Saint Bartholomew the Apostle

The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, who gave to your apostle Bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach your Word: Grant that your Church may love what he believed and preach what he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Psalm
91

The Readings
Deuteronomy 18:15-18     +     I Corinthians 4:9-15     +     Luke 22:24-30

. . . we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals. We are fools for the sake of Christ . . .
~ I Corinthians 4:9-10

One of the more intriguing and unusual concepts in Christian spirituality is that of 'the holy fool.' Though associated most often with Russian Orthodoxy, holy fools can be found in many times and places (St. Francis of Assisi is a well-known example from Western Christianity). Eschewing social conventions, often in shocking and eccentric ways--dressed in rags, or naked in the snow, throwing away opportunities for wealth or stability, speaking blunt and unsettling truths that others fear to discuss--the holy fool appears unhinged, but his or her life is anchored in Christ and fired by a divine inspiration. Like the prophets of old, their appearance and behavior compels us to look, and to consider the shocking claims of this thing we call the gospel.

Basil, Fool for Christ

The great onion-domed cathedral in Moscow is named 

for this 16th century holy fool, who is also buried there.

A scriptural inspiration for the holy fool may be found in today's passage from First Corinthians. But the idea is not simply a case of lifting a phrase from sacred writings to justify some bizarre behavior (though that can and does happen). In the writing leading up to this passage of the letter, St. Paul has been at pains to stress that the gospel itself is 'foolishness.' And we who cling to it are, by the world's standards, fools. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God . . . God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise . . . For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified (I Cor. 1:18, 27; 2:2).

Like the holy fools, Paul seeks to remind us that the gospel represents the great reversal: the least become the greatest, the mighty are cast down and the humble exalted, the first are last, God takes the form of a slave and is shamefully executed--God's power is made perfect in weakness.

It's tempting to look at Jesus and so much of the scriptures as representing a sort of exalted, respectable wisdom. And, indeed, in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3). But God's wisdom is not the world's; the way of Christ is not a philosophical path to advancement, or a pragmatic road of conventional morality, or a set of keys to success. Perhaps it is inevitable that most of us fail to embrace fully the implications of the gospel, but the holy fools will at least not let us forget: the way of Christ is a scandal, and we who follow Jesus are his own fools.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, who gave all for love of us: may nothing in this world keep us from loving you. Amen. 

Saint Mary the Virgin, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ

 The Collect of the Day

O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

~BCP pg. 243

The Psalm 

34:1-9

The Readings

Isaiah 61:10-11     +     Galatians 4:4-7     +     Luke 1:46-55  

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God . . . as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
~ Isaiah 61:10

August 15 is observed in the Roman Catholic Church as the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Among the Orthodox it is called the Dormition ("Falling Asleep") of the Theotokos. In both cases, the feast reflects the ancient belief that at her death, Mary was taken up, body and soul, to glory--to the presence of God. Though the Anglican tradition has never officially affirmed such a belief, it also does not deny it. Today's collect, in language at once reserved and solemn, demonstrates the Anglican characteristic of seeking to say neither too much nor too little about the deep mysteries of faith.

But I will nevertheless venture here to say something. Regardless of one's views (or agnosticism) about the end of Mary's earthly life, the traditional doctrine points to and is undergirded by a central article of faith: "the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come." As always, Mary does not point to herself, but to her Son--and by extension, to all who are in Christ. "For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his" (Rom. 6:5). Christians do not profess hope in some future of eternal disembodiment, nor in a vast, cosmic sea in which all individuality is obliviated. Rather, we profess by faith that we shall be raised, in the totality of our being. Whatever that mystery may look like ("raised a spiritual body," as St. Paul puts it in I Cor. 15), our Christian hope is that we shall be more, not less, than we were--more fully ourselves than ever before. And perhaps it is not too much to imagine that the body of the one who carried and bore the eternal Word of God into the world is already there where we shall by grace also be--the fullness of her being exulting in the glory of God her Savior.      

Closing Prayer

Anthem to the Theotokos
(from Saint Augustine's Prayer Book, p. 392; Greek Orthodox Hymn)

Into his joy, the Lord has received you,
Virgin God-bearer, Mother of Christ.
You have beheld the King in his beauty,
Mary, daughter of Israel.
You have made answer for the creation
to the redeeming will of God.
Light, fire, and life, divine and immortal,
Joined to our human nature you have brought forth,
     that to the glory of God the Father,
     heaven and earth might be restored. Amen.

Sunset at St. Mary's, Sewanee

The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ

The Collect

O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Psalm
99

The Readings
Exodus 34:29-35     +     2 Peter 1:13-21     +     Luke 9:28-36

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
~Luke 9:28-30

For he received honor and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

~2 Peter 1:17-19

Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey (1904-1988), from his The Glory of God and the Transfiguration of Christ:

"Confronted with a universe more terrible than ever in the blindness and the destructiveness of its potentialities, men and women must be led to Christian faith, not as a panacea of progress or as an otherworldly solution unrelated to history, but as a gospel of Transfiguration. Such a gospel transcends the world and yet speaks directly to the immediate here-and-now. He who is transfigured is the Son of Man; and as he discloses on the holy mountain another world, he reveals that no part of created things, and no moment of created time lies outside the power of the Spirit, who is Lord, to change it from glory to glory."

Closing Prayer
Holy God, help us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, confident of the glory that shall be revealed. And may our lives even now and ever more fully reflect the brightness of the same. Amen.