Finding in Past Traditions a Future Hope Finding in Past Traditions a Future Hope
Sermon preached in St Salvator's Chapel, St Andrews on the 19th November, 2006 by Rev. David Pitkeithly
Readings: 1 Peter 2: 4 - 10 and Romans 5: 1 - 11
Sermon:
A few years ago a friend of mine was being considered by a congregation as their potential new minister. This involved him conducting a normal Sunday service and then a vote being taken in respect of his suitability or otherwise. My friend, by all accounts, preached with a tremendous passion and clarity and returned to the church office relatively contented, in order to await the verdict. He was accompanied by what we call the beedle, the church officer, who much to my friend's unease was shaking his head and consulting his watch. As they reached the office the beedle announced. 'Son, I would be a wee bit worried if I was you. You've drifted on to five past twelve. Our old minister never went past the top of the hour so that we could all get into the oven, our Sunday dinner.' It has to be said that such church traditions feel like a curse to many a young minister trying to take forward the life of a new congregation. 'Its aye been done that way' is not a phrase that tends to lift our spirits and warm our hearts. But for all the drawbacks of tradition, isn't it true that we can sometimes find great meaning and comfort in practising the familiar. Just think for moment of all that we have gained from that simple tradition that Jesus initiated and yearned for us to practice the breaking of bread and the pouring out of wine.
This is a weekend of vibrant and historic tradition in the life of this University and some of you may have your bag of raisins or more likely your bottle of Chardonnay on your person now.
Universities, by their nature, seem to bring to the fore some intriguing traditions. Not least in the United States, where just a few weeks before his appointment, the very serious looking new American Defence Secretary was participating in the midnight yell at his old Texas University. That particular late night shouting fest might not go down too well among the residents of this ancient town but I wonder what would be the outcome if you followed a practice in a Californian university, famous for its annual arm wrestling contest between the staff and the students. Today I want to look at three British university traditions that I believe shed some light on the some of the blessings and gifts that are available to you if you would embrace for yourself the Christian faith. We are approaching the great season of receiving gifts, might you make these three high up on your list this year. The gift of belonging, the gift of transformation and the gift of hope.
Firstly, the gift of belonging: I am one of those rare animals who has experienced Raisin Monday at universities on both sides of the Tay and while I carry fairly bitter memories of having the inner contents of four eggs dripping down my face at Dundee, I can remember too some of the rich benefits of this tradition. Let me quote to you to the words of an African Zulu who studied here a few years ago:
All my brothers and sisters and cousins and my Auntie Betty are like a real family to me. Coming from a farm in South Africa I was really scared of everybody here but at the same time, hey, my academic brothers make me feel like I'm back in Africa and my sisters are really pleasant girls.
Raisin weekend, at its best, brings a sense of belonging and security to student life and Christianity, at its best, can bring a sense of belonging and security to life as a whole. I have always truly relished that passage in 1 Peter where the apostle declares with pointed conviction, the unique sense of intimacy and collegiality that is found with God and indeed with others, if you chose to follow Christ and stay the course on the journey of faith. In verses 9 and 10 he announces with a vibrant joy the wonderful privileges of being a believer. 'For you are a chosen people a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. Once you were not a people but now you are the people of God'.
Primarily he is saying that each one of us has worth and value in the eyes of God, that we can be adopted into his family and however alone, struggling or lacking esteem we may be, we are lovingly treasured in heaven. Stuart Townsend declares so simply in one of his great modern hymns 'For I am his and he is mine' and the apostle John perhaps puts it most clearly when he declares 'How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God'.
Professor Howard Marshall says of 1 Peter 2 v 9 and 10:
'The Greek phrase behind `belonging to God' conveys the sense that we are particularly significant and precious to him and therefore the object of his special care.
There is sadly something of a lack of community in modern life we have become more individualistic and less neighbourly, we are more fragmented even within families and between age groups. Of course, many churches have human frailties with a lack of warmth and welcome but at their strongest they bring still today. Across the generations, a feeling of belonging, a caring acceptance, a common purpose to life.
I have watched with great interest, celebrities discovering a sense of identity when exploring their roots on the television programme 'Who do you think you are?' and that feeling of belonging to a Father in heaven and to a people on earth is a rich and potentially lifelong Christian gift that I warmly and eagerly commend to you today.
Secondly, the gift of transformation: As you may be aware many university traditions are increasingly under threat because of the perils that they bring and one such is the May Day jump by Oxford University students from the Magdalen Bridge into the river Cherwell. I must admit I don't fancy it too much and you may have seen on t.v. how a few students have emerged in recent years with chattering teeth and worse still with broken bones. Why on earth with an increasing risk of shallow water do they do take it on? Well I am guessing that like the washing by young ladies of their faces in the May Day dew, Oxford students make that daring jump in the hope of emerging more beautiful than ever before from the muddy waters.
We live in the age of the optimistic makeover shows with the likes of Trinny and Susannah even trying to save marriages through visits to the changing rooms of Gap and Next. However, I believe that our characters and attitudes can be genuinely reformed and refreshed by the work of the Spirit of God. People are readily sceptical saying that our weaknesses cannot be re-fashioned, that our natures are fixed from birth. But the evidence I have seen as a minister is that people can through a prayerful openness to the activity of God begin to live with a greater integrity, zeal and grace. That indeed often peoples emotions can be steadied and their gifts brought to the fore.that they become beautiful not externally but internally. It is indeed the mission and desire of the Holy Spirit to complete this work, a process vividly described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 3 v18:
'And we are being transformed into Christ's likeness with an ever-increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit' or in more simple words that we have often sung but perhaps never fully considered - 'changed from glory into glory till in heaven we take our place.'
Is it not so that the apostle Paul whom we read from today was changed from chief persecutor of the church to its greatest defender. Is it not also the case that the apostle Peter whose words we also studied went from the hesitant betrayer of Good Friday to the courageous advocate of Pentecost Day. And there are many examples in modern life, too. I've been reading for instance the biography of the former Tory cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken perhaps one of the most deceiving and arrogant politicians this country has ever seen and yet now under the influence of the Christian faith, you encounter a man with a genuine honesty and a gracious humility. Furthermore, I was at a talk last year given by a remarkable lady Jackie Pullinger who brings Christian care and hope to the drug infested streets of the walled city of Hong Kong. She told of finding on her doorstep a 60 year old prostitute, her body wasted by heroine abuse, and of how she took her in and helped her through cold turkey, whilst gently speaking to her of how by receptiveness to God's spirit, her life's pattern could be changed. Jackie spoke of her joy at being present at that woman's wedding to a retired church pastor in Hong Kong just 18 months later. Few of us require such radical surgery, but each one of us might this day look closely at ourselves and reflect where we might yet be brought in character, in action, in priority closer to the high watermark of Jesus Christ.
Finally, the gift of hope: As I've hinted, I completed my law degree at that young daughter university across the Tay that's gone on to do rather well for itself. Traditions take a while to bed in such a young institution but popular rituals among the students of my day were the invigorating climb to the top of the Law (appropriate for ambitious law students like us) and the late night crossing on foot of the Tay Road Bridge. It should be remembered that for my father studying medicine three years in St Andrews and three years in University College Dundee there was no such bridge to walk over. William Fairchild's amazing bridge that took Dundonians and others into the kingdom of Fife was completed 40 years ago this year and little known perhaps is that the 8 foot obelisk at this side, commemorates five men who died in making that crossing possible.
It is perhaps the greatest gift made available to you and I today that Jesus died to make a bridge that we might cross not into the kingdom of Fife but into the kingdom of God. By removing the gulf of our sins, by bearing the consequences of them in his own body, he took us from a position of failing to a position of forgiveness, from being distant to God to being reconciled to him, from being far away from heaven to being assured by faith of a welcome in his wonderful Kingdom. Paul describes in Romans 5 what we call the atonement but might be best understood by the mispronunciation 'the at one ment'. He proclaims in chapter 5:
'Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ in whom we have now received this reconciliation'.
My friends, we live in an age of apprehension with genuine concerns being expressed in recent weeks about the future of our planet with escalating terrorism, nuclear expansion and climate change. Isn't it a great source of hope amid this frightening uncertainty to be able to look beyond this fragile and passing world and be sure if you fully embrace the Christian faith of being enabled to cross into a kingdom that cannot fail. A story that I've never forgotten from past Remembrance Sundays was of a teenage soldier who volunteered to crawl into no man's land to restore communication lines between a trench and headquarters. He reached the severed wires and held them together just as his body was filled with bullets. Such is the bridge that Jesus built with his sacrificial death. Such is the bridge I urge you to chose to cross over today.
Last time I was in this town I picked up as often I do a copy of the St Andrews Citizen. I don't know whether like many local newspapers it is famous for its misprints but a caption accompanying a picture of the Chief Executive of the R and A during the Dunhill Links event declared 'Peter Dawson drives off the first green of the Old Course.' Well I can imagine there would have been more than a little discomfort in that famous clubhouse down the road if the chief executive really did drive off the hallowed turf of that first green. One of the most precious non-university traditions of this town is the day in September when the new Captain of the R and A drives off the first tee of the Old Course and hundreds of caddies scramble to be first to the ball. Of course, it must thrilling to grasp hold of the ball itself but that in turn leads to a further reward in the receipt of a gold sovereign. Can I encourage you all to seek, to find, to grasp hold of the Christian faith and receive thereafter other enriching gifts that can bring a sense of belonging, transformation and hope to your life.
Amen