The foundation stones of British society are in danger of falling down; and unless the church responds it can become a “lifeless, dangerous and useless distraction,” according to the Bishop of Stafford.
The Rt Revd Gordon Mursell made his comments during a sermon in Güstrow Cathedral in north-east Germany on Saturday afternoon (19th September); during which the 20-year partnership between the Church of England’s Diocese of Lichfield and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg was renewed for a further five years.
He said: “22% of our teenagers (aged between 15 and 19) are not at school or college. In the Unites States the figure is 21%; in the rest of Europe the figure is 15%. In Britain, 33% of our children hardly ever eat a meal with their parents. In the rest of Europe the figure is 17%. In the city of Stoke-on-Trent, where I live, the principal industry is making china and pottery products – dishes, plates, cups, etc. This industry is in terrible decline, not only because of the world recession, but because families no longer have meals together.
“Children do not talk to grandparents or even parents. The art of talking together, of having a good social conversation, has been replaced by texts and e-mails. People do still talk together. But nearly all the talking is done electronically, and almost all of it is carried out between people of the same age and background. Talking to people who are not like you is become more and more difficult, even in our super-technological society. Jesus spent much of his ministry eating meals with people, having conversations, especially with people who were different from him – tax collectors, foreign soldiers and people with serious illnesses.”
And he said: “Over the centuries, many people, including many Christians, must have asked themselves… ‘What is the point of the church?’ All those crusades, burning of heretics, wars of religion: what were they for? If there really is a God, why doesn’t he show himself directly to the people outside the Church? Well, of course he can and does. But, if he does, why do we need a church at all?”
The bishop recalled Jesus answer to Saint Jude during the Last Supper, and said: “Jesus is talking, not about what the Church must believe (although that is important) but about how it must live. He is talking about being-in-communion, about living together, with one another and with God. He is saying that the purpose of the Church – the only purpose of the Church – is to reflect in its life that deep communion which Christians believe exists at the heart of the Trinity, a willingness to live together, to ‘make our home’ with God and with one another, in a relationship of unconditional love. When it lives like that, the Church reveals the saving love of Jesus to the world, and makes that love flesh for them. When it fails to live like that, when it becomes preoccupied with its own structures and turns in on itself, it becomes lifeless, a dangerous and useless distraction.”
He said the Church must be three things: a movement, “a family of fellow-travellers on a journey with Jesus”; a place where people of very different backgrounds and cultures can have conversations with one another and with Jesus; and a home with an open door.
He said: “Jesus did not come to found an institution. He came to found a movement. Institutions are interested most of all in where they come from – their history, their traditions, et cetera. Movements are concerned most of all with where they are going – what their values are, and what their goal is. Jesus came to found a movement because what interested him most was not the Church itself but the new Kingdom, the new society he wanted it to proclaim. Institutions, like nation states, are interested in controlling people. Movements, like Christianity, are interested in changing people. Institutions tend to stand still. Movements are on a journey, and those who join them travel on that journey together.”
ENDS
NOTES:
- The full text of the Bishop’s sermon follows:
- The Bishop of Stafford will be talking about this live from Güstrow on Premier Christian Radio’s breakfast programme at 8.20am tomorrow (Sunday 20th September).
Moon River
Full text of a sermon delivered by the Rt Revd Gordon Mursell, Bishop of Stafford,
at a service to celebrate the renewal of the covenant between
the Church of England’s Diocese of Lichfield and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg.
Güstrow Cathedral, Germany: Saturday 19th September 2009
John 14: 18-24
Let me begin with the words of an American song:
Moon River, wider than a mile
I’m crossing you in style some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
Wherever you’re going I’m going your way
Two drifters off to see the world.
There’s such a lot of world to see.
We’re after the same rainbow’s end –
Waiting ‘round the bend,
My huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me.
Moon River was made famous when it was sung by Audrey Hepburn in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and later by Frank Sinatra, but it is possible that you are all too young to remember it. Although it is not in anyway a religious song, it expresses some of the key characteristics of a relationship, or covenant, even though in the song the relationship is between the singer and a river. The two are quite different, yet with the same goal or direction: “wherever you’re going I’m going your way”, and then “we’re after the same rainbow’s end.”
It may seem impertinent to compare the churches in Mecklenburg and Lichfield to “two drifters off to see the world”; and yet that phrases expresses the fact that people in a covenant relationship are on a journey of discovery together: “there’s such a lot of world to see.” A covenant between two churches, like a marriage, is not a set of formal propositions to be agreed but a living and life-changing relationship, founded on a commitment and sense of trust that allows each partner to be honest and open with the other. We are each other’s “huckleberry friend”, which means we are each other’s lifelong travelling companions, and it is this relationship that I am privileged to be here to celebrate with you today.
But what does it mean for the Christian to enter upon a covenant relationship? Today’s Scripture reading comes from the discourse that took place at the Last Supper between Jesus and his disciples. Saint Jude (not Judas Iscariot, but another of Jesus’ disciples) asks Jesus “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” (John 14:22). It’s the only thing he says in the whole of the Bible, unless the Letter of Jude is indeed written by him. But even if it is the only thing he says, he asks Jesus a very good question. He asks him: what is the point of the Church? Why not reveal yourself directly to the world without bothering with a church?
Over the centuries, many people, including many Christians, must have asked themselves the same question that Saint Jude asks Jesus. What is the point of the church? All those crusades, burning of heretics, wars of religion: what were they for? If there really is a God, why doesn’t he show himself directly to the people outside the Church? Well, of course he can and does. But, if he does, why do we need a church at all? Jesus’ answer to Saint Jude’s question is not immediately clear. He says: “those who love me will keep my word, and my father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).
Jesus is talking, not about what the Church must believe (although that is important) but about how it must live. He is talking about being-in-communion, about living together, with one another and with God. He is saying that the purpose of the Church – the only purpose of the Church – is to reflect in its life that deep communion which Christians believe exists at the heart of the Trinity, a willingness to live together, to “make our home” with God and with one another, in a relationship of unconditional love. When it lives like that, the Church reveals the saving love of Jesus to the world, and makes that love flesh for them. When it fails to live like that, when it becomes preoccupied with its own structures and turns in on itself, it becomes lifeless, a dangerous and useless distraction.
What does this mean in practice? Let me suggest three things. It tells us something about the nature of the Church. It tells us something about how we should live. And it tells us something about what we can offer to the world outside.
First, then, to understand the Church as a communion, sharing the unconditional love of God for us, is to understand it not so much as an institution but as a movement. The Church, in England and in many other parts of Europe, has often become a kind of institution, a structure of authority and power closely linked to the government and the established structures of society around it. But Jesus did not come to found an institution. He came to found a movement. Institutions are interested most of all in where they come from – their history, their traditions, et cetera. Movements are concerned most of all with where they are going – what their values are, and what their goal is. Jesus came to found a movement because what interested him most was not the Church itself but the new Kingdom, the new society he wanted it to proclaim. Institutions, like nation states, are interested in controlling people. Movements, like Christianity, are interested in changing people. Institutions tend to stand still. Movements are on a journey, and those who join them travel on that journey together. “Wherever you’re going, I’m going your way.”
As Christians, as members of the Jesus movement, we are fellow travellers on a journey of discovery and adventure. We are pilgrims, nomads, “drifters off to see the world.” To be in covenant together is not simply to agree a statement of doctrine. It is to commit ourselves to visit one another, even to make our homes with one another, just as Jesus said “the Father and I will come and make our homes with you.” And this is all the more important because of the context in which we live.
In Great Britain, many of the foundation-stones of society as we know it are in danger of breaking down. 22% of our teenagers (aged between 15 and 19) are not at school or college. In the Unites States the figure is 21%; in the rest of Europe the figure is 15%. In Britain, 33% of our children hardly ever eat a meal with their parents. In the rest of Europe the figure is 17% [figures from the World Health Organisation 2008 and quoted in A Good Childhood report, London: Penguin 2009, P5].
In the city of Stoke-on-Trent, where I live, the principal industry is making china and pottery products – dishes, plates, cups, etc. This industry is in terrible decline, not only because of the world recession, but because families no longer have meals together. Children do not talk to grandparents or even parents. The art of talking together, of having a good social conversation, has been replaced by texts and e-mails. People do still talk together. But nearly all the talking is done electronically, and almost all of it is carried out between people of the same age and background. Talking to people who are not like you is become more and more difficult, even in our super-technological society.
Jesus spent much of his ministry eating meals with people, having conversations, especially with people who were different from him – tax collectors, foreign soldiers, people with serious illnesses. When Saint Jude wanted to know what the purpose of the Church was, Jesus told him that the Church was there to be a communion of unconditional love – a place where people could talk together, could keep company with one another, and above all a place where people could have conversations with God in worship and prayer. And this is why our covenant is important. It brings together Christians fro two very different backgrounds and cultures into a single movement, a shared communion. It obliges us to talk to each other, to make our homes with each other, and so to help rebuild our world and our societies before it is too late. And that brings me to the third and most important point of all.
First, the Church is a movement, a family of fellow-travellers on a journey with Jesus. Secondly, it is a place where people of very different backgrounds and cultures can have conversations with one another and with Jesus. Thirdly, it is a home with an open door. Jesus says to Saint Jude, “those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23). For anyone to make their home with someone else requires that a door will be open and they will be made welcome. Our world today is deafened by the sound of doors closing. Just as Jesus, Mary and Joseph found no room at the inn at Bethlehem, so millions of migrants across our world are finding no room in the rich countries of Europe and North America. These countries, including my own, spend billions of dollars on border controls, trying to keep out or drive away those who come in search of work and a home. The result of such a policy can only be to encourage extremism and hatred of the foreigner.
The Christian movement, the Church of Jesus Christ, has to show another way, and this covenant encourages us to do that. By making a commitment of love and friendship between our two churches, we are saying that who you are and where you are going matters more than where you come from. By opening our homes and our doors to one another, as you have done so generously by welcoming us here today, we are saying that there has to be a better vision for our world than narrow nationalism and closed borders. By taking time and trouble to get to know one another, we are saying that children and parents and grandparents can and must spend time together if we are to build a truly caring world. A covenant relationship will be costly. It will take time and trust and commitment. We will sometimes disagree, or disappoint one another. But we will never give up on one another, because we believe in a God who never gives up on us. We can sing to one another, and to Jesus Christ, what that singer sand to his Moon River: “Oh dream maker, you heart breaker, wherever you’re going, I’m going your way."