Romans 12.1-8 and Matthew 5.13-16
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What a wonderful gathering this is. Welcome to you all, from near and from far, and a very special laskavo prosymo to members of the Ukrainian Community and (welcome in sign language) to members of the Deaf Community who are with us this evening.
A special thankyou too to everyone who has worked so hard to sustain church life during the vacancy. Bishop Richard and all the diocesan team are very grateful indeed. Thankyou again.
A big thankyou as well to Andy for being here tonight. We couldn’t be doing this without you, … and we hope you and your family will be very happy here, and have a long and fruitful ministry too.
No pressure then… But I have absolute confidence in your godlike abilities. Godlike? Hang on a moment. He’s good, but … Before you get too excited or too worried, though, I just mean that I could just about claim that Andy is, during the course of this service, a 3 in 1: Chaplain, Rural Dean, and now the Vicar here.
Actually I prefer to think of him, sorry, as a condiment set.Salt – pepper – vinegar. Salt to season us. Pepper to give us pep, vinegar to – well I’m struggling, but to give us an edge. Really though I’m just interested in the salt; because Andy, you’ve been a great support for me and added savour to our whole office … and of course because salt was in the Gospel you chose for tonight.
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
It’s one of Jesus’ great sayings. And a distinctly witty and memorable one if we consider how it would have sounded when he said it in Aramaic. I’m no expert, but my understanding is that he would have called
salt TABEL, earth TEBEL, and tasteless drivel TAPEL.
So “You are the TABEL of the TEBEL, but if you lose your TABELness you will turn into TAPEL.”
Cool, memorable, and somewhat disconcerting. Especially when we realise that he’s looking at us. Tapel? Worthless? Us?
So why is gentle Jesus meek and mild giving us such a sharp dig? Paul was probably doing the same in the passage we heard from the letter to the folk in Rome. He wouldn’t have appealed to them to
not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
unless he had a shrewd suspicion that they had got well and truly set in their worldly ways.
Now I happen to know that Andy has a high opinion of the church folk here. But he and I would I think agree that in a world where the world around us seems to be going to hell in a handcart, and things are looking dark indeed, it’s really important to turn resolutely to the light, and to shed and share that light in our localities.
You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Then, to quote from a passage from Isaiah 58 that Andy would have chosen as well if I’d let him:
Then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
So – a simple question. Is that what you want? Or are you happy to settle for the throwaway stuff that the world tries to sell you that is here today and gone tomorrow, and is actually designed to do just that so that you’ll go out and buy some more?
Now I need to be honest. Don’t be misled by all the impressive robes: they disguise a much less impressive individual inside them. When it comes to being a disciplined disciple, I tend to come way down the class. I’m full of awe at the heroes of the faith who stride their way to heaven, but I muddle on behind. Do I pray every morning? Do I trust God all the time? Do I stay free from sin each day? Well – you can guess the answer.
Let me be personal for a moment if I may. I’m going to start by lighting a candle and then telling you just a little more of my own story.
So, why a candle? As you know I am called David, and I was meant to be born on St David’s Day, March 1st. He’s a great hero of mine, but in the event my mother was very poorly during the pregnancy and I arrived on February 2nd instead: Candlemas. Well – at least you weren’t called Candle quipped a friend later. But a pre-term birth with both I and my mother in isolation had consequences, and one is significant anxiety, which can be really annoying for me and everyone around me.
So just as I am no six-footer and will disappear from view shortly when I sit to give Andy his licence, I am no hero like St David of Wales or indeed King David in the Old Testament. We’ll come back to them in a moment because they do have good news for us, but there’s even better good news hiding in Jesus’ words that we perhaps thought were setting the bar too high for us to reach. In fact they tell us that Small is Beautiful, as we might put it today.
Just a few grains of salt are enough to season a dish. Trust me; ask my wife Jean: I tend to overdo the seasoning, and it doesn’t work out well if I do.
And the light of one candle can be seen 3km away on a decently dark night.
Let’s turn down the lights in church and see how our candle, which hardly seemed to show when surrounded by lighting technology of today, can nevertheless transform the darkness with the majesty and mystery of its one small flame.
Light a candle in the darkness. Set your lamp on the top of a hill and you can shed your light too, and make a difference, even if you’re a flickering light like me.
There’s good news too in the passage from Romans. No matter what shape or size we are, what country we come from, or what characteristics we have or don’t have in human terms: we are all gifted by God.
We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith;7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
It sounds rather spiritual, but ‘serving’ can be cups of tea; ‘teaching’ can be a youth event, ‘giving’ covers widows’ mites as well as banks transfers (though they’re very welcome too, thanks) and so on. We need the whole range. And however small your part may be, let me take you back to the two Davids for a moment. The Old Testament one is recorded there as being “faithful in his generation”, and the Welsh one’s last words were that we should do the little things that he had done. They’ve been mottoes for me, not least as a bishop, and perhaps they can be mottoes for you too.
Then many a muckle can start to make a mickle, because we are in this together, meant to play as a team not solo stars:
For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
Let’s look round church for a moment and see just how many people and sorts of people have played their part. … But they’re only just the start: now there’s YOU.
So we’re all in this together. In a moment, after I have licensed Andy, and all the focus is on him, the Archdeacon will invite some of you to assist in actions which speak of your common life as the Body of Christ here, using your gifts together and bearing one others’ burdens as you do.
I’d really like to invite you all forward, but it would be chaos. So in spirit if not in body, join in, let me invite you to take your place in God’s good plan for the future of his people here as the others take the lead, and say a prayer in your heart for Andy and for all of you, in all that is to come. Amen.
