On the Monday of Holy Week, many of our clergy and lay ministers gathered in Worcester Cathedral for the Chrism Eucharist.
This service includes a rededication of all those in ministry to their calling, including the reaffirmation of ordination vows by clergy and the blessing of the oils that are used in services throughout the year.
This was Bishop Hugh's first Chrism service as Bishop of Worcester and the cathedral was packed as clergy and lay leaders gathered around him to re-commit to their ministry. The three types of oil used in services was brought up to the altar to be blessed by curates from across the Diocese.
Bishop Hugh's sermon:
Back at the start of Lent, we heard the story of Jesus in the wilderness and how, when given the opportunity to escape the difficult circumstances that surrounded him, he refused. How three times, he was offered a way out and how three times, he saw what was going on, kept his eyes on his Father and stayed faithful to his call.
And today, at the other end of his ministry, I want to explore what it means for us, as deacons, priests and bishops called to lead and serve God’s Kingdom People, to do so in the midst of an anxious world, to see what’s going on, to keep our eyes on the Father and to stay faithful to our call.
Because the world is anxious. So many of the things that we thought we could rely on have turned out to be less stable than we thought – politics is changing, technology is changing, the international order is changing – even the climate is changing. And the cost-of-living crisis has been going on now so long that it’s hard for many to remember what it’s like not to be in crisis.
And many of these anxieties are carried particularly acutely by our young people – who look at the world they are growing up in, and don’t see much that looks like hope.
And in our churches we live with all those anxieties – and we’ve got our own ones too; I know many of you serve congregations that are anxious about paying parish share, about who’s going to be the next Church Warden, about where all the children have gone.
The world is anxious, and we’ve got our own worries too.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that’s all we are – and I am constantly in awe of how faithful and resilient and hopeful churches in this diocese, and the way they serve their communities so generously. And of course there are lots of churches that are thriving and growing.
But I think we need to notice the anxiety – because then we can face it honestly and figure out what to do about it. Because in the middle of anxiety, there is always a temptation, just as there was for Jesus, to run away from what’s in front of us. In particular, the temptation either to return to a supposedly glorious past, or to wish for a perfect shiny future. In the first we think ‘it was so much better before, we just need to get back there again’, in the second - ‘if only we work harder and smarter it will all be ok’ – but both are a lie and we must neither give in to nostalgia nor indulge in fantasy. Instead, like Jesus in the wilderness, we are invited to notice the anxiety and the fear and to stay in the present.
Because we are all called to lead and serve in this world, as it is now, with all its challenges and risks and to do so knowing that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and that, confident in his constant presence and everlasting provision, we can stand faithfully in the present, without fear and without needing to run away.
The last time I preached here in the Cathedral was at the installation. There was so much that was wonderful in that service, but the thing that has stayed with me was the back cover of the order of service. On it were listed the 113 Bishops of Worcester, and I realised that amongst that list were bishops who served through terrible plagues, through civil and world war, through religious upheaval and profound church divisions, through the social and economic turmoil of agrarian and industrial revolutions. The church has been here a long time, called to serve the world that we live in, with all its troubles and anxieties, and all its joys and beauty. And that remains our call today.
And I want to offer you three words, each of them ‘a way of being in the midst of all the stuff’ of life; three ways of being in the world that can help us look at the reality without fear and to stay in the present, safe and secure in God’s grace and mercy.
The words are faithfulness, curiosity and mutuality; faithfulness, curiosity and mutuality. I think of them as three characteristics for Kingdom People – who want to be church, for the world, as it really is today.
First, faithfulness. Because we have to start where everything starts – with faith; with being faithful to our faithful God who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow; who does not change, give up or get bored; who is always reliable, ever present and utterly dependable. And the invitation that scripture makes, on almost every page, is to be faithful in turn; to build our lives on the solid rock of God’s love and Christ’s grace. We heard it just now – ‘Your faith has saved you’. It is faith that opens the door to everything else; it is trusting that Jesus is who He says he is that saves us – that makes us safe again.
The first and most important discipline for Kingdom People in an anxious age is to know that we are safe and secure in Christ. That there really are many rooms in our Father’s house, and there’s one for each of us, available for free today, and that the father’s house is our deepest and strongest home; the solid, reliable place from which we can set out, faithfully, into this uncertain, fragile and anxious world.
If you hear just one thing from me today, please hear this - God is faithful in every time and every place, and our first calling is to be faithful in turn. I want to see you all doing wonderful, creative and bold things; I love to hear how you have started new initiatives and found ways of connecting with children and young people; it fills my heart when I see a church that is growing - but the thing I care most about is that you are being faithful. You are called to be selfless in so many ways; you need to be selfish about one thing - that you are staying close to Jesus; that you are being faithful.
And it’s from that strong and reliable foundation that we are invited to seek and to search for the signs of the Kingdom; it’s from our faithfulness that we are invited to be deeply and consistently curious. Curious about what God is doing; curious about who are neighbours are and what they need; curious about who we are and what we are called to.
It was Eli’s faithful curiosity that prompted him to tell Samuel to be curious in turn about the voice he kept hearing.
And to be curious is fundamentally to be hopeful – because curiosity assumes there is more to discover and more to come. Faithful curiosity is confident that God is not done with us yet – that He is not done with the church or with creation yet; that He is at work, right now, calling us back to his heart and to his mercy, and sending us out to love and serve our neighbour.
And being curious requires a quality of attention; it means being good at listening to God, to each other, to people who get listened to less often. And so curious means being open to risk and change, to the possibility – the certainty even - that church will need to change, and that we will need to change too.
Be faithful and be curious.
And…. do it all together.
Anxious people are likely to be divided people. Because anxiety is usually driven by the deep human fear that there isn’t enough to go round – not enough money, not enough time, not enough love or truth or freedom. And when there isn’t enough, our instinct is to make sure that we’ve got enough for ourselves, and that we’re hanging out with other people who want what we want.
And there’s a lot of that going on at the moment.
But Scripture tells us that there is always enough. And that we are like a body, and that the hand cannot say to the foot – ‘I don’t need you’, nor can the foot say ‘I only want to hang out with other feet’. And that when one part of the body is in pain, we share it’s suffering, and that when another part rejoices, we’re all invited to the celebration. It is of our fundamental nature that we are only truly ‘being church’ in so far as we are church together.
Or to put it another way – the way that Jesus put it - ‘love one another’.
Be faithful, be curious and do it all together.
At the start of Lent we heard the story of Jesus in the wilderness, when he faced the temptation to escape, saw what was going on, kept his eyes fixed on his Father and stayed true to his call. In another few days we’ll come to the other end of his journey, where we’ll see him in agony on the cross - still held in His Father’s love, still true to his call.
In the middle of difficult, anxious times we are invited to be faithful and curious, and to walk closely together – so that the world might see in us something of Jesus, and seeing, might discover that they too, are safe and secure, held in the Father’s love.
See more photos from the service:
Visit our Flickr page and view the full album or
Click on the image below to visit our Facebook page:
