WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.560 Morning to everyone in the room, on Zoom. Lovely 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:05.160 to be here with you. Today I'm going to introduce 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:09.199 us to the idea of class, or as some of you prefer 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:14.000 me to say it, class. And that is precisely the 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.019 point, and in a sense the ironic pointlessness 00:00:17.019 --> 00:00:20.460 of a day like this. It's one thing to see the 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:24.140 word written down. Written up on a lecture room 00:00:24.140 --> 00:00:27.559 screen behind me here. But it's quite another 00:00:27.559 --> 00:00:30.640 thing when we start to pronounce on it or even 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:33.859 to pronounce the word itself. Suddenly, each 00:00:33.859 --> 00:00:36.960 and every one of us in some ways, known or unknown 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:41.320 to us, are unravelled. We're enrolled. We're 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:44.140 entangled in this strange, strange thing called 00:00:44.140 --> 00:00:48.759 class. By how we say it, how we wear it, how 00:00:48.759 --> 00:00:51.000 we style ourselves, whether that's our hair. 00:00:51.450 --> 00:00:55.049 or our titles, our codes of humour and honour, 00:00:55.229 --> 00:00:59.009 the jobs we take, the jobs that are taken from 00:00:59.009 --> 00:01:03.210 us, the answers we give, the appraisals others 00:01:03.210 --> 00:01:07.430 give to us. At the very outset, this notion is 00:01:07.430 --> 00:01:10.510 sticky, even before we open our mouths. Class 00:01:10.510 --> 00:01:14.209 is wet paint. We brush against it, it comes off 00:01:14.209 --> 00:01:17.390 us. Something of it marks us, whether we like 00:01:17.390 --> 00:01:20.390 it or not, whether we understand it or not. It 00:01:20.390 --> 00:01:23.450 can be frustrating, whether because it's elusive, 00:01:23.469 --> 00:01:26.010 but nevertheless, you know, when you see it, 00:01:26.049 --> 00:01:28.370 when you hear it, when you taste it, when you 00:01:28.370 --> 00:01:32.989 smell it, or because if you ignore it, it simply 00:01:32.989 --> 00:01:37.609 goes away. Glass is both social and antisocial. 00:01:37.909 --> 00:01:42.370 It's visible in places, people and lives. But 00:01:42.370 --> 00:01:45.849 at the same time, it's invisible, but still powerful 00:01:45.849 --> 00:01:50.819 in the walls inside our heads. our hearts, our 00:01:50.819 --> 00:01:55.340 comfort zones. Class is felt. It's emotional 00:01:55.340 --> 00:01:59.840 in a range of ways. And it's also embodied, affecting 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:04.459 our health and life chances and life outcomes. 00:02:05.019 --> 00:02:08.180 Indeed, increasingly so at this present time 00:02:08.180 --> 00:02:12.599 of cost of living crises, with despair and stagnation 00:02:12.599 --> 00:02:15.180 in what are sometimes called left behind places. 00:02:16.060 --> 00:02:18.979 increasing numbers of young people and not so 00:02:18.979 --> 00:02:23.979 young people feeling failed and failing and weakened 00:02:23.979 --> 00:02:28.960 civic and political allegiances. We're holding 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:31.819 this day on class for these reasons and for others. 00:02:32.139 --> 00:02:35.240 Class also affects our churches, again, whether 00:02:35.240 --> 00:02:38.710 we're aware of it or not. Yes, a key conviction 00:02:38.710 --> 00:02:41.069 is that we believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ 00:02:41.069 --> 00:02:45.349 makes calls on our lives to repent and to believe, 00:02:45.490 --> 00:02:49.449 to belong and to behave differently towards one 00:02:49.449 --> 00:02:53.689 another. But so often that call seems to struggle 00:02:53.689 --> 00:02:58.849 to reach across the class spectrum. Our churches, 00:02:58.889 --> 00:03:02.810 indeed our colleges, our courses for evangelism, 00:03:02.830 --> 00:03:06.879 training and discipleship, too often... they 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:10.719 are more class -bound than is good for the gospel. 00:03:11.300 --> 00:03:14.319 While there might be short -term game and comfort 00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:18.379 in focusing on people like us, the Great Commission 00:03:18.379 --> 00:03:21.960 is not so limited, reaching very much to people 00:03:21.960 --> 00:03:26.460 not like us. And that call to be not so limited 00:03:26.460 --> 00:03:30.590 comes to each of us. Thus, class becomes implicated 00:03:30.590 --> 00:03:34.069 as a gospel issue, as much as the gospel involves 00:03:34.069 --> 00:03:37.849 deeds in keeping with repentance that are enacted 00:03:37.849 --> 00:03:42.669 together. This is especially so whenever class 00:03:42.669 --> 00:03:45.469 has been neglected in our thinking, our acting, 00:03:45.650 --> 00:03:48.629 our believing, and the kinds of gospel cultures 00:03:48.629 --> 00:03:54.310 we seek to shape in our lives and in our churches. 00:03:55.310 --> 00:03:57.990 If culture is defined by the best things we celebrate 00:03:57.990 --> 00:04:00.729 and the worst things we tolerate, then class 00:04:00.729 --> 00:04:04.830 and classism, that is discrimination, devaluation, 00:04:04.909 --> 00:04:08.849 marginalisation on the basis of class, is a matter 00:04:08.849 --> 00:04:13.969 of gospel culture and of gospel life. Today is 00:04:13.969 --> 00:04:16.350 an opportunity for us to begin addressing these 00:04:16.350 --> 00:04:19.259 things. To start this, my presentation has three 00:04:19.259 --> 00:04:21.939 steps in it. The first and longest will be to 00:04:21.939 --> 00:04:24.439 introduce and seek to define this slippery concept, 00:04:24.819 --> 00:04:28.660 class. I'll do so by tracing its journey through 00:04:28.660 --> 00:04:31.639 British history to the present and noting some 00:04:31.639 --> 00:04:34.620 ways in which class is entangled in our churches. 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:37.639 Second, I'm going to make a reverse step, looking 00:04:37.639 --> 00:04:41.160 into the New Testament world to see how its society 00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:44.910 was structured. and how Paul navigated class, 00:04:45.149 --> 00:04:48.509 such as we can see it there. In my closing section, 00:04:48.709 --> 00:04:50.810 I'll take us into the book of Acts to finish 00:04:50.810 --> 00:04:53.449 with some direction forward for our day ahead 00:04:53.449 --> 00:04:57.709 and what might flow from it. So first then, the 00:04:57.709 --> 00:05:02.449 history of class in the United Kingdom. The word 00:05:02.449 --> 00:05:04.449 class first entered the English language in the 00:05:04.449 --> 00:05:07.230 late 16th century as a term imported at that 00:05:07.230 --> 00:05:11.160 time from ancient Roman history. From the outset, 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:14.439 then, it's been a term related to rank and hierarchy, 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:18.500 coming as it did from classical society, its 00:05:18.500 --> 00:05:22.420 rank and rankings. Also, it entered into English 00:05:22.420 --> 00:05:25.579 language and society with its own pre -existing 00:05:25.579 --> 00:05:28.379 ranks and rankings, stretching back into history, 00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:32.100 into feudal, medieval times and earlier. But 00:05:32.100 --> 00:05:34.920 among its first uses in English, this new term 00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:38.680 class had an educational function. A usage still 00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:41.959 seen today in our classification of university 00:05:41.959 --> 00:05:45.500 degrees as first class, upper and lower second 00:05:45.500 --> 00:05:49.660 class and so on. Now meanings of terms rarely 00:05:49.660 --> 00:05:53.079 stand still and class is one of those words which 00:05:53.079 --> 00:05:55.339 has had a shifting impact on our culture and 00:05:55.339 --> 00:05:59.180 society in the centuries since then. A big change 00:05:59.180 --> 00:06:02.800 for class came in the 1700s with three revolutions 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:07.160 and indeed the absence of a fourth one. The first 00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:09.120 of these revolutions is what became known as 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:12.199 the Industrial Revolution, in a century of transformation 00:06:12.199 --> 00:06:17.100 stretching from the 1700s into the 1800s. Britain 00:06:17.100 --> 00:06:19.259 was the first country in the world to undergo 00:06:19.259 --> 00:06:24.379 large -scale industrialisation. Massive urbanisation 00:06:24.379 --> 00:06:27.759 came with it, causing a large -scale disruption 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:32.180 of rural orderings of society. New industrial 00:06:32.180 --> 00:06:36.040 towns and cities altered the lives of many. created 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:39.740 vast riches for some, and caused society -wide 00:06:39.740 --> 00:06:45.220 searches for what this new order meant. During 00:06:45.220 --> 00:06:48.139 the same time, there was a second and third revolution. 00:06:48.379 --> 00:06:51.000 First, an American one, breaking free of British 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:54.319 colonial rule. And second, quickly in its wake, 00:06:54.519 --> 00:06:57.740 the French one, breaking free of aristocratic 00:06:57.740 --> 00:07:01.540 rule. On both fronts, this was a period of immense 00:07:01.540 --> 00:07:05.879 debate, struggle. over political, social and 00:07:05.879 --> 00:07:08.779 economic rights, which played out differently 00:07:08.779 --> 00:07:12.579 in different countries for the varying classes 00:07:12.579 --> 00:07:17.300 within them. But curiously, there was not a fourth 00:07:17.300 --> 00:07:21.839 revolution at this time. There was no British 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:24.720 revolution, not in the political sense, such 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:28.490 as happened in America and France. Despite the 00:07:28.490 --> 00:07:32.050 massive impact of industrial change, no royal 00:07:32.050 --> 00:07:35.949 heads rolled in Britain in the period. No republican 00:07:35.949 --> 00:07:41.430 fervour bought regime change. How come? In part, 00:07:41.629 --> 00:07:44.750 the answer lies with how class as a category 00:07:44.750 --> 00:07:48.410 morphed and accommodated changes within Britain 00:07:48.410 --> 00:07:52.110 at the time. Initially, class in a British context 00:07:52.110 --> 00:07:55.740 was applied to people's social position. typically 00:07:55.740 --> 00:07:59.579 indicating if they were nobility or not. Upper 00:07:59.579 --> 00:08:04.180 and lower became its two subcategories. But as 00:08:04.180 --> 00:08:07.399 revolutionary fervour burned over the Channel 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:11.240 and across the ocean, class in Britain underwent 00:08:11.240 --> 00:08:15.920 an evolution, not a revolution. The innovation 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:20.480 was the insertion of middle into this dual ranking, 00:08:20.699 --> 00:08:24.459 in recognition of an intervening middle class. 00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:29.240 Now what created this break, preventing similar 00:08:29.240 --> 00:08:32.799 revolt in Britain? Historians debate the point, 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:35.220 some seeing its roots in earlier times, during 00:08:35.220 --> 00:08:38.039 the Tudor period perhaps, and then being nourished 00:08:38.039 --> 00:08:42.000 by the spread of British imperial power. Overseas 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:44.379 there was a growing need for administrators in 00:08:44.379 --> 00:08:48.340 newly acquired colonies, an increased scope for 00:08:48.340 --> 00:08:51.759 a trading merchant class to take root in Britain. 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:54.940 helping quell political revolutionary potential 00:08:54.940 --> 00:09:00.399 back home. Perhaps now, likewise then, people 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:04.879 were slightly confused by class. That said, any 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:09.259 assertion, insertion of middle into the ranking 00:09:09.259 --> 00:09:13.759 order of class is always by definition indeterminate. 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:17.919 And here lie some of the seeds for our definitional 00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:21.659 difficulties today. Another impact at this time 00:09:21.659 --> 00:09:23.860 was happening at the top of the class structure 00:09:23.860 --> 00:09:27.639 of that period. During industrialisation, wealth 00:09:27.639 --> 00:09:31.440 grew in newly industrialising towns and cities, 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:34.340 whereas the old upper class were located predominantly 00:09:34.340 --> 00:09:37.960 elsewhere. It wasn't the case that the upper 00:09:37.960 --> 00:09:41.779 class dropped out of sight completely, but that 00:09:41.779 --> 00:09:44.399 term became increasingly assigned to a different 00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:47.000 and somewhat distant part of society, distant 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:50.600 from the industrial towns, that is. Less visible 00:09:50.600 --> 00:09:53.720 there, upper class became something of a residual, 00:09:53.940 --> 00:09:58.019 respected, but essentially displaced aristocracy. 00:09:59.039 --> 00:10:01.580 Meanwhile, things weren't staying still down 00:10:01.580 --> 00:10:04.019 at the lower end of this societal ranking league. 00:10:04.299 --> 00:10:08.340 Another contrast marker was emerging. This was 00:10:08.340 --> 00:10:11.659 the term working, used to indicate those who 00:10:11.659 --> 00:10:14.620 were useful or productive in this new industrial 00:10:14.620 --> 00:10:17.820 world, unlike the landed aristocracy, who by 00:10:17.820 --> 00:10:20.990 contrast were simply... privileged, the ISIL 00:10:20.990 --> 00:10:24.710 class. Initially, this working label was a wide 00:10:24.710 --> 00:10:28.509 one, applied to both middle and lower rankings. 00:10:29.129 --> 00:10:33.149 Its considerable overlap is seen in a 1797 reference 00:10:33.149 --> 00:10:36.470 to the middle and industrial classes bound together. 00:10:37.070 --> 00:10:41.250 But this overlap was not to remain. Instead, 00:10:41.389 --> 00:10:43.769 as industrialization became more established, 00:10:44.029 --> 00:10:47.759 a further separation of terms emerged. in this 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:50.899 category of class with a still very general identification 00:10:50.899 --> 00:10:56.539 of the poor and working classes. By the 1840s, 00:10:56.559 --> 00:11:00.120 middle class and working class were becoming 00:11:00.120 --> 00:11:03.399 common terms, separating out from one another. 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:06.720 And as the 19th century lengthened and more and 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:09.840 more aspects of life and nature became classified, 00:11:10.360 --> 00:11:13.419 so people began to differentiate between lower 00:11:13.419 --> 00:11:17.700 and upper middle classes. And in working class, 00:11:17.779 --> 00:11:22.559 skilled, semi -skilled labourer. Now, at this 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:25.360 point, let us pause and consider the logics. 00:11:25.820 --> 00:11:30.139 Logics, plural, what is in play here. Side by 00:11:30.139 --> 00:11:33.139 side, class has evolved in this British context 00:11:33.139 --> 00:11:38.200 with two different processes, two different ways 00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:41.480 of thinking in mind. On the one hand, the term 00:11:41.480 --> 00:11:45.570 middle retains the old sense of rank. ranking 00:11:45.570 --> 00:11:49.590 and hierarchy, whereas the term working indicates 00:11:49.590 --> 00:11:52.950 a different sense of production and usefulness. 00:11:53.350 --> 00:11:57.470 Neither term is the exact mirroring of the other. 00:11:58.090 --> 00:12:01.730 And here, in how the word is unfold and become 00:12:01.730 --> 00:12:05.289 used, we see something of the opposing tensions, 00:12:05.549 --> 00:12:09.590 the pride and disdain, the kind of emotional 00:12:09.590 --> 00:12:15.870 potential for superiority. and inferiority which 00:12:15.870 --> 00:12:19.250 stalk class classifications to this day. Labels 00:12:19.250 --> 00:12:23.769 make a difference to people's identities. And 00:12:23.769 --> 00:12:27.509 it's in this complex and dynamic already existing 00:12:27.509 --> 00:12:30.690 landscape of class that we encounter Karl Marx. 00:12:31.309 --> 00:12:34.409 Not as the inventor of the term but as one who 00:12:34.409 --> 00:12:37.429 worked with it. At this time together with Friedrich 00:12:37.429 --> 00:12:40.110 Engels he developed a revolutionary philosophy. 00:12:40.990 --> 00:12:43.730 with a distinctive economic and political agenda, 00:12:43.990 --> 00:12:46.970 looking at desperate living conditions within 00:12:46.970 --> 00:12:49.809 Victorian industrial cities such as Manchester, 00:12:50.250 --> 00:12:54.009 one area of which Engles described as hell on 00:12:54.009 --> 00:12:59.570 earth. Marx saw potential for a salvation of 00:12:59.570 --> 00:13:04.450 sorts, a class consciousness arising from individual 00:13:04.450 --> 00:13:08.350 workers forming a class formation. underpinned 00:13:08.350 --> 00:13:11.090 by a shared understanding of their working conditions 00:13:11.090 --> 00:13:14.889 and their place within what he called capitalist 00:13:14.889 --> 00:13:19.750 economic relations. Such consciousness could 00:13:19.750 --> 00:13:24.350 lead to action, revolutionary action, to overturn 00:13:24.350 --> 00:13:28.250 the economic structures holding workers in its 00:13:28.250 --> 00:13:32.259 thrall. And in the early 20th century, in the 00:13:32.259 --> 00:13:35.000 immediate aftermath of the First World War, such 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:40.039 class revolution did happen, but in Russia, not 00:13:40.039 --> 00:13:43.399 Britain. Instead, helped by a series of stepped 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:46.159 changes through the interwar period and beyond, 00:13:46.279 --> 00:13:49.440 Britain preserved and to some extent embedded 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:53.639 its three -part class system. That is a somewhat 00:13:53.639 --> 00:13:56.850 remote upper class. a reasonably robust middle 00:13:56.850 --> 00:14:00.289 class and a large, if not quite revolutionary, 00:14:00.289 --> 00:14:03.730 working class. In their interactions, these three 00:14:03.730 --> 00:14:06.669 groups managed to keep together a shared sense 00:14:06.669 --> 00:14:10.850 of British pride in a capitalist system, albeit 00:14:10.850 --> 00:14:14.909 one supported and subsidised by a vast overseas 00:14:14.909 --> 00:14:18.629 empire and increasingly underpinned by government 00:14:18.629 --> 00:14:22.179 -led welfare provision. The rise of the Labour 00:14:22.179 --> 00:14:24.440 Party and trade unionism brought a measure of 00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:27.100 progress for the working class, and the ruling 00:14:27.100 --> 00:14:29.539 classes managed to bribe enough through government 00:14:29.539 --> 00:14:33.500 provision to keep that spectre of communism at 00:14:33.500 --> 00:14:37.460 bay. After the Second World War, following a 00:14:37.460 --> 00:14:40.820 few years of austerity and rationing, from about 00:14:40.820 --> 00:14:45.039 the 1950s onward, Britain saw a period of sustained 00:14:45.039 --> 00:14:48.779 economic growth and an unprecedented sharing 00:14:48.779 --> 00:14:52.879 of rising wealth. A promise of cradle -to -grave 00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:55.080 support for all classes ran through the National 00:14:55.080 --> 00:14:57.899 Health Service, provision of council housing 00:14:57.899 --> 00:15:01.159 and state pensions, and state -owned industries 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:05.799 such as coal and steel. Indeed, if we jump back 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:10.679 to 60 years ago, to the year 1966, not only did 00:15:10.679 --> 00:15:13.059 the England men's team win the Football World 00:15:13.059 --> 00:15:17.309 Cup, one highlight of sorts, but also the country's 00:15:17.309 --> 00:15:20.610 manufacturing employment reached its all -time 00:15:20.610 --> 00:15:25.330 high. If you want a snapshot of a certain take 00:15:25.330 --> 00:15:28.470 on the three classes at what was, with retrospect, 00:15:28.870 --> 00:15:33.370 this high point of 1966, you can't do much better 00:15:33.370 --> 00:15:35.450 than searching online for a black -and -white 00:15:35.450 --> 00:15:37.769 television comedy sketch from the same year, 00:15:37.909 --> 00:15:41.549 involving John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie 00:15:41.549 --> 00:15:45.399 Corbett. Googling class sketch, not now, later, 00:15:45.500 --> 00:15:49.200 will lead you to it. Class, however, does not 00:15:49.200 --> 00:15:53.759 stand still. Even if this somewhat neat tripartite 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:57.659 understanding of class endures to this day in 00:15:57.659 --> 00:16:01.480 some casual assumptions of what class is somehow 00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:05.340 meant to mean, fed by memories from black and 00:16:05.340 --> 00:16:08.039 white television comedies from a now far off 00:16:08.039 --> 00:16:12.840 era. Rather... The four pillars underpilling 00:16:12.840 --> 00:16:15.639 the British class system were slowly decaying 00:16:15.639 --> 00:16:18.379 and disappearing. And it's this process that 00:16:18.379 --> 00:16:22.220 brings us towards today. First, empire. Post 00:16:22.220 --> 00:16:24.840 -war decolonisation saw its ending as a mass 00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:28.059 supply line and market for British wealth production. 00:16:29.179 --> 00:16:33.860 Second, industry. 1966 was an irrecoverable peak 00:16:33.860 --> 00:16:36.899 for the UK economy, as well as for the English 00:16:36.899 --> 00:16:40.759 football team. By the end of the 1970s, economic 00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:45.580 decline was all too evident. In 1979, when Margaret 00:16:45.580 --> 00:16:47.980 Thatcher became Prime Minister, promising change, 00:16:48.419 --> 00:16:51.720 the traditional manufacturing industries, the 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:53.740 heavy industries which had made Britain in the 00:16:53.740 --> 00:16:56.779 19th century the workshop of the world, were 00:16:56.779 --> 00:17:00.840 inefficient and in rapid decline. The new government, 00:17:00.980 --> 00:17:03.500 unwilling to prop them up, allowed market forces 00:17:03.500 --> 00:17:06.680 to do their work. One -fifth of all manufacturing 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:10.019 jobs were lost within a three -year period. One 00:17:10.019 --> 00:17:13.640 -fifth of all manufacturing jobs were lost between 00:17:13.640 --> 00:17:19.099 1979 and 1982. Coal mining too was well past 00:17:19.099 --> 00:17:22.160 its peak. Whereas in 1984 there were a quarter 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:24.680 of a million striking coal miners, in Britain 00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:27.920 today there are fewer than 3 ,000 coal workers 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:31.859 in the entire industry. Traditional industrial 00:17:31.859 --> 00:17:35.400 heartland suffered greatly. economically and 00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:39.079 socially, and in many contexts have never recovered. 00:17:39.319 --> 00:17:42.039 The power of trade unions and organised labour 00:17:42.039 --> 00:17:44.619 and what went there in terms of social cohesion 00:17:44.619 --> 00:17:47.559 was much diminished. New jobs were too often 00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:50.140 in other places or didn't need the same manual 00:17:50.140 --> 00:17:54.380 skills or simply were lower paid and less secure. 00:17:55.299 --> 00:17:57.859 Another change from the 1980s onwards was the 00:17:57.859 --> 00:18:00.240 sale of council houses without a corresponding 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:04.009 rebuilding programme to replace them. Over time, 00:18:04.130 --> 00:18:07.029 inequalities in income and wealth, marked in 00:18:07.029 --> 00:18:09.650 their own way by house prices and house availabilities, 00:18:09.950 --> 00:18:12.609 were increasing and new divisions were coming 00:18:12.609 --> 00:18:16.190 into being. Overlaid on this, the collapse of 00:18:16.190 --> 00:18:18.609 the USSR and the communist project at the end 00:18:18.609 --> 00:18:21.509 of the 1980s seemed only to confirm the failure 00:18:21.509 --> 00:18:25.470 of alternatives to market forces. As the old 00:18:25.470 --> 00:18:28.049 century closed, it seemed that capitalism in 00:18:28.049 --> 00:18:31.410 its new globalising format had won and that class 00:18:31.410 --> 00:18:37.000 was somewhat... But it was not an end. It is 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:39.759 not an end to the underlining difficulties and 00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:41.839 tensions that were traditionally seen as class 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:45.019 related. Labour's return to government in the 00:18:45.019 --> 00:18:47.259 1990s with the promise that things could only 00:18:47.259 --> 00:18:51.160 get better would not be a lasting optimism. Instead, 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:54.099 a financial crash, a global financial crash in 00:18:54.099 --> 00:18:58.680 2007 to 2008 exposed and extended national debt 00:18:58.680 --> 00:19:02.170 and led to years of austerity. briefly interrupted 00:19:02.170 --> 00:19:05.150 by vast government spending during the COVID 00:19:05.150 --> 00:19:09.710 -19 pandemic. Today, welfare provision such as 00:19:09.710 --> 00:19:13.130 the NHS is under increasing stress and strain. 00:19:14.289 --> 00:19:17.170 In secular terms, this history of past then is 00:19:17.170 --> 00:19:20.690 not a happy one. Where, we might then ask, were 00:19:20.690 --> 00:19:23.309 the evangelical churches during these long changes 00:19:23.309 --> 00:19:27.690 and developments? In broad terms, the story is 00:19:27.690 --> 00:19:30.900 mixed. Historian David Bevington, looking back 00:19:30.900 --> 00:19:35.019 at the 17th century, sees evangelicalism then 00:19:35.019 --> 00:19:38.099 as appealing to artisans, but it is, quote, then, 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:41.599 rarely the religion of the poorest and the outcast. 00:19:42.440 --> 00:19:45.019 This was not an inherent limitation of reach, 00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:48.140 however, as the impact of the 18th century evangelical 00:19:48.140 --> 00:19:52.440 revival and the birth of Methodism show. That 00:19:52.440 --> 00:19:56.009 said, by the late Victorian period, the high 00:19:56.009 --> 00:19:58.750 period of industrialisation, a rising middle 00:19:58.750 --> 00:20:01.230 class was becoming a dominant cultural force 00:20:01.230 --> 00:20:04.869 in evangelical churches. And the previous century's 00:20:04.869 --> 00:20:08.890 gospel work amongst the poor was less, but not 00:20:08.890 --> 00:20:11.890 lost. We might as well look at the Salvation 00:20:11.890 --> 00:20:14.329 Army, the Church Army, and the Welsh Revival 00:20:14.329 --> 00:20:16.710 in the early years of the last century to point 00:20:16.710 --> 00:20:20.009 to actual, not just potential, reach of the gospel. 00:20:21.289 --> 00:20:24.049 But even such brief historical mentions are not 00:20:24.049 --> 00:20:27.819 enough. to show that the gospel always plays 00:20:27.819 --> 00:20:30.740 its theological resources for reach across the 00:20:30.740 --> 00:20:34.859 entire class spectrum. If we fast forward to 00:20:34.859 --> 00:20:38.099 today, we certainly benefit from diaspora brothers 00:20:38.099 --> 00:20:40.980 and sisters in our midst bringing fresh vibrancy 00:20:40.980 --> 00:20:45.400 to a seemingly post -Christian Britain. That 00:20:45.400 --> 00:20:48.039 said, some of us are rightly reflecting on the 00:20:48.039 --> 00:20:51.059 negative impact of some influential Christian 00:20:51.059 --> 00:20:53.839 ministries from recent decades where abuse has 00:20:53.839 --> 00:20:57.500 come to light, some of which seems infused and 00:20:57.500 --> 00:21:03.039 fed by class biases and distortions. Gathering 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:05.839 such as this then, we're looking humbly for existing 00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:09.599 good practices and pointers forwards for how 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:12.779 to nurture Christian ministries across class 00:21:12.779 --> 00:21:18.880 divides today. How then, in light of these changes, 00:21:19.529 --> 00:21:22.990 and our circumstances are we best able to understand 00:21:22.990 --> 00:21:27.269 the present outlook thrown up by this shape shifter 00:21:27.269 --> 00:21:32.529 of a category called class not i suggest by returning 00:21:32.529 --> 00:21:36.710 to neat three -part formations such as we see 00:21:36.710 --> 00:21:40.710 in comedy sketches nor by returning or relying 00:21:40.710 --> 00:21:46.369 on a former marxist analysis at essence class 00:21:46.369 --> 00:21:50.180 in contemporary britain haunts us but in new 00:21:50.180 --> 00:21:53.579 and challenging ways that challenge us in how 00:21:53.579 --> 00:21:57.500 we respond in our day and age with the perennial 00:21:57.500 --> 00:22:02.339 gospel. I think class remains inescapably about 00:22:02.339 --> 00:22:06.579 haves and have -nots. But this differential is 00:22:06.579 --> 00:22:10.019 also increasingly experienced and felt in social 00:22:10.019 --> 00:22:13.880 relations, how people interact or don't interact, 00:22:14.140 --> 00:22:17.160 their connections. their networks, their friendships 00:22:17.160 --> 00:22:20.920 and associations. And additionally, class plays 00:22:20.920 --> 00:22:24.640 through culturally, involving matters of taste 00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:27.640 and evaluation, the interests and activities 00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:32.200 that people access and enjoy. And these two things, 00:22:32.279 --> 00:22:35.920 the social and the cultural, inform the doors 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:38.960 that are thought to open a future for us, such 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:43.009 as, for instance, the prestige or otherwise that 00:22:43.009 --> 00:22:47.470 is put on having a university degree. The French 00:22:47.470 --> 00:22:50.490 sociologist Pierre Bourdieu provides a framework 00:22:50.490 --> 00:22:54.009 which can help us here. In a move beyond and 00:22:54.009 --> 00:22:57.569 out of Marxist analysis, Bourdieu identifies 00:22:57.569 --> 00:23:02.829 multiple capitals. What we have or do not have 00:23:02.829 --> 00:23:06.029 is more than merely economics. For Bourdieu, 00:23:06.049 --> 00:23:08.549 other areas of life come into play, giving us 00:23:08.549 --> 00:23:12.910 a sense of someone's social capital, their cultural 00:23:12.910 --> 00:23:17.109 capital, as well as their economic capital. Someone 00:23:17.109 --> 00:23:20.890 might be, we could say, rich in one area, poor 00:23:20.890 --> 00:23:24.250 in another. And together, these different areas 00:23:24.250 --> 00:23:27.509 of our life, Bourdieu suggests, create what he 00:23:27.509 --> 00:23:31.130 calls a habitus. That is a combination of our 00:23:31.130 --> 00:23:34.670 habitat. the places and spaces we are comfortable 00:23:34.670 --> 00:23:41.069 in, and our habits and how they shape us. In 00:23:41.069 --> 00:23:43.289 this regard, some forms of these capitals will 00:23:43.289 --> 00:23:46.910 be useful in some contexts and useless or positively 00:23:46.910 --> 00:23:49.710 unhelpful in another. For instance, a university 00:23:49.710 --> 00:23:53.470 degree might help us in an academic debate, but 00:23:53.470 --> 00:23:56.829 it's not so helpful in a street fight. At least 00:23:56.829 --> 00:24:02.309 most university degrees are not. Enough of streetlights. 00:24:02.730 --> 00:24:05.170 Let's return instead to the lived experience 00:24:05.170 --> 00:24:07.990 of coming to our churches, my church, your church. 00:24:08.269 --> 00:24:11.390 We can turn Bordeaux's categories back on ourselves. 00:24:11.730 --> 00:24:17.609 What capitals, economic, cultural, social, are 00:24:17.609 --> 00:24:22.369 needed to feel comfortable, valued, at home, 00:24:22.549 --> 00:24:26.650 in my church, in your church? The question's 00:24:26.650 --> 00:24:29.559 well worth asking. Doing so will invite us to 00:24:29.559 --> 00:24:33.259 quiz our own assumptions, our taken -for -grantednesses, 00:24:33.259 --> 00:24:36.380 and to invite others in our church or beyond 00:24:36.380 --> 00:24:39.759 our churches to tell us what they see as our 00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:44.539 habitus, the practices that we assume or expect 00:24:44.539 --> 00:24:48.660 other people to adopt. Some of these will be 00:24:48.660 --> 00:24:51.039 our blind spots, which by definition we cannot 00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:56.000 see ourselves. We need others. We need one another 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:00.000 to tell them to us. We need to be in close and 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:03.519 trusting enough relationship for them to tell 00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:07.759 us and to hear it from them in undefended ways. 00:25:09.279 --> 00:25:12.180 Here I hope we begin to see the need to take 00:25:12.180 --> 00:25:14.619 class seriously for the health of our churches 00:25:14.619 --> 00:25:18.299 and ourselves, as well as the spread of the gospel. 00:25:18.940 --> 00:25:21.319 Otherwise, we effectively turn people away as 00:25:21.319 --> 00:25:24.539 they sense that church. is not a place for someone 00:25:24.539 --> 00:25:28.700 like them. You see, class is emotional. As I've 00:25:28.700 --> 00:25:31.140 said, it involves hopes and fears, anger and 00:25:31.140 --> 00:25:34.720 contentment, risk and outcome. People carry that 00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:37.779 with them as they come to their churches in those 00:25:37.779 --> 00:25:41.619 seen and unseen ways. And it's linked with how 00:25:41.619 --> 00:25:44.839 we are formed as people in relationship with 00:25:44.839 --> 00:25:48.160 one another. And I think it's a small and necessary 00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:51.420 set to say that class is therefore theological. 00:25:52.750 --> 00:25:56.309 Infusing our lives, our ministries, our identity 00:25:56.309 --> 00:25:58.910 within the body of Christ in our communities, 00:25:59.109 --> 00:26:02.890 our churches, as well as our world. To close 00:26:02.890 --> 00:26:04.950 this section, let's look briefly at how class 00:26:04.950 --> 00:26:08.190 might be mapped today. This might help us in 00:26:08.190 --> 00:26:10.490 terms of thinking through who is in our churches 00:26:10.490 --> 00:26:13.930 and who is not. First, for government purposes, 00:26:14.130 --> 00:26:17.609 the Office of National Statistics uses a socioeconomic 00:26:17.609 --> 00:26:22.450 classification established in the 1970s. If we 00:26:22.450 --> 00:26:25.369 want to understand socio -economic profile in 00:26:25.369 --> 00:26:27.690 the area we live in, this is likely to be the 00:26:27.690 --> 00:26:31.509 framework the data we get will come in. It's 00:26:31.509 --> 00:26:33.869 based around questions about someone's occupation, 00:26:34.089 --> 00:26:37.049 the nature of their employment contract, are 00:26:37.049 --> 00:26:39.690 they wage, salaried, self -employed or whatever, 00:26:39.910 --> 00:26:42.670 and the size of the organisation they work in. 00:26:43.869 --> 00:26:46.150 This kind of data is available through time. 00:26:46.950 --> 00:26:49.710 If we've got an idea of how our area used to 00:26:49.710 --> 00:26:52.390 be, but isn't now. This is the kind of data that 00:26:52.390 --> 00:26:55.930 we can draw on for it. To assess socio -economic 00:26:55.930 --> 00:26:59.009 background and mobility, one further question 00:26:59.009 --> 00:27:02.589 is asked. This is the question. What was the 00:27:02.589 --> 00:27:06.009 occupation of your main household earner when 00:27:06.009 --> 00:27:09.630 you were aged about 14? And I guess all of us 00:27:09.630 --> 00:27:12.130 have quietly got an answer to that question. 00:27:13.259 --> 00:27:16.039 For identifying class, this question is foundational 00:27:16.039 --> 00:27:18.119 when, for instance, the Church of England is 00:27:18.119 --> 00:27:20.259 measuring the class distribution of its clergy 00:27:20.259 --> 00:27:23.940 as it tries to appraise how middle class it is 00:27:23.940 --> 00:27:27.019 and how it can change in that regard. And it 00:27:27.019 --> 00:27:29.980 might well be one key question to take from this 00:27:29.980 --> 00:27:33.279 framework. What was the occupation when you were 00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:37.720 age 14 of the main household earner in your household? 00:27:39.119 --> 00:27:41.980 They didn't have an occupation. That tells you 00:27:41.980 --> 00:27:45.400 something. as well. An alternative approach to 00:27:45.400 --> 00:27:48.220 defining class in contemporary Britain is a more 00:27:48.220 --> 00:27:51.460 recent model of seven class formations, identified 00:27:51.460 --> 00:27:54.200 by a group of sociologists working with data 00:27:54.200 --> 00:27:59.000 from over 161 ,000 people gathered by the BBC's 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:03.200 Great British Class Survey of 2011. And this 00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:05.500 model has been used to produce an interactive 00:28:05.500 --> 00:28:08.480 class calculator. We're answering a few online 00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:10.740 questions we'll assign you to one of the model 00:28:10.740 --> 00:28:14.619 seven classes. It's easier looking, isn't it, 00:28:14.619 --> 00:28:17.039 than those government questions. It includes, 00:28:17.140 --> 00:28:19.720 in a simplified way, Bourdieu's sense of multiple 00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:23.900 capitals. By all means, try it out. Please note, 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:26.660 it is subject to a lot of critique, both practically 00:28:26.660 --> 00:28:30.519 and theoretically. Practically, it tells us nothing 00:28:30.519 --> 00:28:33.259 about how to relate with others, either in or 00:28:33.259 --> 00:28:36.579 beyond our assigned classification. But looking 00:28:36.579 --> 00:28:39.039 at this kind of framing might give us some more 00:28:39.039 --> 00:28:41.359 textured ways of thinking about class within 00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:43.700 our midst than that standard government data. 00:28:44.200 --> 00:28:46.460 And let me say, there's nothing against coming 00:28:46.460 --> 00:28:49.720 up with your own local class definitions together 00:28:49.720 --> 00:28:52.900 as a church, the kind of people in your area 00:28:52.900 --> 00:28:56.299 and your kind of space. Sometimes naming the 00:28:56.299 --> 00:28:58.259 people who are in our churches and not in our 00:28:58.259 --> 00:29:01.200 churches without stereotyping them can help us 00:29:01.200 --> 00:29:05.529 in our reach. But to conclude this, the main 00:29:05.529 --> 00:29:07.869 part of my paper, I want to ask for your patience 00:29:07.869 --> 00:29:12.150 if you're seeking precision. Class, I hope you 00:29:12.150 --> 00:29:15.369 got a sense, cannot be definitively defined. 00:29:16.130 --> 00:29:19.289 It's one of those terms a bit like war and peace. 00:29:20.710 --> 00:29:23.589 Is there peace or war in the Middle East at the 00:29:23.589 --> 00:29:27.750 moment? It's hard to define, but something, something 00:29:27.750 --> 00:29:32.880 is going on. But please do not dismiss it on 00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:35.619 these grounds of lack of definition that is fixed 00:29:35.619 --> 00:29:39.180 and stable. Instead, along with your patience, 00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:42.339 I ask for your discernment. For the sake of the 00:29:42.339 --> 00:29:45.859 gospel, for the wisdom and reach of that gospel, 00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:49.420 for your discernment and your compassion towards 00:29:49.420 --> 00:29:52.599 others and yourself, for understanding them and 00:29:52.599 --> 00:29:55.880 understanding yourself. There is something here 00:29:55.880 --> 00:29:58.680 in this strange thing called class that we need 00:29:58.680 --> 00:30:03.089 to discern. together in the face of the other. 00:30:03.289 --> 00:30:06.549 It plays through in our churches and in their 00:30:06.549 --> 00:30:10.490 reach and our individual discipleship. It's important 00:30:10.490 --> 00:30:13.470 we keep in mind its contingent, multidimensional 00:30:13.470 --> 00:30:16.410 qualities. It's not one static, easily identified 00:30:16.410 --> 00:30:21.630 thing. It is this web of issues, economic, social, 00:30:21.890 --> 00:30:24.509 cultural, psychological, issues of the heart 00:30:24.509 --> 00:30:27.130 as well as the body, the hands as well as the 00:30:27.130 --> 00:30:29.799 mind. feeding in and through one another and 00:30:29.799 --> 00:30:33.079 affecting us all. So for the sake of our ministry 00:30:33.079 --> 00:30:36.740 today and beyond, it would be well to learn class 00:30:36.740 --> 00:30:41.079 afresh. This is a time and a place and a season 00:30:41.079 --> 00:30:45.200 for that. So when we come to look at it in scripture, 00:30:45.480 --> 00:30:48.619 we won't expect to see something identically 00:30:48.619 --> 00:30:52.259 macking on to the confused picture we have in 00:30:52.259 --> 00:30:55.279 our day. Dimensions will take different shapes 00:30:55.279 --> 00:30:58.509 in different places. Turning to the Bible, I 00:30:58.509 --> 00:31:00.670 want to argue there are threads and pointers 00:31:00.670 --> 00:31:05.190 for us there today, for class and ministry in 00:31:05.190 --> 00:31:09.609 the UK today. With our own history in mind, let's 00:31:09.609 --> 00:31:12.430 have a brief look at the New Testament. And it's 00:31:12.430 --> 00:31:14.589 not surprising that even within the few decades 00:31:14.589 --> 00:31:17.509 of the New Testament, there were different expressions 00:31:17.509 --> 00:31:20.369 of social structure and relations at shape and 00:31:20.369 --> 00:31:24.210 at work in different places, urban and rural. 00:31:24.720 --> 00:31:27.920 Within, say, Judea and Galilee, and then in the 00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:31.960 wider Roman Empire beyond. And the glimpses as 00:31:31.960 --> 00:31:36.240 we get them are inevitably hypotheses, reconstructions. 00:31:36.259 --> 00:31:38.440 But I think they're suggestive for us with regarding 00:31:38.440 --> 00:31:41.460 to clasp. I want to show us briefly two models 00:31:41.460 --> 00:31:44.519 for illustrative purposes. They're both drawn 00:31:44.519 --> 00:31:46.980 from the work of a New Testament scholar, Bruce 00:31:46.980 --> 00:31:49.400 Longenecker, who's drawing on others who work 00:31:49.400 --> 00:31:52.380 in this area. The first one presents a reconstruction 00:31:52.380 --> 00:31:54.660 of the distribution of power in a predominantly 00:31:54.660 --> 00:31:58.640 rural economy such as Galilee. It's helpful for 00:31:58.640 --> 00:32:01.359 getting us past either not thinking about power 00:32:01.359 --> 00:32:04.240 and privilege, that's the vertical axis with 00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:08.359 that little lone ruler at the top, or not considering 00:32:08.359 --> 00:32:11.180 the relative numbers of people located at any 00:32:11.180 --> 00:32:14.910 point in that vertical axis. The horizontal width 00:32:14.910 --> 00:32:17.289 of the overall profile showing the estimated 00:32:17.289 --> 00:32:20.190 numbers of people at any point on the scale. 00:32:20.910 --> 00:32:23.490 At very least, such a profile representation 00:32:23.490 --> 00:32:28.029 gets us past simple and abstracted ideas of rich 00:32:28.029 --> 00:32:32.690 and poor in the Bible. And it also reminds us 00:32:32.690 --> 00:32:36.410 that people's occupations and roles and statuses 00:32:36.410 --> 00:32:40.630 were not necessarily the same as ours. We don't 00:32:40.630 --> 00:32:43.250 tend to have retainers and priests, peasants, 00:32:43.369 --> 00:32:46.789 artisans, unclean and degraded and expendables 00:32:46.789 --> 00:32:49.950 with those labels in our day and age. But it 00:32:49.950 --> 00:32:53.109 begins to see how society, such as where Jesus 00:32:53.109 --> 00:32:55.650 told his parables and called people to follow 00:32:55.650 --> 00:32:59.170 him, was flesh and blood, emotional and relating 00:32:59.170 --> 00:33:02.589 with one another. This was where he ministered. 00:33:03.920 --> 00:33:06.099 The second profile seeks to ascertain a view 00:33:06.099 --> 00:33:08.579 across the first century Greco -Roman world, 00:33:08.619 --> 00:33:11.380 the wider Roman Empire. It's presented more in 00:33:11.380 --> 00:33:14.480 the form of a ranking ladder with seven categories 00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:18.759 ranging from the top, economic scale, ES1, imperial 00:33:18.759 --> 00:33:22.960 elites, to the bottom, ES7, those living below 00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:26.819 subsistence level. Where, we might ask, would 00:33:26.819 --> 00:33:29.599 the Apostle Paul be located within a structure 00:33:29.599 --> 00:33:35.240 such as this? Longinecker suggests an E. S4 economic 00:33:35.240 --> 00:33:39.640 existence for Paul's pre -apostolic life, a moderate 00:33:39.640 --> 00:33:43.019 surplus economically speaking, on the basis of 00:33:43.019 --> 00:33:45.880 his rhetorical skill and his listing of work 00:33:45.880 --> 00:33:49.839 as a hardship. But, and I think this is well 00:33:49.839 --> 00:33:53.200 worth our attention, Longenecker posits that 00:33:53.200 --> 00:33:56.799 Paul's economic profile as an apostle for Jesus 00:33:56.799 --> 00:34:01.309 Christ drops a level or two. That is from ES4 00:34:01.309 --> 00:34:06.670 to the manual labour of ES5, perhaps even ES6 00:34:06.670 --> 00:34:11.030 at times, and I would add, as a prisoner, even 00:34:11.030 --> 00:34:17.090 ES7. Longenecker concludes, as far as we can 00:34:17.090 --> 00:34:20.110 reconstruct, this plunge in his economic profile 00:34:20.110 --> 00:34:24.230 was his preferred modus operandi, the result 00:34:24.230 --> 00:34:28.210 of his own choice. The intentional taking of 00:34:28.210 --> 00:34:32.170 a road less travelled. Longinecker characterises 00:34:32.170 --> 00:34:35.809 this as a canonic move on Paul's part, meaning 00:34:35.809 --> 00:34:39.050 an economic emptying of himself, though Paul 00:34:39.050 --> 00:34:41.369 chooses not to talk about it as such, other than 00:34:41.369 --> 00:34:44.389 perhaps occasional brief and indirect allusion 00:34:44.389 --> 00:34:48.590 to his letters. What we begin to see is a measure 00:34:48.590 --> 00:34:51.349 of economic discipleship on the part of Paul. 00:34:52.170 --> 00:34:54.730 This is purely individualistic, perhaps due to 00:34:54.730 --> 00:34:58.070 him being an apostle of Jesus Christ. In my final 00:34:58.070 --> 00:35:00.989 section, I want to suggest that this is not unique 00:35:00.989 --> 00:35:05.309 to Paul, nor isolated individualism. I'll press 00:35:05.309 --> 00:35:08.590 into the book of Acts to do so. Specifically, 00:35:08.590 --> 00:35:12.030 I want to focus on one verse, Acts chapter 20, 00:35:12.110 --> 00:35:14.829 verse 35. It's an introductory horizon for our 00:35:14.829 --> 00:35:18.019 day. In its brevity, I see it as embryonic, as 00:35:18.019 --> 00:35:20.920 highly suggestive and generative for a reworking 00:35:20.920 --> 00:35:24.000 of class relations within Christian discipleship. 00:35:24.239 --> 00:35:28.219 It is a climactic verse concluding Paul's address 00:35:28.219 --> 00:35:31.960 to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20. And 00:35:31.960 --> 00:35:36.340 this address itself is emblematic, being Paul's 00:35:36.340 --> 00:35:39.599 final recorded speech in Acts to those in the 00:35:39.599 --> 00:35:44.190 churches his ministry had fed and planted. It 00:35:44.190 --> 00:35:47.469 provides hearers then and readers now with a 00:35:47.469 --> 00:35:51.670 retrospective on all Paul's ministry. And it 00:35:51.670 --> 00:35:55.989 does so as an exemplary model to follow. In an 00:35:55.989 --> 00:35:58.949 address such as this, endings are vitally important. 00:35:59.769 --> 00:36:03.969 Note then, as with Peter's final words in his 00:36:03.969 --> 00:36:06.369 climactic speech to the believers in Jerusalem 00:36:06.369 --> 00:36:12.159 in Acts 11, Paul here in Acts 20 verse 35. concludes 00:36:12.159 --> 00:36:16.639 with what is called an agraphon. That is a word 00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:19.900 from Jesus which is not written, not recorded 00:36:19.900 --> 00:36:24.039 in the four canonical Gospels. It is more blessed 00:36:24.039 --> 00:36:29.000 to give than to receive. The life and action 00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:31.940 just commended to these elders and to believers 00:36:31.940 --> 00:36:36.559 more widely is grounded in Jesus' teaching, not 00:36:36.559 --> 00:36:39.570 just in Paul. And in its build -up to it, the 00:36:39.570 --> 00:36:42.750 verse makes much of this word from Jesus. Verse 00:36:42.750 --> 00:36:48.309 35 refers to Jesus' words, plural, and as something 00:36:48.309 --> 00:36:53.110 we should remember. Second, it links his words 00:36:53.110 --> 00:36:58.190 to actions, and such actions as a necessity for 00:36:58.190 --> 00:37:02.610 his followers to adopt in appropriate ways. The 00:37:02.610 --> 00:37:04.929 inseparability of word and actions is indeed 00:37:05.550 --> 00:37:09.889 implied by the very opening verse of Acts, describing 00:37:09.889 --> 00:37:13.110 Luke's gospel as recounting all that Jesus began 00:37:13.110 --> 00:37:18.489 to do and teach. Here in Acts 20, 35, his teaching 00:37:18.489 --> 00:37:22.269 continues. Embracing in a comparative assessment 00:37:22.269 --> 00:37:25.369 of flourishing, that's the meaning of blessedness, 00:37:25.590 --> 00:37:29.030 how we as his followers are to relate with those 00:37:29.030 --> 00:37:32.699 who are weak. In context, referring to those 00:37:32.699 --> 00:37:36.579 who are materially lacking, who are poor. Now 00:37:36.579 --> 00:37:40.400 watch my language here. Note the step I made. 00:37:40.780 --> 00:37:43.159 I deliberately made it, but I want to step back 00:37:43.159 --> 00:37:49.179 from it. My expression of we suggests that we, 00:37:49.340 --> 00:37:55.619 I, am not weak. Here is my middle class assumption 00:37:55.619 --> 00:38:00.980 and desire showing itself dangerously. Even simply, 00:38:01.159 --> 00:38:06.659 I often want to be un -weak, un -poor, un -lacking. 00:38:07.820 --> 00:38:10.619 To step back for a moment into our own culture, 00:38:10.760 --> 00:38:14.659 not being weak is in many ways the dream of all 00:38:14.659 --> 00:38:18.199 classes. And the fear of becoming weak, vulnerable 00:38:18.199 --> 00:38:23.739 and insecure drives us in so many ways. This 00:38:23.739 --> 00:38:26.920 is not, however, a staple. uncomfortable assertion 00:38:26.920 --> 00:38:30.980 of a right that accrues to us naturally by cause 00:38:30.980 --> 00:38:36.900 of birth or our own efforts rather in the gospel 00:38:36.900 --> 00:38:41.019 things are different we are those who receive 00:38:42.119 --> 00:38:44.380 Paul, after all, would not own it for himself. 00:38:44.480 --> 00:38:47.599 When I am weak, then I am strong, he self -describes 00:38:47.599 --> 00:38:50.239 himself. Locating himself among the weak, seeing 00:38:50.239 --> 00:38:53.420 God's grace as something which reworks his self 00:38:53.420 --> 00:38:56.159 -identity in relation to some non -specified 00:38:56.159 --> 00:38:59.760 form which he carries. Or expressed differently 00:38:59.760 --> 00:39:02.880 elsewhere to the Corinthian believers, you are 00:39:02.880 --> 00:39:08.280 not your own. You were brought at a price. Let 00:39:08.280 --> 00:39:10.280 me ask myself aloud as one of the middle class 00:39:10.280 --> 00:39:14.000 within the Church of Jesus Christ, how does this 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:18.980 alter, how should it alter profoundly my sense 00:39:18.980 --> 00:39:23.260 of I -ness? As a receiver of grace, to return 00:39:23.260 --> 00:39:26.760 to Acts 20 .35, I need to remember those other 00:39:26.760 --> 00:39:30.219 ordering words of Jesus, that it is more blessed 00:39:30.219 --> 00:39:33.869 to give than to receive. Contrary to our culture, 00:39:33.969 --> 00:39:37.349 consumption is not king. Acquisition is not ultimate 00:39:37.349 --> 00:39:42.869 concern. The needs of others come first. In closing, 00:39:42.969 --> 00:39:46.409 imagine our class systems like a gyroscope, needing 00:39:46.409 --> 00:39:50.570 a stable centre to keep spinning. Acts 20 .35 00:39:50.570 --> 00:39:55.070 suggests a different spinning centre, a gospel 00:39:55.070 --> 00:39:58.269 -supplied spinning centre of gravity for our 00:39:58.269 --> 00:40:03.349 rankings, our relationships. our exchanges. This 00:40:03.349 --> 00:40:06.349 is how perhaps in small only local ways our churches 00:40:06.349 --> 00:40:09.570 can be contrast societies in the midst of our 00:40:09.570 --> 00:40:13.469 communities. But this assessment by Jesus of 00:40:13.469 --> 00:40:17.590 what is human flourishing erupts in a different 00:40:17.590 --> 00:40:22.510 personhood, a new landscape for us all, a different 00:40:22.510 --> 00:40:26.610 marketplace, different circulations of capitals 00:40:26.610 --> 00:40:30.219 of whatever kind. Indeed, a widened sense of 00:40:30.219 --> 00:40:34.480 giving and gift, with altered patterns of relationship 00:40:34.480 --> 00:40:38.940 and exchange, transformed self -appraisal and 00:40:38.940 --> 00:40:43.260 a baptised appraisal of others. But how this 00:40:43.260 --> 00:40:45.719 plays through in life we're instructed to remember. 00:40:46.380 --> 00:40:49.019 That is to look back through the previous chapters 00:40:49.019 --> 00:40:51.760 of the narrative of Acts and Luke's Gospel in 00:40:51.760 --> 00:40:55.639 order to appraise what we must do. After all, 00:40:55.659 --> 00:40:58.900 isn't that the very first question? What must 00:40:58.900 --> 00:41:02.559 we do? The very first question when we hear the 00:41:02.559 --> 00:41:06.980 gospel that remains a path of discipleship. In 00:41:06.980 --> 00:41:09.219 light of this reworking of weak and strong, of 00:41:09.219 --> 00:41:11.900 rich and poor, what impact can and should this 00:41:11.900 --> 00:41:15.960 gospel and how it's lived out have in our lives 00:41:15.960 --> 00:41:19.800 together in a class -ridden society? To that 00:41:19.800 --> 00:41:24.179 end, the gift of this day still lies open to 00:41:24.179 --> 00:41:24.380 us.