St Mary's, Appledore, North Devon

Reflection from Rev Trevor Lloyd

Today is the day we remember Richard Hooker, Priest, Anglican Apologist, Teacher of the Faith, who died at the age of 46 on this day in the year1600. The set Gospel reading is John 16.12–15.

‘I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.’ (NIV)

Reflection

A long time ago I was president of the Bishop Jewel Society in Oxford University, a society dedicated to studying and furthering the work and writings of John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury in the days of Queen Elizabeth I. He was a major influence on the young Richard Hooker, the great apologist of the Elizabethan settlement, the via media or middle way, finding peace and eirenic solutions in the sometimes vitriolic and vicious disputes between Roman Catholics and Puritans. We could claim Hooker as a local lad, as he was born just outside Exeter, but went to Oxford when he was about 14, By the age of 31, having been a fellow of his college and a university lecturer, he was Master of the Temple, a large London church where the congregation included lawyers and MPs, some of whom were outspoken Puritans. His magisterial eight volume Laws of Ecclesiasticsl Polity covers a wide range of constitutional and philosophical issues and has been hugely influential in both church and state, both here and in America. He examines the sources of authority – why we do what we do in our lives. So he is seriously questioning those in the church about where their authority comes from. His answer is what some call the three legged stool of Scripture, Tradition and Reason – but he makes clear that the legs are not of equal value. It’s a bit like a group studying the Bible together: you start with scripture – that’s a given, but not always (as Peter said of Paul’s letters) easy to understand. So you have some discussion, reasoning together, drawing on the experience of the group, including previous reading and teaching – that’s Tradition. But evaluate where the ideas are coming from. As the BBC keeps telling us ‘the fight for truth is on’.

That’s one hint about why this historical stuff about Hooker is relevant to the life of the church today. I got Volume 1 off my bookshelf and it really is very modern, despite the sixteenth century English. ‘Touching points of doctrine, for example, the unity of God, the Trinity of Persons, salvation by Christ, the resurrection of the body, life everlasting….and such like, they have been since the first hour that there was a church in the world, and till the last they must be believed. New laws of government: what commonwealth or church is there which maketh not either at one time or another? There is no reason in the world why we should esteem it necessary as always to do, as always to believe the same things. Everyone knows that the matter of faith is constant, the matter contrariwise of action is daily changeable.’ So, he argues, the basic articles of faith which govern salvation are unchangeable, but the ceremonial and domestic laws spoken by Moses in the name of God, need to be changeable. These laws ‘are not framed without regard to the place and persons for which they are made’ and will therefore be bound to change and vary with time and place. So when Jesus says ‘I have much more to say to you’ why didn’t he provide more detailed instructions for 21st century people? We need to listen to the next verse - ‘when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.’ We need the Spirit to show us century by century, year by year, how to change, not just the law but the people, ourselves and our attitudes. And though I think putting Christians into categories is dated and not very helpful, I am not some way out ’loony’ liberal (though I love and respect my friends who see themselves like that) but have an impeccable pedigree as a conservative evangelical follower of both Jewel and Hooker - conservative in regard to scripture, radical in regard to action. And just to underline how relevant Hooker is for today – and to ask you to pray – Jesus says of the Spirit ‘he will tell you what is yet to come.’ The hurt and idiocy of the position our House of Bishops have allowed themselves to be put in over the issues surrounding the Living in Love and Faith process shows they haven’t read Hooker on how to look at the law.

We pray for all who seek peace with clarity and wisdom, for Sarah as she prepares to lead a divided, disparate global church as Archbishop of Canterbury, for our bishops and all who teach and minister your word, including ourselves as we speak the truth of your word to our family, friends and neighbours, and seek that peace which is certainly beyond our limited human understanding.

God of truth, whose Wisdom set her table and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine of the kingdom: help us to lay aside all foolishness and to live and walk in the way of insight, that we may come with Richard Hooker to the eternal feast of heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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