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May I speak in the name of the living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Happy St. Aidan’s Day! I am so pleased finally to be here with you in The Beach and in the Church of St. Aidan’s. I feel honoured to be called to St. Aidan’s, a church named for an empathetic, compassionate missionary, pastor, and preacher. I pray that our shared ministry here at St. Aidan’s may continue to be inspired by Aidan’s example of following God’s call: to share his faith in Christ with those to whom he was sent.

As we hear in today’s Gospel from Matthew 19, Peter asks Jesus, rather impetulantly, “Look, we have left everything behind and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus declares to him that those who have followed him will, at the renewal of all things, sit with him in glory, and that, “everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.” Those who leave their earthly homes and kin to follow Jesus are promised that they get to be at home with God, as part of God’s family—for ever.

Aidan left his home, a monastic community on the island of Iona, to go proclaim the Gospel in Northumbria, in what is now the Northeast of England. He was called to be a missionary to Northumbria after another monk, Corman, was sent to spread the Gospel there but gave up and returned, exasperated, to Iona. This other monk reported that he just couldn’t manage to connect with the people there.

In his version of the story, the Venerable Bede describes that “another man of a more austere disposition” was originally sent to establish a mission there. But “after some time, meeting with no success in his preaching to the English, who refused to listen to him,” Corman returned to Iona and reported that “he had been unable to achieve anything … because they were an ungovernable people of an obstinate and barbarous temperament.”

When the monks of Iona gathered to discuss the situation, and to decide what to do next, Aidan addressed Corman, saying “Brother, it seems to me that you were too severe on your … hearers. You should have followed the practice of the Apostles, and begun by giving them the milk of simpler teaching, and gradually nourished them with the word of God until they were capable of greater perfection and able to follow the precepts of Christ.”

When they heard this, all those gathered “turned towards him; and they paid close attention to all he said, and realized that here was a fit person to be made bishop…, since he was particularly endowed with the grace of discretion, the mother of virtues.” And so it was that Aidan, in concert with his community on Iona, discerned his call to nourish the people of Northumbria with the Good News of God’s love for them in Jesus.

Aidan possessed the spiritual gift of discretion. Or the ability to discern the best way to respond in any given situation. He had the ability to be among people, listen to them, get to know them, and discern the best way to convey God’s message of mercy and love to them, both with his words and with his actions.

Aidan discerned that what was needed to reach the people of Northumbria was the ability to meet them where they were. Aidan’s spiritual gift of discretion showed him how to gradually introduce the nourishing milk of God’s word, so that they could understand more and more deeply as their faith grew. Aidan did not just preach the Good News of Jesus’ love to them in words. Perhaps most persuasively, he lived and embodied the Gospel amongst them: his life was an example of what it meant to follow Jesus and live in his radical love.

In Aidan, the Northumbrians were sent “a man of outstanding gentleness, holiness, and moderation.” As the Venerable Bede recounts, “the highest recommendation of his teaching to all is that he and his followers lived as they taught.” He gave away his possessions, traveled on foot, and welcomed those outside the church to be baptized. And with those who already believed in Christ, “he strengthened their faith, and inspired them by word and deed to live a good life and to be generous to others.”

The Psalm appointed for today, six verses from Psalm 85, gives us a glimpse into what it looks like to live in step with the love and light of God, just as Aidan tried to do:

8 I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, *
for he is speaking peace to his faithful people
and to those who turn their hearts to him.

9 Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, *
that his glory may dwell in our land.

10 Mercy and truth have met together; *
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

11 Truth shall spring up from the earth, *
and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

12 The Lord will indeed grant prosperity, *
and our land will yield its increase.

13 Righteousness shall go before him, *
and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.

In six short verses, we hear these two words—righteousness and peace—recur three times. When I read this psalm, and see how these words are repeated and used together, it causes me to wonder: What is the relationship between righteousness and peace? Righteousness, or seeking to live rightly, can also be translated as ‘saving justice.’ And peace is about living together with one another in harmony, striving to overcome division in favor of unity.

The eminent Hebrew scholar Robert Alter, in his translation of The Book of Psalms, casts verse 11 in these words: “Kindness and truth have met, justice and peace have kissed.” Another translation, the NRSV, words it like this: “Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet, righteousness and peace will kiss each other.” These virtues of mercy, steadfast love, and kindness; truth and faithfulness; righteousness, justice, and peace are here personified as people meeting and embracing one another. By personifying these virtues as being like people meeting and embracing, the psalmist paints a scene of people living together in community, embodying or living out these virtues with one another.

For me, this scene of mercy and truth meeting, of righteousness and peace kissing, brings to mind what Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, calls the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Gentleness is the key to embodying all the other gifts. As my friend Sam Wells says in his book Walk Humbly, “Gentleness is a salad derived from kindness, patience, and self-control. But the gentleness that arises from humility recognizes the clumsiness of our tendency to brush into or tread upon the vulnerability, innocence, or grief of others, perhaps most especially when we’re convinced our course of action is noble.”

Looking back on Corman, the monk who first went to Northumbria but did not succeed in connecting with the people, the reason for his failure seems clear: Corman lacked gentleness. He came in very sure of his noble cause—but he came in without the ability to tread lightly, so as to ease people into this new way of living and seeing the world. Like a bull in a china shop.

In contrast, Aidan’s approach was one of gentleness and kindness, righteousness and peace. Aidan understood that gentleness is that special blend of seeking righteousness and peace—together. And Aidan grasped that gentleness means “assuming that our first gift is presence and attention,” which is to say, “human engagement and sustained empathy.” Aidan, seeking to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, knew that the key to his ministry amongst the Northumbrians was being with them just as Jesus had been with the people of his time and place. Embodying gentleness, mercy, and steadfast love on the one hand, while on the other hand being uncompromising in his commitment to proclaiming truth, promoting justice, and perpetuating peace.

In the ordination service, both in Canada and in the U.S., priests are charged by their bishops to live out our calling “to work as a pastor, priest, and teacher… and take our share in the councils of the Church.” Like Aidan, we are called to “proclaim by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to fashion in [our lives] in accordance with its precepts.” At the end of this address to the ordinand, the bishop sums up the responsibilities of a priest as this: “In all that you do, you are to nourish Christ’s people from the riches of his grace, and strengthen them to glorify God in this life and in the life to come.”

When I visited Toronto briefly, back in June, for an in-person interview, the search committee wanted to make sure they asked me a question that we had run out of time for in the earlier interviews. The question was this: “What is your heart’s cry for St. Aidan’s?” My answer was, and is, that all who worship and participate in the life of St. Aidan’s will know that “You are beautiful and you are loved.” We are each made in and carry within us the beauty of the God who created us and lived among us. And we are all unconditionally and eternally loved by the God who has saved us and called us his own.

Nourishing Christ’s people and strengthening them to glorify God. This is holy work that some are called to lead, and holy work that everyone who has been baptized is called to participate in.

I pray that as we share in worship, spiritual formation, mission, and friendship with one another that we may be a picture of what it looks like when mercy and truth meet together, and when righteousness and peace embrace one another. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Bridges, Incumbent

Delivered Sunday, September 10, 2023