Oh, Where are the keys?

I failed my GCE English Examination four times.

This repeated failure to dot my i's and cross my t's began to cause me a problem because the selection board for the Church of England's ministry required five GCE passes including English.

I signed up and paid for my fifth attempt, returning to my Alma Mater despite the Headmaster's last words to me, 'Smith, it would benefit neither you nor the school for you to remain here a day longer than necessary'.

I had only recently read and enjoyed A J Cronin's novel The Keys of the Kingdom. As it was fresh in my mind faced with the requirement to write an essay as part of the examination, I resorted to creative writing.

I wrote an essay in which I, tactfully of course, pointed out to the examiner that my whole future career as a Priest and a Missionary was entirely dependent on passing the examination in hand!

When the result was published, 46%!, I breathed a sigh of relief, only 1% wasted effort and I was on my way to saving the world!

Keys and I? A mystery of history!

It is in my DNA of course. My father would search high and low, cursing, as he searched for the keys that he had lost.

Moving into our new home, The Vicarage at Snods Edge, and we have only been resident for just over a week, I have lost my keys more times than I have slept in my bed.

And now, on the 16th of December I am to be handed the keys to St John's Church, Shotley.

I have already advised the Churchwarden that they will be handed right back for safekeeping because I am the wrong person to be entrusted with Keys of any description. Even, I might say to the extent that when I had keys to the house cut recently, one of the keys failed to open the the door, so I went back to the key cutter only to find that in the week since the keys were cut, the cutter had gone out of business.

So I don't just literally lose keys I even lose the agencies that exist only to replace, renew and recut the keys I routinely lose.

Keys are central to the Churches understanding of its ministry and the authority, vested in the Apostles of Christ's authority:

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.[4]
- (Matthew 16: 13-20) (NIV^)

Dear Peter, like so many of us who offer ourselves for ministry in the church, a person capable of always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time lacking somewhat in social graces, he was after all, a fisherman. Denying Christ after the Crucifixion.

My Principal at Theological College, Canon Harold Wilson, frequently preached a sermon on St Peter, he based it on a hermeneutic of the passage from St Matthew 16:19 above.

Peter, not as a rock but as a rockhead, a dunderhead, someone who would inevitably lose the keys he was about to be given.

I was never sure whether the sermon was simply a clever and wise interpretation of scripture or simply a warm and encouraging word to theological students, ordinands, who had no confidence in the ability to measure up to the responsibilities that they were about to be given by the church, probably both!

So I look forward to Sunday. I look forward to being entrusted by the Bishop of Newcastle with a ministry which is both mine and hers. I look forward to being a partner in the Gospel with the congregation of St John's, worshipping with my fellow Christians week by week. I look forward to being a servant of the servants of God in this wonderful part of the world.

But I mainly look forward to knowing that for many years the Church has remained open day and night and that the keys are safely locked in the Church safe.

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