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A Sermon by Dean Charles Tyrrell
Nelson Cathedral
Sunday, 4 May 2008
In my home city of Liverpool in the north of England there is a street called Hope Street. It is a street with some formerly elegant Victorian houses, a theatre and a concert hall.
What is most striking about this street is that at either end of it there is a cathedral. At one end the metropolitan cathedral of Christ the King and at the other, the Cathedral Church of Christ, Liverpool. The former building belongs to the Roman Catholic archdiocese and the latter to the Anglican, or Church of England diocese. So what, you might be thinking? Wellington has three cathedrals, and Christchurch and Auckland have two apiece, after all.
The fact that makes the Liverpool situation worthy of note is that for many years the Church of England and the Roman Catholic communities were at loggerheads. There was a sectarian divide as pernicious as that found in northern Ireland, but thankfully without the extreme violence. Having said that, violence was never far from the surface in Liverpool, so there was no cause to be smug.
From the 1970s onwards, the situation improved markedly. Today all the churches are working together happily in fulfilment of Christ's great commission to the disciples. The only thing that still divides the churches in Liverpool is the issue of the sacrament, the holy communion. Until the global churches settle this issue and covenant to celebrate the eucharist together, the people of Liverpool have to remain content to be sacramentally divided. It is difficult; it is painful but these good people refuse to go against their international leadership on this issue.
I well remember a service we had in Wellington Cathedral one year. The congregations of St Paul's and the Sacred Heart came together for worship one Sunday. We sang hymns, said our prayers, listened to the scriptures being read and then expounded by a preacher. We even got as far as sharing the peace together but then we went our separate ways. The congregation of Sacred Heart led by Cardinal Williams, then moved into the Loaves and Fishes hall where the rest of the service was conducted according to the Roman rite. Communion administered, we came back for the benedictions and the dismissal and then joined each other for morning tea.
It was easily one of the most difficult and heart-breaking services I have ever attended. Don't get me wrong. It was a joy to worship with our sisters and brothers in Christ but to be denied the opportunity to share the sacrament of Christ's love was spiritual abuse of a most insidious kind. If you wanted me to declare to you my earnest hope in the church, it would to be in total communion with all Christians, whatever their theology. Dare we pray about this and ask our heavenly Father to bring us together, or is that too much to ask?
King David of Israel nurtured the hope that he would one day see the construction of the Jerusalem temple, the House of God. Even though he worked hard to collect all the precious metals and materials for the temple, it wasn't to be. David knew that his acts of faithlessness, adultery and murder prevented him from seeing the temple built. Even though, he kept hope alive and built up the royal house and handed on the challenge to his son Solomon.
Having said that, a look through the book of psalms, many of which are put down to David, reveals a healthy number concerned with hope. For example, David composed these words in psalm 39:
'Lord, let me know my end,
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is.
You have made my days a few handbreadths,
and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight.
Surely everyone stands as a mere breath.
Surely everyone goes about like a shadow.
Surely for nothing they are in turmoil;
they heap up, and do not know who will gather.
'And now, O Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in you.
And again in psalm 145,
'Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.'
David may have been chastened but his hope was alive and well. I hope we can learn a lesson from this. Too many people carry their sins and transgressions with them even though Christ has assured them of forgiveness. It becomes a penance for wrongdoing when all the time, God does not work that way. God wants people with a positive spirituality, based on the truth that is Christ, and dwelling in his forgiveness. Once forgiven we don't just hope our sins will be dealt with by God, we are assured that they are.
Finally, I want to refer to the New Testament writings of St Paul. This aggressor turned apostle had a very positive outlook on life and the burgeoning Church of Christ.
Writing at a time of persecution, Paul encouraged Ephesian Christians when he wrote to them, saying
'With the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints.'
Christian hope is not a vague feeling about future survival but the result of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We shall be celebrating this truth next week on Pentecost Sunday. We have been called to a divine hope, the hope that God has for each of us his beloved children.
So, what is your hope? Is it riches or is it an eternal hope, that when this earthly life is completed, you will be taken up into God for the ultimate safe keeping. In the Bible I don't read hope as a 'maybe' sort of word, you know, "I hope to win the Lottery next time!" Spiritual hope is more about an expectation based on informed knowledge through scripture and through the prompting of the Spirit in us. With Christ we leave nothing to chance for he has covered every eventuality for us.
I can find no better words in summary than those of St Paul to the Colossians who said,
'God chose to make known how great among the peoples are the riches of the glory, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.'
Amen.
This sermon was written and delivered by Dean Charles Tyrrell QSO at Nelson Cathedral on Sunday, 4 May 2008
In my home city of Liverpool in the north of England there is a street called Hope Street. It is a street with some formerly elegant Victorian houses, a theatre and a concert hall.
The fact that makes the Liverpool situation worthy of note is that for many years the Church of England and the Roman Catholic communities were at loggerheads. There was a sectarian divide as pernicious as that found in northern Ireland, but thankfully without the extreme violence. Having said that, violence was never far from the surface in Liverpool, so there was no cause to be smug.
