The text of a sermon preached by Canon
Myles Davies at the ordination to the priesthood of Fr Martin
Jones,
Liverpool Cathedral, Sunday, 8th June 2008
___________________________________________________________________________________
About six miles north of Liverpool there stands the small village of
Little Crosby. It has long been the proud boast of the village that in
it there are no pubs, no paupers and no Protestants. The Blundell
family have been the squires of the village for centuries, and they are
one of the great Catholic families of South West Lancashire, So, to a
large extent, the proud boast still holds good.
When I was at theological college and in the first couple of years
after my ordination, my mother and I were good friends with the Parish
Priest of Little Crosby, Fr Laurence Anderton, known affectionately as
Pop. Pop Anderton was in his seventies, and he hoped very much to be
allowed to end his days at Little Crosby. Roman Catholic clergy have
never enjoyed the inestimable benefit of the parson’s freehold, and he
entertained a sneaking suspicion that the bishops followed a policy
known as last seen, first shifted! So he adopted the strategy of
avoiding at all costs any occasion where a bishop might possibly be
present. It served him very well, and he got his wish. I recall a
summer evening when my mother and I joined his many friends and walked
behind his coffin through the village as it was born to its last
resting place. Pop lies buried just inside the lych-gate of the church.
My mother and I often smile when we recall one particular conversation
she had with Pop Anderton. For some reason, I shudder to think why,
they got talking about the will of God. And Pop gave my mother a rather
wicked smile as he said, “Doreen, the will of God is a very wonderful
thing – especially when it happens to coincide with your own!”
Bishop Michael Henshall, for many years Bishop of Warrington used to
dine out on a tale of one of the clergy of the diocese who was
receiving gentle encouragement to move to a new parish. His response
was a little slow, but eventually he wrote to Bishop Michael that he
felt he would be a lot more sure of God’s will in this matter once his
wife had been to see the vicarage!
In a few moments, Bishop James will ask all of us if it is our will
that these 12 men and women should be ordained, and we shall reply It
is. Will we continually pray for them? We will. Will we uphold and
encourage them in their ministry? We will. We should not fail to notice
that these are our ordination vows today, as solemn and binding on us
as all the things those being ordained will also promise. There is
nothing conditional, nothing provisional about the support which is
being asked of us. Sometimes in ministry, the priest is called to be a
prophet, to speak God’s word to God’s people which it may be hard to
hear, something which may court unpopularity. The support we promise
includes those moments, and we must not fail to offer support through
all the days to come.
Is it their will that they should be ordained? In a former life as
Director of Ordinands I walked alongside ten of these twelve men and
women as they thought through their sense of God’s call and I saw them
through the testing process of going to a selection conference. This is
why it is such a privilege for me to have shared their ordination
retreat with them and to preach at this great service today. A bit like
Custar’s Last Stand, I suppose! As we sat and talked together
earlier on in their journey, there was often laughter and sometimes
tears. Some reminded me of my own sense of call. I am one of those who
can hardly recall when I did not believe and hope that God was calling
me to be a priest. Others received the call with much less certainty
and with far greater reluctance, but in the end all have found they
could do no other but to go forward and take the next step, perhaps
even hoping that somebody somewhere along the line might say No! And
perhaps we should beware this morning! For in so many conversations I
had over the years with those enquiring about ordained ministry, when I
have asked asking when did the call of God become real for you, on not
a few occasions, it was attending a great service of ordination, here
in this great building, when God spoke with the still small voice which
became more and more insistent as time went on. Is it their will that
they should be ordained? There will be 12 different responses to that
question this morning, but each of them have reached the point on their
journey when all they can do is to step forward in loving obedience to
God who calls them.
Most important of all: is it God’s will that they should be ordained?
One of the tasks of the Director of Ordinands is to organise the
retreat for those to be made deacon. In my first year of doing this at
Loyola Hall, the retreat conductor asked me to look after the service
of Morning Prayer at 8am on the Sunday morning, a couple of hours
before the ordination itself. This is a wonderful moment of stillness
before the excitement of the day begins. It happened that the reading
appointed for that service was chapter 3 of Paul’s letter to the
Ephesians. I found myself reading it slowly and reflectively, followed
by a profound silence. The reading was so staggeringly appropriate that
every year from then on I asked to lead that service and every year,
the reading always remained Ephesians 3. It became my last gift to
those about to be ordained before they passed into someone else’s care.
We heard part of that chapter a few moments ago.
It is when Paul gives glory to God at the end that a phrase comes
leaping out to me, nearly 33 years after I knelt where the twelve of
you are about to kneel. It resonates completely with my experience.
Paul offers glory to God who is able to accomplish far more than we can
ask or imagine. That sums up in just one phrase what God has given over
the years: more than we can ask, more than we can imagine.
The next moments of this service are not first and foremost about the
gifts and talents that these 12 men and women bring to their ministry –
though, make no mistake, their gifts are many. These next moments are
about all that God waits and longs to give, so that in you God will
accomplish more than you can ask, more than you can imagine. God
who calls is faithful. You have the wonderful support of those whose
love has sustained through the years of enquiring, testing and
training. God will go on forming you, so that you may tell the world
what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of
Christ, and to know it, though it is beyond all knowledge.
As you come forward to receive from God all that he now waits to give
you, our prayer for you is this:
May Jesus confirm your heart’s desire
To work, and speak and think for him. Amen.
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