My Dear Sisters and Brothers,

I want to begin by thanking Gerard Sharp for the wonderful job that he did as Vicar General while I was on leave. Thank you. My thanks, also, to all of you who took the trouble to welcome Susan and me and to say how glad you were that we were back. It is good to be a part of a loving, caring diocese.

I began my last Ad Clerum with the words, ". . . the first casualty in war is truth," words written a week before the invasion of Iraq. The subsequent events have only served to illustrate the truth of those words. Irrespective of our support for, or opposition to the invasion, we have all been presented with two opposing groups each declaring the other to be evil while proclaiming the justness of their cause. Each side has claimed the day's events a great triumph for themselves, despite the clear evidence that neither side has been entirely truthful.

While the outcome is being claimed as a great victory in the fight against terrorism and the establishment of democracy, there is little doubt in my mind that the conflict was no victory, but a defeat in the very areas it claims victory. However we seek to defend or justify it, the invasion of Iraq is, in substance, no different from the attack on the World Trade Centre or Hussein's invasions of Iran and Kuwait- all were unprovoked attacks on another nation for political motives. All showed a total disregard for the sovereign rights of the nation under attack, and a total disregard for international law or any democratic process. And all must be condemned as immoral and unjust.

What it all boils down to is people or countries pursuing their own agendas for their own advantage without regard for others - people playing God, and justifying their actions by appeals to lofty and noble sentiments and God's purposes. And that, my friends, is the story of the Garden of Eden: -

'Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. . . . And the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good from evil."

The promise of the serpent is the promise of autonomy, of the freedom to be like God, able to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad. It simply is the story of human sinfulness - rebellion against God, of playing God by deciding to do whatever we want to do. The quest for power is simply the desire to be able to do just that. And the story of what has been happening in Iraq is simply the story of each one of us writ large.

"No one will tell me what to do," says Hussein. "No one will stop us from doing what we have planned to do," says Bush. "We will block humanitarian aid for those with HIV / AIDS until it suits our purposes," says the ANC. And what do we say? We say the same thing; "As long as I am rector of this parish . . . ", "I don't care what the Diocese says, but . . . .", etc, etc. It all boils down to one thing, "I will decide for myself . . . No one is going to make me do anything I don't want to do." And the really scary thing about it is that, as religious leaders, we have the ability to couch our rebellion in the language and purposes of God in a way that would fill the Iraqi Minister of Information with wonder and admiration.

What I have said raises all sorts of issues and there is not really space here to fully explore even a few of the issues. I want, therefore, simply to make three observations for our reflection and meditation.

Firstly, we are called to speak prophetically into the unfolding events of human life. I have often listened to so-called "prophetic voices" and been left feeling that what I heard was no more than the speaker's own social, political and ethical biases couched in theological language. If we are to speak prophetically we bring the events unfolding before us into the presence of God and there reflect upon them until we see them with the eyes of Christ - until our hearts are broken by the things that break the heart of God. Only then can we hear God's word, and speak it into the situation; only then do we offer words of life instead of personal opinions. God's words take flesh in the silence of prayer.

Secondly, as we begin to discern the voice of God, so we ourselves are called to amendment of life. If self-serving abuse of authority and power in the Iraqi conflict breaks the heart of God, then God's heart is no less broken when that same abuse is to be seen in our lives and our church. All too often we are into empire building rather than kingdom building. Which is why Maggie Ross can say, "When two or three are gathered together in God's name there is politics." As God speaks prophetically through us, so we are the first hearers of that word. As Jesus comes among us as a servant leader, so we must eschew political game playing and posturing and be servant leaders to the church and in the world.

And finally, to speak prophetically is not simply to speak words of judgement and condemnation - it is Satan who is the great accuser. The word of God is not a spoken or written word, it is the living word - the voice of the one who said, "I judge no one" (John 8:15) . . . I have not come to judge the world, but to save it" (John 12:47). God's word, therefore, is always a word of life - Good News. In the midst of its rebuke of sin, it invites the return of the sinner. It might hate the sin, but never the sinner. God's word is always a word of love, spoken in love.

In his sermon delivered in the Eucharist of the AIDS Launch, Archbishop Njongo quoted Bishop Klaus Hemmele of Aachen as praying that we might have ". . . Easter eyes, able to perceive in death, life; in guilt, forgivenness; in separation, unity; in wounds, glory; in the human, God; and in God, the human."

I pray, too, that we might have Easter eyes able to see the Good News; Easter ears able to hear the voice of God, Easter lips to proclaim words of life, and Easter hearts filled with Easter joy and love . . . for God and for everyone and everything that God has made.

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.

May the risen Christ give you Easter eyes and ears and lips and hearts.

+Brian

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