I know that my redeemer lives

This week people in the United States will head for the ballot boxes to elect a new President. Whoever is elected will have an enormous amount of power and almost certainly have an effect far beyond the borders of the United States. We could even see the first female President.

And of course this week as you will no doubt have heard on the news, the Church in Wales have elected the first female Bishop, Canon Jo Penberthy, who will be the Bishop of St David’s. It is an historic occasion for the Church in Wales and this follows another recent historic decision which will come into effect on Advent Sunday this year when communion will be opened up to anyone who is baptised, regardless of age and regardless of whether they have been confirmed or not. 

The other reflection I want to offer is the membership figures of the Church in Wales which were released at the recent Governing Body meeting which show that membership has declined since 1990 by 54%... 

So what have any of these things got to do with any of the readings we’ve heard today ? To answer that I want to think of the reading from the Book of Job (19:23-27a), with the famous words, ‘I know that my redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God…’ 

Let’s just think of Job for a moment… Life was pretty bad. He had lost his property, his business, his children were killed and he became really ill. His wife told him to curse God and die… his friends came to visit and started to think of the reasons why Job was suffering so much – what had he done wrong ?

But Job stuck with God and in spite of all his pain and suffering said these incredible words, ‘I know that my redeemer lives…’ and whatever base we have in our lives, whatever foundation, we can know nothing better than that – the presence of God with us every single moment of every single day… Every good moment and every difficult moment… 

And when we think of attendance figures in our churches, we shouldn’t be depressed or anxious because if God is in control then things will be fine but if we’re trying to be in control, then we may have some problems, because God doesn’t work and think like us – God is beyond our understanding and that’s why we can look at him with awe and wonder and recognise the God of miracles who can do all things… 

The attendance figures must be a wake-up call to us all, to help us recognise that what’s been happening isn’t working well because the Christian faith is a faith founded on mission, a faith founded by a God who wants a relationship with his people, and that is all his people. And Jesus left us that command to go and tell people about Him, go and offer them good news… 

This week I’ve been on a course in Salisbury (and was actually with Jo Penberthy when she got the phone call that she had been elected Bishop) and one of the comments on the course was that a good leader will always put the good of the organisation above their own thoughts and wishes. And this really applies to us all in a church setting. 

We will all have preferred ways of worship, of fellowship, of how we meet together, of how we socialise together, of how we look after our buildings and all kinds of things like that. But are they God’s ways or our ways… are they about sharing the good news of Jesus or are they about keeping us happy and comfortable ?

Because we are called to simply live in the knowledge of those words of Job, ‘I know that my redeemer lives’…. And there will be people who will not be happy about a woman being made a bishop and there will be people who don’t think allowing people to receive communion before confirmation is right, but we live with the knowledge of the promise that God is with us always… And that changes us as it changed Job when we truly live recognising that fact…. 

I’m not going to enter the debate about women’s ministry again – it’s finished as far as the Church in Wales is concerned and we pray that the ministry of this new Bishop who happens to be a woman is fruitful and blessed, and that she remains faithful to her calling to share good news… 

But what about the receiving of communion for those who haven’t been confirmed regardless of their age… And here I’m going to quote the Archbishop of Wales, ‘There is no doubt that in the early Church, Baptism, Confirmation and First Communion happened at the same time. 

From about the fifth century, the Church in the West (but not the Church in the East), separated the sacrament of Baptism from the ceremony of Confirmation, when the Bishop as Chief Pastor welcomed the newly baptised, laid hands upon them (Confirmation) and gave them Communion for the first time. 

From the thirteenth century it became the custom for no-one to be allowed to receive Communion without first having been confirmed. So the three ceremonies which the early church had held together, were separated and so the pattern with which we are familiar was established, namely Baptism in infancy, Confirmation at puberty with people being enabled at that point to receive Communion. 

The fact is however, that theologically speaking once a person is baptised, he or she is a member of the Body of Christ and part of what that means is the ability to receive communion. In other words, nothing except baptism is required to become a communicant. 

In the light of all this and after holding a discussion with members of the Governing Body in September 2015, the Bishops have decided that from this Advent Sunday we are giving permission for all who are baptised to receive Holy Communion. No one should be obliged to receive if they do not wish to do so. That is a personal decision for each individual but no barrier should be erected to prevent anyone who is baptised from receiving communion. 

Confirmation then becomes, not the gateway to Communion but the response of those baptised, if they wish to do so, to affirm their faith, as members of the Church and as a commissioning for serving God’s Church and world.’  (from the Autumn 2016 edition of Croeso – the Llandaff diocesan magazine)

It’s clear that God’s welcome and invitation is bigger than we so often make it, it’s clear that God wants a real relationship with us as part of his family… Remember we are created in his image, we are beautiful in his sight, regardless of what we’ve done or failed to do… It is good news, and good news needs to be shared…. 

We live in an exciting time in the Church in Wales I think… It contains its challenges certainly and it will be inevitably a time of change, and change is never easy, but we must grow as a church and to even begin to do that we need to be recognised as a blessing to our communities, as a place where people actually do come and feel welcome and feel warm and loved and receive good news…

Paul in his 2nd letter to the Thessalonians (2:17) that we heard earlier wrote, ‘Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and deed’… 

God never wants us to act alone, he doesn’t want us to rely on our minds and thoughts, he wants to support us as a loving parent who treasures his children and is desperate to be proud of them…. 

‘I know that my redeemer lives’ is our foundation in life. It can be the cornerstone of our lives, it is the very reason for our lives, and it’s good news that needs to be shared…. Too often in church life we worry about petty things and we argue and we debate things which make little difference and actually often harm that message that ‘God is good news…’

The Sadducees in our gospel reading (Luke 20:27-38) didn’t believe in resurrection (that’s why they were sad-you-see !!) and they asked Jesus a question primarily to try and trip him up and he addressed their question but he also shared good news about God being good news – good news of eternal life… 

We can dwell on statistics that say the church will be gone in not too many years time if we want, but God’s church won’t be and we are called to be God’s church, celebrating the fact that we have ministries which have changed, which recognise the gifts and talents that are all around us, and that we have chosen to once again emphasise that we are part of one family in baptism… 

We have good news to share and we need to share it… ‘I know that my redeemer lives’, the ‘God of the living not of the dead’ and the God who loves us and comforts us and strengthens us in every good work and word… 

Advent, which begins at the end of this month, is the start of the Christian year. By the admission of all the baptised into communion the Church in Wales is marking that new year very visibly, but we can all mark it as we make our own promises to God to receive his love and to share his love indiscriminately…. ‘I know that my redeemer lives’ – believing those words may we be changed forever…