Latest / Chapel Talks / An Introduction - What is class and how did we get here | Matthew Sleeman | School of Theology 2026

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An Introduction - What is class and how did we get here | Matthew Sleeman | School of Theology 2026 · Chapel Talks

0:00
Morning to everyone in the room, on Zoom. Lovely
0:02
to be here with you. Today I'm going to introduce
0:05
us to the idea of class, or as some of you prefer
0:09
me to say it, class. And that is precisely the
0:14
point, and in a sense the ironic pointlessness
0:17
of a day like this. It's one thing to see the
0:20
word written down. Written up on a lecture room
0:24
screen behind me here. But it's quite another
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thing when we start to pronounce on it or even
0:30
to pronounce the word itself. Suddenly, each
0:33
and every one of us in some ways, known or unknown
0:36
to us, are unravelled. We're enrolled. We're
0:41
entangled in this strange, strange thing called
0:44
class. By how we say it, how we wear it, how
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we style ourselves, whether that's our hair.
0:51
or our titles, our codes of humour and honour,
0:55
the jobs we take, the jobs that are taken from
0:59
us, the answers we give, the appraisals others
1:03
give to us. At the very outset, this notion is
1:07
sticky, even before we open our mouths. Class
1:10
is wet paint. We brush against it, it comes off
1:14
us. Something of it marks us, whether we like
1:17
it or not, whether we understand it or not. It
1:20
can be frustrating, whether because it's elusive,
1:23
but nevertheless, you know, when you see it,
1:26
when you hear it, when you taste it, when you
1:28
smell it, or because if you ignore it, it simply
1:32
goes away. Glass is both social and antisocial.
1:37
It's visible in places, people and lives. But
1:42
at the same time, it's invisible, but still powerful
1:45
in the walls inside our heads. our hearts, our
1:50
comfort zones. Class is felt. It's emotional
1:55
in a range of ways. And it's also embodied, affecting
1:59
our health and life chances and life outcomes.
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Indeed, increasingly so at this present time
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of cost of living crises, with despair and stagnation
2:12
in what are sometimes called left behind places.
2:16
increasing numbers of young people and not so
2:18
young people feeling failed and failing and weakened
2:23
civic and political allegiances. We're holding
2:28
this day on class for these reasons and for others.
2:32
Class also affects our churches, again, whether
2:35
we're aware of it or not. Yes, a key conviction
2:38
is that we believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ
2:41
makes calls on our lives to repent and to believe,
2:45
to belong and to behave differently towards one
2:49
another. But so often that call seems to struggle
2:53
to reach across the class spectrum. Our churches,
2:58
indeed our colleges, our courses for evangelism,
3:02
training and discipleship, too often... they
3:06
are more class -bound than is good for the gospel.
3:11
While there might be short -term game and comfort
3:14
in focusing on people like us, the Great Commission
3:18
is not so limited, reaching very much to people
3:21
not like us. And that call to be not so limited
3:26
comes to each of us. Thus, class becomes implicated
3:30
as a gospel issue, as much as the gospel involves
3:34
deeds in keeping with repentance that are enacted
3:37
together. This is especially so whenever class
3:42
has been neglected in our thinking, our acting,
3:45
our believing, and the kinds of gospel cultures
3:48
we seek to shape in our lives and in our churches.
3:55
If culture is defined by the best things we celebrate
3:57
and the worst things we tolerate, then class
4:00
and classism, that is discrimination, devaluation,
4:04
marginalisation on the basis of class, is a matter
4:08
of gospel culture and of gospel life. Today is
4:13
an opportunity for us to begin addressing these
4:16
things. To start this, my presentation has three
4:19
steps in it. The first and longest will be to
4:21
introduce and seek to define this slippery concept,
4:24
class. I'll do so by tracing its journey through
4:28
British history to the present and noting some
4:31
ways in which class is entangled in our churches.
4:35
Second, I'm going to make a reverse step, looking
4:37
into the New Testament world to see how its society
4:41
was structured. and how Paul navigated class,
4:45
such as we can see it there. In my closing section,
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I'll take us into the book of Acts to finish
4:50
with some direction forward for our day ahead
4:53
and what might flow from it. So first then, the
4:57
history of class in the United Kingdom. The word
5:02
class first entered the English language in the
5:04
late 16th century as a term imported at that
5:07
time from ancient Roman history. From the outset,
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then, it's been a term related to rank and hierarchy,
5:14
coming as it did from classical society, its
5:18
rank and rankings. Also, it entered into English
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language and society with its own pre -existing
5:25
ranks and rankings, stretching back into history,
5:28
into feudal, medieval times and earlier. But
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among its first uses in English, this new term
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class had an educational function. A usage still
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seen today in our classification of university
5:41
degrees as first class, upper and lower second
5:45
class and so on. Now meanings of terms rarely
5:49
stand still and class is one of those words which
5:53
has had a shifting impact on our culture and
5:55
society in the centuries since then. A big change
5:59
for class came in the 1700s with three revolutions
6:02
and indeed the absence of a fourth one. The first
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of these revolutions is what became known as
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the Industrial Revolution, in a century of transformation
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stretching from the 1700s into the 1800s. Britain
6:17
was the first country in the world to undergo
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large -scale industrialisation. Massive urbanisation
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came with it, causing a large -scale disruption
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of rural orderings of society. New industrial
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towns and cities altered the lives of many. created
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vast riches for some, and caused society -wide
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searches for what this new order meant. During
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the same time, there was a second and third revolution.
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First, an American one, breaking free of British
6:51
colonial rule. And second, quickly in its wake,
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the French one, breaking free of aristocratic
6:57
rule. On both fronts, this was a period of immense
7:01
debate, struggle. over political, social and
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economic rights, which played out differently
7:08
in different countries for the varying classes
7:12
within them. But curiously, there was not a fourth
7:17
revolution at this time. There was no British
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revolution, not in the political sense, such
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as happened in America and France. Despite the
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massive impact of industrial change, no royal
7:32
heads rolled in Britain in the period. No republican
7:35
fervour bought regime change. How come? In part,
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the answer lies with how class as a category
7:44
morphed and accommodated changes within Britain
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at the time. Initially, class in a British context
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was applied to people's social position. typically
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indicating if they were nobility or not. Upper
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and lower became its two subcategories. But as
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revolutionary fervour burned over the Channel
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and across the ocean, class in Britain underwent
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an evolution, not a revolution. The innovation
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was the insertion of middle into this dual ranking,
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in recognition of an intervening middle class.
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Now what created this break, preventing similar
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revolt in Britain? Historians debate the point,
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some seeing its roots in earlier times, during
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the Tudor period perhaps, and then being nourished
8:38
by the spread of British imperial power. Overseas
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there was a growing need for administrators in
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newly acquired colonies, an increased scope for
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a trading merchant class to take root in Britain.
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helping quell political revolutionary potential
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back home. Perhaps now, likewise then, people
9:00
were slightly confused by class. That said, any
9:04
assertion, insertion of middle into the ranking
9:09
order of class is always by definition indeterminate.
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And here lie some of the seeds for our definitional
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difficulties today. Another impact at this time
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was happening at the top of the class structure
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of that period. During industrialisation, wealth
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grew in newly industrialising towns and cities,
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whereas the old upper class were located predominantly
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elsewhere. It wasn't the case that the upper
9:37
class dropped out of sight completely, but that
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term became increasingly assigned to a different
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and somewhat distant part of society, distant
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from the industrial towns, that is. Less visible
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there, upper class became something of a residual,
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respected, but essentially displaced aristocracy.
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Meanwhile, things weren't staying still down
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at the lower end of this societal ranking league.
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Another contrast marker was emerging. This was
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the term working, used to indicate those who
10:11
were useful or productive in this new industrial
10:14
world, unlike the landed aristocracy, who by
10:17
contrast were simply... privileged, the ISIL
10:20
class. Initially, this working label was a wide
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one, applied to both middle and lower rankings.
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Its considerable overlap is seen in a 1797 reference
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to the middle and industrial classes bound together.
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But this overlap was not to remain. Instead,
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as industrialization became more established,
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a further separation of terms emerged. in this
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category of class with a still very general identification
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of the poor and working classes. By the 1840s,
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middle class and working class were becoming
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common terms, separating out from one another.
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And as the 19th century lengthened and more and
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more aspects of life and nature became classified,
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so people began to differentiate between lower
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and upper middle classes. And in working class,
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skilled, semi -skilled labourer. Now, at this
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point, let us pause and consider the logics.
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Logics, plural, what is in play here. Side by
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side, class has evolved in this British context
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with two different processes, two different ways
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of thinking in mind. On the one hand, the term
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middle retains the old sense of rank. ranking
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and hierarchy, whereas the term working indicates
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a different sense of production and usefulness.
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Neither term is the exact mirroring of the other.
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And here, in how the word is unfold and become
12:01
used, we see something of the opposing tensions,
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the pride and disdain, the kind of emotional
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potential for superiority. and inferiority which
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stalk class classifications to this day. Labels
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make a difference to people's identities. And
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it's in this complex and dynamic already existing
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landscape of class that we encounter Karl Marx.
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Not as the inventor of the term but as one who
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worked with it. At this time together with Friedrich
12:37
Engels he developed a revolutionary philosophy.
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with a distinctive economic and political agenda,
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looking at desperate living conditions within
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Victorian industrial cities such as Manchester,
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one area of which Engles described as hell on
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earth. Marx saw potential for a salvation of
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sorts, a class consciousness arising from individual
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workers forming a class formation. underpinned
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by a shared understanding of their working conditions
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and their place within what he called capitalist
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economic relations. Such consciousness could
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lead to action, revolutionary action, to overturn
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the economic structures holding workers in its
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thrall. And in the early 20th century, in the
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immediate aftermath of the First World War, such
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class revolution did happen, but in Russia, not
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Britain. Instead, helped by a series of stepped
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changes through the interwar period and beyond,
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Britain preserved and to some extent embedded
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its three -part class system. That is a somewhat
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remote upper class. a reasonably robust middle
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class and a large, if not quite revolutionary,
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working class. In their interactions, these three
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groups managed to keep together a shared sense
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of British pride in a capitalist system, albeit
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one supported and subsidised by a vast overseas
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empire and increasingly underpinned by government
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-led welfare provision. The rise of the Labour
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Party and trade unionism brought a measure of
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progress for the working class, and the ruling
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classes managed to bribe enough through government
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provision to keep that spectre of communism at
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bay. After the Second World War, following a
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few years of austerity and rationing, from about
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the 1950s onward, Britain saw a period of sustained
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economic growth and an unprecedented sharing
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of rising wealth. A promise of cradle -to -grave
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support for all classes ran through the National
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Health Service, provision of council housing
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and state pensions, and state -owned industries
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such as coal and steel. Indeed, if we jump back
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to 60 years ago, to the year 1966, not only did
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the England men's team win the Football World
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Cup, one highlight of sorts, but also the country's
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manufacturing employment reached its all -time
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high. If you want a snapshot of a certain take
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on the three classes at what was, with retrospect,
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this high point of 1966, you can't do much better
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than searching online for a black -and -white
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television comedy sketch from the same year,
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involving John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie
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Corbett. Googling class sketch, not now, later,
15:45
will lead you to it. Class, however, does not
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stand still. Even if this somewhat neat tripartite
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understanding of class endures to this day in
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some casual assumptions of what class is somehow
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meant to mean, fed by memories from black and
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white television comedies from a now far off
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era. Rather... The four pillars underpilling
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the British class system were slowly decaying
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and disappearing. And it's this process that
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brings us towards today. First, empire. Post
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-war decolonisation saw its ending as a mass
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supply line and market for British wealth production.
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Second, industry. 1966 was an irrecoverable peak
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for the UK economy, as well as for the English
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football team. By the end of the 1970s, economic
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decline was all too evident. In 1979, when Margaret
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Thatcher became Prime Minister, promising change,
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the traditional manufacturing industries, the
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heavy industries which had made Britain in the
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19th century the workshop of the world, were
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inefficient and in rapid decline. The new government,
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unwilling to prop them up, allowed market forces
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to do their work. One -fifth of all manufacturing
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jobs were lost within a three -year period. One
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-fifth of all manufacturing jobs were lost between
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1979 and 1982. Coal mining too was well past
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its peak. Whereas in 1984 there were a quarter
17:22
of a million striking coal miners, in Britain
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today there are fewer than 3 ,000 coal workers
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in the entire industry. Traditional industrial
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heartland suffered greatly. economically and
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socially, and in many contexts have never recovered.
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The power of trade unions and organised labour
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and what went there in terms of social cohesion
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was much diminished. New jobs were too often
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in other places or didn't need the same manual
17:50
skills or simply were lower paid and less secure.
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Another change from the 1980s onwards was the
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sale of council houses without a corresponding
18:00
rebuilding programme to replace them. Over time,
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inequalities in income and wealth, marked in
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their own way by house prices and house availabilities,
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were increasing and new divisions were coming
18:12
into being. Overlaid on this, the collapse of
18:16
the USSR and the communist project at the end
18:18
of the 1980s seemed only to confirm the failure
18:21
of alternatives to market forces. As the old
18:25
century closed, it seemed that capitalism in
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its new globalising format had won and that class
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was somewhat... But it was not an end. It is
18:37
not an end to the underlining difficulties and
18:39
tensions that were traditionally seen as class
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related. Labour's return to government in the
18:45
1990s with the promise that things could only
18:47
get better would not be a lasting optimism. Instead,
18:51
a financial crash, a global financial crash in
18:54
2007 to 2008 exposed and extended national debt
18:58
and led to years of austerity. briefly interrupted
19:02
by vast government spending during the COVID
19:05
-19 pandemic. Today, welfare provision such as
19:09
the NHS is under increasing stress and strain.
19:14
In secular terms, this history of past then is
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not a happy one. Where, we might then ask, were
19:20
the evangelical churches during these long changes
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and developments? In broad terms, the story is
19:27
mixed. Historian David Bevington, looking back
19:30
at the 17th century, sees evangelicalism then
19:35
as appealing to artisans, but it is, quote, then,
19:38
rarely the religion of the poorest and the outcast.
19:42
This was not an inherent limitation of reach,
19:45
however, as the impact of the 18th century evangelical
19:48
revival and the birth of Methodism show. That
19:52
said, by the late Victorian period, the high
19:56
period of industrialisation, a rising middle
19:58
class was becoming a dominant cultural force
20:01
in evangelical churches. And the previous century's
20:04
gospel work amongst the poor was less, but not
20:08
lost. We might as well look at the Salvation
20:11
Army, the Church Army, and the Welsh Revival
20:14
in the early years of the last century to point
20:16
to actual, not just potential, reach of the gospel.
20:21
But even such brief historical mentions are not
20:24
enough. to show that the gospel always plays
20:27
its theological resources for reach across the
20:30
entire class spectrum. If we fast forward to
20:34
today, we certainly benefit from diaspora brothers
20:38
and sisters in our midst bringing fresh vibrancy
20:40
to a seemingly post -Christian Britain. That
20:45
said, some of us are rightly reflecting on the
20:48
negative impact of some influential Christian
20:51
ministries from recent decades where abuse has
20:53
come to light, some of which seems infused and
20:57
fed by class biases and distortions. Gathering
21:03
such as this then, we're looking humbly for existing
21:05
good practices and pointers forwards for how
21:09
to nurture Christian ministries across class
21:12
divides today. How then, in light of these changes,
21:19
and our circumstances are we best able to understand
21:22
the present outlook thrown up by this shape shifter
21:27
of a category called class not i suggest by returning
21:32
to neat three -part formations such as we see
21:36
in comedy sketches nor by returning or relying
21:40
on a former marxist analysis at essence class
21:46
in contemporary britain haunts us but in new
21:50
and challenging ways that challenge us in how
21:53
we respond in our day and age with the perennial
21:57
gospel. I think class remains inescapably about
22:02
haves and have -nots. But this differential is
22:06
also increasingly experienced and felt in social
22:10
relations, how people interact or don't interact,
22:14
their connections. their networks, their friendships
22:17
and associations. And additionally, class plays
22:20
through culturally, involving matters of taste
22:24
and evaluation, the interests and activities
22:27
that people access and enjoy. And these two things,
22:32
the social and the cultural, inform the doors
22:35
that are thought to open a future for us, such
22:38
as, for instance, the prestige or otherwise that
22:43
is put on having a university degree. The French
22:47
sociologist Pierre Bourdieu provides a framework
22:50
which can help us here. In a move beyond and
22:54
out of Marxist analysis, Bourdieu identifies
22:57
multiple capitals. What we have or do not have
23:02
is more than merely economics. For Bourdieu,
23:06
other areas of life come into play, giving us
23:08
a sense of someone's social capital, their cultural
23:12
capital, as well as their economic capital. Someone
23:17
might be, we could say, rich in one area, poor
23:20
in another. And together, these different areas
23:24
of our life, Bourdieu suggests, create what he
23:27
calls a habitus. That is a combination of our
23:31
habitat. the places and spaces we are comfortable
23:34
in, and our habits and how they shape us. In
23:41
this regard, some forms of these capitals will
23:43
be useful in some contexts and useless or positively
23:46
unhelpful in another. For instance, a university
23:49
degree might help us in an academic debate, but
23:53
it's not so helpful in a street fight. At least
23:56
most university degrees are not. Enough of streetlights.
24:02
Let's return instead to the lived experience
24:05
of coming to our churches, my church, your church.
24:08
We can turn Bordeaux's categories back on ourselves.
24:11
What capitals, economic, cultural, social, are
24:17
needed to feel comfortable, valued, at home,
24:22
in my church, in your church? The question's
24:26
well worth asking. Doing so will invite us to
24:29
quiz our own assumptions, our taken -for -grantednesses,
24:33
and to invite others in our church or beyond
24:36
our churches to tell us what they see as our
24:39
habitus, the practices that we assume or expect
24:44
other people to adopt. Some of these will be
24:48
our blind spots, which by definition we cannot
24:51
see ourselves. We need others. We need one another
24:56
to tell them to us. We need to be in close and
25:00
trusting enough relationship for them to tell
25:03
us and to hear it from them in undefended ways.
25:09
Here I hope we begin to see the need to take
25:12
class seriously for the health of our churches
25:14
and ourselves, as well as the spread of the gospel.
25:18
Otherwise, we effectively turn people away as
25:21
they sense that church. is not a place for someone
25:24
like them. You see, class is emotional. As I've
25:28
said, it involves hopes and fears, anger and
25:31
contentment, risk and outcome. People carry that
25:34
with them as they come to their churches in those
25:37
seen and unseen ways. And it's linked with how
25:41
we are formed as people in relationship with
25:44
one another. And I think it's a small and necessary
25:48
set to say that class is therefore theological.
25:52
Infusing our lives, our ministries, our identity
25:56
within the body of Christ in our communities,
25:59
our churches, as well as our world. To close
26:02
this section, let's look briefly at how class
26:04
might be mapped today. This might help us in
26:08
terms of thinking through who is in our churches
26:10
and who is not. First, for government purposes,
26:14
the Office of National Statistics uses a socioeconomic
26:17
classification established in the 1970s. If we
26:22
want to understand socio -economic profile in
26:25
the area we live in, this is likely to be the
26:27
framework the data we get will come in. It's
26:31
based around questions about someone's occupation,
26:34
the nature of their employment contract, are
26:37
they wage, salaried, self -employed or whatever,
26:39
and the size of the organisation they work in.
26:43
This kind of data is available through time.
26:46
If we've got an idea of how our area used to
26:49
be, but isn't now. This is the kind of data that
26:52
we can draw on for it. To assess socio -economic
26:55
background and mobility, one further question
26:59
is asked. This is the question. What was the
27:02
occupation of your main household earner when
27:06
you were aged about 14? And I guess all of us
27:09
have quietly got an answer to that question.
27:13
For identifying class, this question is foundational
27:16
when, for instance, the Church of England is
27:18
measuring the class distribution of its clergy
27:20
as it tries to appraise how middle class it is
27:23
and how it can change in that regard. And it
27:27
might well be one key question to take from this
27:29
framework. What was the occupation when you were
27:33
age 14 of the main household earner in your household?
27:39
They didn't have an occupation. That tells you
27:41
something. as well. An alternative approach to
27:45
defining class in contemporary Britain is a more
27:48
recent model of seven class formations, identified
27:51
by a group of sociologists working with data
27:54
from over 161 ,000 people gathered by the BBC's
27:59
Great British Class Survey of 2011. And this
28:03
model has been used to produce an interactive
28:05
class calculator. We're answering a few online
28:08
questions we'll assign you to one of the model
28:10
seven classes. It's easier looking, isn't it,
28:14
than those government questions. It includes,
28:17
in a simplified way, Bourdieu's sense of multiple
28:19
capitals. By all means, try it out. Please note,
28:24
it is subject to a lot of critique, both practically
28:26
and theoretically. Practically, it tells us nothing
28:30
about how to relate with others, either in or
28:33
beyond our assigned classification. But looking
28:36
at this kind of framing might give us some more
28:39
textured ways of thinking about class within
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our midst than that standard government data.
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And let me say, there's nothing against coming
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up with your own local class definitions together
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as a church, the kind of people in your area
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and your kind of space. Sometimes naming the
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people who are in our churches and not in our
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churches without stereotyping them can help us
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in our reach. But to conclude this, the main
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part of my paper, I want to ask for your patience
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if you're seeking precision. Class, I hope you
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got a sense, cannot be definitively defined.
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It's one of those terms a bit like war and peace.
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Is there peace or war in the Middle East at the
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moment? It's hard to define, but something, something
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is going on. But please do not dismiss it on
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these grounds of lack of definition that is fixed
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and stable. Instead, along with your patience,
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I ask for your discernment. For the sake of the
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gospel, for the wisdom and reach of that gospel,
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for your discernment and your compassion towards
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others and yourself, for understanding them and
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understanding yourself. There is something here
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in this strange thing called class that we need
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to discern. together in the face of the other.
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It plays through in our churches and in their
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reach and our individual discipleship. It's important
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we keep in mind its contingent, multidimensional
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qualities. It's not one static, easily identified
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thing. It is this web of issues, economic, social,
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cultural, psychological, issues of the heart
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as well as the body, the hands as well as the
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mind. feeding in and through one another and
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affecting us all. So for the sake of our ministry
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today and beyond, it would be well to learn class
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afresh. This is a time and a place and a season
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for that. So when we come to look at it in scripture,
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we won't expect to see something identically
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macking on to the confused picture we have in
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our day. Dimensions will take different shapes
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in different places. Turning to the Bible, I
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want to argue there are threads and pointers
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for us there today, for class and ministry in
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the UK today. With our own history in mind, let's
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have a brief look at the New Testament. And it's
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not surprising that even within the few decades
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of the New Testament, there were different expressions
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of social structure and relations at shape and
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at work in different places, urban and rural.
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Within, say, Judea and Galilee, and then in the
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wider Roman Empire beyond. And the glimpses as
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we get them are inevitably hypotheses, reconstructions.
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But I think they're suggestive for us with regarding
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to clasp. I want to show us briefly two models
31:41
for illustrative purposes. They're both drawn
31:44
from the work of a New Testament scholar, Bruce
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Longenecker, who's drawing on others who work
31:49
in this area. The first one presents a reconstruction
31:52
of the distribution of power in a predominantly
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rural economy such as Galilee. It's helpful for
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getting us past either not thinking about power
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and privilege, that's the vertical axis with
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that little lone ruler at the top, or not considering
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the relative numbers of people located at any
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point in that vertical axis. The horizontal width
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of the overall profile showing the estimated
32:17
numbers of people at any point on the scale.
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At very least, such a profile representation
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gets us past simple and abstracted ideas of rich
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and poor in the Bible. And it also reminds us
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that people's occupations and roles and statuses
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were not necessarily the same as ours. We don't
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tend to have retainers and priests, peasants,
32:43
artisans, unclean and degraded and expendables
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with those labels in our day and age. But it
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begins to see how society, such as where Jesus
32:53
told his parables and called people to follow
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him, was flesh and blood, emotional and relating
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with one another. This was where he ministered.
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The second profile seeks to ascertain a view
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across the first century Greco -Roman world,
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the wider Roman Empire. It's presented more in
33:11
the form of a ranking ladder with seven categories
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ranging from the top, economic scale, ES1, imperial
33:18
elites, to the bottom, ES7, those living below
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subsistence level. Where, we might ask, would
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the Apostle Paul be located within a structure
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such as this? Longinecker suggests an E. S4 economic
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existence for Paul's pre -apostolic life, a moderate
33:39
surplus economically speaking, on the basis of
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his rhetorical skill and his listing of work
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as a hardship. But, and I think this is well
33:49
worth our attention, Longenecker posits that
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Paul's economic profile as an apostle for Jesus
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Christ drops a level or two. That is from ES4
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to the manual labour of ES5, perhaps even ES6
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at times, and I would add, as a prisoner, even
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ES7. Longenecker concludes, as far as we can
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reconstruct, this plunge in his economic profile
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was his preferred modus operandi, the result
34:24
of his own choice. The intentional taking of
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a road less travelled. Longinecker characterises
34:32
this as a canonic move on Paul's part, meaning
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an economic emptying of himself, though Paul
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chooses not to talk about it as such, other than
34:41
perhaps occasional brief and indirect allusion
34:44
to his letters. What we begin to see is a measure
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of economic discipleship on the part of Paul.
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This is purely individualistic, perhaps due to
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him being an apostle of Jesus Christ. In my final
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section, I want to suggest that this is not unique
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to Paul, nor isolated individualism. I'll press
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into the book of Acts to do so. Specifically,
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I want to focus on one verse, Acts chapter 20,
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verse 35. It's an introductory horizon for our
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day. In its brevity, I see it as embryonic, as
35:18
highly suggestive and generative for a reworking
35:20
of class relations within Christian discipleship.
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It is a climactic verse concluding Paul's address
35:28
to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20. And
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this address itself is emblematic, being Paul's
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final recorded speech in Acts to those in the
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churches his ministry had fed and planted. It
35:44
provides hearers then and readers now with a
35:47
retrospective on all Paul's ministry. And it
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does so as an exemplary model to follow. In an
35:55
address such as this, endings are vitally important.
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Note then, as with Peter's final words in his
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climactic speech to the believers in Jerusalem
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in Acts 11, Paul here in Acts 20 verse 35. concludes
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with what is called an agraphon. That is a word
36:16
from Jesus which is not written, not recorded
36:19
in the four canonical Gospels. It is more blessed
36:24
to give than to receive. The life and action
36:29
just commended to these elders and to believers
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more widely is grounded in Jesus' teaching, not
36:36
just in Paul. And in its build -up to it, the
36:39
verse makes much of this word from Jesus. Verse
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35 refers to Jesus' words, plural, and as something
36:48
we should remember. Second, it links his words
36:53
to actions, and such actions as a necessity for
36:58
his followers to adopt in appropriate ways. The
37:02
inseparability of word and actions is indeed
37:05
implied by the very opening verse of Acts, describing
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Luke's gospel as recounting all that Jesus began
37:13
to do and teach. Here in Acts 20, 35, his teaching
37:18
continues. Embracing in a comparative assessment
37:22
of flourishing, that's the meaning of blessedness,
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how we as his followers are to relate with those
37:29
who are weak. In context, referring to those
37:32
who are materially lacking, who are poor. Now
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watch my language here. Note the step I made.
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I deliberately made it, but I want to step back
37:43
from it. My expression of we suggests that we,
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I, am not weak. Here is my middle class assumption
37:55
and desire showing itself dangerously. Even simply,
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I often want to be un -weak, un -poor, un -lacking.
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To step back for a moment into our own culture,
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not being weak is in many ways the dream of all
38:14
classes. And the fear of becoming weak, vulnerable
38:18
and insecure drives us in so many ways. This
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is not, however, a staple. uncomfortable assertion
38:26
of a right that accrues to us naturally by cause
38:30
of birth or our own efforts rather in the gospel
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things are different we are those who receive
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Paul, after all, would not own it for himself.
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When I am weak, then I am strong, he self -describes
38:47
himself. Locating himself among the weak, seeing
38:50
God's grace as something which reworks his self
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-identity in relation to some non -specified
38:56
form which he carries. Or expressed differently
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elsewhere to the Corinthian believers, you are
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not your own. You were brought at a price. Let
39:08
me ask myself aloud as one of the middle class
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within the Church of Jesus Christ, how does this
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alter, how should it alter profoundly my sense
39:18
of I -ness? As a receiver of grace, to return
39:23
to Acts 20 .35, I need to remember those other
39:26
ordering words of Jesus, that it is more blessed
39:30
to give than to receive. Contrary to our culture,
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consumption is not king. Acquisition is not ultimate
39:37
concern. The needs of others come first. In closing,
39:42
imagine our class systems like a gyroscope, needing
39:46
a stable centre to keep spinning. Acts 20 .35
39:50
suggests a different spinning centre, a gospel
39:55
-supplied spinning centre of gravity for our
39:58
rankings, our relationships. our exchanges. This
40:03
is how perhaps in small only local ways our churches
40:06
can be contrast societies in the midst of our
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communities. But this assessment by Jesus of
40:13
what is human flourishing erupts in a different
40:17
personhood, a new landscape for us all, a different
40:22
marketplace, different circulations of capitals
40:26
of whatever kind. Indeed, a widened sense of
40:30
giving and gift, with altered patterns of relationship
40:34
and exchange, transformed self -appraisal and
40:38
a baptised appraisal of others. But how this
40:43
plays through in life we're instructed to remember.
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That is to look back through the previous chapters
40:49
of the narrative of Acts and Luke's Gospel in
40:51
order to appraise what we must do. After all,
40:55
isn't that the very first question? What must
40:58
we do? The very first question when we hear the
41:02
gospel that remains a path of discipleship. In
41:06
light of this reworking of weak and strong, of
41:09
rich and poor, what impact can and should this
41:11
gospel and how it's lived out have in our lives
41:15
together in a class -ridden society? To that
41:19
end, the gift of this day still lies open to
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us.