First presented as an address by the Archbishop at Police Remembrance Day on September 29, 2005

"I am not your servant' we sometimes say. We don't like to be thought of as a servant; it is a demeaning title below our dignity. We are equals, not servants.

"Behold my servant', says God in this Bible passage. It is the God who is speaking: "He created the heavens and stretched them out, he spread out the earth and what comes from it, (he) gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. 

No one else can say such things. We create some things out of other things; he creates all things out of nothing. There are billions of humans on the earth; you cannot know them all, and you cannot be friends with them all. But he is the source of life for us all, and we can all know him; and he knows us.

In fact, whoever else we know in this life, and whoever else we befriend, it would be wise to befriend the Lord God. We can only make friends with one who communicates with us.

He does; he speaks in his word the Bible, so that we may all hear what he has to say.

This Lord God has an aim. It is to bring forth justice on the earth. This is a wonderful aim. There is much good in the world, much that is truly wonderful. But the world is also riddled with injustice and wrongdoing and sadness. Would it not be great to live in a world which was completely just?

Today we are here specifically to remember those who have died while performing their duties as police officers, together with others who have died in the course of the year. Such tragedies ought not to be. They may be caused by accident; they may be caused by wrongdoing; there may even have been some deep sorrow which has overwhelmed a person.

But we feel that at the heart of each of these tragedies, there is an injustice; that there is something wrong with a world in which such events occur. We feel this especially when a life has been cut short and a family left with a sadness which will not go away.

In one way, we should not even need police work. We ought so to love each other, so to care for each other, to be so fair to each other that no policing would be necessary. That was the original design for human community. But injustice has broken in and we are left with the need for protection and help, sometimes in dire circumstances.

For many years I lived in the interesting and vibrant suburb of Newtown, where I was the Principal of a College. Inevitably, I had to ask the police for help in quite a number of occasions. I saw them many times doing things which I would not want to do: entering dark buildings without knowing what was there;
arbitrating in quarrels not their own;
pursuing malefactors;
guarding people and places during long hours;
dealing firmly and yet fairly with recalcitrant people under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Indeed I spoke to one ex-policeman who told me quietly that he could no longer continue dealing with the aftermath of car-crashes; he was too affected by it all; it was hard to forget what he had seen " on our behalf. Because all of this occurs on my behalf, on our behalf.

I was extremely grateful and would sometimes tell them so. I was aware that they did not get much in the way of spoken gratitude; that there was a fair bit of abuse and rejection from some members of the public, rather than respect and gratitude. They were engaged in confronting injustice, but they did not always receive justice themselves.  And the ultimate injustice is when one dies in the course of duty.

I want to express, on behalf of the community, our gratitude to the NSW Police Service and all its individual members. You do for the rest of us, what we either cannot do, or would hesitate to do. Thank you for the courage you show, for the service you render, for your daily determination to bring something of God's justice into our world.

Of course there are sometimes mistakes; sometimes a police officer will act in ways that are less than ideal; it is sometimes also very easy to criticise from a desk, and after the event. But against all that we also set the grim truth that there are moments when devotion to duty will lead into peril and even loss of life. We are especially grateful to those men and women and to the families who grieve their loss. Thank you.

God says he has a special servant. This servant has been appointed to bring justice to the earth. The Bible says, "he will not grow faint or discouraged till he has established justice on the earth'.  The Bible tells us that this servant has come in history. His name is Jesus Christ. That's his goal: to bring justice on the earth.

When the Bible talks about justice, it does not merely mean strict fairness. It means "putting things to rights, fixing things up'. It is a positive activity in which wounds of the heart are healed, eyes are opened to the truth, the chains of bad habits and ways of thinking are cast off. It means us being friends with the Lord God who is at the heart of everything. It means hope for the future when God will bring in a new earth and new heaven in which there will be justice at last. 

Jesus knows all about the injustice of things. He was arrested, tried and put to death in the most famous judicial assassination of all time. But injustice   has been turned   by justice   to good. Strangely, injustice for Jesus has brought forth justice in the world. Has that made him bitter and revengeful? No. Does he sympathise with us in our pain and our experience of injustice? Yes. 

Listen, "He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.' Are you crushed and destroyed by sadness? Are you burdened even with shame for some reason that only you know about? Listen: "a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench'. He won't break off a bent reed or put out a dying flame, but he will "faithfully bring forth justice'.

Are you and your family victims of injustice?  There may be no way in the world that can be fixed by any human action, any human recompense. But there is justice in the universe; there is a fairness at the heart of everything. While we wait for justice to arrive, there is consolation and peace, strength and hope for those who turn to Jesus, the servant of the Lord.

"I am not your servant' we sometimes say. We don't like to be thought of as a servant; it is a demeaning title below our dignity. We are equals, not servants.

And yet the Lord of all became a servant in order to bring justice to the world.

We cannot take his place as the unique servant of the Lord. That is for him alone. But he set a new standard and model of service, and we can seek to serve God and others in that spirit and for the same purpose, to bring justice.

And when we fail, as we will,
and when we grieve, as we will,
and when we long for perfect justice as we do,
we can become the servants of the great servant, Jesus,
who forgives failure,
who comforts those who mourn,
and who will bring in the righteousness of God in his own good time.

Sermon preached at St Andrew's cathedral Sydney by Peter Jensen, Archbishop of Sydney.