[In chapel] this most self-forgetful of men seemed to clothe himself in a new authority as he entered and took us with him into the heart of the mystery. Obedient to the Prayer Book, he never failed to give us a two-minute homily after the Creed: these paragraphs might at first put a strain on our unbreakfasted intellects, but as our ears accustomed themselves to that fastidious prose, we came to sense and eventually to share his love and understanding of the Eucharist.3

Years later, in Keble College's enormous barn-like chapel, Farrer the Warden, a small man, had difficulty projecting loudly enough to be heard. The students referred to him as the "Happy Wanderer" when he lost his place while conducting services from the Book of Common Prayer. Even at the height of his career, Farrer found time to prepare students for confirmation. One student, troubled by doubts about Christian doctrine, received a note from Farrer which read, "Don't worry." The student wrote, "The Warden never imposed his views on me, but listened with patience and treated me as an equal...."4

Farrer died shortly after Christmas in 1968. His last sermon, broadcast on the BBC on December 22, was entitled "The Ultimate Hope." The funeral, conducted by the bishop of Oxford, was held on January 1, 1969. A former student attending the funeral recalled a line from one of Farrer's books: "... to grow up is good, but to die is better -- provided we die right."5

Until his death, Farrer preached often in the chapels of Trinity College and Keble College. Judging from the number of his published sermons, he seems to have had few free Sundays. The principal sources of Farrer's sermons are four collections: Said or Sung?, published in the U.S. as A Faith of Our Own (1960), A Celebration of Faith (1972), The Brink of Mystery (1976), and The End of Man (1976).

The marks of a philosophical theologian and a Bible scholar are unmistakable in his sermons, but his learning is never intrusive. There is hardly a citation from the original Greek, much less learned remarks on the unity of God. Farrer's sermons are never scholarly exegeses and seldom address current affairs. (One sermon begins, "Perhaps you are all set to hear a terrific sermon about the state of world affairs. If so, you are doomed to disappointment."6 Rather, Farrer's sermons are intended, in the words of a friend's preface to a volume of Farrer's sermons, "to help its hearers to know God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, more clearly, love Him more dearly, and follow Him more nearly."7

Two features consistently stand out in Farrer's sermons. First, in his sermons Farrer gave new life to images, both biblical and every-day, much as he believed the writers of the New Testament had done. Second, he preached a consistent theology of grace and resurrection.

Farrer was a keen observer and took inspiration from the unlikeliest sources. One sermon begins, "In the year of grace 1929 ... I dropped my spoon into my soup."8 Thus began "Responsibility for Friends." One of my favorites among Farrer's sermons took its cue from the motto of a van parked in front of Farrer's college: "Crosses and wreathes made to order."9 That would have started the wheels turning in the mind of any preacher, but perhaps only Farrer would have applied it to Mark 8:34 in such a striking way. Like the poet-prophets of the New Testament whom he admired so much, Farrer seems to have abandoned himself to the images: