The Perkins Lectures: "Christianity in the Crucible"

Address by the Archbishop of Canterbury
Wichita Falls, Texas

Friday, 12 May 2000, 7:00 pm

Over the years, I have become aware how important conjunctions are in our common language. We can all think of occasions when we think we are being praised - whether it is a speech we might have given, a job we have done quite well or a good deed we might have performed. Imagine for a moment that your wife, husband, boss or friend has started off with what seems to be a bit of well deserved praise:

"That was a terrific presentation you gave, John! I loved the amusing joke at the beginning, you were relaxed and focused, and your four points were simply awesome."

By now you are getting a little anxious. He actually liked your joke and the word 'awesome' seems a bit over the top. And then it comes:

"But…but... it was such a pity that you went for two hours!"

The conjunction 'but' separates the good and bad news - and as a result, the first half of the equation (in this case, the 'good news') tends to go unheard. Most of us have sympathy with Noel Coward's famous remark: "I can take any amount of criticism as long as it is undiluted praise!"

The theme of this third lecture in this series entitled 'Christianity in the Crucible' is 'The Message of Christ in a Cynical Age'. May I remind you again that I am positioning these addresses in two contexts: that of Ephesians, and that of the busy and questioning world in which we live.

And in Chapter 2 of Ephesians, that important conjunction 'but' separates the two main sections of the chapter and focus the author's argument.

After the glorious climax of the final verses of Chapter1, in which we are told of the wonder of Christ, we come down to earth with a bump. Chapter 2 begins by presenting us with a somewhat deflating, if more realistic, view of humankind. Listen to verses 1-3:

"You he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."

We cannot talk about the message of Christianity without starting with the bad news. The weakness of liberal Protestantism or liberal Catholicism, for that matter, is its overly-optimistic view of humankind. According to such an optimistic view, the above description would be considered neurotic with its focus on sin and death. According to this understanding, humankind is basically good, decent and well-meaning, and all talk of the deep-rooted problem of sin is mistaken.

Now, if we follow that view through we shall continue to be astonished by our capacity to do evil things beyond our comprehension. How often we have heard people say on TV about a neighbour who, perhaps has done something particularly shocking: "He seemed like such an ordinary man. I simply can't believe he was capable of such an evil act!" But, of course, people continue to say that of the appalling crimes in Nazi Germany - committed, sometimes, by ordinary people who pleaded after the war, "I had no choice."

No. This view of humankind simply is not adequate. We serve our world best when we tell the truth about its condition. As Sir Winston Churchill once observed in the bitterness of World War II, "Man's power has grown over practically every sphere - except himself. He has cracked the power of the atom but he can't conquer himself." Whether Winston Churchill knew it or not, he was talking about the doctrine of original sin - although there is nothing original about it at all! G. K. Chesterton was once quoted as saying, "The doctrine of original sin is the only directly observable Christian doctrine."

Yet this honest diagnosis also sits very easily with another analysis of humankind - that of our potentiality for goodness, for love and kindness. We are not haters of mankind when we are led to agree with Paul's diagnosis of the human soul. You and I in this hall are capable of acts of heroism, bravery and kindness - but equally of depressing evil and debauchery.

Some sixty years ago, when Freudianism was the vogue in England, the Daily Herald had an amusing cartoon of a psychiatrist leading an ugly ape up to a very beautiful and sophisticated lady. The cartoon pictured the psychiatrist saying to the woman, "Allow me, madam, to introduce you to your subconscious!" In other words, we are much more complex than perhaps our appearance suggests.

And this leads me to the all-important conjunction which begins Ephesians 2, verse 4:

"But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

"But God…" And what a wonderful 'but', this time! After the bad news, we have the good news! God steps in and through grace offers us a new life in Christ. And the passage explores the impact of this Good News on human experience. No doubt it is echoed here. In my ministry, I have been surprised again and again by the power and goodness of God in redeeming people. Each one of us has our individual 'story' to tell. I trust, too, that that story is not something which happened to us once long ago, but a continuing experience of God's love and his ability to astound us by his goodness.

Yesterday I spoke about the Bible as God's vehicle of grace and its power to inspire. Let me tell you today of one of our Episcopal bishops in Africa - now retired. His story takes some beating. He was a Muslim, but not a very good one. One day, he stole some possessions from a missionary's home, including a Bible. Out of curiosity, he started to read John's Gospel, and by the time he got to Chapter 3 he was well and truly interested. He read that most famous verse, John 3.16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." And at that moment, he was soundly converted and went along to the missionary, confessed to his wrongdoing and asked for baptism! Eventually, the penitent convert trained for the ministry and became a Bishop.

And so, we have to consider both the bad and the good aspects of our society within this hopeful context: God's ability to surprise and confound us by making all things new.

We must be somewhat cautious when it comes to the altruism of humankind. Although much has been achieved in bringing hope to the destitute and the very poor, 1.3 billion people live on under one dollar a day, and a further 3 billion on under two dollars a day. In stark terms, this means that nearly 2/3 of the human family live in absolute poverty. I am angry and depressed at the same time by our acceptance of such gross inequality. No wonder in such circumstances that cynicism about the existence of altruism flourishes.

There is also cynicism about truth. We talk glibly these days about 'Post Modernism'. This curious term expresses the idea that we have lost even the certainties of science and knowledge. It claims that we have been let down so badly by all ideologies that we end up cynical about all claims for truth. Or, to quote theologian Graham Ward:

"Words like development, progression, advancement, meaning, profundity, and depths are supplanted by other words like dissemination, indeterminacy, deferral, aporia, seduction, and surface. Meaning is local."

Thus, Post Modernism says that Truth has been splintered into many 'truths' which are all supposed to be equally valid. Your truth is not my truth, but if it works for you - then ok!

And sadly, at times there is cynicism in Church life. We have become so used to the encroaching world of secularism that disillusionment and apathy have resulted. We have seen ministers come with their enthusiams and energy, and we've seen them leave with their tails between their legs. I once saw a sign which read: "It is not that the sheep look up to be fed. They are fed up and don't look!" And I think we can appreciate the innocent truth in another sign I saw outside one Church: "Don't let worry kill you - let the Church help!" Yes, sometimes it seems as though institutional Christianity crushes people more than helps them, and a cynical attitude towards the Church grows as a result. I lament this attitude deeply.

So how do we bring together two opposing realities - a cynical questioning world and the hope and goodness of the Gospel?

I was struck by these words spoken recently by Herbert O'Driscoll, a teacher and writer in the Anglican Church: "Our vocation at the beginning of the 21st century is to find what will be the viable forms of Christian life in this century." I believe he meant by that: "How may we truly be Christians for our world - not just interested in Church but the Kingdom, not simply concerned for survival but prepared to risk all for the King?"

So, in light of Ephesians and the "great love" with which God loves us and makes us alive together with Christ, let me dream a few dreams.

First, let us have generosity and joy in our approach to people. I am glad that John Wesley died an Anglican, because in spite of the fact that my Church lacked the vision to see what God was doing through the Wesley brothers, they belong to us too, at least in part. We, too, can learn from their eager longing for all to know God and his love. One particular emphasis within the Wesleyan tradition is the doctrine that God's grace is found even in those apparently far away from God. Wesley wrote:

"I believe the merciful God regards the lives and tempers of men more than their ideas. I believe he respects the goodness of the heart rather than the clearness of the head; and that if the heart of a man be filled (by the grace of God, and the power of his Spirit) with the humble, gentle, patient love of God and man, God will not cast him into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels because his ideas are not clear, or because his conceptions are confused."

That kind of hopefulness contrasts sharply with the defensiveness sometimes found in Church life. In my Church, there is a tendency to fence baptism in and offer it simply to those who are church-goers. I can understand this. Baptism is a precious sacrament of the Gospel and we feel that we need to keep it secure and safe from those who might abuse it or treat it carelessly. But the passage I quoted from just then reminds us that the conceptions of people are often confused. Sometimes they don't mean to treat the sacrament carelessly and because the Church has, perhaps, failed to show its importance to them, they are not to be blamed if they do misunderstand it.

If you will pardon a personal reminiscence, my parents were not practising Christians. When I and my brothers and sisters were born, my parents did what so many Church of England people did: they had us 'done' or 'christened'. I am so glad they did, because when I came to faith myself in my teens, a beautiful thought dawned on me: I belonged to a Church which counted me in - even before I counted myself in. I like that kind of Church: tolerant, hopeful and trusting.And I am glad that priest in London, so long ago, did not turn my parents away and thus did not spurn a future Archbishop of Canterbury!

But related to the concept of generosity, there must go another great truth associated with Wesley - expectancy that people can find and know God. This is what Wesley preached again and again:

"The moment the Spirit of the Almighty strikes the heart of him that was till then without God in the world, it breaks the hardness of his heart, and creates all things new…This change, from spiritual death to spiritual life, is properly the new birth."

And, quoting, from Wesley's contemporary and fellow hymn-writer, Dr Isaac Watts, who also wrote this of conversion, of rebirth:

"Renew my eyes, open my ears,
And form my soul afresh;
Give me new passions, joys and fears,
And turn the stone to flesh!"

You ministers, you lay leaders, never lose the freshness of expectancy. The expectancy that God can break into the most apathetic of lives. But - there's that conjunction, again! - it does demand that our preaching and our worship should also partake of that expectancy, hope, and joy. Growing churches are churches where sermons are lively and intelligent; growing churches are ones where people are made welcome; growing churches are one where the worship is never dull but joyful and relevant.

But that should not be taken to mean that every service should be a circus. I am all for contemporary forms of worship and music - within moderation! - but I am equally respectful of traditional forms of liturgy, too.

My third dream relates to a focus on spiritual formation. In this marvellous Epistle to the Ephesians, there occurs at the end of Chapter 3 these great words:

"That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever."

Note Paul's emphasis on powerful individual Christian living. The passage is a prayer: it is a remarkable passage in which the apostle addresses the Christian community in Asia Minor with remarks that are both simple and profound. He desires nothing less than the full conversion of those Christians; a radical rebirth in which Christ is formed in them. The power of the Church has nothing to do with wealth, influence and prestige, but everything to do with following the Lord into humiliation, death and resurrection. As I said in my last lecture, both in Ephesians and in the other Epistles very little attention is given to praying and pleading for numerical growth. The apostolic writers seem to have taken it as axiomatic that such growth will arise from individuals and congregations empowered by the Holy Spirit. Throughout Chapters 3 and 4 the pattern for Christian living is that of Christ himself. Paul is appealing for radical Christian living and believing that it will overflow in power for service and so give glory to God.

Christian power begins and ends with a fierce commitment to Christ and a desire to know him better. The writer E. M. Bounds once remarked: "The world looks for better methods, God looks for better human beings." Fundamental to that growth in knowledge and in the love of God, will be prayer. There can be no enduring evangelism or spiritual growth without a deep anchorage in spirituality; in prayer and waiting upon God.

Let me give two illustrations from two quite different schools of theology. D.L.Moody was one of the great giants of American and World Christianity. It was said of him that at most he had only three or four formal years of education in his life. Yet, that man was so given to God that he blazed a trail that still leaves scorch marks today. It was said of him that when he visited Cambridge University to lead a mission, the students went along to mock his grammar only to come under his spell and leave converted and changed men and women. And in turn, many of those clever students became missionaries around the world - like the great C.T. Studd, one of the Cambridge Seven. The secret of D.L. Moody? There was none - only his great love for Christ and its base in prayer.

I think also of Bishop Edward King, who was a contemporary of Moody but I doubt if they ever met or if they even knew of one another. King was a brilliant scholar who became a priest in the Church of England and who devoted himself to ordinary people. He was a truly humble man. He was very much an Anglo-Catholic and a more Christ-like person it would be hard to find. King became Bishop of Lincoln and took over a diocese in a very depressed state. It was said of his clergy that "one third were out of their minds, one third were going out of their minds - and one third had no minds to go out of!" But King loved them, encouraged them, praised them for the efforts they made, scolded them when he had reason to. Gradually morale flowed back, congregations grew, life returned. And it returned because the clergy and lay people saw King in action. He used to visit the poor railway boys and gradually befriended them. They concluded that he must have been a railway boy once because of his deep knowledge of their conditions!

You see, it is rarely a question of knowing the right technique, of belonging to the right school of theology, of knowing the right people - it comes down to your own walk with God and the "power which is at work within you."

In this passage from Ephesians, Paul expresses an incarnational principle: the same power that dwelt in Christ dwells in you; the Christ who called the first disciples to him now calls you and me to follow him. Here is a most important guideline for us to heed. In our ministries we should place more priority on the nurturing of individual Christians. We should begin with ourselves, for we can only pass on what we have already learnt in experience. But the power that Paul is talking about is nothing less than maturity in loving relationships. This is the character of Christian power. The power the early disciples discovered was something unique and distinctive. It was a power that bore no similarity to any other sort of power. It was not politically dominant; it was not intellectually unquestionable. In many respects it was a very vulnerable power. In one sense the first Christians were no match for the authorities of the day; but in another sense they were more than a match. Faith triumphed over the sword - and it always will.

The fourth and last dream follows on from the point I was making about Edward King; Christianity has to be lived and put to work. I have always resisted a sharp distinction between evangelism and mission. True evangelism is as much about the Kingdom of God as is healing the sick or caring for the poor. They belong together. Evangelism which isn't interested in issues of life and death is not the evangelism that Jesus taught; and mission which is not interested in the spiritual destiny of men and women is merely social work, not Christian mission. "By your fruits they shall know you," said Jesus to his disciples. So, you see, I would hope every church is relevant in some respect to the community in which it is set. What are you offering to young people? How are you serving those in real need? Is your church concerned for the world Church? Yes, I know of the effective work of all traditions abroad - but is your local church supporting the work of Christians overseas?

So, in a world which is questioning, cynical about any final expressions of truth, cynical about religious longings and answers, there is no simple 'message' which will cure all ills. And Christ never promised one. Read the Gospels and you will find more questions from him than answers. I recall years ago a young woman who came to see a friend of mine. She was a lovely person but her life was in a real mess. The day she saw him she was wearing a tee-shirt with the message on it: "Jesus is the answer." And my friend said to her: "Jean, Jesus never claimed in so many words to supply answers. He said 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.'" In other words, walking with our Lord is more of journey than a seminar; more of an adventure than a treatise; more of a dialogue than a monologue. And that is why following Jesus Christ today is such fun and so worthwhile. Let us travel together and share his message with our needy world.