BCP: The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

2 Corinthians 3:4–9 (NCPB)

4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: 5 not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is of God: 6 who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away: 8 how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

Mark 7:31–37 (NCPB)

31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. 32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech: and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. 33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue, 34 and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened’. 35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plain. 36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; 37 and were beyond measure astonished, saying, ‘He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak’.

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

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 entrance procession and finishing with our personal intercessions during the preparation of the altar.

The second half, in this way of reading it, starts at the eucharistic prayer over the elements and finishes with the blessing and dismissal at the end.

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.

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, said either by someone from the front or said within our hearts during the preparation of the altar. 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 at the end of the first half of the Mass. But, for the first half of the Mass and the second half to truely mirror each other, the second half also 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 Ghost, amen.