5th SUNDAY OF EASTER

There are many reasons why fewer people attend churches these days, but one of the, without doubt, is our modern reluctance to join organizations. Political Parties suffer from it, Trade Unions suffer from it, as do smaller local groups like the Scouts, the Guides and many others. I bet there isn’t an organization in the whole of North Ayrshire which isn’t struggling with it in one way or another. And the Churches suffer from it too. It’s not uncommon nowadays to hear people say that they have no problem with belief in God, that they consider themselves ‘spiritual’, but that they struggle with the Church. So much so, that many who say they still have faith in God have given up attending Church, claiming they no longer have any need for it. To which all I can say is that I, too, struggle with what is known as the Institutional Church. Like them, I have no problems with God either, but the Church I am part of has always been the major source of pain in my life, as it constantly frustrates, disappoints and, not infrequently, appals me. So do we need Churches? Do we need organizations and structures? Could we manage just as well without them? Well, that is the question I would like to reflect on today. And my starting point is that first reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

In it, we find Paul and Barnabas at the end of the first of Paul’s three great missionary journeys. They had set out to spread the Good News of the Resurrection, but one of the things they very quickly discovered was that if the small groups of converts Paul made were to remain faithful to what they had heard and were to persevere in the faith, some kind of basic organization had to be set up. And so we heard how, in each of these communities they appointed elders, men of good character who would act as leaders and hold the group together. Within a few years, in fact, the early Church had developed quite complicated structures. Experts still argue about what exactly these were, but by the time of Pauls’ death there were already the beginnings of what we now know as bishops, priests, deacons, elders and so on. Quite simply, it had to happen. The new embryonic Church, just like any embryo, grew and developed its own equivalent of arms and legs without which it could not have survived. Like it or not, human society needs structure and organization, and if you want to see what happens when there are none or when they fall apart, just have a look at places like Afghanistan today.

With these structures, however, go dangers, and the whole history of the Church demonstrates this. With structures goes power and power corrupts. The structures set up by Paul were designed to provide those young Churches of 2000 years ago with the support they needed to survive and function effectively as communities of faith in the world. The basis of their life together was to be the Gospel, the idea being that, by living according to the teaching of Jesus, these communities would become living examples of the new heaven and new earth the second reading spoke of. “I give you a new commandment” says Jesus in the Gospel, “Love one another….. By this” he says, “Everyone will know that you are my disciples.” And this is what the Church was always meant to be. This is what we are meant to be as a parish community. Like the people in Paul’s day, we are called to be a community of faith, a people committed to living by the values of the Gospel in such a way that we become living witnesses to it. The second reading told us that the world of the past is gone and that God is making the whole of creation new. By the way we live we are called to model that new creation for the people around us and be living signs of it in the world.

Sadly, however, it has not always been like that. Structures designed to enable this to happen have time and time again been used to produce the exact opposite effect from what was originally intended. Called to wash each other’s feet, called to be communities where the greatest become the least and where those in authority serve, the Church has far too often adopted instead the values and ways of the secular world. The result has been the abuse of power at every level in the form of corrupt Popes, Bishops lording it over people, living in palaces, expecting to have their hands kissed and dressing up in purple and fine linen like the nobility of their day. Titles like Cardinal and Monsignor and the absurd dressing up that goes with them, which had nothing to do with the Gospel and everything to do with human ambition and the desire for recognition and advancement, are a constant reminder to us of how far the Church has so often drifted away from the person and teaching of Jesus. And even these examples are fairly superficial compared to the deep rooted corruption which quickly finds its way into the Church when the people within it are moved by spirits other than the Spirit of God, perhaps the two most destructive been power and greed. If there is one thing everyone is agreed on around the issue of sex-abuse in the Church it is that at its root lies the abuse of power. And if we are to believe those who study these things and write about them, the next great scandal in the Church will be about money and greed. And if you want the equivalent of a tip on a horse, remember the name Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of a group known as the Legionaries of Christ.

And so the answer to our original question, Do we need structures? Do we need the Church?, has to be “yes, but.” To be a Christian is to live in community with others and, as Paul and Barnabas quickly discovered, it is not possible to do that without some kind of structure and organization. But these structures must be constantly monitored and renewed in the face of the dangers which are inherent in them. They are human structures and yet, at the same time, they are called to be something infinitely greater, signs of God himself, and given the human capacity to corrupt what is in itself good, this is only possible when those who make up the community are men and women of deep prayer and spirituality, committed to the Gospel and focused on the person of Jesus.

So pray that we will be such people and that together we may become such a parish.

BIDDING PRAYERS

Called to be living signs of the kingdom; vibrant communities of faith committed to the values of the Gospel; a people who show the world what it means to love as we have been loved by God; a Church where leadership and authority are about service and not power, we continue, as we have always done, to fall short. And so we ask God to stir in us today a deep understanding of what it means to be the Church and a profound desire to become all what we are called to be.......Lord hear us

We pray, in particular, for all who exercise authority in the Church. We pray especially for Pope Benedict and all those who hold senior positions in Rome. Such positions of power can be spiritually very dangerous. Power corrupts and no one who exercises power is immune from its evil influence. And so we ask God to give those who have power in Rome the grace they need to remain faithful to the example of Jesus who came into the world, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life for others.........Lord hear us

The Second Vatican Council called on the whole Church to develop the role of lay men and women in the Church and this has not been easy for many priests. It has meant a change in the way they see their own role in the Church, and many have not only resisted it, but have also struggled to understand the thinking behind it And so we pray for priests who, stuck in a way of thinking which is out of date, still want to hang on to the status and power which was once synonymous with the priesthood..........Lord hear us

Equally, however, the vast majority of lay people have, up to now, been reluctant to grow up and take their full place in the life of the local Church. Called by baptism to share in the priesthood of Jesus himself and to be his witnesses in the world, they have preferred to remain passive, even infantile, in the way they have exercised their membership of the Christian community. And so we ask God to raise up many men and women of mature adult faith in the Church today..............Lord hear us

The temptation to seek power and control over others is deep within us and is not the exclusive prerogative of the clergy within the Church. Lay people, too, can be corrupted in the same way. Even the simplest jobs which people exercise within a parish can, if we are not careful, become little power bases as we hang on to them, object when new people come along and treat them as our personal fiefdoms. And so we pray that this parish will always be free of such abuses........... Lord hear us

On Thursday of this week we will elect a new Government. And so we pray for all those who are standing for election both nationally and here in our own constituency. We pray that all who are elected will enter Parliament in a few weeks time filled with a desire to serve the people of Britain rather than line their own pockets or simply further their careers. And we pray that whoever forms the new Government will serve the whole people and always make the needs of the poor their highest priority...........Lord hear us.