Address given at Crathie Kirk, 16 August 2009

Published: Wednesday 19 August 2009

1 Kings 2: 10-12, 3: 3-14
Ephesians 5: 15-20

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, my dear friends.  First of all may I express my very great thanks to the Minister and Kirk Session of Crathie Kirk for their most warm welcome to this historic church today.

It is a singular privilege to be here with you not least because as the local Anglican Bishop from the Scottish Episcopal Church I bring you the greetings of my Diocese, the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney including as it does, Aberdeen city, a small part of both Kincardineshire to the south east, and Moray to the north west. It encompasses the whole of Aberdeenshire and then, following the trade routes of old, to Orkney and Shetland as well.

It is a singular joy also that our two churches, the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church, have much in common, ranging from local and personal pastoral concerns involving people and communities, through to the well-being of the nation and of peace and wise governance within and beyond our shores.

One of the often unacknowledged little, but nonetheless quite significant, things we also have in common is the lectionary of readings that many if not most of our churches follow Sunday by Sunday.

I know, for example, that the scripture readings which we heard a few moments ago are exactly the same scriptures as will have been read in just about all the forty four churches of my own diocese.

Others of my clergy colleagues may well have found themselves reflecting on that glorious Old Testament passage where David, now resting in the eternal city, is succeeded on his throne by Solomon.

It is a passage that a first glance may seem remote to many of us though, if you will permit me being personal, the force of it came through strongly to me about two years ago as I was preparing to move from being Rector of a large thriving church in St Andrews to being Bishop of a far flung diocese with responsibility for many small, and some quite fragile, local churches.

When the day of my consecration came in a quite magnificent ceremony in our Cathedral in Aberdeen, my hands were anointed with holy oil for the office and work of a bishop.  Very much in the Old Testament manner of a Davidic anointing.  There was also a laying on of hands with prayer.  And then, most powerfully, the pastoral staff of the bishop, the crozier, was handed to me from our acting diocesan bishop, the Primus, as symbolic of the transfer of authority from him to me.

It was, as you can image, truly dramatic and deeply moving for me individually.

But it struck me then, even in the intensity of the hour, that what happened to me personally, must be so for all of us generally.

Let me explain and expand.

In his response to God’s prompting Solomon is recorded as wishing for “an understanding mind”, and with it the discernment to distinguish between “good and evil” and all of this in relation to the people “in whose midst” he has been given authority.

Had I had the wisdom of Solomon I might have prayed that prayer on the day of my consecration as bishop.  I don’t think I did in actual terms, but I can recount to you that I vividly recall thinking that what had happened to me specifically, and what call had come to me actually, needed also to be true of everyone “in whose midst” I was called to be servant.

Now I use the word ‘servant’ here, deliberately, not least because the word servant is also to be found in that same prayer of Solomon as recorded in today’s first reading.  In fact it is repeated three times: in verses 6, 7 and 8.  In translation and as used here, ‘servant’ can mean just about anything from literally being a slave to someone who represents and acts for another in a position of high responsibility and honour.

To some this call comes specifically and when it does we must faithfully respond.  But, as I’m suggesting to you, it also comes to each of us more generally but nonetheless individually and personally.  And it does so without exception and with a similar demand for response.

You may well say to yourself, “no it doesn’t, I’m not worthy for the task”.  If you do say that to yourself, then you’re in good company for Solomon said just the same, “I am only a little child” were his words.  And he adds, “I do not know how to go out or go in”.

But there he is nonetheless.  Praying for what was translated in today’s scripture as an ‘understanding mind’ though the better translation is a ‘listening heart’.  Solomon prayed for a listening heart so that he could respond to what God was asking of him.

Solomon’s prayer for the wisdom of a ‘listening heart’ is something we all must seek, and like him seek it from God.

God has called and placed each one of us alongside others who will in many and different ways rely upon us, as simultaneously we rely upon them.

The well-being of each of us personally extends to the well-being of the community around us and onward to the well-being of the nation, and to those of you who are from overseas to your own people and to your own country as well.

God calls us, he places us and he consecrates each and every one of us to have that same ‘listening heart’ for which Solomon prayed and thereby to continue the faithful work of a ‘servant’ before him in the ‘midst of the people’ whoever we are and wherever we are.

May you be blessed as you listen for God’s call.  And may you be blessed as you seek to respond.

Amen.

+Robert A Gillies
Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney