The Rt Revd Paul Ferguson, Bishop of Whitby, preached at the Service of Blessing of Oils and Renewal of Ordination Vows at York Minster on Maundy Thursday. Below is the text of his sermon.

Thank you all for coming to this service. I’d like to start with a word of the deepest appreciation for all you have done in another year of ministry: appreciation for the care of the people that has been entrusted to you in God’s name, laughing and weeping with them; appreciation for everything you have done as public advocates for belief in God and trust in Christ; appreciation for the encouragement and nurture you have offered to people in their journey of faith; for your forbearance whenever aspirations for mission are hampered by concerns that have little to do with the gospel, and whenever you find yourself doing things that were never on your list of why you were ordained or licensed, nor the syllabus of your training. Thank you for your kindness to your bishops. A special word of thanks to those of you who have arrived in the diocese, or begun a new ministry, during the last year; and of course much appreciation to the families of all of us in public ministry, for your support, and for being ready to share your life with us who may sometimes be off duty but nevertheless always still have ministry running in the background. Thank you.

Running through today’s readings (1 Samuel 16.1-13; 2 Corinthians 3.17 – 4.2; Luke 22.24-30) are themes to do with status, how much notice people take of it, and how it’s no substitute for truth and real authority. God gives Samuel the insight to look beyond mere appearance as he reviews the sons of Jesse, and the confidence to challenge conventions and assumptions. Then the second reading comes from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, a letter that has as one of its main messages that Christians are flawed and fragile, earthenware pots, but God has chosen to equip and make such unlikely people as the Corinthians — such as us — his instruments in his mission. Just now we heard that what makes Christians what we are is the Spirit who transforms us through glory and into glory, and we have nothing to communicate except ‘open statement of the truth’.

Today’s gospel passage is often read in services that focus on ministry: we will have heard the words of Jesus many times, that the greatest must be like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves, with Jesus himself as the model. I believe we have to hear those words at more than one level: not only in terms of what they are saying to us individually about the trap of status-seeking and the primacy of service, but also what they imply about the church corporately, and how we should address what appears to be a lessening of a particular kind of status in British society that the church has either enjoyed or (we might say) been saddled with. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. Maybe we have to think rather more about how it was for the first Christians, as well as what it is like now for our brothers and sisters in societies more secular than ours, less stratified or less hospitable to Christianity: without the same status or heritage to rest on, partner churches may hear the words of Jesus and Paul with keener ears than ours: ‘You are those who have stood by me in my trials;’ ‘by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.’

Maybe, amid a changing society, our future effectiveness as a national church would be helped by being more ready to learn from churches elsewhere — for nostalgia is not a mission strategy. Certainly, whether individually and together as a church, we need to look to what truly gives us credibility: to remember that the character of Jesus must be authentically visible in us, in our mission, message and method, otherwise we are at best a pale reflection and at worst a parody of what we are meant to be. And that is why the words that Paul uses are important as a guide and inspiration to us: ‘by God’s mercy we are engaged in this ministry [and later in the letter] All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.’

Our readings, then, point us to two truths about authentic Christian ministry: it’s ministry with authority distinct from status, and ministry that draws on the power of God despite the people through whom it is mediated being blemished. The three oils we are to bless remind us of some aspects of how that ministry is worked out: (1) it includes healing and bringing about wholeness in all its forms including preparation for life beyond the one we see, (2) it includes seeing people absolved, equipped by the Spirit, fit to address life’s challenges, and (3) it includes celebrating God-given gifts and recognising opportunities in order to address the future, and through confirmation, encouraging people to be Christian role models to one another.

Those of you here in public ministry will know, through your evangelistic and pastoral work, that this doesn’t follow a straight and easy path, ministry is costly and it does not leave you unmarked. But the marvel is that instead of pretending we should create some abstract ideal, we have the honour of ministering to the world as it is and to people as they are, insisting on the reality and strength of God’s love and of hope in Christ: not clinging to power and control, not allowing ourselves to be swamped by maintaining the organisation, but carrying on the work of Jesus so that God’s people may come to know deep down that in him, and in him alone, they may have life and have it abundantly.

If we are to do this here and now in this diocese, let ours be a mutually-committed ministry: not judgemental of one another, and not jealous. Look out for colleagues who may be isolated or discouraged.

Let us be ready to celebrate signs of God at work among people whose way of being Christian, whose way of being Anglican, is different from our own, and recognise and thank God that there is far more graciousness around than critics might suggest.

Let us by all means hope to leave a good legacy and for people in many years’ time to look back on the time when we have exercised the ministry entrusted to us as a blessing: but let us not try to build monuments to ourselves; instead, prepare the ground generously for our eventual successor.

Finally, I hope that you are inspired afresh by this Passiontide and Easter, that the wonder of God’s love is as strong for you as ever, and that as you lead worship over these days you really sense that you are yourself able to worship, and then have time to refresh and recharge. Thank you, and may God continue to anoint you with his grace.