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For all of you are one.
SERMON – 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 20th June 2010
The Very Revd Andrew Chan, Dean of St John's Cathedral, Hong Kong.
Installation and licensing of Fr. Nigel Gibson as a Chaplain of St John's Cathedral and Priest-in-Charge of Emmanuel Church by The Most Revd. Dr. Paul Kwong, Primate and Archbishop of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, Bishop of Hong Kong Island.
As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; for all you are one in Christ Jesus.
For church members of Emmanuel, today is a special day. We welcome Fr. Nigel, who officially takes up the position of priest-in-charge of this congregation today. We are very excited that, after 18 months following Fr. Matthew's departure, we have our new priest-in-charge on board. May I particularly thank Fr. David Pickering who offered himself to look after this congregation wholeheartedly over the last year and a half.
In fact, when we look back, we thank a lot of God's servants who make this congregation be a united and warm fellowship. We thank God for them : Fr. Chris Butt, Fr. Stephen Harrop, Fr. Peter Yeats, Fr. Matthew Vernon. They did not only care for us, but also let this baptised community be recognised as children of God.
How can we the baptised be recognised? Very Simple: according to the Epistle reading of today, from the dress we wear. Why should it be so? Is a Christian forced to wear a 'uniform'? Certainly, says Paul today in the Epistle reading. But the dress that makes a Christian stand out from the others is not a red and black tunic, and it is not made of wool, cotton, flax or other fabrics.
Jesus never had any liking for 'uniforms' that 'divide', they set up groups, sects and castes opposed to each other. The dress that Paul speaks of is quite another : it is the very person of Jesus Christ.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul explains his thought very clearly. Christians should cloth ourselves with Christ. It means that all must be able to see the person of Jesus by looking at the community of Christians, so he continues his exhortation that this 'dress' gives to all those wearing it equal dignity and importance. It cancels all differences founded on social class, on nationality, on race and on gender, for we are one in Christ. In short, in modern terms, what Paul indicates the cloth for Christian community is 'Unity in Diversity'.
The conclusion of chapter 3 of the letter to the Galatians rightly discusses the 'unity in diversity', the oneness of the Church and the inseparable inter-relationship between the Christians of different background and the Church development. The selections from the above Scripture reading refer to the kinds of gifts or charisms and their variety.
First, there are different kinds of charisms; secondly, all of them come from the one and only Spirit; thirdly, all are given for the benefit of humankind; and fourthly, no one can limit the abundance of the Spirit's gifts and dominate these gifts.
We thank God for granting us a Church so filled with the Holy Spirit who spreads his charisms throughout the world. Our Church is not only a perfect temporal society, it is also a spiritual community. Our world does not have only a material side to it, it is also filled with spiritual graces from above.
God originally made a world of great variety yet unified, colourful as the rainbow. It was a beautiful world of great variety, certainly not a world which was dull, unchangeable, or the same all over.
In this beautiful world, there are no two tree leaves exactly the same and the clouds are ever changing. The four seasons follow one on the other regularly, autumn harvests provide for the winter, cold comes after summer heat. This gives us an opportunity to "in spring visit places of scented flowers, in summer enjoy the green lotus pods, in autumn drink chrysanthemum wine and in winter sing a song of snow." No wonder a friend from Singapore commented that it could be very boring living in Singapore because it is summer throughout the year. People there wear only 'Hawaiian" shirts all their lives!
The world that has been sanctified and hallowed by the Holy Spirit's blessing is truly beautiful. The Holy Spirit also has filled the earth with spiritual gifts (charisms) which the Spirit has bestowed on the Church. As the spring breezes blow till the land turns green and the flowers begin to bloom, so the Holy Spirit, like the wind, fills the world with fruitfulness and vitality.
The Church in fact is a body of 'many colours', that is, of great variety. Within the Church we can see different lay organisations, different parishes and religious communities, different spiritual movements, a great variety of virtues practiced by different saints. Within this 'one' Church, there are cloistered religious whose chief work is prayer and cloistered men and women who do manual labour, those who often engage in demonstrations and protests, those who are involved in social action. We have a comparatively conservative theology and also 'liberation theology' which emphasises a viewpoint from the grassroots.
Externally we see many different kinds of Christians, different sects, a variety of cultures. From earliest times till now we see a variety of 'great heroes' or saints, each with a different style which contributes to society, enriches cultures and helps build up human society.
At the Cathedral Parish, we have different daughter churches, we have Mandarin congregation, Filipino congregation, five outreach programmes and many fellowships and study groups. All these have different ministries and serve different people. However, all of us are in the same family because we believe the Holy Spirit is the source of all truth, goodness, beauty and holiness. All that is good, true and beautiful in this world comes from the Holy Spirit. "God allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses." No one person or organisation, including the Church and other Christian groups, can monopolise the actions of the Holy Spirit or limit the Spirit's mysterious work of sanctification.
Today when we welcome Fr. Nigel Gibson, our priest-in-charge, we have to thank God for sending us his faithful servant to make our congregation and the Cathedral parish, as well as the Diocese / Province so colourful.
Fr. Nigel is a man with multi-talent. He is a musician, life-long passion for classical music and opera, specialising in the music of Chopin and Mozart. He is also an experienced journalist who was responsible to the radio programme. He is a colourful man. I am sure that Fr. Nigel will 'dress' Emmanuel Church with multi-colour.
When we observe others' virtues, merits, good qualities and spiritual graces, let us also appreciate the work of God. Let us match the grace of others and co-operate with each other to further glorify God and serve our neighbour.
In this installation and Licensing service, not only Fr. Nigel reaffirm his ministry, we all need to dedicate ourselves to the ministry of our Lord and let the Holy Spirit colour us. Let us pray for Fr. Nigel, pray for Emmanuel Church of such abundant grace and pray also for the Cathedral, the Diocese, the Province and the World-wide Church of such great variety, that all people ultimately may return to God, the source of the world and of life.
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