There are pros and cons about being Church of England. People look to us in good times and bad. Our Archbishop buried the Queen and is shortly to crown the King. Yet we are seen as so conservative as to be out of date whilst falling ourselves into the trap of being conservative in a worse sense - working to conserve our position in English Society. When I read in today’s Gospel of how Our Lord started his ministry by attending the Marriage at Cana I recall a tumultuous week with the announcement that Christian teaching on marriage is to be put up for renegotiation at General Synod. Already Parliament is having its say on the Church of England’s proposal to authorise prayers of blessing for those in same-sex relationships. Outrage has been conjured up in the media on account of the Bishops’ decision allegedly not to change the doctrine of marriage though their claim not to do that seems questionable given their provision to dedicate same sex civil marriages.
I am always impressed by Chris Bryant MP, a former Church of England priest, who is gay and married in law to his partner. Chris pulled out all stops in the Commons last week when he said: “Is there any Biblical teaching that says [same-sex marriage] is wrong? Any? Really? Did Jesus say a single word about same-sex relationships or marriage? I don’t think he did. He said a great deal about love. The God of Love and St Paul said in Christ there was neither male or female, nor Jew or Greek, and I think he probably would have also said neither gay or straight’. It's hard to counter the force of the last sentence. Once again, though, the disadvantage of Establishment is made clear when Parliamentarians are telling the Church of England ‘if you’re really our church you should do what we tell you’!
The Church of England is bound to what Jesus tells it to do and he actually did teach on marriage in response to a question about divorce in Matthew 19:4-6 ‘Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning "made them male and female, and said, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate’. Our Lord clearly roots the nature and institution of marriage in creation. Marriage is marriage because it is the complementarity of a man and a woman evident from the way their bodies were designed by God witnessed in the Genesis poem. The New Testament goes further in making an analogy between bridegroom and bride and Christ and his Church in Ephesians 5:25-28, ‘Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendour, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind - yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies’. This teaching echoes Christ’s parable in Matthew 22 which starts: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son’.
In the parable God is the king, Jesus is the son and we and the cosmos are part of the preparing of the bride for that banquet. The whole of history is headed towards a wedding banquet where Jesus is Bridegroom and the Church is Bride. All we’re about this morning at the eucharist is preparing for the end of all things when God will be everything to everyone at his wedding banquet. ‘Blessed are those who are called to his supper’!
Coming back to the Gospel we see more fully the significance of Our Lord starting his earthly ministry at a marriage since his ultimate purpose as heavenly Bridegroom is uniting the church to himself ‘in splendour, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind… holy and without blemish’. This is a picture, indeed the picture, the big picture of Christianity expressed as an analogy with ceremonies solemnised month by month in this building. I celebrated one for Orjan and Courtney Bergen in September. Their union, I explained, is a reflection of the union being built up between Christ the Bridegroom and his Church, Sunday by Sunday. The eucharist both looks back in making the memorial of the Cross and Resurrection and looks forward in anticipation of the return of Christ as Bridegroom for his Bride. This is why we add to the Communion invitation, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’ the phrase ‘blessed are those who are called to his supper’. Not just this morning but on the last day when all our aspirations have outcome in a purified church fitted for her Lord’s return and the heavenly banquet he has prepared for us.
The Gospel of the wedding feast at Cana in St John Chapter 2 is a scene setter for the Messianic banquet on the last day and a pointer to the significance of our eating bread and drinking wine at the eucharist. It is also, by implication, a shot across the bows for those seeking to dismantle the heterosexual symbolism of marriage in the Christian understanding. That being said I rejoice with gay friends at a church initiative attempting to repair damage done over centuries estranging homosexuals from the Church. I know gay Christians who complain they are ‘got at’ by their peers for going to Church and then ‘got at’ at Church for being different. God forgive me if anything I’ve said could be seen in that way. The healing and reconciliation we seek in church life will flow more from the truth that is in Jesus than rhetoric online, in the pulpit, in General Synod, let alone Parliament. The House of Bishops Pastoral Principles, affirming marriage remains heterosexual whilst providing for the dedication of civil same sex unions, has been called a fudge. That fudge isn’t sweet to the lips of conservatives or revisionists. As we pray for February’s Synod let’s ask God to sweeten the way forward. I end with some words from the House of Bishops document: ‘Whenever we encounter diversity, difference and disagreement, we… must remind ourselves of the need to address ignorance, to cast out fear, to acknowledge prejudice, to speak appropriately into oppressive silence, to admit hypocrisy and to pay attention to power. We continue to commend these Pastoral Principles to the whole church so that together we can grow more clearly into the likeness of Christ and make his love known to this generation’. So be it - whatever the cost - come, Holy Spirit and give guidance to the General Synod!
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