Daily prayers during Christmas and Epiphany: 26, 19 January 2024

Saint John with the poisoned chalice, above the main gate of Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today (19 January 2023), and this week began with the Second Sunday of Epiphany (14 January 2024). Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).

The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls Wulfstan (1095), Bishop of Worcester. Today is also the second day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Before today begins, I am taking some time for reflection, reading and prayer. My reflections each morning during the seven days of this week include:

1, A reflection on one of the seven people who give their names to epistles in the New Testament;

2, the Gospel reading of the day;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The symbol of the serpent and the chalice, a carving by Eric Gill in the capstone at Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

6, Saint John:

Saint Paul does not give his own name to any of his letters, but seven people give their names to a total of seven of the letters or epistles in the New Testament: Timothy (I and II Timohty), Titus, Philemon, James, Peter (I and II Peter), John (I, II and III John), and Jude.

Saint John the Evangelist, the author of the Fourth Gospel, the three Johannine Letters and the Book of Revelation, is also known as Saint John the Divine and Saint John of Patmos, and as the Beloved Disciple. Yet, while the Fourth Gospel refers to an unnamed ‘Beloved Disciple,’ the author of the Gospel seems interested in maintaining his internal anonymity.

He is celebrated in the Calendar of the Church two days after Christmas Day, on 27 December, and the Prologue to Saint John’s Gospel is one of the traditional readings on Christmas Day. So, many may be familiar with his writings during the season of Christmas, although they may not be not familiar with his life story.

Saint John the Evangelist (Hebrew, יוֹחָנָן‎, Yoḥanan, ‘God is gracious,’ Greek, Ἰωάννης) is identified with the ‘Beloved Disciple’ who is unnamed in the Fourth Gospel. He is also identified traditionally as the author of the Fourth Gospel, the three Johannine Letters (I John, II John and II John) and the Book of Revelation.

Christian tradition says Saint John the Evangelist was one of the original Twelve apostles and the only one to live into old age and not killed for his faith. If this identification and tradition is correct, then, as well as being a Biblical author, this Saint John has a prominent place throughout the Gospels, for he is:

● one of the three disciples at the Transfiguration,
● one of the disciples sent to prepare a place for the Last Supper,
● one of the three disciples present in the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ is arrested,
● the only disciple present at the Crucifixion,
● the disciple to whom Christ entrusts his mother from the Cross,
● the first disciple to arrive at Christ’s tomb after the Resurrection,
● the disciple who first recognises Christ standing on the lake shore following the Resurrection.

So, Saint John the Evangelist is identified with John who was a Galilean, the son of Zebedee and Salome, and the brother of James the Greater. In the Gospels, the two brothers are often called ‘the sons of Zebedee’ after their father, and Christ calls them the ‘sons of thunder’ (ἐπέθηκεν αὐτοῖς ὀνόμα[τα] Βοανηργές, ὅ ἐστιν Υἱοὶ Βροντῆς, ‘he gave to them the names Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder’; see Mark 3: 17).

Originally they were fishermen who fished with their father in the Lake of Genesareth. However, for a time they became time disciples of Saint John the Baptist, and were called by Christ from the circle of John's followers, together with along with Saint Andrew and Saint Peter (see John 1: 35-42).

In the Gospel lists of the Twelve, Saint John is listed second (Acts 1: 13), third (Mark 3: 17 in today’s Gospel reading in the lectionary) or fourth (Matthew 10: 3; Luke 6: 14), yet always after Saint James, apart from a few passages (Luke 8: 51; 9: 28; Acts 1: 13).

Peter, James and John are the only witnesses of the raising of Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5: 37), the Transfiguration (Matthew 17: 1), and Christ’s Agony in Gethsemane (Matthew 26: 37). John and Peter alone are sent into the city to prepare for the Last Supper (Luke 22: 8).

At the Last Supper, John sits beside Christ, reclining next to him (John 13: 23, 25). According to the general interpretation, John is ‘another disciple’ who, with Peter, follows Christ after the arrest into the courtyard of the high priest (John 18: 15).

The Beloved Disciple, alone among the Twelve, remains with Christ at the foot of the Cross with the Mother of Christ and the women and he is asked by the dying Christ to take Mary into his care (John 19: 25-27). After Mary Magdalene’s report of the Resurrection, Peter and the ‘other disciple’ are the first to go to the grave, and the ‘other disciple’ is the first to believe that Christ is truly risen (John 20: 2-10).

When the Risen Christ appears at the Lake of Genesareth, ‘that disciple whom Jesus loved’ is the first of the seven disciples present who recognises Christ standing on the shore (John 21: 7).

After the Ascension and the Day of Pentecost, John and Peter take prominent roles in guiding the new Church. He is with Peter at the healing of the lame man in the Temple (Acts 3: 1-11), and is thrown into prison with Peter (Acts 4: 3). Again, we find him with Peter visiting the newly converted people of Samaria (Acts 8: 14).

After the Ascension, Saint John travels to Samaria and is thrown into prison with Saint Peter (Acts 4: 3).

Saint Paul names John, alongside James and Peter (Cephas), as pillars of the Church in Jerusalem (see Galatians 2: 9). When Paul returns to Jerusalem after his second and third journeys (Acts 18: 22; 21:17 ff), he does not seem to meet John there. Perhaps John remained there for 12 years until the persecution of Herod Agrippa I led to the scattering of the Apostles throughout the Roman Empire (cf. Acts 12: 1-17).

A Christian community is already living in Ephesus before Saint Paul’s first labours there (see Acts 18: 24-27, where the leading Christians included Priscilla and Aquila), and tradition associates Saint John the Evangelist with Ephesus, where he is said to have lived and been buried.

According to a tradition mentioned by Saint Jerome, in the second general persecution, in the year 95, Saint John was apprehended by the Proconsul of Asia and sent to Rome, where he was miraculously preserved from death when he was thrown into a vat or cauldron of boiling oil. The Church of Saint John Lateran (San Giovanni a Porta Latina), which is dedicated to him, was built near the Latin Gate (Porta Latina), the traditional scene of this event. Because of this trial, the Early Fathers of the Church give him the title of martyr.

According to ancient tradition, during the reign of the Emperor Domitian, Saint John was once given a cup of poisoned wine, but he blessed the cup and the poison rose out of the cup in the form of a serpent. Saint John then drank the wine with no ill effect.

A chalice with a serpent signifying the powerless poison is one of his symbols, so that the image of Saint John with the poisoned chalice is still seen above the main gate of Saint John’s College, Cambridge.

Domitian banished Saint John into the isle of Patmos. It was during this period that John experienced those heavenly visions which he recorded in the Book of Revelation in the year 96. The Book of Revelation tells us that its author was on the island of Patmos ‘for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus’ when he was received this revelation in a cave (see Revelation 1: 9).

After the death of Domitian, it is said, Saint John returned to Ephesus in the year 97, and there tradition says he wrote his gospel about the year 98. He is also identified with the author of the three Johannine Epistles in the New Testament. By the late second century, the tradition of the Church was saying that Saint John lived to old age in Ephesus.

Jerome, in his commentary on Chapter 6 of the Letter to the Galatians (Jerome, Comm. in ep. ad. Gal., 6, 10), tells the well-loved story that Saint John the Evangelist continued preaching in Ephesus even when he was in his 90s.

He was so enfeebled with old age that the people carried him into the Church in Ephesus on a stretcher. When he was no longer able to preach or deliver a long discourse, his custom was to lean up on one elbow on each occasion and to say simply: ‘Little children, love one another.’ This continued on, even when the ageing John was on his death-bed.

Then he would lie back down and his friends would carry him back out. Every week in Ephesus, the same thing happened, again and again. And every week it was the same short sermon, exactly the same message: ‘Little children, love one another.’

One day, the story goes, someone asked him about it: ‘John, why is it that every week you say exactly the same thing, ‘little children, love one another’?’ And John replied: ‘Because it is enough.’ If you want to know the basics of living as a Christian, there it is in a nutshell. All you need to know is. ‘Little children, love one another.’

According to Eusebius, Saint John died in peace at Ephesus, in the third year of Trajan, that is, the year 100, when he was about 94 years old. According to Saint Epiphanius, he was buried on a mountain outside the town.

The Basilica of Saint John the Theologian gave the later name of Aysoluk to the hill above the town of Selçuk, beside Ephesus.

The three Johannine letters and the Book of Revelation presuppose that their one author John belonged to the multitude of personal eyewitnesses of the life and work of Christ (see especially I John 1: 1-5; 4: 14), that he lived for a long time in Asia Minor, that he was thoroughly acquainted with the conditions in a variety of Christian communities there, and that he was recognised by all Christian communities as the leader of this part of the Church.

Collectively, the Gospel, the three letters, and Revelation are known as Johannine literature. Christian tradition identified Saint John the Apostle as the author of the Gospel, the three letters and the Book of Revelation that bear his name. However, within Johannine literature, Revelation bears the least grammatical similarity to the Gospel, and modern scholarship is divided about the Johannine authorship of these texts.

The most widely accepted view is that – whether or not the same man wrote all the Johannine works – it all came out of the same community in Asia Minor, which had some connections with Saint John the Evangelist, Saint John of Patmos, and John the Presbyter.

The author of Saint John’s Gospel never identifies himself by name, but the text identifies him as the ‘Beloved Disciple’ repeatedly referred to in the Gospel.

An icon of Saint John the Divine in the cave on Patmos listening to the voice that tells him to write

Why am I so drawn to the Johannine literature, and why has this influenced my choice of Saint John to introduce this series of studies?

First, I find the Prologue to the Gospel (John 1: 1-14) one of the greatest pieces of literature and poetry in the New Testament.

For Saint John, there is no annunciation, no nativity, no crib in Bethlehem, no shepherds or wise men, no little stories to allow us to be sentimental and to muse. He is sharp, direct and gets to the point: ‘In the beginning …’ But traditionally, the prologue to Saint John’s Gospel is one of the Gospel readings on Christmas Day.

1 Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος,
καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν,
καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
2 οὗτος ἦνἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν.
3 πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο,
καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν.
ὃ γέγονεν 4 ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν,
καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων:
5 καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇσκοτίᾳ φαίνει,
καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.

6 Ἐγένετο ἄνθρωποςἀπεσταλμένος παρὰ θεοῦ, ὄνομα αὐτῷ Ἰωάννης: 7 οὗτος ἦλθεν εἰς μαρτυρίαν, ἵναμαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός, ἵνα πάντες πιστεύσωσιν δι' αὐτοῦ. 8 οὐκ ἦν ἐκεῖνος τὸφῶς, ἀλλ' ἵνα μαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός. 9 ην τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, ὃ φωτίζειπάντα ἄνθρωπον, ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον.

10 ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν,
καὶ ὁ κόσμος δι'αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο,
καὶ ὁ κόσμος αὐτὸν οὐκ ἔγνω.
11 εἰς τὰ ἴδια ἦλθεν,
καὶ οἱ ἴδιοι αὐτὸνοὐ παρέλαβον.

12 ὅσοι δὲ ἔλαβον αὐτόν, ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν τέκνα θεοῦγενέσθαι, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, 13 οἳ οὐκ ἐξ αἱμάτων οὐδὲ ἐκθελήματος σαρκὸς οὐδὲ ἐκ θελήματος ἀνδρὸς ἀλλ' ἐκ θεοῦ ἐγεννήθησαν.

14 Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο
καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν,
καὶ ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ,
δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ πατρός,
πλήρης χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας.

1 In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through him,
and without him not one thing came into being.
What has come into being 4 in him was life,
and the life was the light of all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world,
and the world came into being through him;
yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to what was his own,
and his own people did not accept him.

12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh
and lived among us,
and we have seen his glory,
the glory as of a father’s only son,
full of grace and truth.

In art, Saint John the Evangelist is frequently represented as an Eagle, symbolising the heights to which he rises in the first chapter of his Gospel.

Secondly, I am constantly overwhelmed and in awe of the emphasis on love and light throughout the Johannine letters, whether or not you argue that the author of the Fourth Gospel is also the author of I John, or even of II John and II John.

That emphasis on love, which informs the story of Saint John’s last days I told earlier, is brought through in the first of the Johannine letters (I John 5: 1-5, 13-21):

1 Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ Χριστὸς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν γεννήσαντα ἀγαπᾷ [καὶ] τὸν γεγεννημένον ἐξ αὐτοῦ. 2 ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκομεν ὅτι ἀγαπῶμεν τὰ τέκνα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅταν τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπῶμεν καὶ τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ ποιῶμεν. 3 αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ, ἵνα τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ τηρῶμεν: καὶ αἱ ἐντολαὶ αὐτοῦ βαρεῖαι οὐκ εἰσίν, 4 ὅτι πᾶν τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ νικᾷ τὸν κόσμον: καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ νίκη ἡ νικήσασα τὸν κόσμον, ἡ πίστις ἡμῶν. 5 τίς [δέ] ἐστιν ὁ νικῶν τὸν κόσμον εἰ μὴ ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ;

13 Ταῦτα ἔγραψα ὑμῖν ἵνα εἰδῆτε ὅτι ζωὴν ἔχετε αἰώνιον, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ.

14 καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ παρρησία ἣν ἔχομεν πρὸς αὐτόν, ὅτι ἐάν τι αἰτώμεθα κατὰ τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ ἀκούει ἡμῶν. 15 καὶ ἐὰν οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἀκούει ἡμῶν ὃ ἐὰν αἰτώμεθα, οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἔχομεν τὰ αἰτήματα ἃ ᾐτήκαμεν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ. 16 Ἐάν τις ἴδῃ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ἁμαρτάνοντα ἁμαρτίαν μὴ πρὸς θάνατον, αἰτήσει, καὶ δώσει αὐτῷ ζωήν, τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσιν μὴ πρὸς θάνατον. ἔστιν ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον: οὐ περὶ ἐκείνης λέγω ἵνα ἐρωτήσῃ. 17 πᾶσα ἀδικία ἁμαρτία ἐστίν, καὶ ἔστιν ἁμαρτία οὐ πρὸς θάνατον.

18 Οἴδαμεν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐχ ἁμαρτάνει, ἀλλ' ὁ γεννηθεὶς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ τηρεῖ αὐτόν, καὶ ὁ πονηρὸς οὐχ ἅπτεται αὐτοῦ. 19 οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐσμεν, καὶ ὁ κόσμος ὅλος ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῖται. 20 οἴδαμεν δὲ ὅτι ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ἥκει, καὶ δέδωκεν ἡμῖν διάνοιαν ἵνα γινώσκωμεν τὸν ἀληθινόν: καὶ ἐσμὲν ἐν τῷ ἀληθινῷ, ἐν τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ. οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἀληθινὸς θεὸς καὶ ζωὴ αἰώνιος.

21 Τεκνία, φυλάξατε ἑαυτὰ ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων.

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, 4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

14 And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. 16 If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one—to those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal.

18 We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them. 19 We know that we are God’s children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

The site of Saint John’s tomb is marked by a marble plaque and four Byzantine pillars (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 3: 13-19 (NRSVA):

13 He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, 15 and to have authority to cast out demons. 16 So he appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17 James son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Then he went home.

Saint John’s Close … a street sign in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 19 January 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Climate Justice from Bangladesh perspective.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Right Revd Shourabh Pholia, Bishop of Barishal Diocese, Church of Bangladesh.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (19 January 2024) invites us to pray with these words in mind:

Please pray for the Barishal Diocese, Church of Bangladesh, so that its initiatives to care for the Creation can be a blessing to the local people.

The Basilica of Saint John the Theologian gave the later name of Aysoluk to the hill above the town of Selçuk, beside Ephesus (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Collect:

Lord God,
who raised up Wulfstan to be a bishop among your people
and a leader of your Church:
help us, after his example,
to live simply,
to work diligently
and to make your kingdom known;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God, shepherd of your people,
whose servant Wulfstan revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflection (Saint Peter)

Continued tomorrow (Saint Jude)

A relief sculpture of Saint John … one of a series in Pugin’s font in Saint Chad’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Birmingham with the symbols of the four evangelists (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you’

A carved relief of Nike, the goddess of victory, on a paved street in Ephesus … but the author of I John writes to the Church in Ephesus about more important signs of victory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday, 9 May 2021,

The Sixth Sunday of Easter (Easter VI), Rogation Sunday.

10 a.m.: The Parish Eucharist

The Readings: Acts 10: 44-48 or Isaiah 45: 11-13, 18-19; Psalm 98; I John 4: 7-10; John 15: 9-17.

There is a direct link to the readings HERE.

‘You are my friends if you do what I command you’ (John 15: 14) … detail on a sculpture in Knightstown on Valentia Island, Co Kerry (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

We live in the age of globalisation.

In a recent visual challenge online, people were more likely to recognise seven brand logos than they were to recognise the Seven Wonders of the World, or the seven symbols of the major world faiths.

What symbols or logos do you easily recognise?

Which logos or symbols have you allowed to brand you?

And – what symbols in your life mark you out, make you visible as a Christian?

One of the best-known symbols of globalisation must be the Nike Swoosh logo. We find it on tracksuits, sweatshirts, trainers, sneakers, and T-shirts all over the world. There must be few people who do not recognise the Nike logo. It has been sported by the likes of Michael Jordan, Andre Agassi, Maria Sharapova and Venus and Serena Williams.

The company takes its name from Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, and the ‘Swoosh’ was designed in 1971 by Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student at Portland State University. She met Phil Knight while he was teaching accounting classes and she started doing some freelance work for his company, Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS).

Have you ever heard of BRS? Well, BRS needed a new brand for a new line of athletic footwear it was preparing to introduce in 1972. Knight approached Davidson for some design ideas, and she agreed to provide them – at $2 an hour.

Carolyn Davidson presented Knight and BRS with a number of designs, and they finally selected the mark we now know as the Nike Swoosh – an abstract outline of an angel’s wing that some people think looks more like a checkmark or the tick used on school essays.

The company first used the logo as its brand in 1971, when the word ‘Nike’ was printed in orange over it. The logo is now so well-recognised all over the world, even by small children, that the company name itself is, perhaps, superfluous.

Carolyn Davidson’s bill for her work came to $35. Mind you, 12 years later, in 1983, Knight gave Davidson a gold Swoosh ring and an envelope filled with Nike stock to express his gratitude. It is surprising, then, to realise that her design was not registered as a trademark until 1995.

A logo representing victory is an appropriate and meaningful symbol for a company that manufactures and sells running shoes. A small symbol has brought victorious success to a once-small company.

It is said one of the earliest inspirations for the Nike tick sign is a carved relief of Nike, the goddess of victory, on a paved street in Ephesus.

But when Saint John was writing to the Church in Ephesus in our Epistle reading this morning (I John 5: 1-16), he expressed very different ideas about victory to his company of little children as he discussed love.

In this reading, we are reminded of the connection between faith and love, the two great themes of this epistle, and to victorious faith leading to eternal life. This letter (I John) talks about a very different type of victory than the victories associated with commercial branding, globalisation and the financial glory associated with brand names and over-commercialised sport.

Instead, the writer emphasises the victories associated with faith and love … faith in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the love of God and love of one another that should be the victorious tick sign of Christians.

As we come to the end of a cycle of reading Saint John’s first letter, we are reminded that everyone who believes in Jesus as Christ and the Son of God is a child of God too. And so, if we believe in God and in Christ as his Son, we should love God and love his children, and this is the imperative for Christians to love one another.

The author of this letter refers to love, the Baptism, the death and resurrection of Christ, and the Eucharist as the enduring symbols of Christian life.

The Gospel reading (John 15: 9-17) reminds us that love is the enduring symbol of life in Christ, the one symbol that truly marks out a Christian in this world.

Christ tells us that he loves us as the Father loves him. We are to continue to love him, and to love one another to the point that this is all that matters in life.

He tells us this deep and lasting commitment to Christ is best expressed and found in the way that we love one another (verse 17).

And that love is the only branding, the only logo, the only label, that others should look for to know that we are Christians.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

‘I do not call you servants any longer … but I have called you friends’ (John 15: 15) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 15: 9-17 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 9 ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.’

‘I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last’ (John 15: 16) … fruit on a market stall in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical colour: White.

The Greeting (from Easter Day until Pentecost):

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Penitential Kyries:

Lord God,
you raised your Son from the dead.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus,
through you we are more than conquerors.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
you help us in our weakness.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day (Easter VI):

God our redeemer,
you have delivered us from the power of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your Son:
Grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life,
so by his continual presence in us he may raise us to eternal joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Collect on Rogation Days:

Almighty God,
whose will it is that the earth and the sea
should bear fruit in due season:
Bless the labours of those who work on land and sea,
grant us a good harvest
and the grace always to rejoice in your fatherly care;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Introduction to the Peace:

The risen Christ came and stood among his disciples and said, Peace be with you. Then were they glad when they saw the Lord. (John 20: 19, 20).

Preface:

Above all we praise you
for the glorious resurrection of your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord,
the true paschal lamb who was sacrificed for us;
by dying he destroyed our death;
by rising he restored our life:

The Post-Communion Prayer (Easter VI):

God our Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ gives the water of eternal life:
May we also thirst for you,
the spring of life and source of goodness,
through him who is alive and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer (Rogation Days):

God our creator,
you give seed for us to sow and bread for us to eat.
As you have blessed the fruit of our labour in this Eucharist,
so we ask you to give all your children their daily bread,
that the world may praise you for your goodness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Blessing:

God the Father,
by whose glory Christ was raised from the dead,
raise you up to walk with him in the newness of his risen life:

Dismissal: (from Easter Day to Pentecost):

Go in the peace of the Risen Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!

‘As you have blessed the fruit of our labour in this Eucharist, so we ask you to give all your children their daily bread’ (the Post-Communion Prayer, Rogation Days) … fruit ripening on lemon trees in Platanias near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Hymns:

515, ‘A new commandment I give unto you’
231, My song is love unknown

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

‘Almighty God, whose will it is that the earth and the sea should bear fruit’

‘As you have blessed the fruit of our labour in this Eucharist, so we ask you to give all your children their daily bread’ (the Post-Communion Prayer, Rogation Days) … fruit ripening on lemon trees in Platanes near Rethymnon on the Greek island of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday, 6 May 2018,

The Sixth Sunday of Easter

11.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer, Saint Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin, Tarbert, Co Kerry.

Readings: Acts 10: 44-48; Isaiah 45: 11-13, 18-19; Psalm 98; I John 4: 7-10; John 15: 9-17.

The White-Robed Army of Martyrs on the walls of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna … from left to right, Cornelius is the fifth white-robed figure (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

In our first reading this morning (Acts 10: 44-48), the Apostle Peter baptises Cornelius and his household. Cornelius is a Roman centurion stationed in Caesarea, and both he and Saint Peter have had visions, very different visions.

The baptism of Cornelius and his household is an important event in the history of the early Church. Saint Peter takes many risks in deciding to accept Cornelius and his household into the family of faith and to eat with gentiles. But Cornelius too takes risks.

Centurions were not only professional military officers, but they were also law enforcers and tax collectors.

Cornelius now risks losing his position, his social status, and his income. All his family are put at risk too, and so this conversion has implications for his household, his family and for generations to come.

What risks are we being challenged to take in the Gospel reading, in our own Baptismal promises?

A carved relief of Nike, the goddess of victory, on a paved street in Ephesus … but the author of I John writes to the Church in Ephesus about more important signs of victory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

When we think of military figures taking risks, we sometimes think of one verse in this morning’s Gospel reading (John 15: 9-17). It is familiar to many of us because of the way one verse in it is often quoted on war memorials in our churches and cathedral: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend’ (John 15: 13).

However, in this Gospel reading Christ is talking about death and victory in a very different context, as he continues the theme of us abiding in him and he abiding in us, which we discussed last week.

We are listening to him these Sundays as he continues to prepare his disciples for his physical departure from them. He has already told us that he is the ‘true vine’ (see John 15: 1), and that we are the fruit and the branches. We are to represent him in the world and to present him to the world, bearing fruit and acting in his name, loving one another as Christ loves us and as the Father loves him.

This kind of love leads to joy, the ultimate victory. Christ, who is the model for our behaviour, loves us so much that he gave his life for us, his friends.

One of the best-known symbols of globalisation is the Nike Swoosh logo. You find it on tracksuits, on sweatshirts, on trainers, on sneakers, on T-shirts, all over the world. There must be very few people who do not recognise the Nike logo, which has been sported by the likes of Michael Jordan, Andre Agassi, Maria Sharapova and Venus and Serena Williams.

The company takes its name from Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, and the ‘Swoosh’ was designed in 1971 by Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student at Portland State University. She met Phil Knight while he was teaching accounting classes and she started doing some freelance work for his company, Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS). BRS needed a new brand for a new line of athletic footwear it was preparing to introduce in 1972. Knight approached Davidson for some design ideas, and she agreed to provide them – at $2 an hour.

Carolyn Davidson quickly presented Phil Knight and others at BRS with a number of designs, and they finally selected the mark now known globally as the Nike Swoosh – an abstract outline of an angel’s wing that some people think looks more like a checkmark or the tick used on some essays to indicate a positive mark.

The company first used the logo as its brand in 1971, when the word ‘Nike’ was printed in orange over. The logo has been used on sports shoes since then, and is now so well-recognised all over the world, even by little children, that the company name itself is, perhaps, superfluous.

Carolyn Davidson’s bill for her work came to $35. Mind you, 12 years later, in 1983, Knight gave Davidson a gold Swoosh ring and an envelope filled with Nike stock to express his gratitude. It is surprising to realise, therefore, that Carolyn Davidson’s design was not registered as a trademark until 1995.

A logo representing victory is an appropriate and meaningful symbol for a company that manufactures and sells running shoes. The logo is used in tandem with the slogan, ‘Just do it,’ and the branding campaign was so successful in communicating to their target market that the meaning for the logo evolved into a battle cry and the way of life for an entire generation. A small symbol has brought victorious success to a once-small company.

What is said to be one of the earliest inspirations for the Nike tick sign is a carved relief of Nike, the goddess of victory, on a paved street in Ephesus.

But when Saint John was writing to the Church in Ephesus, he expressed very different ideas about victory to his company of little children as he discussed love and told them to ‘just do it.’

In our Epistle reading (I John 5: 1-16), we are reminded of the connection between faith and love, the two great themes of this epistle, and to victorious faith leading to eternal life. I John talks about a very different type of victory than the victories associated with commercial branding, globalisation and the financial glory associated with brand names and over-commercialised sport. Instead, the writer emphasises the victories associated with faith and love ... faith in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the love of God and of one another that should be the victorious tick sign of Christians.

As we come towards the end of reading Saint John’s first letter, we are reminded that everyone who believes in Jesus as Christ and the Son of God is a child of God too. And so, if we believe in God and in Christ as his Son, we should love God and love his children, and this is the imperative for Christians to love one another.

But how do we know that we are doing this and showing that love? We know that know that we truly love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. Gestures of charity are simply not good enough – there must be a direct connection between loving others and living a life of holiness and sanctity.

Unlike the traditional observation and codification of the commandments, with their heavy-laden and burdensome listings and enumerations, the author tells us the love of God and love of others is not a great burden for the Christian. On the other hand, as the great German martyr of World War II Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us, there is no cheap grace, there is a cost to discipleship.

I was saying at the very beginning that this is Rogation. But it is not just the land and the fields that are supposed to be fruitful. Christ says in our Gospel reading: ‘I appointed you to go and bear fruit’ (John 15: 16).

Nobody said it was going to be easy being a Christian. But, because we are children of God, we know that our faith is a victory (Nίκη) that conquers the world. Christ has overcome the world, and our faith in him enables us to bear fruit, the sort of love that conquers the world, and only through love.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend’ … John 15: 13 quoted on the World War I memorial in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 15: 9-17:

[Jesus said:] 9 ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.’

‘I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last’ (John 15: 16) … fruit on a market stall in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Resources:

Liturgical colour: White.

The Greeting (from Easter Day until Pentecost):

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Introduction:

This Sunday, the Sunday before Ascension Day, is known traditionally as Rogation Sunday. This is the day when the Church prayed, ‘Almighty God, whose will it is that the earth and the sea should bear fruit in due season’ and traditionally offered prayers for God’s blessings on the fruits of the earth and the labours of those who produce our food.

The word ‘rogation’ comes from the Latin rogare, ‘to ask.’

Traditionally, the three Rogation Days – the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day – were a period of asking for God’s blessing on the crops and for a bountiful harvest. It is good to be reminded of our dependence on that work, on God’s blessing on that work, and of our responsibility for the environment.

Penitential Kyries:

Lord God,
you raised your Son from the dead.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus,
through you we are more than conquerors.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
you help us in our weakness.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day (the Sixth Sunday of Easter):

God our redeemer,
you have delivered us from the power of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your Son:
Grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life,
so by his continual presence in us he may raise us to eternal joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Collect (Rogation Days):

Almighty God and Father,
you have so ordered our life
that we are dependent on one another:
Prosper those engaged in commerce and industry
and direct their minds and hands
that they may rightly use your gifts in the service of others;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Introduction to the Peace:

The risen Christ came and stood among his disciples and said,
Peace be with you.
Then were they glad when they saw the Lord. (John 20: 19, 20).

Blessing:

The God of peace,
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus
that great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the eternal covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight:

or:

God the Father,
by whose glory Christ was raised from the dead,
raise you up to walk with him in the newness of his risen life:

Dismissal: (from Easter Day to Pentecost):

Go in the peace of the Risen Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!

Hymns:

299, Holy Spirit, come, confirm us
39, For the fruits of his creation.
231, My song is love unknown

‘Almighty God, whose will it is that the earth and the sea should bear fruit in due season’ … spring fruit ripening on the trees in Thessaloniki earlier this month (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

This sermon was prepared for Sunday 6 May 2018.

Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Bearing fruit in due season and conquering with love

‘Almighty God, whose will it is that the earth and the sea should bear fruit in due season’ … spring fruit ripening on the trees in Thessaloniki earlier this month (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday, 6 May 2018,

The Sixth Sunday of Easter

9.30 a.m.: The Parish Eucharist, Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick.

Readings: Acts 10: 44-48; Isaiah 45: 11-13, 18-19; Psalm 98; I John 4: 7-10; John 15: 9-17.

The White-Robed Army of Martyrs on the walls of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna … from left to right, Cornelius is the fifth white-robed figure (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

In our first reading this morning (Acts 10: 44-48), the Apostle Peter baptises Cornelius and his household. Cornelius is a Roman centurion stationed in Caesarea, and both he and Saint Peter have had visions, very different visions.

The baptism of Cornelius and his household is an important event in the history of the early Church. Saint Peter takes many risks in deciding to accept Cornelius and his household into the family of faith and to eat with gentiles. But Cornelius too takes risks.

Centurions were not only professional military officers, but they were also law enforcers and tax collectors.

Cornelius now risks losing his position, his social status, and his income. All his family are put at risk too, and so this conversion has implications for his household, his family and for generations to come.

What risks are we being challenged to take in the Gospel reading, in our own Baptismal promises?

A carved relief of Nike, the goddess of victory, on a paved street in Ephesus … but the author of I John writes to the Church in Ephesus about more important signs of victory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

When we think of military figures taking risks, we sometimes think of one verse in this morning’s Gospel reading (John 15: 9-17). It is familiar to many of us because of the way one verse in it is often quoted on war memorials in our churches and cathedral: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend’ (John 15: 13).

However, in this Gospel reading Christ is talking about death and victory in a very different context, as he continues the theme of us abiding in him and he abiding in us, which we discussed last week.

We are listening to him these Sundays as he continues to prepare his disciples for his physical departure from them. He has already told us that he is the ‘true vine’ (see John 15: 1), and that we are the fruit and the branches. We are to represent him in the world and to present him to the world, bearing fruit and acting in his name, loving one another as Christ loves us and as the Father loves him.

This kind of love leads to joy, the ultimate victory. Christ, who is the model for our behaviour, loves us so much that he gave his life for us, his friends.

One of the best-known symbols of globalisation is the Nike Swoosh logo. You find it on tracksuits, on sweatshirts, on trainers, on sneakers, on T-shirts, all over the world. There must be very few people who do not recognise the Nike logo, which has been sported by the likes of Michael Jordan, Andre Agassi, Maria Sharapova and Venus and Serena Williams.

The company takes its name from Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, and the ‘Swoosh’ was designed in 1971 by Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student at Portland State University. She met Phil Knight while he was teaching accounting classes and she started doing some freelance work for his company, Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS). BRS needed a new brand for a new line of athletic footwear it was preparing to introduce in 1972. Knight approached Davidson for some design ideas, and she agreed to provide them – at $2 an hour.

Carolyn Davidson quickly presented Phil Knight and others at BRS with a number of designs, and they finally selected the mark now known globally as the Nike Swoosh – an abstract outline of an angel’s wing that some people think looks more like a checkmark or the tick used on some essays to indicate a positive mark.

The company first used the logo as its brand in 1971, when the word ‘Nike’ was printed in orange over. The logo has been used on sports shoes since then, and is now so well-recognised all over the world, even by little children, that the company name itself is, perhaps, superfluous.

Carolyn Davidson’s bill for her work came to $35. Mind you, 12 years later, in 1983, Knight gave Davidson a gold Swoosh ring and an envelope filled with Nike stock to express his gratitude. It is surprising to realise, therefore, that Carolyn Davidson’s design was not registered as a trademark until 1995.

A logo representing victory is an appropriate and meaningful symbol for a company that manufactures and sells running shoes. The logo is used in tandem with the slogan, ‘Just do it,’ and the branding campaign was so successful in communicating to their target market that the meaning for the logo evolved into a battle cry and the way of life for an entire generation. A small symbol has brought victorious success to a once-small company.

What is said to be one of the earliest inspirations for the Nike tick sign is a carved relief of Nike, the goddess of victory, on a paved street in Ephesus.

But when Saint John was writing to the Church in Ephesus, he expressed very different ideas about victory to his company of little children as he discussed love and told them to ‘just do it.’

In our Epistle reading (I John 5: 1-16), we are reminded of the connection between faith and love, the two great themes of this epistle, and to victorious faith leading to eternal life. I John talks about a very different type of victory than the victories associated with commercial branding, globalisation and the financial glory associated with brand names and over-commercialised sport. Instead, the writer emphasises the victories associated with faith and love ... faith in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the love of God and of one another that should be the victorious tick sign of Christians.

As we come towards the end of reading Saint John’s first letter, we are reminded that everyone who believes in Jesus as Christ and the Son of God is a child of God too. And so, if we believe in God and in Christ as his Son, we should love God and love his children, and this is the imperative for Christians to love one another.

But how do we know that we are doing this and showing that love? We know that know that we truly love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. Gestures of charity are simply not good enough – there must be a direct connection between loving others and living a life of holiness and sanctity.

Unlike the traditional observation and codification of the commandments, with their heavy-laden and burdensome listings and enumerations, the author tells us the love of God and love of others is not a great burden for the Christian. On the other hand, as the great German martyr of World War II Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us, there is no cheap grace, there is a cost to discipleship.

I was saying at the very beginning that this is Rogation. But it is not just the land and the fields that are supposed to be fruitful. Christ says in our Gospel reading: ‘I appointed you to go and bear fruit’ (John 15: 16).

Nobody said it was going to be easy being a Christian. But, because we are children of God, we know that our faith is a victory (Nίκη) that conquers the world. Christ has overcome the world, and our faith in him enables us to bear fruit, the sort of love that conquers the world, and only through love.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend’ … John 15: 13 quoted on the World War I memorial in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 15: 9-17:

[Jesus said:] 9 ‘As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.’

‘I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last’ (John 15: 16) … fruit on a market stall in Rome (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Resources:

Liturgical colour: White.

The Greeting (from Easter Day until Pentecost):

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Introduction:

This Sunday, the Sunday before Ascension Day, is known traditionally as Rogation Sunday. This is the day when the Church prayed, ‘Almighty God, whose will it is that the earth and the sea should bear fruit in due season’ and traditionally offered prayers for God’s blessings on the fruits of the earth and the labours of those who produce our food.

The word ‘rogation’ comes from the Latin rogare, ‘to ask.’

Traditionally, the three Rogation Days – the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Day – were a period of asking for God’s blessing on the crops and for a bountiful harvest. It is good to be reminded of our dependence on that work, on God’s blessing on that work, and of our responsibility for the environment.

Penitential Kyries:

Lord God,
you raised your Son from the dead.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Lord Jesus,
through you we are more than conquerors.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Holy Spirit,
you help us in our weakness.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

The Collect of the Day (the Sixth Sunday of Easter):

God our redeemer,
you have delivered us from the power of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your Son:
Grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life,
so by his continual presence in us he may raise us to eternal joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Collect (Rogation Days):

Almighty God and Father,
you have so ordered our life
that we are dependent on one another:
Prosper those engaged in commerce and industry
and direct their minds and hands
that they may rightly use your gifts in the service of others;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Introduction to the Peace:

The risen Christ came and stood among his disciples and said,
Peace be with you.
Then were they glad when they saw the Lord. (John 20: 19, 20).

Preface:

Above all we praise you
for the glorious resurrection of your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord,
the true paschal lamb who was sacrificed for us;
by dying he destroyed our death;
by rising he restored our life:

The Post-Communion Prayer:

God our Father,
whose Son Jesus Christ gives the water of eternal life:
May we also thirst for you,
the spring of life and source of goodness,
through him who is alive and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer (Rogation Days):

God our creator,
you give seed for us to sow and bread for us to eat.
As you have blessed the fruit of our labour in this Eucharist,
so we ask you to give all your children their daily bread,
that the world may praise you for your goodness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Blessing:

The God of peace,
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus
that great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the eternal covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight:

or:

God the Father,
by whose glory Christ was raised from the dead,
raise you up to walk with him in the newness of his risen life:

Dismissal: (from Easter Day to Pentecost):

Go in the peace of the Risen Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!

‘As you have blessed the fruit of our labour in this Eucharist, so we ask you to give all your children their daily bread’ (the Post-Communion Prayer, Rogation Days) … fruit ripening on lemon trees in Platanes near Rethymnon on the Greek island of Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Hymns:

299, Holy Spirit, come, confirm us
39, For the fruits of his creation.
231, My song is love unknown

This sermon was prepared for Sunday 6 May 2018.

Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Stephen Hawking and the passing of time in a Cambridge clock

The grasshopper on the Chronophage or ‘Time Eater’ at Corpus Christi ... the clock is accurate only once every five minutes (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The news this morning of the death of Stephen Hawking immediately brought to my mind images of the Corpus Clock, the large sculptural clock the Cambridge physicist unveiled ten years ago in 2008 at the Taylor Library at Corpus Christi College.

The clock is on the corner of Bene’t Street and Trumpington Street in Cambridge, looking out onto King’s Parade. I am familiar with this clock, as Saint Bene’t’s Church nearby has effectively been my parish church whenever I have been staying at Sidney Sussex College.

The clock was conceived and funded by John C Taylor, an old member of Corpus Christi College, and was officially unveiled to the public by Stephen Hawking on 19 September 2008.

The clock’s face is a rippling 24-carat gold-plated stainless steel disc, about 1.5 metres in diameter. It has no hands or numerals, but displays the time by opening individual slits in the clock face backlit with blue LEDs. These slits are arranged in three concentric rings displaying hours, minutes, and seconds.

The dominating visual feature of the clock is a grim-looking metal sculpture of an insect type of creature that looks like to a grasshopper or locust.

John Taylor has called this grasshopper the Chronophage or ‘time eater,’ from the Greek χρόνος (chronos, time) and εφάγον (ephagon, I ate). It moves its mouth, appearing to eat up the seconds as they pass, and occasionally it blinks in satisfaction.

The constant motion of the chrono phageproduces an eerie, grinding sound, and the hour is tolled by the sound of a chain clanking into a small wooden coffin hidden in the back of the clock.

Below the clock is an quotation in Latin from I John 2: 17: mundus transit et concupiscentia eius (‘the world and its desire are passing away’).

The clock is accurate only once in every five minutes. For the rest of the time, the pendulum may seem to catch or stop, and the lights may lag or, then, race to get ahead. According to John Taylor, this erratic motion reflects the ‘irregularity’ of life.

The Chronophage was conceived as a work of public art, and it reminds viewers in a dramatic way of the inevitable passing of time. Taylor deliberately designed it to be terrifying: ‘Basically I view time as not on your side. He’ll eat up every minute of your life, and as soon as one has gone he’s salivating for the next.’

The grasshopper and the Eagle are curious neighbours in Cambridge. A few steps away from tThe Corpus Christi Clock, across the street on the north side of Bene’t Street and opposite Saint Bene’t’s Church, is the Eagle, the pub where James Watson and Francis Crick often had lunch while they were working on the structure of DNA, and is the first place where Watson publicly presented the double helix model.

Together, the Eagle and the Grasshopper in Cambridge present two very important truths about life. The grasshopper reminds us how we can all let our time be consumed by the small things in life, when we should be more focussed on the more important priorities. And the Eagle reminds us of the soaring heights of beauty in God’s creation, explained not even in the marvellous and wonderful discoveries in science.

The full verse quoted on the clock reads: ‘And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever’ (I John 2: 17).

The Eagle in Bene’t Street, Cambridge ... across the street from the ‘Chronophage’ or ‘Time Eater’ on the Corpus Christi clock (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Reflections at the end of the day on ‘A Song of Love’

‘Belov’d, since God loved us so much, we ought also to love one another’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The conference in Galway is punctuated each day with prayer, at the beginning, in the middle of the day, and at the end of each working day.

Throughout each day of the conference, we are being challenged too to reflect on Scripture in the context of ministry and mission.

These two elements of prayer and Scripture study complement each other and come together in surprising ways.

As I come to the end of this day, this is a Canticle we prayed together at the closing worship yesterday. Our second Canticle, ‘A Song of Love,’ is based on I John 4: 7-11:

A Song of Love

1 Belov’d, let us love one another, for love is of God;
everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
2 Whoever does not love does not know God,
for God is love.
3 In this the love of God was revealed among us,
that God sent his only Son into the world,
so that we might live through him.
4 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us
and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.
5 Belov’d, since God loved us so much,
we ought also to love one another.
6 For if we love one another, God abides in us,
and God’s love will be perfected in us.

– I John 4: 7-11

‘If we love one another, God abides in us’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

‘Little children, love one another … because it is enough

Saint John with the poisoned chalice, above the main gate of Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Patrick Comerford,

Christ Church Cathedral,

Sunday 27 December 2015,

Saint John the Evangelist,

11 a.m., Sung Eucharist

Readings: Exodus 33: 7-11a; Psalm 117; I John 1: 1-9; John 21: 19b-25.

In the name of + the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

This morning the Feast Day of Saint John the Evangelist, or Saint John the Divine, is an alternative to marking the First Sunday of Christmas.

It seems appropriate in the days immediately after Christmas that we should be jolted out of our comforts, in case we begin to atrophy, and to be reminded of what the great German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the “Cost of Discipleship.”

Following Christ is not all about Christmas shopping, feasts, decorations and falling asleep in front of the television – comforting, enjoyable and pleasant as they are, particularly in family settings.

Yesterday was the feast of Saint Stephen [26 December], often referred to as the first Christian martyr; tomorrow is the feast of the Holy Innocents [28 December], the first – albeit unwitting – martyrs according to Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

In The Ariel Poems TS Eliot puts wise words into the mouth of the Wise Men who recalls the cold coming of it experienced in the ‘Journey of the Magi’. There he makes the connection between birth and death:

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

Between those two commemorations of martyrdom, we find ourselves today [27 December] marking the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist.

The symbol of the serpent and the chalice, a carving by Eric Gill in the capstone at Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

At first, this too may not seem to be an appropriate feastday to celebrate in the days immediately after Christmas. Even chronologically it creates difficulties for tradition says Saint John was the last of the disciples to die, making his death the one that is separated most in terms of length of time from the birth of Christ.

In art, Saint John the Evangelist is frequently represented as an Eagle, symbolising the heights to which he rises in the first chapter of his Gospel.

For Saint John, there is no annunciation, no nativity, no crib in Bethlehem, no shepherds or wise men, no little stories to allow us to be sentimental and to be amused. He is sharp, direct and gets to the point: “In the beginning …”

But the Prologue to Saint John’s Gospel is one of the traditional readings on Christmas Day, so many of us immediately associate his writings with this time of the year.

Saint John the Evangelist is unnamed in the Fourth Gospel. Yet tradition identifies him with the John who is:

● one of the three at the Transfiguration,
● one of the disciples sent to prepare a place for the Last Supper,
● one of the three present in the Garden of Gethsemane,
● the only disciple present at the Crucifixion,
● the disciple to whom Christ entrusts his mother from the Cross,
● the first disciple to arrive at Christ’s tomb after the Resurrection,
● the disciple who first recognises Christ standing on the lake shore following the Resurrection.

The Beloved Disciple, alone among the Twelve, remains with Christ at the foot of the Cross with the Mother of Christ and the women and he is asked by the dying Christ to take Mary into his care (John 19: 25-27). After Mary Magdalene’s report of the Resurrection, Peter and the “other disciple” are the first to go to the grave, and the “other disciple” is the first to believe that Christ is truly risen (John 20: 2-10).

When the Risen Christ appears at the Lake of Genesareth, “that disciple whom Jesus loved” is the first of the seven disciples present who recognises Christ standing on the shore (John 21: 7).

The site of Saint John’s tomb is marked by a marble plaque and four Byzantine pillars (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Paul names John as one of the pillars of the Church in Jerusalem (see Galatians 2: 9). Later, tradition says, he takes over the position of leadership Paul once had in the Church in Ephesus and is said to have lived there and to have been buried there.

According to a tradition mentioned by Saint Jerome, in the second general persecution, in the year 95, Saint John was arrested and sent to Rome, where he was thrown into a vat or cauldron of boiling oil but miraculously was preserved from death.

According to ancient tradition, during the reign of the Emperor Domitian, Saint John was once given a cup of poisoned wine, but he blessed the cup and the poison rose out of the cup in the form of a serpent. Saint John then drank the wine with no ill effect. A chalice with a serpent signifying the powerless poison has become one of his symbols.

Domitian then banished Saint John to the isle of Patmos. It was there in the year 96 he had those heavenly visions recorded in the Book of Revelation. After the death of Domitian, it is said, he returned to Ephesus in the year 97, and there tradition says he wrote his gospel about the year 98. He is also identified with the author of the three Johannine letters.

The tradition of the Church says Saint John lived to old age in Ephesus. Jerome, in his commentary on Chapter 6 of the Epistle to the Galatians (Jerome, Comm. in ep. ad. Gal., 6, 10), tells the well-loved story that Saint John continued preaching in Ephesus even when he was in his 90s.

He was so enfeebled with old age that the people carried him into the Church in Ephesus on a stretcher. When he was no longer able to preach or deliver a long discourse, his custom was to lean up on one elbow on each occasion and to say simply: “Little children, love one another.” This continued on, even when the ageing John was on his deathbed.

Then he would lie back down and his friends would carry him back out. Every week in Ephesus, the same thing happened, again and again. And every week it was the same short sermon, exactly the same message: “Little children, love one another.”

One day, the story goes, someone asked him about it: “John, why is it that every week you say exactly the same thing, ‘little children, love one another’?” And John replied: “Because it is enough.” If you want to know the basics of living as a Christian, there it is in a nutshell. All you need to know is. “Little children, love one another.”

According to Eusebius, Saint John died in peace at Ephesus, in the third year of Trajan, that is, the year 100, when he was about 94 years old. According to Saint Epiphanius, he was buried on a mountain outside the town. The Basilica of Saint John the Theologian gave the later name of Aysoluk to the hill above the town of Selçuk, beside Ephesus.

A relief sculpture of Saint John ... one of a series in Pugin’s font in Saint Chad’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Birmingham with the symbols of the four evangelists (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

I am constantly overwhelmed and in awe of the emphasis on love and light throughout the Johannine letters. That emphasis on love, which informs the story of Saint John’s last days, is brought through in the first of the Johannine letters (I John 1: 1-9) which we read this morning.

This emphasis constantly informs all aspects of my ministry.

I was once doing Sunday duty during a vacancy in a parish that has three churches. A student asked me at the time how many sermons I preached. I replied: “Three.”

“You preach three sermons every Sunday?” she asked with an air of incredulity.

I explained: “I preach three sermons all the time. The first is ‘Love God,’ the second is ‘Love one another,’, and the third, in case someone missed the first and second sermons, is ‘Love God and love one another’.”

That is the heart of the Christmas story, that is the heart of the Gospel, that is heart of the Johannine writings, and that, to put it simply, is why we celebrate Saint John in the days immediately after Christmas. “Little children, love one another.”

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Collect:

Merciful Lord,
cast your bright beams of light upon the Church;
that, being enlightened by the teaching
of your blessed apostle and evangelist Saint John,
we may so walk in the light of your truth
that we may at last attain to the light of everlasting life
through Jesus Christ your incarnate Son our Lord.

Post Communion Prayer:

Grant, O Lord, we pray,
that the Word made flesh proclaimed by your apostle John
may ever abide and live within us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Revd Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is lecturer in Anglicanism, Liturgy and Church History, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute and a canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. This sermon was preached in Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday 27 December 2015.