THE BISHOP OF LEICESTER
SERMON FOR RICHARD III SOCIETY SERVICE
Monday 23 March 2015: Leicester Cathedral
“What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.” 1 Corinthians 15
It is a special joy and privilege to greet you and to share in the hospitality of this Cathedral
to so many of you who have come from across the world to take part in this very special
week. Here in the heart of this ancient city you can still see glimpses of the places King
Richard would have recognised at the Guildhall, the Abbey, the Castle and the Magazine
Gate. I’m sure you will be taking the opportunity to explore these and other sites as you
get to know the city this week and begin to feel that just as it is now the permanent home
to King Richard’s mortal remains, it is, in a real sense your home too.
Yesterday, as you know, we retraced the last hours of King Richard’s life, making our way
from the city to the battlefield. We stood in silent remembrance of those who fell on both
sides at Bosworth Field and then began the slow and solemn journey back to the city to be
greeted by the First Citizen at Bow Bridge.
Thus has been enacted the first and significant step in the process of restoring to King
Richard the dignity and honour denied him in death. Last evening, the mortal remains
were received into this Cathedral. The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster reminded us
in his sermon that our prayers for Richard are that he may be embraced by God’s merciful
love, to await the final resurrection of all things in the fullness of time.
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And now we come to an act of memorial: to a service focussed on Richard’s story – so
well known to all of you and reflected in the readings from contemporary sources we shall
hear in a few minutes.
As those who have been supportive of the search for King Richard’s body and interested
and engaged in the story of his life, I say thank you. Thank you for your commitment, your
generosity and your presence today. The first step in Richard’s journey to a permanent
place of memorial has been taken and all our thoughts and prayers turn soon to the great
service of reinterment on Thursday in the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The haunting presence of King Richard’s remains now lie in repose by the font awaiting
the moment of reburial. The attention of those who come to pay their silent respects is
drawn both to Richard’s baptismal life, and inevitably then to the possibility of his eternal
life with God.
That is where our attention is drawn in this service of memorial. At the end of our service
we shall pray over the water of baptism giving thanks for the living water from which all our
life in Christ comes. We shall be reminded of the powerful stories from the Old and New
Testaments in which water is a symbol of liberation from bondage, of new birth, of the
journey through death to resurrection.
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We shall be intensely aware of the presence of the remains of a baptised Christian, his
body scarred with the wounds of war, who, like all baptised people, was signed on his
forehead with the cross of Christ at his baptism.
Why, ask some of the observers and commentators are we doing this? In a secular age,
where scientific analysis and detailed chemical and engineering investigation tells us much
of what we need to know about these bones, why make so much of the ceremonies of the
Church? Can a post modern, materialistic scientific age really enter the mind set of a late
medieval King? Can we say anything meaningful which connects our sense of history, of
kingship, of nation and of governance with his?
Of course we know that half a millennium separates us from Richard and his age, not only
in time but in outlook, values and understanding. Indeed we do see, hear, think and
interpret the signs of the times through a very different lens from his.
As you know so well, much that has been thought and said about Richard and his reign
has been revisited and reinterpreted in recent years. We shall not arrive at a settled view
about Richard to which everyone assents: indeed even accounts of five years ago do not
fully agree, let alone five hundred years.
But our Gospel reading draws our attention away from what it is possible to say with any
certainty about King Richard towards what can be said with confidence about God, and
therefore about all human life.
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St Paul speaks of the perishable body putting on imperishability and the mortal body
putting on immortality. The creed recited in this Cathedral and every Christian Church
affirms a belief in the Resurrection of the Body and the Life everlasting. The words speak
of a God who is totally committed to what he has made and loved. It speaks of the hope of
eternal life as a hope for persons not ghosts. It speaks of a God who will not let us go
even on the far side of death. What he has made, and more significantly, has made his
own in the loving action of Jesus, he will not abandon.
Ultimately, Christians believe in
eternal life not because they believe in some particular quality of any individual who has
died, but because of what they believe about God.
In that hope and belief, we remember Richard today. In that hope and belief we commit
his remains to the ground on Thursday. In that hope and belief we honour his place in this
Cathedral in perpetuity. And in that hope and faith we turn our lives towards the source of
all trust and confidence, even Jesus Christ Our Lord.
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