer Books, including ours, do not make that rule explicit, and so we technically do have more leeway with replacing the Magnificat with another Canticle, but in the spirit of the prayer book tradition, we should not.
And with good reason – the Magnificat is a fantastic song-prayer. And its words are… startling. The first half of it celebrates what God has done with, in, and through Mary herself, and the second half of it celebrates what God has done for the whole world. “He has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and has exalted the humble and meek. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he sent empty away.” Taken in a (very) anachronistic context, this could be an anthem for class warfare! But this is prophetic language – a survey of the Old Testament prophets will yield multiple hits of phrases like these. The work of God, however spiritualized and gospel-centric you describe it, still yields real-work effects. Sometimes such in-breaking of the Kingdom of God can resemble all sorts of political and economic and social theories without actually confining itself to any one of them. So while one can not read the Magnificat as a socialist manifesto, one can see elements of a socialist ideal drawn from the Magnificat. Sure, Marx was an anti-religious nut who didn’t always know what he was criticizing, but that didn’t stop him from absorbing select elements of the Gospel.
The Kingdom of God is like that… it gets everywhere and changes the world in all sorts of ways, whether every individual accepts it wholesale or not.
Meanwhile, regarding the first half of the Magnificat, we can learn a startling amount about the Blessed Virgin Mary herself. Since we’re in the the midst of Advent now, and that’s basically the only time of year most Protestants dare breathe the name of Mary out loud, let’s talk about her. What do Anglicans believe about the Virgin Mary?
The Saint Aelfric Customary 