Homily preached at the St James, Piccadilly for Christian Unity Week (Third Sunday in Ordinary Time)

This homily was preached by Fr Dominic Robinson SJ at the Church of St James, Piccadilly (Church of England)

Scripture Readings: Nehemiah 8:2-6,8-10; I Corinthians 12:12-30; Luke 1:1-4,4:14-21

Listening is something we’ve been focussing on a lot in my Parish over the last few months. Responding to Pope Francis’ call to a worldwide Synod engaging in a consultation exercise on the future of the Catholic Church we have been spending time in groups sharing ideas. But not just a talking shop, even thrashing out positions, but, at least Pope Francis envisages this, taking time to reflect and pray and listen carefully to what each other has to say. Who knows where this will go? It will take time to percolate and bear fruit. But it makes me think it surely must be good to reflect on our priorities as society and in our own lives at a time when the experience of this dreadful pandemic is surely, amid the anxiety, exasperation, great suffering and grief, surely teaching us something about who we are and what we can be as the human race, united in our diversity, called to a new strength together through our collective weakness, called to take stock of how we treat each other and treat the resources God has given us for the good of all.

And as we celebrate this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity our common calling as bearers of Christ to our world is something it would be good to ponder. Because to all of us Christians – from whatever country, whatever tradition, whatever background, are in this together as citizens of this global village and, regardless of our differences, of our agendas, of our political views, it is under his, under Christ’s authority, we are called to serve.

Under his authority. United under his authority to set free. The Spirit of the Lord is upon him as the Messiah, the Anointed One, to bring liberty to those who are shackled and new sight to the blind, to release us so we might embrace a new era where his reign. And it is his authority and his power which unites us all – Roman Catholics, Anglicans, all people of good will, so-called right or left wing, or in the centre . His authority is different to earthly expressions of power in society. This Jesus, who is the Christ, the Anointed One in whom the Father is well pleased and who is filled with the Holy Spirit, is invested with the power of God, as he has been from all time and will be for ever. And it is under authority we pray, work and live as Christians together, and through his transforming power we respond to our calling in this world of the now and the future – personal, communal, united together.

Because this transforming power changes the lives of the people around him. It inspires us to discover him in the most unusual of places and people. To uncover the gifts granted to us as Christians which impel us to work together and pray together, as St Paul taught. St Paul, whose background was a conversion of heart which changed his whole perspective on who Christ was, why he came, and where and in whom we might discover him anew. He is the archetype of the first disciples of Christ who “changed sides” to him; you might say to put aside their own squabbles, disagreements, prejudices, to put Jesus first. Not a tribe first, not a cause first, not a heroic leader first. No, to put Jesus – yes, to put God, now in human flesh as a divine person, first.

Others who will follow him around the towns and villages of Galilee realise this – there’s something different going on here. Word about his true authority, and all the subsequent healings and miracles will spread around the Galilean countryside: this is something different “with authority behind it”. With the power of God because this is no mere prophet, no mere man, but this man is the fullest expression of God’s authority in the world which breaks through any family, political, tribal allegiance. Jesus first. God first. The values of the Kingdom of God first.

Who is this Jesus to me and how does he transform my outlook on life? How does his authority break through into my life and impact on my own sense of personal calling, on my role in society? How does my faith in Jesus as my Lord and Saviour teach me how we rebuild the future together as we move into what Pope Francis is heralding as clearly a change of era. Not an era of change but change of era as we are called to move on from this global tragedy, this era also of political upheaval and conflict, this era when we have plundered the planet and the gifts God has given us to use wisely as good stewards of creation? For me at the very heart of my faith is that this Jesus is not just another good person who teaches us by his example - that is part of his appeal to the crowds in the Gospel stories - but there’s something more. To the first disciples it dawns on them there is something more to life which he points to which transcends groups of people – a divine destiny, a deeper intangible meaning in the midst of everyday life and work, something more than what we do in our jobs, however well we do them, something even greater than social concerns, charitable works, for all the good we do. It is rather in following the command of Christ on whose authority we place ourselves in the heart of society to build up his Kingdom.

May I suggest that for many this is a way of looking at the world that is quite difficult to accept at times. As a society we’re not always tuned into equating religious matters – or spirituality – from the perspective of divine or spiritual authority – authority for us is more to do with the secular, with democracy or bureaucracy – and we tend to think of what we accrue in terms of education, ability, status even, and what we do in society not so much as a gift from above but rather as something we deserve. But this is deeply unchristian. Everything given to us comes from God and has a purpose, even when it seems we cannot understand it. And we are called to use that for his kingdom. Even, although it’s been difficult to see that right now, the experience we have found ourselves in, this dreadful pandemic certainly not sent to us by a loving God but an experience which God invites us to learn from so we do not go back to a ‘new normal’ but which draws us more closely together to serve the Kingdom under one banner, the banner of Christ.

It is this authority of Christ which must be the beginning and end of what we’re about, who we’re about as faith communities, as Church. In a society where there are still in our working and social lives those we encounter who are frightened of the appeal to religious authority because they sound like fundamentalism or extremism or smack of a closed attitude towards the world, of an unwillingness to dialogue, of abuse of power. How can we counter that view together? How can we celebrate and commit ourselves to the Jesus who turns first towards the weakest among us, for that is also at the heart of what he’s all about? As we walk through the streets surely we cannot but be aware of the increasing homelessness all around us. But it’s on Jesus’ authority, not our own or own community’s or our own political agenda, we campaign for and for those who are increasingly forgotten by society. It is there on the streets we are called to bring his human face to our world, under his authority.

The Lord invites us to unite under his banner, to learn more what he is all about, to love more authentically as one diversely gifted Body of Christ . To be forever renewed and transformed as a united body by the Jesus who walked Galilee and now is present in our world through ourselves as we strive to show his face and repeat his actions of mercy, love, healing. Can I listen to his voice and respond to his call to show the human face of God to a world longing for healing, longing for mercy, longing across divides and differences for this God, a God in human form whose power to unite rests on an authority whose name is truth and mercy.