Service and Humility
Proper 13 – 2011 – year A – Trinity 6
In the house of the Archbishop of Dublin in Milltown, there is a table that came from Downing Street. In the centre, there is a plaque with the inscription, ‘Around this table Gladstone and his associates plotted the destruction of the Ancient and Apostolic Church of Ireland’. The plot referred to is the process that culminated in the Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1871. Prior to that date, the Church of Ireland, as part of the United Church of England and Ireland, held power and influence disproportionate to our numbers. At Disestablishment, the Church was stripped of political power and much of its wealth. The redistribution of wealth benefited Assemblies College in Belfast and Maynooth College, among others. We were allowed to keep our Church buildings, but the Church had to buy back its Rectories from the Government. The Church of Ireland had to learn a new way of being Church in a rapidly changing Ireland.
Far from leading to the destruction of the Church, Disestablishment allowed the Church to pioneer the concept of Synodical government in the Anglican Communion with the involvement of the laity at all levels. The loss of secular power was a liberation, as the Church focused on its fundamental role in society of witnessing to and proclaiming the Gospel.
The Christian Church has always struggled with the balance between living in the world but not being of the world. Bernard of Clairvaux founded the great Abbey of the monastery as a centre of reform, which later became a place of great wealth and was destroyed in the French Revolution. The Church has had to learn the futility of seeking status and privilege, often compromising its witness.
Jesus taught his disciples about true leadership, saying, “The greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves” (Luke 22:25ff). The feeding of the five thousand illustrates God working with what is available, no matter how inadequate, to fulfill his purposes.
We are the ones through whom God chooses to act today. Our effectiveness rests not on talent or strength but on our willingness to be used. Paul reflects on this in 2 Corinthians 12:7ff, stating that “power is made perfect in weakness.”
The Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland seemed like an end, but it led to a renewal that better equipped the Church for ministry in a changing environment. Today, we witness a similar disestablishment with the Church in Ireland, a reminder that the Church’s effectiveness lies not in power but in faithfulness to Christ’s example of service. May God use our loaves and fishes of service, empower them with his Holy Spirit, and use them for the advancement of his Kingdom.