Greatest living preacher?

My friend and colleague Ray Anglesea sent me two fascinating links to the Times Online yesterday – both about preaching.

The first, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6993099.ece , outlined some recent research undertaken here in Durham to mark the 50th anniversary of the College of Preachers. This has discovered that people who regularly go to church actually value sermons: 96.6% even claiming to look forward to that point in the service.

Then comes the predictable discussion about how long the sermon should be. We all know that Catholics don’t really preach sermons, but only homilies – and 10 minutes for a homily seems fair enough to me. I don’t know any Baptists myself who’d like their minister to go on for an hour and a quarter – but maybe there are some lurking somewhere. Happily no one seems to have asked for a URC view on the matter – though I suspect we’d be with the fence-sitting Anglicans who’d rather it was all over and done with in ten minutes if it’s boring, but will cope with twenty if there’s something worth engaging with.

Funny though that the researchers seem to feel the need to apologise for the “counter-intuitive” discovery that there might still be something to be said for preaching. And what a strange thing, to suggest that communicating face to face with people pastorally or through preaching somehow puts us into an old-fashioned analogue age, and separates us off from our trendy digital colleagues who use alternative technology and spend half their lives on Facebook. I’ve got a feeling some of us are a bit more versatile than we’re given credit for.

But I liked the quote at the end of the piece that informed us that Rowan Williams was among the church leaders who have signed the College of Preachers’ jubilee pledge, commiting themselves to “forward-looking preaching, engaging faithfully with the Bible, directly with the congregation and prophetically with the world, to proclaim Jesus as Lord”. Surely there’s got to be a whole variety of ways of doing that – and sermons of every length and style to fit the bill!

But then I was a bit surprised by the second link that Ray gave me - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6993077.ece . Times online seems to have been very religious yesterday! Here we have a little run-through of great preachers of the past (Luther, Donne, Wesley etc) to lead to the rather cloying conclusion that “Our greatest living preacher is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. His set speeches are notoriously perplexing but his sermons are something else.” I confess I’ve never heard the Archbishop preach, but I can’t help wondering how on earth you could make the claim that anyone was the greatest preacher around. I know there are Preacher of the Year awards, but I always think they sound like something out of Father Ted.

Surely the problem is there in the first linked piece: different individuals and different Christian traditions have very different ideas of what a sermon is – let alone what constitutes a good sermon. I wonder, are those of us who try to vary our sermon style and content depending on the congregation reckoned to be preaching a better sermon to the one rather than the other? I suspect that across the churches we might find a good deal of agrement on what constitutes a bad sermon (with sheer boredom being a significant factor) but very different ideas on what makes a good sermon or a great preacher.

I’m not sure I’ve got a clue who the greatest living preacher might be. But even if I did, since I don’t think preaching is a competitive activity, I’d rather keep quiet about it.


PS As well as sending round useful links, Ray has recently shared some thoughts with some of his colleagues as he’s been preparing his own sermons. I think several of us last Sunday were sharing thoughts about “the third day” as recorded at Cana in Galilee. Do you know why so many Jews marry on a Tuesday?

I’m wondering if we should develop a synod sermon blog, to share both thoughts and finished sermons. Let me know what you think please!

"Front Page FOCUS" response

In part I would agree with Peter’s secular analysis of Advent. I would not go so far as saying that the last vestiges of Christendom have disappeared but the church does, it seems for a while at least, to have lost the narrative plot of Advent. Before we rehearse the traditional apocalyptic Advent themes of death, judgment, hell and heaven, Christmas has already started in most our local communities, in our high streets and garden centres. In Durham’s Market Place the 2008 Christmas tree was erected before Remembrance Sunday! We do indeed sing the Lord’s song in a strange land. As we step through the wardrobe door we have entered a fantasy world of spiritual amnesia and neglect. For in this land it is already Christmas.

But it is too easy for ministers like me to jump on their hobby horse and enjoy a seasonal rant about the relentless tide of consumerism at this time of the year, desperate as that is. We need to be careful! I too enjoy all things Christmassy in the Advent season - Christmas shopping, the smell of baking Christmas cakes, wrapping presents, selecting cards, the gossip at office parties and preparing new house designs for Christmas. Far from being free of the corrosive values of consumerism, I like everybody else are compromised by them - I guess we are all implicated in the values of our society.

But the church cannot be exempt from Peter’s criticisms either. Some churches have their Christmas tree displayed from the 1st Sunday in Advent, we are reminded of that holy night as carols are sung as the 1st Advent candle is lit. A crib of plastic and pottery wise men greet me in the church vestibule. And all those Christmas church activities, Victorian markets, pantomimes, winter wonderlands, mince pies and mulled wine, Christmas Fairs, all encouraging us to part with our money. Christmas too, it would appear, in some of our churches at least, is in full swing from St. Andrew’s Day onwards. The Advent season forgotten.

The question is then (which Peter I think might be referring to) - is it worth trying to keep Advent at all? Should we just abandon the season and go with the flow? Do we really want to hear sermons about death, judgement, hell and heaven in a society and a church that would rather embrace sweet nostalgic Rutter carols and the warm lullaby atmosphere of a manger? Alas there is not much comfort in the Advent messages of divine judgment from the 8th century prophet Isaiah or the hissing, impatient, relentless radical- desert prophet voice of John the Baptist.

But if we were to persevere with our Advent readings and “keep” the season of Advent we might find the season’s readings about judgement a thankful relief. To hear of God’s impending judgement, frightening and alarming as that might be, is of course, to recognise in ourselves our failings and shortcomings, our ambivalence that often motivates selfish thoughts and actions. Advent in its brief 4 week season offers us a place to come before God as we are, without hiding, without pretence – and to reflect and think about what distracts us from being humane and God-filled as St Paul invites us as well as his Galatian church to become. Advent at its heart, is an invitation to reflect on what we truly need and long for in life. It's a summons to know ourselves.

But I think Advent can offer us more. If we can leave aside for a while John Betjeman’s “ tissued fripperies, the sweet and silly Christmas things, bath salts and inexpensive scent and hideous tie so kindly meant,” Advent I believe invites us to amendment of our lives as the Book of Common Prayer says, to know and discover God in a new way. For when God comes as Judge, he also comes as William William’s hymn Cwm Rhondda has it - as a great Redeemer. Our Advent readings of hope are shot through with the promise of salvation, so that those last things become the first things. The readings and Advent carols, our thoughts of Isaiah and other Old Testament prophets, the Baptist and Mary begin to change our direction and focus, open doors of possibility, offer new goals and values to live by, they give back to our lives dignity and worth, and help our churches in a new more positive direction.

The 19th century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard talked about ‘the truth by which we live and die'. Advent is a time for doing both, to practise the one and rehearse the other. The church may indeed have lost control of the Advent narrative for a while. But let’s break the mould! Might I suggest we regain control of the powerful themes and images of the Advent season in our own lives and in our churches as we remain wakeful, waiting and praying with joy for the advent of God's kingdom of peace and truth. For the spirit of Advent, as the Welsh poet R S Thomas said in his poem Kneeling, “The meaning is in the waiting.”

Ray Anglesea

Making Sense

Recently an unexpected event happened which has changed my life. I was made redundant. Rather my post was made redundant. After 36 years of continuous employment I was unemployed. The job I thought was for life suddenly evaporated into thin air.

Earlier in the summer I remembered an Air France plane carrying 228 people from Brazil to France suddenly vanished over the Atlantic after flying into turbulence. Sudden events happen to us in everyday life. Our days are suddenly, without warning, interrupted. Out of the blue an unexpected phone call relays sad news: suddenly you miss the promotion you were expecting, suddenly you find yourself with a medical condition that requires a radical change of lifestyle. Suddenly and unexpectedly a child is born with severe disabilities. Suddenly a bright, loving, teenager is randomly stabbed. Suddenly a gifted 40 year old finds himself slipping into a mental wilderness. Suddenly a close and loving friends dies. Life can suddenly change course for millions of people every day, and then life can seem terribly unfair, cruel, messy and decidedly unjust. That is the human condition. We live with uncertainty. Sudden events happen. What then do we do? How do we deal with these sudden unexpected life events that interrupt and change our lives?

Sudden events happened to Jesus too. Matthew records a couple of incidents that interrupted Jesus’ daily schedule - the account of the menstruating woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak and the synagogue leader whose daughter had died (read Matthew 9 18-26 in the Authorised Version and the use of the word suddenly). How did Jesus deal with these two unexpected events which interrupted his daily life, how did he respond to this present emergency? The answer – with love and compassion. Jesus stepped outside the normal religious and cultural expectations and regulations of his day – he touches a dead girl and menstruating woman. He breaks with his society’s taboos of completeness and perfection (represented by the number twelve). He heals these two women by making himself ritually unclean. So when unexpected sudden events happen to us and to our friends Jesus way of dealing with such circumstances is to act with love and compassion, to embody mercy. Sudden events, good and bad, large and small will have affected most of our lives. It is often these sudden events that shape our lives for good or ill. Can you see in them, as Jesus was challenged to do, God at work bringing life and hope?

Janet Morley, writer and poet, has a challenging prayer which expresses this challenge of compassion and mercy in the sudden events that take place in our lives. It begins "O thou sudden God, generous in mercy, quickener of new life, giver of new love, irreverent, subversive " and concludes with Augustine's famous words from his Confessions, "Late have I loved thee O beauty so ancient and so new." Can we hold together in our experience the suddenness and the ancientness of God and of God's ways of mercy and compassion and be faithful to both?

O thou sudden God, generous in mercy, quickener of new life, giver of new love irreverent, subversive, deep source of yearning, startling comforter, bearer of darkness unmaker of old paths, bringer of strange joy, abundant, disturbing, healing unlooked for tender and piercing: late have I loved thee. O beauty so ancient and so new.

(c) Janet Morley, 1988


Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new! Too late have I loved Thee. And lo, Thou wert inside me and I outside, and I sought for Thee there, and in all my unsightliness I flung myself on those beautiful things which Thou hast made. Thou wert with me and I was not with Thee. Those beauties kept me away from Thee, though if they had not been in Thee, they would not have been at all. Thou didst call and cry to me and break down my deafness. Thou didst flash and shine on me and put my blindness to flight. Thou didst blow fragrance upon me and I drew breath, and now I pant after Thee. I tasted of Thee and now I hunger and thirst for Thee. Thou didst touch me and I am aflame for Thy peace...."

Augustine Confessions (Lib. 10, 26. 37-29, 40: CSEL 33, 255-256).


Ray Anglesea

Masterclass

Birds. David Attenborough suggests that there are over 9,000 species of birds, the most widespread of all animals: on icebergs, in the Sahara or under the sea, at home in our gardens or flying for over a year at a time. Humans, alas can only look at and listen to birds, we cannot fly! We can enjoy their lightness, their freedom and richness of their plumage, and their song. Writing in his new book Life Stories taken from his BBC Radio 4 programme of the same name, Attenborough suggests that human beings are not the only creatures that sing. Birds do, and accordingly he suggests that the prime function of their song is something else. Shakespeare wondered if music was the food of love. Vocally in the bird and animal kingdoms, says Attenborough, it certainly is.

This theory was put to the test when I attended the Autumn Samling masterclass at the Sage Gateshead. I am delighted to say the hypothesis turned out to be true; music is indeed the food of love. Every season Samling elects talented young singers to take part in week-long programme of study where they are coached intensively in opera and lieder singing by some of the world's finest artists and eminent musicians. As part of the week’s tuition Samling opens its doors to the general public who are invited to observe the 'masters' and their Samling scholars at work in a masterclass afternoon. This season the six young performers performed to an exceptionally breathtaking standard – it was a sheer joy to listen to their captivating music of rich and beautiful love songs.

What links Birds with Masterclass? St Francis. One of Francis's most famous sermons is one he gave to a flock of birds. "My brothers, birds, you should praise your Creator very much and always love him; he gave you feathers to clothe you, wings so that you can fly, and whatever else was necessary for you. God made you noble among his creatures, and he gave you a home in the purity of the air; though you neither sow nor reap, he nevertheless protects and governs you without any solicitude on your part."

This love of and praise for the Creator is found in scripture but primarily in the verses of the psalms, a masterclass anthology of some of the most beautiful love poems and verses in the bible. The Psalms not only expresses our love and praise of God as St Francis instructed his noble birds to do – but also expresses the light and shadow of the whole human condition and Christian experience. That great teacher and reformer of the faith, Martin Luther, said of the psalms ‘In the Psalms you can see into the hearts of the saints as if you were looking at a lovely garden. How delightful are the flowers you will find there which grow out of all kinds of beautiful thoughts of God and his grace. Or where can one find more profound, more penitent, more sorrowful words in which to express grief than in the psalms of lamentation? In these, you see into the hearts of the saints as if you were looking at death or gazing into hell, so dark and obscure are the shadows. So, too, when the Psalms speak of fear or hope, they depict them more vividly than any painter could do, and with more eloquence than is possessed by the greatest of orators.'

The psalms are a mirror of who and what we are as Christians praying out of every conceivable condition known to human beings. Like a masterclass of musical tonality of expression and nuance the psalms touch the depths of despair and the heights of ecstasy, they teach and instruct about who and what we are and what we want to become, our love and our hate, our doubt and our longing, our fear and our hope, our celebration, thanksgiving and praise.
The Psalms were part of Jesus’ formation. According to three of the gospels, the first words he heard at his baptism came from the psalms, and the last words he breathed from the cross were drawn from them. If you want to hear the voice of Jesus at prayer, it is to the psalms that you must turn.

Ray Anglesea

Susan's Gift

He who sings prays twice,” said St Augustine, and to my mind a good singer is a good singer, as Susan Boyle proved to be. Susan Boyle, of Irish immigrants, the youngest of 4 brothers and six sisters from Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland, and nicknamed “Susie Simple” at school came to international public attention this year after she appeared as a contestant in the television show Britain's got Talent. She sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables in the competition's first round, broadcast in April this year.

In the final of the show, Susan finished in second place, behind dance troupe Diversity. Within nine days of her televised debut, videos of her audition, subsequent interviews and her 1999 rendition of Cry Me a River had been viewed over a 100 million times on the Internet. Although in second place she is now estimated to make a personal fortune of over £6 million. She has gone from singing in her local catholic church and at karaoke to being the most downloaded woman, so far at least, in history.

Susan was an unlikely star. When she came on stage to sing, in a new dress, leather jacket and chunky necklace the judges and audience laughed at her awkward, dumpy appearance, and buried their faces in their hands. Was she going to squawk like a duck? But when she opened her mouth the mood changed. You could see a wave first of confusion, then guilt, then wild applause. Her performance was a victory for talent and artistry in a culture obsessed with physical attractiveness and presentation. Far from being a comedy loser, a freak show entertainer, a Shrek to a My Fair Lady, Susan’s performance was a triumph for "women of a certain age" over a youth culture that often dismisses middle-aged women.

Susan had a rare and beautiful gift – which overcame poverty and adversity - she could sing – and she sang from the core of her being. Millions testified to her special gift. Like Susan, we too are given gifts; called gifts of the spirit, special abilities provided by the Holy Spirit to Christians for the purpose of building up the body of Christ, for building up others in a life of faith. The gifts of the Spirit enable believers to do what God has called them to do, they are part of the "everything we need" to fulfill His purposes for our lives. He will equip us with whatever gifts of the Spirit we need to accomplish the task or tasks.

It is the experience of Christians over the years that the Spirit usually harnesses one's talents in the service of the purpose for which the gifts are given. Yet sometimes, the spiritual gifts seem to work against a person's natural endowment. This is, after all, the same God who led his people out of Egypt using a stammerer named Moses, made a shepherd boy/musician named David into a renowned warrior and king, and turned rural fishermen into leaders who left a mark on the course of history. There are examples everywhere of people who don't have training, aren't highly skilled, have no particular knack, aren’t particularly attractive or beautiful but when the time comes for them to benefit others, the gift is there. Just like Susan Boyle. The Spirit takes pleasure in surprises and on turning the tables on the expected. It is wise to leave ourselves open for such action!

As well as Susan’s singing gift, there is one other thing that can remind us of Susan - Susan – and that is her looks. She reminded me, or the press did, of the way the Gospels speak of Jesus, identified with the broken figure from the book of Isaiah. One “with no beauty that we should desire, despised and rejected of men, one from whom men hide their faces.” In spite of her her looks I hope Susan will keep her peculiarity, her mysteriousness, her vulnerability, her inner gift. We have these treasures, says, St Paul, in earthen vessels. As my parents and Sunday School teachers were often to say “It’s not what’s on the outside but what is on the inside that matters.” Either way I hope that Susan hangs on to her God given gift, and if she is changed by her celebrity status she in addition will changes us.

Ray Anglesea

St Cuthbert's Locum

Sheila and I spent 15 days in October living in the Manse and holding the fort while Barry and Hazel were on holiday. It made us appreciate how much they do; not just in the things seen, but in the unseen, and how many people have been helped by what they do.

October is a ‘quiet’ time of the year (which is why Barry and Hazel felt they could go away). Never the less our fortnight included:

• Preparing and conducting morning prayers for ten days
• Changing and washing the Bothy bed linen etc on a change of occupant
• Housekeeping for the ‘Faith and Feathers 2’ weekend (such as arranging the Centre each morning and evening; ensuring a plentiful, permanent supply of tea/coffee/ biscuits; preparing lunch for 15 on the Friday; having three leaders staying in the manse over the weekend.
• Housekeeping for another morning conference for 15 people the next weekend.

In the 43 weeks to the end of October 2009, the Centre has been used for 115 half days for courses or conferences. In those 43 weeks the Bothy has been occupied for 214 nights – i.e. 5 days a week. All of this involves housekeeping on top of Barry’s work of preparing and conducting the daily and weekly worship, writing and updating prayer sheets, fact sheets and his excellent Worship Book, and chaplaincy to tourists and retreatants, as well as the administration involved.

Various thing surprised us:

• How quickly Barry’s A4 sheet ‘Prayers for Travellers’ disappeared from the Centre.
• How many people read, and even photographed, his 10 A3 sheet display of ‘The Story of the World’.
• The appreciative comments we heard about the literature and layout of the centre, as well as those written in the Visitors’ Book.
• The number of request appearing on the Prayer Tree.
• The number of appreciative comments about staying in the Bothy from those who had previously done so – or from their relatives or members of their congregations who came to the Centre.
• The number of people who rang or e-mailed for Barry, and Janet would say “Oh yes, Barry is giving them spiritual direction”.

If we had to nominate highlights for the fortnight, they would be the two imaginative Saturday evening services with twenty two + people at each.

We came away quite certain that this unique Holy Island Project is fulfilling a very real and valuable role in the witnessing and strengthening of Christian faith for the thousands of people who come through its doors each year. It is creative, modern ministry for the 21st Century.

Bill Flett

Is Vision 2020 fundamentally misconceived?

It seems to me, writes Rev. Professor Charles Cranfield that `Vision 2020' is fundamentally misconceived. (Vision 2020 planning for growth in the URC : hearing your views) On p.8 we read: `It challenges the whole church at local, synod and denominational level to think about what kind of church we want to be in ten years time'. But this `WE WANT TO BE' surely indicates that this is the wrong question for a Reformed church to be asking. Surely we should be asking what do we seriously believe to be the sort of church that Jesus Christ, the only Head and King of the church, wills us to be.

This seems to me to be the fundamental error of `Vision 2020'. And closely related is what struck me most forcibly when I first read these papers, the fact that there does not seem to be any clear indication in them that those who produced them realize that the church has a gospel to proclaim, good news from God of his love for us sinful human beings revealed in what he has done for us in Jesus Christ his Son, in his bitter death at the hands of human beings and in his resurrection from the dead to be our living Lord.

In view of these two closely related and (I believe) extremely serious deficiencies in `Vision 2020', I can only declare my whole-hearted conscientious objection to this project and plead with the URC to think again, more humbly, more prayerfully and with much greater attention to the witness of Holy Scripture.