Reepham Benefice

As I said at the beginning of our service this morning yesterday was All Saints’ Day. And our readings today have that sort of theme of what it means to be a saint, or in other words what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It is a tough call. We are reminded in our Gospel reading that we could face all sorts of persecutions as we follow Jesus, but that actually he is there caring for each one of us. These things must come to pass.

Well, I don’t know who your favourite saint is - I want to talk about this morning about three saints, one who I am sure you have heard of, one who I am pretty certain that not many of you will have heard of, and a rather, perhaps reluctant and unlikely one.

So let’s start of the one that everyone has heard of, my favourite saint: Thomas Becket, or Thomas of Canterbury. I’m sure you know the chap - he was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 12th century. Thomas was born into wealth and riches and he rose quite quickly in his career and he was someone who enjoyed the high-life. IN fact, he was asked by King Henry in 1154 to come onto his ‘team’ and he appointed him as Chancellor which was a pretty high-powered job and Thomas, by all accounts, seemed to enjoy this. He was able to wear fine clothes, eat good fine and drink good wine and to mix with good company. In 1162 the Archbishop of Canterbury died and despite the fact that Thomas wasn’t a priest, he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury - gosh, how things have changed. And most history books that Thomas was appointed because he was a good mate of the King’s. I suppose if you want to by cynical and look for a modern parallel, than perhaps someone like Peter Mandelson would succeed Rowan Williams.