St Clement's

Church

York

St Clements Patronal Festival – 23 November 2008

Sermon Preached by Revd. Sue Norton

St Clement’s York: Patronal Festival, 23 November 2008

“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asks his disciples.

Thank you for inviting me to preach at this, your patronal festival.

As a resident of this parish I have walked, almost daily, past St Clement’s for the last 24 years. With its long, tall red brick nave, St Clement’s sits like a big ship at anchor in a pool of green amidst the smaller terraced houses. It is a familiar landmark in the neighbourhood. I have seen it look shabby and near to being closed down, and I have watched it come back to life. I have never seen its garden so well-tended as it is now, or its new notice boards display so many different activities. It is good that sometimes the ‘Church Open’ sign is displayed and the door opened between services for the prayerful and the curious. I like to hear the bell ring too, even though, like most residents of the parish, I am not attending the service being advertised. As Rowan Williams remarks in his book ‘Tokens of Trust’:

“Quite a lot of religion – and this is particularly so in England – seems to depend on a grateful awareness that someone else is doing it for you. Whole books have been written about how the physical presence of church buildings ....performs a vital social job in giving us somewhere to put our feelings of dependence and need. So many people are glad that someone is committed even if they’re not sure they themselves want to be.”

So, on this patronal festival we remember our patron, St Clement, and we remind ourselves of why we are here and what we are committed to. Clement: what a lovely name! It means gentle, kind, merciful. Clemency is the readiness to forgive; a rare and much-needed quality. Not a great deal is known about St Clement, except that, like St Paul, he wrote a letter, an epistle to the Corinthians, which was much read by the early church but didn’t make it into the New Testament canon and so is mostly unread except by scholars today. Clement was possibly one of the early popes and he is said to have been martyred by being thrown into the sea with an anchor round his neck for being so successful in bringing people to Christ. Though for Clement the anchor was an instrument of death, to us an anchor is a potent symbol of stability; clinging to the bedrock, it resists the tugging of the changing tides or the impulses of the wind. It brings us back to the gospel for today.

“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asks his disciples. And when Peter bursts out with a sudden flash of insight, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” Jesus tells him, “you are Rock, and on this Rock I shall build my Church and the gates of hell shall not triumph over it.” The church’s one foundation, as the hymn says, is Jesus Christ our Lord. And the foundation stone of this church of St Clement in York proclaims:

In the faith of Jesus Christ, we place this foundation stone in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Here let true faith, the fear of God and brotherly love ever remain: this place is consecrated to prayer and to the praise of the most Holy Name of the same, our Lord Jesus Christ, whoever liveth, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end".

(So said Canon Argles at the laying of the Foundation Stone, on16th October, 1872).

Faith in Jesus as the Christ of God: this is our rock – the faith of Peter, Clement and of those who built this church. For Christians, Jesus is the one who shows us what God is like. In our 21^st century, post-Christian society, in which atheism has become militant, Jesus still shows us that God is real and that God is love; a love that is strong enough to defeat all unloving; strong enough to defeat even death. This is the good news proclaimed by Peter and for which he later died. It is the good news Clement preached and for which he also died. It is faith in this good news which caused the foundation stone of this church to be laid and which has gathered us here this morning. Following Peter and Clement and the previous generations who worshipped here, we are the current representatives of the Christian family. It is our turn now to make true faith and love visible to the atheist, the non-believer and the faithless. It is our turn to let our lives speak. We do this by gathering together to praise God; by forgiving one another as we have been forgiven; by exchanging the peace of Christ with our neighbours and by serving one another. Christ feeds us with himself and sends us out into the world, so that we who share Christ’s body may live his risen life; we who drink his life bring life to others; we whom the Spirit lights, give light to the world.

I explored your website before writing this sermon and was delighted to read the following:

Felt makers and hatters have St. Clement as their patron saint because, so tradition says, St. Clement, forced to flee from his native city was worn out by constant tramping, his feet were badly cut and blistered and he sought a remedy by collecting bits of wool clinging to the bushes, and placing them in his sandals. After a day's journey he found that pressure and warmth had united the wool into a firm substance.

I like the image of collecting bits of wool clinging to bushes and uniting them by ‘pressure and warmth’. It makes me think of Christ’s shepherd searching out lost sheep and uniting them with the flock. It is also a lovely image of odds and ends being joined together into a unity which brings warmth, healing and relief. Not a bad image for a church community!

Earlier I quoted Rowan Williams as saying: “So many people are glad that someone is committed even if they’re not sure they themselves want to be.” So, as we sit here this morning, while other people read the Sunday papers, go shopping or perhaps are at work, in our 24/7 society, we are here for them too. And for the wider world which carries on oppressing or liberating the poor, waging war or trying to forge peace, allowing people to die of hunger or trying with aid agencies to relieve it. We are here on behalf of all humanity; to pray for others, to serve them in their need or distress and to support every work of compassion.

“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asks his disciples. We are here to make God real for people; to show them by our words and actions, by our worship and our lives, what Christ has shown us. Which is (in Desmond Tutu’s words) that

Goodness is stronger than evil;

Love is stronger than hate;

Light is stronger than darkness;

Life is stronger than death;

Victory is ours through him who loves us.

Thanks be to God.