09.10.2024
‘Christ’s Church exists to witness to the truth’ – Dr Rowan Williams in Taney
The angels in the Bible offer a good job description for the Church, according to the former Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt Revd Lord Rowan Williams. Speaking in Christ Church Taney on the Feast of St Michael and All Angels, he said that the angels in the Scriptures “turn to God, they love what they see and they speak it”. “What a job description for the church – we turn to God, we love what we see and we speak it. That’s when our witness begins,” he said.
Dr Williams was preaching at an ecumenical service of Holy Communion in conjunction with the Church of the Ascension of the Lord in the nearby Balally Parish at which Archbishop Michael Jackson presided and which was attended by the former Archbishop of Armagh, the Rt Revd Richard Clarke and Bishop Paul Dempsey, Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin.
The service marked the culmination of the second annual Dermot Lane Seminar in Balally. Dr Williams was the speaker and gave three lectures over two days on the theme of “A noisy world in need of Meditation and Service”. The annual event is held in honour of Fr Dermot Lane, theologian, author, teacher, ecumenist and pastor who served as Parish Priest for 25 years in Balally parish and is currently the parish Chaplain.
Drawing on the readings [John 1: 47–51 and Revelation 12: 7–12], Dr Williams said that Jesus commended Nathanial for his directness and suggested that Nathanial had no deceit and was a suitable candidate to accompany the apostles as a community of truth tellers. One of the truths the apostolic community had to tell was that it was not impeccable or infallible and this was one of the hardest things the Church now, as then, has to learn. Because Nathanial was a truthteller, Jesus was telling him that he would see the angels of God, who Dr Williams pointed out were the supreme truthtellers.
“In both Hebrew and Christian Scripture the angels are the ones who speak the truth about God. They do that by speaking words of hope. One of the most significant truths we are told about God is that God is the source of our hope. Angels are truthtellers because they are hope givers. Not a bad job description of the church of God. If there is in us no guile or deceit, we can become truthtellers of that kind. If we turn away from the fictions we tell ourselves … and turn towards the truth of our own need of God and the truth of God’s infinite willingness to meet us and feed us and renew us, well we have a truth to tell and a hope to give,” he stated. “As we celebrate the feast of St Michael and All Angels we might think about how we have our small part in that vast heavenly accompanying of witnesses to God’s glory.”
Dr Williams said that the reading from Revelation reminded us of what we are up against. The first exponent of fake news was the Devil, the one who looked, saw the truth of God and lied about it, he said.
“What are we to do in a world where we can see the truth and hate it? What a bizarre distortion that is of our humanity. What an extraordinary refusal of life there is, the refusal of truth. That’s why Michael and his angels fight against the power of the lie and they fight against that essential devilish lie that you can know without loving. The angels know and they love. The devils know and they don’t love, so they don’t actually know. Part of the truth we are to announce to the world is that knowledge and love belong together. We can’t separate out knowledge and love. We can’t imagine a healthy world in which those who know, whether or not they love, have power over everything. We can’t buy into a picture of power that is all about knowledge and never about sense. We as Christians are called to tell the angelic truth that knowledge and love belong together. We love God because God is true and God’s truth is infinitely loveable. Christ’s church still exists to witness to the truth and to battle the power of the lie,” Dr Williams said.