Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons - 23 January 2021

The Jonah Window, Christchurch Cathedral by Canon Gibbons

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Two things have struck me this week, firstly that although we need to be sensibly frightened of Covid and the immense damage it can do, there is a limit to the reporting we see on TV, especially coverage of ITU wards. I am not being callous, but I'm not sure it achieves what it is meant to do, when all we are left with is not the sense of; 'lets really do this to help our NHS', but 'it's a big mess, they cannot cope emotionally'. I've had to deal with some pretty traumatic deaths in my years of ministry as no doubt you all have, and there are also those occasions when we get utterly swamped by the sadness and uselessness of it all. Yet my own Christian faith tells me to hold on and push on because this is far from the end of the story, I might be like one of those dejected characters on the Emmaus journey, but there will come some healing when my heart will burn within me again. That is called HOPE!

The second point is the lack of interest in the week of Christian Unity. I am old enough to have seen many things in life, and ought not to be shocked, but I was when a great friend of mine, who is a conscientious and committed priest said to me, when asked how he had managed Unity Week, answered, 'I'm not interested, what is it to do with me?' Why was I so shocked? Perhaps because my own vocation has long been connected to the active work of ecumenical outreach and dialogue. I have taken on board Metropolitan Anthony Bloom's comment that one cannot be truly ecumenical unless one is rooted deeply on ones' own Church. Yet as I grow older I find the institution holds less importance for me in the sense that now I see my journey is towards the Kingdom of God in its fullness, and as a pilgrim I am not travelling with my spiritual passport stamped as Greek- Catholic, Roman Catholic, Anglican or whatever, but as a Christian who is one of these things.

Recalling his ordination the great Augustine in sermon 340 said: 'I am given comfort by what I am with you. For you I am a bishop, with you, after all, I am a Christian'.

That is where we seem to be stuck these days, isn't it time to rejoice in what binds, not divides, to challenge those who either go down the route of doom saying or partisan religious politics, to remind ourselves of Jonah, who sent by God to preach the message of repentance, proclaimed it so wholeheartedly that Nineveh was spared by God, as we all can be if we repent and change. Or, believing in our calling from Christ, really let the Spirit and the Word into our lives and truly hear this: 'This is the time of fulfilment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.' (Mk 1:5).

I am not despondent, only constructively critical in what I see and hear about me. Covid-19 is a challenge not only to let science-and medicine do their work for the good of all, but also to play our part in the renewal firstly of this poor earth, battered and bruised by us and secondly of a faith that is greater than our denominational boundaries because it is faith in the Kingdom to which we are bound. I remain firmly committed to ecumenism as I do to keeping us all safe, but I recognise the voice of Jonah in the virus, may we all change! Amen

Prayer in Unity Week

Fr Robin Gibbons

21 01 21

Give to us Christ, Reconciler and Companion,

a greater sense of our Christian task,

that we may not give in to despair at what our world is like,

nor weep endlessly at what upsets us,

but in a spirit of greater hope and trust in Your risen power,

find as the disciples at Emmaus did,

knowledge of Your Word as truth,

our hearts burning with renewed love

as brothers and sisters in the Kingdom

which we are called to proclaim. Amen

AUGUSTINE SERMON 340

"Where I'm terrified by what I am for you, I am given comfort by what I am with you. For you I am a bishop, with you, after all, I am a Christian. The first is the name of an office undertaken, the second a name of grace; that one means danger, this one salvation. Finally, as if in the open sea, I am being tossed about by the stormy activity involved in that one; but as I recall by whose blood I have been redeemed, I enter a safe harbour in the tranquil recollection of this one; and thus while toiling away at my own proper office, I take my rest in the marvellous benefit conferred on all of us in common.

So I hope the fact that I have been bought together with you gives me more pleasure than my having been placed at your head…"

Fr Robin is an Eastern Rite Catholic Chaplain for Melkites in the UK. He is also an Ecumenical Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. You can follow him on Twitter: @RobinGibbons2