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Sermon for Sunday, October 31st 2021

Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost
[Proper 31], rcl yr b, 2021
Psalm 146; Hebrews 9:11-14; Mark 12:28-34

There is no other commandment greater than these

Quite a number of years ago I did a funeral for a family. Karl was the second husband to his wife, Katy, who had already died a year or so earlier; and Karl himself had no children or extended family. (These aren’t their real names.) All Karl had were his step-children, the grown up children from Katy’s previous marriage. And Katy’s children were never really sure about Karl, not because there was anything sinister about him, it was more that they would have chosen someone else to be their mother’s husband.

But their mother had chosen Karl. And so here they were, caring for someone who had become more stubborn in his old age, blind in one eye and not seeing out of the other, but still driving; he couldn’t hear anything you said; a man who suffered significant mental decline especially after the death of his beloved Katy.

But what was so special about this family, as much as they wished their mother hadn’t married Karl, they grew to love him, a love that showed largely in the way they cared for him. And as I got to know them, as they took their last (quite exhausted) steps with him, now in death, caringly preparing his funeral.

It was really exemplary. They didn’t love Karl because they had any natural affection for him of their own; not at first. They grew to love Karl by caring for him; they grew to love Karl not for themselves, but because someone they loved loved him. If their beloved mother had loved this man, that was enough.

This is how love works sometimes. We love others not because we have any natural attachment to them, but because someone we love loves them; and so we spend time with them; and then we begin to care for them; and through that, we begin to love others we would have never even come to know, except for the fact that someone we love loves them, and brings them into our lives.

Commandments like the ones Jesus recites to the scribe were not uncommon in Jesus’s world. In one somewhat entertaining story from the Babylonian Talmud, a Gentile approaches two rabbis saying “Make me a proselyte on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.”

Rabbi Shammai chased him away with a stick.

But Rabbi Hillel responded: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour; that is the whole Torah, while the rest is commentary; go and learn it.” This sounds much like what Jesus calls the second commandment: love your neighbour as yourself.

And the recitation of what Jesus calls the first commandment, including “love the Lord your God,” which comes from Deuteronomy—has been common in Jewish life for a very long time.

It appears that what is peculiar about Jesus’s teaching is not the command to love the neighbour, nor the command to love God, but that Jesus combines the two. And by combining them, now we can’t say, “Well I love God, and the love of neighbour, well that’s important, but not nearly as important as loving God.” Neither can we say “Well I love my neighbour, and love of God? Well I’ll do that once in a while …” No, for Jesus, there is no greater commandment than these: they are both held together, and we can’t do one without the other: if we love neighbour and we don’t love God, we are not following the commandment of God; if we love God and not our neighbour, we are not fully following Jesus.

I think Rowan Williams sums this up well. I’ve mentioned it before and it bears repeating. Because it helps explain the connection between love of God, and love of neighbour. The way Williams puts it, roughly, is that you can’t love God without loving the ones God loves. And God already loves your neighbour. If you love God, if you’re a follower of Jesus, you will simply find yourself among those that are loved by God, loving them: loving your neighbours.

Think again of Katie’s children. They loved Karl not because they chose Karl. They loved their step-father Karl because their mum, Katie, chose Karl; they loved Karl because someone they loved, loved him. Even though it wasn’t natural, or at all easy for them, especially at first. This is what it’s like to follow Jesus’s commandments here. For Jesus, there is no other commandment greater than these, the two commandments that are really one. Love God; love your neighbour. And so we love God; our worship today is an expression of that. And if we really love God, we love the ones that God loves: our neighbours.

When we really love God, if we really worship God in all his beauty and splendour, we will love the ones God has chosen to love, and not because we have chosen them, anymore than you have chosen your neighbour in the pew; or the neighbour in your neighbourhood or in your condo or apartment building; or more Biblically, your the neighbour that you meet along your way, like the Samaritan that meets his neighbour along his way, a man in great need. The neighbour, according to Jesus, is everyone you come across during your day, especially those who are in distress.

I will end on a slightly different note, but related note. And say that as we strive and struggle to love God and love our neighbour, the one who has already, most truly and completely fulfilled this commandment, is Jesus himself. Which is good news, because left to ourselves, loving God and our neighbour is actually quite difficult.

But as part of the body of Christ according to our baptism, we love in Jesus, the one who loved God enough to be obedient, even unto death. As part of the body of Christ according to our baptism, we love in Jesus, the one who loved his neighbour—each one of us in our distress—offering himself as a holy sacrifice for us, a living sacrifice for the sake of the world, dying that we might live. 

And not just live, but to experience the fulness of life, because in Christ we are fully forgiven and reconciled, now able to follow his command, able in him to offer ourselves fully and completely in love to God, able in him to offer ourselves fully and completely in love to our neighbours; in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit AMEN.

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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.