May I begin by saying how delighted my wife and I are to be back here at Greenbelt. We were last here some twenty years ago when I led a number of seminars. One particular memory that remains with me from those times is that of wading through the mud to get to the loos. I was glad to hear last night that that particular aspect of Greenbelt's life has greatly improved. But I also remember it being a festival that was characterised by friendliness, warmth and a determination to practice radical Christian disciplineship in the service of Our Lord. Judging by what we have experienced over the last few hours those are still characteristics of Greenbelt and it is to that theme of radical Christian discipleship that I want to turn today.
That wonderful vision recorded in Isaiah 6 proved to be a turning point in his life. He had met with the living God. That encounter transformed him and he responded 'Lord, here am I, send me.' So too with us. If we are to be radical disciples then we must make Isaiah's response our own. God's priorities must become our priorities. God's vision must become our vision. God's life must become our life.
To be radical means to go back to the roots of our faith. For the Church and the individual Christian that will always involve us in wrestling with the teaching of the Bible and the doctrines of the Church; listening to them; questioning them; and responding to them. A radical Christian is someone who makes God's priorities their own.
Let me then pick out three of those priorities that stand out in this passage.
The first is that God's calling is a calling to holiness. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. The threefold repetition of the word is, as you know, quite deliberate. It is there is to emphasise and re-emphasise this fundamental characteristic of God. Holiness is central to who He is. So too with us. The search for purity; the determination to turn away from sin and to model our lives in Christ - those things should be central to our lives. No wonder that any ounce of spiritual pride left Isaiah as he saw his own uncleanness in the light of the true nature of God.
When I was in my late teens it was still common to confine holiness to a series of 'don'ts'. We rightly question that today. But perhaps we have now gone too far in the other direction. We are too quick to proclaim that deceptive Corinthian watchword 'all things are lawful to us' and too slow to apply Paul's searching questions in response to it. At present we live in a society where so often the impression is given that the only thing that cannot be tolerated is saying that something is wrong. In the midst of such thinking the truly radical Christian disciple is going to have to swim against the tide and say that there are moral standards - both personal and corporate - that we set aside our peril.
This applies to the Church too. It is just a year ago that the full story of the Nine O'clock Service began to be told. It was a sorry, humbling and shameful tale. As the Bishop of Sheffield rightly emphasised at the time the key issues were not primarily about new forms of worship - which I am delighted are continuing to flourish in many parts of the country - but rather a departure from fundamental standards of Christian holiness. Power and authority were misused and abused in manipulating its members. We still have much to learn from those events, particularly in terms of ensuring proper accountability. But one thing we must also all take to heart is a determination to seek true holiness both in our own lives and in those of our Churches.
Isaiah began his ministry by being cleansed by God. His lips and his heart were purged. That is still the work of the Holy Spirit today. And as he transforms us so we will find a new freedom and joy in his service.
But secondly the God who calls us to radical discipleship is the God who cares. God's attention was focused not so much on Isaiah as on his world. He was its brokenness, evil and lostness. But he also was someone who was willing to say 'send me'. Someone whom God commanded to proclaim and demonstrate his compassion and care to all those who were in need of it.
Such a pattern for living stands in stark contrast to many of the presuppositions of our society today. All too often people are encouraged to think no further than their own private world. As I have said on many occasions we are now seeing the consequences of a privatised morality working themselves out in many aspects of our society.
It is tempting, too, for the Churches to think no further than their private world; to focus on maintenance rather than mission: on survival rather than sacrifice. Isaiah teaches us that the world matters to God. He wants his life to be shared by all; not just by those in our churches. Issues to do with world poverty and a concern for our environment are central to the mission of the Church. Greenbelt, Christian Aid and many others have played an important part in the past in bringing both of those to the fore and must continue to do so in the future. When I think of the divisions between rich and poor in this country - or even more so, when I compare the riches of the developed nations with the poverty I have seen in the Sudan or, most recently, in Mozambique, we must never rest content whilst those gross inequalities and injustices remain.
Finally, the God who calls us to be his followers calls us to go out in his name, whatever that may cost us. The rest of Isaiah 6 describes a ministry of pain, and rejection, and seeming failure. Yet it was that ministry that God was calling him.
We too cannot predict what it will mean to us to follow Christ. He calls us to faithfulness, not necessarily to success. A few weeks ago I had the privilege of being at the farewell service for Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town. He has had a remarkable ministry and has now seen it bear fruit abundantly. Yet there were many dark times when things seemed to be getting worse rather than better. Times when it would have been very easy to give up or compromise. Yet he and many others refused to do so and we see the results today.
Or again I think of Christopher Gray - that fine young Liverpool Vicar whose life was so cruelly cut short a few days ago. He could have had an easy life. He could have enjoyed academic adulation and success. But he chose to follow God's call - to give himself to the people he served and to take risks in the service of others.
His story will I hope be an inspiration to many to a new commitment to radical Christian-discipleship. For some here I hope that will result in your offering yourselves for the ordained ministry. For others in full-time service in this country or overseas. For yet others in whatever vocation God has in store for you. But whatever your calling it will include that of devoting yourself to your fellow Christians in your local churches - however frustrating they may prove. I love that description of the Church by Geoffrey Paul, former Bishop of Bradford: 'There is no way of belonging to Christ save that of belonging to the glorious rag-bag of saints and fat-heads who make up the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church'.
Fellow saints and fat-heads - we can infuriate each other at times, but we are bound in Christ to one another. The call that came to Isaiah still comes to us today. God summons us together to a life of holiness - one that expresses his purity and compassion and is lived in the service of others. Perhaps as we take bread and wine together in a few moments time so we too can pledge ourselves to each other and to his world by responding 'Lord, here am I, send me'.
Editors Note:
Over 20,000 (ages 18-27) were in attendance at the Communion Service. The Archbishop then spoke to 2000 at a Q/A session at the weekend festival. Greenbelt has a history of an evangelical (multi-denominational) participation, with a more "liberal" approach. The term "radical" if often heard and indeed much of this year's theme was centred on radical discipleship. The Archbishop's sermon received rousing applause.