As you may have noticed, I rather like having the last word – and this is it! It may be that from time to time I'll be called off the bench – a sort of impact player when the starting preacher's legs are getting weary – but apart from that I'm at the end of a period of regular preaching that has lasted almost exactly 20 years. So today I'm going to indulge myself and break my own rule that I would not allow myself to break on previous occasions. I'm not going to address today's readings – I have done so at least 5 times during that period of 20 years – and if you really want to know what I said on those occasions I'm sure I have copies somewhere!
But of course I do want to say something about the Scriptures; and I want to begin with an episode which, looking back, I now realise made a huge impression on me. When the Reverend George Spargo was being instituted as Vicar of Otaki in 1989 he invited his friend, the Reverend Colin Barnes to be the preacher at the service; and we soon realised that Colin was a passionate lover of the Scriptures, the key word there being "passionate". His other claim to fame was that he came from Burnley in Lancashire, and had a wonderful accent to prove it.
After a few minutes of preaching he had worked himself up into a bit of a lather on the virtues of the Scriptures, when he suddenly stopped, held his Bible up above his head like a winning captain with a sports trophy, and cried out, "Oooh, it's such a looovely book!" Of course, many of us laughed, but I remember at the time thinking how wonderful it must be to feel like that about the Bible; and I guess that, although I didn't think of it as a prayer at the time, what I was doing really was to hope (to pray) that one day I might feel passionately about the Scriptures – albeit in my more restrained way as befits a southerner!
Well, over the years my memory of Colin faded; but one day I was talking to another priest who mentioned Colin, and we got talking about him, and I mentioned this incident; and as I recounted it I suddenly realised something: I did feel passionately about the Scriptures. I could say with Colin "the Bible is a lovely book"; and I could say about Colin, "Thanks be to God!" And one of the lessons that I have drawn from that little episode is the power of language that comes from the heart. Colin was infamous for preaching too long – he probably went on a bit on that occasion in Otaki – and I cannot recall anything else he said. But those six simple words have had an enormous effect on my own faith journey and on my commitment to preaching ever since he spoke them.
Now, I mentioned George Spargo; it's time to turn to a far more recent George, Bishop George Connor. When Bishop George addressed Synod in May he announced his intention to retire at the end of November – on St Andrew's Day, which will be the 44th anniversary of his ordination; and this no doubted prompted him to look back over his faith journey. And he told us that throughout that time four small verses of Scripture had been of special significance to him in shaping his faith journey and his ministry. I found that very interesting, and started to think about which few verses have been particularly significant for me. If the Bishop can have his top 4, why shouldn't I?
The obvious difficulty in this approach soon raised its ugly head. I couldn't agree with myself on my four choices. And why only four, why not five or six or twenty-three? The exercise threatened to get so out of hand that I thought it would be best to abandon the idea altogether (or perhaps pinch the Bishop's four and leave out his name!). Part of the difficulty, of course, is that a particular verse may have particular significance to us at a particular time or in special circumstances.
An obvious example for me is Hebrews 11:8, which I have probably spoken about before. That says, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." That was the crucial verse that, in the end, convinced me to resign from the Law Drafting Office, even though I did not have a clue what the next step was. Was my sense of call real, or was I grandstanding? Only when I resigned, did I convince myself that it was real, and six and a half months later I was offered a temporary position on the staff of All Saints, Palmerston North. But once all that fuss was over, that verse had nothing more to say for me; so it can't claim a position in the final four.
A couple of other contenders are in a similar class. After I had been ordained a deacon but before being ordained a priest, my first marriage collapsed, and there were many who advised the Bishop to cancel my licence and not ordain me as a priest. For the record, I agreed with them. However, our Bishop at the time was Archbishop Brian and he told me that against the advice he had received, and against his own instincts, that was going to go ahead with my ordination to the priesthood. When I asked him why, he said, "Because I cannot escape the conviction that God is calling you, so you and I really have no choice." And he drew my attention to Isaiah 43:1, which reads in part, "I have called you by name, and you are mine." So that could have made the cut.
But in the end I have settled for 2 finalists, two less than the Bishop, which is fitting, perhaps; and it was only after I had chosen them that I realised that they are drawn from my two favourite books, they are related to one another and to Hebrews 11:8, and they are both extraordinarily timely for our two congregations.
They are Isaiah 43:18-19a; and John 5:6. Here they are: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? And from John: When Jesus saw him lying there, and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
If I had to try to sum up the message of the Gospel in a relatively few words, these would be where I would start. I have long ago lost count of the people I have come across who have got stuck somewhere in their own past – who have been in their present condition for a long time. I remember reading somewhere of a psychiatrist who told a priest that the Church could cut the need for psychiatric services in half if it could convince people first that they are forgiven, and secondly that they need to forgive themselves and others. That, of course, is the core business of the Church.
I suspect that we all know people who are stuck in grievance mode; who tell the same hard luck story over and over again; and who believe that because of something or other in the past they cannot move one. I once asked such a person what she and I would talk about if her particular grievance was ever resolved. After a long, long struggle in silence, she told me that we wouldn't need to talk again because she would then have her life back, which is an interesting expression in itself. I don't mean to diminish the pain and suffering that has often been experienced in such cases. But I do want to suggest that the lovely book, and in particular these two extracts, provide a remedy.
First, that question. Do we want to be healed? Do we want to let go of the grievance, the bad memory, or whatever it is that is burdening us and stopping us from moving forward? The man at the pool convinced himself that he could never be healed because others beat him to it – they looked after themselves and didn't stop to help him. Jesus cut through the self-pity, and told the man to stand on his own two feet. He raised him again – the man was resurrected.
How was that possible? Because God was in Christ doing a new thing; it was time to forget the former things and stop dwelling on the past. That's a message we need to hear time and time again on our faith journey; and it is a message that each of our congregations needs to hold on to as you are being called to leave your comfort zones and to go forward to the inheritance God has in mind for you, even though you do not know where you are going or what it will involve in any detail.
The same is true for Trish and I, and for Bishop George and Nonie. So let us pray for one another that we let go of past certainties and perceive the new thing that God is doing in our lives. And let us hold on tightly to this lovely book as we go! Amen.
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