The Vicars away...

Sermon – St. Mary Magdalene 26th June 2011
Upon the occasion of the Vicars departure from the Parish.

There were these two nuns walk into a bar…No…no… sorry wrong room…what day is it? OK…

Following on from the vicar’s sermon last week, in which he spoke of St. Paul saying goodbye to the Corinthian church that had caused him not a little consternation, I too wish to speak about goodbyes, and in so doing wish him well in his continuing journey with God into a new ministry.
It is then perhaps fortunate that in these morning’s readings in which we continue to hear from St. Paul in his advice to the Romans as to the nature of relationships between us. Unlike St. Paul in last weeks readings, I am not writing/saying these things because I am going away from you all, but would wish that in the midst of our changing situations, that our relationships and corporate being, be one of building up and not of one of tearing down.

So I write these things while I am away from you, so that when I come, I may not have to be severe in using the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.
2 Cor 13:10

Just as the vicar pointed out last week that there was a seemingly appropriate happenstance of the last Sunday’s readings involving a goodbye, so it has proven to be in my own experiences during the last week.

First, this passed week has been the final week of college for the greater majority of students and there have been many occasions upon which staff and students have spent some brief reflection on the experience of the relationships that have been formed in the class room over the last year or two and then said goodbye to each other. Those of you who have spoken to me recently about events at the college or read in the press about the re-organisations taking place, will also be aware that staff have been, or will be departing the college soon and there is an overwhelming sense of what is being lost in the midst of these changes; as well as many hurried collections for leaving presents and goodbye dinners and perhaps the odd shandy, as people seek to mark the ending of significant relationships.
Secondly, a member of my Blog community whose life, ministry and diary writing has been an inspiration to me for a couple of years now, has also begun a process of saying goodbye. Kirstin has been battling with chronic illness for several years and has made the critical decision to stop treatment. On her blog, which carries her characteristic phrase, ‘Ain’t got time to die’ she has written recently,

It isn’t time to die yet. But it is time, to begin giving over. I am so grateful for the people who walk with me most closely in that, and who teach me that even if I have scary times contemplating all of this, God is already holding me that closely, has always been, and will always be. I’m not going into the arms of a stranger. I’m held in the arms of the one who created me exactly as I am.

Kirstin

In this she reminded me of the vicar’s point in his previous sermon when he said that ‘just because I am going to belong somewhere else doesn’t mean that I belong here any less.’ Kirstins own courage and tenacity express the understanding that although she is here in this world she is very much connected with and of something else. Much as we as Christians are taught that we are in the world but not of it, there is this need in us, an intrinsic human passion to recognise the temporary nature of this existence alongside a connectedness with something which is continuous, and outside of the difficulties of time and place, even if it is only a recognition of a common humanity, never mind a transcendent God, although I know that this is who Kirstin is talking about.

These apposite and timely reminders of the nature of our human condition; the political struggle, the economic woes, the irrevocable nature of time and change, and ultimately our own mortality, despite being desperate and difficult in their immediacy are precisely the opportunities, the happenstances and co-incidences wherein we must face the choice that St. Paul brings us to in this mornings reading. Paul invites us to consider through his dialogue with himself, the meanings of sin and righteousness and the critical point of whether or not our actions, choices and responses are guided by the principal of law or the principal of grace. I am further inclined to think that Paul invites us to consider these two points together in parallel deliberately to enable us to think more about the nature of expediency, the quick fix and the sometimes ‘necessitous’ pressures that push their way into our common life together. When the need is upon us and we have to make that call, what will guide you, the call to law or the call to grace? Expressed by Bob Dylan,

"You're gonna have to serve somebody,

yes indeed, serve somebody.
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you have to serve somebody."

Bob Dylan

I’ll use an analogy from my work to explain. Frequently situations arise as a youth worker and a trainer of youth workers where dealing with the reality of young peoples lives creates a conflict between that which exists as law; policy guidance, that we call good practice and a decision as to the best course of action in dealing with the circumstance. Laws, rules and good practice exist in order that when the situation is difficult, usually complex, we have instructions and guidelines that we may follow. Yet there are points when we understand that these rules and guidelines will not produce the best possible outcomes and are not the best way forward. Youth workers in training are frequently challenged by such situations that lead to debates as to what is the nature of professionalism. Does being professional mean that we have a rulebook that we follow without question? Or does being professional mean that you know the rules; understand the consequences of stepping outside of them and make a personal decision to act according to your own judgement? Most of you know well by now where I sit on this question. It is often said that ‘rules are made to be broken’. I have never advocated that as a philosophy, I believe that rules are made for good reasons in a certain time and place and for that reason alone should be respected but not always regarded. If I am in a different time and place then the rules need to be different, as I am clear that I am driven by grace and not by law. And this is not some advocacy of anarchy. It is a simple recognition that stuff happens, things change, we move on, partly because of law and partly in spite of it.


To come back to Paul, I assert that the central challenge in this text is to have us consider whether or not our faith is a simplistic set of laws and rules to be inculcated and followed as directed, or a dynamic, growing and developing experience which demands responses according to principles greater than law. Is the life lived as a Christian, one of subservience to a plethora of rules and regulations or do we see the Christian life as one of engagement with all the difficulties of the human condition, replete with all the happiness and pain that comes with it?

The first consequence for us as individuals I think is that an adherence to law makes us lazy, inconsiderate and unlikely to engage with the real difficulties that people face, who are on the outside of the rules. If we have a rule for it, then it’s dealt with and we should all just stick to that? Not good enough I say. The nature of time and change means that the context will always render the rule implacable and irrelevant and in the meantime create a space in which the person can be outside of the rule of law. Is that what we believe is the good news? Is it conceivable that there are those outside of Gods grace?
Secondly, as an organisation, the church (or any organisation for that matter) in making its own laws, would do well to consider, whether or not it’s deliberations are the outpourings of grace or a slavish reaction to simplistic and anthropological definitions of sin. In pandering to context and political pressure the temptation to come up with new and ever more complex systems of rules and regulations appears to be the default position for us, instead of considering what would be the loving thing to do. Yes, that is another little comment in relation to The Anglican Covenant, but I won’t say more about that now, as I know some people find my objection to it tedious, except to say that it is a prime example of the case.
What is perhaps most important today is that I tell you something of a story about the nature of a relationship in Christian context, which is appropriate to our occasion and I feel perhaps a better example as to what I’m rambling on about here.
This story is a little over ten years old, and therefore brief in face of the history of human experience. Although brief it has many elements to it, little intrigues and plot twists, battles and disagreements, many joys and a number of woes. When there was joy to be had they shared in it together. When one was ailing and suffering the torments of the world, the other was there with comfort; accompanied them and went through it with them. When laughter was possible they availed themselves of it fully, to the point of tears. When practical help was needed they would do what they could to secure it for each other, if not doing it themselves. When they fought and disagreed, they did so in private and without loss of respect for the others dignity. When there were opportunities to be taken, they encouraged and supported and educated each other. When external pressures embattled them they were resolute in fighting a joint cause and were not averse to the odd drink in celebration or commiseration over battles won or lost.
It sounds a lot like the stuff of heroes or at least the creation of an exceptional work of fiction. But no…it’s quite ordinary, for this is how I describe to other people the experience of working alongside David. I couldn’t describe it to him in this way until now, clergy do tend to get awfully big headed about this kind of stuff and start to believe their own publicity.

But to my friend I now say, God speed, go not in law but in grace, and with every blessing that God may grant you. Amen


Romans 6:12-23

12Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. 15What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. 20When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew 10:40-42

40“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”