St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

A sermon preached by the Very Reverend Rowan Smith in the Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr on Theological Education Sunday, 20 August 2006

"Do not be foolish, but understand the what the will of the Lord is." (Ephesians 5 v 17)

You would have heard over the past two Sundays that today is Theological Education Sunday and we have been asked by our Synod of Bishops to make a particular focus on our Theological College at Grahamstown, the College of the Transfiguration – it is here that our ordinands are trained for the ordained ministry and so they need to upgrade the library and their computer equipment to enable the students to be better prepared for their work in the Church. So we hope you will give generously to support our only Provincial College and so ensure that our clergy are well trained.

"Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."

So writes St Paul to the Christians at Ephesus and so too he would address us. St Paul recognizes that the people in Ephesus are living in what he calls "evil days". We today would make the same statement when we look at our world both at home and abroad. Just yesterday, on the last day of our Diocesan Synod, we had a lively and painful discussion on the question of violence against women and children. Our Sub-Dean was the seconder to the motion which called our Church to repentance for the many statements over the past years on the very question, yet with little action. And here is where our theology comes into play – theology is defined as "…the systematic study of religions and religious beliefs."

But it would be a mistake to assume that this study belongs to the clergy alone. There appears to be a large gap between what we as clergy study at theological college and what we preach from the pulpit. We do not convey to our congregations that for example, part of our study involves wrestling with the Scriptures which inform our theology and the question that is often asked goes something like this:

"What must the truth have been and be, that those who wrote and spoke of it wrote and spoke of it like that?"

What was the truth then and what is it now, that it was written in that way? The gospel for today is a case in point and no wonder it led to a dispute among Our Lord's contemporaries:

"Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and l in him" (Jn 6 v 54)

Our theological reflection makes us associate these verses with the Eucharist but nowhere in this passage is Jesus saying anything like that – in fact all this discussion arises out of the feeding of the five thousand. So, even though you may not have studied theology, as a Christian in the Catholic tradition today's Gospel is interpreted for us in the light of the Eucharist. But let us go back to our debate in Synod yesterday – some of the speeches, and the intervention by the Archbishop, pointed to the fact that our religious and cultural beliefs draw on a patriarchal interpretation of scripture and a patriarchy of five thousand years ago. Such a patriarchy sees women and children as possessions and women subservient to men. In terms of our living in the 21st Century we have allowed a system of social organization dating back 3000 BC to govern and determine our reading of Scripture today and our social attitudes particularly towards women. In many of our congregations, Sunday by Sunday, both the abused woman and the abusive partner, worship together and the abused person remaining silent because the church seems to uphold such abuse of power.

"Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."

That means that we as a Church today, we as a community of faith at this Cathedral, the mother Church of the diocese cannot condone faulty, unexamined theological interpretations. To remain silent and hide behind Scripture is to aid and abet violence against women and the rape of girls between the ages of 6 – 12 whom our hospital chaplain told us, ministers to every month. This cannot be the will of the Lord and how then do we express our faith in the Christ which says:

"Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and l in him."

No one who partakes of the Eucharist remains unchanged, we are to become as Christ in the world. Whether it is about poverty, HIV / AIDS, violence against women, especially when it is simply because that woman loves another woman, we are there in the world today, bearers of Christ's love and life. Then indeed as the power of the Holy Spirit can we "in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ give thanks every day, for everything to God our Father." (v 20)

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