John 21:1-14
It is an immense privilege to be here today and I find it a moving experience. Because I am a lad from Anfield Plain and I have been formed by the communities of the Durham Coalfield.
Let me tell you about three people who shaped my life. The first is my dad, who started as an apprentice electrician at the Morrison Busty pit at the age of 14. He had no qualifications, but by going to night school he became an electrical engineer, got a job with the Northeastern Electricity Board and became a planning engineer. And if you drive around Northumberland and see electricity pylons blocking wonderful views of the countryside- then that was my dad. Great engineer, but little artistic sense! When we'd drive to the seaside, he would tell us at length about these pylons. It was more boring than this sermon, but he'd always say, and occasionally a little tear would come to his eye, ‘Remember where the power comes from and the cost to those who mine the coal.’
Then there was my uncle Billy. He spent his life working life as a miner at the Morrison Busty, but had to retire early on the grounds of ill health. As a child I remember the coughing caused by the dust, the shortness of breath and the mental struggles.
And then there was my Auntie Hilda. She was very bright but like many women, turned down a place at college to train as a maths teacher and instead devoted her life to caring for a mining family. However she delighted.in writing out sums for me when I went round for tea. I had to do these sums correctly before I got my corned beef pie. Now as you can tell, I like corned beef pie and so I became good at maths.
And that was so important to my eventual life as an astrophysicist here at Durham University, where I used maths on stars and galaxies and The Big Bang…….and still liked eating corned beef pie. Auntie Hilda hoped for a better future for me.
And so on this day, in this wonderful place where prayers have been said for centuries, I first of all want to give thanks to God for you and your communities.
For the power, the sacrifice and the hope. These mining communities produced the power that fuelled the technological development and wealth of our region and country. It was miners and their families who bore the cost in their bodies and minds of dangerous hard work. And it was communities which gave hope to believe that there was a better world and opportunities for everyone. That belief in opportunity, justice and education allowed this lad from Anfield Plain as a first generation scholar, to come to a place such as Durham University.
Then, on the 40th anniversary of the Miners’ strike, as well as giving thanks, I also want to lament with you the decimation of communities. The world changes but
sacrifice is often forgotten and forgotten communities become broken and fractured.
But it is testimony to you that we are still here.
Now there was something else in Anfield Plain, which transformed my life when I was a lad. I was taken and sometimes dragged along to the Methodist Chapel. It was very different from this cathedral. It was from the Primitive Methodist tradition. It was a Chapel that didn't like candles. It was sceptical of the power of clergy and didn't like, with respect to the people around me today here at the front, dressing up too much! At the front, there was no vast altar but a tiny communion table with a small cross on it. However, what dominated the front of the church to the side of the pipe organ was the huge banner of the Morrison Busty Lodge of the NUM. (The banner was actually destroyed when the Chapel was burnt down. Somewhat ironic due to the dislike of candles in the place! The banner was recreated just a few years ago).
In the centre of the banner was a picture of a lion with a child riding on its back, laying down with a lamb. Under it was the simple phrase, ‘the reign of peace’.
It was a picture that stimulated my imagination far more than many of the dull sermons I endured. How could a lion lay down with a lamb? As the comedian Woody Allen once said, ‘I've always liked the image of the lamb lying down with the lion, but it won't get much sleep!’
It was an interesting picture for an NUM banner. It's an image, of course, that comes from the Old Testament book of Isaiah and a symbol used by Christians to speak of the hope of reconciliation, peace and justice inaugurated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. And this hope of reconciliation, peace and justice isn't just about heaven. This isn't just corned beef pie in the sky when you die.
Rather it is the belief that reconciliation, peace and justice are available now and should be worked for and strived for now.
In my eye line to the banner in the Methodist Chapel in Anfield Plain was the small cross at the front of the church. And on this day, in this place. I'm reminded of someone else who inspired me. The one who died on the cross, Jesus, who through the resurrection is still here.
Just a moment ago, we heard a reading from John's gospel. From John Chapter 21, this is a resurrection appearance of Jesus, one of a number in the Gospels of the New Testament. Jesus had been crucified, crushing the hopes of his disciples. And yet, after the Crucifixion, Jesus appears risen, having conquered death.
Did you notice in the reading that here Jesus builds a fire of burning coals. And that Jesus appears not to the great and the powerful, not to the governmental authorities, not to the rich and the famous, and not to the religious hierarchy. But Jesus risen from the dead appears to fishermen, working people. People who were worried about where the next meal was coming from. People who worked hard at great cost.
This significant moment in the resurrection of Jesus is with working people, because God is a God for all people. And I wonder if you noticed that as Jesus meets with the disciples, he shares with them an abundance of life in terms of this huge catch of fish. because God's concern is that people experience an abundance of life - a fairness, a justice life, in all its fullness. And did you notice also that Jesus meets with them in the midst of grief.
This Jesus is still here. In my own life, the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ is about a power for living, that can transform any situation and indeed death itself.
The cross and resurrection of Jesus is about the sacrifice of the love of God that enables this to happen. And the cross and resurrection of Jesus is about the new opportunities that give hope.
As a child, my mam and dad, Uncle Billy and Auntie Hilda would all go together for our annual holiday to Blackpool. Sometimes this was because Uncle Billy had got himself into the Miners convalescent home there and we went along stayed by a place nearby. At Blackpool, the highlight of my holiday were the rollercoasters at the Pleasure Beach. And so when we had our own kids, my wife Alison and I who love roller coasters, would pack the kids with the grandparents into the car and drive to the Pleasure Beach at Blackpool. Grandparents, of course, are important to take with you because they look after the kids while you go on the roller coaster.
I remember going to the Pleasure Beach one day on a baking hot day, even hotter than today. We couldn't find anywhere to park. We drove round around the Pleasure Beach, trying to find somewhere to park. The temperature in the car began to rise. My wife and I are good Christian people, but we started to have an argument about where to park. Grandparents, as they usually do, chipped in ‘you just missed a parking space back there’. Eventually we parked. It seemed to me about 3 miles away from the Pleasure Beach. We got out of the car and trudged to the Pleasure Beach. By this stage we're not talking to each other. We got to the Pleasure Beach and now at the Pleasure Beach is a great roller coaster called the Big One. My wife and I deposited the children with the grandparents and we queued for the Big One, still not talking to each other. We got on the roller coaster and the Big One is a classic roller coaster. It takes you up a big, steep incline to the first drop. Most people, when they get to the top, look straight down to see what is going to happen. But can I give you a bit of advice? If you ever go to Blackpool and if you ever go to the Pleasure Beach and if you ever go on the Big One roller coaster, when you get to the top of the first drop, don't look down at what's ahead of you. Look over your shoulder. And you will see so many parking spaces, you will not believe it. Parking space after parking space after parking space.
A different perspective doesn't solve the every problem. But it gives you hope.
At the age of 17, it was in that Methodist Chapel in front of that little cross and that huge NUM banner that I said yes to Jesus Christ being Lord of my life. And that over the years this has given me hope. It's reminded me of the sacrifice and cost of God's love for me. It's given me a new power in my life.
May I on this day and in this place commend to you Jesus Christ.