Advent 6 – 6 December 2021
Happy St Nicholas’ Day!
If you put boots out last night, I hope they were filled with lovely things by this morning. For the second year there is no St Nicholas’ Day service in St Leonard’s Chapel for St Leonards School because of Covid – let’s hope we can gather there next year for our Gottesdienst.
This evening the University’s Alumni Carol Service will take place in St Salvator’s Chapel at 7 pm, with carols, music from the Renaissance Singers and organ scholars, prayers from chaplains, and a sermon called Joyful Anticipation from Roxanne Campbell, Assistant Curate, St Mary Magdalene’s Episcopal Church, Dundee, and herself a graduate. Alumni, staff, students and friends are welcome. The service will also be livestreamed here: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/chaplaincy/worship/
The first reading this evening is from Isaiah 11 and begins as follows:
A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3 His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
- 10 goes on to say:
On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.
Jesse was the father of David, and so this passage envisages one who will be in the line of David to reign as a true and faithful monarch, bringing peace to the land and all creation. In short, a Messiah.
Medieval Christians loved the image of the Jesse Tree, showing the line of descent from Jesse to Jesus, as found in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. The oak carving below is of the Tree of Jesse, though perhaps it shows a line of ascent rather than descent as Jesse is lying at the bottom, and the tree sprouts upwards towards the Virgin and Child.
This panel was probably made for Cardinal David Beaton in the 1530s for St Andrews Castle, the bishop’s palace now largely ruinous but still enjoying its magnificent setting on the Scores. This and other panels were later removed by John Beaton of Balfour, captain of the castle and installed in the dining room of Balfour House, now a roofless ruin not far from Markinch Railway Station. Together they are known as the Beaton Panels, and can be seen in the National Museum of Scotland, in Edinburgh.
Yours,
Donald.