In preaching to his first disciples and to the disciples of this day, we heard in the passage from John’s Gospel some of Jesus’ descriptor of what it means to be a person of faith, to be a follower of the way, to live into the gospel and the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said, “You will weep and mourn…” He said, “You will have pain.” It was not the most warm and fuzzy invitation to be a follower of Christ was it? A calling toward weeping and mourning and pain is not exactly a great selling feature of what it means to live into loving God and loving our neighbour as ourselves. It kind of thins out the crowd wouldn’t you say?
But for those of us who have been walking a good number of paces down the road of life we recognize some of the truth in what he was saying. For Jesus said that “your pain will turn into joy.” He compared it to a woman after giving birth. I leave that to you as to whether that is a helpful comparison. But I think most of us here understand that following this Jesus who challenges every aspect of our living and our perspective and our relationship to the holy…. This Jesus who was keen on turning the world upside down and viewing things from this new perspective where the first are last and the last first, where we love our enemies, where the meek and the peacemakers are seen as blessed... This Jesus, if we let him get under our skin just enough, this Jesus pointing out that there will be pain but that it will turn to joy seems to make a lot of sense.
We have gathered here for Synod, a meeting of Anglicans from all across this Diocese at a time when the world and the Church are experiencing some angst, change, worries, doubts, fears and a few other things. We have a lot on our mind you might say. These are complicated times and they come with their own feelings of pain. If I were to dig into that a little bit, there is great concern amongst many leaders of the small “c” catholic church about what the future of the church might hold in the next five, ten or fifty years. What will the Church look like? Many are concerned that there are not enough people attending, not enough volunteers to step into a variety of ministries, the Sunday School classes are not nearly as large as they were fifty or seventy-five years ago. Youth groups are not nearly as robust. Women’s groups, men’s groups, different guilds of our churches are not like they were back in the good old days. This can feel painful for us. A worry, a fear, sneaks in that brings with it an anxiety as to whether we will be able to go back to those days.
And let me be clear and say what you already know, but I will say it anyway, that we will never go back to those days. The world has changed, we have changed, the Church has changed, the understanding of faith has changed, our theologies have changed, the role of spirituality has changed, the source of ethics has changed, the understanding of how God works in and through us has changed. We know this but it is important to name it anyway. The position of the Church in the world of this corner of British Columbia is different in 2025 than it was in 1950. We understand this.
But we are called to be the Church of 2025 in the world of our day, in the world of our time, in the world where the Holy Spirit continues to move and invite and challenge and change. We are not called to go back in time but to be Christ’s presence in the world of now. And this is where the joy part after the pain that Jesus described comes in.
We are being called to live into our faith in this place and this time and with these people: you and me. And this is important to understand. We are called, all of us, to be people of the resurrection. The gospel, the good news has not changed but how we are the Church of today has changed in comparison to seventy-five years ago. And the Holy Spirit down through the centuries has always operated in this way. Always.
A group of people from different parts of the diocese have been wondering about these very things for the past few months as they have explored some of the things that we might need to be thinking about as the Church of our times and with our resources and with our faith. They will draw all of us into this very discussion as part of this Synod. And we need this kind of focus for our beloved Church as we have since its very beginning, always asking, “where is God calling us to go and be in our times?”
I know that for some parishes in our diocese the pain of these times is very real. There is concern about the future. For some parishes there are many concerns related to the day-to-day operations of the church and care of the buildings. I know this and I have seen this. It is real. But how can we come to see that we are being called into something new? How can we come to see that we need new models for the Church of now? We are not going to go back in time but are being invited into a new future.
But I also want to say that a number of parishes in our diocese are growing. It took a long time after the pandemic but some are back to the numbers prior to that time and some have even exceeded them. There is good news and joy in this. A number of parishes are noticing that we seem to be stepping into a time where people in the neighbourhoods around the church, of no faith or a forgotten faith, are curious about what it means to walk with a commitment to the way of Jesus Christ. A number of parishes are noticing that the worldwide Anglican Church, the Anglican Communion, is of great ethnic diversity and people are coming to this region from all over the world hoping to find an Anglican Church that is vibrant and alive, and they are bringing new vision to the Church. People of no faith are wanting to explore the gospel and notice how it brings purpose and meaning and hope in their lives.
In an article entitled Quiet Revival, a report about a rising church attendance in England and Wales offers this: “‘With much of the population struggling with mental health, loneliness and a loss of meaning in life, in particular young people, church appears to be offering an answer. We found that churchgoers are more likely than non-churchgoers to report higher life satisfaction and a greater feeling of connection to their community than non-churchgoers.’” We are seeing this.
St. Paul wrote in the letter to the Corinthians that you have spent some time discussing in smaller groups. But we heard these words: “you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” And the thing is that we are silly enough to actually believe this. We trust that indeed God is working in and through us, the Body of Christ. God is changing us and transforming us to live into our calling. We believe and trust in this… because God has always done this and will always do this. When we focus on God’s love and God’s grace we are indeed changed so that we cannot be the same. And that is what the Church of every age has always been called into. It does not mean that there will not be pain we know that is true, but there will be joy as well. We might need new models of church, we might need to plant some new churches, we might need to be more flexible, we might need to invest in ministry in different ways. But we will continue to be the Church, the body of Christ, revealing the love and grace of God.
The world of our times is a complicated and worrying place. With the latest changes and challenges related to our economy, tariffs, expulsion of immigrants and a few other things we can feel rather unstable. With the atrocities of the violence in Gaza continuing with a complete disregard for the dignity of every human being, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the war in Syria, the climate emergency, the plight of refugees, the lack of movement towards reconciliation here at home, these are disturbing times. But we believe in a God of hope, and we always have.
Our message is one of resurrection and new life. Our trust is in a gospel where we are called to love. Our faith is in a God who is with us no matter what. No matter what. That is at the core of our Church, let us live into that and invite others to be part of the Body of Christ in these times and with that hope. We call this good news and the joy of our faith.