Ezekiel 34:11-16; John 10:11-15
Examples matter. Both as children and as adults we often learn by copying others. How to play a forward defensive, how to sew on a button, how to chair a meeting – we learn by watching someone else do it and then trying to do it ourselves. Being a good role-model is the popular current term and sports stars are often reminded that their example matters.
Examples matter in our Christian lives too. Whatever age faith became real to us, there will have been people whose example helped us learn what it is to follow Christ. I can think of people at university whose faith I admired and from whose commitment I sought to learn.
These examples do not have to perfect. But they do have to point to Christ. Indeed, I would suggest, this is the key test for the usefulness of a Christian example, that in their life and character they are shaped by, and thus point to, the life of God revealed in Jesus Christ. If a person is transparently concerned with their own reputation and status this is unlikely to be the case; if in humility they are concerned with the glory of God and the wellbeing of God’s people, then their example can be profoundly useful.
Indeed, I want to suggest that such examples can be described as a ‘means of grace’. This term comes originally from the General Thanksgiving, a prayer in the Book of Common Prayer which is one of the gems of Anglican prayer. ‘Means of grace’ refer to the myriad ways God pours out his love in the present day; they are the gifts through which he blesses the Church. Those people whose example points us to Christ – they are I believe a means of grace.
Chief among them today is our own St Cuthbert, whom we honour this weekend in this place where he now rests in peace. As I re-read Bede’s Life of Cuthbert recently it struck me again that we are presented with a man who was a pastor after God’s own heart, a shepherd who lived out the words of the prophet Ezekiel, fulfilled in Jesus Christ. In his diligence in seeking out the lost, in his concern to teach and feed the people of God, in his care for the sick and the burdened, in his commitment to the life of prayer, in his humble exercise of leadership, this was a man who modelled the way of the Good Shepherd himself.
This is how Bede describes Cuthbert’s episcopal ministry, exercised for just two short years.
The venerable Cuthbert was an excellent bishop…He protected his flock with constant prayer, and inspired them to thoughts of heaven with helpful advice. And he did what every teacher should do – he taught by example.
Bede’s Life of Cuthbert is a tender and well-informed account of Cuthbert’s example of the Christ-centred life, a life lived, let us not forget, in deeply troubled times. I know that in her ministry here in the Diocese Bishop Sarah has been inspired by the example of Cuthbert and has treasured praying by him here in Durham Cathedral. She will soon be going to Ely, and some of us on pilgrimage today will soon be returning to other places far away. May Cuthbert’s example go with us all and continue to point us to Christ.
But Cuthbert’s is not the only example we might give thanks for today as a means of grace. Today is also the day when the Church gives thanks to God for another bishop, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury at the time of the Reformation (another profoundly troubled time by the way). He is best known for being the author of the Book of Common Prayer, whose beautiful liturgical expression continues to shape Anglican worship across the world today. But what is sometimes forgotten is that the Book of Common Prayer reveals Cranmer not only as a supreme liturgist but also as a wise pastor, indeed a shepherd after God’s own heart. Here we see a desire for God’s people to be fed and nourished with the word of God, in a tongue ‘understanded of the people’. Here we see a concern both for the proud to acknowledge and repent of their sins and for the troubled to receive the comfort of God. Here we see a commitment to daily prayer and life lived in the service of Christ. And so it could be no surprise that this shepherd laid down his life, when he was martyred for that which he held to be true, in Oxford on this day in 1556.
Cranmer’s example was to point people to the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for us all. Today we can thank God for his example - a means of grace.
And today is also the chance we have as a Diocese to thank God for the example of another bishop, this time Bishop Sarah as she prepares to move to Ely after Easter. I will save most of my words for after the service, but I do want here to thank God for Sarah’s example which has pointed us to Jesus Christ. Her commitment to the life of prayer, her humble and careful exercise of power, her teaching of the flock, rooted in her living relationship with Christ, have been both an example and a blessing. She has been a means of grace and for that – and for her – we thank God.
But is thanksgiving the end of the story? I would suggest not. In the General Thanksgiving the prayer moves on from simply giving thanks to God for Christ’s redemption, the means of grace and the hope of glory. It says this: ‘And we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we shew forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives; by giving up ourselves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days’. If we are conscious of what we have received from God, our task is not simply to say thank you but live lives of thanks.
You see, examples aren’t they to be admired. They are there to be emulated. The calling for us is not to put Cuthbert or Cranmer or yes Bishop Sarah on a pedestal and honour them from afar. The calling for us is to be inspired by their Christ-like example and in our own lives seek to walk the way of Jesus Christ. We are not St Cuthbert and we never will be. Archbishop of Canterbury or Bishop of Ely – I hate to break it to you – is also pretty unlikely. But we too are called to walk with all these examples of faith in the way of Jesus Christ, offering our lives in the service of God, pursuing holiness and justice and abounding in thanksgiving. Ely, Ealing, Durham, Durban – wherever God has called us, we can be inspired by the saints who have gone before us, women and men who in their Christ-like lives have pointed us afresh to Christ. They are gifts – means of grace – to us, and in God’s great kindness we might be gifts to others.
Examples matter. Today we thank God for the example of people whose episcopal ministry and everyday discipleship was shaped by the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. May we crown such thanks with our own faithful obedience and service to the one who laid down his life for us, that in turn we may be a means of grace to others. Amen.