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Sermon for Sunday, October 4th 2020

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, rcl yr a, 2020
St. John’s, Kitchener, online and in-person
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Psalm 19; Philippians 3:4B-14; Matt. 21:33-46

I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of slavery

Well—there goes God again. A disembodied voice from somewhere high up on some mountain, talking down to us. Not just telling us what to do— but commanding us. Ten Commandments, given from afar. Ten more Thou shalt, and thou shalt nots. I mean—who does this God think his is anyway? Doesn’t God grant us grace and freedom? If that’s true, why does he think he can be the boss of us?

This lesson from Exodus really does feel, in so many ways, like it just comes out of the blue. Our most recent readings from Exodus, till today, have been stories. They began with the story of how Moses came to live, when other children were not so lucky; and then about God speaking to Moses in the burning bush. We’ve had stories about God’s mighty deeds for the sake of Israel: delivering them from Egypt; making their way safe across the Red Sea; providing food for them when they were hungry, and water from the rock when they were thirsty.

But today things change. We don’t have a story today, we have the giving of the Ten Commandments, thou shalts, and thou shalt nots: God the boss, bossing us all around …

It can feel difficult to square the God of Grace in Christ, with God the giver of the law—and if that’s true for us, how much harder it is for others. This is such a common, and sometimes well-founded criticism of Christianity— your God is a bossy God, and you follow a bossy God by being bossy towards all the rest of us. And so many at that point just opt out; who amongst us, really, needs another boss in our lives? And this kind of reading, of God, hidden on a high mountain, speaking down to us, can really feel like that: God the boss, making for himself a bossy people.

But even these commandments, this rule of life for God’s community, aren’t disconnected from the stories we just heard. In fact, we simply can’t understand the Ten Commandments—any of the moral law, or any of the commandments we find in the New Testament for that matter—apart from what God has already accomplished for us.

And it’s right there, we hear this right from the beginning of the lesson, because the Ten Commandments begin not with a commandment, as it turns out, but a reminder of who God already is to his people well before the commandments are recited. In fact the Ten Commandments don’t come from some God far-away, some absent deity uninterested in human life apart from telling us what to do, the Ten Commandments don’t come from a God who doesn’t care about his people—the Ten Commandments come from a God who loves, A God who nurtures, a God who, in very real ways, has already saved his people.

The Ten Commandments come from a very particular God: “the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” This covenant, this giving of the law to his people, begins with what God has already accomplished for Israel: the God who brings his people out of slavery, the God who sustains his people in the wilderness, the God who has now led them to the foot of the mountain from whence he will give his commandments.

God does not begin as the biggest boss of them all. God begins with love in action: God sets Israel free from bondage; God saves Israel from death at the Red Sea; God feeds Israel when Israel is hungry, and gives drink when Israel is thirsty. This is the God who commands: the God who first loves.

And if we were to back up just a few steps—between God’s acts of love for his people and the giving of the law—we would find some interesting things that would help us understand what exactly is happening on this mountain.

This God who has chosen Israel, and who has done mighty things for Israel, still desires Israel’s consent. In Exodus 19, Moses sets out God’s plan to the Elders. God has asked Moses to bring a message to the people: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians,” says God to Moses, “and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples.”

God is no coercer of souls, or even of nations; God sends Moses to invite the consent of the people to his choosing of them. And the people give it: “[t]he people all answered as one: ‘Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.’” If God is boss, it would seem Israel is a-ok with this arrangement, because they know God has already acted, and already loves.

And the giving of the law is part of a promise God makes: that God will make Israel “a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” A nation set aside for the sake of the whole world, acting as a priest for the world: thus Israel stands before God, praying to God and worshipping God in truth for all of humanity; an Israel who stands before all of humanity bearing the presence of God to all humanity, and welcoming all humanity into God’s covenant. A nation that is priest to all the nations of the world—a nation that Christians join, grafted as we are onto Israel, finding ourselves among the people for whom God acts, among the people whom God loves, among the people who are given to God, a people given to the world, for the sake of the world and for the sake of God.

All these things come together to make a people, “a priestly kingdom and a holy nation,” that we would be part of because both God chooses us, and we choose God (what else would really be the reasonable thing to do?). A people not with a boss, after all; at least not the kind of distant, bossy boss that wants us to be boss over others. Rather, we are a people under the sovereignty of God.

And so in the giving of the law—the moral law that Christians cling to as well—God is made our sovereign, but we don’t become sovereign over others. Under God’s sovereignty, we find our freedom from the tyrannies of this world. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks puts it this way: “Israel will know no absolutes—not the state nor the individual nor the status quo—for there is only one absolute, namely God Himself. This single fact will save it, in the course of history, from tyranny on the one hand, and anarchy on the other. [Israel] will always be the enemy of tyrants, because it will always refuse to worship anything less than God Himself.”

And it would be the same for us, grafted as we are onto Israel, with the same God sovereign over us, as he gives to us the moral law in the Ten Commandments: making Christians, too, the enemy of tyranny and the enemy of anarchy. Israel, and the church with it, will know no absolutes— not the state, nor the individual, nor the status quo—worshipping with Israel a God who is not as a boss who stands apart from us, but a God who—for the sake of a world so often under the rule of tyranny—a God who sets us free, a God who loves, the God who makes us his very own for his sake, and for the sake of a world he loves.

The Revd Dr Preston D.S. Parsons

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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.