Sermon on Maundy Thursday by the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt
Rev James Jones
"Sacred Love"
5 April 2007
I’ve always had a healthy regard for fire ever since as a child I accidentally set fire to a whole island! We were living in the Far East on an island off Singapore Harbour. I was about four and playing with matches, lighting a bit of grass then stamping it out with my feet. I repeated this until eventually the whole field was ablaze. It’s one of my earliest memories although memory does not recall what my father did – I think there’s a syndrome which blocks out the really painful memories!
The power of fire to purge, to refine and to consume is an image that the prophets of the Old Testament used to convey the authority of God to judge the world. It’s there in the New Testament too. Although there are many adjectives to describe God in the New Testament there are only four nouns used to portray him. “God is Love” (interestingly only twice in the whole Bible, never in the Gospels and never on the lips of Jesus), “God is Light”, “God is Spirit” and “God is a Consuming Fire”.
Whenever we invoke this image such as praying to Jesus to impart the celestial fire and kindle a flame, we should be aware that it is dangerous not only to play with fire but to pray for fire.
“A flame of sacred love” is not like some harmless magiglow flickering over fake coals that you see through thick glass on a modern gas fire. No, the “flame of sacred love” is a force to be reckoned with. It’s not even like those exquisite scenes in paintings by Rembrandt such as “The Adoration of the Shepherds” where the light seems to come from the white heat of a fire within the crib itself irradiating all those gazing upon the Christ Child. No, the flame of sacred love consists of an “inextinguishable blaze” that has an intensity that cannot be doused or overcome.
It is this sacred love that stirred our vocation to follow Jesus and to minister to him and for him. It’s as if when we heard Jesus interrogate Peter with his persistent question “Do you love me?” We too said “Lord, you know that I love you”.
The flame of this love consumed, all be it for a moment, all other ambitions and all other desires so that we were again, all be it for a moment, able to say “Amen” to the prayer of the Church at our Ordination:
“Send down your Holy Spirit upon your servant for the office and work of a deacon, of a priest, of a Bishop in your church”.
I am not pretending for a moment that before and since those holy moments there have not been other things competing for our affection, but I am recognising that in that moment of “Amen”, in the instant of obedience, the sacred flame, the consuming fire, was able to singe, and purge and erase in a blaze all other distractions.
As I have sometimes said to ordinands on retreat - prior to ordination in my Bishop’s Charge I vividly remember feeling low on my own ordination retreat. I was conscious of the enormity of the call and of the poverty of my soul. Also I was worried by the focus on myself and aware of my own shortcomings. It wasn’t until the great West Doors opened to the procession and let out the sound of the congregation singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” that I realised that ordination was not about me but about God. His purposes. And His love. In that moment the flame of sacred love burnt away all other distractions and filled me with a desire only to do His will.
But I stand before you as your Bishop and confess like you since that moment other objects have found their way to the altar of my heart. That is why on such a day as this when we come to renew our commitment to follow, to serve, to minister we need to pray for that consuming fire to deal with those things that are so flame-resistant to God’s love.
Read the Gospels and hear how often Jesus bids us to repent, to follow, to endure, to have faith, to serve, to love and to not look back. And how he challenges us with the question to Peter “Do you love me?” He anticipated a struggle for us. He knew that struggle himself. He had to deal with demons in the wilderness as surely as you and I have to deal with those demons that deflect us from being true, real human beings after Christ.
You may have come here today tired of your own ministry.
You may have come weary of well-doing.
You may have come dispirited by carping criticism.
You may have come with a soul imprisoned by other people’s expectations.
You may have come as a hostage to all those things you allow others to project on to you.
You may have come feeling that your vocation has led you to a place where you feel less human, less the person you long to be.
You may have come simply longing for love to set you free.
Pray earnestly for the celestial fire.
Pray for the flame of sacred love.
Pray that on the altar of your heart it may burn that the blaze will turn to ash all those strings and ropes that bind you.
Then let that flame of sacred love stir up in you that simplest yet most fervent testimony “Lord, you know that I love you”.
In the words of the Angel in the dream of Gerontius let us ““learn that the flame of the Everlasting Love Doth burn ere it transform……. “
The Rt. Rev. James Jones
Bishop of Liverpool