May I speak in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
In 1832, Thomas Arnold, educator and historian, wrote the following words:
‘the church as it now stands, no human power can save’. In 2009, this pessimistic view was echoed by the then Bishop of Winchester, Michael Scott-Joynt, when he expressed doubt about the Church of England in the future. Doubt owing to a whole list of concerns such as Disestablishment, the secularisation of political and public life and financial pressures, to name but a few.
Concerns such as these are still with us today and raise the question of whether the church can survive in the future.
I will attempt to respond to this question and begin my attempt by looking at today’s Gospel reading. The Church of England seeks to have a Christian presence in every community but this reading from John’s Gospel does not give much significance to place of worship as a focal point for this presence. Although it is set in the Temple at the time of its re-dedication, as Fergus King writes in his Guide to John’s Gospel, ‘Jesus is there as a sign of the presence of God superior to the Temple’. Nor does Jesus refer to the Temple at any time. This, in spite of the fact that he is walking in the portico of Solomon the Temple builder. The Jews cannot comprehend this, as for them if Jesus is the Messiah then surely, as Tom Wright expresses it in his book ‘Simply Christian’, this must mean that he will take the lead in rebuilding, cleansing and restoring the Temple. What they are looking for is a Messiah who will free them from their enemies who have assaulted the Temple and re-establish the monarchy of David and Solomon. What they fail to comprehend is that Jesus is not with them for such purposes but to save us from our sins. He is there as the Good Shepherd of the sheep and as they have not believed in him they do not belong to his sheep. They will not, therefore, be offered eternal life.
It appears then, from this Gospel text, that however many times the physical place of worship is broken down and built up again, as was the case with the Temple, this does not signify in the end as we are the sheep in God’s fold and no one can snatch us away from God. As we find in the first letter of Peter, we are ‘living stones built in a spiritual house’ and Jesus is the stone that was rejected but is now the head of the corner.
You could conclude from these readings that we should not be overly concerned about the demise of places of worship as we have the promise of salvation and eternal life that is not dependent upon the buildings in which we praise God.
This may be so, but if we are talking about survival of the Church of England, I believe that until heaven and earth pass away and the kingdom comes, there is much value in the retention of our church buildings as places where in our worship we affirm this promise of the kingdom to come and give thanks to God for all he provides for us. Where we participate in our Communion in the giving and receiving of the Body and Blood of Christ, given to us to save us from our sins.
Beyond that worship, there is so much that the church does to help those both within and without its walls. On this Dedication Festival Day, when we celebrate the dedication of our church 67 years ago, I take this opportunity to affirm what we, and no doubt many other churches throughout the land, do to help create a better world. We are there for the sick and the needy, we are there as the listening ear for concerns, we are there for each other in good times and bad and we are there for baptisms, weddings and funerals. We are here in outreach to the community and in lending money for projects overseas. We are there as a focal point for those who live alone and may not have any family to turn to. We are also there as a venue for performers to rehearse and perform their works.
My conclusion from this list of attributes is that to encourage the survival of the Church of England in the 21st century and beyond we need to focus more on these attributes and celebrate them and not allow them to be diminished by talk of any split in the Anglican Communion or secular values. We need to stand firm in faith in what is now a more secular world and uphold the value of the parish system in all its good works and ensure that this system is financed sufficiently in the years ahead. We need also to encourage children and young people to be part of this Christian community.
We can also remind ourselves, on this our Dedication Day, of the words in our church porch which read: ‘This is none other than the House of God’.
So happy birthday St Mark’s and may you flourish in the years ahead.
AMEN