Archdeaconof Dudleys Charge 2018
Romans8:1-11 Set free to fully live!
To be a church warden atthis time in the life of the C of E must feel to some like living a life boundby the most overwhelming and stringent rules and regulations. Data protection,safeguarding toolkits, endless questionnaires, faculties and form filling theruthless requirements of the law that must be fulfilled.A sometimes deadly weight of responsibility. Could it get any worse?
Maybe so! Imagine that the church in which you carrythat responsibility as church warden or its equivalent is a royal peculiar,with a fairly major wedding booked,Theguests, six hundred or so, are mainly VIPS, media stars, royalty, the Queen .A couple of billion people are watching live on TV, just to add to thepressure.You think you are OK, youvedone the risk assessments, briefed all the key players, checked the lightbulbs, watered the very many flower arrangements. The service has been rehearsed down to thelast second, with military precision, literally. What could possibly go wrong?
Enter the preacher. Poised for his six minutes of solemnsermonising. Six minutes. Solemn.Weare, after all, seated within the lofty walls of the pinnacle of the Anglicanestablishment. A place where the rules are known, the laws are obeyed.
Except this particularpreacher is living under the law of the Spirit of life. In Christ Jesus, he knows he has been setfree from the law which condemns, so for fourteen whole minutes he shares thegift of life and the love of God, with a message generating 40K tweets in eachof those fourteen minutes, becoming the most talked about sermon for manygenerations. Ill bet the royal peculiarversion of church wardens, together with a few others involved in the planning,were having a minor panic and one or two surreptitious glances at their watchesas he drew to a close.
Friends, we have been setfree, through the Holy Spirit, to live life fully and to change the world. And however weighed down we feel by thenecessary constraints church regulations put around us, lets never lose sightof that. Lets keep perspective, and rejoice that the very Spirit of God dwellsin us!!
Paul says in his letterto the Romans that the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead, theSpirit of God, the Holy Spirit, actually lives in us, dwells in us, giving uslife.When we live with this realityfront and centre, setting our minds on the things of the Spirit, life looks different.We are given a different framework in which to live, and it is one of freedom.It is a life with no condemnation, it is a life to be lived to the full, a lifeto be lived in full knowledge of the all-encompassing love of God, a life withpotential to significantly change everything with which it engages.
Bishop Michael Curry, inhis passionate and profound sermon, wooed and wowed a watching world, simply bysharing the good news of Gods love. He seized his moment. He spoke ofrevolutions, and provoked one, in many ways. But he was speaking of the good news we all know and can share, whetherwe minister in the corridors of power, or the tiny villages of theWorcestershire countryside, amidst princes, politicians and pop stars, or BlackCountry factory workers, teachers, nurses and pensioners. We are all part of that same church, thatmovement Jesus began as he ascended to the Father and sent his Holy Spirit todwell in us, and when we get bogged down in the admin and maintenance tasksthat can so easily fill our lives as committed church officers, it is soimportant to remember that within us dwells power to change the world.
Michael Curry said,
Jesusbegan the most revolutionary movement in human history: a movement grounded inthe unconditional love of God for the world and a movement mandating peopleto live that love, and in so doing to change not only their lives but the verylife of the world itself! Im talkingabout power. Real power. Power to change the world.
I think the world changeda little, even as he said it, because he had courage to be who God made him tobe and preach with passion of the God he clearly loves. And he won peoples hearts. And of course the same spirit who lives inhim, dwells in you and me.
I have had a fascinatingfew weeks meeting all of you wonderful church wardens in the annualvisitations, and seeing many of you come alive before my eyes as you haveshared something of who you are, of who God made you to be, the plans he hasfor your churches, and the many ways in which you have seen him at work.Some of you arrived weary and burdened,weighed down by the rules and regulations which make your role a tough one,completely understandable. But almostwithout fail, when I asked you to tell me about what there has been tocelebrate, that weariness was transformed into animated descriptions of newministries started, churches packed out for special services, the lonelyinvited into coffee, cake and chatter events, new Open The Book teamsformed.
Across the variedchurches of the archdeaconry, large and small, high and low, I have heardstories of people involved in a quiet revolution, people who are part of amovement grounded in the unconditional love of God, putting that love intoaction as, filled with power of the Holy Spirit, they do their bit to changethe world. Not famous people, butnormal, everyday folk, the people sitting here in this church tonight. Peopleof power, because God dwells in us.Ordinary people doing extraordinary things in their communities, as youlive out kingdom values of love, compassion, justice and freedom in youractivities, service and actions.
When God dwells in us, welove with his love, and we pray the kinds of prayers which transform. It was wonderful that same weekend as theroyal wedding, to be part of two major prayer events for Thy Kingdom Come onthe day of Pentecost, the day when the Holy Spirit Paul is writing about firstcame to fill and equip the church.Tosee people of all denominations and traditions praying and worshipping togetherin the open air in Dudley, then in a packed out Worcester Cathedral, feltindeed like being part of a world-changing revolutionary movement.
When we come together inunity, celebrating our diversity, together petitioning the God who loves theworld to come and transform the world, something happens. We cant be bound byrules and regulations when Catholics and Pentecostals, the Sally Army and theChurch of England come together, because all our rules and regs aredifferent. Where the Spirit of the Lordreigns supreme, there is freedom! Freedom to focus on what is eternally important.Freedom to focus on how we share with abroken world that Gods love is unconditional and for all.
Pauls letter talks aboutbeing set free from the law, and walking in the Spirit. But he doesnt abandonthe central premise of the law, that we need salvation and setting free fromour old way of life, rather he reminds us that what we are powerless to do,Jesus did for us, in order that the requirements of the law might befulfilled.Many of the New Testamentletters are written into the context of new groups of believers trying to makesense of which parts of the inherited law of the people of God, the OldTestament, still apply, and its clear that in essence, the main tenets stilldo. The law which the psalmist meditateson day and night, the commandments and statues which he loves, the promiseswhich give him comfort and hope, in which he delights, are not now null andvoid, but lived out with a different mind-set, a Holy Spirit mind-set, anapproach which values the Spirit of the law over the letter of the law. The power of perspective.
I have mentioned the manyrules and regulations of church law which we have to contend with, andsympathised with some of the pressures these bring, but I cannot declare themnull and void.I am an archdeaconremember, I have to behave!! But I hopeI can encourage us to regard them with a Holy Spirit mind-set, see them assafety nets, checks and balances in place to enable us to live in an orderlyway as church communities, protecting the vulnerable and weak, being wise inour stewardship of buildings, and finances, and information, as we view themall through the lens of mission.Thepower of perspective! We are here tolive lives of love and thereby change the world.That is what we are freed to do.
I am immensely gratefulfor all your hard work. I am massivelyencouraged by all you hope and dream for too, as we look forward to what Godmight do in and through our churches as this quiet revolution continues, as wepray for his kingdom to come, and as we walk by the Spirit.Remember, God dwells in us, giving uslife.God dwells in his church, givinghis church life, and through his church life and peace is given to his world.
So be who you were madeto be, live life freely, keeping a Spirit-filled perspective, and rejoice thatGod dwells in you, and in his church!
Amen.
