Exodus 13:17-end; John 14:1-6
I saw Durham Cathedral from the train long before I ever set foot inside here. As a 17 yr old lad I was on my way up to Edinburgh for an Open Day and saw the view of the peninsula from the viaduct as we sped through on a GNER Class 91. It was unforgettable (the view not the train).
But other than being a favourite view from the train, and being in possession of a Dean who is an unashamed train enthusiast, why else might Durham Cathedral be the right place to give thanks for 200 years of the railways? Three reasons spring to mind.
First, Durham Cathedral tells the story of the North-East as a place of ingenuity and innovation. The Cathedral archives include the seventh-century Durham Gospels, which along with the more famous Lindisfarne Gospels are wonders of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria – beautifully written and stunningly illuminated. And this building speaks of Norman imagination and confidence, pushing at the boundaries of what was architecturally possible. It put the North East on the map and still does.
And so it is fitting that here tonight we celebrate the achievement of individuals from the North-East – among them Edward Pease from Darlington and George Stephenson from Wylam – who brought forth the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the source from which the railway revolution flowed. These were people of vision and ambition, people of resourcefulness and faith. The North-East has bred people like that for hundreds of years, and so in this place we thank God for the ingenuity and innovation he has made possible, two hundred years ago and in the years before and since.
Second, Durham Cathedral points to the importance of journeys in human lives. The Cathedral, and indeed the City itself, exist because of a journey undertaken by a community of women and men who sought to keep St Cuthbert’s body safe from the Vikings. They journeyed to this well-defended spot, put down the coffin and the rest is history. And then in turn Durham became a destination for people on pilgrimage, journeying here to pray at the Shrine, following a tradition of walking by faith that went back to the people of Israel in the desert. Journeys help people connect with what and who matters to them.
So, it is appropriate that we celebrate all that the railways did to make journeys more possible: they made them quicker, they made them safer, they made them cheaper – and in due course they made them greener. Through the railways people from different backgrounds could undertake the journeys that mattered to them, including of course to Durham, where hundreds of visitors a day still arrive by train, in so doing enjoying one of the finest views of the East Coast Main Line.
So here at Durham Cathedral we thank God for the journeys the railways made possible, journeys in peacetime and in war, in celebration and mourning, in anxiety and anticipation, in faith and in doubt. As my colleagues on the Railway Mission know all too well, journeys are often about more than getting us from A to B; they open us up to what matters, including the God who journeyed with his people in the desert and journeys with us today.
Third, Durham Cathedral witnesses to the permanent way. The ‘permanent way’ is the technical term for the railway infrastructure on which trains operate: the rails, the sleepers, the ballast, the underlying subgrade – I think I’ll stop there. The permanent way is the sure and safe path from A to B. No sharp corners, no sudden hills, only the odd tunnel - a good and lasting way.
In this regard I am reminded of the words of the Rev W Awdry, writer of the Thomas the Tank Engine books, who said in 1961, ‘railways and the church have their critics, but both are the best ways of getting a man to his ultimate destination.’
Because as the Rev W Awdry knew, and as we heard in our second reading, Jesus described himself as the way. Not a temporary way for some disciples huddled in a upper room, but a permanent way, the permanent way, for people then and people ever since, people from every place who have been seeking God and found him revealed in a man who lived, died and rose again. The shape of this Cathedral is not a train track, but it is a cross, the shape of the permanent way which Jesus has offered for 2000 years.
So tonight we thank God for 200 years of the railways, here in Durham Cathedral, a place which reflects the north-eastern ingenuity and innovation that made the railways possible, which points to the importance of journeys made by train then and now, and which bears witness to the permanent way found in Jesus Christ.
I want to give the final line to Flanders and Swann, comedy duo of the 1960s at the end of a story they told about a miserable experience travelling by aeroplane. They said ‘If God had meant us to fly, he would never have given us the railways’. Amen.