There are enough people ready to knock the Church without those of us on the inside adding to it, so I hope you will not take anything I say in the next few minutes as intended to pile on the agony; just mere reflections on that vexed question of how to make Christianity seem relevant in the modern age.
A couple of weeks ago, in another part of East London but not in the same diocese as us, a bishop and a parish priest spent two hours outside a busy station during the rush hour handing out apple pies to commuters.
Rather them than me; and it’s not difficult to imagine the kind of comments their behaviour provoked…the most common being ‘What on earth is the Church coming to?’
The idea behind it was to make people think about God as real and relevant in their lives and not ‘just pie in the sky when you die’.
Get it? Pie in the sky…apple pie!
That was followed by the wider Church trying to engage more effectively with younger people by inviting them to take part in a competition in which they would have to tell the Nativity story – the birth of Jesus – in 30 seconds.
And to help them an example was broadcast on Radio Four at a peak listening time…but it sounded more like a commentary on the 3.45 at Ascot. The idea behind it was that, in order to compete, the youngsters would have to clue themselves up on the story itself; and research had shown that relatively few had a real understanding of the true significance of Christmas.
The same thinking lay behind the idea of handing out apple pies at a busy station. It was part of Back To Church Sunday when those who do worship regularly were encouraged to invite someone to join them.
Now, both ideas were gimmicky; made to appear even more corny in a digitalised age when selling something or an idea has reached new heights in professionalism…and, frankly, the Church cannot compete with that – and there are many within the Church who would say it should not even think of trying to do so.
But to be relevant the Church has to be part of mainstream life, not ideologically separated from it – and there is the root of the problem. Is the Church bold enough to question if its methods of communicating with the wider population ever will capture the hearts and minds of those who think of it as boring and out of touch; or, as some people believe, is the message it exists to proclaim too precious to be compromised by that way of thinking?
No one can fault the message…so why is there a widening gulf between the Church and those it seems incapable of reaching – apart, of course, from the obvious reason that we never could be as good at that as Jesus was?
The magic of how he communicated is contained within the parables he used – the most familiar being the parable of the Good Samaritan; and he sowed thoughts in people’s minds which invited them to interpret the story themselves because, in that way, they would understand more clearly the relevance it had to their own lives.
In today’s gospel we have a fine example of that – and it does have relevance to what I was saying earlier about a bishop and a parish priest handing out apple pies to commuters at Stratford Station.
In fact, in today’s gospel reading we get two parables for the price of one; and how much more with-it can you get than that?
In the first Jesus talks of a king who was preparing a great wedding feast for his son and invitations went out well in advance; but when everything was ready and he summoned the guests to join him they insultingly refused. So the king sent out another invitation, but this time to what today’s gospel describes as the ‘highways and byways’.
In that brilliant and totally unique way of his, Jesus now invites us to work out what that means. And we start by realising that the king in the story is God and the son who whom he is preparing a great banquet is, of course, Jesus himself.
In the first part of the story those who refused to come to the great feast were the nation of Israel, who ages before that had been invited to be God’s chosen people…but when God’s son came into the world and they were invited to follow him and they contemptuously refused.
And in the second part of the story the people in the highways and the byways whom the king now invited were the poor, the beggars, the sinners and the Gentiles who never expected to be welcomed in the Kingdom of God…and who never thought of themselves as worthy of such a precious and charitable act.
The second parable contained within today’s gospel refers to a guest who appeared at the Royal wedding without a wedding garment…and it was a matter of respect that guests should be suitably adorned. The wise prepared for it; but the foolish didn’t and therefore were not ready when the invitation came.
Again, Jesus presents us with a picture which we have to complete and if we take the two parables together this is what they seem to be saying:
They remind us that Christianity is not intended to be gloomy and that is why Jesus likens it to being invited to a great feast; but there are different responses to that.
Some choose to get on with their own things while some others, who seldom regard themselves as worthy, respond to the appeal of Christ and are embraced by the open arms of God. The Grace of God, however, is not just a gift…it also carries responsibility.
The reference to the guest who was not wearing a wedding garment has nothing to do with the clothes people wear when they go to church…but it has everything to do with the spirit in which they do so. God’s wish is that we wear the garment of faith, of reverence, of expectation…and of love.
We can’t all be rich in the way life today defines it; but everyone can be enriched by experiencing those qualities…and, thank God, in the midst of all the dreadful things which happen today they are still to be found – and often in the least expected ways.
All of us will have our own story to tell of why we are here today and what it was that directed us towards the church.
I imagine that in the majority of cases it was some emotional moment; some need in our lives that we knew we could not answer ourselves and instinctively we turned towards God. I doubt is any of us really knows why or how that happened, because it isn’t like going to the doctor’s and getting a prescription; this is something beyond our understanding and which we can only feel within us…and which we know to be the truth.
And the role of the Church, in my opinion, is to be there when that need arises in people. The open arms of God are the open doors of this church; and we, if I can presume to say so, are its disciples.
Faith, reverence, expectation…love.
It’s a tall order; but, then, is anything worth having ever easy?
