When Jesus had finished his work on earth and returned to heaven, the archangel Gabriel met him and said, “Lord, is it permitted to ask what plans you have made for carrying on your work on earth?"

“I have chosen twelve men and some women,” Jesus replied, “they will pass my message on until it reaches the whole world.”

“But” said Gabriel, “supposing those few people fail you, what other plans have you made?”

Jesus smiled. “I have no other plan, “ he said, “I’m counting on them.”

There is no plan B – Jesus entrusted his message of eternal love and salvation to a motley band of chosen people who’s track record, to say the least, was questionable.  Take Peter – the saint of today.  Eager, brash, charging in where angels fear to tread, and full of self-importance. He knew he had a special place in our Lord’s heart and plan.  Famously he even had some insight into who Jesus was and is.   Today’s Gospel gives us an account of that moment when Jesus questioned his followers about his identity. The replies to his question, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” drew various responses but then he pushed the question further. “Who do you say I am?”

It was dear Peter who blurted out the answer – “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Our Lord blessed him for his answer.  More than that he took away his old name of Simon and gave him a new name of Peter – which is from the Greek word petros´ or Rock.  He was to be the Rock on which the Christian Church was to be built. What an irony!  We are to see later in the Gospel just how this so-called Rock behaved under pressure.   He crumbled!  His bravado left him in the courtyard of the High Priest on that infamous night when, as our Lord predicted he uttered Three denials   – and the Rock was smashed.  Later, after the resurrection he was to be restored, three times – Do you love me?  Yes Lord. But the Rock was no longer as solid as it was - and for this we can be thankful.  The thing about solid rock is that it is impermeable. Nothing can get through it. But if you smash it, water can seep into the cracks, or more importantly in Peter’s case – Grace.  Once he was broken, God’s grace could work through him and that was his salvation – and ours.

 I love Peter for two particular reasons.  That Jesus chose to build his Church on Peter and the other equally flawed disciples is something rather hopeful:  First because he was flawed. He was imperfect humanity who had his strengths and his failings and that just about describes all of us.  Our Lord’s plan has not wavered in this respect – he goes on choosing flawed humanity to serve Him in His Church and he goes on giving that same humanity the task of proclaiming His Gospel of Freedom, Justice, Mercy and Love to a world desperately in need of salvation.  That’s the second reason why I love Peter.

33 years ago this morning, I knelt before the Bishop of Durham and was ordained Priest.  I was chosen, another imperfect human, to be a Gospel minister and messenger and it didn’t matter that I didn’t or couldn’t measure up to the task.  It would only be achieved by the working of Grace – by allowing God to work through broken humanity – and Peter was my example and my hope.  This afternoon, in Chelmsford Cathedral, through the hands and prayers of Bishop John, Jesus will call three more flawed ministers to serve him in a particular way as Deacon (and then, next year, as Priest).  Though they have been through a rigorous training and doubtless understand a little more than they used to about theology, biblical study, prayer and practicalities of ministry, it will not be these things that will equip them for their future ministry. It will be God’s Grace working through them – seeping into their lives and flowing out from them as Love – God’s love for the people to whom he sends them.  That’s what God is ordaining them for – to lead people to a deeper sense of God’s love for them and to help them to open their lives to God’s transforming Grace.

When I was ordained,  ordination was described as conferring the Grace of Orders and what that means is that those ordained are given Good’s grace to exercise the ministry entrusted to them. They are transformed into God’s chosen ministers through the ministry they do. As with any who take God’s call seriously, they will discover the truth of their vocation by doing it and in the doing Grace will change them and equip them for the task. They will do it is God’s strength – not their own. This is the grace of orders.

Look at Peter as we find him after Pentecost. Fulfilling our Lord’s command to feed the sheep and tend the lambs he proclaimed the Gospel boldly and he led the Church confidently.  Not in his own strength. He knew how useless that had been – but in the strength of God who poured grace into him for him to use in loving others into God’s Kingdom.  The incident we heard this morning of Peter being rescued from prison by an angel confirms to him that the Lord was watching over him ­the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me – a very different Peter, more trusting in God, more certain that God was with him.  That was also the grace of orders.  Now, if you bother to look it up you would find that this grace of orders is given additional meanings from that of transforming and equipping people for ministry. It gets a bit bogged down with the exclusivity of priesthood and there is a suggestion that it is special only to those ordained – turning them into some kind of elite who stand apart from everyone else.

 My view has always been that when God calls us to do something in his Church he does set us apart but not from people but for them to better draw them into His Kingdom.  I do not believe that God calls people to special kinds of ministry at the exclusion of others. All who have been ordained have also one thing in common with every other Christian – they, we, all belong to God as his people and the New Testament Greek word to describe us is laos from which we get the word Laity.  Though it does not always seem so, there is no separate class of people from the Laity – every baptized Christian, including deacons, priests and bishops, is part of this great body of humanity we call the People of God. 

This is something we have to keep hold of in a Church which is going through immense change.  This change is something we are now very familiar with in the Epping District Team Ministry – as a microcosm of the change going on in the whole of the Church of England, and, indeed in every Christian denomination.  At one level it feels like this change is a bad thing. Past certainties are being shaken and the future pattern of the Church is unpredictable.  There will be many here who wish that the Epping District Team Ministry didn’t exist and that all four churches had their own Vicar sitting in their own vicarages.  Ah! the good old days when the Vicar had time to visit in between collecting butterflies and writing learned papers on the flora and fauna of the area – or, as in the infamous Parson Woodforde’s day – riding, hunting, fishing and dining to while away the time.  Whenever you feel tempted by the glorious past, spare a thought for your priests. I’d love not to have to rush around all the time and just have a little parish to potter around in. If you start a campaign to bring all that back, you can count on mine being the first signature!  As long, of course, as I don’t open the New Testament because there’s a very different Church to be found there.  It is a Church where there are certainly leaders and ministers for particular activities of the church – carers, missioners, theologians, teachers but also there is a Church full of people who know that they too must proclaim the Gospel. They too must minister to God’s holiness, mercy, judgement, faithfulness and love in the world, in the communities where they live and work.  There is a call we must all answer and that is the call to be the Church – to be God’s People – His Laity who are active in His service.  Gill, Shaun, Sally will be ordained as deacons today but they have already shared in the same ordination you have had – that of Baptism and it is Baptism which sets us all apart to be God’s people and to a life of Prayerful Service. 

The Church we are now in is a very different Church from when I was ordained 33 years ago and I’m glad it is because it is now becoming what it always should have been – a Faithful Baptized community who are working out the Gospel in new ways of service and new ways of being the Church offering hope to the world.  Those whom God has already called in this Team to Upfront Ministry; to Pastoral Care; to Nurture and teaching and evangelism and prayer and study and singing and –and – who knows what is yet to come – those whom God has called and is calling and will go on calling are all part of Plan A (– remember there is no Plan B!).  That plan is what Jesus Christ decided upon before he left this earth – to carry on his work of saving the world.  That he calls you and me and all of Christianity to proclaim Him and serve him may seem, sometimes, a little foolhardy – after all we are not up to it. We are flawed, we are broken, we are ill prepared, ill equipped and certainly ill at ease sometimes at God’s demands – but then Jesus shows us people like Peter and maybe, just maybe, we can offer ourselves because we trust that God will change us in the way he did Peter – and use us as a channel for his grace.  Wouldn’t that be something! 

And indeed it is - because that is  God’s plan for us - and all it needs for it to begin to happen – for the world to be transformed – and for ourselves to be transformed - because that’s thrown in as well – is our Yes; however timidly and uncertainly we utter it.

God then, will do the rest.  He will do it through Sally, Gill and Shaun but He will do it through You too.   Indeed – He is counting on You.  You must not let him down.