A Farewell Sermon

 Matthew 10:40–42         

Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever 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; and 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.

It may seem odd for a farewell sermon to focus on a text that within the span of three verses refers to ‘welcome’ six times. But as I step down as your parish priest the idea of welcoming and offering hospitality to God’s servants remains critically important for all of us.

Monken Hadley Church is a welcoming church. Gabi noticed that on her first, incognito, visit. Being truly welcoming to visitors can be one of the strengths of smaller churches. But being welcoming on Sundays is not the same as welcoming people into our lives. In relation to this we have perhaps a more mixed record.

We have strengthened a welcoming and hospitable atmosphere over the last decade with the installation of our glass doors, with Open Church music, and with community breakfasts. The last did not survive Covid but will hopefully be revived once the new Church House is up and running, alongside perhaps a Wellbeing Café.

I said a few times before that hospitality is an important Christian value and is not the same as entertaining. We, the middle class in the southern part of England, are arguably better at entertaining than we are at offering hospitality. The latter is opening up our homes for people to drop in, sharing meals spontaneously without much if any additional preparation. In other words, sharing our lives rather than organising an entertaining evening.

What does Jesus mean when he speaks about welcome in this passage? Let us first note how closely Christ identifies with those who belong to him. Last week we saw some of the challenges involved in being a disciple of Jesus:

(1)    they cannot expect to be better treated than Jesus himself (vv 24–25) which is rather worrying given that Jesus was crucified in the end;

(2)    they must be prepared for hostility even from within their own households which is sadly a regular occurrence in many societies today;

(3)    they must make their relationship with Jesus the top priority, above even love for their parents or their children.

But with that set of challenges comes this amazing statement about welcome. Jesus addresses his first disciples, the apostles:

Whoever welcomes you welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

Those who offer hospitality to Christ’s apostles, those who make space for them, actually welcome Christ, and those who welcome Christ welcome God. The very disciples of Jesus who so often messed it up, especially before Christ’s death and resurrection: Jesus recognises them here as his representatives and so God himself is welcomed when the apostles are welcomed.

I think this means that we can test the health of our relationship with God by the welcome we give to the apostles. Are we on good terms with God? We can find out by exploring whether we make room in our lives for the apostles, Jesus’ first disciples and ambassadors.

But how so? The apostles have died. We cannot welcome them in person today. How do we offer hospitality to the apostles today? We have the teaching they left as a deposit of their apostolic ministry. And so the first take-home lesson for us today is that if we accept the teaching of the apostles, we let God himself into our lives. You don’t need me to welcome God into your life, to have authentic fellowship with Him. But you do need the apostles. You do need Holy Scripture.

Jesus expands on this with a more general saying that uses two familiar OT designations:

Whoever 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;

Now Jesus no longer addresses his first disciples specifically; he speaks more generally about welcoming someone in their capacity as a prophet or because they are a righteous person. We can receive a reward appropriate to the importance of the person we welcome. And we are not looking for their title, their status in the world, their wealth. We make space and extend hospitality to those who are authentic spokespersons of God and those whose lives reflect God’s righteousness.

During the interregnum you will meet more ministers than usual. Hopefully, they will be preaching God’s word faithfully and will be people of integrity that reflect God’s righteous­ness. (Some of them will be ordained clergy but not all; some will come from other churches around us but there will be prophets and righteous people from within the Monken Hadley community as well.) Offer a warm welcome to God’s servants. Honour them, most of all by listening attentively to the word of God they preach and by imitating what is good and right about their way of life.

Try not to let visiting preachers leave with a simple ‘I enjoyed that sermon’ – they have not come to entertain you. Tell them what specifically struck you, what you have learned for the first time or seen afresh, or what puzzles you, or ask them how what they said related to this or that part of God’s word. These would be ways of welcoming them in their capacity as prophets, God’s spokes­persons. In this way you can reap a reward for yourselves. In other words, it will do you good.

Do the same with righteous people. In the Bible righteous people are those who are in faithful relationships with God and neighbours, who care for the needy and marginalised, who do not pursue their own advantage but seek the welfare of others. Look out for such people, make them welcome, appreciating and imitating them. It will do you good.

So (1) make sure that you accept the apostles as Christ’s representatives because this is how you welcome God in your lives. (2) Offer hospitality to those who faithfully teach and live as God’s representatives today because Christ promises a reward for those who recognise and make space for prophets and righteous people.

But then note how Jesus proceeds:

and 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.

In a sense, giving a cup of cold water is really nothing special. In the culture into which Jesus speaks this would have been basic decency. Yet Jesus is talking about people doing this because someone is a disciple of Jesus. There are places in the world in which showing basic kindness to a Christian is dangerous because you might be identified with them. Not so in Monken Hadley – thank God!

What are our opportunities to show a bit of kindness to a Christian because he or she is a Christian? What does creating a space of hospitality for someone because they are a Christian look like? I’m not entirely sure. And in a sense, we perhaps need not worry too much about that. As those who belong to Christ we are called to love one another as Christ has loved us – that is a clear enough challenge, I think. (If we ask whether helping out on the coffee rota is the equivalent of giving a drink of cold water, we have rather missed the point.)

But this text also reminds us that ‘the way the gospel is known is by one person being for another person the story of Christ.’ (Stanley Hauerwas) By God’s grace, some people do come to faith simply by reading the New Testament. But most people need to see what this means in the lives of flesh and blood people. Jesus summons us throughout this chapter to a life that is so shaped and infused by Him that we too become His credible representatives, his ambassadors.

He tells us that being a Christian cannot be something incidental or even something that is a significant element part of our lives, something alongside things like being British, being a pianist, or whatever…If we are people that are known to be Christians first of all, then acts of kindness extended towards us have a fair chance of being done ‘in the name of a disciple’, which is to say because we bear the name of Christ. At its most beautiful, people want to be close to us, want to make space for us in their lives and extend kindness to us because there is an aroma of Christ about us that intrigues them and to which they are attracted. In meeting and welcoming us people should be able to encounter Christ. If they do, they can show love and honour to Christ by meeting and welcoming us.

Does this sound like something that applies to big saints only? Well, I think Jesus uses the designation ‘little ones’ deliberately. He’s not talking about people with big shoes to fill and big achievements to their name. Just like children can get all excited (for a while) about dinosaurs, fairies, dolls, football or whatever, so each one of us can become saturated with Christ by spending time with Him, thinking about Him, following Him. If our hearts and minds keep returning to Christ, it will become more obvious to others that we are His disciples, Christ-people, Christians. And this gives others the chance to get themselves a little reward by doing us good just because we are Christ’s disciples.

If there is some good in even just giving a cup of water to one of the little ones, how much more rewarding must it be to do good to a whole community of Christ’s disciples! Alas, I cannot claim that I have consistently served you in Monken Hadley because you are Christ’s. I trust that many of you will have seen something of Christ in me but you will have seen also some shortcomings and weaknesses – and there are many more that (thank God) you have not seen!

If at any point I have not taught the apostolic message faithfully, I beg your forgiveness. In welcoming the apostles, in letting the apostolic teaching shape your lives, you make space for God in your life. Few things could give me more joy than knowing that my preaching has helped you welcome apostolic truth. Where instead my preaching has been a hindrance I am truly sorry.

William Perkins in his 1592 work The Art of Prophesying notes well: ‘There are two parts to prophecy: preaching the Word and public prayer.’ I have made both a priority in my own ministry and I know that some of you are grateful that the daily office was said in church morning and evening every day of the week. But here too I must admit to shortcomings. I wish I had aided and assisted you better by praying more consistently for everyone on the Electoral Roll by name. And I regret not having kept up for longer the discipline of praying for the different streets in the parish. I am not putting myself down. I am just saying. I did some things well but not as well as they could have been done and I ask your forgiveness for that. I could have handed out more cups of cold water by way of naming you individually in my prayers.

I hope I have never impeded your labours for Christ in other ways but I know I could have done more to cheer you on. Most of you will know that I find it easier to spot the things that need setting straight than to look out for the things that ought to be commended and applauded. It’s not good enough to blame my temperament or personality. I apologise that I have not fought my natural tendencies harder. Again, I am not putting myself down. By God’s grace I leave Monken Hadley a better place than it was when I arrived but I know that I have not perfectly sought God’s kingdom and His righteousness.

I pray that my successor will do better than I and I like to think that I would be very happy if that were to happen. But in fact I hope this is the ambition of every one of you

• to welcome God by welcoming apostolic teaching
• to find a reward in recognising prophets and righteous persons for who they are
• to be such people that others see and honour Christ in us
• to leave Monken Hadley a better place than it was when we arrived. Amen.

 

Luckock on Communion in Both Kinds

Clearing out books, I read a few pages of Herbert Mortimer Luckock's The Divine Liturgy: Being the Order for Holy Communion Historically, Doctrinally, and Devotionally set forth in Fifty Portion (London: Rivingtons, 1889). Given his Catholic stance, he seemed worth noting his comments on the doctrine of concomitance (pages 340-341, footnotes removed) to add to earlier posts Against Withholding the Cup and A History of Withholding the Cup:

It has been sought to justify Communion in one kind by the doctrine of concomitance, which implies that "whole Christ is present after consecration under either species of bread or wine." The Eastern Church, though opposed entirely to the denial of the Cup to the laity, has sanctioned the principle of concomitance by its administration of Wine alone in infant Communion.

Without entering upon a subject, which has been largely debated, it must suffice to plead the example of Christ; what He gave could not but have a virtue of its own. Through the refusal of the Cup therefore, the laity are deprived of their rights, and even the doctors of the Council of Trent indirectly admitted it; for they dared not to deny that those who received in one kind only were deprived of any grace, but they limited the loss to any grace that was necessary for salvation.

While then it is our bounden duty to take every precaution against any accident which may lead to even the least irreverence, nothing can justify our withholding that which Christ Himself gave at the institution of the Feast, or which He designated as of such vital import when he said, "Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you. He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood, dwelleth in Me and I in him."

Giving a Child to Christ

What is the greatest gift we have been given? Our life, our breath and body, is an obvious candidate. Next the life of another in friendship and love and perhaps marriage. Furthermore the gift of new life in the form of a child, even if this gift is a loan really, as we need to let go off our children as they grow mature. Having been given a child for a season, why would you want to give them away so soon, as in effect you do in baptism? In a Christening a child is given to Christ who claims the child as His own – it is no longer yours. Why give your child to Christ? Because there the child is in good hands.

In John 17:1-11 we read four times of God the Father having given people to Jesus and these verses can also help us see why it is a good thing to give a child to Jesus. First, using the NCV,

You gave the Son power over all people so that the Son could give eternal life to all those you gave him.

Even if we have in some way been involved in giving life to a child, Jesus can give the child something we cannot give: eternal life. If life is about relationships, life ends when our relationships come to an end. We have not the power to maintain relationships forever but God has:

And this is eternal life: that people know you, the only true God, and that they know Jesus Christ, the One you sent

This relates closely to a second reason for giving a child to Christ. Jesus says in His prayer

I showed what you are like to those you gave me from the world.

In Jesus we see exactly what God is like. Others can tell us about God but no one else can show us God. We give a child to Christ because we long for the child to see what God is like. Why would we need to know what God is like? Because in any case we belong to God:

They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your teaching.

As creatures we all belong to the Creator but we long for our child to belong to God in a more intimate way, responding with obedience rather than rebellion to the teaching of their Creator. Baptism signals a homecoming, belonging again to the One to whom we really belonged from the beginning and from whom we have been snatched away.

Jesus cares for all people but those given to Him are His first priority:

I am praying for them. I am not praying for people in the world but for those you gave me, because they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And my glory is shown through them.

Christians are Christ’s first priority because through them His glory is shown to others. A Christening is always also a commissioning: we are claimed by Christ also for the sake of others. By showing off the beauty, goodness, grace and truth of Christ to others we can become the means by which others come to know Jesus Christ and the only true God and so find eternal life. It is a glorious task even if it is not undertaken in a safe space which is why Jesus prays

Holy Father, keep them safe by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they will be one, just as you and I are one.

With Jesus we pray for children (and adults) that are Christened that they will be kept safe, not by the power of a mighty hand that eliminates all obstacles and evil, not by the power of a superior intelligence that easily navigates the deceitfulness and treacheries of this world, but by the power of God’s name, which is to say God’s character, being made like Christ who by innocent suffering defeats evil.

For that the baptised needs the community and unity of the church, as we each receive with gladness and obedience the name and teaching of God.

Accepting Put-Downs

The final instalment in the series of Easter season reflections from 1 Peter.

Being marginalised or maligned for the sake of Christ should not come as a surprise to Christians. First of all, it is not at all strange that a world that is in rebellion against its Creator should show hostility towards those who have pledged allegiance to Christ, in whom and for whom the world was made. Secondly, those trials are not without purpose – they test and reveal the genuineness of our faith and that we have made Christ, not being at ease, our true joy.

A proper perspective on suffering for the sake of Christ enables us to endure rather than succumb to external pressures and so leads to the greater (and noisier) joy when Christ is revealed to all for who He is. It is not a case of suffering now for the sake of joy later; we are called to rejoice now. We find joy not in the suffering as such but in the fact that suffering for the name of Christ makes us partners with Him. We rejoice in our association with Christ.

This of course presumes that we do not have brought suffering upon ourselves for good reason. If we suffer as a Christian, there is nothing shameful about it for us and we are to accept this suffering by entrusting ourselves to our faithful Creator, ‘while continuing to do good’ (1 Peter 4:19), refusing to repay evil with evil. Our non-retaliation bears witness to our trust in God. Undeserved suffering will be vindicated, this is why 1 Peter 4:14 speaks of those who are reviled for the name of Christ as blessed, echoing the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:10-12). If the Beatitudes suggest that ‘you are with the king, therefore you will inherit the kingdom,’ 1 Peter 4:14 perhaps means to say that ‘you have the Spirit of God resting on you, therefore glory will be yours, the Spirit of God being the spirit of glory’ but the syntax here is difficult.

Having stressed the importance of putting on ‘the apron of humility’ (TEV of 1 Peter 5:5), the letter comes back to the encouragement to humble ourselves, or perhaps (interpreting the passive form as a genuine passive) to accept being made low, knowing that the hand of God which is mighty in bringing judgement (beginning with the household of God, 1 Peter 4:17) is also mighty in bringing deliverance.  How do we accept humiliation? By casting all our anxiety on God. We can do so because we know that He cares for us.  The call to alertness in 1 Peter 5:8 indicates that we are not talking about passivity here but active resistance to the one ultimately responsible for the evil in the world. The devil wants to devour us, enticing us to give in to the desires of the flesh (2:11; 4:2-4) or to respond inappropriately to suffering. By not taking matters into our own hands we remain steadfast in faith. Remembering that if we are being harassed or ostracised for the sake of Christ, this is not unique to us – brothers and sisters all over the world are ‘undergoing’ (better: enduring, completing) the same kind of suffering (1 Peter 5:9).

The critical thing is our calling in Christ whose resurrection has born us into a living hope (cf. 1 Peter 1:3). We know that the short while of suffering will have to give way to eternal glory. Our God is a God of all grace and He will make everything right beyond our wildest dreams. He will take charge of this Himself (1 Peter 5:10). ‘To him is the power forever and ever’ (1 Peter 5:11; cf. 4:11).

The Blessing of Unjust Suffering

 Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? (1 Peter 3:13).

The rhetorical question expresses an ideal. This is how it should be:

• people who do good are applauded and rewarded, and
• people who do harm are reprimanded and punished.

But the world doesn’t work like that. Being eager to do what is good is no guarantee for people wishing you well. Treasuring the truth, seeking the good, doing what is right can even get you into trouble.

But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed (1 Peter 3:13) — how so?

How can this be true? How can unjust suffering be a blessing?

(1) This is a question of what we fear and what we hope for [what we think lies ahead of us].

Do we fear being uncomfortable now? Do we fear being side-lined? Put differently: Do we hope to be respected by those around us and to have a comfortable life? Such hopes and fears will lower our pain threshold.

Or do we, e.g., fear being a part of the problem rather than a part of the solution in relation to climate change? Are we truly afraid of benefitting from the exploitation of others? Such fears would increase our threshold for pain. We would be more ready to make sacrifices or to pay more for the products we buy to ensure fair compensation of workers and minimising our negative impact on the environment.

Examples could be multiplied. Our hopes and fears profoundly shape what kind of suffering we are prepared to tolerate or desperately seek to avoid.

Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated…Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:14-15)

It would be good to examine our hopes and fears and, if need be, seek to correct them. Do we hope to hear the ‘well done, good and faithful servant’ (Matthew 25) from the lips of Jesus on the last day? And so we are talking about

(2) A question of authority [who or what holds sway over us].

Are we governed by our hopes and fears? Or are we submitting our hopes and fears and everything else to Christ our Lord? But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord (1 Peter 3:15).

Are we ready to follow his example, trusting that all powers are subject to him?

Conflict challenges us to take sides. Sometimes such a challenge to take sides should not be taken up. But when it is a matter of truth or falsehood, good or bad, right or wrong, we proclaim our trust in Christ by choosing what is true, good, and right even if this seems to get us nowhere, nowhere pleasant anyway.

And so this is also

(3) A question of conscience [what we listen to within us]

Do we believe that there is good and evil, right and wrong, true and false? That life is not simply about powers and preferences? Keep your conscience clear (1 Peter 3:16). God wills that we do what is right…even if and when this results in suffering.

Christ has forged ahead and shown us suffering as a path to glory. And so this is also

(4) A question of our belonging/calling [what carries us underneath]

A righteous one has led us unrighteous people to God through his death and resurrection (1 Peter 3:17). Christ was put to death in the flesh, in the weakness of human nature, but made alive in the spirit, in the power of the life to come (1 Peter 3:18). He has moved from a mortal existence into the realm of undying resurrection life.

Christ has suffered even unto death but has overcome death and reigns victorious over the forces of evil. He thereby demonstrates that the way of suffering for doing good leads to glory and vindication from God. Are we Christians? Then we can and should be confident following on this path that he has trod before.

Back in 1 Peter 3:9 we have a basic principle expressed:

• don’t give as good as you get (responding to abuse with abuse)
• but give what you expect to get (repay abuse with a blessing).

The natural human response to hostility (in the flesh) is retaliation. But giving as good as you get perpetuates the cycle of violence and death. Our giving what we expect to get (in the spirit) breaks through the cycle of violence and death and is evidence of resurrection life.

Now what about the second half of our text?

1 Peter 2:19-22 counts as one of the most difficult texts in the NT. But there are big clues to the correct understanding if we first of all bear in mind that this is still about Jesus showing the power of suffering for doing good.

Suffering for doing good was vindicated when Jesus was made alive in the spirit. He then went to the underworld to make a proclamation to ‘the spirits in prison’. Who are they? In Jewish tradition they are the supernatural beings whose intercourse with human beings was a key factor in God bringing the flood (Genesis 6).

Their imprisonment in the underworld is the punishment for their disobedience. They are suffering for having done evil and this holds them imprisoned. But Jesus entered death having done no evil, therefore death has no hold over him. When he enters the underworld he says in effect ‘hello – and goodbye’, thereby announcing his victory over death.

In other words, Christ announced his triumph over evil – bad news for the imprisoned spirits but good news, comfort and encouragement for the few who suffer now for their righteousness. Like Noah for whom the destructive waters of the flood were also a means of salvation, as they carried the ark.

‘The water of the flood washed away sin and wickedness and brought a new world with a fresh start before God. The water of baptism does the same thing, providing a passage from the old to the new.’ (David Guzik)

This is because the death of Christ washed away sin and wickedness and the resurrection of Christ brought a new world into being.

Baptism saves us (1 Peter 3:21) in the sense that it unites us with Christ who has made all powers subject to him. Not automatically but ‘as an appeal to God for a good conscience’ (NRSV) or perhaps better ‘a pledge of a good conscience towards God’ (NIV, cf. NRSV footnote).

Such a pledge is made possible through the resurrection of Jesus. He has forged ahead and shown us suffering as a path to glory, His perfect righteousness bringing victory over death.

If we give as good as we get, we reveal our fear that if we don’t defend ourselves, forcefully if need be, no one will. (We thereby reveal that we do not really trust that God’s eyes and ears are open towards us, verse 12.)

If we respond to abuse with blessing, we give expression to the hope of our calling and wonderful inheritance (shortly I will come into so much blessing that I can afford to be generous now). This expression of hope is a blessing.

If we are prepared to suffer for doing good, we proclaim that Jesus is Lord and that we trust in his victory. This proclamation and expression of trust is a blessing.

If we seek the good even in the face of criticism, insult and worse, we keep a clear conscience, as pledged in our baptism. A clear conscience is a blessing.

If we follow Christ on the path of suffering to glory, we reveal to whom we belong. The greatest blessing is belonging to Christ.

 

What does it mean to be a Christian?

What does it mean to be a Christian? One way of answering the question, looking at 1 Peter, is to say that Christians have experienced that the Lord is ‘good’ or ‘kind’ (1 Peter 2:3; the Greek word sounds very much like "Christ" which is surely deliberate) and so they nurture a taste for uncontaminated truth by which they grow into salvation (1 Peter 2:2).

Another way of answering the question is to say that Christians are those who have come to Jesus, the living cornerstone, and so are being built into a spiritual house to be a royal priesthood.

Being a Christian is all about Christ Jesus. Re-using ‘chosen race’ and ‘holy nation’ (1 Peter 2:9) paradoxically underlines the point because the church is formed as a people from all tribes and languages. Ethnic identity is not a factor in true Christianity (unlike Judaism, Hinduism). It is the new birth which is all decisive and which creates a unity from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

Being Christian is about the person of Christ. While the teachings of Christ are of supreme importance to us -- indeed, our longing for the Scriptures shows our (spiritual) health -- Christianity is not primarily about the teachings of Christ (not like Buddhism is primarily about the teachings of the Buddha, "the enlightened one").

Being Christian is about belonging to Christ. This does of course mean that allegiance and submission to Christ are pretty important but Christianity is not primarily about submission (unlike Islam as traditionally understood). Being Christian is about being incorporated into Christ which does involve submission to Christ, listening to Christ (“the sheep know his voice”) but is more than that: being made one with Christ.

The experience of being marginalised and rejected by others while being God’s chosen was Christ’s before it was that of Christians then and now. As one commentator put it, ‘Peter reads the situation of his Christian audience from the perspective of the career of Jesus Christ, and the career of Jesus Christ from the perspective of the Scriptures.’

The image of the cornerstone (1 Peter 2:4-8) also implies as much: everything centres on Christ, the decisive stone which sets the direction of the walls and so the orientation and alignment for the whole house. His experience (living stone) becomes ours (living stones who belong to Him):

• He is rejected by society, so those who belong to him get rejected too.
• Christ is chosen by God, so those who belong to him are too.
• He is holy, so those who belong to him are holy too.

The house being built is a ‘spiritual house’ – the place where the Holy Spirit is to be found; the building is a temple. Hence the language of a holy priesthood which is to offer spiritual sacrifices.

The resurrection of Christ makes it possible for us to offer our lives to God by the power of the Holy Spirit. Such lives dedicated to God include bearing witness to the mighty acts of God in Christ. Why? Because of the inescapability of Christ. He is not only the be-all and end-all of the church; Christ affects the fate of every person, depending on the reaction to Him, whether positive or negative.

‘We must either build on Him, or be dashed against Him.’ (Calvin)

The second half of 1 Peter 2:8 can be understood in one of two ways. Either: ‘Yes, they stumble at the Word of God for in their hearts they are unwilling to obey it—which makes stumbling a foregone conclusion.’ (JB Phillips). Or: God is in control of all things, He establishes the evil as well as the good.

In any case this does not exclude responsibility of those who reject Christ, who are said to ‘disobey’ him. Our responsibility towards those who reject Christ is to be a holy nation, proclaiming with our words ‘the mighty acts of him who called us out of darkness into his marvellous light’ (1 Peter 2:9) and showing forth in our lives the truth of this proclamation.

Let this joy of ours be made known:

Once you were not a people,
    but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
    but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:10)

APCM Address 2023

Change is natural in any organism; it is a sign of life. There is good change and bad change, planned change and unplanned change. Some get excited about change, some anxious – we need to recognise that. The church was created as a movement – a body that always grows, or dies. A maintenance mentality and church do not go together. But we are not always good at managing change.

From the world of philanthropy and development: “theory of change” to articulate more explicitly

(a) what outcome the organization wants to achieve in the world,

(b) what strategy it is going to use to accomplish that outcome, and

(c) what assumptions are made that lead it thinking that strategy X will result in outcome Y.

What outcome might we want to achieve? What is it we really want as a church?

[NB the use of the first person. If we ask what it is we want from the church, we talk about the church in the third person, in the language of outsiders.]

E.g., do we want for the resurrection of Christ to have a greater impact on us and on our society in the form of  more new births,  more growth towards conforming to the life of Christ?

The parish profile to be written in connection with the search for a new incumbent must be not only about what we want to preserve but about the change we desire.

The strategy depends on the outcome and the assumptions we make. E.g., if we want new births and accept that we are ‘born anew through the living and enduring word of God’ (1 Peter 1:23), the strategy must be for the living and enduring word of God to be released. This is why preaching has been a priority for me although I know of course that God’s word is not dependent on excellent preaching!

My assumption is that truly spiritual work is done by the Spirit of God, through us (God willing) but not by us – we need the means of grace. Prayer is the key part of the strategy: ‘You do not have because you do not ask (or ask with wrong motives)’ (James 4:2-3).

In short, if we want God’s transformation, we need to ask how God works to transform us.

What do you see as the most important part of your Christian life from week to week? What do you look for on Sunday, and what sort of ministry have you found most consistently helpful?

Different clergy have different theories of change. In the early church Pelagius thought that God worked in Christians through two means: Firstly, he had created them with a powerful will. Second, God had given them a blueprint for the flourishing human life in the Bible. His theory of change, then, was to read the Bible and then try very hard to do what it said.

Augustine found this view both naïve and at odds with what Scripture says about human nature. Drawing, e.g., on Paul’s statements about how the divine law which calls for righteousness is unable to produce it, Augustine argued that the core engine of human nature is not the will but the heart and its desires. And he pointed out that it is extremely hard to change hearts—so hard in fact, that only God can do it, through the Holy Spirit.

The way you change a person is by getting through not to their head or their will but to their heart. Which is precisely the work of the Holy Spirit: to fill us with new desires for the things of God, and to make us hate and flee from our bad, self-destructive desires.

Even the best clergy cannot do that. But it is useful to have an incumbent who knows that human beings are driven not by knowledge or will but by desire; who knows that we are creatures of the heart, creatures of love – and who will love you and seek to help you towards an emotional encounter with the God revealed in Jesus rather than just seek to convey accurate knowledge about God and will therefore, e.g., value the place of music.

It is useful to have an incumbent who knows that the human heart strongly resists direct efforts to change it and who will therefore rely on God’s Holy Spirit. (Have you ever tried to change someone’s mind about politics through rational argument? Have you ever tried to talk someone out of loving the person they have fallen in love with?)

It is useful to have an incumbent who knows that human beings are wired in such a way that judgment kills love. When we feel judged, we hide our love away, we put up our walls, we resist. A minister who knows this will not pivot on telling people what is wrong with them and leave them with a moral exhortation or a set of behavioural guidelines.

I make it sound as if the most important thing on the agenda for the coming year is to find a strong incumbent. But if, as I believe, Augustine has seen correctly that human beings are above all else creatures of love, then human relationships and human community are really important and this should not and cannot depend on an incumbent.

Remember also: the more diverse our congregation is the more the glory of God is manifest as the spectrum of his grace is revealed. And the more there is genuine, mutual love across that diversity – not just birds of a feather flocking together – the more evident will be the presence of Christ.

There will be fundraising to be done in the coming year, there will be the search for a new incumbent but the focus must be on remaining and strengthen us as a community centred on Christ.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

(Ephesians 3:20)