The Second Sunday of Epiphany, 19 January 2020
Austwick, Clapham, Eldroth
When Jesus turned and saw two disciples of John following him, he said to them, “What are you looking for?”
It’s a good question, one we might ask ourselves as we come here to worship; one we might ask about others who don’t come here to worship but who we think about and care about, the people around us.
“What are you looking for?”
No longer is the average man or woman in the street familiar with the Christian story. In our lifetime there’s been a great turning away from traditional institutions and values, including the church, so that we now have the third, or perhaps fourth, generation of people with little or no Christian formation.
Most people today seem simply indifferent to churches. People are busy working, trying to survive or bring up families. Leisure time can be filled with all manner of amusing things, pain can be mostly managed, and now even the way in which we view death is being changed, with celebrations of a person’s life rather than a ritual for grieving. There seems less interest in the mysteries of life, life’s strangeness, less sense of what W. H. Auden called “the baffle of being”.
And there is a great ignorance of the Christian faith: very little is being taught in schools or at home, so that many people have no idea, for example, what Easter might be about. [1]
“What are you looking for?” Despite all this, there’s no doubt that people are still looking. Looking maybe for identity, for security, for health or wellbeing. Our faith and Christian grounding tells us that God is the underlying, self-sufficient, and eternal first cause who provides these things to those who seek him. But in everyday conversation God has a bad name - or is so often not named at all - perhaps because religion has a bad name now in a way that it didn’t when we were younger.
People don’t see religion as a good thing like they used to. Now many see all religions as tarnished and associated with violence. The New Atheists have generated the false assumption that all Christians are fundamentalists, anti-progressive literalists, so that whatever we may say about our faith should be met with incredulity. Then, of course, there are the gross sins of the clergy over child abuse - so raw this week in light of the exposure rightly given to the Peter Ball case. Religion is a bad thing, or, at best, one to be scoffed at or ignored.
Apart from all this, in the media the central significance and huge influence of Christianity in our history and culture, our art and literature and music, is time and again ignored. It is simply whitewashed out. Recently, there were two exhibitions about John Ruskin, the great art critic and champion of Turner. Ruskin was a deeply Christian man whose faith was fundamental both to his understanding of art and his appreciation of Turner. This religious element was totally ignored in both exhibitions. This is a typical example of a now widespread attitude.
For these and other reasons, it is very difficult for Christians today to get a serious hearing. Some 50 per cent of the population say that they have no religion, an even higher percentage among young people. This is the default position in our society. How should we respond to it? [2]
One way we might respond is by being thoughtful about our own answer to Jesus’ question, “What are you looking for?” and being ready to share those thoughts with others. For your story is important; your testimony matters. Your life connects with those of your own and other generations in ways which mean a very great deal. Organised religion may be on the back foot. But conversation is as important as it’s ever been. Meaningful exchanges between us are as valuable as ever.
We may live in a sceptical culture which is indifferent, dismissive and disdainful of organised religion and what it’s assumed to represent. But we share our lives with people who at a deeper, intimate level, are searching. And our stories matter - those stories we can tell about the searches we have made in our life and the reasons why our faith has helped us. Our stories matter, for they can help others in their search.
This week I spent some time in the company of a young man just starting to make his way in the world. He was telling me how he’d misbehaved at school, for academic work was not his thing, and wondering if that might have set him back in life. I was able to share a couple of tales from my own life where practical skills eclipsed head-knowledge, to show him how I had learned through my shortcomings to have faith that I was valued for just who I was, and to encourage him in the path he had chosen - a path he was finding fulfilling and energising.
The Diocese of Leeds wants to encourage us all to be ‘confident Christians’. Confident that our stories matter, that the faith which underlies our lives, which we may hardly ever put into words outside of these four walls, is a great resource not just for us but can be so for others, as we naturally share with them what it has taught us.
When Jesus turned and saw two disciples of John following him, he said to them, “What are you looking for?”
It’s interesting to note that they didn’t give him a straight answer. They just said, “Rabbi”, “Teacher”, “where are you staying?”, and he said, “Come and see”. They started a journey of exploration with him.
Sometimes we really can’t say what we’re looking for. We just know that we’re in need of something. Maybe of identity, or security, or health and wellbeing, we’re not sure. But there’s a yearning, a hoping, a praying, for that something.
Our faith can give us confidence that the yearning, the hoping, the praying, will bear fruit. How wonderful it is when we take time to listen to others and share ourselves a little with them, for in sharing our story, we may make connections with the yearning, the hoping, the praying in their hearts, we may help them find direction in their searching. Journeying and exploring with them: it’s the best gift we can give to those around us who are looking for direction in a sceptical age.
Notes
[1] Richard Harries, Belief in a sceptical society. Church Times, 3 January 2020. Altered.
[2] Richard Harries,Belief in a sceptical society. Church Times, 3 January 2020. Altered. Hattie Williams, Bishops shamed by BBC documentary. Church Times, 17 January 2020.
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