In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem. (S.Luke 2: 1-4).

As St. Luke tells the central story of Christian Faith, he sets it in the context of civil society. The story begins around a birth in Bethlehem, as the demands of citizenship are fulfilled. This requires no apology, for it is a fitting way for the Incarnation to be realised God becoming man within the framework of society, as the demands of citizenship are fulfilled.

The Relationship between Church and Civil Society

The relationship between Church and civil society has never been simply resolved. It has vacillated between the extremes of church domination of the state to the state domination of the church.

Today we have moved from thinking of questions of control either way in most Western democracies, to think instead of relationships. These relationships have less to do with power structures, or with hierarchies relating to governments, and much more to do with the way in which church and civil society relate and react to each other.

Christian Citizenship has to be worked out within the State

The issue comes backs to this word citizenship, which gives the title to our worship today.

Christian citizenship at its best is not negative towards civil society, but rather it is lived out in the context of the society in which we live and to which we must owe a real allegiance. There is a Christian contribution to be made within society that enriches that society as well as enriching those who humbly offer it.

Two aspects of the Christian Faith that impinge with some force on issues of citizenship are the commitment to community and the commitment to healing and reconciliation.

Christians Must be Committed to Community

In the first place, Christians are committed to Community. The Gospel does place a very high value on the individual and indeed on individual responsibility, but the fulfilment of the individual is not thought of in terms of self-fulfilment, but rather in terms of relating to others. This is something that cannot be stated enough in the present time. We live at a time when self-fulfilment has become an obsession and where commitment to something larger is low on the agenda for many people.

An early Christian writer addressed the newly baptised in the first letter of Peter by saying, Once you were NOT a people, but now you are God'speople (1 Peter 2: 10a). The witness of the Church is at its lowest ebb when we allow our own individualism to reign supreme but society and community also remain impoverished unless there are people there whose commitment is to something larger than themselves.

Make no mistake about it; there is something costly about community building. Putting ourselves at the centre of the universe is the temptation fundamental to humankind. The overcoming of this temptation can often be very costly. The way of the cross is the exact opposite to that selfishness which destroys any real community. It was some forty years ago that a leading theologian caught the imagination of many when he described Jesus very bluntly as The man for others .

Jesus draws people together, draws them out of a pre-occupation with themselves, and invites them to be part of something beyond themselves. He spoke of a commitment to the values of his kingdom which can never take second place to our own individual concerns. The way of the cross is a way of living in community at the foot of the cross, and not simply choosing one by one to go the way of the cross. The church and society have been renewed as people with such a commitment to the values of God'skingdom commit themselves to one another to work out that commitment within the society in which they live and work.

Christians are Called to work for Reconciliation

The second challenge mentioned already is that of working for Reconciliation. This call comes to us throughout the New Testament. It of course involves the contribution that can be made to society by the Church, but in a real sense the Church only realises its implications as it enters into the marketplace of civil society. No society can be built without reconciliation at its heart. The closer that the divided parties are to one another in one way or another makes the work of reconciliation even more hazardous.

I was in a burnt out room with a young couple that had fought so viciously the previous night that they had virtually succeeded in burning down their home. As I attempted to bring them together, and listened to them haranguing each other, I suddenly sensed that they were united in something they both disliked what I was saying! They got up and bid me a brief and cool farewell and they went out for a meal together! In one sense I discovered the animosity that a message of reconciliation can bring, but also that being a reconciler is never easy.

Reconciliation involves us at Every Level of Community

Reconciliation is seldom in reality a third party activity; it is something that involves us all at every level of community. It is about hearing what each is saying to the other, it is about being prepared to make the first move and even having it thrown back in our faces.

It is often only in seeking to bring reconciliation that the churches themselves begin to experience reconciliation. In South Africa, the churches discovered under the apartheid regime the very sobering fact that the evil of apartheid was too strong for a divided church. The challenge to the system only became a reality as Christians were able to make that challenge with one voice. Without reconciliation, there is no forward movement in church or in civil society.

The Northern Ireland Memorial Fund's Work for Peace and Reconciliation

This morning we welcome to this Cathedral two people among many others two people of diverse political backgrounds, from different sides of traditional community division in Northern Ireland, Pat Hume and Daphne Trimble. Together they established a cross community endeavour now known as The Northern Ireland Memorial Fund. Behind this fund and its work for Peace and Reconciliation is the determination that those who have been the victims of violence across the last thirty years should not be forgotten. Many people have died in their selfless work for the community. Others bear the scars both psychological and physical of years of suffering.

Such work as this fund undertakes is costly in every way it requires courage as well as compassion. and more popular course to follow. It is about seeking the healing of memories, the recognition of the high cost of violence, and respecting the pain and suffering of all. This is groundwork for reconciliation. This is community work at its most authentic, and we can be proud to contribute in some meaningful way to this undertaking in the Cathedral this morning.

The message of reconciliation finds its power not in words alone but in the way of Jesus. It is the consequence of the forgiveness offered through Jesus crucified and risen. It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that this work of reconciliation goes on. Out of the sadness of many parts of the world, not least our own island home, has been seen something of the power to love and forgive a power that is nothing short of miraculous. This should not surprise us if we take seriously the way in which God'speople are given the Spirit to love and to forgive as Jesus did. It often seems a dangerous prayer to offer when we are feeling very unforgiving towards others!

It is on a note of hope that I want to end this morning. There are many good stories to tell. These include stories of selfless service to the community, and stories of that vital outreach that is at the heart of reconciliation. These stories reflect something of the heart of the Gospel. They challenge those in the churches and those in society at large to take seriously the demands of citizenship as we walk in the steps of the one who was truly for others and died bringing to others reconciliation and healing.