Sermon
Holy Trinity Berkswich
Feast St Peter and St Paul and Welcome to Revd David
Clark
Zech. 4: 1-6a, 10b –end Acts 12: 1-11 Matt. 16: 13-19
Today
I retire after 41 years in ministry. I can think of no better way of ending
this ministry than being invited to preach tonight as David is welcomed here as
your curate.
Let
us pray…
Father speak to our
minds to instruct them,
Speak to our hearts
to warm them,
And speak to our
wills to inspire them,
For your Holy Names
sake we ask. Amen
Whenever we have an act of
terrorism one of the questions asked is, was this person known to the
authorities?
Some people however are very
good at keeping under the radar.
From today, David will find
it hard to keep under the radar. He has become a Church of England minister and
that has a very public dimension.
And this will be noticed,
even if you try and hide it and do not wear your clerical collar.
A number of times while on
holiday I have been invited to read a lesson as the minister was been able to
intuit I am also a minister, despite the shorts and t-shirt. It is something
about the way we carry ourselves and the ease we are in and around a Church and
with God’s people.
I am reminded of one of
those amusing clips from a time when the appointment of a Bishop was newsworthy
and a recently appointed Bishop was being interviewed. He was asked what he
hoped to do in his role as Bishop. What
he said was very important but the way he phrased it for modern ears was
unfortunate to say the least.
He said he intended to
expose himself and wanted all his clergy to follow his example and expose
themselves to the public.
If we take the idea and not
the phrasing, what the Bishop was saying is just as true today as ever it was.
At a recent Church Army
Gathering our CEO in his opening address said this of the Church Army.
‘Our passion is not to save
the Church from extinction; our passion is to see the Kingdom of God come upon
earth.’
I hope none of you here
tonight are thinking David has come and will help save Holy Trinity from
extinction.
And I hope you will be
expecting David to be out and about in the public arena.
And as an ordained minister
in the Church of England his reception in public ministry will be a mixed bag.
Some sadly will see him as
aligned to those who have abused people.
Others will have memories of
a minister who failed them or who neglected them.
To others he will simply be something
from the past, an irrelevance in today’s modern, fast paced world with a
science based outlook.
But there will be those times
when he will be asked for advice, or for prayer and counselling.
And it is good if we remind
ourselves that Jesus’ ministry took place out and about, on the highways and
byways.
I hope you will let David
out into the market place and not to seek to confine him to this Church
building and all that goes on in here or in the hall.
It is important to be rooted
and grounded, it is important to gather to gather as God’s people, it is
important that prayers are offered up daily and the Scriptures read and chewed
over.
But only in as much as it
serves that greater purpose, to know Jesus better and to make Jesus better
known – that and that alone is the reason the Church exist.
Going forward I hope and
pray that as someone ‘learning the ropes’ David will not assume anything but will
constantly ask why something is being done.
Given every encouragement to
ask of himself and of the people he is now being called to serve, ‘just what we
are doing for God’s sake? And if we are not doing it for God’s sake then for
God’s sake let’s stop doing it.’
Perhaps to draw people back
to the Diocesan direction of travel, to discern vocation, both as individuals
but also as Holy Trinity, St Thomas’, and All Saints and as a Benefice, asking,
‘what is your God given vocation?’ To help discern this calling we are invited to deepen our discipleship and to share the life of Faith through inspiring evangelism.
And as David is out about some
people will ask him questions – sometimes very tough questions of which there
are no easy answers.
Just look at our Scripture
readings for tonight as we celebrate St Peter and St Paul.
That reading we had from Zechariah,
pick the bones out of that one! What on earth is that all about?
And then from Acts the story
of Peter, a story when we rejoice over the miraculous release of Peter.
But what about James – why
wasn’t he spared. Why was he killed?
And so - why did my son die
so young?
Why didn’t God hear my
prayers?
Why didn’t God send an angel
to help my daughter when she was being raped?
David, putting yourself into
the public space as a God representative you will have to face all sorts of
questions. Some from God’s own people who may feel God has let them down, and
also from those who claim no allegiance to God whatsoever but still demand to
know that if you claim God is love that he has a funny way of showing it.
And I hope that as the
people of God our Ministers will help us all to be able to give an answer for
the hope that we have when asked – quoting from 1 Peter 3.15
And at times we will simply
not have an answer. Then we are called to sit and weep with those who weep and
mourn with those who mourn.
And with a teaching
background you will know better than most that the best answers to any person’s
questions come from their own understanding and learning.
It’s a very Jewish way, ‘who
is my neighbour?’
Let me answer that by
telling you a story.
And from Matthew – Jesus
having taught, healed and ministered finally asks the disciple ‘who do people
say that I am?’
They answer by saying, some
say you are John the Baptist, or Elijah or maybe Jeremiah or one of the other
prophets.’
Then very importantly Jesus
then asks them, ‘so what about you, who do you think I am?’
I want us all to notice this
very carefully.
You may know what David,
Graham, John or Joy think who Jesus is - but you need to answer that for
yourself.
Who do you say that Jesus is?
On this occasion Jesus told
them not to announce that they considered Jesus to be the Christ – the Messiah,
Israel’s longed for hope.
But for us as
post-resurrection people of God we are given ever encouragement to say who
Jesus is.
And we may not have a
clerical collar that would denote that we are God’s representative.
But I would hope and pray
that there is something about us and the way we conduct our lives and the way
we do life that will speak about our being a Christian.
I would hope and pray that
we would be constantly asking questions about each and everything that we do,
think or say – how will this help us to know Jesus better or to make Jesus
better known.
I would hope and pray as
David takes up ministry among you and the wider community you would ask of him
the same question.
How, having David among us,
is that going to help us know Jesus better or to help make Jesus better known?
Remembering that Jesus said;
‘Whoever is ashamed of me and my words,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the
glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
David, I hope that there
will never be a day when you are ashamed of your calling as an ordained
minister in God’s Church.
And in that calling that you
will help, encourage, enable and equip all of God’s people to have the same
boldness and courage and not to be ashamed of confessing the faith of Christ
crucified, risen and ascended.
For ordained or not that is
our calling and command, that we go and as we go we make disciples.
That we bear witness to the
hope held out to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He
alone is our hope, he alone is the hope of this community and he alone is the
one true hope of the whole world.
It is to the proclamation of
this truth that you have been called into ordination so that you may help all
of God’s people proclaim this truth whenever and wherever they find themselves
in their daily lives.
Graham, Joy, John and now
David I hope that you will be able to say along with St Paul…
‘You
show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not
with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on
tablets of human hearts.’ 2 Cor 3.3
Let us pray…
O Saviour Christ, in whose way of love lays the secret
of all life, and the hope of all people, we pray for quiet courage to match
this hour. We did not choose to be born or to live in such an age; but let its
problems challenge us, its discoveries exhilarate us, its injustices anger us,
its possibilities inspire us, and its vigour renew us. Pour out upon us a fresh
indwelling of the Holy Spirit; make us bold and courageous in sharing faith in
both word and deed for your Kingdom’s we ask sake. Amen
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