Sermon preached at St Paul's, Bedford, by the Bishop of Bedford, the Rt Revd Richard Inwood, at his Service of Welcome with Commissioning, St Paul's Church, Bedford

March 8th 2003

Introduction:

            Can I say at the outset, how lovely it is to see so many folk here?  It’s immensely humbling, and I count it a wonderful privilege to be welcomed as Bishop of Bedford today.

There’s a lovely link between the Diocese I’ve come from - Wakefield - and this job.  The first Bishop of Bedford in modern times was William Walsham How (1879-88) who among other things wrote the hymn ‘For all the saints’.  He left here in 1888 to become the first Bishop of the Diocese of Wakefield - a new Diocese created, as a contemporary record says, ‘because of the denseness of the population’!  Now in turn Wakefield has sent one of that dense population to be a Bishop of Bedford in Walsham How’s stead.

Last week I went away on retreat to think and to pray before becoming a bishop.  Quite by chance, in the course of the daily readings one morning, I read these verses from 1 Tim 3. 

Quote 1 Tim 3:1-3.

            It’s St. Paul’s checklist for bishops.  I found myself asking the question, can I tick all the boxes?  'Husband of but one wife' is easy, but the one that got to me was that a bishop should be 'above reproach'.  I don’t know how the +Christophers react to that, but I’m a long way off ticking that box with any confidence.

            It was a reminder to me - and a reminder to all of you - that bishops are human like anyone else, and that, from time to time, you’ll need to be patient with me (with us, maybe).  More importantly, it was a reminder to me that all I seek to be and to do for God can only be undertaken in and with his strength.  In her sermon at my consecration yesterday, Dr Christina Baxter, made that same point.

            A few minutes ago we all stood and made some promises about our intentions - but we did so, in each case, with the proviso that God would be our helper.  I need, you need, the life of the Spirit of God flooding in each day if we are going to get anywhere near being ‘above reproach’.

            In the sermon on the mount, Jesus puts it this way, ‘Be perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect’.  Just like that!  How much we need God’s own life within us if we are get anywhere near this.

            So that takes me to the 2nd reading we had in our service this afternoon from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians.  If I had to pick 2 verses from Scripture to have over my desk as I take up this new role, they would be the final two from that reading:  Col 1:28,29 quote.

*        To present everyone perfect before God - that’s the goal.

*         To labour with God’s energy - that’s the method.

            Well, this sounds great in theory - but how does it work out in practice?  I want to suggest it works out in three main areas of our lives: personally, in the church; and in the community and world.

1.  Personally

            Whether we are card-carrying Christians, or members of another faith, or if we have no faith at all, we would all agree that to be ‘above reproach’ is a hugely laudable goal.  What Christians believe is that the Holy Spirit of God is given to us for just that purpose.

            Our task is to open our hearts and lives

*         to the rushing mighty wind of God’s Spirit and let him blow away the cobwebs of selfishness;

*         to the fire of his Spirit and bring the dross to the surface and burn it all away

*         to the holiness of his Spirit, so that we are transformed into a people who are ‘above reproach’.

If I am going to be able to echo these words of St. Paul in my new ministry, then the work has to start with me; with me personally.

2.  In the church

            In the last 6 or 7 years or so, Liz and I have become what I call ‘amateur’ bird watchers; ‘amateur’ because our knowledge is pretty limited.  The real bird enthusiast lives for nothing else. 

            As an example, here’s a bit of bird trivia for you.  Make an intelligent guess at what the common name is for the species Puffinus puffinus.  The experts among you will know of course that it’s the Manx Shearwater.  Don’t ask me why!

            My point is simply this:  many of us are real experts when it comes to our interests, but when it comes to the things of God; to matters of faith; we often feel ‘amateurs’.  We don’t invest the time and effort in our faith which we invest in many other things.  But if the church, if Christian people, are to be effective then there needs to be an expertise, an enthusiastic interest, in the things of God.

            I have already said in print, and in interviews that I see my role as a bishop to be a teacher of the things of God; and especially in adult Christian education, in order to present every person mature; perfect; in Christ.  Indeed ‘apt to teach’ was on Paul’s check list for bishops I quoted at the start.

            Here we are dealing with matters of

*         life and death;

*         human suffering and human joy;

*         time, space, and eternity;

*         God’s love and human response; and

*         lives which are ‘above reproach’.

            Our government is concerned about ‘lifelong learning’ and rightly so.  I’m concerned with spiritual lifelong learning, and will be looking at ways to foster that.  Being a disciple means being a learner; sitting at the feet of the Teacher, our Lord Jesus Christ. The church might be transformed if we gave the same enthusiasm to our spiritual knowledge as we do to our sport, or bird-watching, or art, or music or whatever your passion might be.

            When I was preaching at St. Mary’s, Honley in West Yorks. a little while back, I asked what I thought was a rhetorical question.  'When did you last open your Bible, other than to read a lesson in church?'  A lady about three rows back said out loud, ‘A week last Wednesday’.  Good for you, I said; for your honesty and that it was only a week last Wednesday!  What would your answer have been? (Rhetorical question!)

            I know our Diocesan Bishop is very concerned about this; he’s in the process of writing to all the clergy about confirmation preparation because it presents such a wonderful opportunity of setting people off on this journey of lifetime learning about the faith.  Quote vv28,29 again.

3.  In the community and in the world

            In case you have become anxious about the drift of what I’m saying - that I’m pursuing a narrow inward-looking ‘churchy’ agenda, let me move to the third area where our faith needs to be active - in the community and in the world.

            The Christian faith is an outward-looking faith - our personal holiness and our Christian learning are to one end - that everyone - everyone - is presented perfect before God. That oft-quoted maxim of William Temple’s remains profoundly true that the church exists for the benefit of its non-members.

            Our calling is to be salt and light - to savour and to illuminate; to preserve what’s good and to light up what’s wrong.  Our responsibility is to ‘comfort the afflicted, and to afflict the comfortable’ as someone has said.  My task as a bishop is to lead the church in that task.  Sometimes that will be to bring comfort and a sense of the love of God into painful situations; sometimes it will be to bring truthfulness and God’s judgement into unjust ones.

            To do these things, I believe Christians can make common cause - with each other in the different Christian denominations, and with people of other faiths; and with people of none.  Christians do not hold the monopoly of working for the good of the community or working for what we would see as God’s will for his world.

            In Yorkshire where I’ve served in recent years, there has been a programme running called ‘Common Purpose’ where leaders of different parts community life have met regularly and sought to work together from their different perspectives on the problems faced by the community.  It maybe has happened here too.

            It’s my very strong belief that faith communities - and non-religious groupings for that matter - need not sacrifice beliefs which they hold very dear in order to work together for the common good.  What we need is a willingness to accept and respect those different views and to work together for common goals. 

            Of course, I long for people to share my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Of course, my Muslim friends would be delighted if I embraced Islam, but that doesn’t prevent us respecting each other in our beliefs and working together to build the sort of community that honours God.

            That will be my goal as I meet with as many people as possible in the communities of Luton and Bedfordshire in the coming months - and I look forward to it.

Conclusion

            In conclusion, could I say that this is just the tip of an iceberg of an agenda.  An agenda for me personally, for the church; and for service in the world.  Much more needs to be said; but let me finally remind you that Bishops can’t do it all or do it alone.  Please pray for us; and please work with us to transform the lives of ordinary people in the power of the Holy Spirit of God.  Amen.

Back to Consecration of the Bishop of Bedford

Back to home page