‘Delivery’ has become a prime word in our vocabulary. It is a test of political competence. It is what Amazon is good at. All things being considered, what matters is that doctors and nurses and care-workers can get the PPE that they need and that we get the neat cardboard containers with the books or the coffee-machines or the chain-saws out of the warehouse and into our hands asap.
It was not always so with this word. In the days of horses and coaches the highwayman meant something rather different when he said, ‘Stand and deliver.’ This was a command that brooked no refusal. Delivery was easy – but it was costly. It was the same with the system that the Royal Navy in those days brought to a fine art. From the captain to the ship’s cook a crew knew that their hopes of money in the bank rested with getting their hands on prize-money. It was a system not very far removed from piracy but it got results. It delivered – in the shape of Trafalgar and the battle of the Nile. In fact it delivered an empire.
Delivery matters. Delivery is not just a matter of military muscle. The long-term benefits to citizens are an inescapable test as difficult as any military campaign. Lee Kuan Yew delivered an efficient, technologically advanced Singapore that has amazed the world. The RNLI delivers daily an astounding life-saving service around the coasts of Britain.
If we apply the delivery test to the proportion of BAME (Black, Asian and Minority-Ethnic) individuals in Church of England ministry, we may find ourselves disappointed. Latest figures show that BAME ministers make up a mere 3.8 per cent of the stipendiary clergy. In other words very few parishes have a BAME rector, vicar or curate.
Jesus presented two short parables on delivery to the crowds who followed him. One was about a tower-builder who had under-estimated the cost involved. The other was about a king going into battle when the odds were against him. In each of those parables there was a failure to deliver. The cost Jesus was driving home was extremely high. To follow him was to incur a cost that would put everything else to shame. The crowd were told it would mean being prepared to give up all their possessions. That is some kind of delivery. We have to think long and hard before we go for it.
STATUE
Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of the unveiling of a statue at the entrance to St Thomas’s hospital, London. The statue is that of Mary Seacole, the first named black woman to be thus celebrated. She served heroically as a nurse in the Crimean war. See the website in her name for details.
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