Ss Peter & Paul, Kettering
Being agents of change
I must thank everyone who has been kind enough to ask after my health; praying for my return to full voice and so on. It was a very different Christmas for me not to be able to sing any carols – it’s just not the same mouthing them without any sound.
And, as you’ve probably gathered, I’m still not singing yet. It’s all been a very good reminder to me of the frailty of our basic human nature. We have finite limits to our bodies and when something goes awry we certainly show up its ordinariness.
If someone has a gift for singing (and that’s certainly not me), for speech or similar, then loosing the voice by having a very human voice-box and throat certainly reminds them that although others may think that they are marvellous, wonderful and so on, they are only human – perfection comes about only in God. You may recall that at one stage, Jesus said that God alone was good.
It is the presence of God’s grace – his love, his gift – that takes something ordinary and makes it something special.
This is what Jesus was doing at the wedding at Cana:
- taking ordinary water and making it wine:
- taking an ordinary situation of need and making it a feast of plenty:
- taking the ordinariness of faith and making it a celebration of God’s love for us. These are some of the levels at which this marvellous story of the wedding feast of Cana can be worked on.
Bishop Robert Davies was the 9th Bishop of Tasmania and had retired before I started there – it was his successor that I worked under firstly.
His favourite passage was this one about the wedding feast: So much so that it was the lesson read at his funeral as well. Of the many points that he would make from this passage, two always come to mind, and I will share them with you.
Firstly is this issue about how it is that the ordinariness of our lives and our situations can be so radically changed by the touch of Jesus, the Christ of God. It doesn’t change us into something we’re not; in that it will not change us into mindless robots following strict orders, rules and conventions (unless that is actually the sort of person you naturally are), but it will change us into what we could be – fulfilling our potential to be far better than we ever could be simply on our own. And that’s the potential as God sees it, not as we humans might see it.
The water remains as liquid: Jesus doesn’t turn it into gold, but he does turn it into wine. Water has that potential to be turned into wine, and with Jesus, that potential was realised.
Each of us has great potential for good in the workings of the Kingdom of God – we usually refer to this as our Calling. It is different for everyone; as everyone of us has a different potential, a different calling. And with that calling comes different gifts – as Paul is discussing with the people of Corinth as we heard earlier. And it is when we are touched by Jesus in one way or another that our potential can come to the fore in its fullness; changing the poverty of our nature by the riches of His Grace – as the collect prayer for today puts it so beautifully.
The second point that I always remember from Bishop Robert was that he would remind us all, not just those who held a title of minister (lay or ordained) but all people in the church, that it was their role, that is, it is our role in this story to be the others in the story of the feast.
We are not expected to actually do the miracle – that power to do the miracle of change lies still with Christ. It is our part to bring the jars and to draw out the changes. It was Mary who brought the need to the attention of Christ – so we are, through our prayers and actions to bring before Christ those in need, whether the needy be needy in terms of
- body mind or spirit:
- sorrow, grief or adversity:
- dislocation, disorientation or simply by not being properly supported in this fast moving and confusing society: what ever their need, it is our part to bring them before the Lord.
It was the stewards who brought in the 10 jars and filled them to the brim. So it is our part sometimes to do the hard practical work that prepares, supports or carries those in need through the period of their change.
That’s not always easy as I know well from my own ministry amongst those on the fringes of our society but, to continue with my own example,I do not do the miracle. That happens between the person in the jar (as it were) and God. And the same applies to each of us as we do that which we are asked by God. We are simply His agents in the matter and we leave the miracles to Him. We should not worry about whether the miracle comes out as we expect or hope it will. Sometimes the actual miracle may be in a direction far different than we could guess, but it is God’s miracle so we leave it to God. And I’ve seen some surprising outcomes of my ministry recently.
Anyway… This of course, has implications regarding each of us and how we look at each other. None of us are miracle workers – and none of us should be expected to work miracles, but all of us are called to be agents of change in the workings of the God who does the miracles.
These two points of Bishop Robert’s always remind me that God’s grace changes the poverty of our nature into potential abundance through the richness of His grace – and also that, with His abundant grace in our lives, we are called to assist in bringing that grace to others – whether we think that they are worthy of it or not and whether we think we can do so or not.
We are not called to be selfish with Gods Grace, but stewards working for God, helping God change the ordinariness of other lives as well as ours so that they too might fulfil their God-given potential.Amen.
Robert Hill, January 14th, 2007
Office Address:
The Rectory
Church Walk
Kettering
NN16 0DJ