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Sunday 13 July - Trinity 8 11am Choral Eucharist Preacher: The Most Revd Carlos Touché-Porter, Archbishop of Mexico Isaiah 55.10-13; Romans 8.1-11; Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23 Dear Sisters and Brothers I feel privileged and blessed to be here with you in this holy place. I have visited this cathedral many times before, not only to enjoy its beauty, but mostly to rejoice and celebrate its ministry and its witness as a true house of prayer for all people. Two highlights of my visits have always been my time of meditation and prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in the Harvard Chapel, and at the shrine of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes, one of my favourite saints in the Anglican tradition. He was one of the favourite preachers of his time, and his sermons have been described as 'witty, grounded in the Scriptures, and characterized by a kind of massive learning.' I cannot promise you that my sermon will be all of the above. But I do promise you that, at least, it will be mercifully short. I bring you greetings from your brothers and sisters in the Anglican Church of Mexico. Anglicans in Mexico? My answer is a joyful and grateful 'yes' but I have to avoid the temptation of turning this sermon into a history class, so I am only going to read a brief portion from an article published in Anglican-Episcopal World about the visit of the Compass Rose Society to Mexico in May 2007. 'The Anglican Church in Mexico, from the time of its origin in the 19th century, has been as varied and colourful as the country itself… We found in Mexico a vibrant, growing church with a strong Anglican identity. Quite poor in material things, we experienced the very rich commitment and hard work of its people, both clergy and lay, who serve with a deep sense of Christ's call to us to love and respect all human beings. Despite obvious obstacles, we all sensed the Church's heartfelt desire to go with God.' This is an accurate description of who we are, and I would also like to emphasize that we are a mainstream Anglican Church, where extremes are avoided, diversity is celebrated, and inclusiveness is the norm. A church where all are welcome, valued and respected. A true house of prayer for all peoples. And I would also like to add a personal note of introduction: I am one of the Primates of the Anglican Communion, and a patron of Inclusive Church. The first is a given, the second is my choice. I was raised in a church tradition that believes in the infallibility of a book. Later on, I considered joining a church tradition that believes in the infallibility of a man. I finally decided on the Anglican tradition, where only God is fallible. No second thoughts, no regrets, ever. As a fallible human being, I enjoy the company of my peers in a fallible church family that is not afraid to take risks, to break ground, and to walk into unknown territories, if that's what it takes to pursue the truth that will make us free, and to translate the Gospel into action for the sake of the world. In today's Gospel, Jesus has moved out of the privacy of the house and the synagogue, into the public arena. He is no longer speaking only to his disciples. Crowds have gathered by the lake, and he now addresses them in parables. The Parable of the Sower is the first to be recorded in the Gospels, and is, as far as we know, the first ever taught by Jesus. He tells parables, not to make the Kingdom of God clear to all, but to make that Kingdom sound as mysterious as it really is. This explains why it is so difficult to understand the deeper meaning of the parables, and why, when taken at face value, they are so easily misunderstood and made to sound like fairy tales. In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus explains, with remarkable realism, the different ways in which his audience is responding to the Gospel: the reasons for both the rejection and the reception of his message. Matthew makes it clear that, in this parable, Jesus is the sower and God's Word is the seed. He also makes clear, that the soil are those who hear the Word and respond to it with different degrees of acceptance. The sower and the seed are the same. It is the soil that brings about the difference. What is at issue, then, is not the ability of the sower or the quality of the seed, but the disposition of the soil. This parable is intended for two sets of people: those who hear, and those who preach the Word. Those who are soil and those who are sowers. To the first, it brings an invitation and a challenge to be a good and fruitful ground, and to the second it brings an invitation and a challenge to be persistent and patient. It is very important to remember that we are not called to be either soil or sowers, but both at the same time and always: to never stop receiving God's Word again and again; and, to never stop proclaiming it, again and again. In order to be good and fruitful soil, we need to keep our minds open, we need to be prepared to hear, we need to be willing to understand, and we need to translate our hearing into action. In order to be persistent and patient sowers, we need to trust that the harvest will surely come, in spite of some failure and waste. We must not look for quick results, but wait in patience and hope; and, above all, we always need to remember that our mission is to follow Jesus in sowing the Word, and that what becomes of our sowing is not in our hands: it is in the hands of God and of those who hear the message. God's Word comes to us in many forms and under many guises, so we need to be open to statements or insights or practices that question or challenge us, and may even force us to re-consider what we hold dear. It makes little difference who sows the seed. God works through both the well recognized and the most unlikely of sowers. It might be a leader of the Anglican Communion or one of its rejected members, it could be a so-called conservative or a so-called liberal, it might even be someone from outside, or someone we don't particularly like or agree with. God moves through God's fields freely, sowing the seed everywhere and anywhere... We, and only we, the soil, make the difference. The message of this parable is a timely reminder to us, the Bishops of the Anglican Communion, as we gather in England to participate in the Lambeth Conference. We have been promised, and many of us pray for, a radically different Conference from that of ten years ago; to which I, with my Palestinian background, refer to as "the Anglican al-Nakba" or "the Anglican disaster". But no-one, neither God nor the Archbishop of Canterbury, will make it different if we, the participants, do not set our minds on the things of the Spirit... if we do not attend with an open mind...more willing to listen than to speak... more willing to learn than to teach...more willing to question ourselves than to question others. In Mexico, my country, we say that if we do the same things, we will have the same results. And in the same way, if we offer God the same soil, we will have the same results: nothing but failure and waste, nothing but anger and bitterness, nothing but pain and sorrow in the heart of God. May we all, this time, journey to Lambeth as true brothers and sisters in the Episcopate, and as fellow servants and fellow pilgrims, in the assurance that no journey made in the footsteps of Christ can ever possibly be a failure or a disappointment, even if we end up far from where we expected to be when we set out. For as long as we end up where He calls us to be, the journey is always worthwhile. Let us then journey to Lambeth in an open and humble search for wisdom |
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