News
Sermon preached by the Bishop of Clogher
Sermon preached by the Bishop of Clogher.
Sunday March 13th 2011 St Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen
Service of Confirmation and Commissioning of The Diocesan Youth Officer: Mr
Jonny Phenix
Mark 1:9: Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized
by John in the Jordan.
Tonight we are worshipping with a difference because tonight we embark together
on something which is quite different in the Diocese of Clogher. We do so courageously
and prophetically at what is always seen to be one of the spiritually driest
times of the year – the beginning of Lent. I say this because the landscape
of Lent is a wilderness. Our conventional picture of Biblical wildernesses
is that they are dusty and stony, with the odd lizard and a few splashes of
green, but with very little other life making much of an impression. Into this
picture of seeming despair we have the wonderful, majestic, simple and humble
story of the baptism of Jesus – his dynamic incorporation into
the Community of the Desert represented by John the Baptizer, his first cousin;
his courageous recognition of the witness amidst hardship, ridicule
and sheer hatred shown to the Community of the Desert. This goes with the challenges
which that Community offered then and offers still, by its idealism and integrity,
to the religion of the city, the religion of the Temple and the religion of
the state. Standing in the water of the river, standing on the margin of settled
society, creating a community out of the river – this is what God in
Three Persons did with Jesus, as Mark goes on to tell us in verses 10 and 11: And
just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and
the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, You
are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. Challenge brings in its
train affirmation; delight follows the path of witness; and, most important
of all, the presence of God embraces the humility of the one who willingly
and deliberately submits himself to the mercy and the ministry of another.
There are still stories to tell and lessons to be learned from the work and
the word of God. There are still journeys to be taken in and through the desert
by people of faith and by people seeing faith in the hope of finding God.
I wish to pay tribute to one person in particular, among many others who will
continue to offer and provide oversight, direction and stimulus to The Wells
Project. I want to thank him for envisioning The Wells Project in very special
ways and I hope that he does not object to my singling him out. That is the
Reverend Kyle Hanlon, rector of Fivemiletown with Kiltermon, who for as long
as I have been bishop of Clogher has been to the forefront of ministry among
young people in Clogher Diocese. The pools of water springing up in the prophecy
of Isaiah struck a chord, sparked off ideas, appealed to the imagination and
formed the basis for him of a novel way of doing what is vitally important
in the Church of Ireland – nurturing and expressing the commitment, insights,
enthusiasm and exuberance of young people. With the hard work and creative
thinking of many others co-operating around this vision, together with the
helpfulness of the staff of the Diocesan Office, we have reached the point
where we hold together wonderfully this evening the text of St Mark and our
own lake-land diocese in the presence of so many young people, their families
and their friends. We have brought together the water of the River Jordan and
the water of Lough Erne to show and to symbolize the inspiration which all
our discipleship receives from the land on which Jesus walked – the Holy
Land – and the requirement of us that we live it out – by walking
our own walk – in the land where we live. In this way Jesus and you and
I; the Bible and our own country are joined by the water which flows and which
purifies, which gives life and healing and refreshment to all. This combined
flow of water is used to water the rowan tree whose very life brings us to
the name Macartain, Son of Rowan, the name of the Patron Saint of Clogher Diocese.
It is planted in soil which the young people of the Diocese have brought from
each of their parishes and poured on to the roots of this special tree.
Jonny brings to this work a clear picture of who God is and what God does.
This is a gift which he is joyfully and abundantly happy to share with others
in who he is and in what he does. He is not afraid to offer correction and
discipline where both are needed but he is always constructive in what he gives
other people and in how he treats them – always, in my experience, with
respect. He is thoroughly at home with young people. This sense of being at
ease draws them into his confidence and gives in turn a sense of both confidence
and belonging in what they are doing and in what issues they are discussing.
Like John the Baptizer, Jonny is able, in a unique way, to point people, young
and old, to The Christ. This is very important as all too often in our church
life we play off Jesus against Christ. We feel more at home with Jesus the
human person and somehow forget the Christ who is the Anointed, the Messiah,
the fulfilment of expectation and of tradition which stretches far behind us
and far in front of us. Maybe that is why we shy away - because of the deep
and cavernous wisdom which the person of Christ represents and embodies. We
have no reason to be afraid. Trust and obedience bring in their wake love and
belonging. In a spirit of embracing the two sides of who Jesus Christ is, we
can ask God in the Collect for today, the First Sunday in Lent, to know our
weaknesses and at the same time to give us the knowledge of his power to save.
With the Suffering Servant, weakness is not a cul de sac but a
place where Jesus Christ comes to meet us and travel with us.
The hopes embedded in The Wells Project are simply that young people of varying
ages will be able to meet, to be equipped to enjoy their faith in Jesus Christ
and to live it out in their family, in their schools and in their parishes.
We often complain about parishes and churches but we are fortunate in the extreme
to have what any Mobile Phone Company would give anything for – comprehensive
coverage of the whole country. There is an idea that good youth work can happen
only where there are big parishes and lots of people – wrong. There is
an idea that good youth work has to be so active as to be exhausting – wrong
again. These are simply myths. There are countless excellent examples of people
who have met in small numbers and enjoyed it, never for once feeling that they
were inadequate because there were not more of them. There are young people
who meet in silence, who meet to fast for an oppressed people and for a just
and righteous cause, who enjoy everyday interests together just as much as
they enjoy reading the Bible as the word of God. Location and size do not matter
to them – they are a new community, springing up and flourishing where
they are. The Wells Project is to be like this. It is not frightened by numbers,
large or small. It is not shy to be somewhere which to others seems unlikely
or unpromising. It is not backward in taking a seed or a sapling and planting
it and watering it and nurturing its growth. The Wells Project finds water
and congregates people around it is joy and refreshment.
As we draw our inspiration from the mingling of water from Lough Erne and
the River Jordan, we pray that Jonny and all of the people among whom he will
work, young people, people in the age-range 20-30, leaders of uniformed organizations
and parents and clergy – that all of these people will have a time together
of great enjoyment and exploration of who God is and of what God does and of
who God makes us to become. We express tonight our delight that Jonny is to
be confirmed in the heart of this Service of Commissioning and that the seven-fold
gifts of the Holy Spirit will descend on him and empower and embolden his ministry
as they do the ministry of all together in the shared work of discipleship
and ordination: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit
of right judgement and inward strength, the spirit of knowledge and godly living
and the spirit of reverence for the Lord.
We thank God that this Wells Project has come bubbling to the surface of our
diocesan life at a time when we enter with Jesus Christ the wilderness not
to die but to live in a new way; not to be burned dry by the sun but to be
washed clean and fresh by the springs of water which nurture life and colour
when we allow the Spirit of God to open our eyes to his presence - already
there.
Mark 1.8: I have baptized you with water; he will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit.