Preaching at St Mary’s Windgate on old Church Sunday the Asst Curate, Fr Tristan said ” The wonderful thing in church is that we are all fellow guests. “
On this, our Old Church Sunday, we are met at St. Mary Windgate, and we see some of the distinctions that used to exist between rich Christians and poor. I refer to the rented box pews in the front for the wealthy, and the bench seating at the back, and up in the Gallery, for everyone else. It had seemed like a convenient way to raise money at the time. This distinction between seats went out of fashion in the late 19th century, and it began in 1865 when Fr. Richard Enraght preached and later published a sermon in Sheffield parish church (now the Cathedral to that Diocese). Fr. Enraght had asked his congregation to imagine a poor labourer long fallen into bad company who first hears God stirring his heart to receive the Good News. So he comes to church that Sunday, only to find there is no room on the poor benches at the back. The labourer thinks to try sitting in one of the several empty boxes nearer the front, but he is quickly ushered away from such presumption, and so leaves the church having only learned one message about these Christians: they make the same distinctions as the world does.
You and I may well imagine the effect that sermon made on the congregation, and then the readership across the land. We see its effect in our churches today, we see it in the design of Holy Trinity Church: with seating open to all, pew runners to soften the landing! and, I hope, the spirit to welcome newcomers to sit with us, when to stand and sit and kneel, how to find the next hymn, and a friendly conversation over refreshments afterwards. These things show that we care for our neighbours, that we recognise our neighbours are made in God’s image, and so we show that we are living out the commandments that we have received from the Lord.
In order to make his point, Fr. Enraght unpicked what first made the distinction in seating: pride. He doesn’t name it, but exposes its effects. Pride, the original sin. Pride, the departing from God’s commandments. Consider what St. Mary (this church’s patron) thought of such distinctions. She had found no room at the inn in Bethlehem, and now Jesus’ brothers and sisters (her children) could find little room in those town churches under her patronage. In her Magnificat—which we shall hear sung this evening—Mary proclaims that “God has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts”, and later that “he has put down the mighty from their seat, and has exalted the humble and meek”. We have heard the same message in the reading from Ecclesiasticus: “The Lord overthrew the thrones of rulers, and enthroned the lowly in their place.” It would cause too much confusion to suggest we all move around now, but might I suggest … that if you are coming back to Evensong you consider swapping a box pew for the bench (and vice versa), to get the change of perspective? Or perhaps if you find that you have a favourite place to sit in Holy Trinity Church, you swap it next Sunday, or once in a while, and get a fresh perspective?
The wonderful thing in church is that we are all fellow guests. That is why we must not be precious about where we might sit. When we go forward to receive communion, as is customary, hear the words of invitation as Jesus himself calling to us: “friend, come up higher”; as we kneel (or stand) at the very edge of the Sanctuary, we do so to receive our host, Jesus, who gives himself to us. Jesus Christ himself is Lord of our house, and that is why it is fitting that we call him (in the form of the consecrated bread) the Host. Jesus makes himself available for each one of us. And He goes before us, before the ministers of communion, to meet those who cannot easily make the journey to the altar rail, and we (currently Fr. Mark and I) follow after.
We are his servants in that moment, carrying Jesus our host in the throne of the paten or ciborium to the throne of hands outstretched. This is what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord, to walk in humility—just as Mary herself declared “behold the handmaid of the Lord”. Mary humbly accepted the word of the Lord announced by the angel Gabriel, and her conversation shows how very grounded Mary is in her humility. She will always listen to hear what people really need, and similarly will wait until people (like her cousin Elizabeth) are quite ready to hear the word which is on her heart. Read the Scriptures and you will see this lovely habit that she has.
I said in the beginning “Pride is departing from God’s commandments –whereas Fear of the Lord (holy reverence) is the beginning of wisdom.” When I first came among you, I ministered at the altar rail as one serving strangers, anxious to do well for the Lord, but in these few weeks I am now more keenly aware that I am serving you as my brothers and sisters. That is why I longed to return to you even while I was in Sussex with my family. The Lord has shown me a great love for you, which casts out that former fear, and shows me how much we are joined together as one body in Christ—precisely as we are taught in the Scriptures.
As we journey together towards Christmas, we shall need to look out for each other, to help in what ways we can. Now I cannot declare proudly before you that I have every answer. For omniscience is not one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit at Ordination. On the contrary, I will say plainly that I do not know precisely what sort of help will be needed. But I do know that if we humbly listen like Mary, if we humbly read the Scriptures, if we humbly pray to the Lord, then God will open our hearts and fill them with compassion so that we may know what to do. He has already given us the commandments, so he will teach us. He will bless us through our walking in his ways, and supply the thirsty soul that has spent itself for love of neighbour, for God will cause his love to spring up in our hearts as a life-giving fountain. It is a blessed thing to know you are precisely where God wants you to be in a given situation. We shall know the generosity of brotherly love when we see it, and we shall then have the pleasure of thanking God for teaching us. We shall shortly receive from Christ at his altar a banquet of heavenly food beyond price and without price. So let us love our neighbours in this way, so that a visitor may declare to his friends how much our churches are filled with brotherly love, how all are equal in the sight of God and of man.
