Sermon by Fr Peter Wolton, United Benefice of Holland Park, Sunday 5th February 2017- 4th Sunday before Lent.
Sermon by Fr Peter Wolton, United Benefice of Holland Park, Sunday 5th February 2017- 4th Sunday before Lent.
Today I would like us to
reflect two things
First this morning’s reading
from Isaiah, and the inspiration and example of one man’s life in the 20th
Century as “a repairer of the breach” (verse 12)
And second, the legacy and
direction from our wonderful Bishop Richard who took his last service as Bishop
this week – some of us here had the delight of being present at the Candlemas
service at St. Paul’s on Thursday night
(For further details see: http://www.london.anglican.org/articles/capital-says-goodbye-bishop-london-farewell-service/)
– a legacy that has set the church in London
on the road to being confident, creative and compassionate.
The repairer of the breach.
In the years after the end of
the Second World War, in an echo from Isaiah, “Is it not to share your bread
with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house,” a man in his
late 20s took into his home an old man who had no one to care for him and who
was in the last stages of cancer. The young man had received a basic course in
nursing. He cared for the older man, cooked for him, changed his clothes and
held his hand as he was dying.
It was 1947. The young man was
restless. In his own words “for the last six years I had been trained to be a
killing machine.” And very successful he had been at it too. The result was universal
admiration. He had driven a Bentley, worn Savile Row suits, and had access to
wealth. But 1947 he had lost all these material trappings and he was restless.
I will return to the young man
shortly. Turning to the Bishop of London, in his valedictory sermon (For full
text of Bishop’s sermon – see http://www.london.anglican.org/articles/valedictory-sermon-master-now-dismissing-servant/)
he said:
We are simply Christians
seeking to serve the world in a spirit of humility. Jesus Christ teaches us
that the first step in becoming a mature human being is to refuse to be a
little god. Jesus came in the form of a servant and so should we.”
The young man, nursing in his
own home, had stopped being a little god. His new activities attracted
attention. A hospital almoner visited him. She recalled “we took tea by
lamplight in his sparsely furnished house in which he was already caring for
two homeless and sick people. Donning a white coat he left the room to tend the
boy upstairs. He told me during our conversation that he had no money and
showed me a pile of bills. His faith that God would provide made an enormous
and lasting impression on me. Here was a saint amongst men who had a real
belief in the power of love and faith. I had never, and certainly not since,
met anyone like this simple man who truly loved all men throughout the world.
By his international achievements he leaves a fitting monument to his beliefs”
Well I expect some of you may
have guessed that the young man, this compassionate young man, confident in the
love of God, creative and entrepreneurial, was Leonard Cheshire. Cheshire, who
won many decorations including the Victoria Cross in the war, was the British
observer on board the plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki and personally
briefed Prime Minister Atlee about it and then founded what has become Leonard
Cheshire Disability which now cares for thousands of disabled people across the
world.
Isaiah’s word remind us of his
example, not just in the verse “share your bread with the hungry, and bring the
homeless poor into your house” but also in verse 12 “repairer of the breach.”
And perhaps you will not be surprised to learn that LCD’s international
strategy is called “Bridging the Gap.” Leonard Cheshire’s legacy, powered by
his strong and confident Christian faith, has brought in thousands of people
from the margin, is to have “repaired the breach” for thousands of disabled
people.
I find Leonard Cheshire’s
example an inspiration. Like Bishop Richard’s vision, Cheshire’s life was one
of absolute confidence in the Gospel, it was creative and compassionate.
“Many people” said Bishop
Richard “enjoy a standard of health care and material prosperity unparalleled
in human history and this is something to celebrate. The problem is that our
project of growth without limit with no end in view beyond the accumulation of
more and more things, this project is unsustainable.
We under-value the gifts of life
we receive from God and from one another in the beauty of nature, in
friendships, in being good neighbours and in family life. The foundations of
our civilisation depend on social spiritual culture which materialism can erode
but not create. Every day I meet people who feel obscurely cheated or left
behind.”
Bishop Richard’s question on
Thursday night and to us today is
How shall we serve in such
times as these?
Here at St. George’s we are a
community in which the Spirit of Jesus Christ dwells.
What more can we do in our
Benefice to be a community “of repairers of the breach,”
That satisfies the needs of
the afflicted
That is like a watered garden
Like a spring of water, whose
waters never fail
The answer to these challenges
I suggest is, as Richard Chartres directs, is that we are to be confident in
our faith, creative and compassionate.
Confident: Leonard Cheshire
was confident that God would provide. He was a man of prayer. He prayed
constantly, He even said a little prayer each time he answered the phone for
instance. Prayer he said, “is a matter of being in touch with God and trying to
find his purpose.”
Prayer has to be at the heart
of all we do as a Christian community. Many of us find making time for prayer
difficult. So doing it in the presence of others in a structured form can give
deep inner joy. We have morning and evening prayer here each weekday except
Fridays. More people are coming to it. It’s 15 minutes. It shapes our day.
These services help us to see better the world through the eyes of Christ. If
you haven’t been, to quote Philip to Nathanael “Come and see” – come and join
us. At the very least – pray more.
Creative: Bishop Richard
stressed the importance of not being a little god – which I take to be putting
ourselves at the centre of our own mini universe with a focus on accumulation
of more and more material things. When our minds churn away in contemplation of
material matters – You will know what such matters are at the forefront of your
mind currently
let us ask ourselves how,
whatever matter we are considering, it might be used by us to grow the gospel.
To share more of Bishop
Richard’s words: Anchored in the scriptures we have been given an insight into
the deep structure of God’s purposes beneath and beyond the passing moment. We
have the freedom to act and not be immobilised by the pressure of the
passing moment.
Let us use our gifts –material
and otherwise - to act.
Finally Compassionate: the
example of Leonard Cheshire, the words of Isaiah and of Jesus on the Sermon on
the Mount. We probably all have breaches in our lives that need repairing.
Jesus tells us we are salt and
light in the world. We must use our gifts for good, not evil. Let our light
shine before others so that God’s purposes of justice might be realised in our
imperfect world.
Let us, when we leave here this morning, go forth in peace
and “repair the breach.”
Amen