St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

A sermon preached by the Very Reverend Rowan Smith at the Ordination Mass in the Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr on 13 December 2009

"When Jesus had said this he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them: if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." John 20 v 22f

We are truly an amazing country and we do ourselves a great disservice by not embracing this and so also give glory to God for all that God has accomplished through us these past fifteen years. Take for example the coming public holiday, 16 December – some of you may remember it as 'Dingaans day' or the Battle of Blood river; then for many years, the day of the Covenant, which was more religiously observed than a Sunday. What was primarily a day to celebrate the victory of one group over another, and the covenant made with God was seen as pivotal to that victory, is today called Reconciliation day.

The lessons set aside for our Ordination today undergirds that observance for us as South Africans as we heard so pertinently in the New Testament lesson. (2 Cor 5 14-19)

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us, the ministry of reconciliation ... " v 18

God's gift to everyone of the baptized, His new creation, is to continue the work of Christ because in and through each one of us, as we are in Christ, God is reconciling the world to himself. So today, Pat and Melvyn, this becomes your primary task to empower God's people amongst whom you minister, to be instruments of God's reconciling love. When in a moment you come forward to be ordained as Priest in the Church of God you will hear the Archbishop praying over you with words taken from the Gospel for today.

"Receive the Holy Spirit for the office
and work of a priest in the Church of God,
now committed to you by the laying on of our hands.
Whose sins you forgive they are forgiven,
whose sins you retain they are retained ... " (APB p. 592)

and in the words of St John

" ... he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit ... '

We have in our Anglican Prayer Book the sacrament of Confession and Absolution, sometimes called the rite of Reconciliation. Through this sacrament the penitent, makes confession of his/her sin of God, in the presence of a priest and, quoting from the Catechism:

" ... receives the assurance of pardon and the grace of absolution ... " p441

Sadly in both Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches the number of those availing themselves of this sacrament has declined rapidly, while at the same time the number of those going to a therapist, has increased. Carl Jung said on one occasion that what some of those who came to him needed was not therapy but absolution. Note how St John highlights this empowering gift by Our Lord to his disciples, after his resurrection.

St John makes no reference to Pentecost, but here in the upper room, where the disciples were locked in by fear, the wounded Jesus comes, not to judge them but to set them free from their guilt and in turn empower them to forgive:

"If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them ... "

During our Retreat, I quoted from "The Broken Body" by Jean Vanier. This is how he expounds on Forgiveness:

"Forgiveness is the cement that bonds us together:
It is the source of unity;
It is the quality of love;
That draws togetherness out of separation.

Forgiveness is understanding and holding
The pain of another;
It is compassion.

Forgiveness is the acceptance of our own brokenness,
Yours and mine.

Forgiveness is letting go of unrealistic expectations of others and of the desire that they be other than they are.

Forgiveness is the peace-making:
Struggling to create unity,
To build one body,
To heal the broken body of humanity."

We as South African needs to express this kind of forgiveness. It is the Christ, who shows his disciples his wounds, demonstrating the power of God's love that not even death can destroy, who gives them his Spirit. That same spirit our Lord gives to the Church and today to you Pat and Melvyn in particular. As a nation and as a Church we need men and women who in Christ are exercising the ministry of reconciliation. The Old Testament lesson from the prophet Malachi says:

" ... the lips of a priest should guard knowledge for he/she is a messenger of the Lord of hosts ... " 2 v 7

Just in passing, given that there is much talk in our Anglican Communion and a reference in the December Good Hope about a covenant, which to the ears of come of us sounds like the old meaning of the Covenant in South Africa, one group triumphant over another, note that God speaking through Malachi says:

" ... My covenant with him was a covenant of life and well-being ... " v 5

Any covenant put forward by our Church should also conform to what God desires " a covenant of life and well-being." That too is what God desires of you as you begin your priestly ministry.

Reconciliation between God and ourselves has been accomplished in Jesus Christ but since it is reconciliation with the world, we are also to express that through God's creation. The bells which were rung at the start of the Ordination reminded us of the fragile state of our planet, a world that we have abused. Today may we seek not only personal or national reconciliation but also in the Church and with our world. And so we give thanks today for you Pat and Melvyn mindful that:

"in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation."

So be bold in coming forward to make your response to the charge by the Archbishop and you will feel a hand on your shoulder and a voice saying to you, "As the Father has sent me, even so l send you ... "

Back to Sermons page

Mission and Vision | Services | Music | Ministries| History | Glass | Tour | Staff
Cathedral Friends | Publications | Links | Site Map | Home