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Anointed - for the Transformation of the World

Today the 2024 Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland comes to an end. One of its last acts will be an act of Commissioning of Probationers to "go out" to minister in various circuit appointments. 30 years ago I was commissioned as a probationer in Thomas Street, Portadown, and a few weeks later Sally and I landed in Glastry and Portadown for our first appointment. 
30 years further on it was enormously encouraging and inspiring, in the midst of some difficult and discouraging discussions to be reminded by my Anglican colleague in the joint Church of Ireland/Methodist Chaplaincy at Queens University, Rev Danielle McCullagh, in a pair of Bible studies on Isaiah 61 and Luke 4, of the nature of our calling and the source of our power to do what we are called to do. This included a hugely moving act of symbolic anointing.
If we are in any way to contribute to the transformation of the world we must first be transformed ourselves by the anointing of the Spirit. 
In the midst of all this my mind went back, not 30 years, but little over a year ago to the coronation of King Charles III, his anointing and this piece that I wrote then. It is all the more pertinent today (with a few small revisions):

Anointed:
To proclaim good news to the poor,
Not reassurance to the ravenous rich.

Anointed:
To remove the need for foodbanks,
Rather than seeing them as photo-ops.

Anointed:
To proclaim freedom for prisoners,
Rather than arresting dissenting voices.

Anointed:
To release from darkness the blind,
Rather than erecting a gilded screen
Across things we'd rather not see.

Anointed:
To proclaim a year of jubilee -
Of things set right and debts written off,
Rather than a day of shallow celebration,
A flag-draped, hundred-million pound street-party.

Anointed:
To bind up the broken-hearted,
Rather than exalt the hard-hearted.

Anointed:
To comfort all who mourn,
Rather than promote those
Who profit from misery.

Anointed:
To restore what has been ruined –
Not just rebuild ancient edifices
And renew ravaged environments,
But to reinvest in relationships,
And replant righteousness, justice and generosity
Across the nation;
Truly welcoming those previously excluded,
And taken for granted,
Including the strangers who care for the sick and elderly,
And foreigners who work in our fields and elsewhere;
Where they know that they belong.

Then we will no longer live off
A nostalgia for an imperial past,
When we were in control,
Carrying off the wealth of other nations,
And profitting from the riches of conquest.

Instead of looking back
Through regal rose-tinted lenses,
Or looking forwards with fear
towards a diminished future,
Our descendants will look out with confidence
To find a new place
Among the family of nations,
And our offspring will know
That they are truly blessed.

That’s my King,
And his Kingdom.
That's my calling.

Selah

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