29.03.2018
The Church is not a Business but a Hope Filled Expression of God’s Kingdom on Earth – Archbishop’s Chrism Eucharist Address
Clergy, lay ministers and lay people from around Dublin & Glendalough gathered in Christ Church Cathedral this morning (March 29) for the Chrism Eucharist for Maundy Thursday.
The service was celebrated by Archbishop Michael Jackson and during it, clergy and lay ministers renewed their commitment to ministry. The Archbishop also washed the feet of several of his fellow clergy. Oils for anointing the sick and dying, for signing the cross at baptism and the oil of the chrism were consecrated.
In his sermon, addressed primarily to those in ministry, the Archbishop said that the ‘outcome orientated’ economic model did not serve the church well. “The church is not best understood as a business; it is a hope–filled expression of the Kingdom of God on earth grappling with that haunting phrase in the Lord’s Prayer: … as on earth, so in heaven …” he observed.
Archbishop Jackson said that deacons, priests and bishops, as well as lay people with a ministry to give, were called to a very particular type of servant leadership “as celebrants of hope, midwives of grace and pointers to justice”. But he suggested that the lives of those within the church context was bound up with a series of end products.
“This is something each of us urgently, radically needs to rethink; it is highly attractive; it is potentially destructive of ourselves and of others. It is made all the more complicated because we in fact have no product for sale, we have everything to give and, in a way, nothing to offer. For those of us who have siblings, spouses, offspring in what is referred to as ‘the real world,’ this is very confusing,” he explained.
He continued: “We need to resolve the tensions for ourselves through prayer to God, through support to one another and through outside help if that is what it takes. There is no shame in this – only fulfilment. In a very deep sense, we will never be taken seriously as ‘men and women of the world,’ and this can make us feel remaindered almost on a daily basis, if we let it get in on us and eat us. Personal prayer, openness to the presence of God in the people and the things around us that are free of charge and cost, the grace of trust and innocence, joy and gratitude will however give us a renewed self–understanding. These will help us to hold to what we hear the Jesus of St John’s Gospel say here: Now the Son of Man is glorified, and in him God is glorified … (34) I give you a new commandment: love one another; as I have loved you, you are to love one another”.
The journey and the process were what was important, the Archbishop said, rather than rushing through on the assumption that the end results were the true calling and the real prize.
You can read the Archbishop’s sermon in full here.
