Fr Trey: July 2008 Archives
XI Pentecost Homily R.mp3
I will be cleaning out the sermons on Friday or so, and leaving just the past 6 up.
Would the person(s) at Hampden-Sydney, NC please drop me a note by email?
(treyg (at) me (dot) com)
Fr. Trey+
I got a phone call the day of my installation from a friend back in Texas. He was lamenting that his church was suffering in both attendance and in the stewardship. They are a moderate parish, with double the number on the rolls as St. Andrew's but have a smaller average Sunday attendance (ASA). I finally had to tell him my perspective.
Their church is your typical middle of the road ECUSA parish. Very hospitable- but also VERY relaxed. I'm not talking about flexible (as St. Andrew's ministry folk can punt like no other- a true blessing to me) but the worship at his parish was made to feel very relaxed- no real formal sense of worship where hospitality almost trumps liturgy. Yet my friend was amazed that St. Andrew's is growing even though we're stuck some time back before Vatican II.
To me, the growth isn't a surprise. If you think about worship "fads" most of them come and go. (Though we're still stuck with Haugen and Haas but NOT at St. Andrew's) People get tired of the fads that are used constantly. Powerpoint churches will be out of style in the next 5-10 years in favour of heaven knows what; yet the timelessness of catholic worship will march on. It is like a pendulum- it swings away from the catholic (and in this case I mean Anglo-Catholic, or in the Roman sense - Latin Mass) liturgical norms to some sort of fad- but it never quite makes the solemn liturgical style disappear. We are constantly at that one side of the ring - it is, as I noted to my friend, the other side that always changes. First renewal music, then Anglo-Methodist, now PowerPoint. Don't get me wrong- each of these things is necessary in the full breadth of the Anglican tradition, but they always change - The catholic liturgical style remains the same regardless of how many years pass. It is timeless.
The timelessness of the worship style allows one, or at least me, to transcend chronos and know that the time I'm in is sanctified and utterly precious. Yes, I'm happy and I have a sense of joy being there, but I also am humble and really a miserable jerk - I am not worthy. This is why I am thankful for John 15:16 "Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." It reminds me that whilst I am a creature of sin, redeemed by the blood of Christ, that I also was chosen as all of us were. And that makes me want to worship HUMBLY. I've often said that some of the, uh, newer styles of worship seems to leave out the awesomeness of God - the fact that we should be humble before God - and instead tends to view the Almighty as some sort of grandfather in comfy tweed clothes. I can understand after a few years, how it can go stale.
If, I noted to my friend, the traditional liturgy was pointless and something that no one really wanted- but rather endured, how come the Holy Father gave his Motu Proprio to allow the Latin Rite back without special dispensation? It seems, friends, that the pendulum is swinging back to the traditional rites. I await with some trepidation (and some amusement) to see what the future brings for the other side.
T+
Their church is your typical middle of the road ECUSA parish. Very hospitable- but also VERY relaxed. I'm not talking about flexible (as St. Andrew's ministry folk can punt like no other- a true blessing to me) but the worship at his parish was made to feel very relaxed- no real formal sense of worship where hospitality almost trumps liturgy. Yet my friend was amazed that St. Andrew's is growing even though we're stuck some time back before Vatican II.
To me, the growth isn't a surprise. If you think about worship "fads" most of them come and go. (Though we're still stuck with Haugen and Haas but NOT at St. Andrew's) People get tired of the fads that are used constantly. Powerpoint churches will be out of style in the next 5-10 years in favour of heaven knows what; yet the timelessness of catholic worship will march on. It is like a pendulum- it swings away from the catholic (and in this case I mean Anglo-Catholic, or in the Roman sense - Latin Mass) liturgical norms to some sort of fad- but it never quite makes the solemn liturgical style disappear. We are constantly at that one side of the ring - it is, as I noted to my friend, the other side that always changes. First renewal music, then Anglo-Methodist, now PowerPoint. Don't get me wrong- each of these things is necessary in the full breadth of the Anglican tradition, but they always change - The catholic liturgical style remains the same regardless of how many years pass. It is timeless.
The timelessness of the worship style allows one, or at least me, to transcend chronos and know that the time I'm in is sanctified and utterly precious. Yes, I'm happy and I have a sense of joy being there, but I also am humble and really a miserable jerk - I am not worthy. This is why I am thankful for John 15:16 "Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." It reminds me that whilst I am a creature of sin, redeemed by the blood of Christ, that I also was chosen as all of us were. And that makes me want to worship HUMBLY. I've often said that some of the, uh, newer styles of worship seems to leave out the awesomeness of God - the fact that we should be humble before God - and instead tends to view the Almighty as some sort of grandfather in comfy tweed clothes. I can understand after a few years, how it can go stale.
If, I noted to my friend, the traditional liturgy was pointless and something that no one really wanted- but rather endured, how come the Holy Father gave his Motu Proprio to allow the Latin Rite back without special dispensation? It seems, friends, that the pendulum is swinging back to the traditional rites. I await with some trepidation (and some amusement) to see what the future brings for the other side.
T+
Many thanks for Fr. Mark McGuire, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Lee's Summit, MO , for preaching at the Celebration of New Ministry.
Celebration of New Ministry Sermon.mp3
Celebration of New Ministry Sermon.mp3
XI Pentecost.mp3
I know it says XI Pentecost, but really it is IX Pentecost.. One should never do audio work when exhausted!
T+
I know it says XI Pentecost, but really it is IX Pentecost.. One should never do audio work when exhausted!
T+
