The Touchstone for our time
Preacher: Revd Samantha Ferguson, Assistant University Chaplain
Readings: 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13
In the name of the Creator, and the Redeemer and the Sustainer. Amen
Good morning, everyone.
Well this was not the sermon I was expecting to preach to you today.
My first sermon title of ‘Money Makes the world go round’ was to be full of references to one of my favourite musicals – Cabaret – life is a cabaret old chum, come to the cabaret!
But, alas, no singing for me this morning. And thanks be to God some may say!
This was not the way your first couple of weeks being a student here at the glorious St Andrews university was to have gone either.
But I hope and pray that you have begun to find out where the best places are to get cheap decent coffee, where the best seat for your lectures is, or even where your lectures are being held, which is the sunniest spot in the library and which pudding puts the smile on your face from your hall’s kitchen.
I hope and pray too that you have made some friends, reacquainted with old ones, laughed together, had a chance to walk on East Sands and breathe in the crisp north east of Scotland air as the season changes.
Today is also a day in which we welcome into the faith family baby Douglas.
Today, Douglas, you have become a member of a universal faith. Anywhere you travel in this beautiful world of ours, throughout your long life, you will be welcomed and affirmed in Christians churches across the globe – you will always have a home and you will always have friends. Welcome.
Today, like so many Sunday mornings, we are gathered here in this sacred chapel either in person or on line, from many parts of the world, sharing in worship of a God that we live and move and have our being.
Today, we join together as one family in song, in silence, in prayer and in the stillness of listening for the quiet voice of one who has spoken to us throughout the ages. As countless numbers of students and staff have done here throughout the years.
Today, we continue in that continuity of prayer and praise, even though as a country we continue to mourn the loss of our beloved Queen.
Tomorrow, we shall say a formal goodbye and thank you to her through the rites, the rituals and the pageantry of Church and State of the United Kingdom at her State Funeral.
But for many this week there has been a sense that life cannot not carry on as normal. A feeling that history may have stopped for the moment.
We all need to catch our breathe and sit with the knowledge that everything has changed and yet everything is the same.
Here at the Chapel, we will remember Her Majesty on the difficult day of saying goodbye with a service of Evensong at 5.30pm tomorrow evening to which all are welcome.
Tomorrow, history carries on with our new King and life carries on even if it may feel as if someone is missing, something is not quite right for months to come as we adjust to this new normal.
And, next week, we will be back in chapel, same time same place, as we, from the chaplaincy, continue in our work for you of the university and town.
Often people ask me what chaplaincy does. Well, today as tomorrow, is what chaplaincy does. As our psalm so beautifully puts it – ‘From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised’
So, as we heard in our first reading from Timothy, The Chaplaincy, as people of faith, urge and enact the supplications, the prayers of intercessions and thanksgiving of gods people for all – even kings and all in high positions of power.
Tomorrow, as we do so today we pray for the Late Queen, our new King and our world at time of loss, during this time which feels as if we have all run a marathon of grief.
But we do not only pray at the Chaplaincy, we listen to all who walk in through our doors or perhaps the student or staff member who stops us in the street or in Tesco’s, or in that coffee shop where we were hoping for a quiet cup of tea. We listen to you.
We listen and we reflect and we support. The Chaplaincy is for all regardless of whether you believe as we do or follow another way of life – from jedi to pagan to Buddhist, we are here for you all.
Our role is one that, in many respects, has been modelled and lived out in the long life of sacrifice, faith, duty and service reflected throughout the long and enduring reign of our Queen.
The life that she committed herself to and took vows to uphold, was always underpinned by her Christian faith as revealed by the touchstone, the standard by which something or someone is judged or recognised, of that faith, the bible.
The lectionary has chosen for us this morning a gospel reading from the bible that is often called the parable of the shrewd manager. But it too offers a chance to reflect on what it means to carry the weight of responsibility upon your shoulders and how to decide what to do with those obligations wisely.
This parable offers Jesus the opportunity to reflect to his first century audience what it means to honour, care for and uphold honest values in the dealings with others, especially if money is involved.
This parable too, in many senses, has also become a touchstone for all who have dealings with money. You cannot serve God and wealth says Jesus, Yes, this is true. However, intoxication of wealth can be addictive, but it is not the money itself that is the problem. It is what you do with money, what your attitude it towards is and how you use it to love yourself , love God and love others that matters.
A rather apt parable at a time when Money, especially how to stretch it, is going to be at the forefront of everyone’s minds over the coming months. I pray that you have not got through this week’s entire SAAS payment in one weekend. Pace yourself and know there are people at ASK who can help if life becomes dire.
Once upon a time, before I decided to take up the vow of poverty by joining the church, I grew up in a tax haven. Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, is what is known as a Crown Dependency and member of the Commonwealth. 70 miles from England and 20 miles from France – out on our own in the English Channel.
My father was the Vice President of an American bank, with a branch on the Island which is why I grew up there. As the daughter of a bank manager, I know wealth and I know what it can do to people.
But I also know that great good that can come from people who channel their wealth in the right philanthropic direction, as well as the fulfilling joy it gives them whether they are consciously living out the Christian message or not.
Our Queen, of course, was born into great wealth and privilege yes, but she knew it and recognised the unique position of opportunity to do good, to walk humbly, act justly and love mercy whilst being sustained and grounded in the foundations of her unfaltering and deeply committed faith.
Her anchor and role model was always, as she said herself, Jesus, her very own Royal Touchstone.
I was blessed enough to witness that first hand when I was chosen at the young age of 17 to represent Guernsey at the Commonwealth Service held at Westminster Abbey, one wet and windy march many years ago. It was an honour to represent my Island, my school and to meet the Queen.
It was also a lesson in grace personified watching her in action at the centre of her beloved Commonwealth with all the sights and sounds of the many peoples, cultures and communities from across the world represented there in that ancient sacred space on that single day, united as one for peace and prosperity.
Queen Elizabeth The Faithful, fully embodied a life of duty and service to others alongside living a rather peaceable life with her dogs and her horses whenever she could.
Living in all godliness and dignity, and, as such, she became The Touchstone for our age. What ever happened in our own lives or in the life of our nation the Queen was there, resolute, constant and steadfast like the rising and setting of the sun. We could always return to her as our touchstone, and through her words find reassurance that life would be somehow okay.
But now that touchstone for our age is gone.
Over the past 30 years, whenever I have returned home to Guernsey to visit, I would drive to my old home and stand at the entrance of our driveway. There was a large granite slab in the wall with the name of our house ‘Bickleigh’ embossed in gold letters. I would get out and trace the name with my fingers, touching my own touchstone if you like and all would be right with my world.
But last year on my annual pilgrimage home, the slab was gone, the house was gone, and my touchstone was gone. In its place is a new village of social housing where many local people are now able to live. This allows them to continue their history on the island that is their home, without the need to move to the mainland.
Housing shortages are an issue everywhere!
I had a profound sense of loss and grief about losing my own physical touchstone, but life must on, life changes and the world turns again to face collectively a new age, a new reason and a new hope.
Our world will carry on after tomorrow.
It is a new age with a new King, with new concerns and new dreams. For my part, I am saddened that children such as Douglas will grow up in a world not knowing our Queen. So he and they and all of us will have to look for new touchstones in our lives. New people, places and moments that help us to centre ourselves and know that all shall be well.
Only you can know what you need to fill the gap that is left by the loss of our Queen, whether you believe in the monarchy or do not. And please do not underestimate the echoes of national and personal grief that we have all been a part of over the last few days and continue to hear over the coming weeks.
You may have been surprised, as I have been, about the depth of your own feelings over the last few days. As with all deaths of known public figures, the Queen’s loss will have resurrected in you the memories of other losses and other griefs. If that is so, then please remember that is also what the Chaplaincy is here for. We understand, will listen and we will walk alongside you and support you anyway we can.
No one grieves alone in this university.
May you find your new touchstone as you move forward this week, and in the continued rising and the setting of the sun may you find peace and certainty that you are loved by the God who will be faithful to you to the end and beyond.
Amen