Press Releases24 Mar 16

Archbishop of Armagh’s Maundy Thursday Sermon: Renewal of Commitment to Ministry

The Most Revd Richard Clarke preached the following sermon this morning – Maundy Thursday – in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh.

Readings – Isaiah 61.1–9; James 5.13–16a; Luke 4.16–21

Our three readings this morning bring together several crucial strands of what Christian ministry is truly about, whether within the ordained ministry or any of the other ministries of the Church of God represented here this morning. Our readings told us a great deal – challengingly and at times painfully – about the basics of all Christian ministry:

• A ministry that brings an unsparing compassion and costly relief to those who are without hope, those who are broken in body, mind or spirit.
• A ministry that is rooted in constant prayer for, as this morning’s Epistle reminded us, the prayer of the righteous is indeed powerful and effective.
• And a ministry that is courageous in its prophetic demands – demands on behalf of the oppressed, the enslaved, all who are the victims of others. It is an agenda which brought Christ to the very brink of a public lynching in his home town, almost before his ministry had even begun.

And it is to this ministry, and nothing less, that you and I will soon be renewing our commitment, in whatever capacity we may each be seeking to fulfil Christian ministry. And yes, it is beyond human capability and competence, but surely we knew that when we first made the promises. It is only in God’s grace and through God’s calling that we can ever presume to exercise Christ’s continuing ministry on earth, and it is Christ’s ministry with which we have been entrusted. It is not ‘our’ ministry, even less ‘my’ ministry – it is the ministry of Jesus Christ exercised through weak, fallible, stumbling and sinful human beings. But it is always Christ’s ministry.

As we prepare to renew our commitment to ministry, I want us to focus briefly on three short phrases from three familiar prayers, and to carry these not only through our renewal of promises, but out into the world we seek to serve in the name of Jesus Christ.

The first is from the ancient Leonine Sacramentary (in an early 20c translation I believe): Remember, O Lord, that which thou hast wrought in us and not what we deserve; and as thou hast called us to thy service, make us worthy of our calling; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

That which thou hast wrought in us. Think of the word ‘wrought’ for a moment, not a weak word but an immensely strong word. Wrought iron has been forced into shape, and it is not plasticine. Wrought iron traditionally would have been the result of massive heat with hammering and brute force. Wrought is the past tense of wreak and ‘wreak’ is not a soft, cosy word – we speak of wreaking havoc or wreaking vengeance. We are speaking of a God whom we wish to hammer us into shape. Whenever I hear those words, I am reminded of John Donne’s famous sonnet, with its opening lines –

Batter my heart, three–person’d God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

This must be part of the deal, if we mean the promises we are about to make: that we are open to being battered and changed – by others, by one another, and ultimately by the Holy Spirit of God.

The second phrase comes from a prayer attributed to Ignatius Loyola. This is the prayer that begins, ‘Teach us, Good Lord, to serve thee as though deservest’. Every phrase deserves careful consideration, but it one phrase to which I want to draw our particular attention: ‘To labour and not to ask for any reward’. This is probably the most difficult of all aspirations for the Christian minister. We probably don’t much mind labouring (most of the time), but we certainly have no wish to get no reward of any kind! Even if applause and admiration are not on offer, a quiet word of appreciation should certainly be expected. And even if we can get by without too much earthly acclamation, we expect the pearly gates to open with a flourish. But in fact this is not the deal either.

There is a familiar hymn, translated from a poem in Latin – again, probably from Jesuit origins – ‘My God, I love Thee; not because I hope for Heav’n thereby’; The last two stanzas are particularly instructive for the ministry we seek to fulfill:

Not with the hope of gaining aught,
Nor seeking a reward,
But as Thyself hast lovèd me,
O everlasting Lord!

E’en so I love Thee, and will love,
And in Thy praise will sing,
Solely because Thou art my God,
And my eternal King.

We are to love because God first loved us, not because we selfishly want some benefits for ourselves, whether in this world or beyond this world.

Finally, a phrase from one of my favourite collects in the Book of Common Prayer (which some of you will have heard me speak of before in one of last year’s roadshows). It is the traditional collect for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity, and again a translation, this time from the Gregorian Sacramentary. It begins, ‘O God, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy’: Without God, nothing is strong and nothing is holy.

This brings us down to earth in every sense. Yes, we will mess up at times. We will regret things we have said or done or have left unsaid or left undone. But there will also be good times and even major success stories. But all must be handed to God. Yes, we must ask for forgiveness for the disasters, but with that forgiveness there must be an accompanying willingness on our part to make amends, with God’s help, in whatever way we can. There must also be thankfulness to God for what has gone well, through and only through his grace. We are called to be channels of God’s grace – sometimes we block the channels of God’s love and care through our own carelessness, stupidity or self–importance. We must thank God for the times when he has used the ministry with which he has entrusted us to good effect. But we are always to remember that without Him, nothing is strong and nothing is holy.

And so, in the presence of that strength and that holiness, we now prepare to reaffirm promises that we have already made, conscious that God loves us, and that he loved us from the beginning. We pray that he may continue to wreak in us that which we do not deserve, but only through his power and in his grace.