Press Releases
Archbishop Eames' sermon - Sunday Worship, BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship 10 December 2006
From the Chapel of Unity at Methodist College, Belfast
Preacher the Most Revd Dr Robin Eames
Of all the words tradition associates with this season of Advent ?judgement? is probably the most sombre - and heart-searching. It has that ominous sound to it that?s not easily dismissed ? or even ignored.
Judgement ? the allocation of blame : the decision on something important : the finding out of the truth about what may have been hidden from view : the estimate of what a person is really like : or the conclusion to a long period of examining evidence about someone, or some incident ?
In our reading from St John there is that other word which we often link to ?judgement? ? condemnation. ?God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.? Familiar words to any Christian. The writer brings out the link between what could have been thought about the judgement of God as something final and conclusive with the contrast of hope ? it was not to condemn the world but to offer the hope, indeed the certainty, that the birth of Christ ? and all that was to follow as not judgement alone ? but the chance to find light in darkness, hope in despair and forgiveness for sin. The focal point of such a hope, such a contrast to condemnation was the arrival of the Son of God and the knowledge that through Him judgement had another side to it.
I don?t know about you but for me my thoughts often move from the personal element of all this to what I suppose we could call the ?corporate?. So often when we think about judgement, if we think about it at all, we do so purely in terms of the individual having to answer for himself or herself. That cannot be ignored but there is a sense in which communities are judged as well.
Years ago I remember being asked as a young priest to bury a little child in what was called then ?a pauper?s grave?. Those were the days when part of a graveyard was allocated to those with no obvious means of support ? the voiceless and the uncared for. I?ll never forget that winter?s morning. Apart from the undertaker and myself there was no one to see the small coffin being placed in that grave. What was the story behind that child? What had led it?s young life to that spot? Who or where were its parents? Now I know society has moved on and such an incident has little chance of being repeated nowadays ? but over the years I have often thought about it. Today in our sophisticated society with so much emphasis on wealth, economic progress there is still the down-side. Poverty is all around us. Globalisation means that we aware in a new and terrifying way of those parts of the world characterised by a level of poverty which most of us find hard to even start to imagine. But poverty is by no means confined to parts of the world far away from where I live. Hardship in this country is still the lot of many. ?Pauper? may have become an unfashionable word. But I?m convinced it?s true ? society is judged where we ignore poverty, society is condemned when we pass by on the other side to ignore the needs of so many who are still the victims, the voiceless and the unwanted. Could there be any better example of the right use of the word ?condemnation??
Then again I often come across examples of how judgement of others is at least an injustice and at most a denial of common humanity. That?s when we condemn another person because of their colour, their creed or their beliefs. It doesn?t seem to matter that Christianity teaches the brotherhood of human kind ? that we are all equal as human beings irrespective of what we call ?the accident of birth?. The potential, the hopes and fears, the dignity of another person can be destroyed and ignored by the judgement that is based on prejudice. Today our society surely needs to take to heart that message.
One more example of judgement and condemnation comes to mind. Have you ever heard a personal judgement that has condemned another person without having the patience to learn more about them? I know there have been times when I have made up my mind about someone only to find later that there was ?a side to them? I did not know ? and had I known their worth, their situation or their true facts I would have seen them in a very different light. It may be only a human failing, but sometimes, just sometimes, it pays to keep judgement until we know more ? or the true story.
The truth is that without realising it we spend much of our time reaching judgements. Mostly those judgements are about ordinary, insignificant things. But on the other hand they can be about major issues when it is all too easy to condemn.
In these days of Advent there is this strange mixture of looking forward to the first coming of Christ with all its hope and joy. But there is this other side to it ? the judgement of the second coming ? the judgement of God. Unlike our human judgements that speaks of love, compassion, forgiveness ? but most of all it speaks of understanding. God?s judgement will understand us, see us as we really are and offer to us what we will most yearn for, forgiveness.
When I think of that moment when like all of you I face that judgement of myself before God perhaps the most testing question of all will be whether I have been faithful with what I was given to do or to be. Was I faithful with the opportunities I had to make life easier for other people? Was I faithful in my understanding of other people, who deserved like all of us a second chance in the eyes of the God who created them?
?Those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.?
In the end surely this puts judgement into another light ? doesn?t it ?
Further information from:
Church of Ireland House
61-67 Donegall Street
Belfast BT1 2QH
Tel: +44 (0)28 9023 2909
Fax: +44 (0)28 9032 3554
Janet Maxwell (duty phone): +353 (0) 87 948 4412