CW* Trinity 12 - Proper 15

Proverbs 9:1–6 (NRSVCE)

1 Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars. 2 She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table. 3 She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls from the highest places in the town, 4 “You that are simple, turn in here!” To those without sense she says, 5 “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. 6 Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

Psalm 34:9–14 (NRSVCE)

9 O fear the Lord, you his holy ones, for those who fear him have no want. 10 The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. 11 Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 12 Which of you desires life, and covets many days to enjoy good? 13 Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. 14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

Ephesians 5:15–20 (NRSVCE)

15 Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17 So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20 giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

John 6:51–58 (NRSVCE)

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Last week’s talk was a bit abstract, but in all fairness, have you read Jesus’s words in John 6?!

Today I’ll try and talk about something a little more concrete. It actually annoys me when people misuse the words concrete, gravel, and asphalt. But let’s not get caught up in cementics.

Something else that’s a bit wordy is the liturgy of the Mass, and I’m going to describe one recent reflection I’ve had on the shape of the Mass.

There are different ways of trying to describe the structure of the Mass but here’s one way I’ve been reflecting on:

The Mass could be described as being split into two halves, with the first half starting from the processional hymn, moving through the confession and absolution, then the gloria, readings, homily, creed, and finishing with the intercessions.

The second half, in this way of reading it, starts at the offertory hymn, then includes the eucharistic prayer, the distribution of the elements, and finishes with the final hymn, blessing and dismissal at the end.

The moment around which these two halves pivot is the sharing of the peace, in-between the intercessions and the offertory hymn.

When I’ve been reflecting on this way of describing the structure of the Mass, this is what has struck me:

In both halves, we receive from God. In the first half, we receive the story of God and the world, told through the church’s scriptures, and culminating in the Gospel reading, which symbolically comes down to the congregation, with the words being read among us, like the culmination of the story of God and creation, in which God comes to his people in the person of Jesus.

In the second half of the Mass, we receive Jesus in the Eucharist. You could say that the first half is the word, and the second half is that word enfleshed.

But what has primarily struck me, and maybe to you this is a nothing-burger - I only recently heard that term and found it very amusing - maybe to you this is old news, but what has primarily struck me is that, in the first half of the Mass, there are three responses to what we have received from God. The homily, the Creed, and the intercessions.

First we receive the word that is veiled within the scriptures, and then we attempt, in a human way, to respond to it. The first attempt at a response is the homily, where someone tries to give an example of how we might attempt to say something about what we have received using the words of our context today - or, if it’s me, in the words of some abstract idea, completely removed from any useful context!

The second attempt at a response is where we corporatley recite the words of the Creed. This is both a response we are voicing today, but is also an example of how the church has attempted to voice a response to God coming to us in the church’s history. And it is a reminder that the voices of the past do matter.

The third attempt at a response is in the intercessions, where another individual tries to give an example of how we might bring situations before God in the Mass, given what we’ve received. It is an example of the sorts of places, people, and events, towards which we should focus our attention given what we’ve heard.

I really like that there are three different types of response, with the centre of those responses being the creed where we all speak as one voice.

One nice feature of the Mass here at St Nics is that we end the first half of the Mass with a “Hail Mary,” after the intercessions and later we end the second half of the Mass with the Angelus as we process out. Or have I got the structure of the Mass wrong and is it actually that we begin the first half of the Mass with the Gloria, the words of the Christmas nativity, and begin the second half of the Mass with the “Hail Mary,” then beginning life after the Mass with the Angelus? Let me know what you think!

But, to get back to what has struck me with this interpretation of the Mass: for the first half of the Mass and the second half to truely mirror each other, the second half requires some sort of response from us, echoing the three responses to the word in the first half of the Mass.

Are the three responses to the Word received in the first half of the Mass (the homily, the creed, and the intercessions), are these responses examples that might hopefully inspire all of us as to how we might respond to the presense of God received in the second half of the Mass?

The second half, in order to mirror the first half, beckons a response from us. How might we, in our own words and actions, give our concrete response to what we have received in the Mass, echoing the homily, creed, and intercessions in our own lives?

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.