SAINT AUGUSTINE'S, GRAHAME PARK
  • ABOUT US
    • A Brief History of the Estate
    • Resources for our DCC members
    • Our personal data policy
    • Contact us
    • Financial Support
  • WHAT'S ON
    • This week's services and newspaper
    • Sunday School and Mass For Children
    • LIVE STREAM - Services/Prayers
    • Our Youtube and Facebook Channels
    • Our Social Media Notice Board
  • DONATIONS
  • SPIRITUALITY
    • PASTORAL CARE >
      • Visiting the sick
      • Weddings/ Reading of Banns
      • Funerals, bereavement
      • Baptism
      • Monastery Without Walls - Join Us
      • Confessions (Reconciliation)
    • Daily Online Bible Study
    • Bible Study Group on Thursdays >
      • Latest Session
    • Sermons
    • A Selection of Prayers
    • A Short Catechism - Christian faith
    • How to pray the ROSARY
  • GALLERY of our Events
    • Photo-meditations
    • For Children
    • Confirmation 2017 >
      • Confirmation and First Communion 2016
  • Hall Rental
  • YOUTHWORK
    • Art Workshops for children
    • Guitar Classes
  • our SOCIAL MEDIA
  • NURSERY

Our Biblical Blog /'Examined Life'

The Sacred: a responsible relationship (1 Samuel 4; James 2,4-end) / Wednesday after Trinity Sunday, Matins, Book of Common Prayer lectionary

6/14/2017

0 Comments

 
After a defeat, the elders of Israel decide to ‘use’ the ark of the covenant to give boost to their military operation against the Philistines. ‘Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.’ This does not work, they suffer a second, devastating defeat.
 
There is so much depth in this story, and there is so much to learn. The Sacred should not be manipulated. It should never be put into human service in an instrumental way. In this story, it is idolatrous use.
 
There is a personal level of the story’s meaning. The scene is also a model of ‘lie’. When we don’t tell the truth, we want to put the sacred (‘truth’) into our selfish service. We want to manipulate reality according to our narrow interest.
 
Having received the news (both the death of his sons, and the loss of the ark of the Lord), Eli, the chief judge of Israel dies. His daughter of law, when learns of the death of her husband, though gives life to a son, also dies. The woman that stood by her ‘named the child I-chabod, saying, The glory is deperted from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband.’
 
It is moving to see how people related their personal lives to the Sacred. It is a very close connection. The Sacred is read through their lives; their personal lives are read through the Sacred.
 
This story also shows us the nature of paradosis, handing over Tradition. Tradition cannot be passed on to the next generation only through a personal commitment and conviction. Namely, that God’s grace is the centre of my life.
 
James’ letter, from the angle of faith, also sheds light on our relationship to the Sacred. ‘Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone… Faith without works is dead.’  The works of faith connect us to God as a prayer, and as concrete relationship to our neighbour in whom God is present.
 
There is a profound meaning attached to these lines. Our deeds are a ‘microcosm’ of Salvation History. Our deeds, stemming from faith, are cells of God sacred history with us. To put it differently, the acts of love give us the sense of ‘history’. It is particularly important in a cultural climate when the sense of time, space, past, and belonging (the Biblical dimensions of faith) are erased by the mixture of cyber worlds and consumption.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    newmansermon4advent.docx
    File Size: 23 kb
    File Type: docx
    Download File

    newmansermon4advent.pdf
    File Size: 108 kb
    File Type: pdf
    Download File

    j_h_newman_advent_sermon1.pdf
    File Size: 107 kb
    File Type: pdf
    Download File

    j_h_newman_advent_sermon1.docx
    File Size: 23 kb
    File Type: docx
    Download File

    living_in_imagination_vs_real.docx
    File Size: 260 kb
    File Type: docx
    Download File

    living_in_imagination_vs_real.pdf
    File Size: 179 kb
    File Type: pdf
    Download File

    Support OUR FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN

    Soliloquy

    These are verbal Icons, expressions of how the world is seen from Saint Augustine's..

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    June 2023
    May 2022
    March 2022
    November 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016

    Categories

    All

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • ABOUT US
    • A Brief History of the Estate
    • Resources for our DCC members
    • Our personal data policy
    • Contact us
    • Financial Support
  • WHAT'S ON
    • This week's services and newspaper
    • Sunday School and Mass For Children
    • LIVE STREAM - Services/Prayers
    • Our Youtube and Facebook Channels
    • Our Social Media Notice Board
  • DONATIONS
  • SPIRITUALITY
    • PASTORAL CARE >
      • Visiting the sick
      • Weddings/ Reading of Banns
      • Funerals, bereavement
      • Baptism
      • Monastery Without Walls - Join Us
      • Confessions (Reconciliation)
    • Daily Online Bible Study
    • Bible Study Group on Thursdays >
      • Latest Session
    • Sermons
    • A Selection of Prayers
    • A Short Catechism - Christian faith
    • How to pray the ROSARY
  • GALLERY of our Events
    • Photo-meditations
    • For Children
    • Confirmation 2017 >
      • Confirmation and First Communion 2016
  • Hall Rental
  • YOUTHWORK
    • Art Workshops for children
    • Guitar Classes
  • our SOCIAL MEDIA
  • NURSERY