Sermon-Asking for God’s Blessing

A sermon given at St Olave Hart Street on Rogation Sunday 10th May 2026 based on readings from Acts 17.22-31 and John 14.15-21.

The words of Jesus we hear today come from the part of John’s gospel often described as the ‘farewell discourse’ – the wisdom Jesus imparts to his disciples in the Upper Room on the night before he died. The language of departure – of taking leave – is self evident. Some describe it as ‘Jesus’s last testament’ – others as the most beautiful speech by anyone, ever. High praise for a few thousand words that I highly recommend you read in full in your own time. Stretching to what was later divided into four chapters of the bible, the short section we heard today forms part of a longer description of how Jesus promises to return, after his death, in the person of the Spirit, to abide with the faithful. To be with them for ever. Guiding them as they journey towards his Kingdom – the Spirit as an advocate and comforter – as they go out into the world to profess their faith without Jesus walking alongside them in person.

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever.”

Today is known as Rogation Sunday. Rogation coming from the Latin word rogare – which means ‘to ask’. Traditionally since medieval times, this Sunday and the three days leading up to the feast of the Ascension on Thursday have seen the clergy and people of each parish walking its streets, stopping to pray at boundary stones and markers and asking for God’s blessing upon the land and for the whole community. It became the custom to carry sticks – or willow withies – which were used to tap the boundary stones or markers – in order to batt down any foliage that was obscuring their view and in order to help better remember the extent of the parish.

After the service today we revive the tradition here for the first time in many years!

Tom has been in the gym all week to build up the strength to carry our processional cross, leading us as we Beat the Bounds. Josephine has just come back from a pilgrimage across Northern Spain so her walking shoes are well worn in. I have dusted off my traditional Anglican processional headwear – a Canterbury Cap. We have a stock of willow withies ready for you to borrow - and maps of the parish boundary. In our parish the boundary markers are now affixed to buildings – and some of them have been removed by later development. A few – like this one – are safely stored in the parish office. Perhaps today we can work out where they came from – and encourage the building owners to put them back up?  

I hope you will be able to join us after the service as we Beat the Bounds. Our parish boundary is very small – and even with all my conversational digressions on historic points of interest it will take much less than an hour to walk them. But as we go, we will ask God’s blessing upon all who live and work within this part of the Square Mile entrusted to our care and service.

How the passage from the Acts of the Apostles we heard earlier has been interpreted over time, highlights the opportunities and risks of reviving such a tradition!  

St Paul’s sermon is simultaneously praised as both a masterpiece of contextual preaching and criticised as a dilution of the core tenets of our faith. It is the scriptural ground zero of all the debates about the boundary between church and culture that surface in the press from time to time.

Standing before the literati of Athens - the philosophers and thinkers of the Areopagus Council, St Paul chooses to preach the gospel message not by quoting from the Hebrew Scriptures - an alien text to this Greek audience - but by drawing on his understanding of the language, poetry and intellectual concepts about creation and salvation that were familiar to them.

Concepts and imagery he picked up by walking the streets of the City. Noticing how the Athenians gather for worship and express their belief. Listening to what people were talking about - what was on their mind.

Paul roots his introduction to the Christian faith around the image of an altar he encountered on his walk – with an inscription on it explaining it had been erected “to an unknown God”.

“I worship that same God”, Paul explains, going on to describe how God is made known to us through his creative acts, which we can see all around in the streets of the City and in each one of us. God is our one true ancestor. We are “his offspring” - Paul says, probably quoting the text of a poem that would have been known to the Athenians. Yet, he continues, we have fallen from living as God intended and are called to repentance; a man whom God has appointed and raised from the dead - will come to judge us at the last.

In rooting his apologetic in shared understandings, Paul’s sermon is hailed by many as a fine example of contextual preaching - showing how the message of the faith can transcend borders and cultures. While some critics suggest that St Paul accommodates himself too readily to Greek culture; that his sermon is too philosophical and not theological enough because he never explicitly names Jesus during the speech itself nor his crucifixion.

But perhaps Paul understands something essential about the mission of the Church?

That the gospel must be spoken in a language people can hear. And that we understand that language best by going out and listening to what is going on in the world beyond these walls.

Doing so does not mean abandoning the faith. Paul still speaks of creation and repentance and judgement and resurrection. But he begins from shared experience - what he has observed while walking through the city.

Which is where, as our gospel reading reminds us, we also encounter the Spirit – which is in us and with us always.

As we Beat the Bounds today, following the cross and tapping our sticks, we are not doing so to claim the territory as our own. But to give thanks for the truth that the Holy Spirit is already at work beyond these walls. Through us and through those whom we meet.

And as we follow the boundaries of this parish, we navigate others - between church and culture, the sacred and the secular, between those who have received the Good News of Christ’s saving grace – and those who have not yet heard it. Just as Paul did in Athens.

So as we set out today, let us ask God for the grace to pay attention to what we see and hear. To find inspiration in the beauty and glorious diversity of his creation that we encounter. To listen to the groans for justice and mercy. To notice what and who we see — and who we do not. And, in all things, to discern the presence of the Holy Spirit already at work among us. The Advocate, the spirit of truth, who abides with us and is in us.