Chrism Mass 2007 - Sermon

 

The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,

For he has anointed me.

He has sent me to bring good news to the poor and proclaim liberty to captives Luke 4

 

Avid readers of New Directions might know that I spent the first two weeks of March in Ghana at the invitation of the Bishop of Ho.  It was a pretty busy time leading workshops on the Eucharist for the clergy of the Diocese of Ho and the Diocese of Accra.   There was sadly little time for sightseeing except for one day when we were able to visit the fort at Elmina, founded by the Portuguese in 15 century, as well as the Fort at Cape Coast built by the British.  Elmina particularly is in a beautiful setting which belies its very dark past because from here, and other forts along the Ghanaian Coast, thousands of African men women and children were shipped across the Atlantic to a life of slavery in the Americas.  We were shown around by a very knowledgeable Ghanaian guide who told us movingly how those captured for slavery were treated before they were herded into ships like animals for the horrendous journey across the Atlantic.  The visit was made particularly poignant by the fact that we joined a group of 20 or so Afro-Americans who were on a pilgrimage to West Africa.  For them, as you can imagine, it was a very emotional experience. As a white person I felt somewhat ashamed.

 

In England we have this month been recalling the bicentenary of the abolition of this transatlantic slave trade and many people have been calling for apologies of one sort or another. I am not sure apology is the right word but we must acknowledge the part our country played in this appalling trade and the wealth we gained from it.  But there is little point in bemoaning the sins of the past if we are not prepared to assist the people of Africa today to trade equally in the worlds markets.  To our shame we still enslave Africans to a life of poverty.

 

If one thing is abundantly clear from this recent commemoration it is that the wounds of slavery are still deep and raw and there is a continual need for healing for many people.  The world has been brutalized by this barbaric practice and continues in need of healing.

I pondered this visit as I read the scriptures for today as Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah in the Synagogue.

 

The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,

for he has anointed me.

He has sent me to bring good news to the poor and proclaim liberty to captives

And to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free,

to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.

 

I wonder what John Newton made of reading such a passage after his conversion to Christianity while he was still shipping human cargoes across the Ocean.

 

The passage chosen by Jesus was originally about the return from Exile in Babylon to Jerusalem where they could celebrate the Jubilee year. But by the time of Jesus it was thought to refer to the coming New Age. In linking Isaiah’s prophecy to himself Jesus was making a great claim. He was the one to inaugurate this new age.  We are in this reading invited to ponder the mystery of Christ the anointed one; anointed by the spirit and sent on a mission to bring Good news to those most in need of it.  At the centre of that Good news is the person of Jesus himself, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead the ruler of the Kings of the earth Rev 1:5. He is, to use a phrase of the late Dominican Father Geoffrey Preston, ‘the sacrament of man’s salvation’.  That may seem to those outside the Church, and even for some of the faithful, meaningless but for the ancient languages of Latin and Greek to speak of salvation is to speak of healing.  Jesus is our Saviour because he is our healer, the divine physician.   He died to restore the right relationship between God and Man which is the source of our health – without that we are diseased. – not at ease with God, ourselves or with others. In him we can be healed of all the separates us from God- through him the way has been opened up to the Father.

 

As he was anointed for his mission so we his Church are anointed to continue his work.  We are anointed by the Spirit at our Baptism, incorporated into the Church with the same mission of proclaiming the Good news and to be healers.

 

The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me for he has anointed me

 

This annual Chrism Mass is for priests a key focus of the liturgical year as we renew our priestly commitment.  In some dioceses in America it is called a Mass of Collegiality as it expresses powerfully the relationship between bishop and priests, and priests with each other.  Nevertheless the first thing we must recognize is that anointing of all of us who make up the body of Christ.  Through the gift of the spirit at baptism and confirmation we have been empowered and strengthened to give witness to the one who is the hope of the world.  We can only do this if we allow the grace of the gospel to enlighten our hearts and heal us. Through the anointing of Baptism he has made us a line of kings, priests to serve his God and father. Rev.  We all share in this priesthood. This means we have a common calling to holiness- to offer our lives to God, as Christ did, to serve the Father through lives of self sacrifice, worship and charity. On Easter Day we all have the opportunity to renew our baptismal commitment as part of that common royal priesthood. 

 

But within this priestly kingdom God has anointed special servants, his ordained priests, entrusting them in a particular way to continue the sacred mission and ministry of Christ. Those of us who are ordained are ordained to service, service of this larger priesthood to which we all belong through baptism.  Today your priests, deacons and bishops express publicly and willingly a commitment to a life of service after the model of the Good Shepherd himself.  And if it is a life of service after the example of Christ by its very nature it is also a life of sacrifice.  I think it is sad that we seldom hear about that aspect of the ordained life; of living for Christ and for others and not for oneself. It is so foreign to much contemporary thinking about work and achievement and human identity defined in terms of personal fulfillment and development but it must be at the heart of a priest’s life.

 

Of course this recommitment for priests is a later addition to the Chrism Mass which always was and is for the blessing and consecrating of oils for use during the year but this is not accidental.. This renewal of priestly commitment is directly connected with the blessing of oils.  For you might say that together with bread, wine and water they are the tools of our trade.   They remind us visibly why we were ordained. We were ordained that we might be sent out to minister to people, for whom Christ so willingly layed down his life.  I think it was Cardinal Newman who when asked by his bishop ‘who are the laity? Replied that the Church the Church looking pretty foolish without them.  The priest’s life makes no sense without you, the people of God.  Priests are called to be servants and shepherds among the people to whom they are sent - says the declaration in the ordination of priests. 

 

The oils are used in the sacraments which are for Christ’s people, as signs of healing, sealing strengthening and sending.   Although the oil of the sick is particularly associated with Christ ministry of healing in his Church, all the sacraments at their core are sacraments of healing.  I have used the story of Bishop Maurice Maddocks before but it bears repeating.   He was asked on a radio programme:

‘Tell me, what do you mean by Christian healing?’

 He heard himself saying prompted by the Holy Spirit

‘Christian healing is Jesus Christ meeting you at the point of your need’.  

 

Christian healing is Jesus Christ. It is he who comes to meet us- a person -not some magical formula but the work of Christ to bring wholeness which is God’s will for us.  That is why he came.  Sacraments are personal encounters with this living Lord.  Confession and the Eucharist are healing sacraments. Even baptism and confirmation for we are, through those sacraments, intimately united with Christ for our salvation – our healing - so that we may by the power of his Holy Spirit working in us become the people he wants us to become if we open our lives to him.

These oils remind us that we are an anointed people, a sacred people, called to be, priests and people, agents of healing and the liberating message of Jesus, called to live and proclaim the Good News in a world that is often overwhelmed by secularism and division  - a world desperately in need of the healing love of Christ.

The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,

for he has anointed me.

He has sent me to bring good news to the poor and proclaim liberty to captives