Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, rcl yr b, 20211
KINGS 8:22-30, 41-43; PSALM 84; EPHESIANS 6:10-20; JOHN 6:56-69

Lord, to whom can we go?

Jesus, it seems, is more than a little bit grumpy in our passage from John’s Gospel. It’s a post-sermon grumpiness. The kind of grumpiness a preacher gets when the point doesn’t quite get across. So there’s a sermon to talk about first today, a sermon, a teaching that Jesus offers in the Capernaum synagogue.

And, to be fair, the teaching is rather complex, abstract, and even a bit weird. Jesus speaks about his flesh and his blood, and Jesus speaks about eating this flesh and blood, eating Jesus himself. And that must have been difficult to understand. And a bit gross, too. And then he says if we eat him, we will live. So difficult and a bit gross and now getting a bit weird. And then he gets even more abstract, saying that the flesh and blood that is Jesus, the flesh and blood that is Jesus that we would eat and drink, the flesh and blood that is Jesus that we would eat and drink because it gives us life, he says that the flesh and blood that is Jesus that we would eat and drink because it gives us life is not flesh and blood after all but the bread that fell from the sky when the Israelites wandered the desert?

“He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum,” says John. And that after he said these things, and when his disciples heard it they said “This teaching is difficult.” Well, that’s both obvious, and an understatement. It’s difficult and abstract a bit gross and a bit weird. And so some of them said, “who can accept it.”

Now we’ve become accustomed to this language because it’s clearly, to us, eucharistic. It’s about the communion that so many of us are so ready to take part in in a couple of weeks. And while we might be accustomed to it as eucharistic language, let’s also be clear that it’s still really really really weird stuff? And that it is a hard teaching—it’s hard for a newcomer who might think we’re all some variation of a ritualistic club of cannibals.

But even for us, even in the knowledge that Jesus is speaking eucharistically, it does need a whole lot of thought and reflection before we can begin to make sense of it. It has given the church centuries of opportunity for reflection. And if that’s true for us—that we have the benefit of centuries of theological reflection on communion, imagine what it would’ve been like for those first disciples, the ones who found it hard. The disciples just wanted a glint, a wisp; a mote would have been more than enough. But for some of them, it was like asking for a light, and being given the sky. Or like asking for a drink, and being given the sea.

And so some of the disciples complain, as disciples often do; and Jesus gets grumpy, as Jesus often does; and as a result of his grumpiness at the disciples complaining Jesus just lets them have it: “Does this offend you,” he says; if you think this is like asking for a drink and getting the sea, or asking for a light and getting the sky, listen to this: “what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” Try to understand that, says Jesus. But some didn’t believe. And so “because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.”

Let’s take a moment for some sympathy for those disciples that turned away. I’m with the disciples here, at least if we think they wanted a bit of information about God’s way in the world in Christ? It’s too much. And there’s some truth, isn’t there, to the fact that a lot of Christian teaching is bizarre, and weird, and sometimes even incomprehensible.

But my question at this juncture? I wonder, is that a good reason to turn away from Jesus, or the church for that matter? If we don’t have enough comprehensible information about God and Jesus?

And more importantly, is that what’s really going on in this Scripture passage? That Jesus offers some incomprehensible teaching, and the only options are 1. taking in all this information in, as information about God and Jesus, or 2. to turn away?

Mark Oakley, the dean of St. John’s College, Cambridge, has a wonderful book called A Splash of Words. He shares a couple dozen poems, and writes a bit about what they might mean, from his perspective as a Christian and an accomplished theologian.

There’s a poem in the book by a Norwegian poet named Olaf Hauge. (I’ve already stolen from it in my sermon.) The poem is short, so I’m going to read it through to you. It’s called “Don’t Give me the Whole Truth.”

Don’t give me the whole truth,
don’t give me the sky when I ask for light,
but give me a glint, a dewy wisp, a mote
as the birds bear water-drops from their bathing
and the wind a grain of salt.

Oakley then speaks quite eloquently about how, as creatures, we are limited; we simply can’t bear all the knowledge in the universe, information about everything, either at once or throughout our lives. There’s just too much. For Oakley, this poem expresses that sort of creaturely limitation. To give a person the whole truth of God the world and everything, would be like giving someone an ocean when they’re thirsty; don’t give the whole ocean, give just a “dewy wisp” that would begin to quench your thirst; don’t give a person the whole truth; that’s like giving the whole sky when we ask for a light. Give us, rather, a glint, a mote, as the birds bear water-drops from their bathing and the wind a grain of salt.

So I have some sympathy for those disciples who walked away; Jesus really was, for them, giving them something like the sea for their thirst, and the sky when they asked for light. But only. though, if we think that Jesus was giving them information to learn. Stuff to understand, fully and completely and all at once. Divine facts to comprehend.

But that’s not what Jesus was offering, even as he spoke in that synagogue in Capernaum.

Oakley points this out when he responds to this lovely little poem. What he says is that the Christian faith is not about receiving information, or seeking complete comprehension, but it’s about what Jesus actually does, even in that teaching he gave in that Capernaum synagogue. Even from there, Jesus is inviting us into his presence.

And it’s right in that teaching, packed as it is with so many strange and potentially gross things (if we misunderstand them). “Abide in me,” says Jesus in Capernaum. (And he’s saying it to you.) Hang out with him, spend time with him. Abide. Be present to Jesus, and he will be present to you, and abide with you.

And in the end, the disciples that stay with Jesus are not interested primarily in information about God the universe and everything. Jesus asked the twelve,  “Do you also wish to go away?”  And what Simon Peter says to him, is “Lord, to whom can we go?”

To whom can we go, but to Jesus. To abide, to live, to be present to him and he to us. Not because Jesus informs us about things about God, but because abiding with him, remaining with him, hanging out with him—in prayer, in devotion, in worship, in reading Scripture, very soon in the eucharist, in service to others (because to hang out with Jesus, is to hang out with the people that Jesus loves, right? The otherwise forgotten and the dispossessed … )

To abide with Jesus is to come close to the one who has “the words of eternal life.” And it’s through this, this abiding, this time spent in the presence of Jesus, time spent in the presence of those that Jesus loves, it’s there that we are drawn deeper into the mystery of life with him. And this does include deep and sustained theological reflection, as we understand and come to greater clarity, refining our understanding of God.

But the Christian life does not begin or end with information and facts, but with an abiding that puts us in a place where we can hear the one who has the words of eternal life, and “come to believe and know that [Jesus is] the Holy One of God.”

Baptismal Service

Creed

Celebrant
Do you believe in God the Father?

People
I believe in God,
The Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

Celebrant
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?

People
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again
to judge the living and the dead.

Celebrant
Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?

People
I believe in God the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.

Covenant

Celebrant
Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?

People 
I will, with God’ s help.

Celebrant
Will you persevere in resisting evil and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?

People
I will, with God’ s help.

Celebrant
Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ?

People
I will, with God’ s help.

Celebrant
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbour as yourself?

People 
I will, with God’ s help.

Celebrant
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

People
I will, with God’ s help.

Celebrant
Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth?

People
I will, with God’s help.

Angus Sinclair

Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.

At St. John’s, Angus is able to indulge his love for Anglican liturgy and the Anglican choral tradition by directing our dedicated choir in preparing service music and masterworks from St. John’s extensive choral library. Angus’s own repertoire of organ music allows him to enrich worship at St. John’s with countless voluntaries spanning centuries of the church music tradition. Angus has also composed music in several different genres, and is an accomplished improviser.

 As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.

Audiences throughout Canada recognize Angus as the accompanist for The Three Cantors whose concerts and CDs raised over $1 million between 1997 to 2016 for the Huron Hunger Fund/Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund, now named Alongside Hope. For their outstanding service to the Church, Angus and The Three Cantors (William Cliff, David Pickett, and Peter Wall) each received Honorary Senior Fellowships from Renison College (UW) and Honorary Doctor of Divinity (DD) degrees from Huron University College (Western University).

Beyond St. John’s, Angus frequently accompanies mezzo-soprano Autumn Debassige in concert, and on the fourth Sunday of each month (September through June), he serves as the duty organist at Evensong for the Choir of St. George’s Anglican Church, London, Andrew Keegan Mackriell, Conductor. Two or three times a year, Angus is the assisting organist for concerts given by the Parry Sound Choral Collective, William McArton, Conductor.

In collaboration with our rector, Angus is responsible for the design of worship at St. John’s. His duties include programming music, service playing for regular liturgies and occasional services, and directing our choir, in addition to working with a variety of soloists, instrumentalists and ensembles.)

The Rev. André Lavergne CWA, Assistant Priest

As an Honorary Assistant, André preaches occasionally at worship and assists in various ministries as opportunities arise. André maintains a Rota of lay people to read and pray at worship, together with a schedule of people to write the Prayers of the People for Sundays and occasional services.

Ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) in 1980, André has served Lutheran parishes in Baden, Mannheim and New Hamburg. He has served as national Worship officer for the ELCIC and, for the last decade of his working career, served as Ecumenical and Interfaith officer while also staffing the ELCIC’s Faith Order and Doctrine Committee.

In 2006, André received the Eastern Synod’s Leadership Award for Exemplary Service and in 2016 he was named a Companion of the Worship Arts (CWA).

Since 2014, André and his wife, Barbara, have resided in Waterloo where they tend a garden and welcome friends and family.

The Rev. Dr. Eileen Scully, Assistant Priest

Eileen Scully was baptized at St. John the Evangelist, confirmed, sang in the choir as an adolescent, and was married here. She then went off into some ecumenical wanderings and theological studies before returning to the parish recently as an honorary assistant. She has a PhD in Systematic Theology from St. Michael’s College, Toronto and taught for a time. 

Eileen works for the General Synod, the national body of The Anglican Church of Canada, as Director of Faith, Worship, and Ministry, keeping office space at St John’s for that work during the week. She works principally in liturgical development, helping to create resources for worship, including new liturgical texts, and connects with Anglicans across the country in networks to support ministry and Christian formation. 

Eileen was ordained deacon in 2009 and priested in 2010.

The Rev. Scott McLeod

Scott is the Chaplain at Renison College at the University of Waterloo. He was ordained and started working in parish ministry in the Anglican Church in 2005 on the West Coast of Canada in Victoria, BC, in the Diocese of BC. After completing a curacy and serving in a few parishes as rector, part of a team ministry and as associate at the Cathedral, Scott and his family moved to Niagara. He continued in parish ministry and served as associate priest for seven years at St. George’s in St. Catharines, before moving to Kitchener and starting at Renison in February 2022.

Scott studied Theology at the Vancouver School of Theology in Vancouver, BC, and before that did his undergraduate studies in Toronto at UofT completing a Bachelor of Music, Performance degree specializing in Jazz music.

The Ven. Ken Cardwell, Assistant Priest

As an Honorary Assistant Ken assists with worship services and preaches on occasion.

Ken is a graduate of Hamilton Teachers’ College, McMaster University, and Huron College. Ken retired in 2003 after 34 years as a parish priest in the Dioceses of Niagara, Keewatin and Moosonee. He also served as Archdeacon of Brock. For ten years after retirement Ken served in a number of Interim Ministry positions for parishes in transition. Ken and his wife Sarah moved to Kitchener in 2013.

The Reverend James Brown, Assistant Priest

As an Honorary Assistant, James preaches and presides occasionally at worship, and chairs the Stewardship Working Group. During the six months of Preston’s sabbatical in 2024, he served as Deputy Rector.

Ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada in 1991, James served Lutheran parishes in Stratford and Waterloo until his retirement in 2015. As part of a summer exchange with the Rev. Glenn Chestnutt, he was licensed by the West Paisley Presbytery and the Church of Scotland to serve the congregation of St. John’s, Gourock, UK from 2010-2016. In 2019-2020, he served as Interim Priest-in-Charge of St. Columba Anglican Church, Waterloo.

A lifelong, self-confessed ecumaniac, James is Chair of the Steering Committee of Christians Together Waterloo Region (successor organization to the Kitchener-Waterloo Council of Churches). For 27 years, he served as an on-call chaplain at Grand River Hospital, now named Waterloo Regional Health Network @ Midtown.

James’ first career was also in the Church. For 25 years he was organist or director of music for churches in London, St. Thomas, Brantford, and Kitchener.

James and his wife, Paula, live in Baden, Ontario.

Autumn Debassige, Parish Administrator

Autumn Debassige has served as St. John’s Parish Administrator since 2023, bringing years of service-oriented and management experience to this important role. Aside from her administrative duties for us, Autumn is a professional mezzo-soprano soloist and alto chorister. Visit her website to learn more!)

Angus Sinclair, Director of Music

Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.

At St. John’s, Angus is able to indulge his love for Anglican liturgy and the Anglican choral tradition by directing our dedicated choir in preparing service music and masterworks from St. John’s extensive choral library. Angus’s own repertoire of organ music allows him to enrich worship at St. John’s with countless voluntaries spanning centuries of the church music tradition. Angus has also composed music in several different genres, and is an accomplished improviser.

As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.

Audiences throughout Canada recognize Angus as the accompanist for The Three Cantors whose concerts and CDs raised over $1 million between 1997 to 2016 for the Huron Hunger Fund/Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund, now named Alongside Hope. For their outstanding service to the Church, Angus and The Three Cantors (William Cliff, David Pickett, and Peter Wall) each received Honorary Senior Fellowships from Renison College (UW) and Honorary Doctor of Divinity (DD) degrees from Huron University College (Western University).

Beyond St. John’s, Angus frequently accompanies mezzo-soprano Autumn Debassige in concert, and on the fourth Sunday of each month (September through June), he serves as the duty organist at Evensong for the Choir of St. George’s Anglican Church, London, Andrew Keegan Mackriell, Conductor. Two or three times a year, Angus is the assisting organist for concerts given by the Parry Sound Choral Collective, William McArton, Conductor.

In collaboration with our rector, Angus is responsible for the design of worship at St. John’s. His duties include programming music, service playing for regular liturgies and occasional services, and directing our choir, in addition to working with a variety of soloists, instrumentalists and ensembles.

The Rev. Canon Preston Parsons, PhD, Rector

After working in youth and camping ministry in Winnipeg and Northwestern Ontario, Preston began his training for the priesthood in Berkeley California in 2001. Following his ordinations in 2004 and 2005, Preston served as a hospital chaplain in Sacramento, California; not long after, he was appointed to St. Mary Magdalene, a multi-cultural parish in the south end of Winnipeg.

In 2012, Preston moved to England, where he pursued a PhD in Christian Theology at the University of Cambridge, while serving as Priest Vicar at St. John’s College, and Director of Studies at Westminster College.

Preston moved to Waterloo in 2017 with his wife, Karen Sunabacka, who took a position as Associate Professor of Music at Conrad Grebel University College.