Ss Peter & Paul, Kettering
Letting in the light
It is a great privilege to be able to share with you in your Patronal Festival . The opportunity to be among so many worshippers is reserved for us in Scotland to diocesan or provincial gatherings. The average size of congregation for us would be about thirty and this is only one of many ways in which the Scottish Episcopal Church is different. We are not any longer an established church and constitute a minority in Scotland although we are the third largest denomination. Our size is one reason for not having an Archbishop but a Presiding Bishop who has the title of Primus. In Africa it is a brand of lager. Idris, is as you will know a brand of Ginger Beer so that a combination of Primus and Idris is likely to produce a lot of gas!
Archbishop Desmond Tutu told the story of a grandparent who took their seven year old grand child into church for the first time. The child looked around at the wonderful stained glass and asked who were all these people who appeared in the windows. Grand father explained about the saints of the church. “Now I understand” said the child “ saints are people who let in the light”. Today we give thanks to God for the great Apostles Peter and Paul and for the light of Christ seen in them whose rays shine brightly today as ever
Now what was the light that the saints let in? All of them – and notably Peter and Paul as we call them had encountered Jesus and sought to shed his light in the world of their day . Remarkable that they both changed their name Simon to Peter and Saul to Paul, but here is a token to the profound change that encountering Jesus had upon them .
This morning as atevery Eucharist we encounter Jesus as we share in Holy Communion – what change may we expect to take place in us ; and what light should we be seeking to spread . It is sad that the church gives the impression that saints are always dead people – how strange that we are afraid to acknowledge goodness when we see it . Is it I wonder because we are afraid that we might tempt fate and call someone a saint who then turns out to have some feature or personal characteristic that is decidedly un-saintly . That is of course to over-look the record of these saints as we read it in the New Testament . Peter the denyer , the one who wanted to stop Jesus ministry and turn it into something different and Paul the one who actually tried very hard to stamp out the infant church at birth . No , we should be able to identify goodness and service and leave the judging to God since it is not ours to make anyway.
So what is that great light which will give glory to our Father in heaven?
It is I am sure something to do with forgiveness .
I always get a bit of a shiver down the spine when I read those words-quite often at the ordination of priests about what appears at first sight to be a dreadful responsibility and power . Whosoever sins you retain they are retained and whosoever sins you forgive they are forgiven.
I wonder if there is a way of understanding this that does not undo the basis of sacramental confession but expands it in a special way . It seems to me that when we don’t forgive then we are locked into retention as a consequence . So whilst Jesus was certainly in touch with a spiritual reality he also speaks to the human condition and to human behaviour as well . However hard it may be to forgive and it may often take many years to do it the fact is that until we can forgive and in that sense let go of the event which caused us to be hurt , we are trapped by it retained by it.
Two Buddhist monks were walking by the side of a deep river . They came to a ford but standing there not daring to cross was a young woman.
The older monk invited her to climb on his back and so be carried across the river and so it happened . The monks continued on their way but now all conversation between them had stopped and there was an icy silence . Is something the matter asked the elder monk . There certainly is said his young companion . You know that it is forbidden to us monks to have any contact with women – but you actually had bodily contact with that young woman – you touched her !
Well replied the older monk, you are right . But consider this that when I set her down from my back and walked on I left her behind . You have continued to carry her.
Whosever sins .... the light we are to shed is that of forgiveness. Forgiveness of one another and forgiveness within our community of faith. We are called to forgive – judgement belongs to God and not to us. To forgive is to restore the balance of respect and honour between us since that alone brings us back on the same level . No more moral high ground for someone to stand on when we acknowledge that we all are in need of forgiveness which we have already received in the love of God .
So here is a challenge for disciples today -is that the kind of light are we shedding in the world ?
But I would want to set that question in an optimistic back-ground and to find a sure ground for hope out of which we may be given the strength to do what we have to do – which is to forgive .
And I find that strength in some else’s words – I cant tell you whose because they come in an essay on Salvation from our Doctrine Committee in Scotland. “We are used to hearing dire predictions about the fate of Christianity in the modern world. The religion that once held sway over kings has now been pushed to the margins of Western society and will soon disappear. Beliefs that used to be universal are now the exception: church institutions that once formed the back-bone of society are now all but irrelevant and faith once taken seriously in the public square is now dismissed as a side show.
The story sounds plausible enough until you examine the facts which suggest a large element of myth about it. Poll after poll demonstrates that belief in God is a fairly stable compound of our national psyche. Churches far from being irrelevant are important sources of social capital as it is called often the only viable institution in deprived neighbourhoods and religion is right in the public square from church schools to suicide bombers -though admittedly not completely therefore for the good. It seems – at least from Scotland -that the tide on Dover beach is taking a very long time to go out. I could add and from Canterbury as well!
But I come back to another image of discipleship alongside that of light – and that is of seasoning. What is the distinctive flavour that the Christian faith has to offer to the diet of human experience. It is the generous love and forgiveness of God which the followers of Jesus are called to live out in their world. When the church can live and exist as a community in which forgiveness is a constant feature then the light will shine bright and clear not in windows but in you and me.
And there is something else.
I could not stand here and ignore the glorious flowers with which we are surrounded .They are truly magnificent and I can hardly think of all the sleeplessness nights and hours of work that have gone into these wonderful creations .
They speak to is of another feature of saintly living. Each bloom is in itself a wonder to rejoice in – and each part of each flower has its own ”wow” factor . Put together they are seen at their best. And so are we. Each of us is a child of God – called by name and loved. But when we can express community – being together in mutual sharing of joy and pain, then something of an added dimension emerges . Just as God in Trinity is a being in relationship; so we as image of that God, fully express Gods purpose when we are at one with each other and the Lord.
Peter on the shore could not help expressing curiosity about John (scholars reckon there was a bit of needle between them anyway). Dont mind about him said Jesus you just follow me. One cant help feeling as we try desperately hard all over the church to hold together in that blessed unity which exists in God that if only people would keep their eyes on Jesus, if only they would pay attention to what they are doing themselves instead of being consumed with a distracting curiosity about others we might be more faithful followers of Jesus.
Let us pray then, that just as we follow on where others have trodden that we may be those who shed light into a sometimes darkened world and that we do it by living a pattern of forgiveness; by striving to hold together in that unity which is Christ's gift; and by the expression of the truth of God in and through the life of this congregation.
The Most Reverend Idris Jones, 29th June 2008
Office Address:
The Rectory
Church Walk
Kettering
NN16 0DJ