Standing Orders: Sermon delivered by Archbishop Jensen at his Consecration and Installation Service

Archbishop Peter Jensen | 10 July 2002

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Sermon delivered by Archbishop Peter Jensen

Introduction

You may be bored; you may be glad; you may be stirred — but some of you are afraid. This ancient pageant marks a transition to office, to power. All the pomp is intended to make the transition legitimate. Power is clothed in dignity to hide its menace. The outward show is intended to reassure us: human beings may validly possess authority. But the question of power remains.

So you may be afraid. You may well wonder what I plan to do with this authority. You may well also ask, has this power come to the right hands? Has it come to clean hands and an incorrupt heart? Has it come by righteous means into clean hands? Is Peter Jensen a man who will act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with his God? (Micah 6:8).

We cannot give an unqualified ‘yes’ to such questions. Jesus himself called us ‘evil’.

We are all the corrupt children of Adam, and all our hearts and hands, all our methods, institutions and policies, whether in church or society in general, are marred by the presence of evil motives and practices. That is precisely why we are so careful to guard against absolute power.

Indeed, that explains why we ought not to legislate for voluntary euthanasia. We may be intellectual giants, but we are moral pygmies. Our failures are so constant that decisions of this nature are beyond our capacity to make with integrity. There is far too much scope for abuse in the practice of euthanasia. We must not trust ourselves with such power; the human race is not the proper custodian of this authority. We are disqualified.

But if failure is so endemic, how can I accept this office? How will I know what to do with it? You may be sure that I fear to accept it, knowing my own heart. I do so only on the grounds that actual authority and true mercy belong to Jesus Christ. I am only a servant of the Lord, not the Lord himself. Real authority — and the direction of our efforts — belongs to the one who is source of authority in every human institution, including the church. We are all accountable to Jesus Christ for the authority we have, at home, at work, in the public sphere, in the church. And there remains his mercy — the possibility of repentance and forgiveness when we fail.

Thus I accept this office knowing that I too am accountable to him, that I need his mercy and that I am under his command. What I plan to do flows not from the devices and desires of my own heart, but from his standing orders in the Bible; obedience is the beginning of spirituality. To hear what those standing orders are, let us focus on Matthew’s version of Jesus’ last words to his followers. Being his last words, they are, in a special way, words for me; they are words for you.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20).

Notice immediately the universal, absolute quality of these words. In a world of relativism, we are confronted by the absolute: Jesus Christ. Notice his claim: all authority. Notice his commission: to all nations. Notice his command: teaching them to obey everything. Notice his commitment: I will be with you always. Let us examine his four absolutes — and their implications for us.

The Claim of Christ

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Jesus preached constantly about the kingdom or authority of God. He announced that God was about to intervene in history, to judge the world and set it to rights. His preaching had that urgent ring to it. He insisted that all men and women get ready for this by repentance. Now, however, he claims to have the authority of God, given to him by God. The kingdom of God that he announced turns out to be the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Why did the eleven disciples believe it? Why did they act upon this belief with revolutionary consequences? It was because the claim was made by the one who rose from the dead. Not long before, they had seen him betrayed by one of their own number, desolate, tortured, crucified. Not long before they had seen him well and truly buried. Now they saw him raised from the dead, victorious over death, our hitherto unbeatable enemy. With its usual frankness, the Bible records at this point that, ‘when they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted’.

The doubts of the apostles recorded in all the gospels are a precious part of the record. They stood there, on our behalf, and doubted the evidence of their own senses. They were not superstitious; they were not gullible. They understood, as they were confronted by Jesus, the consequences for us all, if what they saw before their very eyes was true. If Jesus is alive, everything must be different; our whole world must be a very different place from the world we imagine it to be. No wonder they were slow to believe; we are glad that they were slow to believe. It makes their subsequent conviction, that Jesus was raised from the dead, all the more impressive. The one-time sceptics became martyrs for that faith.

In Jesus, we are not dealing with merely a great teacher — though he was; In Jesus, we are dealing with the one that God raised from the dead, one who burst through the bounds of this closed world. God chose to confound those who think that this world operates like some vast organism with its own laws written irrevocably into its life; chaotic within limits, able only to unfold what already exists, not open to anything beyond itself. Folk who think like that see us as caught in a wondrous, but closed and doomed system. But in the resurrection of Jesus Christ they have to reckon with the absolute and unique God who raises the dead, and insists on his presence in the midst of us.

Jesus announced the coming of the kingdom of God. Now it has arrived, but in an unexpected form. It turns out that Jesus is the king; he is the Lord; he is the one who has all authority. The gospel which we Christians have been given to announce to the world, is that Jesus Christ is the one true and universal Lord. There is no other power in any realm, human or spiritual, which can rival Jesus Christ, the Lord. We are not to compromise — we are to invite men and women everywhere to submit themselves to this Lord for their own salvation’s sake. For this is the Lord who in his great love gave himself to death for all humans, so that he may release us from bondage to the evil forces which enslave us. His death means something to everybody, or it means nothing at all.

The Commission of Christ

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…”

Christianity is a missionary movement. That is its genius. If we are prepared to sing at Christmas, “Christ is ‘King of Kings and Lord of Lords’,” if he has all authority, he must be Lord of all. His love for men and women knows no borders. It is not restricted to the white peoples, or the English speaking peoples; Christ is no racist; his is a universal love. Thus, as he lays claim to all authority, so he commissions his disciples to go to all the nations with this message. In Australia, the nations have come to us, and our beloved Anglican Church must reflect that reality or finally perish in irrelevance.

The missionary movement has sometimes been marred by coercion, by a sense of superiority, by cultural insensitivity. But it has also been one of the most stirring and remarkably positive tales in all history. Tonight we are privileged to have in attendance Bishops from Sabah, New Zealand, Singapore and Chile, as well as other brothers who have served the church in Africa, as a reminder to us of the universality of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are our beloved brothers. Like them, we are the beneficiaries of the missionary movement; how do you think you became a Christian except through some missionary? How very strange if we say, that we honour those who brought us the gospel, but we may not pass it on to others! We must not lose our nerve as obedient followers of Jesus Christ. The gospel is for all the nations.

It is one of the great blessings of God that we live in a democratic society in which it is possible for me to say these ‘terrible’ things that I am saying now (have you noticed?) without fear. Relativistic societies sometimes develop phobias about such free speech, and we must be careful to safeguard this precious privilege. The practice of speaking the truth in love is especially important amongst all who claim the name of Christ.

It is true that we are confronted in the modern world with great difficulty in speaking in the public arena about Jesus. But the world has this as an excuse: that in the past Christians quarrelled violently amongst ourselves, in such a way as to dishonour the Lord Jesus. Sectarianism helped breed secularism. The churches have real and vital differences — that’s true; some of those differences are on fundamental problems — that’s true. Silence and acquiescence is not the answer; but neither is public brawling. We in the churches must practice so speaking that our differences will actually help illumine the gospel, for those who do not know Christ. We must practice ‘speaking the truth in love’.

The Command of Christ

Those who are persuaded that Jesus Christ is indeed Lord of all, submit to him through repentance. The sign of this submission is baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But how does Jesus take charge of us? If the mark of a Christian is one who has accepted the Lordship of Jesus, how does that work in practice?

Jesus seeks and makes disciples. Disciples are folk who learn from the Master. The business of their life as disciples is to learn ‘to obey everything that I have commanded you’. There is no need to seek for Jesus in the dark places, no need to wait upon mystery in the hope of a whisper from God. For busy and practical men and women he is close at hand, for his words are close at hand. The Christian life is founded upon and regulated by the word of God.

The words of Jesus are a fundamental part of the Scriptures, the word of God. We believe that it is the duty of all, pastors and people alike, to listen to the word of God, to build our lives upon it, to regulate our churches in conformity to it, to test all things by it. I believe that our failure to do this helps account for our spiritual weakness. If we will not be led by the word of the Lord, we will be disobedient to him, and forfeit the blessing of walking in his way.

The Commitment of Christ

“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

How on earth can anyone say that? Coming from the risen Christ, these words have proved themselves true. Unlike us, he is not imprisoned by space and time. No matter where his disciples are engaged in the preaching of his Lordship, there he may be found. His companionship is what brought the missionaries here to this country to start with; his promise is what nourished them in their labours; when needed, it consoled them in their death.

I guess the promise was never needed more, than when Richard Johnson and Mrs Johnson came here with the First Fleet and laboured for Christ in intense loneliness and frustration. It was relied on, too, when that flawed missionary Samuel Marsden braved the Tasman Sea and announced the gospel for the first time in New Zealand on Christmas Day, 1814. It was certainly in the mind of my own ancestor, William Pascoe Crook, when he was left alone on a small Pacific island to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, in 1799. He went on from there to start some of the first schools in Australia. Indeed from the very beginning of the white settlement of this nation, there have been those who have endured great labours and hardships, confident of the promised presence of Jesus Christ their Lord and Saviour. Their story has often been written out of the history of our nation, but you may take it for granted that it is recorded in the books in which God records the labours of his people.

We have our own grave difficulties in 2001. But our difficulties do not paralyse us, for we know that Jesus Christ is Lord, that his words are true and that his presence is with us. Indeed, we can see evidence of the work of his Spirit among us, especially in bringing many young people to faith in him and in seeing them offering for service in Christ’s world. From that point of view, brothers and sisters, these are stirring times. Trusting in his promises, obeying his words, we advance confident of his blessing.

Conclusion

Are you afraid? Are you afraid of me? Are you afraid for me? I can understand that. No one can match the needs of this hour; no one can come to this position as righteous as should be. Perhaps your fears are more than usually justified. I do know that again and again in these last weeks the Lord has brought to my mind Micah 6:8 as a text to guide my aspirations: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” All I can do is trust in the grace of God towards a sinful and flawed human being — yes, the one you see before you. I do not pretend to be anyone else but a man saved not by my own merit, but by God’s grace. That’s who you’ve got.

What are my plans? Well, don’t look to me; look to the Lord Jesus Christ. As for me and my house, we plan to follow his orders, and in particular his last order, to make disciples of all nations. That is my special business. That is what I hope that you will be expecting me and asking me to do. I hope that it will be your business as well, especially if you have been commissioned as a minister of God’s word and sacraments. Follow his standing orders; above all, follow his last word, that you will make disciples of all nations; teach, trust and obey the word of God. And then, whatever the difficulties involved in your obedience, whatever the criticism or opposition or privations or sufferings — trust in this precious and very great promise: “surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

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