Delivered on Sunday 10 June 2007 in St George's Chapel

Deuteronomy 6:10-end

There is a good story told about Deion Sanders, that extraordinary American athlete who played professional football in the NFL as a cornerback and played professional major league baseball as an outfielder. One day he received a letter from a nephew asking if might be able to forward the kid some money. Sanders was miffed. He hadn't heard from this kid for years, so why should he hand over his hard earned cash. He wrote the boy and told him to try to go out there and earn his own money. The nephew, read the letter, and promptly sold it for a $1,000!

I tell you the story because among other things it highlights a major difference between our contemporary society and that of ancient Israel. Sanders may not have heard from his nephew for some years but that predicament is hardly novel. I would have thought that - in general - such absences of conversation are not at all rare. The sheer busyness of life means that even members of the same family pass like ships in the night, sometimes not even having time to share meals together. Things were different in the days of Deuteronomy. Back then, conversation was abundant. Our first reading this morning assumes the family sitting around the table and the son asking the father: 'What do all these statutes mean, you know, these laws given to you by God?' Not just conversation, but religious conversation. The notion that faith would be passed on from one generation to another is a standard Old Testament theme. After all, in a largely oral culture how would you pass on the faith if it wasn't passed down in the context of conversation, if it wasn't passed down from one generation to another?

Yet, while I make the observation that our world has an absence of conversation I have to stop for a moment and reappraise. Anyone who has recently travelled by any form of public transport will wonder how I can possibly make this claim. The age of the mobile phone has meant that such journeys are made of various and yet continuous conversations. Bells, whistles and tunes demanding conversation. Why and how it is that seemingly big business decisions and dreadfully important personal arrangements have to be made in the arena of public hearing, I'm not sure. How much of this conversation is important and how much of it is show? I find myself a bit like the two ladies on the park bench chatting away when some chap wanders by, and says into apparent thin air, 'I can't make the meeting today, would tomorrow at 9 suit?' Lily turns to Marge and says 'He's a bit odd'. 'Oh, no dear', says Marge, 'those Bluetooth things are wonderful'. The next day they meet and again are chatting away quite happily when along wanders another chap, shouting 'the end of the world is nigh', and Lily very knowingly whispers to Marge, 'great things, Bluetooth'. And a bit like these two commentators, faced with a plethora of comment in a variety of different media I find it hard to identify what is really important.

I suppose what I'm saying is that despite all our technology, a lot of what passes as conversation is actually noise; it is not conversation, it is cacophony; it's a noisy emptiness that replaces genuine engagement. Needless to say, I'm not the first to recognize this trend for there have been several reactions to the surrounding cacophony. One of the most popular is the retreat into silence. The desire to replace the noisy emptiness with quiet nothingness. This approach accounts for the increase in the popularity of retreats and the search for inner stillness. And there is, of course, a place for silence and stillness but just sometimes that withdrawal is no more than another expression of an unwillingness or inability to enter into genuine conversation. Perhaps, this once commonplace gift, this ability to converse, is rather more difficult to revive than might first be imagined.

But what do I mean by genuine conversation? I mean a willingness to enter into dialogue about those things that really matter, our core beliefs. And I don't mean preaching or bullying, I mean careful explanation and even more careful listening. How many of our societal problems might be eased if we could speak confidently and listen perceptively? To enter into conversation with people of radically different opinion - if it is genuine conversation - is to begin a journey of discovery. But such worthwhile conversation doesn't have to restrict itself to an engagement with radically different opinion; much can also be learnt from people close to our own worldview. Such conversation helps us to identify common ground and to understand how our own views chime with those around us. Let me show you what I mean by trying a little thought experiment. If this is going to work you are going to have to concentrate just a little.

1. I want you to pick a number between one and 10.

2. Now multiply that number by 9.

3. You will now have a new number. I want you to add the digits together. So, for example, if the number is 34 then you would add the digits together and get 7.

4. From your new number I want you to subtract 5.

5. Now I want you to convert that number into a letter. So if your number is 1 your letter is A; if 2 then B; if 3 then C; if 4 then D and so on.

6. Are you there? Now don't think about this, just whatever comes first. Think of a country that begins with that letter.

7. So now you have a country. Take the second letter of that country and think of an animal that begins with that letter.

Hands up if you are thinking of an elephant. Why does it work? Because we share a common language, a common understanding of mathematics and a common culture. It wouldn't work if you tried it in India and it wouldn't work if you tried it in Germany. It works here because we share the same language and some basic beliefs - perhaps we even share these beliefs unconsciously.

But these common beliefs are nothing to those we hold about the creator of the world. These basic beliefs are nothing to those we hold about the redeemer of the world, Jesus Christ our Lord. What I am suggesting is very simple. I think we have much to gain by taking time to enter into genuine conversation. If in entering into such conversation we are bold enough to touch on our basic beliefs then we will be bold enough to follow Paul's footsteps and with him be able to say:

First and foremost, I handed on to you the tradition I had received: that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures.[1]

[1] I Corinthians 15.3-4