From truce to peace
I'm just back from Armagh, having commentated for Radio Ulster on the enthronement of Alan Harper as the 104th Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. The Duke of Edinburgh and President Mary McAleese were the principal guests. In a break with custom, they entered the cathedral side-by-side, neither taking precedence over the other.
The new archbishop focused on the need for reconciliation and forgiveness in his sermon and emphasised the need for our society (and its newly elected political representatives) " to turn from truce to peace". You can read the full text of Alan Harper's sermon below.
The reception afterwards was held at the Royal School. In what may be seen as a bad omen -- if you believe in such things -- the tea and coffee ran out due to a power cut.
ARCHBISHOP ALAN HARPER’S ENTHRONEMENT SERMON
IN ST PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL, ARMAGH, ON FRIDAY, 16 MARCH 2007
I want to speak of the single most important issue for all of us here, in this island of Ireland, today. I want to speak of forgiveness and reconciliation. I begin - and I shall end – with these words:
I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and for anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to anyone who begs from you; and, if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
These are the words of Jesus Christ recorded in their most radical, stark and un-worldly form by the healer and evangelist St Luke. They strike our ears as naïve, unreasonable, impractical, unattainable. They represent, however, the standard against which our individual and corporate living out of the Gospel will be measured.
I doubt if there are any here today who have never suffered hurt and offence at some point in their lives. Similarly, if anyone here has never given hurt or caused offence I should be, frankly, amazed. Any one of us, looking deeply into the mirror of our true selves, will swiftly recognise that not only have we suffered offence we have given offence or stood by while offence was being given. That is part of what it is to be human.
Therefore the ministry of Jesus Christ, and the Gospels that bear witness to that ministry, resound with the themes of reconciliation and forgiveness, culminating in the cross, where Christ enabled the reconciliation of the penitent malefactor and forgave the very persons who were in the act of perpetrating his judicial murder. Here is the supreme exposition of the unlimited scope of forgiveness and the freedom delivered through reconciliation.
There are other events and stories, however, which explore the theme of forgiveness and reconciliation. One in particular speaks urgently because it resonates precisely with our daily experience: the story we know as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, although it would be better to call it the Parable of the Loving, Forgiving Father. It is the story of the patient forbearance of a parent and the arrogant impetuosity of youth.
The younger of two sons demands that, here and now, he be given that part of the family estate that will properly fall to him only when the old man dies. The depth of the hurt and offence caused by this uncompromising demand is immeasurable. It amounts to a declaration that, as far as the younger son is concerned, his father is as good as dead. He wants his share and he wants it now!
Despite the hurt and offence the father denies his son nothing. But then insult is added to injury as the son turns his back upon the whole family. The fabric of the family is utterly rent, from top to bottom. Henceforth they go their separate ways.
In the madness of youth, the younger son journeys far from home to live a profligate and dissolute life. But it is the outcome of that profligate and dissolute life that really matters. Assailed by the most profound sense of degradation as well as destitution; worse than that, realising that he had no one to blame but himself; the young man longingly thinks of home.
The Gospel does not so much describe the young man as stricken with remorse as desperate to survive. Thus, he turns towards the only destination he knows which offers hope of salvation. He turns towards the home he had abandoned and the father he had dismissed as no more significant than a corpse.
You know the story: the father, still looking and longing for his son, senses him approaching from afar. He rushes to meet him, refusing to compound his son’s humiliation by forcing the boy to grovel. He embraces his son, welcomes him, washes, clothes him, feeds him.
What did the young man see as he looked into the smiling face of the father he had counted as dead? Did he see grey hairs placed there by the pain of rejection? Did he see the deep furrows of strain that mark every parent’s anxiety over the child that they have lost? Did he see, in other words, the cost of the things that he had done? And did he marvel, at least a little, at the generosity - the fullness – of the father’s love, which alone made reconciliation possible and complete?
At a human level this gospel story could be replicated many times in the personal experience of people here today. But, even more significantly, this is a story we must ponder for our community life.
The wounds that are the sign of our divisions are deep and stubbornly hard to heal, yet you and I, with the whole Church of God, are charged with that healing. We must declare - yes, even the disobedient, divided and historically quarrelsome Church must declare - that the will of Christ is unity, that the Church is a family with shared DNA, and also that we, the people who share a home here, belong to each other: we are one community, tragically divided but not separate, not competing, not alien, communities.
Our antagonisms, some very ancient, others painfully fresh, have damaged and compromised our family life. For many the hurt is personal, deep and sickeningly painful. As the son looked into the face of his father, there to behold the cost of family division, so we must look into one another’s faces, honestly to descry, deeply and permanently etched there, a reminder of the disfigurement our past has wrought, and so be compelled to confront our own part in causing those marks.
The Churches must be the first to confront the sins of the past - the beams in our own eye – to be committed, as much in deed as in word, to modelling the relationships of the Kingdom. What we cannot do is pretend that, like some miracle brand of face cream, the lines of suffering can be instantly erased. What we can do, as a first step, is to turn to one another to embrace a restored way of relating, nourished by a commitment to unconditional love and generous forgiveness. While we wait for the fullness of communion, which is the will of Christ for his Church, let us not neglect the communion of common prayer with and for one another. My personal commitment is to offer that prayer and to enter such an embrace, confident of the love that calls us and holds us.
Just as there is no cheap grace, there is also no such thing as undemanding love. We shall find the exercise of unconditional love and forgiveness immensely demanding. Therefore, when things press hard upon us, we shall need to focus afresh upon the marks of our shared pain, those etched lines, those scars: they are our reminder of the cost of failure to love and forgive.
But this story of a loving father and a reconciled son is not yet complete. There was another son, the elder, and it is this son who earths our story once more in human experience.
The elder son had never disowned his father, never deserted his home or disgraced the family name. He had been loyal and diligent, respectful and caring, but now it is his turn to bring down his father’s grey hairs and to further furrow his father’s brow. The elder resents his returning brother. He resents the undeserved welcome; he is angry and hurt for all the pain and distress his father has suffered; he desires no swift reconciliation.
Such a reaction roots us in a reality we know well. The indignation of those who have watched the betrayal and injury of others is sometimes sharper and more sustained than that of the victims themselves. And that is where we find ourselves now in Northern Ireland: some exhausted by pain and enmity yet longing to begin anew; others finding old hurts hard to put away, reminded, by the ravages of pain in the faces of the people they love, of a past they find it hard to leave behind. Therein is the challenge confronting us all but, especially, those newly called to elected office.
Lest this all seem impossibly daunting let me reflect finally, on the animating dynamic which thrills through the whole of our parable. I mean the inexhaustible love of the father for both of his sons and the will of the father that both should find a secure home – a shared future - under the benign and reconciling shelter of his loving embrace. That dynamic, that holy energy and unshakeable will, is still at work for us and in us. It still calls, it still enables, it still has the power to shape anew.
Our task is to sew together the rent fabric of our common life, not with invisible mending, (such a thing is neither possible nor desirable,) but with sutures of mutual acceptance, strong enough to secure time for sustained healing to knit us together in love.
It is time to turn from truce to peace – to love our neighbours and ourselves in equal measure in the Name and through the power of that one God of Love whom almost all of us claim to worship.
Let me remind you of where we began:
Therefore I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
This is the Word of the Lord!
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Isn't it amazing to see how this apostate mis-quotes scripture? Harper says, " even the disobedient, divided and historically quarrelsome Church must declare - that the will of Christ is unity, that the Church is a family with shared DNA, and also that we, the people who share a home here, belong to each other". Who i wonder are the disobedient, divided and historically quarrelsome?? Could they be the people of God who oppose, expose, and separate themselves as commanded in scripture, error and apostasy? The will of Christ is unity, but not as Harper means! The unity Christ is talking about is unity with believers, not with false religion! 2 Corinthians 6:16-17, And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. There is one way to heaven, and its through Christ alone. The Church of Rome rejects the finished work of Christ at Calvary, and according to them, even Harper is not recognised as a minister! Harpers church of ireland papers state that the roman catholic mass is a blasphemous fable and a dangerous deceit!
JT, absolutely right, apostates, blasphemous heretics, heathen pagans one and all and all of them are going to hell without a shadow of a doubt. And worst of all, unless we all do something about it, they'll take the rest of us down there with them. The time to act is now. Oh by the way, one question...which side are we on? I wasn't quite clear about that.
I found the Primate's sermon an eloquent, superbly crafted exposition of the very familiar parable, meeting carefully the present needs of church and state, both locally and on the wider stage. Admirably fitting for his role and the inaugural occasion.
My own preference would have had him be quite a bit clearer, that "the people who share a home here, belong to each other" because of the "humanity" we share - which is in fact, the only valid boundary around the church of Jesus Christ. You see, I find nothing in scripture to justify Christianity's endless divisions.
Of course there are some who, like JT above, remain totally unmoved by the charms of peace, implicit and explicit throughout the Gospel. By ignoring and obliterating the core of Archbishop Harper's sweet reason, they prefer, with trumped-up objections of mis-quoted scripture, the so-called wisdom of ancient quarrels and the fear that characteristically surrounds it. With appeal to their own mis-quoted, and hence misunderstood 31st of the 39 Articles, they would seek to castigate a truly pacific leader, and his rather un-startling orthodox message
Over such selective half-truth, historical vagueness, scriptural ignorance and pretension to possess all truth, give me Harper any day!
The sermon is fine as far as it goes. But it doesnt have a practical conclusion. What is he asking of NI society? If he thinks the politicians should go into government together why didn't he actually say that in the sermon? You can't tell what he's getting at about divisons in his own church either.
Jesus and the Primate were explicite for those who trust in the Lord. Should we not pray for the Father's will in the Church and in our own understandings. The Father of the wayward son was obvious about his feelings and actions towards his returning family member. Love said, "I am thrilled you have return you are always welcome and have always been welcome." Our mandate has never been judgement but has always been love thy neighbor. If we do not understand that then we must pray and act on only what the Father says not what we believe he said.
Jesus and the Primate were explicite for those who trust in the Lord. Should we not pray for the Father's will in the Church and in our own understandings. The Father of the wayward son was obvious about his feelings and actions towards his returning family member. Love said, "I am thrilled you have return you are always welcome and have always been welcome." Our mandate has never been judgement but has always been love thy neighbor. If we do not understand that then we must pray and act on only what the Father says not what we believe he said.
Canadian Anglicans resolve to bless Sodomite "Unions"
On March 11, the Council of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada agreed on a resolution stating that "the blessing of same-sex unions is consistent with the core doctrine of the Anglican Church of Canada" ("Anglicans Promote Same-sex Blessings," The China Post, Taipei, March 14, 2007). The resolution will be submitted to the denomination's General Synod in June. Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, who is the head of this apostate denomination, supports the resolution. The worldwide Anglican Communion had asked the Anglican Church of Canada to put a moratorium on blessing pervert unions, but the request was ignored. In 1998 Anglican Church of Canada bishop Michael Ingham said Jesus is not the only way of salvation in his book "Mansions of the Spirit: The Gospel in a Multi-Faith World." In an interview with ENI News Service, May 28, 1998, Ingham urged Christians "to recognise the grace of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the other great religious traditions of the world so that we may overcome our historic divisions and antipathies, and work together for world peace." In May 2003 Ingham gave permission for six of his parishes in Vancouver, British Columbia, to perform ceremonies to bless sodomite relationships. In December of that year Ingham ordered the closure of Holy Cross church in Abbotsford, B.C., because it had refused to submit to his authority in this matter.
NB The Church of Ireland maintains fellowship with these Canadian apostates.
Canadian Anglicans resolve to bless Sodomite "unions."
Quite an interesting mess I'd say. There is more than a theological dimension to all of this, there is a financial element of critical importance as well if what I've read is correct. While most of the memebers of the Anglican Church are in Africa where homophobia is the cultural norm and in keeping with those who object to same sex unions being blessed by the Church, much of the collection plate comes from North America where progressive political forces are winning the right to same sex unions in the civil courts and legislatures, unions which are marriages in all but name. And the homosexuals and those who support their rights have come to expect more from the Church they donate money to, they expect their unions to be blessed and their numbers to have the right to be ordained. What a dilemma. Refuse their demands and you could cut off a major source of funding. Hard to save souls without money, that's just a fact of modern life. On the other hand, accede to their demands and risk having a large number of followers and would be followers turn their backs on the church because they'd believe it hypocritically violates scripture to gain money. How will the church respond? Seems to me it's damned if it does, damned if it doesn't. I don't know about the coming of the rapture but it seems to me there may be a coming of a rupture. What man has created, man can tear asunder. Do you think they're praying a lot...for divine guidance?
Harper wants to unite with rome well thats ok by me Good riddens to them a dog will always return to its own vomit The blind leading the blind Jude warns us of people like him and so called churches like the coi Its all religious nonsence the dresses they wear The seremony they follow its all there to disguise their true teaching of serving satan by what they call Love Its the worlds love not Christs His love is above emotion Their so called love is all emotion THE BLOOD OF JESUS CLEANES ALL SINNERS FROM UN RIGHTEOUS not the religion of the coi
The contibution from Steve " Canadian Anglicans resolve to bless sodomite unions" has I believe been cut and pasted from the controversial fundamentalist site www.protestant-gazette.blogspot.com
Union with Rome? Sodomite union? Is there a connection here? Beats me how Harper's benign little sermon could so fire up the crazies. It merely, though importantly, restated and repeated a thoroughly gospel theme: "therefore I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you."
Are these religionists opposed to basic Christianity? Pray for improved listening.
Try on this basic Christian truth Gaelic Tom "Except ye repent , ye shall all likewise perish "
Those are the words of Christ as recorded in Luke's Gospel.
For more uncomfortable truths contact The Evangelists www.theevangelists.blogspot.com
The contibution from Steve has I believe been cut and pasted from the controversial fundamentalist site www.protestant-gazette.blogspot.com.
Ah.
That explains why it is at least legible, though nonetheless objectionable.