A Sermon and a prayer for St Davids
An address to the St Davids Extraordinary Diocesan Conference on Saturday July 22nd by the Archbishop of Wales, Andrew John
"We gather for worship – for the breaking of the Word and the breaking of the Bread. Our task is deeply apostolic and anticipates that greater feast when, in the words of the Bidding Prayer, we will worship with all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore, and in a greater light, that multitude which no one can number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom in the Lord Jesus we forevermore are one.
"But our task today is more earthly, more immediate and takes us to the heart of our identity in Christ: my invitation to you today is to live as people of the resurrection. Will you say ‘yes’? Those who have been joined with Christ in his death have been raised with him into an Everyday Easter. And into the world we always carry in our bodies the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in us too. Will you journey with Jesus Christ into this new reality?
"There is a sense, perhaps, that this diocese has known something of cross and resurrection recently so I want publicly to thank the clergy and people of the diocese but most especially the Bishop’s senior colleagues for their ministry of oversight. I am grateful to you all and will pray for you still as you continue the ministry of Christ here. I know you wish Bishop Joanna and Adrian well and will pray for them in their new life in Cornwall.
"What does it mean to be the Easter people of God, bearing in our bodies the marks of the wounded Christ and the glory of the risen Lord? The Eucharist more than hints at this but let us be clear that to be the Body of Christ, the Eucharistic community of God cannot simply mean we are faithful attendees of the sacrament. If Christ resides with us in worship and we are then left to work the rest out, that sounds miserable.
"What I mean is: what is God wanting for and from us?
"Let me suggest three profound shifts each disciple must make. And firstly there is the constant act of turning. To God and away from sin. In the confession and the absolution, we are forgiven by Christ. I have noticed that on occasions, for the sake of time, there is a pairing back of the confession as though sin is no longer what it once was! Was Cranmer exaggerating when he invited an acknowledgement of ‘our manifold sins and wickedness; and that we should not dissemble nor cloke before the face of Almighty God, our heavenly Father; but confess them with an humble, lowly, and obedient heart; to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same, by his infinite goodness and mercy?
"The truth is that if we cannot acknowledge our brokenness and failings before God, we are unable to live the forgiven life vouchsafed in Jesus. We must not be, again the words of St Paul, ‘without God and without hope in the world (Eph. 2:12)’. I have to confess being at times puzzled and troubled by the number of clergy who find it hard to say sorry, to acknowledge wrong steps, to admit failure. Stuart Blanchard (former AB of York) sums it well when he pens: he has not travelled far who has no scar.
"You see, our world needs to know what forgiveness means, what it looks like. And it needs to see that it’s real and authentic. If we are not ‘honest to God’ (to baptise a more infamous phrase), then who will be?
"My invitation to you today is learn the deep constancy of sorrowing over our sin and rejoicing in the deeper forgiveness of God. Will you be authentic and real? Will you risk showing what costly forgiveness looks like? The world needs to see our gospel is real.
"My second invitation to you is to become people of the Word of God. Put another way, to let the Written Word become a living word in each of us.
"I am conscious that our reading of Scripture can sometimes separate us and divide. We place ourselves on a spectrum that determines how we see each other and trust each other. Our reading of Scripture becomes the overwhelming, the only hermeneutic through which we engage. It was a different time and context of course but was Paul mistaken when he asked: ‘Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul’? (1 Cor 1:13).
"The critical task to which we are called by Scripture is tell this world the things which really matter: that they are loved by God, lost indeed without him, that the future with Jesus is secure but full of adventure and that the church is the only place in which the true life of God is nurtured. When we see each other, let alone the world, in this way, it has the capacity to transform our engagement with each other. There is no quick fix for our differences but there is a courageous calling to remain with one another as Christ has remained with us.
"Will you commit to a gospel that really matters, to a mission in which the overwhelming drive is to tell the good news of Jesus and not let anything get in the way of this? Will this blessed Written Word become living and dynamic in your own life as well as in your ministry? Will you say yes to Jesus?
"My third invitation is to the cross and to resurrection. I have been thinking, more, recently about Edward Shillito’s poem Jesus of the Scars. Let me read the end of the poem written by someone who knew what scarring meant as he wrote from the trenches of the First World War:
The other gods were strong; but Thou wast weak;
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.
"Our liturgical year invites us to walk the road from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. This is necessary. But there is a way of describing this which misses something. Paul does not separate the cross and resurrection: he understood well that these events, inseparable, have changed the world. We have a God who bleeds, who has tasted death but in whom new life is vibrantly present. And his offer, his invitation is to embrace both. To be people of wounds and sorrows, transformed by Easter grace.
"When we inhabit, live this gospel, it is the very mission of God, light in darkness and hope against despair. All our best strategies (and we need these to be sure) will not make atonement for our resistance to live like this.
"Sisters and brothers, soon we will elect a Bishop to serve, to love and oversee. We do not need a magician nor perfection. We need someone who will invite us, love us, lead us, hold us accountable to the things I have spoken of today. But the responsibility, ultimately for living like this, rests with no Episcopos but with you. Will you say ‘yes’? Pray God it will be so. Amen.
+Andrew Cambrensis