Break Open the Word

The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 17, 31 August 2014 Exodus 3:1-15 Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c Or Jeremiah 15:15-21 Psalm 26:1-8 Romans 12:9-21 St. Matthew 16:21-28 Background:   The Symbolism of the Burning Bush It is interesting that the root word SNH (bush or bramble) is similar to SNi (Sinai), so that some commentators see it as mistaken substitution for Sinai.   The actual text is a weaving of the J document and the E document, but the story has influenced Muslims, Christians, and Jews throughout the centuries.   The Eastern Church see the story as evidence of God’s “uncreated energies”, just as Moses witnessed God’s glory in Exodus 33:18ff .   The Orthodox also see in the burning yet not destroyed bush a symbol of the virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.   Certain churches of the reformation used the symbol of the burning bush, and its destruction/survival as a symbol of their own survival during the turmoil amongst t...

Saint Mary the Virgin, 15 August 2014 Isaiah 61:10-11 Psalm 34 Galatians 4:4-7 St. Luke 1:46-55 Background: Our Lady of Walsingham Just to get you in the mood, I recommend clicking on the link to Blake’s poem known to us in the hymn Jerusalem .   The connection of England to Our Lord and to his Mother goes beyond confessional or personal belief.   This is most profoundly seen in the cult and image of Our Lady of Walsingham.   In around 1061, Richeldis de Faverches had a vision of Mary, and built then a Holy House, which was soon a place of pilgrimage and a shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the twelfth century a priory was built there until it was suppressed during the English Reformation.   In the last century there has been a revival of the pilgrimage which finds both Anglican and Roman Catholic shrines at the site.   In 1922 a new statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was set us in the Anglican parish church, and regular pilgrimages follo...