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We do not presume to come to your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own goodness, but in your all-embracing love and mercy.

We are not worthy even to gather up the crumbs under your table, but it is your nature always to have mercy.

So feed us with your Word and with the body and blood of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Whilst I was on retreat in Worcestershire this week hundreds of synod delegates were meeting in a retreat center in Sacrofano, 20 miles north of Rome, for the three-day retreat ahead of the opening of the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican.

As they- sin hodos- literally, walk together, praying and planning their future together, their retreat leader, Timothy Radcliffe, urged delegates to cast away their fears — whether that be the fear that the our chosen direction will dramatically change the Church or the fear that nothing will change!

It was a bold and neat summary of an ever present problem for Christians

(including Anglicans- our own House of Bishops having met last week)

and also a bold & neat summary of the remedy.

HUMILITY IN SYNODALITY x2

In today’s Epistle , Paul takes on the same task and, if you remember similarly urges those who have walked alongside him to be of the same mind as one another.

And likewise, in today’s gospel- albeit in a more obscure form we encounter, in that dramatic, late twist, the very same thing- the strong and startling judgment of the lord on one who refused to dress properly- that is, who couldn’t or wouldn’t cast away their fears and walk humbly with their fellow guests …

I’m taking it, as many early Church Fathers did, that that missing garment was a cipher for the virtues needed to syn-hodos – to walk together- in particular HUMILITY– which is so vital in the experience of receiving and sharing in God’s life of Love.

Clearly the parable is- to some extent- about people being brought in who previously didn’t feel invited. A challenge for Matthews, mostly Jewish congregation, I’m sure.

But the real punchline- the bit that gets us in the gut- is that ending:

a challenge to be continually clothed with Christ’s humility.

And a hard judgment is upon any of us who are tempted

to walk the Christian way unencumbered by the proper dress;

who think, expedience sake – that humility, being a heavy garment,

can be thrown off.

It is a simple point and it is the only point I want to make this morning,

but as Fr Radcliffe astutely saw- it is very easy point to miss

and missing it causes a great deal of the Church’s problems.

Humility is essential for the Christian Life and, if anything,

even more essential for the life of the Church.  It is our secret power

Pointing this out, the C14th author of that great text The Cloud of Unkowning says:

Humility has two aspects:  seeing myself as God sees me and seeing God as he is- the Eternal Source of Superabundant Love.

Do not mistake it for mere meekness or politeness.

Humility is clear sighted and firm in its intent.

It is not afraid to be wrong but makes us courageous to act:

It makes change, safe.  It makes change-makers think twice.

It is collaborative, consistent. It is careful. It does not presume.

It is always willing to encounter and see if there is any excellence

and if there is anything worthy of praise,

The author of The Cloud insists:  Without humility-

(that is, having a proper appreciation of our limit & lack,

 and a burning desire for God’s Love,)

we will be incapable of receiving and sharing in God’s life of Love.

Thus ,Fr Radcliffe says, We may be divided by different hopes

     (Yet) if we listen to the Lord and to each other with humility,

 seeking to understand *his* will for the Church and the world,

 we shall be united in a hope that transcends all our disagreements.

This will for the ‘church and the world’ ,

and the ‘ transcending hope’ which Radcliffe speaks about,

is just this: that in a humble acceptance of Jesus as Lord

we find reconciliation  for the perpetual variance between all men and God x2

Christianity’s basic teaching is an insistence that the character event and drama of Jesus’ life were more than just another ‘event in history’.

Beyond the deductions of pure reason it demands the humble commitment of the whole person to a longing after God

This longing requires a recognition of our lack as a precondition of faith

and both our lack and our lack and longing require one thing above all,

which is so hard that it could be said to be against our nature-

**humility**

To put it another way, sin, is what we call that thing

that stops us putting on humility and knowing God’s love

At St Paul puts it that there is a law in all our members

which wars against the law that is in our minds.

Of course, humility should never be elided into humiliation or guilt is it sometimes is.  It can never be imposed.

Rather, it should be celebrated as that, which dignifies the individual soul

and, finds room for each of us within the Communion of Love.

On the individual level that requires a daily remembrance

that our dignity is found in Christ alone

and it necessitates that we say daily with Him, not my will but yours be done.

On a corporate level, it requires the church to admit daily ,

with prophet *Jeremiah*, that the judgments of God

are upon the circumcised *and* the uncircumcised,

that is- on them *and* us.

On a wider level still it stands as a condemnation of all who judge the other

with a harsher judgment then they apply to themselves.

And in particular, given current affairs, as a condemnation of those

whose faith diminish the other to such a degree

that their very humanity is reduced to collateral in warfare.

In that retreat last weekend Radcliffe reminded his listeners

that maintaining humility in our synodality is a continual challenge-

for each of us- individually-  but especially for especially those

charged with creating and sustaining the Christian life for others.

Sadly, in building or defending the church, humility is often the first victim.

Too many people find themselves defending the institution for its own sake:

guarding, not their hearts, but its reputation, and their own…

An abandonment that is always tragic.

Looking at the life of the churches in particular,

we must admit that our experience- like that of Saint Paul –

is that different understandings of the Church

often drive us apart.

For some the Church is defined by its ancient traditions and devotions,

its inherited structures and language;

the Church we have grown up with and love

that gives us a clear Christian identity.

For others, the present Church does not seem to be a safe home.

Even though it is the very heart of the Church’s identity to be open

it is experienced by many as exclusive

Marginalizing women: gay and lesbian people, children even.

Too middle class- too Eurocentric.

They long for a renewed Church in which they will feel fully at home and safe.

Conflicts of language and conflicts of churchmanship. There are conflicts of style.  Conflicts of method.  Conflicts of theology and culture.

Yet in every conflict from the Roman curia to the village congregation-

our readings call us back to the same task:

To humility in in our individual faith.

To humility in community.

To humility in Synodality.

Grace to gain Grace.

Our hope – the Christian Hope is- that through humility, in its two aspects:

(the realistic appreciation of our own limits

and the ardent desire after God’s limitlessness)

-through these gifts-

Jesus Christ always calls us back to the same retreat

that he gave to his closest disciples

before they embarked on the first synod in the life of the Church-

(their walk together (syn-hodos) to Jerusalem.)

This is, of course, the retreat of prayer and sacrament

that is in worship around the Lord’s table.

Wherever you are in your Christian faith and whatever your experience of Church has been- good or bad, or terrible…

as an insider or outsider, new, old, happy, sad, joyful or angry

let us all pray with equal confidence that Jesus- that just & gentle Lord-

will free our hearts

from WHATEVER tempts us to abandon that which saves us:

Whether it is the fear of change

or the fear that nothing will change…

Let us come to communion this morning knowing ourselves and desirous of Christ, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom.

Let us pray for all God’s church, in this and every Communion

and let us pray earnestly for the world around us,

that we may all return to the simple and humble joy of our salvation-

We do not presume to come to your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own goodness, but in your all-embracing love and mercy.

We are not worthy even to gather up the crumbs under your table, but it is your nature always to have mercy.

So feed us with your Word and with the body and blood of Jesus Christ, Amen+