Diocesan News15 Sep 08

Transcript of Bishop Trevor Williams' Enthronement Sermon, Limerick

The following is the full transcript of the sermon given by the Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe, the Right Revd Trevor Williams, at his Installation and Enthronement Service on Sunday 14th September 2008 at St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick

‘Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.’  (John 3.14,15)

It is a privilege to be invited to be part of the Church in this wonderful part of Ireland. Previously it has been a place for wonderful family holidays. Never did I think I would have the chance to live here, never mind work as a member with you of this part of the Church of Ireland. For all of that, thank you for the invitation you have extended to me to be your Bishop. Already Joyce and I have been overwhelmed by the warmth of your welcome.

Thirty years of living in and around Belfast has taught me that it is the quality of our relationships that determines the quality of our lives. I believe that is true at a personal, community and national level. Jesus summed up what was important in life like this: to love God and to love our neighbour as ourselves. To be the creators and sustainers of loving relationships is central to what it means to be a Christian. And as a Church it is the essence of what it means to be the Church. It is what we are about in this new chapter in the life of this United Diocese.

I want to share with you some two challenges that we face as I start my ministry among you as your Bishop.

A Challenge to Hope

The cross today is best known as a fashion accessory not the torturous instrument of death of history. How come Christians can celebrate and continue to be inspired by a barbarous death by Roman Crucifixion 2000 years ago? How is it that the writer of John’s Gospel can write about the cross, not as an instrument of punishment and death, but as a means of health and salvation?
The experience of countless Christians over thousands of years is that the cross of Jesus Christ has turned the world upside down. Rather than being the humiliation and annihilation of a guilty perpetrator of evil, the cross is the most powerful expression possible of God’s love for his world. And because the cross and the resurrection are one and the same act of God, so the event which looked liked the end, so full of despair, was in fact the beginning, a sign of hope. Evil and death had been defeated and the love of God is revealed as the greatest power in the world. Never again can we say there is no hope. The cross stands as a challenge to hope in Jesus Christ. God is the God who brings good out of evil, who brings life out of death, and hope out of despair.

As the United Diocese of Limerick, Killaloe and Ardfert, the cross of Jesus Christ poses for us a Challenge to Hope. We have small numbers, we cover a huge area in our United Diocese from Birr to Dingle, despite our apparent lack of resources there is a danger that we could batten down the hatches and rather like those unfortunate people in Texas, make survival our ultimate priority. But, if God can take the blackness of a Good Friday, the despair of the disciples, and turn it all upside down so that from those unpromising beginnings the Good News of God’s love has spread to every corner of the world, well we are not crazy to think that God has something significant for us to do.

What might that be?  My task with you, over the coming months is to discover how God is already using us as members of his Church, and discern how he wants us to develop to be instruments of his loving concern. What I am convinced of, is that it is not just about how we can survive and keep going, it is about finding the small acts that God can be used to great effect.  These words from Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador both sum it up for and inspire me:

This is what we are about.
We plant seed that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very, very well.

It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning,
a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter
and do the rest.

So, the challenge to hope is based upon the fact that success in God’s terms doesn’t depend on the our capacity to do great and mighty things, but our willingness to be channels of God’s loving concern among those we meet. And opportunities like that face us all day, every day if we can but see it.

A Challenge to Serve

Our Epistle reminds us that it was the attitude of Jesus, how though he was in the form of God, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.  It was this self-giving love which led Jesus to the cross. And when Jesus says to each of us, ‘take up your cross’, he is saying, give yourselves, not for your own benefit, but give yourselves for others; especially the vulnerable and weak, the oppressed and suffering, the excluded and the marginalized. Why? These were the people Jesus paid special attention to. His attitude to society’s outcasts caused scandal, he was mocked as the friend of tax collectors and sinners. Those whom respectable religious society discarded were the focus of Jesus’ caring concern. Not only are we prisoners of hope (as Archbishop Desmond Tutu put it), but we are liberated to be channels of self giving love.

Who are the vulnerable, the marginalized, those who suffer, unnoticed, uncared for? They are all around us, in each parish, in each district. The effectiveness of our Church is to be gauged not in the number of flourishing congregations, but by the extent to which each of us resembles the self-giving love of Jesus.

Following the path of such service we will find companions and co-workers in other denominations, in fact we will find that we can work and witness to the love of Christ much more effectively by crossing the barriers of religious denomination and moving out from our narrow-minded concern for self preservation to finding the joy of discovering the huge diversity of those – who like us – wish to serve others in the name of Jesus.  It is better together. I believe that strongly and that is one of the lessons I bring with me from the segregated city of Belfast, where Churches in one of the violent black spots of Belfast are making a real difference by working together across the sectarian divide. I am delighted to see not only the respect which Roman Catholic Christians have for the Church of Ireland, but by the practical support and generosity given when we have any need at all.

In reading the lessons for today, Holy Cross Day, as we look forward to what lies ahead, I believe we are challenged to hope in the power of God’s love, and are challenged to serve, reflecting Christ’s self giving love for those in need. May the Holy Spirit renew us and equip us to be agents of His love in His world.  AMEN.

Diocesan Communications Officer Canon Bob Hanna,
Tel. 065 6820109 or Mobile 0862167040,

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Diocesan Secretary Canon Robert Warren,
Tel. 066 7122245 or email Secretary