OPINION: Dean of Ripon says: Put trust in God as we try to build a better city
There has been much interest in local politics recently, not least with elections in many parts of the country.
Ripon, like other towns and cities, has seen a new mayor sworn into office in recent days. Coun Andrew Williams was installed in the Mayor’s seat in the cathedral on Sunday. This took place in a ceremony which included the 21 Royal Engineers and many representatives of the city’s life and organisations.
The Mayor of Ripon having a stall in the ancient cathedral symbolises the close relationship between the Church, civic authorities and the community. It is also a reminder, as with the coronation of the King, that there is a higher authority yet – a loving, redeeming God to whom we can look for strength and guidance and before whom, one day, we will all have to give account.
The beginning of a new mayoral year gives to our towns and cities an opportunity to reflect on past achievements and future hopes. The recent elections have also prompted this, providing a striking insight into widespread dissatisfaction and a strong desire for things to be different. But how should things be different? How do we know what is best for us? And, while being a defence against tyranny, is the ballot box really the most reliable source of wisdom?
The Christian faith is clear that ultimately true wisdom and right judgement come to us through revelation. By being open to the teaching of Jesus Christ and the working of his Holy Spirit amongst us, Christians believe that we might together discern how we should change for the better and what might serve the common good. There is the added possibility that trust in God might give us the courage to opt for the difficult but right way in life – for individuals, communities and nations.
The reading which the Mayor of Ripon gave in the recent civic service told of the occasion when St. Paul stood before one of the principal councils in Athens, called the Areopagus. The council took its name from the rocky outcrop on which it met – in English, The Rock of Ares (the Greek god of war). The purpose of this council was to uphold good moral conduct in the city. St. Paul, having noticed an altar to an unknown god, told the Areopagus about the God of creation, revealed in Jesus Christ.
St. Paul attempted to entice his distinguished audience away from their existing philosophies by making connections between what he could see (an altar to an unknown god) and the creator God who had revealed his undying love in Jesus Christ and changed the world for ever. In my sermon I mused on what St. Paul might say to Ripon today when seeing all the good works and desire to serve the common good.
I said: “Paul stood before the city council, and the 21 Engineers, and the cathedral community, and the whole city and said, ‘Riponians, I have been through your city and seen all these good works and intentions among you – see in these things the activity of the living God, put your trust in him, and for heaven’s sake don’t make the mistake of trying to build a better city, a better world, without seeking God’s guidance, his grace, his unfailing love and protection.”
I suggested St. Paul would make connections with the words of Psalm 127 presented high on Ripon’s Town Hall:
‘Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost that build it.
Except the Lord keep the city; the watchman waketh but in vain.’