CLONFERT CATHEDRAL SERMON APRIL 3 2011
Jesus says that the blind will see and those who see will become blind (John 9:39).
In order to heal a physically blind man he brought him into contact with two ordinary elements of creation, earth and water, that the man took for granted. Familiarity breeds contempt. Jesus used this healing as a parable of what he wants to do with the eyes of our souls. We who live in holy places need Jesus to open our eyes to the glory of God in the things we’ve got used to.
As you know so well, the life of Brendan of Clonfert is famous across the world, but no doubt it’s a different thing to live here. My own Holy Island of Lindisfarne draws pilgrims from across the world, but it’s a different thing to livethere. Coping with ourselves and people around the corner is sometimes all we can manage, without God’s help at least. How can we bridge the gap between past glories and Monday morning routines? The birth of Jesus at Bethlehem, and\ the many little Bethlehems that can spring up in our back yards teach us that the invisible God can come to us through things that are visible. God can open our eyes to fresh expressions of His life among us today;. Rowan Williams, the symbolic head of the Anglican Communion, and perhaps the first Celtic Archbishop of Canterbury, has called upon what he calls ‘the inherited church’ to invest money and time in fresh expressions of church. This could be a life-saving call to you here, and to us at Lindisfarne, in our places of ancient Christian inheritance.
These fresh expressions can have deep roots in our unique inheritance. Dr. Christie Cunnicliffe, your archaeologist here, told me that Anglo-Saxon sites are different to Gaelic church sites. Anglo-Saxon sites follow an ordered blueprint laid down by one person. The Gaelic sites grow organically around one centre – the place of prayer, the church. It is an organic, intuitive, connected growth of community. Out of the heart of constant prayer grew monastic villages of God. Last month I met people in Dublin who are exploring the current surge in what people call a new monasticism. This is a recovery of ancient daily disciplines by married as well as single people in ordinary jobs.
When the boy Brendan asked Ita, his spiritual foster mother what were the three things most pleasing to God, she replied: Purity, simplicity and generous love. Those three principles are basic to the Way of Life of many new monastic expressions, including The Community of Aidan and Hilda which I serve and which is rooted in Ireland. Like Brendan, we each have an anam cara, a soul friend with whom we can share our faith journey. When someone makes their vows to follow our Way of Life we say they are Taking the Voyage of the Coracle, and we read words from the Life of Brendan. We invite those who have heard the call of God’s wind-like Spirit to set sail in theocean of God’s love. We say ‘Be ready for the Spirit to lead you into wild, windy or well-worn places in the knowledge that God will make them places of wonder and welcome. Sail forth .knowing both the frailty of your craft and the greatness of your God.’
Two of us and Rector Alan met with the Bishop the other day and told him of these links between The Community of Aidan and Hilda and the cathedral. He encouraged us in the hope that such links might grow.
It is important that these fresh expressions of our ancient faith are authentic and true to our spiritual DNA. Someone who is studying new monasticism in Dublin said ‘God save Ireland from the Macdonaldisation of new monasticism’. You are not meant to follow every marketing initiative from other lands: you are meant to follow your own godly intuition.
When Brendan died at the age of ninety three over at his sister’s place he made them promise to bring his body back here because this would be his place of resurrection. We encourage everyone to let their feet follow their heart until they find their place of resurrection. God open our eyes to his presence in the here and in the now, God help us to listen to our hearts, and God lead us into somenext steps, some fresh expressions, that reveal his resurrection presence among us