The following Sermon was preached by The Rt Revd Michael Scott-Joynt, The Bishop of Winchester in Winchester Cathedral for the Diocesan Maundy Thursday Eucharist (Chrism Mass) on Thursday 28th March, 2002

This service always has about it for me the feel of a final preparation, a last fuelling, above all of the gift of some refreshment and encouragement,  before we’re all immersed in the marvellous but properly demanding privilege of participation in, leadership of, the Church’s observance of the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord.

Tonight, in so many of our churches – and I’m looking forward to being in  St Mary Bourne - we’ll be into the detail of the beginning of the Lord’s way to the Cross - the Last Supper, his washing of the disciples’ feet  and of ours, his “new commandment” which gives the day its name. This morning, the themes are wider, the view longer: God’s overflowingly generous provision – archetypally symbolised by the gleaming, scented oil – of the healing activity characteristic of his Son; and of his Spirit in Baptism, Confirmation and Ordination; and of men and women for the ministries through which he has promised constantly to renew and equip his Church. And we receive together, colleagues in the ministry of this Diocese, and as the Lord’s sustenance and direction for all that we shall do in his name in these next days, his giving of himself for us “and for many” that we shall be celebrating.

For more years than I can remember I have found this morning’s Epistle, the middle section of Colossians 3, among the most warmly encouraging passages in the New Testament; and to focus today’s theme of refreshment and encouragement, I want to read with you the opening words of verse 16, itself something of a summary of the verses around it:

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly....”

It’s a very nice question just what Paul – and I’m staying with Paul as the author of Colossians! – just what Paul would have his hearers understand by “the word of Christ” ! It’s more than “Scripture - though it includes Scripture, and from Paul’s time Scripture has been chief among the means by which the “word of Christ” can “dwell in us richly”. There’s no need to choose, I think, as some commentaries toil to choose, between the two likely lines of meaning, and better to recognise them both:    the Gospel, the message about Jesus;   and Christ himself addressing us, his guidance within and among us.

And if that, if he, is the subject of the sentence, the real wonder  as so often in the Bible is in the verb! Paul uses it in Romans and in  2Timothy of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling; and quoting Leviticus in 2Corinthians, he uses it with another word to picture God “dwelling in and walking around among” his people!     Perhaps “Let the word of Christ inhabit you”.... !

And “richly” – appropriately picking up this morning’s theme of God’s generous, God’s rich, provision; but specifically, here it’s a reminding echo - a kind of “left-click here to open the box!” – of Paul’s language earlier in the letter and then in Ephesians: “the riches of the glory of this mystery which is Christ in/among you” (“let the word of Christ  dwell in you... ”) “the hope of glory”.  Perhaps RS Thomas catches something of what Paul is alerting us to with “richly” when he begins a poem:  “I was vicar of large things in a small parish”.

  “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly....”

The words that follow in Colossians  address the question   “How?” “...teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs by God’s grace singing in your hearts to God ”; and I shall not dwell on those section by section – at any rate, not today! And the verse as a  whole  makes me think not just of the Daily Office in any of its forms, or of the bible-study and prayer together of prayer-partners or of a married couple, or of a team of colleagues in a parish; and not just of what we receive from God when we sing good Christian music as well as the Scriptures. It reminds me of the godly person whom the authors of Deuteronomy encouraged to have the Law constantly, always on his lips – and so, written on his heart and expressed in his life; and so it reminds me of many a verse in the wonderful Psalm 119.

And I wonder, of myself and about very many of us, whether today we take all this seriously – by which I mean expectantly and thankfully but also devotedly – enough for ourselves; and then, whether we take sufficient trouble, in most of our churches, to  encourage and to assist lay Christians too to put on this crucial element of “the whole armour of God”.

Very often, and in the case of this verse,  JB Phillips seems to me finely to catch Paul’s intention:

“Let the full richness of Christ’s teaching find its home among you”.

Amen