So the Gospel is written so that we may recognize that (as the hymn has it) \u201d\u02dcthis is our story, this is our song\u2019. Just as when Peter begins to speak of Jesus ministering, loving, dying, rising, the excitement of recognition is too much to contain, and the Holy Spirit floods and invades. And what of us, as heirs of the apostolic witness, how do we begin to tell a story that makes things happen? Because that\u2019s our charge, that\u2019s our task, and we have to tell the story of Jesus in such a way that all those who listen say to themselves, \u201d\u02dcYes: this is my story and I never knew it. This is the world in which I belong; this is my inheritance, though I have never lived there.\u2019<\/p>\n
So we seek to speak in words that evoke that kind of recognition, knowing that\u201d\u201din the phrases of the Old Testament lesson this evening\u201d\u201d\u201d\u02dcThe word is not far from any of us.\u2019 And if we tell truthfully and joyfully the story of Jesus, then the Word of God embodied in that story and in that person, will indeed not be far from any of our hearers.<\/p>\n
In these last two weeks we\u2019ve often spoken, both in the bishops\u2019 and in the spouses\u2019 conference, about telling our stories. It\u2019s almost a clich\u00c3\u00a9, isn\u2019t it? In a good and properly organized Christian meeting we tell our stories. And that is right and proper, because one of the most significant things any believer can ever do is to say, \u201d\u02dcCome, and I will tell you what he has done for my soul.\u2019 But as we listen to one another\u2019s stories, I hope and pray that i we have also heard and recognized the one story that makes a difference, the one story that changes the world, that changes how we see ourselves and God and everything. And if that has been part of our experience in this conference, then perhaps we can go back to our local apostolic ministries\u201d\u201dand I should add that I mean lay and ordained apostolic ministries here\u201d\u201dto tell the story of this meeting, this Lambeth Conference, in such a way that it becomes itself a story that makes things happen. We can ask God to strengthen us and enable us, so to talk about what we\u2019ve received here that something shifts and grows and deepens in the Christian communities to which we belong. We can try to tell the story of the Lambeth \u201908 Conference so that something happens, so that Christ comes alive in others.<\/p>\n