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The
Cathedral Church
of Saint John
Ten Concord Ave.
Wilmington
Delaware
19802

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fax: (302) 777-5789

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Dean’s Sermon at Evensong
2nd Sunday after Pentecost
6 June 2010

by the Very Reverend William B. Lane

This lovely Evensong reminds us again of the beauty of our liturgy and how magnificently the Cathedral’s choir of women, men and choristers interprets and presents that liturgy. While primarily a choir office, evensong is intended to bring the congregation into the liturgy, and Dr. Roland, Canon Boatmon and the musicians of the choir make that happen.

Our attention this evening is on the Cathedral Choir School of Delaware. In a few minutes we will have the opportunity to thank the Board of the School and its volunteers, and especially its students. However, I think that it is also appropriate that we take a moment to thank the adult members of the choir, the men and women who, with devotion and love, serve us week after week in the ministry of music. Their presence, example and mentoring is a gift to the children and young people who are their colleagues in this ministry.

The program of the Choir School is a full one. It entails the study and practice of music, introducing the children and young people to a broad range of music in praise and celebration of the love and grace of God. The School also provides adult mentoring and role modeling, as well as assistance with the students academic programs. There is concern for the whole person of each student, their physical, emotional and spiritual well being.

It is the latter that is most important to me. I rejoice at the choristers development as musicians. Their contribution to my participation in liturgy is a gift I treasure. But it is their well being, their development as ethical, moral and faithful children of God, their well being as whole persons, that is of primary importance.

There is in Hebrew the word Shalom and in Arabic the word Salaam. Both are usually translated into English as Peace. However, as we have been often reminded, this Peace means far more than the absence of hostilities. It means being in a whole relationship with God and with creation. And this is only possible in the emulation of the love of God for creation by the love of creation for God. It is this love that Jesus is referring to in this evenings second lesson from Matthew: Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.

The yoke of Jesus is a yoke of love and this love is lived out in this world as the fullest expression of what being human is all about. Remember that marvelous chapter in Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 13.

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

So through their experience as choristers, I hope that, whatever gifts they develop in music and in the rest of their education, whatever wisdom they obtain, these students will know and make known love which as Paul says:

love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Dear Choristers, this means be self confident for sure, but know you are not self sufficient; be assertive, but not arrogant; be strong, but not a bully; look for integrity in others, and have integrity yourself; be aware of and responsive to the needs of others, and be open to their ministry with you. Sing and give praise to God and make known that praise with your life. Don’t listen to those who would tell you loving is a sign of weakness, for love is of the very essence of creation.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you evermore.

Faithfully,
The Very Reverend William B. Lane

Dean’s Sermons:

Cathedral Call Letters from the Dean

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