wfn.org | Address by the Archbishop of Canterbury

[Audrey Whitefield <a.whitefield@quest.org.uk>]

Sept. 26, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE 
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.9.4.7]

(ACNS) FEATURE: An Address by the Archbishop of Canterbury
"A Celebration of the Gospel"
Canterbury Cathedral, Friday 19 September 1997

Let me say first of all how delighted I am to be back in the Diocese and
to be here at this Celebration Service.

Soon after I left you at the Diocesan Conference I went to the States,
Australia and New Zealand.  I must confess that I felt rather like
Christopher Columbus must have felt.  It was said of him that 'when he
set out he did not know where he was going;  when he got there he did
not know where he was; when he returned home he did not know where he
had been!'

I can fully sympathise with that, because I felt like that at times!  
But in many of those places the sense of joy in sharing together in
Augustine's mission was palpable.  Whether in ECUSA, Australia or New
Zealand, Anglicans there felt that this year was their year of
celebration too.  A celebration of faith and of a gospel which continues
to change lives and do such good.

We join with them in this place to share in the celebration of the good
news of Jesus Christ.

But sometimes we add too much sugar to the mixture.

I get uncomfortable when people make promises for the Christian life
which cannot be borne out in reality.  Our celebration is of a gospel
that brings a message of hope to all aspects of human life.  The reading
we heard brings to our attention astonishing contrasts:  glory, death,
light and darkness.

Glory.   Not the glory of a triumphant Opera such as Aida - something
that has to be bigger, brighter, louder and longer.  The Christ of
John's Gospel is one whose glory is to be found in obedience, humility,
struggle, suffering and death.

So you see, I find the glory of Christ - or for that matter, the
reflected glory of any Christian a daunting matter.  I'm sure that
Augustine and his monks must have felt that.  They came with no symbols
of glory, only what they bore and what they were:   the gospels, the
cross, the liturgy, perhaps some relics;  and themselves; disciples in
Christ, frail, trembling humanity.

They came to convince a King that Christianity conveyed real glory, the
kind of glory that made sense in a broken, fallen, and oh, so needy
world.

And the daunting part of all this was that this would be done through
the Glory that is willing to go down into dust and death.

John records that Jesus would reveal the Glory of God by obedience.
Following the will of the Father to death on the cross.  This wasn't
something he just did.  He struggled in his heart with his own will and
that of God.  The glory is in such obedience.  Like a seed into the
ground Jesus was willing to enter the darkness of the earth.

1400 years on not much has changed.  The same obedience is asked of
those who follow Christ.  The same sacrifice is needed if the Glory of
God is to be revealed.  It may be that the seed of such discipleship
will be buried for long periods as the history of the Church has shown
but then the moments of glory as the seed has taken effect, as
communities and congregations like plants have reached towards the
light.

Our task today is never to be discouraged by the odds, by apathy, by the
daunting times we live in, but to recall again that the glory that
matters is following a master who calls us to be obedient in living
lives of service, self-sacrifice and servanthood.

Perhaps this is a daunting glory that we may struggle with.  But Christ
did too.  He faced similar odds yet overcame them.  We are in him so we
can overcome and so glorify God in and through our lives of witness.

But I think this glory is also dangerous.  What do I mean by that?

It is not simply the case that God's glory takes us down into the soil
of the world but it takes us into deep opposition.  Jesus says that "his
lifting up" means warfare.  It means taking on the enemy and fighting
against the powers of darkness.  These are uncomfortable words.  We
don't like to hear them because everyone wants a comfortable life.  We
might think at times wouldn't it be wonderful if life could be a
holiday!  For some that is a reality; not for any self respecting
Christian.  There is no unemployment or retirement in the Kingdom of
God.  All have a part to play. All have a role to play.  No one is
discarded, ignored, forgotten or useless.  We are called to fight;  we
are called to present Christ in all his attractiveness and to make
disciples.  We are called to serve and help those in need.

And perhaps Augustine can help us to interpret this challenge.  His
mission was first and foremost the establishing of a religious
community.  There are some lessons we can draw from that.  First,
religious communities remind us of the virtues of chastity, poverty and
obedience which are sometimes called 'the evangelical virtues'.

Chastity for us all will broadly mean holiness of life;  poverty here
means having enough to live on and to share with others.  Obedience
means living in harmony with God, each other and the created order as
one body and one family.  They all add up to simplicity of life. 
Second, religious communities remind us of the importance of prayer -
that mission will not succeed if it is not founded upon a true
spirituality which puts God first in everything.

That is why I said on so many occasions that religious communities have
much to offer because they symbolise the self giving of Christ.  And at
its best the church challenges the acquisitiveness, materialism and
greed that is sadly symptomatic of a great deal of the Western world.

It is a dangerous mission we are engaged in but one in which the panoply
of God's armour comes to our aid;  the scriptures, prayer, fellowship,
righteousness and commitment to Christ.

Last week I came across a wonderful and challenging passage by R H
Tawney, the great controversial Anglican and political analyst.  Quoting
from the Magnificat:  "He hath put down the Mighty from their seat;  and
hath exalted the humble and meek" he went on:  "A society which is
fortunate enough to possess so revolutionary a basis, a society whose
founder was executed as the enemy of law and order, need not seek to
soften the materialism of principalities and powers with mild doses of
piety administered in an apologetic whisper."

What powerful words and yet how true.  We are often apologetic;  we are
often too soft because we are afraid to offend;  our piety is sometimes
so mild that people wonder what is the point of being a Christian at
all.

And that's what makes this glory so dangerous.  We will upset the way
things are.  We will battle against those who oppose the values and ways
of this new kingdom.  We will encounter opposition.  But the Glory of
God can be revealed in no other way.

But hold on, someone will observe, the title of the address here tonight
is "A Celebration of the Gospel ."  What is there to celebrate in all of
this?

A great deal but most of all the glory that reveals itself in darkness
and death and through that transforms lives, communities and whole
nations.

The glory which called a Mother Teresa as a young girl to give herself
completely to God and to take that glory down into the dirt and grim of
Calcutta to emerge with a community which shows the power of God's love.
Daunting a danger she obeyed and followed.  Not to celebrate such a
glory would be strange indeed.

It is this glory which still changes the lives of people who are willing
to follow.  We might not be a modern day 'Mother Teresa' or 'Augustine',
but we who follow Christ are all bearers in some way of this glory. 
This daunting and dangerous glory that will lead us into dark places but
which will, through sacrificial living until death, bring in the wonder
and marvel of the Kingdom of Light.  But a candle in the wind, but a
light in the darkness, a light that cannot be extinguished.  This is the
real glory we celebrate.  We celebrate such a Gospel.  We celebrate such
a God.

We make no apology for it.  We remain undaunted for in Him is the Glory.

Amen