SERMON PREACHED BY THE REVEREND CANON HAROLD T. LEWIS, Ph.D.,
RECTOR, CALVARY EPISCOPAL CHURCH, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA

AT THE 2nd ANNUAL FESTIVAL SERVICE OF THE DIOCESE OF BARBADOS

SOBERS GYMNASIUM, ST. MICHAEL, BARBADOS

14 FEBRUARY 2010

“If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

(I Corinthians 13:2)

              I cannot begin to say what a great pleasure and a privilege it is to stand before you today to deliver this sermon on this occasion when so many of the clergy and people of the Diocese of Barbados have assembled in one place for this great festival service. First, let me express my profound gratitude to your bishop for his kind invitation. On a previous visit to this island, it was for his consecration as bishop of Barbados.  Now that I have returned, John Holder has in the interim become the Lord Archbishop of the West Indies.  Perhaps if I stay away a few more years, I shall come back to discover that John Holder has become the first Archbishop of Canterbury from outside the British Isles!  We rejoice that this son of Barbados will sit among the Primates of the Communion, bringing to them and sharing with the whole church his erudition, his pastoral sensitivity and his spiritual depth.

              But I am pleased to be here for another reason.  This is home.  My four grandparents emigrated from this place during the First World War.  Indeed, according to family folklore, my maternal grandparents, Harold FitzEustace Worrell of St Andrew and Edith Mildred Jordan of St Lucy, who did not know each other on this island, met on the high seas en route to New York.  As it was wartime, the ship was darkened at night, so as not to be a sitting target for enemy fire; and it was in the dark, we are told, that my grandparents’ relationship began!  I am sure you will agree that this is an especially appropriate story for Valentine’s Day.

              For most of my early childhood, I lived in extended family households with either maternal or paternal grandparents, in whose homes pigeon peas and rice was standard fare every Sunday.  On certain occasions there was also coo-coo, and as I was not particularly fond of okra, my grandmother would whip up a special okra-less batch for me!  Along with Bajan cuisine we were nourished with a diet of strict West Indian culture.  One of the lessons fed to us was that each child, when it came time to wed, should find a suitable West Indian mate.  I never questioned that advice, and I am happy to report that I was joined in holy matrimony to Claudette Richards, of Vincentian stock, and that last Sunday we celebrated the fortieth anniversary of our marriage.  (As you can see, we were both of barely legal age!)

              I understand that the theme for this Diocesan Service is “Restoring and Building Wholesome and Loving Relationships,” and I hope to reflect on this theme using as a lens the verse from this afternoon’s epistle: “Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and though I have all faith, I have not love, I am nothing.”

              St. Paul dedicates the entire 13th chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians to the topic of love.  The Blessed Apostle goes out of his way to emphasize how important love is and how it outranks everything else --- even faith and hope.  First he says that even if his speech was as beautiful as the utterances of the angels themselves, without love, that speech would be like a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  If he had been given the gift of prophecy, if he had faith that could move mountains, without faith he is absolutely nothing.  Even if he gave away everything that he had, if he used his last farthing to feed the poor; even if he endured a martyr’s death, without love, all of these things would be worthless.

              My sisters and brothers in Christ, this afternoon, with your indulgence, I would like to ask the question: How has the Diocese of Barbados, still engaged in the work of preaching the gospel on this island for the past two centuries measured up when held up against Paul’s standard of love?  How has she, in ministering to her own flock, in ministering to those whom she does not claim, and in setting an example for all, been, to borrow a theme from the Gospel, a vine that has borne good fruit?  Has she been skillful in pruning --- that is, cutting away those parts of the vine that are diseased?

              My reflection this afternoon, like Gaul, will be in three parts:  I shall consider the Diocese as regards her chequered past, her challenging present, and her glorious future.  For the Church in Barbados must strive to ensure that it is always connected to the Vine, who is the Christ.  It must boldly proclaim that the God of love who is the God of our ancestors is our God today, or in the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

               The Church in Barbados must first carry out this task despite, or perhaps even because of its chequered past. Now this word “chequered,” meaning having questionable or disreputable elements, or some aspects of the past we would, perhaps, prefer to forget, is not a word that I came up with.  It is, rather, taken from the History of the Diocese of Barbados on its website.  The statement there is a classic example of English understatement.  It reads: “The incidence of slavery tested the Church and the formal abolition of slavery in 1834 [ten years after the Diocese was established] provided further challenges for the Church and its leadership.  Since then the Anglican Church in Barbados has had a chequered history.” 

              The Church’s mission was in fact compromised.  She preached a gospel that declared that followers of Jesus should have life and have it abundantly.  She preached a Gospel that declared that there was neither slave nor free, male nor female, neither Jew nor Greek, but all one in Christ Jesus.  Yet she was at the same time the handmaid of an imperial system whose very success depended upon a belief that those who were, to use Kortright Davis’ phrase, “imbued with ebony grace,” were subhuman.  What is more, the Church’s teaching was imparted in such a way as to convince blacks that their inferior societal status was part of God’s plan.  Hence, Barbadians and Jamaicans and Trinidadians could lustily sing: “The rich man in his castle/The poor man at his gate/God made them high and lowly/and ordered their estate.”  Indeed, Dr. Davis recalls celebrating Empire Day as a schoolboy in Antigua, when he and his classmates would belt on “Rule Britannia/Britannia rules the waves/Britons never, never, never shall be slaves,” after which the class was rewarded with buns and lemonade!

              Cultural indoctrination, according to Bishop E. Don Taylor, was complete: “Cut off from the colonial centre of action by thousands of miles at sea,” generations of West Indians grew up believing that everything good came in a package that was English and white, and that everything contrary was bad.  This, of course, had ramifications when it came to priestly vocations.  Early Barbadian ordinands, deemed unfit to serve in their native land, were dispatched to minister to black congregations in the U.S. or were shipped off to be missionaries to West Africa, where, it was maintained, their talents could better be used to “evangelise the heathen.”  Bishop Taylor reports that even as late as 1956, a Barbadian expressed to his English rector his desire to be ordained, only to be told that he need not apply since there would always be a sufficient number of English clergy available to minister to Anglicans in Barbados.

              The Barbadian Church grew out of a crucible of colonialism, imperialism and racism.  But through the indomitable spirit of her people who held the church’s feet to the fire, the Church has been consistently called to be true to her catholic principles.  The people were determined to prune from the church every vestige of disease and decay, in order that it could continue to be nurtured by the true vine Jesus Christ.

              The Church in Barbados will continue on this path, too, because of its challenging present.  I believe that present to have begun in 1969 when the church was disestablished.  An established church runs the risk of creating lazy and (dare I say it?) cheap Christians.  When the Church is established, the reverend clergy, church buildings, every Prayer Book and hymnal are provided by the largesse of the Crown.  If the rectory roof leaked, one need only call the Ministry of Public Works.  There was no need to give to the church, so such giving was there was was perfunctory and symbolic. Twopence or threepence as a rule, perhaps a shilling at Christmas.  Indeed, non-givers developed an elaborate liturgical ritual known as bowing to the plate.  I know of these habits because I have ministered to West Indians after they come to the States, where their giving patterns suggest that they still believe that the Established Church is alive and well!  Now that the clergy and people have taken on the responsibility of supporting their own church, they have a vested interest in her wellbeing, a pride of ownership.

              Your present is challenging, too, because a diocese of the Province of the West Indies, you are considered part of the Global South, that part of the church that is alive and well, bursting at the seams.  The churches that missiologists traditionally called “the sending churches,” that is, those bodies that sent missionaries abroad, are all but dying on the vine.  The Church of England has several parishes which it refers to as “redundant.”  The Episcopal Church has lost a third of its membership over the past three decades.  For years it ignored evangelism, believing that everyone with good sense, and certainly good taste, would beat a path to their doors, but for some time, disgruntled communicants have been beating a path to the exit doors!  You are in a unique position to be a sending church, sending forth not only people, but the spirit and sense of forbearance that have enabled you to flourish, even in the midst of adversity.

              Finally, this great diocese will bear fruit because of its glorious future.  Besides being part of the burgeoning Global South, you are neidhbours and long-standing partners with the Church in the U.S.  You are not untouched, for good or rill, by American culture.  Perhaps this all puts you in a unique position to help the Anglican Communion as it grapples with the challenges it faces today, especially that of human sexuality.  Your reputations both for social tolerance and theological conservatism might provide the church with a new model for a via media, a middle ground which the Communion desperately needs if it is to survive.

              This Diocese of Barbados also possesses a treasure in the form of Codrington College, the oldest theological college in the hemisphere.  Its role should not be merely to prepare men and women for ordained and lay ministries in the Province.  It should also function as a place committed to enhancing and supplementing the theological training of those from other places within the Communion, beginning in the hemisphere where it enjoys the distinction of being its most venerable theological institution.  Ian Markham, dean of Virginia Theological Seminary, described as “deficient” and “inadequate” a theological education that does not include a cross-cultural component.  Cannot Domus Codringtoniensis rise to the occasion by broadening the horizons of her neighbors to the north who though materially blessed are often culturally deprived?

              But, as they say on television commercials that try to sell you dicers and slicers and all kinds of gadgets, “Wait, there’s more!” The Diocese of Barbados will have a most glorious future when she is able to be an example to the people who look to her for guidance of that love of which St. Paul speaks.

              Now today is the Last Sunday after the Epiphany; in three short days we will kneel to receive our ashes as a sign of our penitence.  But let’s face it --- the most important celebration on people’s minds today is Valentine’s Day, so it seems especially fitting that we should talk about love.  Now every morning this week, the people at my hotel have graciously supplied me with a copy of The Nation.  Now you probably think I’m going to talk to you about the advice to the lovelorn column called “Dear Christine,” which certainly makes interesting reading.  No, what has intrigued me have been the ads preparing us for Valentine’s Day, the advertisements that try to convince us that if we only spend money on these items, we will endear ourselves to our sweethearts or our spouses (or perhaps in some cases our sweethearts and our spouses) and live happily ever after.

              Here are a few examples:  Victoria’s Secret offers sexy lace and satin unmentionables.  They also sell a slightly more ample undergarment called a hiphugger, in a box set of three; and something called a “pure seduction cosmetic bag.”  The Bed Centre, not surprisingly, has a sale on beds and promised free delivery in time for Valentine’s Day.  Cave Shepherd offers a line of perfumes, with such names as “Pleasures” and “Sensuous.”  Every restaurant worth its salt is offering “Cupid Specials” for two, and one establishment that shall remain nameless is selling x-rated sex toys guaranteed to . . . well, let’s leave it at that!  All of these items, as well as the dozens and dozens of flowers and untold boxes of chocolate that will be presented today might well bring a little excitement and romance to relationships, but in the fullness of time, they have nothing to do with love --- not the selfless, self-sacrificing love of which St. Paul speaks.

              Paul goes to great lengths to describe what love is all about.  First, it suffers long and is kind, does not envy, does not puff itself up.  In our relationships, what happened to “long”?  We are often too willing to throw in the towel and the least provocation.  In real life, unfortunately, love manifests itself in unkind ways; we know what will upset our mates, and too often are willing to take those arrows out of our quivers and take careful aim.  And as to envy, do we not know people who are obsessed with worrying about how much more or less one’s spouse makes, and who keeps score about who takes out the garbage and how often?

              Paul says love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, makes no room for evil.  But we have far too many examples of  behaviour that is not only rude but abusive, precisely because one partner is so insecure that, as a result of the slightest annoyance, he or she must resort to mental, physical or psychological abuse of spouses as well as children, in a misguided effort to prove who is “in charge.”

              Paul insists that love rejoices in the truth, but truth in the wrong hands can be the undoing of love.  Let us say that a wife complained to her mother about her husband.  He may have raised his voice, mismanaged funds, or even “stepped out.”  It’s all true, and the mother harbours that truth and all the negative feelings for her son-in-law --- even long after the couple have kissed and made up!

              Why do marriages often fail?  Because too many people believe in a fairy tale approach to marriage.  Every fair tale begins with the words “Once upon a time” and ends with the words “And they lived happily ever after.”  In between, there is a danger, such as a poisoned apple, a fire-breathing dragon or a wicked witch.  The prince rescues the damsel in distress from the danger, and as a reward for his efforts, wins the lady’s hand in marriage --- and presumably the rest of her is thrown in as well.  Unfortunately, some people believe they will live happily ever after just because they are married, and have had a little holy water sprinkled on them.  They forget that in real life, evil stuff can and does happen after the marriage!

              My friends, the Church can impart a wholesome idea of love only if it exhibits such a love itself.  There was a folk song popular in the 60s: “You will know they are Christians by their love.”  Can visitors and passersby say such things about the Diocese of Barbados?  Sometimes we are our own worst enemies when it comes to evangelism.  The story is told of a woman from another faith tradition that presented herself for worship in an Anglican church, and sat down in the front row (thereby giving herself away).  She was especially moved by the sermon, and about a third of the way through, she shouted “Amen!”  Her fellow worshippers chose to ignore her.  Later on in the sermon, she was especially impressed by the preacher’s remarks, and yelled out “Praise the Lord!”  Her fellow worshippers began to take notice, and began to pray for her swift and rapid removal.  Finally, at sermon’s end, the unforgivable happened.  The woman stood up and shouted “Hallelujah!”  It was Lent, you see, and an usher was dispatched to the pew forthwith.  Leaning over the woman solicitously, he enquired, “Is something the matter?”  “No, said the woman; I got religion,” to which the usher promptly replied, “That may well be, Madam, but you didn’t get it here!”

              The church, my friends, must be honest with itself, aware of its own shortcomings and limitations, aware, as St Paul tells us elsewhere, that God has entrusted the treasures of the kingdom to us, but that we are but earthen vessels.  Perhaps, as you have invited your co-workers or neighbours to church, you have been challenged by them.  Maybe they have said, “I won’t come to St. Silas’, or St. Barnabas’, or St. Andrew’s.  Those churches are full of hypocrites!”  You have probably been wondering for a long time how to respond.  Here is a suggestion:  Tell them that St. Augustine of Hippo, the great African bishop and theologian, said that the church is not a hotel for saints but a hospital for sinners.  Tell them that therefore, it is true that the church is full of hypocrites, but that there is room for one more!

              The Diocese of Barbados has a glorious future because as a church community steeped in the catholic faith, it believes that the God of our ancestors is indeed our God today.  The God Whom you worship, praise and adore is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Prophets, and God who took on human flesh in the Person of Jesus Christ.  This Diocese has not fallen prey to those who fashion a god out of the latest theological fad, a god of convenience.  Barbados knows that the church who weds the spirit of the age soon finds herself a widow.

              My sisters and brothers in Christ, Jesus warns that the withered branches that prove to be ultimately useless are heaped together, thrown into a fire and burnt.  It is abundantly clear to me that such a fate will not befall that branch of Christ’s Body known as the Diocese of Barbados.  To the contrary, this branch, nurtured in good Bajan soil, soil whose acidity is sweetened with sugar cane, will bear fruit that will not only flourish in its own right, but which will, aided by the hand of the Vinedresser, bring life and vitality to the new Vine, the Church of Christ. Moreover, it will bear witness to the words of St. Paul that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

              Let us pray:

              Vine of heaven, thy Blood supplies

              This blest cup of sacrifice;

              Lord, thy wounds our healing give,

              To thy cross we look and live;

              Jesus may we ever be

              Grafted, rooted, built in thee.                AMEN.