Last weekend, before we got back to things like parties in Downing Street and whether the Prime Minister tells the truth, the media and social media were full of reports and debate about what the Archbishop of Canterbury had said in his Easter Day sermon. Reports focused on some statements critical of the UK’s Rwanda policy for asylum seekers. Justin Welby had apparently said that this was against God’s will. This brought the usual demands for bishops to stay out of politics and in return, responses that it was in fact reasonable for him to speak on such things.
A helpful Rabbi made this comment.
Now, admittedly this leaves me asking what the Rabbi thinks we do talk about in our sermons. I can’t personally remember giving or even hearing a sermon on flowers or Sunday fetes, though I’ve both given and heard plenty of terrible sermons in my time. However, you get the point of his rhetoric, our job is not to pronounce pious platitudes. However, this doesn’t mean that we have to enter party politics. There is a third option if you like. That option is to seek to apply the Gospel of Christ’s Death and Resurrection to the whole of life.
You can read the full text of Justin Welby’s sermon here.
As it happens, I would argue that the sermon is doing exactly that. Now, those of us from slightly different strands of evangelicalism to Welby may not be so keen on all of his theology or how he puts things but we cannot deny that the intent here is to talk in Gospel terms. Indeed, look at his conclusion.
Jesus is alive – and he addresses head on all of our fears, together and alone. It means whilst we wake in a world so often characterised by pain and suffering, there is another more defining, more compelling, more true story to wake up to.
It is not complicated to receive the gift of the life of Christ. It costs no more than to surrender our lives to God, lives we cannot keep. In that surrender we join the journey into life everlasting, we are caught in his hands as was Mary who returned to the disciples saying ‘I have seen the Lord’.
Jesus’ resurrection, dead first, now alive, changed history. It changed societies, shaped nations. It calls us each to live resurrection shaped and filled lives now, and to mould resurrection filled societies in our world today and in the future.”
So, I would argue that it was not inappropriate for him to comment on the refugee policy, just as it wasn’t inappropriate for him to talk about Ukraine. Though, likewise, he was under no obligation to mention either. The problem is not so much with what he did say as with what he didn’t say.
What do I mean by this? Well, first of all, let’s get the obvious out of the way. I’m not sure he’s preached a sermon here. It reads as a reasonable little talk. It might be okay as ana rticle somewhere. However, my first duty as a pastor preaching is to ensure that God’s Word is applied to people’s hearts. I want them to hear God speak and so Scripture needs to do the heavy lifting. Even if we don’t expect expository teaching at this point, I think we would be looking for a far closer relationship between what he said and the text of Scripture.
Secondly, I think that Welby makes the mistake of speaking from the perspective of establishment Christianity. The result is that he is attempting to say things that don’t really cut home for people who don’t share his world view. We have seen the consequences of this in both the arguments of people who disagree with him and want him to butt out and even in the commentary of those who agree that the Rwanda policy is bad but don’t share his view on God and the relevance of faith to life. In that sense, the sermon misses out on persuasion because he has not set out why what he says and what God thinks matters.
And this takes us to the crucial point here. You see, the big question when testing a sermon is “what difference will it make?” I suspect that in terms of geo-politics the answer is that his sermon won’t make any difference. This doesn’t mean he shouldn’t talk about those issues, it just means he needs to recognise that the politicians aren’t really listening. So, the second question is “will it have made a difference to the ordinary person sat in the pew or watching on TV?” As a believer do you now know what you need to do differently as a result of the resurrection? Would a non- believer know exactly why they should take that oh so simple step of trusting in Jesus.
Again, I’m not convinced they would. Now, that’s okay for one article in a series on faithroots but when you are preaching to the nation, then you’ve missed an opportunity. The gap is that whilst he talks in terms of God taking responsibility, he doesn’t really get deep into what that means. And yes, that does mean that it’s because his sermon doesn’t set out overtly the very crucial doctrine that no one wants to talk about – penal substitution.
So, how might he have tackled it differently? What might he have said? Well I though I’d sketch out some alternative words. We pick up at the point where he begins talking about refugees. The Archbishop said the following:
“And this season is also why there are such serious ethical questions about sending asylum seekers overseas. The details are for politics and politicians. The principle must stand the judgement of God and it cannot. It cannot carry the weight of resurrection justice, of life conquering death. It cannot carry the weight of the resurrection that was first to the least valued, for it privileges the rich and strong. And it cannot carry the weight of our national responsibility as a country formed by Christian values, because sub-contracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God who himself took responsibility for our failures.”
I don’t disagree with that. I’d keep it as is. However, here’s what I would probably go on to say.
Now here’s the thing. Even if the Government tried to put in place a more compassionate asylum policy, it could never really do what God would do. It’s always going to fall short of God’s judgement. You see, it’s made up of frail, fallen human beings. And that’s the point, the very central point of Easter. God is taking responsibility, not subcontracting out to us because he is stepping in to do something that none of us can do. We’ve already talked about the problem of evil in the world, this thing called evil is a result of sin. We can see that evil, that sin in the machinations of dictators and tyrants. We can see it in the cruelty of government policy but we must also confront the horror of sin in our own lives. We cannot judge because we know too well how we have hurt and harmed others by letting them down, we know how we have harboured bitterness, we can count the number of times we’ve lied this week and we’ve not even had to cover up a birthday party at work!
Easter is necessary because of sin. God taking responsibility means that he stepped down into history as one of us in the person of Jesus and at the Cross took on our guilt and shame. It’s like this. Several people this week have noted that Jesus experienced the life of a refugee as a child fleeing from Herod to Egypt. They’ve suggested that our government would send Jesus to Rwanda. We sometimes ask “What would Jesus do?” Jesus would go to Rwanda for that refugee in their place. But Jesus would also, in effect go to prison for that people smuggler. On the Cross, Jesus took our place. Jesus went to the place of punishment and curse, Jesus went to that place so that we don’t have to.
And the Resurrection is the completion of that story, the announcement that he is vindicated, that the price has been paid, the penalty taken, God’s wrath satisfied. The victory has been won and sin, Satan, death and evil have been defeated. Because Jesus died for us, we can now live with him with the hope of resurrection too.
And then we are in to that conclusion…
Jesus is alive – and he addresses head on all of our fears, together and alone. It means whilst we wake in a world so often characterised by pain and suffering, there is another more defining, more compelling, more true story to wake up to.
It is not complicated to receive the gift of the life of Christ. It costs no more than to surrender our lives to God, lives we cannot keep. In that surrender we join the journey into life everlasting, we are caught in his hands as was Mary who returned to the disciples saying ‘I have seen the Lord’”.
Faithroots 