Ministry without Armour
A sermon for the Chrism Eucharist, Diocese of Derby, Maundy Thursday 2013. 1 Samuel 17.31-33, 37-40 ; John 19.1-5 It had been a hard Lent. The APCM, the annual church meeting, had not been able to ask a question about the flag we flew in the churchyard without it feeling to me like it had been asked using a baseball bat. Then, on Low Sunday, I was speaking with a friend of a friend, a retired priest who knew something of what had happened. “You need to cultivate the skin of a rhinoceros”, he told me. I think it was possibly the worst piece of advice I was ever given as a parish priest. Our first reading this morning tells us of David being unable to function in the armour of King Saul. ‘I cannot walk with these’, David complains, ‘for I am not used to them’. Saul’s armour was good armour. It protected the king, it identified him as king and conveyed his importance. Saul’s armour was of no use to David as he prepared to take on Goliath. It