Let love be genuine

The New Testament, and the Bible as a whole, contains quite a bit of advice on how to treat people.  Some of this is set down in moral codes which speak to particular situations and cultures, but are based on certain basic premises.  When we try to work out what these might have to say to today, living as we do in very different situations and cultures, there can be some tension and disagreement about what is foundational and what is situational, reflecting a particular time and place, so needs more work to apply it to today.  Some of it, though, really is foundational and guides us in the tone with which we are to approach other people.  One of the reasons we are given these passages is because we get worn down and strained by our encounters with others.  We don’t always find it easy to display the grace and love which makes for cohesive and harmonious living.  Like a shed, we need weatherproofing from time to time to stop the rot from taking hold; we need the protective layer of grace renewing.  Our forebears were no different.

Today’s Epistle reading (Romans 12:9-21) is one of these foundational passages and it sets the bar very high.  It has a timeless appeal.  Love needs to be genuine, literally unhypocritical.  For Paul love is more about what we do than how we feel.  We’ve tended to turn love into a feeling word, but for Paul it is more of a doing word.  It is far more than a warm or even hot and passionate feeling towards someone.  It is characterized in practical help and support.  So when others annoy us, irritate us, we just don’t connect with them – and there are people whose personalities rub up against us so much that they take a lot of effort to get anywhere beyond icy feelings – how we behave can change how we feel or come to view them.  Loving is not dependent on the warmth or attraction.  This is one of the principles behind Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, where the aim is to change the mental state by finding activities which will jumpstart a more positive emotional state.  Love being genuine is therefore an encouragement to desire this, to want to find a better way of being through behaving and the spin off is this will affect the way we feel.

There are people with whom it is hard to get beyond the way they present.  I don’t mean their looks or image, I mean that they clearly carry open emotional wounds inside them and their own self identity and for whatever reason have become so used to protecting themselves from attack that they get their defence in early or normal social contact requires so much emotional energy for them that they crack under the strain.  Get me on a good day and I will see this.  Get me on a bad day and I might be less perceptive and behave accordingly. After all, I’ve got my own open wounds to deal with, as we all have.  ‘Let love be genuine’ is a reminder that finding a better way of approaching and responding builds love, builds a community which is more healthy and supportive, creates a space that is a safer place for everyone to be.

It also means that we need to be a genuine community, one where the people are real and we all understand that we all have our fragile areas.  No coat-hanger smiles!  To quote another passage from Paul’s writings, we carry the treasure of Christ and his image that we bear in clay jars (2 Corinthians 4:7), and clay pots are easily broken and damaged.  The fantasy of our society, which tends to isolate people from one another, is that we can create fantasy communities.  If we don’t like what someone does or says, we can unfriend them in electronic social arenas like Facebook and Twitter.  If we don’t like seeing certain people we can shut them out.  The scale and size of a modern city, like this one, is that it becomes very easy for different groups not to meet, they can become ghettoized, and it becomes impossible to interact with everyone.  Churches are one of the few places left where there is a social mix which we might not chose or find in other places.  That is actually why some people can’t cope with churches, they’ve lost that skill or have never had it developed.  It is also why some want a church to be a cosy club for those who are like them.  It doesn’t function well when that happens and people know within seconds when they walk in the door if that is really the case; they sense whether they will fit in or not.  Is the love here genuine, as in truly open, or are there hidden, unspoken entry requirements?  It’s a challenge for all churches – I’m not singling here out by any stretch.  It’s where our calling and identity cuts across the assumptions of our society and we have to make ‘love’ into a doing word rather than a feeling word, to change and sustain the spiritual tone.

This is built on a fundamental understanding and the central plot for the Christian script.  Christ came to redeem and to save.  He came that we might have life, not death.  He did not come to destroy and condemn.  The aim behind all of the noble advice and qualities in that reading is to draw us into the love that pours itself out in creation and will not let us go.  So it follows on.  We are to hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good, rejoice in hope, live in harmony with one another, not to repay evil with evil.  We then have one of those comedy moments in the bible, we are encouraged to ‘leave room for the wrath of God’, in other words don’t get so caught up in retribution that there is nothing left for God to do!  There is a level of hatred that consumes us as well as the other.  It leaves no room for anything else and is a form of blindness; it loses all control.  The note of caution and wry restraint here is to leave some room for the wrath of God!

We live in frightening times and a culture of fear is all around us.  The terrorist threat level being raised is alarming and we need to know it, but there isn’t much we can do about it beyond being vigilant.  Not everyone is a threat though, in fact most people aren’t.  And the hatred towards us and anyone else is itself a sign that someone has lost touch with their humanity, they are consumed with hatred and we will not remove that with more of the same.  Paul encourages us to live the way we want others to be.  This is Archbishop Sentamu’s phrase “Be the change you want to see”.  When the times are frightening and tense the need to live this foundational grace is all the more pressing.  And the Archbishop of York has spent this past week in a vigil in York Minster praying on the hour for hope and peace in the world.

Learning to love through doing it and showing it in word and deed, not least in prayer, will change us and make us into the people who bear the image of Christ.  This is no mere coat-hanger smile love, sugary and saccharin.  This is love tempered in the fire of conflict and difficult encounter.  When let loose this kind of love is extremely powerful and changes the world for the better.  It is genuine. It is redemptive.

Sermon preached in Peterborough Parish Church, Sunday 31st August 2014

We are N & the light of hope

Today we remember a saint about whom we know next to nothing.  Bartholomew is listed in the first three gospels as being one of the apostles.  John doesn’t mention him, but then John is not that interested in the 12 as such.  Some think that Nathanael who is mentioned in John is the same person, just with two names, but I’m not convinced.  He might be but the fact that Bartholomew is not mentioned is not in itself sufficient reason for assuming they are the same person.  As an apostle he was present at various stages of Jesus’ ministry and would have been sent out on missions.  He was therefore an eyewitness and we are left wondering if those who are named in the gospels are named because they were known to the earliest Christian church.  Their mention in the gospels would then be an appeal for the authenticity of the accounts.  These people were there, so what we are talking about is based on their reputation.  We have now lost all other references to Bartholomew and a number of the others similarly named, and are only left with the shadow of their presence in their names being mentioned in the text.  Bartholomew is one of these shadow people.

There is a tradition that Bartholomew went to India and founded a church there.  The 5^th century Bishop of Constantinople, John Chrysostom, mentions another tradition of Bartholomew having taught in Asia Minor.  Presumably there was something local that was associated with him.  Despite these traditions his is still a very patchy record and rather thin on detail to say the least.  He therefore stands for the countless millions of followers of Jesus whose deeds and activities have shaped the heritage of faith that we have, but we do not have a record of what they did.  Most of us will fall into that category.  We will be unknown to history but nonetheless the passing on of faith and influence that we give will be a brick on the road and a light that flickers in the darkness.

Bartholomew is said to have been martyred by either being flayed alive and/or being beheaded.  The latter gives him a topical feel with events this week in Syria and the brutal beheading of the American photographer and journalist James Foley.  Beheading sounds like something from a violent and gruesome past, and thankfully to us it is, but according to a report in the Independent yesterday 19 people have been executed by beheading in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of August.  It is by no means unusual in certain parts of the world.

We like to think that martyrdom is something from past centuries too, but it is all too current.  There is a movement at the moment to display the Arabic equivalent of the letter ‘N’ and we have the poster on our noticeboard outside with the statement ‘We Are N’.  As the note in our pew sheet says, ‘N’ stands for the equivalent Arabic letter, which has been daubed on the homes of Christians (often called 'Nasrani' in Arabic) in Mosul to identify them as targets for persecution or execution, rather like the Nazis identified Jews in the Second World War.  Nasrani stands for people who follow the Nazarene, that is Jesus of Nazareth. This symbol has been picked up around the world as a way in which we can identify with those from all religious and ethnic communities who are being targeted by the extremist group called ‘Islamic State’, IS.  But being named after ‘N’, the Nazarene, Jesus, is an honour and it is indeed the name we follow and are proud to be identified by.  This is the flickering light that we shine with them in the darkness.  We are turning a label for abuse and persecution into a badge of honour.  This is because the name of Jesus is the name we honour above all names, so all who follow Christ are ‘N’.  “We are N.”  We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering and also all our brothers and sisters in humanity who are suffering.  We do this because it is a fundamental to respect all people.

While presiding at the Eucharist during the week I was struck by a phrase in the post communion prayer for the past week.  It prayed that people of every race and language will be gathered to share in the eternal banquet of Christ (Trinity 9).  The aim we have is not to destroy others but draw all around the same celebration table.  It is a desire to be drawn and bound closer together not pushed apart or to annihilate anyone who is different.  The differences between us are profound at times, but where the desire is this greater union and cohesion, we have a common ground on which we can build.  We bring together our flickering lights in the darkness and light always fills darkness.  I am pleased when I hear Muslims saying they disown the actions of the extremists who claim their name, who shame their name.  These are voices we need to hear more from and our media need to give them greater airtime.

Dying for faith is not in itself the central point with martyrs.  It is how this happens and what someone is doing when they die.  What is it about their witness that makes them worth remembering and counting as an example rather than just noting their death?  What is the light they shine for us?  The ones who have the most influence are the ones who proclaim the gospel of peace over one of hatred.  What can we learn from them that inspires us today?

One inspirational figure is a Muslim professor of law at Mosul University.  Mahmoud Al ‘Asali said that the brutal attacks and duress Christians were being subjected to was against Islamic law.  For this he was killed by the group IS (formerly ISIS) last month.  A Muslim with courage to stand up for people of another faith.  We should honour him with thanks and acknowledge his courage and his flickering light; a light that still shines out to us with hope for he stood with our fellow people of ‘Nasrani’.

We face a dark moment.  That we have people in this country linked to the murders and who are known to support them means we need a concerted approach.  We need all of good will, who know and stand for justice to stand together.    We need all who can be flickering lights to shine in the darkness that peace, concord and a shared good will prevail.

We don’t know much about Bartholomew but he is remembered because he inspired others even though the stories of that inspiration are now largely lost in the shadows of time.  The light though continues to travel in that even though he died for his faith that gospel of peace, good will and hope continues to this day.  It continues because of the countless ‘shadow people’, not seen or named today but whose influence is felt.  The brutality of Mosul will not extinguish the light today and we mustn’t let the hatred win either.  There are many people of good will, of all faiths, and together we can find a way through.  Dr Who last night brought together a surprising cast of strange aliens united in common purpose, together making a stand for unity, good will and concord, even in their differences.  Bartholomew in his shadow portrait stands for those whose light is seen even though we don’t know them very well today.  No one’s light is lost in this cause.

Sermon preaching at Peterborough Parish Church, Sunday 24th August 2014

Women Bishops - time to say 'Yes'

Our church’s General Synod is meeting this weekend at the University of York.  It has some very large issues on the agenda, not least final approval for the legislation which will enable women to become bishops alongside men.  It amazes those on the outside of the church that this is still not resolved, it amazes quite a few on the inside too, and the arguments against are incomprehensible to the majority of people.  When I am asked to explain them I see the disbelief on their faces.  They just don’t get it and see it as being one of the last vestiges of sexism.  I do not pretend to be neutral on this, having campaigned for women as priests and then as bishops for several decades.  I long for this to happen.  I am part of the ‘new normality’, men and women clergy who were ordained alongside one another with no distinction or separation.  This is how it has been for over 20 years.

Despite the incredible advances and changes in equality and opening up jobs and roles traditionally associated with one gender to the other, girls today still have to deal with belittling and sometimes subtle, and not so subtle, attitudes which do not treat them as equals.  Trafficking and exploitation are very much a current vice and there are attitudes in hip-hop, rap and pop music, boardrooms, advertising hoardings and comedy which still betray sexist assumptions.  There have been some hard-won battles in our society and each generation needs to be vigilant.  Churches carry a spectrum of views and attitudes, some bolstered by particular readings of passages of the bible.  Where we are is therefore by no means perfect or uncompromised.  But I am much happier than I was two years ago.  One of the things I like about Archbishop Justin is that he brings an honesty that doesn’t pretend it doesn’t think what it does and an approach which requires competing convictions to take one another seriously.

We therefore have five principles which the new legislation will embody.  The first two are clear and decisive, the remaining three are more controversial but necessary for this to move forward. The first is that the Church of England is fully committed to all orders of ministry being open equally to men and women.  The second that anyone who ministers within the Church of England has to be prepared to acknowledge that a clear decision has been reached.  These are clear and unequivocal.  Women made priests and bishops are priests and bishops and the decision has been made.  Anyone who works in the church has to accept that this is the situation.  One of the problems of the past 20 years is that it allowed people to pretend that was not the case, as if we weren’t quite sure.

There are many who would like the principles to end there.  If there was 100% agreement, they would do so.  If there was a desire for an ‘accept it or leave’ approach, where those who disagree are no longer part of the church, that is where they would end.  But neither of those are the case and General Synod has repeatedly said it wants to find a way of holding those who dissent.  It is also part of a world-wide communion where these matters are not resolved.  So for the Church of England to say ‘accept it or go’ would be to cut itself adrift from other provinces where this is yet to be resolved.  So the third principle is that the Church of England is set in a broader process of discernment within the Anglican Communion and the whole Church of God.  Our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters have a debate going on too, but it is not resolved and there is no sign of a change of wind despite the other breezes blowing through it.

The fourth principle says that those who dissent are within the spectrum of teaching within Anglicanism so they remain part of us.  Finally if everyone is to flourish then provision must be made for them, pastorally and sacramentally.

These final three are the harder to explain and accept.  They are where the legislation is fragile.  For those who are adamant that the Church of England should not ‘pander to prejudice’ and should not continue to ‘collude with sexism and discrimination’, these are an affront.  Problematic here is that there are women who don’t agree with women priests and bishops too.  So it’s not straightforward.  For those who take a very hardline against this development the provisions are not enough.  They want a separate church or a parallel structure which enables a completely separate strand.  That extreme end is unrealistic to my mind because what they are asking for is essentially a different church and it has been rejected repeatedly.  So it is not a way forward.

This is probably the last chance saloon for there being space for dissent.  If these provisions are not approved then there will be nowhere to go in providing generous space for dissent.  That will also cause a crisis because Parliament and the nation have run out of patience.  This needs sorting tomorrow.  And if it is we can expect the first woman bishop to be consecrated very soon, probably early next year.  There are a number of vacancies and I expect there are women being considered for them – there is no reason why they shouldn’t be.  There are very talented and inspirational women clergy with the required experience and qualities.

Our gospel reading was the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-9; 18-21).  It is a story of depth, endurance and nurture.  The conditions need to be right for the seed to flourish and that includes sufficient depth of growing soil for strong and healthy roots.  Shallow faith does not survive long in the heat of ministry.  It is hard and difficult.  It requires an enormous amount of resilience and fortitude.  It needs to be deeply grounded in hope in God and a longing for his Kingdom.  Without that, just passion for the institution, is a recipe for derailment because no human institution should command that level of devotion.  It is bad for it and it turns in on itself and becomes self-serving and destructive of all who come within it.  Some of the institutional abuse stories this week, including in the church, have at their root organisations which have become self-serving and self-protecting, which have lost their compass.  The compass for the church should always be the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for the glory of God alone and inspired by the Spirit.  The glory of God is the umbrella under which we flourish, not become diminished.  The Gospel brings life in abundance, peace and love.  The Spirit leads us into all truth, challenging and freshening in the process.

I don’t suppose the legislation to be discussed tomorrow will be the last word on this subject. This is a fallen institution made up of fallible human beings, so everything in this life is provisional.  But with hope and trust in God’s Kingdom, it is a marker on the road and has the potential to be the gateway to a new flourishing of the church as it serves the Gospel of Christ.  There is no other reason for us existing and if we are to have credibility as we speak prophetically into a world that exploits, trafficks and commodifies, we need to make this change.

Sermon preached at Peterborough Parish Church, Sunday 13th July 2014

Connecting & Communicating

On a foggy night in the eighteenth century, Peterborough’s then MP Matthew Wyldbore was lost on the edge of the fens.  Driving back from Flag Fen last year in the dark I can see how the topography could be confusing without landmarks and dangerous with ditches to the left and the right.  He was saved by hearing the bells of StJohn’s Church ringing out and by following the sound was led safely back to his home in the Mansion House (near the Bull Hotel).  In thanksgiving for this he left money for a peal to be rung and a sermon preached on the anniversary of his death (15^th March).  The ringers would receive a payment together with ‘entertainment’ for their labours and the preacher £1, 1s.  I wondered if writing a blog would enable me to claim my £1.05?  I would offset it against lunch near his former home.  He also left 10s for bread for the poor.  Sadly I understand the money has long since been used up.  The bells are still rung though in his memory on 15^th March.  We collect for the food bank, so bread for the poor is still being honoured too.

How we communicate has changed enormously over the centuries.  Bells are still rung, delighting us from the tower on the North side of the cathedral (and from St John’s as well where I am also vicar), and sermons preached, though the style of both has developed.  Eighteenth century preaching styles would not be to taste today and wouldn’t get past the Dean’s ten-minute rule.  We have though branched out through printing and now the internet to find new ways of telling our story and sharing our news.

One of my responsibilities in the cathedral is to oversee how we use social media: Facebook and Twitter.  These are relatively new, but in the fast-moving world of the internet ‘new’ and ‘long term’ have much shorter timescales than a 900-year-old cathedral might be used to.  The World Wide Web is twenty-five years old this year and it has changed enormously over that time.  Most of us can now take advantage of more computing power in our phones than was used to send the first men to the moon.  Accessing the internet has changed from large desk based computers, to mobile devices that can be held in the palm of our hands.  Strangely, the fashion at the moment seems to be to use tablets to take photographs outside the cathedral and it looks a little odd to look out of the window and see people holding up these large slabs to take pictures.  Many of these photos are then shared instantly on the internet, particularly through Facebook and Twitter.  Some will tag that they have been here and so we are brought into the conversation and experience with them.

We started the cathedral Facebook page last year and have had the Twitter account for a little longer.  Along with everyone else we have been discovering the best way to use these tools and our following has grown.  We have been praised for how we use them.  There are three of us in the driving seat; the bulk of the work being undertaken by Liz Hurst, our new communications officer who took over from Sarah McGhie in the autumn, and Daniel Mason who works with her.  I chip in from time to time, especially providing out of hours cover.  It is very easy to make assumptions about why people have chosen to follow or like our pages, but the reasons are as varied as people are.  Just like we can’t make assumptions about people’s faith – what they do believe and what they don’t, and that goes for those who claim not to be religious as much as those who do – we can’t be at all clear what ‘liking’ or ‘following’ actually means.  What we can be sure is that whatever we post on these social media sites will pop into their inboxes and some kind of response will follow, even if it is just to move on to the next item of interest as they scroll past.  We are in their world and they have invited us in and we are delighted to be there.

We can’t, of course, control what we sit alongside.  The latest news item from the cathedral about changes to the times of Evensong because of a concert or who is giving a special talk this evening or just a nice picture of spring daffodils in the sunshine, these could sit next to anything from the latest political big story to a friend’s child pulling faces into the camera.  We are taken back to St Paul walking through the marketplace of Athens and finding a vast array of competing stories and claims, artifacts and pass-times.  This is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles (17:16-34).  The cathedral is vying for attention alongside a myriad of other calls and attractions, to be noticed amidst many distractions and other interests.  It is a small vignette of the social reality we find ourselves set in today.  Love it or loath it, social media gives us a sneak into the way many of us approach the cathedral and all that it does.

The most popular posts, those that elicit the biggest response, seem to be images of the cathedral’s stunning vista and architecture, stories about the choir and musical life.  A picture of the cathedral and daffodils in the spring sunshine I mentioned a moment ago was one I posted back in March and it proved to be one of the most popular posts we have made.  After the gloom of a very wet winter the sign of hope and fresh beginnings that it displayed was understandably welcomed.  It was good to be the purveyor of good news and hope.  That is after all our overarching aim and purpose!

There are great debates about the effects of the internet on how we think, particularly the reducing of complex issues to 140 characters on Twitter.  Attention spans have reduced dramatically and the average time spent on a given internet page is just a few seconds.  If it doesn’t catch the attention in that time, the person moves on to something else and it is left behind.  We can’t change this; it is part of the given of modern life and reveals where most are coming from when they encounter us.  A conversation with a website developer recently revealed that there is software that can record where on a page people have clicked with their mouse.  There is a tendency for visitors to a page to be attracted to faces, particularly the eyes.  There is encouragement here that social interaction is still a draw and holds an attraction to us.  So if you want more people to visit a page, put a smiling face on it and we will be drawn to it.

We also know that Twitter and Facebook attract people for different things.  Some find Facebook more interactive and so discussions and comments tend to flow on our Facebook posts.  Twitter seems to be more information based and people will share the story or ‘favourite’ it to show their appreciation, but we don’t get many comments back on Twitter.  Twitter is good for links to longer stories on the website, and there are many people who use this as a way of sifting information for a longer read, though that may depend on whether they are reading on a phone, tablet or larger device.  Twitter is good for now, and the posts tend to have a relatively short shelf-life (and in the internet ‘short’ means very short).

Making use of social media sites enables us to keep in touch with people who may be some distance away from us as well as those who feel they are more frequently involved with the life of the cathedral.  It makes connections with those otherwise not in touch with us and begins a relationship which can develop over time.  A recent report on cathedrals by the Christian think tank Theos called Spiritual Capital referred to this as ‘bridging and bonding’.  We bridge an otherwise distance and through the connectedness which ensues allow bonds to develop.  Social media sites enable us to strengthen these bonds among close supporters and those more distant.  All of us operate with different levels of community.  One form involves the networks that we select.  Social media are a large-scale version of this.  We choose who to follow, who to allow to follow us and if we don’t like what is being said we don’t have to see it.  This is very different to older models of what it means to be community (and not without negative costs).  It is how it is for many people and the cathedral needs to be in the mix.

Anything involving the internet is a developing media.  We are having to learn new ways of being and also remind ourselves and others of some older courtesies.  Many organisations have developed guidelines and protocols for the use of social media, reminding their staff and volunteers that they are ambassadors of the organization.  We have done this too.  This is a concept that we find in St Paul’s writings, when he refers to followers of Jesus Christ being ambassadors of Christ and so how we behave reflects on the faith that is to inspire and shape us (2 Corinthians 5:20).  So how we are on the internet is no different.  Respect and honesty are just as important when the other person is not in the same room as you as they are when they are.  In fact I like to ask ‘who else is in the room’ when thinking about the internet.  Who else could see this?  There is no private in the internet so whatever we write can be seen by thousands of people – it is not just a private conversation between two people or just the group we think we are talking to.  Social media is more like broadcasting than a private chat.  If anyone posts anything of an inappropriate nature on our pages we will and do remove them – thankfully this is very rare.

In the main people behave with good nature on our social media pages.  This is encouraging because the normal social triggers of face-to-face contact are not present through the internet.  For all that calling it ‘social media’ might imply it is actually quite an impersonal way of communicating.  The mask is that we try to make it feel personal by imagining the real people behind it.  There is though no substitute for face-to-face contact, for the handshake or embrace, for conversation over coffee in the south transept (or at Coffee and Cookies of course!).

We have come a long way since Matthew Wyldbore’s time, let alone since the first Abbot Seaxwulf.  We still penetrate the fog to announce services with bells and still preach sermons.  But we have many more tools of communication at our disposal, ones which can span continents.  As our predecessors have done over the centuries we are making sure that we use today’s modes of communication to connect with today’s people.  If Christ was to return today, I still think he would come in person and not just send a Tweet, but he’d probably make use of all the means available to call out and keep in touch with his followers (and those who clicked ‘like’ too).

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Article for The Friends of Peterborough Cathedral Journal 2014