Sermon by the Archbishop for the 60th anniversary of St Mary’s Swansea

Sermon from the Archbishop of Wales at the service commemorating the 60th anniversary of the reconsecration of St Mary’s Church, Swansea - June 2nd 2019

Readings : Ezekiel 36: 24-28,  Psalm 97,  Acts 16:16-34, 

John 17: 20-26 

Fashions develop from time to time and if you’re old fashioned like me some of those fashions will drive you to distraction. One of those increasingly found is beginning a sentence with the word ‘so’. I shout at the television and it does little good except to make me feel better.

So (!) the last verse of the gradual hymn began with ‘So’. ‘So shall God’s will on earth be done’ and the words took us back to a number of places but it’s perhaps convenient or coincidental that it follows a reading from the Acts of the Apostles because the rest of that hymn describes actions from the Acts of the Apostles all about the courage and the faith and the bravery and strength of the early church and it’s in following that strength, bravery and courage that God’s will on earth will be done.

The psalm which we read and the opening verse of the gradual hymn take us to thoughts of kingdom and kingship. The psalm began ‘The Lord is King’ and it spells out something of the justice, the truth, the beauty and the strength of the Kingdom of God, that kingdom which we all pray for in the Lords Prayer. 

The Lord is King and his purposes matter. Christ is king, but back to ‘so’. If the Lord is King, if Christ is King and we are his disciples then if the kingdom is to run it has to be done with us. That image that God is in his heaven and all is well with the world is clearly not true. God is in his heaven but not all is well with the world and so it is absolutely vital that Christian people understand that the Kingdom of God does not arrive automatically, but when people become saints in their own time. 

That takes me back to the word I used at the beginning of the service in welcoming you - the word risk. Let’s look at some of the risks about which our readings spoke. First of all from the book of the Prophet Ezekiel and it all reads so well. I will take from here and I will take from there and if you do what I ask you to do I will give you my Spirit and all will be well. Those words spoken to a disobedient people , those words spoke to a people that had abandoned God’s kingdom, those words spoken to a people who were miles away from the truth that they were meant to live out and the example they were supposed to give. 

So in that short reading the Lord is taking a huge risk - he’s saying I will take a huge risk in entrusting the work of my kingdom to you afresh, but do better, be authentic, be open to my spirit and then things may just start happening, but go your own way and do your own things and you will have again lost the plot and when the plot was lost the first time the result was spiritual exile as well as physical exile. God says be faithful, I take a chance on you. 

Then we go to the gospel reading from the gospel according to St John. Again risk is present. The context of the reading is the night before Jesus was crucified, dealing with the events in the upper room where Jesus gathered with his disciples to tell them ‘this is what it is about’. It is about service of others, not having things the way you want it or like it, not having things the way it’s always been but it’s about servanthood and not mastery. 

And this particular part of the narrative is part of what is called ‘Jesus’ high priestly prayer’ where Jesus prays earnestly and fervently for those who are going to be left behind, those upon whom he has taken a risk, that bunch of fishermen, tax collectors and others in whom he had put his trust, those upon who he took a risk. And he is praying desperately that they might be faithful and that others will hear from them and will come to know the message he has preached and lived out himself. 

When you bear in mind what they had done to him, when you bear in mind how they had let him down, how one of them betrayed him - when you bear in mind all that, it is quite a risk for Jesus to take and so pray he might !

‘May others come to believe through what they do’ is quite a risk. The taking of that risk was justified on the day that we celebrate next Sunday, Pentecost, when the disciples were gathered, when the disciples were suddenly convinced and convicted  of everything that Jesus taught and that is recorded in Acts Ch.2. 

People around were confused by the bizarre behaviour of the disciples on that day but as the writer of Acts put it ‘what’s going on ? We seem to hear these people speaking to us in our own languages - there was an explosion of faith, an explosion of courage when the church finally had something to say. And in having something to say the church, that community that had gathered around Jesus himself had to take risks.’

And that’s where today’s reading from Acts come from. They were no quiet little bunch minding their own business trying not to upset people but they were a noisy bunch, they were a difficult bunch, they were a loud bunch. They took the risk of freeing the woman who was being exploited and it brought them no end of trouble. They took the risk of racial prejudice - these are Jews, these are saying things to us which we as Romans don’t want to hear and don’t need to have any knowledge of. But they spoke, but they had something to say and they said it and one of the things that we must never forget is that the Christian Faith is not based on fairy stories, or myths or probability. It’s based on the lives of these very people - Paul, Silas and Luke and Barnabas and all those who were around at the time - those who would take countless beatings and tortures because they could not deny what they had come to understand and believe that if the Lord is to be king they have to do something about it - they have to speak, they have to act. 

For those who may not know or understand the tradition of why the gospel is not read from the lectern like other readings but from the middle part of the building. It’s a little bit of play acting - in the early church those who were commissioned to preach the gospel took the gospel out in the midst of the people.  If we were going to enact it properly then what we should do is take the choir out and everybody else out through the West door into the square outside and read the gospel there and then come all the way back in but we don’t do that, we play act a bit but we must still remember what it is about, taking the gospel to the people.

Back to that word ‘so’, this is how it happens, taking the gospel to the people, speaking and acting, taking our own risks in our own lives. 

So on this day when we commemorate the Diamond Anniversary of the reconsecration of this building, it’s probably appropriate, very appropriate, that we focus again on the word risk. Huge risks were taken when this building was reconstructed- there were those around at the times and indeed there are those around today who said it should never have been done - what a colossal waste of money, there are plenty of churches in Swansea that would accommodate all the Anglican congregations around the city so why did we build this ? Well, location is one of the important things to bear in mind. The building stands at what is now the heart of the City of Swansea and what was then the Town of Swansea. 

But I don’t believe for a moment the excuse that some people make about church buildings being sacraments in stone. Sacraments are not made from stone. Sacraments are about activity and witness and grace. So you can build as many buildings as you like and you can stick those buildings wherever you feel you want to but unless those buildings are actually places where the family of the Lord recognised Christ as King and commit themselves to activity in the name of the Lord, in the name of Christ, in the name of the King, they may be testaments to architectural wisdom and cleverness but they have not fulfilled their purpose. 

When Jesus sent his disciples down the mountain from the Mount of the Ascension the one thing he didn’t say was ‘go and build nice buildings’, what he said was ‘go and make disciples’. Those who are called to make disciples of course have to gather so we need our family homes, we need our liturgies, we need our music, we need our dignity but they’re empty unless they speak to us of our primary purpose to be the people of God, unless they speak to us and encourage us to take some risks.

So here it is, in the middle of the city, not a sacrament in stone but a family home and the time has come in our church and in this church more particularly for us to think again of the risks that we need to take, not reckless risks but risks that are carefully thought through so that this place may have something to say through its people to the city and the people who pass by. 

The time has come for this place to take a breath, maybe to take a pause and say ‘what risks can we take ? What have we to offer ?’ Hospitality is offered in this place day in and day out and that is good but I guess that in the Rector’s mind and in the minds of others there may be other risks beginning to be formed, other plans to be talked about and that’s all to the good so that today as we celebrate the past we may also be looking to the future.

‘So shall God’s will on earth be done’ - new lamps will be lit, new tasks will be done. I rejoice with you in your diamond celebrations. I encourage you and I support you in any new tasks that you wish to undertake and any new lamps which you may wish to light because in doing so you will be being faithful to those who have gone before us down all generations in the name of Jesus Christ. To him be the glory for ever. Amen