29TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – 2016

Paul is for a large number of Catholics a closed book. We are used to the Jesus of the Gospels, which are usually the Scripture of choice for Sunday homilies. But the dense, almost indigestible chunks of Paul that form the main content of the Sunday Second Reading? What does he really have to say to us?

It is hard for us to conceive that the last Paul’s letters pre-date even the earliest of the Gospels, Mark, by at least five years. Paul was the great missionary, the one who spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, throughout the known world of his time. The Church which wrote the Gospels between about 700-100 AD had already been brought to faith in Jesus Christ by Paul’s missions and his missionary letters.

Paul’s language is dense, often difficult, and like the rabbi he once was, he thinks and argues in circles, coming back to the same ideas over and over in the course of a single passage. Yet it is Paul who holds so many of the keys to our faith. Today’s reading from the Second Letter to Timothy, is a case in point.

Paul has some quite powerful things to say about scripture and the faith it inspires. And for Paul, faith is not some kind of vague belief, like the insipid modern idea of “believing in yourself”. For him, the only faith worth having is faith in “Christ Jesus.” He expresses this unequivocally: “Take your stand upon this; proclaim the Good news of Jesus Christ risen from the dead, in or out of season.” Going for the overkill, he says, “I tell you, admonish you, exhort you to teach these things patiently.”

Do the words addressed by Paul the Apostle to a bishop 2 000 years ago have any meaning at all for us today? Most certainly. He calls us, in the same way, to stand firm in our faith, to believe in the great Christian truths we have been taught from our youth. He calls us to be His unflinching witnesses to Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, in and out of season. He “tell, admonishes and exhorts” us to attend to the Scriptures, which can “teach, refute error, correct and discipline” us.

If we are ever to convince the world that Jesus is Lord, we have to believe it ourselves, and bear witness to him at all times. The world, though it might hate us, must be able to say of us, “they really believe in something” – or rather, someone. In the world in which we live, it is time for us all to put aside the easy compromises we so often make, to lay down the exceptions to the Church’s teaching about faith in Jesus Christ which we reserve to ourselves. We must leave the Church Comfortable and become once more, like Paul, members of the Church Militant. Like Paul, we must become utterly convinced by our Faith in the Risen Lord Jesus. God will give it to us if we really ask him, if we truly want the superlative gift of Faith that he gives.

Fr Phillip

28TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – 2016

How often do we say we want to serve God, but not do what he wants us to do? Or ask God for help, then refuse to do what he asks in order to achieve what we have requested? Today’s Old Testament reading shows dramatically the consequences of listening to God even when he appears to ask strange or difficult things.

Naaman is an officer in the Syrian Army when he contracts leprosy, a contagious disease that would have made him a complete social outcast. Through a servant he hears of the prophet Elisha and his powers of healing. Despite his contempt for Israel, to Naaman an insignificant little nation, he leaves in search of Elisha, whom he meets after a series of mishaps. Elisha sends him to bathe in the Jordan river. Naaman is outraged. Why should he bathe in this grubby little Israelite stream when there are big and beautiful rivers in his own country? He is persuaded to do as Elisha has instructed, and his skin is made whole. He returns to Elisha and places his faith in the One True God of Israel. 

Sometimes God wants us to do tasks for him which are distasteful to us. Other times the task is, we feel, beneath our dignity. Yet other times they go against all our instincts or better judgement. No-one really enjoys changing a baby’s dirty nappy, for example. But we do it, either because we love that baby dearly, or because we know that, helpless as it is, it needs our help, and as human beings we are obliged to give it. Neither, if someone has drunk too much and made a mess iin our lounge, do we want to clean up the nauseous mess. If we want our lounge to be as it should, we will nevertheless do it. Nor do we like to be confronted at our front doors by a filthy person who asks for money for food, money which we are morally certain will be spent on an alcoholic beverage. But we do not want a fellow human being to starve, so we will at least give him something to eat.

Small things which confront us all the time, can challenge us to step outside that which is pleasant or convenient to us. We often rebel aginst these things. Yet in God’s plan, we can never know what major consequences might flow from a small action on our part. And we never know how such actions may affect OUR lives, for we can never be more generous than God.

Naaman is an example of this. He overcame his distaste, bathed in the river Jordan, and was made clean. But this small action was the source of an incalculably greater gift; faith in the one, true God of Israel. His action was an opening on the eternal, through which God poured his grace and mercy upon Naaman. It is the same for us. Jesus once said, when his disciples were urging him to eat, “My food is to do the work of the one who sent me.” How often do we think that when we do some little task, especially something less than pleasant, that we are “doing something for God.” In fact, for us, too, it is the other way around. Each one of these is a window on to eternity, through which the Lord Jesus can pour out upon us all the grace and mercy that he won for us by his death on the cross and his resurrection. Next time you are confronted by some unpleasant task, think of this.

Fr Phillip

27TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – 2016

In the Book of Numbers, the elders of Israel are given the gift of prophecy when summoned before the Tent of Meeting in the desert. When God gives the same gift to two men left behind in the camp, the elders’ immediate reaction is indignation: “Who do these fellows think they are to usurp what is our exclusive right?” It is left to Moses to give the divine answer. Firstly, if God has given these two men the gift, who are mere human beings to deny it? Secondly, far from limiting the gift of prophecy and making it something small and exclusive, Moses expresses the wish that it were given to everyone. Moses’ longing, which reflects God’s action, is for universality rather than exclusivity.

There is a similar, even stronger message in Mark’s gospel. Jesus has called the Twelve and given them certain powers, including that of exorcism, the casting out of demons. When they find a man who is not a disciple doing the same, they are outraged, and want to put a stop to his activities; they, after all, are Jesus’ appointed disciples. He immediately redirects their thinking; the important issue is not who is “in,” but who is doing Jesus’ work. The fact that this man is not one of Jesus’ disciples does not prevent him serving Jesus. Jesus goes further to explain that the smallest service done for him, or in his name, is still truly an act of service to him.

Once again, the divine call is not to exclusivity and division, but to universality and solidarity. It is no accident that the incident around which this story is based is an exorcism; the clear message is that Satan will not be defeated if those who claim to serve God spend more time fighting and vying with each other than in fighting against the evil one. By stopping the outsider from performing his exorcism, the disciples are preventing the war against Satan from being fought!

This is a vital lesson for us today. In an increasingly secular world, which more and more is coming out into an open contempt for God and his kingdom, it is vital for Christians to stand together against the foe, and to stand united. We cannot allow the Church to be fragmented into little exclusive groups, each claiming to represent the real truth. We cannot refuse to work together with other Christians who stand as squarely against the foe as we. No-one who truly does the will of God can be against him. In Jesus’ own words: “He who is not against me is with me.” As long as we allow ourselves to be divided by our little human exclusivities, Satan’s kingdom will triumph over us.

But we must stand fast, and stand together. Within and without the Church, we must seek to co-operate with all who love the Lord Jesus and serve in his name. We need to work together; we need specially to pray together. May God, who loves us, who died for our sins and rose from the dead to give us life, free us from all evil and unite us in Christ for his own kind purposes. Amen.

Fr Phillip

26TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – 2016

The great G.K. Chesterton once made a telling distinction between the imagery of Buddhism and Christianity. If one looks at an image of the Buddha, he says, it is generally of a rounded, sleek figure with its eyes closed. The sayings of the sages of the East have tended to be lofty and inspiring. If one looks the poverty at large tracts of the East, however, their wisdom seems to have made little difference to the world in which they lived, from which, in many cases, they separated themselves. The holy men of the east are to be found in high, quiet, clean places, engaged in lofty contemplation, awaiting those in search of enlightenment to come to them.

The medieval image of a Catholic saint, on the other hand, is an emaciated figure with burning eyes wide open, staring searchingly on the world about. The Christian saint marches out to call the world to conversion, to live a life worthy of God. “Thy will be done” is their inspiration; to embody the holiness of God in their very lives. The saints of Christendom do not sit in lofty isolation, waiting for the world to come to them; they go down into the stews to search for men, to bring the Good News from on high to earth’s lowest places; there they are to be found, washing the feet of the lowliest, as did Jesus, who humbled himself and did not grasp at equality with God. It is through the saints of Christendom that the world has been irrevocably changed.

One of the distinguishing marks of Christianity is its concern with reality. For Cardinal Newman, it is the key to the true Christian Church. He pointed out continually that a Christian life is not one moved periodically be lofty thoughts, such as can be inspired by sermons, which then goes out to live its more or less pagan existence until moved by the next lofty inspiration. It is a life lived out in constant daily faithfulness to God through prayer, charity and sacrifice. It is persistence in faith rather than intensity of feeling that marks out the way of a Christian. This is the meaning of St. Philip Neri’s ordinary way to holiness; it is also the meaning of Jesus’ calling to take up of one’s cross daily and follow him. Or his words at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel: “It is not those who say ‘Lord, Lord!’ who shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven.” Or, finally, in the profound words of the Lord’s Prayer: Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!”

The challenge to us is to live for Christ, to do his will. Day by day, we must strive for God and his kingdom through prayer and the sacraments, through self-discipline and self-sacrifice; through doing his will. It is not good enough to feel inspired by lofty words, and then to go out and continue in the same old way. We must go out from here and actually do what he asks. And if we sometimes do it grudgingly, it is of the utmost importance that we do it nevertheless.

Fr Phillip

ODEIN SCHOOL OF MUSIC — ORGAN WEEK

In 2016, the annual SAKOV meeting & bursary competition will collaborate with the OSM to present a joint initiative with the activities of the Liesbeth Schlumberger Organ Chair.

The Liesbeth Schlumberger Organ Chair was founded in 2015 by the Odeion School of Music, UFS (OSM) and is positioned under the auspices of the OSM International Artistic Mentorship Programme (IAMP). 

The main objective of the IAMP is the establishment of partnerships with musicians (soloists, chamber musicians and pedagogues) who enjoy established international careers. On par with international tendencies the aim is to deploy these experts as instructors, coaches and mentors OSM students; this compliments the work of complimentary to the residential OSM performance faculty.

The main event of the Chair is an annual two-week intensive tuition programme given by Liesbeth Schlumberger that aims to mentor and tutor South African organ students and organists. A long-term aim is that talented OSM organ students will have the opportunity to study for a semester or more under Ms Schlumberger in France.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EVENT:

CONCERTS

22 September 17:30 – 18:30

Liesbeth Schlumberger
German Lutheran Church St Paulus (Ott Organ)
Programme: works by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, John Bull, Georg Böhm
Free entrance

22 September 22:00

Late Night Concert with work by Olivier Messiaen Concert
Eljee Du Plooy (Phd Performance) & Gerhard de Bruin (MMus Performance) students from the OSM Organ Class of Dr Jan Beukes
Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral, Bloemfontein (Allen Organ)
Programme: Olivier Messiaen: L'ascension & La Nativité du Seigneur
Free entrance

23 September 19:30

Liesbeth Schlumberger in Concert
Odeion (SAOB Organ rebuilt by Elsenaar J, Protea Orrelbouers)
Programme: works by César Franck, Maurice Duruflé & Julius Reubke
Tickets at Computicket or at the door.

24 September 13:00 - 14:00

Lunch Hour Concert
Kovsie Church (Marcussen Organ)
Free entrance

24 September 19.30

SAKOV Bursary Gala Concert
Odeion (SAOB Organ rebuilt by Elsenaar J, Protea Orrelbouers)
Tickets at Computicket or at the door.

25 September 9:00

Morning Service accompanied by Liesbeth Schlumberger
German Lutheran Church, St Paulus (Ott Organ)


 OTHER EVENTS

22 September 14:00 - 16:30

Organ Marathon
Dutch Reformed Church, Langenhovenpark

24 September 14:30 - 17.00

Organ Safari, commencing from the Kovsie Church (Marcussen Organ)