02.04.2015
Have we Forgotten the Message of the Cross ?– Bishop Pat Storey Asks Holy Week Service
The Bishop of Meath and Kildare, the Most Revd Pat Storey, has been giving a series of talks in three Dublin churches during Holy Week. The series began on Tuesday night in St Paul’s Church in Glenageary and continued on Tuesday in St Matthias’ Church in Killiney–Ballybrack on Wednesday before concluding this evening (Thursday) in Holy Trinity, Killiney.
Tuesday evening’s service in St Paul’s was based on the office of Compline. In attendance was Archbishop Michael Jackson as well as clergy from surrounding parishes including the Revd Dr William Olhausen (St Matthias’), the Revd Ása Bjork Ólafsdóttir (Christ Church, Dun Laoghaire), the Revd Niall Sloane (Holy Trinity), the Revd Gary Dowd (St Paul’s), the Revd Abigail Sines (St Paul’s) and the Revd Bruce Hayes (Dalkey).
In her sermon, Bishop Storey spoke of the tension between common sense and faith. She suggested that what happened on the cross did not make sense and asked if it made sense for God to send his son from Heaven to earth to be born in a dirty stable. Why would he send his son to die an excruciating death on the cross?
“In the 21st Century people only believe what they can see, hear and touch and yet in some ways people believe in anything at all,” she said pointing out that people believe in angels and crystals yet they don’t believe in God.
Drawing on the reading [1 Corinthians 1: 18–31] “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” she said that the cross does make sense because God chose the cross to rescue us.
However, the Bishop said that we chose to live as people who did not know the cross. “We’ve been saved by faith but sometimes we don’t live by faith,” she stated. “We live as if the cross was a long time ago but now we are on our own. Have we forgotten the foolishness of the cross or are we just to sensible?”
Photo caption: The Revd Dr William Olhausen (St Matthias’), the Revd Ása Bjork Ólafsdóttir (Christ Church, Dun Laoghaire), the Revd Niall Sloane (Holy Trinity), Archbishop Michael Jackson, Bishop Pat Storey,
the Revd Gary Dowd (St Paul’s), the Revd Abigail Sines (St Paul’s) and
the Revd Bruce Hayes (Dalkey).