When people discover that I am vicar of St John’s, I am
frequently asked about whether we find that the cathedral overshadows us. The assumption is that with both occupying
the same space, or at least being so close in the city centre, surely the
cathedral will draw all the worshippers and St John’s will lose out. There is no doubt that we are in close
proximity and of course my role is shared between the parish and the cathedral,
so I have an interest in both, a bit like any vicar with multiple parishes or
churches, and we also have St Luke’s as part of our parish. I answer this question in a number of ways,
one talking about how they are different, and although coming from a similar
church tradition – broadly liberal catholic in spiritual outlook – one is a
cathedral which brings a particular identity and the other a parish
church. At the heart of this difference
is that they are communities and serve communities.
That word community is very easy to band around but if we
take it seriously it challenges what I think is a virus in our western
outlook. The House of Bishops' pastoral letter, which has been in the press and is well worth looking at, shines a
spotlight on how being consumers is infecting our sense of community. The letter really needs to be read alongside
the much longer book ‘On Rock or Sand’, a collection of essays edited by the
Archbishop of York looking at the moral foundation for shaping our nation and
therefore how we will approach the forthcoming election. I have written a summary of the House of Bishops’ letter together with some questions I think it raises. Consumers consume. They are not connected with the processes of
production. Their scope and vision does
not take into account how things get to the point they buy and consume
them. This is a form of alienation,
consumerism has become the opiate of the people, and it separates us from what
it means to be human, because persons are persons in community. We do not stand on our own and selfish,
individualistic approaches are fundamentally unsustainable; they destroy the
fabric of society. A challenge the
bishops have laid before the political parties is that they are targeting
particular demographic groups and so are turning politics into a form a
consuming. Its scope ceases to be about
the common good and rather panders to a ‘what’s in it for me’ mentality.
Consumerism has infected every aspect of our lives. It has even got into churches. Some of the biggest churches are actually
very consumerist in their approach. They
are not rooted in their communities and their locations. People can turn up, consume religion and go
away again. The premises could be in a
city centre, on an industrial estate outside it, in a village or floating on
the river. Location becomes just venue
and there is very little connection with community and the wider impact on the
people who live and work around it. You
will know me well enough now to know that this is the complete opposite of how
I approach the role of a church. If we
are not about community, those who gather and those who live and work around
us, we have missed the point of churches being churches. We could stay at home and put on a CD or find
something to read and listen to on the internet.
Community is not always easy. It involves people being people and they fall
out. They bump up against one another
and annoy each other. We have to work
things out, particularly where there is disagreement. We have to take account of one another. That involves people supporting each other in
need, comforting the sorrowful and helping each other as we struggle with
faith, with life, with whatever is happening to and around us. It is blessing and it is challenge. But it is real and it requires another word
which is also foundational for me and that is participation. That requires us to give as much, if not
more, than we receive, because we bring our lives and our selves as our
offering to what makes this community flourish and function. That can be costly, very costly.
If we want to know just how costly this can be our gospel
reading is unnerving (Mark 8:31-38). Jesus told his disciples that if they wanted
to be counted in his number they had to take up their cross and follow
him. Well, the cross was an instrument
of violent, torturous death. It has
become for us the supreme symbol of self-giving love, sacrificial love and that
is about as far away from being consumers as you can get.
We are about to invite you to review and renew your giving
to support the work of this community.
We operate on a common purse model.
Without donations this church does not function and there are holes in
the finances that need plugging. More
will come in the form of a personal letter to everyone, hopefully next week –
and if you stay away we’ll post it!
There are very different ways that this can be presented – we can talk
about costs and that you won’t get if you or someone else doesn’t pay. That has a reality check about it and it is
transparent – the costs have to be met.
But there is a much more fundamental point behind our giving. We belong to a community in which we
participate. That community is built on
a God who gives himself to us and for us sacrificially. The cross is not just the way Jesus gets to Easter
Day. It is who he is and how he is. He gives completely and utterly for us. He asks us to think in turn what we will give
to God in thanks and response to that gift.
Clearly we can never repay it, and are not asked to because it is gift,
beyond our means. However, we are called
to join in with the self-giving, participation that makes community function
and vibrant. We are called to join in
with the life and work of God’s Kingdom of which this church is an
expression. We gather not to consume but
to be a community worshipping God and serving those around us.
Not all of us are called to literally die for our faith,
though we are becoming aware that in some parts of the world Christians are
being killed by extremists. It is like
stepping back into a medieval past. The
outward looking, self-giving, participation which lies behind it, at it’s core,
is called of all of us. And so the real
preparation for any giving renewal is not money and budgets, but the
heart. That heart starts with the cross of
Christ, which we are all called to take up in order to follow him. The mindset of the consumer is a virus which
has infected every aspect of our lives.
It is destabilizing our society, our politics and it corrupts our
religion too. It will take conscious
effort to counter this, because it comes at us from all angles. The counter is today’s gospel reading and the
gospel should be what shapes us. If you
want to be a follower of Christ then living his self-giving love, which we see
in the cross, is the only way for us.
Sermon preached at Peterborough Parish Church, Sunday 1st March 2015
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