St Martin's & St Paul's
Parish Canterbury
St Martin's & St Paul's
Parish Canterbury
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The New Testament reading we had today (which is given below) has a particular resonance for me. In the days of the Alternative Services that was the reading for one Sunday that I spent visiting a prospective parish in South Yorkshire. It was 1985 and I was coming to the end of my studies at college; I had been sponsored by the Diocese of Sheffield and it was hoped that I would go back there, but in the event the only vacancy for a woman, a Deaconess as we were in those days, was this particular parish. I had hardly got over the threshold of the vicarage when the Vicar told me the facts: he had only asked me to visit the parish (all the way from Salisbury) because he did not want to refuse his Bishop. But he wanted me to know that he could not work with a woman.
Apart from that, the weekend went quite well! I had worked in a similar area as a teacher, a mining district, and so many things were familiar: the pit houses, the pit in the distance, the row of rather shabby little shops and the good natured and friendly people. The Church was beautiful, the Vicar believed that beauty was important in this rather prosaic place and the service I witnessed was warm and friendly; I went to a Parish coffee morning, I talked to the vicar's wife and I played games with their two lovely bright young children. But what in the end was the point? By the Saturday evening I was feeling rather down, so that reading on Sunday morning somehow spoke to me. I wasn't experiencing anything like the challenges Paul speaks of, but there was something in the thrust of the reading, about resisting the temptation to be the victim, to stand up however many times one is knocked down, that gave me strength. Not long afterwards, I was invited to visit a post - where they really did want a Deaconess - here in Kent - and that was that.
Looking back on that time, I remember the feeling I had that Saturday evening. I had come to the end of my training and I was ready to move on, but I was also very anxious about what I would find and this strange unreal interview emphasised that sensation. I was far away from people I knew and my future felt somewhat as yet out of reach. As we prepare to say farewell to Tom who is going to begin his ministerial training and to welcome to Paul who is just completing his, and is waiting to start here with us as a Deacon, so we might think about where they stand - at a point of endings and beginnings, moving on into the future to which God has called them. I do not believe that the ordained ministry is more special or significant than any occupation profession, especially when that occupation or profession is offered to God; but there is in the ministry that particular element of trust in God that makes the period before and after training so unique. The past slips away, the future is ahead, and the place between is a place in which trust is all we have. Not a particularly comfortable place to be but one that is a necessary part of fulfilling what we are called to be.
Tom and Paul have offered themselves to the service of God in the Church and they have received a yes. But in truth all of us receive a Yes from God, and in today's church with a rediscovery of the priesthood of all believers and the ministry of every member, there is a much better chance that that YES will find expression in many forms of commitment, service and love.
We do of course so often get ourselves into a tizz about all this; people disagree, fall over each other, dates and events conflict, opinions vary; but I have no doubt that God looks upon all of this with love and compassion, as a father looks upon his children when they begin to assert themselves and to discover how complex the world out there really is. When we call upon him, as the disciples finally did in the tempest, he is always ready to say, Peace, be still; and then, in that stillness we can hear his voice, and remember the moment when we first fully offered ourselves in love and trust, and rediscover the truth of that moment, and so be restored in communion with Christ and know the way to travel.
Amen
.We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says:
In an acceptable time I have heard you,
And in the day of salvation I have helped you.
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We give no offence in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God:
in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in sleeplessness, in fastings; by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness,
by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report;
as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many
rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. Be Holy O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your
own affections. Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open.
