One of my favourite poets is a lady with the unlikely name of U. A. Fanthorpe.  She writes some amazing poetry and amongst one of her poems is ‘Getting it across’ – in which Jesus ponders on the choice and character of the disciples.  In the poem Jesus envies the Old Testament prophets who could write their words on parchment and Papyrus and Moses who got his teaching directly from God on stone tablets but all Jesus has to transmit his message is twelve unlikely lads who, quite frankly, weren’t always up to the job.

I alone must write on flesh Jesus says in the poem and he tells of James and John, who want the room at the top  and Pete, with his headband stuffed with fishhooks, His gift for rushing in where angels wouldn’t

In the poem he calls them his numskulls and his

Keystone Cops of disciples, running absurdly away, or lying ineptly, cutting off ears and falling into water.

Some of whom would die

ridiculous and undignified deaths, Flayed and stoned and crucified upside down.

Yet, with all these chosen disciples Jesus is tattooing God on their makeshift lives.

Miss Fanthorpe doesn’t paint a glamorous or reassuring picture of those whom Jesus entrusts with his Gospel message but actually, I find it quite reassuring, not least when I consider Peter. 

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.  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.  I bet if you were up against it you wouldn’t choose Peter to be by your side – watching your back!

Yet this numskull – this impetuous foolhardy man was to be one of the foundation stones of the living Church of Jesus Christ – called with all his imperfect humanity, his flaws, his failings – but also, it must be said, with his strengths - the main one of which is that, having fallen, he could turn back to Christ and with a repentant heart discover our Lord’s forgiveness and, despite everything, our Lord’s continued trust in him. Jesus continued tattooing God on his makeshift life.

That’s what I find reassuring. I found it reassuring 34 years today when I was ordained priest – just as I found it reassuring yesterday when, Gill  was ordained priest.  Jesus chooses the oddest people on whom to write his Gospel message of salvation and none are perfect or without flaws.  Which is probably just as well because only so can we know that what we proclaim about God has an authenticity.  Because we are so imperfect it must be God who is at work in our lives.

Now, I hasten to tell you that Gill is no numskull!  Through various training courses and in the school of life and faith Gill has been steadily growing in  the knowledge of our Lord’s loving purposes.  It has been one of the great privileges of my ministry in Epping to watch Jesus Tattoo the Gospel on her life.  I have watched him lead her inch by inch, faith experience by faith experience, spiritual insight by spiritual insight to this day and now, from this day into the future – a future which, for now, is bound up with your own Gospel story here in Loughton.

As with all vocations, it hasn’t been an easy road.  There have been bumps and potholes – ask Maurice – he’s felt everyone of them!  It hasn’t all been uncertainty and difficulty.  After she trained as Reader, Gill asked me in all seriousness whether she really had to wear the Reader’s robes.  It was a question that worried her greatly.  She has made such progress from that moment of anxiety!  Today she an avid reader of  those glossy catalogues sent out  by church suppliers – though, because Gill is a lady of great discernment and reliant on Maurice’s chequebook – she always favours Wipples: the  Fortnum & Mason of clerical supplies!  How the mighty have fallen!

Throughout it all, God has been consecrating her humanity as he wrote his Gospel not only on her flesh but right into the depths of her soul.  And you need be in no doubt – it is this very Gospel which drives her today.  She will always be true to her Evangelical roots.  Her life is marked by evangelical zeal and a yearning for scriptural holiness but she is also truly Catholic in faith and love because she believes in the universality - the all-embracing of people’s lives through  the Gospel.  She is also a Liberal in that she knows that God’s grace is liberally showered on people and situations as God frees people to be held in that love – a love for which Gill is a willing channel.  All this she knows from personal experience and I have no doubt that she will pass it on to you.

I suspect that though she has only been with you a short while, you are already beginning to know this.  But, lest I am beginning to sound like I’m writing a reference on her I want to stop talking to you about her and, for just a few moments, I want to talk to Gill about her ministry to you.  You may eavesdrop!  And I want to begin with something that the Dean of King’s College London said to us as theological students.  When Canon Sydney Evans was asked what a priest does, he replied, quite simply - A priest makes God REAL for others.

In yesterday’s Ordination Service, the Bishop told us that priests are to be messengers, watchmen and stewards of the Lord.  Making God real for others as his messenger means, Gill, that you must be diligent in studying God’s Word in Scripture; in the life of Jesus; in the writings of those holy men and women of the Christian Church who have meditated long on that Gospel, in the lives of those same Holy men  and women we call Saints and who were also the flesh on which Jesus tattooed his Gospel.  Your message to God’s people must be the message of the Gospel which you learn only from making that same Gospel Real for yourself.

You are to make it Real for others so that they may know – in some words from Paul’s 2^nd letter to the Corinthians 5:19 – that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.  Sometimes in proclaiming that message you will have to challenge people and sometimes educate them but always you must excite them with the message from God which is Jesus Christ so that He who is God’s word may dwell in their hearts richly.  And you can only do this if God’s word remains real to you for if you try to preach a message which has ceased to be central to your own life, people will see through you.  Only when you remain convinced by God’s Word will you be able to convince others and the best way you will remain convinced is through Prayer. You must pray over the Gospel every day of your life.

You are also to be a watchman.  The old watchmen of our cities had a primary task which was to keep the city and its inhabitants safe, through the darkness of the night, from all that may harm them.  That is your task now – to keep people safe as you share in our Lord’s work of being shepherd and guardian of people’s souls.  Those who make God Real for others must always have a pastoral heart – a heart in which there is a deep care for others – a caring in times of need when people are up against it and need the assurance of God’s love – but also a caring which leads people to new insights of that love.  The Shepherd in Israel, lived with their flocks and led them to new pasture where they might find rich and fertile food.  You are to lead people to new places of feeding which might be simply gently leading people from the darkness of their situation to a new place where God’s love secures them. It might also be through spiritual direction and soul-befriending where you help people to find a new direction for their lives. Sometimes you will need to care for them by hearing their soul searching and pronouncing God’s reconciliation in words of absolution. Sometimes you will just watch with them in times of bereavement or sickness.  In all this you will need to be attentive to the people in your care.

Old Harry Trinder used to lean on a bollard in the middle of Soho.  He leaned on it so much that it began to bend out of shape and it became known as the leaning bollard of Trinder.  He was once asked what he did. I’m the Borough Surveyor he replied.  And that was exactly what he was. He watched over the people and nothing escaped his attention.  That Gill is your Pastoral Role too, because not everyone who needs help will come to you or even know where to get help.  You must watch over this parish like Harry Trinder did – as a Borough Surveyor.

You are also called to be a Steward and especially will you be a steward of the Sacrament – of those mysteries of God by which he comes to people at the significant moments of their journey to God’s Kingdom.  You, with your fellow priests, have been given a stewardship of the means by which Christ touches lives – in Baptism when he claims people as his own; in the Eucharist when he feeds people with his spiritual body and blood giving them food for their journey.  Through other sacraments too – the anointing of the sick and the praying for them; the reconciling of the Penitent; Preparing people for the strength of the spirit which comes through Confirmation; the joining of people in love through the sacrament of marriage; and though you cannot ordain people as you were ordained by the Bishop yesterday, you can help people hear and respond to God’s call to ministry of various kinds and be a Sign to them of Christ’s choosing because you know what that means in your own life.  You are Steward – Custodian of the Sacraments but most of all you are already a Walking Sacrament of Christ because He walks in you and shines through you. One of the best ways you will make Christ Real for others is by showing How Real and how Present He is in you.  And the way you can best do that is by doing something the Ordination Service told you yesterday  –you are to share with God’s people in telling the story of God’s Love.  For that story to be real and convincing you will need to demonstrate how God’s love is at work within you.

We convince best by example and there is much in your own life which already tells the story of God’s love. Now you must share with others is that telling for God’s Love is at the heart of every authentic Christian Community and every authentic Christian. It is in the accepting of God’s love and in the celebration and sharing of it with others that will truly make God Real in this community of faith.