John 1.14

THE WORD BECAME FLESH

(DAVID DIAMOND)

(John 1.14)

"Fa'vre, I love you, you old bastard. You were alright".

These were the final words at a funeral service held in St Paul's Church, Deptford in 1992. They were not said by the Bishop of Southwark who conducted the service. Nor were they said by the Bishop of London who preached at the service. They were said by an anonymous old dosser who was overcome with emotion at the death of his parish priest.

In his usual alcoholic state, he stepped forward from the congregation, wrapped his arms around the coffin and, in a loud, slurred voice, declared his respect. "Fa'vre, I love you, you old bastard. You were alright".

He was not the only person who thought the Rector was 'alright' and wanted to show their respect on the day. All the shops in the High Street closed and the people of Deptford lined the street as the funeral cortege passed by on its way to the Church. Even the local paper published a special edition to mark his passing.

Inside the packed church, police and criminals sat side by side with members of the local community who joined the regular worshippers to give thanks for the life and ministry of David Diamond.

I first met David Diamond, or 'Diamond Lil' as he was irreverently called because of his toupee, in 1966. We, together with David Hope, the former Archbishop of York, were curates together at the Anglo Catholic Church of St John's, Tuebrook, in Liverpool. There, David had built a large open youth centre for all the youngsters in the area. It was "open" and "for all" provided they first went to Mass at which admittance tickets were issued at the end of the service. How to get away with it, I do not know.

Every Sunday night at 8.00pm, I used to go to celebrate the Eucharist there for 600+ youngsters, whilst the two Davids, together with the Vicar would patrol the aisles in an endeavour to keep order, and to remove the occasional cigarette or chewing gum. I can still recall the time when the Server rang the sanctuary bell at the elevation of the host and a youngster said in a loud voice "Telephone, Fa'vre".

David was a curate there for eight years. He did an awful lot of good for all the people of the community, whether or not they came to church. Every year he hired a fleet of buses to take the elderly on an outing either into North Wales, the Lake District or the Dales. Likewise, he organised an annual holiday for the youngsters of the area on the Isle of Man. Sadly, some always remained behind to appear in court for various misdemeanours!! Nevertheless, David was always there to support them and give character references.

Eventually, his colourful ministry caught the eye of Mervyn Stockward, the then Bishop of Southwark. He appointed him as Rector of St Paul's, Deptford, which was a run down inner city parish in a deprived area of the Southwark Diocese.

Within two years he had the parish alight. He established the annual Deptford Festival which always attracted a Royal visitor. Street parties, carnival processions, concerts and dances were held and a special Festival Eucharist.

He sought to restore a sense of pride in the community. He fought with the multiple stores when they tried to close down the shops in the area. He also fought with the local council to ensure that decent housing and community facilities were provided.

He befriended all and sundry. In his cassock, he was known, not only in the homes of the regular parishioners, but in the homes of the local criminal fraternity even though his vicarage was burgled 40 times. He visited, not only the schools and hospitals of the parish, but also the pubs and night clubs and, of course, the local prison.

Needless to say, such a ministry soon began to affect his health. He had a heart attack in his early forties. Although told to take things easy, he continued at the same pace until a fatal heart attack in 1992 when he was only in his early fifties.

I have often heard clergy described as being so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good! David was heavenly minded, and he also loved and cared for his parishioners. So let us thank God for clergy like David Diamond who have sought to make God real in the world.

The reason I have drawn your attention to the extraordinary ministry of David Diamond is because he sought to express throughout his ministry the significance of those words in the Christmas gospel "And the Word became flesh".

As far as he was concerned, the spiritual side of the Christian faith could not be separated from the material side. The spiritual and the material were two sides of the same coin.

After all, when God decided to make himself known to humankind 2,000 years ago, he did not despise the material world. Rather he used it to be the location and the means of his revelation.

He used the material world to be the location of his revelation, insofar as he chose to be born at a particular place, namely Bethlehem.

He chose the material world to be the means of his revelation, insofar as he chose the form of a human being consisting of flesh and bone with which to express his presence. God did not reveal himself as some vague, woolly, ethereal, spiritual being but as a human being, like you and me.

Thus, God used the material world to be both the location and means of his revelation and thereby affirmed the material world of matter. In short, by "becoming flesh" he declared the intrinsic goodness of the material world. To suggest that Christianity is only concerned with the spiritual side of our nature is to deny the truth of the Incarnation whereby God became flesh.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus also used the material world as a means of revealing the power and presence of God.

He revealed the power of God by the use of bread and wine at the Last Supper, and loaves and fishes at the feeding of the 5,000. He used his hand to heal Simon Peter's mother-in-law and the blind man at the Pool of Bethsaida.

He revealed the presence of God by talking about things in the material world such as wineskins, seeds, lamps, salt, fig trees, pearls, dragnets, tower builders and lost coins.

For Jesus, the material world revealed both the spiritual power and presence of God.

The Church likewise continues to express the spiritual power and presence of God through the use of the material world in its sacramental life.

The use of water in Baptism, of bread and wine in Holy Communion, the laying on of hands in Confirmation and Ordination, the use of oil in Holy Unction, and the giving and receiving of a ring in marriage. These are the material means used to convey the spiritual power and presence of God to the recipient.

If God takes the material world seriously, as demonstrated by "The Word becoming flesh" in the person of Jesus, and if the Church takes the material world seriously, as demonstrated by its sacramental life, then we as Christians should also take the material world seriously.

Christianity is not about some form of pious escape from the material world into a spiritual never-never land, but rather an engagement with the material world through which we seek to know and serve God.

I cannot express this better than to quote the words of Bishop Frank Weston at the Anglo Catholic Congress in 1923, which words I would suggest are as relevant today as they were then. He said: "The one great thing that England needs to learn is that Christ is found in and amidst matter - Spirit through matter – God enfleshed. God in the sacrament. But I say to you, and I say it with all the earnestness I have, that if you are prepared to fight for the right of adoring Jesus in his Blessed Sacrament, then you have got to come out from before your Tabernacle and walk, with Christ majestically present in you, out into the streets of this country and find the same Jesus in the people of your cities and villages of this country.

"You cannot worship Jesus in the Tabernacle if you do not pity Jesus in the slum…..And it is folly, it is madness, to suppose you can worship Jesus in the Sacrament and Jesus on his throne of Glory, when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of children....Go out and look for Jesus in the ragged, in the naked, and in the oppressed and sweated, in those who have lost hope, in those who are struggling to make good. Look for Jesus. And when you see him, gird yourselves with his towel and try to wash his feet.

And who knows, if you do this, maybe some old dosser will hug your coffin and say: "I love you, you old bastard. You were alright".