‘Your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:19) These are the closing remarks of Jesus in today's Gospel reading. So often the Spirit moves through the lectionary to give us what we need to hear in a given moment.
Following the recent revelations brought about by the
release of the Makin Report into historic abuse perpetrated by the Evangelical
Lay Minister John Smyth, and the subsequent resignation of the Archbishop of
Canterbury owing to criticisms of oversight made in that report, many will be feeling pain, anxiety or bewilderment. More important
than anything else is that we hold all survivors of abuse in our prayers now
and into the future. We also need to pray for those called to deal with these issues on the ground, as they are always complicated and difficult. This is a very challenging time for so many.
We may have many different views about the issues raised in the last few days. Whatever
our thoughts, we must all now take account of what has been going wrong for so long
and address them. Whatever failings there have been, they have come about as a
direct result of us, the Church, losing our focus on the Jesus we are called to
follow and reveal to others.
Now, we must always remember that we are not called to
worship the Bible, we are called to worship God, the God we see in and through Jesus
Christ. This seems obvious, but getting this the wrong way round, which can be so easy to do, can be the cause of significant problems. Christians
have never believed that the Bible is directly dictated by God. The Bible is
divinely inspired, not divinely dictated. The Bible for us contains the reflections,
revelations and historical retellings of God’s interactions with the world and
humankind through the experience of very faithful and saintly individuals. The
Word of God is Jesus Christ, the Bible leads us to him!
Each of the Gospels are written by a writer, an author, and
there is much debate about who those authors were. They may or may not be the
people they are ascribed to. What we do know is that the Gospels contain
eyewitness material and are remarkably historically accurate (as archaeology so often confirms). This gives us a
direct connection to Jesus. That eyewitness testimony, testimony of people who
witnessed these events first-hand, reveals to us the God who was present in the
person of Jesus. When the Church gets into a pickle, when it loses its way, it
is nearly always because it has lost its focus on that real person of Jesus.
As I said a few weeks ago, The Bible is a huge document, so with a narrow overly literalistic view, we
can find justification in it for whatever we like.
We can find in the Bible justification for genocide or for the
protection of minorities. We must ask ourselves which looks more like Jesus?
We can find justification for abusive control or for gentle
encouragement. We must ask ourselves which looks more like Jesus?
We can find justification for pursuing inequality or for upholding
every individual in the dignity of God as equal. The question we must ask is
which one looks more like Jesus?
We can find justification in the Bible for trying to sweep
things under the carpet, for not being transparent and open, for protecting the
institution, for deviating from the truth, for denying what’s before our eyes –Joseph,
Moses, David, Peter, Thomas, Paul… Whilst all of these are no doubt holy men,
they each have their flaws. So, we have to ask ourselves, does lacking
transparency, does failing to show concern to victims of abuse, failing to
take whistleblowing seriously, failing to properly support people dealing
with abuse issues on the ground, look like Jesus? If the answer is no, then we
know we have got things wrong…
I think, for the last decade or more, our Church has lost its
way primarily because it has forgotten its primary calling is a pastoral
calling; it’s a calling to care, a calling to empathy, a calling to be present
and visible. It is a calling to stables and alehouses and homes; to market
squares and offices and factories; to crack dens and brothels and hovels. Just
as Jesus’ calling was a local calling to be on the ground with real people in
all the messy complexity of the world, so the Church’s calling is a local
calling to serve real people on the ground in community. It is a calling to be
where people are, to understand their issues, their pain, and to bring them close
enough to Jesus to touch his cloak and look into his gaze.
Charles Simeon, onetime vicar of Holy Trinity Church in
Cambridge, had carved on the inside of the pulpit, where only the preacher
could see, the words from John 12:21 when some Greeks came to Philip saying, “Sir,
we want to see Jesus”. Our job is to show people Jesus, and by seeing Jesus,
they will be healed. Our churches should be places of wellbeing, safety and
healing.
For too long this has been obscured as we have pursued glamorous
growth agendas, vision statements and neat managerial concepts above all else –
a corporatism has swept through our church that has made us feel more like a cold
and hard Church of England PLC rather than a warm and welcoming Church of
England please come and see. We have presented a Jesus that looks more like a calculating CEO than a caring physician.
So, this next period must be a period of change. Each of us
has a responsibility for transforming the culture. We each need to do our bit
to help our Church heal and become a place where people can see Jesus. And on seeing
Jesus, they will be healed. Our Churches should be places of safety and healing. Our job
is to make them safe, loving, caring places to be. Places that reflect those
qualities we see in Jesus. Locally and nationally, our Church is called to the
same.
So, my prayer is that we will have a major reset: that we
will learn the lessons and challenge the toxicity in our systems and structures.
As a Church, let us turn away from the corporatism and entitlement that has so dominated
and devoured us - challenge the elitism, break up the cliques and throw a sledgehammer through the
glass ceilings. Let us once again recognise that
our primary calling is a pastoral calling to real people at a local level – an
institution of transparency and openness, that cares for people and clergy, and places their wellbeing above all else. Let
us recommit again to being an institution that exists to serve and care for everyone,
including those outside of our metaphorical walls. May our Church nationally
and locally be a place where people come and are able to find Jesus; a place of
health and wellbeing, safety and healing.
Jesus, light of the world, who came as a healer, full of love and compassion, and speaks up for those who have no voice. May our churches be places of safety, where we stand up for the vulnerable. Places of justice, kindness and humility. Light of the world, drive out the darkness. May we bring light and life to others. May it be so (prayer taken from Safeguarding Sunday Materials).
Amen.
