Rolling over. Rolling on.

 

SERMON PREACHED AT St PAUL’S, ARROWTOWN 

and

St PETER’S, QUEENSTOWN

FEAST OF ST PETER AND ST PAUL (June 29^th) 2025

 Final sermon of fulltime ministry

 

Matthew 16:13-19

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

I would of course be telling something other than the truth if I claimed that it wasn't just a little on my mind that this day is the last of a stipendiary ministry reaching back 38 years. It is a happy coincidence that we observe today the feast of the combined Saints Peter and Paul, who happen to be the saints after whom the two churches of this parish are dedicated. This parish, this faith community has provided such a heartwarming closure to my career, though perhaps not my vocation.

The unusually brief gospel reading makes it clear to Peter that he was to have a pretty significant place in what scholars call salvation history. I make no such claims for myself. It does though give me opportunity for me to cast my mind back over four decades of preaching, and a fraction less than that or presiding at Sunday services. To think back on what has been I guess a little more colourful a career than I expected when I was ordained in 1987.

This little interaction between Jesus and Peter is a broad hint that that following Jesus is going to be pretty significant. The changes in Peter’s life were mind blowing. He had to make huge alterations in the years before his martyrdom.

For me today the biggest point of reflection is the huge change that has taken place as what we call Christendom, in which Christianity was an official, almost imposed religion across vast swathes of the planet, has crumbled and disappeared into history.

In my early years as a priest I was often called on to breathe something of God’s peace and love into peak moments in human lives. I conducted many weddings, baptisms and funerals, civic functions, human crises. Few of those who called on me and my colleagues for those ceremonies were actively owning or following Jesus, but most had a sense that language of faith was appropriate in critical life-moments.

I have said often that the great current work of the God’s Spirit is the stripping away of assets that once gave us a sense of cosy complacency. Clergy in particular, consciously or otherwise, could too often take their role as an invitation to power and its abuse. There was too often temptation to wallow in a sense of entitlement, self-importance. I’m sure I was no exception. I made mistakes. There were I think Christ-bearing moments, too.

Peter went on to experiencer the cost of following Jesus. The, for want of a better word, “rockship” to which Jesus called Peter was of the hardest granite. This was no money for jam. No money at all, in fact.

My early days of ministry were remnants of the days in which belonging to a mainstream church could provide kudos in society. That was something of a downside, but also provided inroads into society. “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”

Some abused their status. Thank God most people that I served with and amongst, ordained and otherwise, made every effort possible to have integrity as they carried gospel words and actions into the places to which they were called and in which they lived.

I speak of a word of God’s Spirit. I have said it often, but I believe it is because we are now called to live solely, to proclaim Christ and his resurrection solely, by our authenticity. Our infrastructure is crumbling, and while in this parish we are unlikely to see it for a while, generally it is unlikely that we will be able to maintain expensive buildings and stipendiary clergy. There will be a tiny handful of exceptions, privileged to be so. Great responsibility comes with that privilege. Responsibility to nurture faith beyond our boundaries.

There is something hypocritical in my saying this after four decades of privileged existence! I know that. In a few weeks Bishop Anne, as I am getting used to calling her, will be ordaining four clergy. None of them will be ordained to what used to be called a living. They will be ordained to live and serve our God on their merits. They are tomorrow’s paradigm: non-stipendiary servants of God. As you are. As I will be, now.

The future, though, is God’s. It is full of excitement, challenge and gospel reward for this faith community and for all of us as we seek to serve God wherever God places us.

The  faith will go on. It will go on in this place and it will go on across the globe. These are exciting times to be following in the footsteps of Saint Peter and Paul. May God help us to do so with integrity.