Consistency, continuity, and God as our Creator & Sustainer

Consistency, continuity, and God as our Creator & Sustainer 

By William Lyon Tupman. Sermon for the Eucharist at Christ Church Chelsea, on February 24th 

2019 (2nd Sunday before Lent) 

Bible readings: Genesis 2:4b-9, 15-end; Psalm 65; Revelation 4; Luke 8:22-25. 

May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in your 

sight, O Lord our strength and redeemer. Amen. Please be seated. 

Good morning everyone! It's wonderful to see you all here at Christ Church Chelsea again. I'm very grateful to Mother Emma, Father Brian and Father John for inviting me back to preach today. For anyone who I haven't yet met, I worshipped and sung in the Choir here while I was studying for a Master's degree in Biblical Studies and Theology at King's College London, last academic year. 

Today, I'd like to focus on the themes of consistency and continuity. As many of you will know, I'm on the journey to hopefully becoming a priest in the Church of England. This is a very exciting journey for me, and it's a time of both discernment and formation. When talking about exploring a vocation to ordained ministry in the Church of England, it is easy to follow the traditional understanding of what discernment and formation is - that you are in the Discernment Process from when you start meeting with your incumbent or chaplain to talk about the possibility of being ordained, until you attend your Bishop's Advisory Panel or BAP (the selection conference I'll be attending in less than three months from now, after which I will learn if I'll be training for the priesthood) - after which, you then start the Formation Process, which sees you through your training at theological college and beyond. 

While this is presented both logically and helpfully by the Church, I think to confine these terms like that may risk being too narrow an interpretation and understanding of them. We are always discerning what God is asking of us; we are always being formed in the ways He wants us to be, in accordance with His will. We are always learning; and we are always making progress, however much or not we may consciously feel that at times. What underpins this, to me, is continuity - something which has been a significant characteristic of my journey in faith, discernment and formation so far. 

Continuity - what is it? It can be something that is unbroken, and it can be something which is consistent; but it still allows for change and progress. Here's an analogy for any car enthusiasts like me here today. Take the Jaguar XJ, as it was produced from 1968 to 2009. While the car was occasionally updated and modernised over time, the core design was left relatively unaltered; if you saw the 1968 and 2009 models stood next to each other, you would doubtless observe their strikingly similar appearances – hence, there is much continuity between them. Most significantly, the same character is still present in both, and in all the models in between. But at the same time, progress had been made over the years - the newer models were more energy efficient; they were faster; they were modernised; and they were better for the environment. But they were still, unmistakably, the Jaguar XJ. (For anyone who's wondering, the car is still produced today, but it was completely redesigned in 2010!)! 

This concept of continuity is something which underpins and characterises much of my journey in the Church so far. I've had a lot of change in my life so far. I was home educated; I'd lost both my parents by the time I was thirteen; I then started school; I lived in two different foster homes; I went to university, and I loved it there so much that I went on and did a Master's; and more. Some of these changes have been, as you can imagine, quite challenging to me, such as my bereavements; whereas other changes have been both positive and exciting, such as pursuing my studies, and meeting more friends. Much change, therefore; but an equal level of continuity, too; if not more. The Church has always been there for me; the Church has always been here for me. In all of my sorrows, and in all of my joys - the Church has, is, and always will be, here for me. And the same is true for each and every one of us. 

Here's some more continuity. I've not moved too far away from Christ Church; as the priests here all know, I now serve as a Lay Pastoral Assistant just a few miles away at St Michael's Church, Croydon - and the parish priest there is good friends with Fr Brian. Moreover, one of the reasons I came to King's to do my Master's was because our director of music, Gareth Wilson, recommended both King's and Christ Church to me, having also been my choir director at Girton College Cambridge where I did my BA. Now how's that for continuity! It is a placement which I love very much, and it is giving me a whole range of different experiences. I work six days a week, mostly serving and being with the community in my Church, but as part of this placement I also volunteer once a week at the chaplaincies of the refugee day centre at West Croydon Baptist Church, I run the chess club at Croydon College, I visit the patients and staff in Croydon University Hospital, and I also currently volunteer once a week at the Croydon Churches Floating Shelter for homeless people, which is currently at Croydon Minster; I'm on the overnight shift there tonight. All in all, and especially at my young age of twenty-four, my placement at St Michael's Croydon is equipping me with many valuable experiences, and a great variety of different aspects of service - both Sacramentally and pastorally - and both inside and outside of the immediate Church setting. I am truly grateful for this. 

And we can see this theme of continuity in today's readings from Scripture, since it is God who is both our Creator and Sustainer. God is continually bringing about His creation, and sustaining us. Psalm 65 is a helpful reminder of God's continual involvement and faithfulness in creation, even when we transgress. He is making and shaping the world as we know it, and brings order about from chaos. This is brilliantly illustrated by Luke in today's Gospel reading, when Jesus – who, being fully divine as well as fully human - calms the storm, and displays authority over the waters, bringing them from chaos into a state of peace and order. In the Hebrew Bible, watery storms are symbolic of chaos - and God conquers them and brings about order, as we can see for example in Genesis 1, and also in Psalms 29, 106 and 107. Jesus doing exactly the same thing in today's Gospel reading is therefore a reassuring reminder that God still brings order where there is chaos. 

In our first reading from Genesis 2 today, we read the Yahwist creation account; the second of two accounts of creation at the start of Genesis (the other one, spanning Genesis 1, being known as the Priestly account). In Genesis 1:26-28, humanity is created and is given "radah" in Hebrew - that is, dominion or stewardship over all the created world and its inhabitants. But there is a very different balance of power in these two words, dominion and stewardship - can both be correct? Are there two different interpretations on offer here? And if so, can both be connected? 

Let's consider the beautiful and majestic description of God in Revelation 4. Can you imagine having the same level of dominion as that? I can't. Both this reading and our first reading suggest that God appoints us to be stewards of the earth; He still has ultimate authority, as the creatures who sing God's praises in Revelation 4 recognise and acknowledge in their worship of Him. Creation is a gift by and from God to us, and we are given ultimate responsibility for looking after it. That's a kind of calling in itself; we all have a responsibility - a vocation - to look after our created world. Do we still have a special, superior ranking in the order of creation? Yes, we do; but this means we have a particular degree of responsibility, in accordance with how God has equipped us more than other created beings. 

The remainder of today's first reading tells us about the creation of Eve; in Genesis 2:18, God states that it is not good for humans to be alone, and thus creates for Adam his wife. Does this suggest that everyone should get married? Are we all called to marry? Some of us are (I feel called to marry when the time comes); while others are not. It is another example of vocation. Let's remember two of the most prominent Church leaders from the New Testament; as far as we know, Peter was called to marry (for Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law in Matthew 8:14-15), while Paul tells us that he remained unmarried (1 Corinthians 7:8), presumably for his whole life. 

Sometimes being alone is good - especially if you want to go on a relaxing run, or if you need to finish an essay perilously close to a submission deadline (these being a couple of scenarios I often find myself in!). But I don't think it's good to be permanently alone. And we are not. Marriage is a beautiful and wonderful thing, but of course it isn't the only way of being in company; many of us here will have a network of friends, be it from Church, from work, university, school, college, neighbourhood or otherwise; and those living the religious life in monasteries or convents are unmarried but living together in a community. 

Whatever our vocations are in these areas, God is always with us. He is consistently with us; again, that theme of consistency comes up again, no matter how changeable our lives can sometimes be. God is unchanging, infinite, and eternal. He is omnipresent (that is, present at all times and in all places) and especially when we meet with Him and receive Him in the Sacrament of the Mass. Thus, we are never alone. How comforting! 

Psalm 65 also reminds us of God's forgiveness. Even when our transgressions "overwhelm" us (verse 3), we all still have the assurance of God's forgiveness. If we carried on reading just a bit further beyond our first reading today, we'd see how valuable that is when Adam and Eve sinned by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil! 

This is guaranteed forgiveness, thanks to the salvific work of Christ in His passion, death and resurrection - the Paschal Mystery. It is everlasting, since Christ's one, eternal sacrifice for us is perfect and complete. This forgiveness is, thus, consistent. If we weren't to accept this, we wouldn't be fully appreciative of the scale of what exactly Christ achieved for us on the cross, and in the whole Paschal Mystery - something we will soon contemplate in further detail, as Lent quickly approaches. 

And that's certainly something I'm grateful for! In my journey, sometimes in the past I've felt unworthy to even consider the concept of being called to the priesthood. But I've come to realise that God still counts us all worthy to live the lives we are being called to – and for me, I feel, hope and pray that that is the Anglican priesthood, if it is in accordance with God's will. He will never ask us to do something we cannot do; and even if He does, He will equip us. And not just adequately at that, but fully and beyond fully. He counts us worthy - because, since He has made us worthy, we are worthy. 

We are all on a journey, as we pursue our various callings - our primary, common vocation in Baptism, and any other vocations God is calling us to. A nurse, a doctor, a teacher, a priest – these are just some of the many vocations people can be called to. And, no matter how changeable things may at times be, there is consistency and continuity in our lives - in small ways, in bigger ways, and in perhaps the greatest way possible - that God is always here with us. Let us give thanks for His presence with us now, and in all our lives, especially as we now come to receive Him in the Eucharist. In the name of God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.