On Oct 4th we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the dedication of church building in 1986, and the 73rd anniversary of our first worship service in 1953
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Prayer: Almighty God, we have heard your words to us in holy scripture, and know your call to each of us. In every age you have spoken through the voices of prophets, pastors, and teachers. We give you thanks that over the years we have heard you speak to us through the preaching of your word in this place. Grant that those who preach in this place may proclaim the crucified and risen Christ and interpret your word with sensitivity and insight, that we may hear that word inwardly and respond to it in all our life. This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, your living Word. Amen.
Thank you for a wonderful weekend of activities
We look back, today being 39 years since our church building was consecrated, and 72 years since ministry began in this parish.
And we look forward by rededicating our baptismal font, lectern, this pulpit, and later the altar to God, to minister to us and to all who come through these doors
Here are some photos of the day when the cornerstone of our church was laid, in May of 1956. Shared by Elizabeth Hanna and Marg Alderson, relatives of our first Incumbent Reverend Frank Fry.
It was blessed at that time by an Archdeacon
We can perhaps recognize where these scenes took place.
They remind us of where this church began – an outreach of St. John, Weston to the children of this area (nearly 500) Anglican families)
They were giving thanks for the first successful fundraising campaign which raised this building ($70,000; where we worship to this day), and their motto “Attempt Great Things for God, Expect Great Things from God.”
And they were looking ahead to the ministry that they believed God had in store for them.
In the fourth photo we see some children (from the original Sunday school?). I wonder what they were thinking, and what their experience was growing up in this church building.
The cornerstone of this building represents all that holds us together and gives us the staying power we have needed to remain faithful and strong through the years.
The physical cornerstone laid in 1956 is also a reminder of what Jesus had to say 2000 years ago about cornerstones. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes.
In all their wisdom and expertise, the builders mentioned in Psalm 118 (which Jesus quotes) missed something. They overlooked the most important stone for whatever it was they were building.
The Chief Priests in our Gospel Reading knew Jesus was talking about them when he said this, which made them want to have him arrested. They couldn’t stand anyone telling them they didn’t know something.
Jesus had stepped on their turf and not paid his respects to them. And when they challenged him, he did not back away but kept coming back to challenge them in return.
They must have thought. Why is he so sure of himself that he isn’t afraid to be rejected by us?
Jesus kept going back to the temple, facing up to rejection day after day in the final week of his life, which would end in the ultimate rejection as false witnesses had him condemned to death. Why did he do this?
Jesus was not afraid of rejection because he knew something they did not. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes. The most important thing we need to hold our lives together may be something we are rejecting at the moment.
In the amazing mercy of Jesus, as we heard last Sunday in Philippians, Jesus let go of his equality with God – the acceptance he enjoyed in God’s presence – to enter a world in which he would be rejected by those he came to save.
John 1: “He came to what was his own, and his own people did not receive him”
I believe that it was precisely because he was so fully and completely accepted by his Father, that he was willing to experience rejection in this world so that we could be saved.
The Apostle Paul also rejected him at first. But in our lesson from Philippians today he tells the story of how he came to accept as precious that which he once rejected – and to recognize it as rubbish.
Whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ, he says
His racial pride, his good works, his acceptance with important people – all of that had to go in the bin. Or, since there was so much of it, maybe it had to go in the big dumpster out back.
The Apostle had to reject that through which he had sought acceptance all his life.
But when he saw that the true acceptance he was longing for – the only acceptance which could satisfy him – is the acceptance of God, he was ready to risk rejection not only to embrace Christ but also to invite others to do the same.
As we look ahead to the future, how might our lives and the life of this church be transformed by drinking deeply of the acceptance of God.
I believe that it will make us bold and unafraid of rejection as we invite others around us to experience and receive the acceptance of God.
Inscription on a church bell in Wisconsin: “To the bath and to the table, to the prayers and to the word, I call every seeking soul.”
Can you imagine going up to someone and telling them they need to take a bath? We can imagine they might not respond well to that.
But sometimes we need another person to have the courage to tell us what we know is true but are not yet ready to believe or to do something about.
We, like this bell, unafraid of rejection like our Lord and Saviour, are to call every seeking soul, to the cleansing wash of baptism, to the illuminating ministry of word and prayer, and to the nourishing and satisfying food of Christ’s body offered on the holy table – the very elements in our space we rededicate today.
In doing so, we believe that the message we have accepted is worth risking rejection so that others can accept it too.
And more than that, Jesus life demonstrates for us what each of our lives can look like if we become totally secure in our Father’s love and acceptance of us.
And as we become more aware of how totally accepted we are by God, we can live with the courage and love of Jesus (as one of our Eucharistic prayers says, “Fill us with the courage and love of Jesus, that all the world may gather in joy at the table of your kingdom.”
Without this, we will be running scared our whole lives – torn between the fear of rejection by God and fear of rejection from other people.
But Jesus did not live like that, and in so doing holds out hope that we do not need to live like that either
In the parable we heard today, and the one last week, Jesus confronts the Pharisees about their refusal to change their minds.
The problem was not that they were wrong – about God, about Jesus, about the world. Their problem was when Jesus showed them something different and better they refused to change their minds.
Being courageous and unafraid of rejection does not mean that we will be able to change everyone’s minds
But as just as we once rejected that we now accept, so there is hope for those who – to us – seem furthest from the reach of God’s goodness and mercy.
May we, as we look ahead, standing firm on the cornerstone Jesus Christ, and the inheritance that has been given us in this place, continue to be built up as living stones, a spiritual house offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, Amen.
The Reverend Matthew Waterman
Incumbent
The Church of St. Stephen, Downsview