The CATHEDRAL TIMES

I AM ON THE ROCK, THE ROCK THAT LASTS

By the Very Rev. Sam Candler, Dean of the Cathedral

I spent the last few weeks of the summer among the rocks and forests of Ontario, Canada. My family and I have a couple of little cabins there, and we return to that rugged land every summer. The living there is rather rugged, because it is rocky and uneven. The lake, of course, can be beautifully smooth; but the shore and forests are full of twisted and slippery rocks.

I have usually considered a rock as something that is unchangeable. A rock is what is solid, something one should build on. “God is our Rock,” we say, because God is secure and unmoving. This year, however, I have been reminded of the opposite: rocks do change, rocks do move. Some of the outdoor places we admire the most, maybe the great mountains some of us visited this summer, are beautiful because they are the result of movement. Those slicing mountains and deep canyons are the result of massive shifts in the earth. Our great vistas were formed by rock upturning and eroding. It took a lot of time, of course, but rocks do change. And they are beautiful because of it. Some of us may have spent time at the beach this summer. Do you know where all that beautiful white sand came from? On our Georgia beaches, all that sand is from the Appalachian Mountains. Gradually, over time, as the Appalachians erode, their rock and soil flow down rivers to the Atlantic Ocean. By then, the rock has turned to sand. Those eroded rocks are now the small white grains of sand on our beaches.

“I am on the rock, the rock that lasts. I am on the rock that lasts….” God is our rock, we say. But that does not mean that God does not change. Maybe some of us once thought of our parents as rocks, as sure and steady foundations for our lives. We loved their sturdiness and we depended on their security. But, of course, our parents got older; and, gradually, they changed. There is something that does not change, and which might even grow stronger with age. There is a force in this earth that brings things together, too, that does not erode. That force is love, which I have sometimes considered as the opposite principle of entropy. Entropy, of course, is how we define that natural principle by which things dissolve and erode to states of lower and lower motion. Entropy is the gradual erosion of the rocks around us.

But love somehow acts against entropy. Love somehow brings atoms and molecules together. Love brings bodies together. Love brings hearts together. Love causes things to grow, even against the universe’s tendency to disintegrate. Love integrates. Love is the Christ force, the cosmic Christ force.

When I officiated at the funeral of an old friend this summer, I was reminded of this different kind of rock. Even as we missed her as friend, as mother, as grandmother, we were somehow surrounded by her love, in each one of us. The rock of love. There is a rock which opens up for each one of us, that draws us in, that protects us. We are acknowledging this rock of love when we sing, “Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.” We are asking the rock of love to open for us; that means it changes for us. The rock of love changes for the better. The rock of love changes for growth, for beauty, for eternity.

This SUNDAY

AUGUST 13, 2023 · The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Homecoming Sunday: Proper 14, Year A 1 Kings 19:9-18 • Psalm 85:8-13 • Romans 10:5-15 • Matthew 14:22-33

8:45 AND 11:15 A.M.: IN-PERSON AND ONLINE

CATHEDRALATL.ORG / THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. PHILIP APP / FACEBOOK / YOUTUBE

7:45 A.M. HOLY EUCHARIST, MIKELL CHAPEL

Celebrant and Preacher: The Very Rev. Sam Candler

8:45 A.M. AND 11:15 A.M. HOLY BAPTISMS AND HOLY EUCHARIST, CATHEDRAL

Celebrant: The Rev. Canon George Maxwell

Preacher: The Very Rev. Sam Candler

Cathedral Choir:

Malcolm Boyle (1902-1976), Thou, O God, art praised in Sion

Paul Mealor (b. 1975), Ubi caritas et amor

Baptisms at 8:45:

Georgia Elizabeth Constantine, daughter of Lib and Walter Constantine

Sage Eliza Graves, daughter of Sara and Stuart Graves

Sloane Isla Graves, daughter of Sara and Stuart Graves

Wilson Deane Oswald, Jr., son of Katie and Wilson Oswald

Baptisms at 11:15:

Sybil Rose Brunette, daughter of Elizabeth Jeffrey Brunette

Sally Griffitts Crocker, daughter of Jessica and Michael Crocker

Ruger Dale William Dixon, son of Christina Lee Dixon

Ethan Alexander Harris, son of Anne and Alex Harris

Katherine McLendon King, daughter of Sarah and Will King

Elizabeth Winburne King, daughter of Sarah and Will King

Graham Stephen Loper, son of Regan and Jordan Loper

Eloise Martha Seewoester, daughter of Bethany and John Seewoester

11:15 A.M. BAUTISMOS Y LA SANTA EUCARISTÍA, MIKELL CHAPEL

Celebrant: The Rev. Canon Lauren Holder

Preacher: The Rev. Deacon Juan Sandoval

Bautismos:

Erisbeth Daniela Agreda Fernández, daughter of Niglisbeth Fernández Urdanela and Eridano Agredo Aparicio

Genesis Reyes Fernández, daughter of Gerardo Reyes Islas and Niglisbeth Fernández Urdanela

Jerónimo Reyes Fernández, son of Gerardo Reyes Islas and Niglisbeth Fernández Urdanela

Leonel Díaz Gaytán, son of Marfelia and Gaytán Penaloza

New Members

Ruth Sutcliffe from Greenwich, Connecticut

Hudson Shelton from Decatur, Alabama

Emily Harte from Marietta, Georgia

Chris and Melissa Chapman from Charleston, South Carolina

Marie Drake from Dunwoody, Georgia

Laird Almy from Marietta, Georgia

J.W. and Brittany Oxendine from Atlanta

Charles Walker from Augusta, Georgia

Brendan Knoblauch and Esther Udoji from Birmingham, Alabama