Text of Sermon Given by the Right Reverend John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop of the U. S. Episcopal Church, at the Closing Service of the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury Cathedral, on Sunday, August 13, 1978.
Episcopal News Service. September 14, 1978 [78252]
St. Matthew 28: 19-20. "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, Amen."
Jesus Christ continues to call us to His mission, the apostolic commission is clearly given in these words of the Gospel. Bishops of the Church are not called to debate, amend or approve the Lord's command. We, with all of the Church, are called to faithful obedience. "Go," says the Lord, "teach, incorporate, obey and share the Christian discipline and I will be with you into the new age."
Today I stand here in the pulpit of this historic Cathedral, where every bishop of the Anglican Communion would be honored to stand. In the spirit, come and stand with me. Come in the name of Christ, who calls us to this place. Come and stand with Jesus Christ and look with Jesus at the world today.
Together, let us see what He sees: Children, hungry, neglected, abused; youth, frustrated, addicted, mis-led; men and women, confused, searching for identity and fulfilment, subjects of anarchy and license, lacking responsibility and freedom; victims of lust and greed, ignorance and fear; aged people, neglected like children, displaced, abandoned, despairing.
See people uneducated, unenlightened, unemployed, with no constructive work or sense of purpose, no developed ability to make a contribution to life.
See nations, races, tribes, families in greedy competition and oppressive conflicts.
See energy for life wasted or used for death.
See societies claiming abortion to be a right, condoning fornication and pornography, and measuring life by physical gratification and material possessions.
Behold cities of the earth plagued and dying, boiling pots, flesh pots, places of political corruption, of economic speculation and usury, destroying life where life should be supported, developed, enhanced.
See farms and fields and forest, streams and rivers, even the oceans, ravaged, polluted, poisoned.
Look at organized religion, distracted, divided, pre-occupied with internal problems, failing to coordinate and use talents and resources in responding directly to human needs, failing to serve God's purpose in many places.
See bishops often entangled in our pride, embarrassed by our failures to gain recognition and leadership, so engaged with the idols of self-righteous idealism that we neglect to tell, reflect, to demonstrate and to share the good news of love, forgiveness and service to and for others. See the need for repentance and redemption. See the need for reconciliation and restoration. To look at the world with Christ is to see a great deal more than sin and failure. He sees life as it is meant to be. Through Christian perspective see the beauty revealed and made manifest in creation, the inherent order, symmetry, relationships. "God saw it to be good." Observe emerging renewal. See the created evidence of the Creator, the signs of hope, the potential possibilities of the realization of the words "Justice and Mercy", "Love and Forgiveness," "Compassion and Communion", "Joy", "Peace and "Grace".
From sunrise to evening star, look out and around with Christ, the pure snow on the mountains, the cleansing waves of returning tides, the sheltering forests.
Behold brightly colored birds on the wing, new buds on bush and tree, the dancing children, the smiling faces, the helping hands, the bread and wine of life being offered and shared. See the gracious offering being shared in return through that offering. See the life sharing and share the vision of the One who watches over all.
Those who see with Christ also hear the call to come and go with Christ. "Come and go with me" is the message from this pulpit, this place originally dedicated to Christian outlook and Christian mission. "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" This place came to be as an apostolic center, built by those like Augustine, who had been "sent" on apostolic mission in Christ's name; built to be a place for worship, praying, training, sending. We who are now gathered here were called - are called "to be sent". Our vocation is to be prime Christian missionaries. Our only valid claim to primacy is through obedience to our missionary vocation as Christians. Otherwise our claims are presumptuous and our primacy arrogance. Our purple shirts and scarlet robes, our tongue-shaped hats and guilded staffs border on the ridiculous unless worn and carried with such grace and humility to be clearly recognizable as signs of a primary Christian missionary.
In every place from whence we've come and where we are presently serving, there is need for more effective and disciplined Christian mission. No one of us lives in a totally just and peaceful society. Human ills are legion. There are many in every country, city and village who have no experience of the life of and in the Lord Jesus Christ. We all know there are areas of this world where identified bearers of the Christian Cross are excluded. More people on this earth today are turning away from or ignoring the Cross of Christ than are being converted and following Christ. Church programs and the sponsoring of great causes wherein Christ is not identified most frequently become subjects of judgmental resolutions dedicated to self-justification. The Way of Christ, the Christian mission cannot be redirected to an earthly utopia. The Christian mission is the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, the sharing of life through Jesus Christ.
Bishops share a special responsibility among the members of Christ to share the Word who is life with all who are being separated from life. Christ calls each of us to go with Him on our many different roads throughout the world. "Come," He calls, "go and serve with Me!" "Come and serve with Me" is the keynote of the Christian Gospel.
Come and make your offering to me and through me, says the Lord. Inasmuch as you serve even the least of my brothers and sisters -- those who have the least -- you serve me, says the Lord.
Service to others, caring, loving service to others is the world's greatest need. Service to others, all sorts and conditions of others, is the basic function and lesson of the Gospel in Christian mission. How well do we understand that to be a Christian is to be a loving servant?
In the Christian household the bishop serves as a steward. "Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful" (1 Cor. 4:2). Jesus Christ does not demand that we be successful. He only requires that his stewards be faithful, responsible to Christ in His mission.
How does a Christian steward respond in faith? By giving an accurate account of the Gospel of Christ. People in this world can't recognize Christ, can't know Christ, be drawn to Christ, become Christlike unless they know the life of Christ. "How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?" (Rom. 10: 14-15).
A prerequisite for the office of bishop is to tell well the story of Jesus. Need we be reminded that to tell well the story of Jesus, one must know well the life of Jesus? The Christ of experience is an impossible abstraction for those living in time and space without knowledge of the Jesus of history. If we expect the world to accept the Church's mission seriously, we must respond to the request: "Sir, we would see Jesus".
The world needs to be convinced of His coming, to be taught His teaching, to learn His service, know His forgiveness, experience healing and feeding through Him, heed His warning, understand His dying, realize His resurrection. If the reign of God and the Mission of Christ is to be served in this world by us who are bishops, if we are to minister healing to human ills, improve morals and serve justice and peace, people must hear the Jesus story from us and see the Jesus discipline in us.
As we teach with the parables of Jesus, we must become parables of Jesus. The purpose of bishops, like the first apostles, is to be a symbol, a representative, a reminder, a recaller of Jesus Christ. When a bishop stands in the midst of the faithful at the Holy Table, when a bishop ordains and sends the clergy, when a bishop confirms and commissions lay persons, when a bishop speaks to the civil authorities, when he preaches and teaches the Gospel to all he can reach, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, a bishop is meant to be like Jesus, in serving, in offering.
To be a servant of the servants of God is a classic description of the bishop's role. Our offering is to help others with their offering, to serve others in order that they can voluntarily serve and share the abundant life with others. In Christ, love and life are shared through service.
Some are called to serve in the complex cities, some in rural areas, some in mountain provinces, some on island clusters. In every place we are called to relate to the Lord Christ, to lift up, to restore, to feed and teach and heal, to cheer and to encourage, to help one another serve others.
In every place we have opportunity for good stewardship and more effective service. In every place the Gospel call is: "Come and live with Jesus Christ". Come and live with Jesus Christ: from any Christian pulpit the authentic call to come, and stand, and look, and go and serve is the call to live with Jesus Christ; to live and share life in Christ in this world, to know and serve Him, whom to know is life, eternal life, and to serve becomes perfect freedom.
Our vocation is not to pious posturing and social manipulation, to debate and division, to self-righteous, idealism or self-condemnation. Our vocation is to come and stand with Jesus Christ; recognize the needs and opportunities for Christian mission; go where we are sent; serve with the people of the Church wherever we find ourselves and share the life Christ graciously gives.
The spiritual renewal needed among us in the Church requires prayer, loving cooperation and disciplined coordination of our talents and facilities more than we have as yet realized. If the Church is to share the more abundant life with the other human beings in this world, our provinces, dioceses, congregations, our seminaries and schools must become "seed-beds" and vineyards of praying Christians who hear and learn and tell and share the life of the Gospel.
Pray, dear brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit will renew us to offer ourselves faithfully in Christian mission -- to the glory of God, the renewal of the Church, and the gathering of the people of the whole world into the community of justice and mercy, love and peace.
"Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever He has commanded us; and Lo, He is with us always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."