The following sermon was preached by the Bishop of Winchester, The Rt Revd Michael Scott-Joynt at a Eucharist of Reconciliation in St Peter's Church, Ropley on Sunday 23rd February 2003 at 9.30am

“To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12)

We have just heard those words, in the Gospel set for today; and for all of us responding to God’s call to worship him here this morning in this Eucharist of Reconciliation, I want to put beside them some words of St Paul; and I am praying and will continue to pray that all of us, and everyone for whom St Peter’s is, has been,  or should be their church, will seek God’s help to take both passages to heart through these next weeks and years.

“So I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-control” (2 Timothy 1:6-7).

Bishop Trevor is now on his way to Chilbolton, for the Confirmation of 26 young people and adults; he will be here with you for Confirmation at the end of March; almost all of us here this morning are confirmed. Those passages do not just remind us what our fellow-Christians in Chilbolton and Wherwell are believing and doing this morning; they remind us who we really are, who we can be, how we can think and talk of others, how we can behave – each of us, and here in this village and in every element of the life of this church.

Today’s Confirmation, and this Eucharist, point us to God who has brought and brings us to life, to living Christ’s new life, to living in ways that would be impossible without him giving us  “power to become children of God” ; not because we deserve his gifts, but because he loves us whoever we are and however we have behaved, and wants us to be among his newly made people - for the sake of those around us, and so that through us, through the attractiveness and truth of us as Christians,  others and all the world will be called and  encouraged back to believing  and trusting  in God.

So God’s aching, longing question to each of us, to every Christian every Sunday but in a particular way to each of you and to me in this Eucharist of Reconciliation at this point in the life of this parish, after these years of our tragically destructive and distressing  difficulties, of failures on the part of so many of us – God’s aching, longing question to each of us is simply this: “Will you trust me, will you put your weight on your belief, that I am giving you  “power to become children of God” ; and will you persevere in “rekindling”, every day “blowing into flame ”, my gift to you of Jesus’ life to be lived in your own? Are you prepared to believe that you can be changed, made new, through my power and presence within and among you?”

In a word, I believe that God is saying this morning  to each of us and to us together: “Please just give being Christian a try!”

I’ll say a little about what this will mean in practice; and if you are tempted, as you listen, to dismiss what I’m saying as impossible, unrealistic, then please think of  God, God’s presence and God’s power; and please think, too, of our fellow-Christians in, for instance, our partner-Dioceses in Rwanda who are learning to live again with fellow-Christians who may have killed their closest  relatives.

It means trusting that others are on the same journey, offering themselves to be changed and made new, and behaving towards them as if they are, before there is evidence that this is so;  being slow to believe, and still slower to pass on, stories that confirm our fears – or our past experience; behaving with grace and charity to the next person, and going on doing so however she or he is behaving to me; trying fresh ways of being the PCC, or being the bishop, or being the vicar and believing that you, I, can be different; settling for the long haul, and not giving up because the next person, or you or I, seems not have changed overnight, or even in a few months – a baby learning to walk keeps trying however many times she topples over, and in this parish most of us are in just this position, of having to learn again, or for the first time, “to walk in newness of life”. It means constantly coming back to God, claiming his forgiveness and his power, through the means that are his gift to us, the channels through which he will renew in us the life of Jesus: the Scriptures, prayer and worship, this service of Holy Communion and – trust Him! – each other.

Be sure, finally, that I, and Bishop Trevor, and our colleague John Guille the Archdeacon, are seeking to hear these words, this call, for ourselves and for the changing and renewing of our ministry among you and for you; and that we shall stay with you, the church in Ropley, and with your PCC and with your Vicar, keeping all this before each of you, for the long haul that it may well be before Ropley is again a healthy, united, fruitful, and financially fully viable parish that is a blessing and a witness in this Diocese  and more widely.

 “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God”.