Cathedral Sermons
Diocesan Renewal of Vows sermon preached by The Reverend Sarah Moss, Chaplain of Diocesan School for Girls, Auckland
Corpus Christi, Thursday June 3, 2010
Readings: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a; 1 Corinthians10:13-17; John 6: 51-58
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable to you O God. Amen.
The Archbishop of Canterbury once said that being that ministry is about living in the fantasies and expectations of others! Personally, I am not enamored with the idea of being anybody’s fantasy but once we get past our initial reaction, this statement does give us pause for thought. It’s true, is it not, that in many encounters there can be an element that has little to do with who we are, and more to do with: whom the other wants, perceives, or expects us to be.
It can be a challenge at then to maintain a sense of “self” in the midst of these expectations. And it is frustrating when we realize that, in spite of all that we strive to be as much as do, people will still interpret, either our way of being or our doing, according to their own set of criteria. Criteria which indeed can be fantastic - in the truest sense of the word!
So as we gather today, to reflect on the life and ministry we each have been called to, and to reaffirm our commitment to it, it is significant that we do so by sharing the Eucharist. Significant, because it reminds us not only of our reason for being, but our participation in something that is
greater than ourselves,
greater than the expectations placed on us,
& greater even, than the things that threaten to divide us.
The pace of life in ministry can make intense demands on our time, our energy and our personal resources. Sustaining and nourishing ourselves can be difficult; there are a number of tasks, a number of things we do to fulfill our particular role.
The danger of course is when the tasks themselves define who we are – either in our own eyes - or in the eyes of others.
We live our lives in the tension between the public and the private, the “professional” and the personal – ever mindful of the boundaries needed to protect ourselves as much as others.
Our primary task, then, is actually more of a pursuit: A pursuit of congruency and a balanced, life-affirming way of being that, while firmly rooted in the reality of the way things are, still holds on to the hope we have for the future.
Our Gospel reading this morning affirms that the true source of this life affirming way of being, this future hope, is Christ. Reminding his listeners of the material feeding of their ancestors, Jesus extends their thinking to the spiritual food that he alone can give. ‘Whoever eats me,’ he says ‘will live because of me.’ His life is the source of ours; the bread that he gives will be what ultimately sustains us.
Indeed, his words on the night before he died resonate with this when he says, ‘do this in remembrance of me.’ Our participation in the Eucharist engages us in more than an intellectual recollection of historical events. In it we re- member, we re-make a part of ourselves the self giving life of Christ, the life to be found in us and to be lived out by us as his Body.
Archbishop Rowan Williams puts it so well when he identifies the Church’s being as found in the sacramental action of Christ’s giving.
‘The Eucharist is the central identifying act of the Church,’ he says ‘ simply because it is where our action towards God is taken up in God's action towards God; where the making our own of Christ's prayer at his table opens us up to receive Christ's life so that our own self-offering may be anchored afresh in his.’ (The Christian Priest Today, May 2004)
This is as reassuring as it is sobering – Embracing our participation in the self offering of Christ and translating into every area of our ministry, goes a long way towards freeing us from the burden of expectation. It also saves us from the trap of thinking it is all down to us.
At a recent Away Day for School Chaplains and RE teachers, one presenter spoke of 5 things a young person must learn as they transition into adulthood.
1. life is hard
2. you will not live forever
3. you’re not that important
4. you’re not in control
5. it’s not about self it’s about others.
While they appear to fly in the face of much of what we try and instill into young people, they do act as a balancer to the “it’s all about me” narcissism of our contemporary culture. I think they translate very well into our context too:
I’ve digressed a little but it does bring us back to the fact that we in ministry are not the definitive word on how things should be.
When we gather as colleagues and partners in the gospel, we come having taken time away from our schedules. Sometimes this is difficult. It can seem too hard at times to set tasks aside or reschedule our commitments in order to do something that, on the surface, appears to have no direct link to the list of things we have to accomplish in our day.
But it is so important because it does precisely that: it takes us out of our schedule and reminds us that the work we share is the work of the whole Body, and is not just our own.
The problem is when we fail to recognize that. Our second reading is a stark reminder. The passage we heard from Corinthians is familiar – the social inequality within the Church, so blatantly evident at the Lord’s Supper, evokes a rebuke from Paul. But our passage this morning focuses not so much on the abuses of the meal where the rich overindulge and the poor miss out, but in what Paul identifies as their continuing idolatry. Still participating in pagan feasts, Paul says, is incompatible with the life they share in Christ.
Given the context of the reading, Paul’s assertion could easily be dismissed as an issue of time and place, but it did cause me to wonder, at what point can idolatry come into the equation for us? This feels risky, but - work with me for a moment!
If idolatry can mean “blind or excessive devotion to something”, then could it be that our ministry itself can become idolatrous? Thinking about this question brought not an answer only more questions…
When our commitment to the work of ministry comes at the cost of our personal health and wellbeing it is it idolatrous?
When ‘my way of being’ separates us,
or my style cannot truly embrace the diversity amongst us could it be idolatrous?
These questions sit in the midst of our maxim of ‘unity in diversity’ about as comfortably as a …. - Well, I’ll let you fill in the gaps! But they can stimulate as much as challenge us to embrace the diversity amongst us as being a true reflection of the Body - and celebrate it
To some degree, gathering at the altar together today transcends our difference, not in that it is dumbed down but rather because it reminds us of that which holds us together as the varied, multi faceted body of Christ that we are.
One of the most profound things about coming ‘home’ to the Anglican Church in my twenties was moving out of my seat to go to the altar to receive communion.
The making meaning, the sacred interchange of the giving and receiving of the bread and wine, and standing alongside others as they did the same - was profound.
It redefined the private act of the ‘me and my God’ experience, the act done , as one commentator puts it, ‘in the splendid isolation of everyone else’ and made it a communal the act of solidarity, with each other as much as with God.
Sharing together the bread of life and cup of blessing is as liberating as it is unifying. It reminds us that we are defined by something other than fantasy and expectation – either our own or others’, by something greater than a multitude of singular acts of devotion.
It allows us to gather in unity amidst our diversity and it affirm the identity we find - and find again - when we are reminded of our place in the body of Christ. Sharing the one bread announces both our individual and our corporate participation in the divine life, into which we are drawn by the God who is at once beyond us, within us and between us.
Amen.