The sermon preached at the Ordination of Deacons on Saturday 28 June 2025.

Between the words that are spoken and the words that are heard may the Spirit of God be present. Amen.

“today is a day of creation, today is a day of exodus, today is a day to take God’s outstretched hand and set off into the wilderness of an alternative future.”

Those are words of Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev, in his book The Liberating Path of the Hebrew Prophets, that I used with this wonderful group of ordinands on our retreat together. I wanted to share them with you because today is a day for something new – not just for the ordinands but for the whole church.

“today is a day of creation, today is a day of exodus, today is a day to take God’s outstretched hand and set off into the wilderness of an alternative future.”

The last time I held someone’s hand was just today – the hand of your Canon Treasurer who also happens to be my husband. When was the last time you held someone’s hand? Was it a friend in greeting? A child swinging on your arm? Your partner? An older relative or friend you wanted to help? There is something trustful and sometimes intimate about the gesture. A willingness to touch and to be touched by another, a statement of relationship, an acceptance sometimes of the help we need.

So what does it mean for us, for you, to take God’s outstretched hand? Perhaps the best way to answer this is by answering another question first, the one asked in our gospel reading. The one Jesus asks Peter and asks us, who do you say that I am?

Archbishop Michael Ramsey famously said, “God is Christlike, and in him there is no un-Christlikeness at all.’ So everything that we say about who Christ is we can also say about who God is. This is what Peter’s assertion in our gospel reading tells us – when we look at Christ as well as seeing Jesus we see God, and all of who God is has to be congruous with all Christ is.

So the outstretched hand that is offered to us is one that reaches out to offer healing, to bestow peace, to catch followers as they fall, to embrace children with belonging, to accept the impact of human suffering, and through such acceptance to transform it. The hand of Emmanuel, the God who is always with us.

The God who reaches out to us is one who has shown themselves to be a God of creative power, of unfathomable love, of healing forgiveness, one whose hand we can take in complete childlike trust knowing we will never be led astray or left alone and un-befriended.

We need this trust as we walk with God into a future that we cannot see. A future that, to be perfectly honest, often seems more full of threat than of hope. From the devastation in the Middle East, to the children dying in the Sudan, to the malice shown daily on social media, the future, and the present, can feel like a bleak place to be. And our beloved Church of England also often shows its fair share of division, of unkindness, of prejudice, and of despondency.

But, but … ‘today is a day of creation, today is a day of exodus’.

So what is God’s promised future that our new deacons are being called to help lead us towards? Where will we find exodus and new creation?

The future that God offers can only be a future that is congruous – that mirrors and is shaped by – that same Christ-like nature of God. A future that looks like Christ, that is formed on lines of self-giving love centred on God and on our neighbour. A future where there is the true possibility of peace, the real hope of justice locally and globally, where the ecological crisis is urgently addressed and – to put it more poetically – where the earth is filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.

And this future demands of us leadership and community that is also congruous – that mirrors and is shaped by – the Christ-like nature of God. Leadership and community that looks like Christ. If we are to increase possibilities for healing, for forgiveness, for mutuality, for redemption, for love, within our church and our world then we must, to the best of our frail abilities, live out these same qualities in our life together.

And all of you about to be deaconed have a particular role in leading us in this congruity. You are especially called to share God’s word in ways that makes it a living spring for renewal and Christ-like life to those you serve. This isn’t just, or primarily, in the way you preach and teach and lead Bible studies. It is fundamentally in the way that you live out your relationship with God and with the children of God who surround you. It calls you to be generous in your judgment of one another, looking with eyes of curiosity and compassion at those you disagree with. It calls you to challenge your self as well as to challenge others. It calls you to remember whose hand is leading you and to reach out your own hands in love and support and Christ-like service.

A few final words for the ordinands. It has been an honour and a pleasure to journey with you these last few days. I urge you in the midst of your great diversity to also build mutual support – remember that you are united in a love of Christ and a calling whatever else divides you. Remember as well (and this is for all of us!) to find time for all that is the opposite of doomscrolling for you – the hopeful, playful, convivial and laughter-filled elements of life that echo God’s delight in all of us. And, most of all, to hold tight to the hand of God who has called you to this work, who will companion you though it, and who will lead you into exodus and new creation. The Christ-like God who will never desert you but be present always with you and with those you love, serve and lead.

May God bless you, and may each one of you be a blessing to the people of God in this diocese and beyond.