Rector’s Letter February 2010

23/01/2010 by Rector.

The disaster in Haiti has raised many questions: for governments, scientist, aid agencies and others. Surprisingly, it also brought questions closer to home. I was asked on more than one occasion why we didn’t preach about Haiti. A glib answer would have been to say that I had included references to the disaster in my weekday homilies – which is true but these were not the most high profile of occasions. On the Sunday after the earthquake, Haiti was not the main subject in any of the sermons. As I was not preaching that day I am not sure what I would have said. I know that those who were preaching had prepared sermons in advance (and one person had prepared theirs well before the events of that week) and, having spoken to some of that day’s preachers, I know that people wondered if they should have put more in about Haiti. However, Haiti was mentioned in intercessions and in other parts of the service.

 

Nevertheless, the point was well made: when is it right to mention major current affairs and their implications for Christians in sermons? It can be difficult to rewrite a sermon at short notice, especially if you are someone who prepares well in advance and flying by the seat of your pants is not your forte. But if we don’t respond to such events in sermons, how do we learn? I have been reminded of a bishop who taught sometimes at my theological college in Chichester. Bishop Michael Marshall encouraged us to ‘gossip the Gospel’. What he meant was that we should use things that we had picked up during a week (the ‘gossip’ of everyday life) as one of the things to feed our preaching. We needn’t respond immediately, but if something caught our notice, neither should we let it go and waste and opportunity. I think that this can give us an answer for Haiti – for many preachers it would have been wrong to rush into a sermon immediately but better to construct over time something that would (hopefully) help the congregation’s understanding. And it is important to note that it is to help understanding not give answers to questions that do not have easy answers.

 

That is what I aimed to do when I preached on a Sunday after Haiti. The disaster and the response of so many was part of a sermon about how Christ is revealed in the world in different ways. This is the theme of the Epiphany (“Revelation”) Season which is the part of the Church’s year that we completed at the beginning of February. Part of what I was aiming to say was that the revelation of Christ and all that he did and continues to do is not instant and also requires us to spend time in prayer and study to try and understand more. The next season of the year underlines it: Lent reminds us of the need to study our faith and our response to God - just as Jesus himself did when he began his time of ministry. It is clear that Jesus struggled with all that God meant for him and it wasn’t easy. For us, struggling to understand our world, God and all that is important, it is no different. Sometimes an instant response is not the best, as long as we make the effort to respond.

 

Fr Darren

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