There’s a battle going on for our Church – would you believe it?
It’s an ownership battle that’s part of the battle for our souls and its part of what Lent’s all about.
In Lent we remember we’re lent.
Is my life mine or is it lent to me? Is St Giles ours or is it lent to us?
There’s a proprietorial spirit that afflicts us all – it’s my life. I do it or did it my way.
Over against it there’s the spirit of stewardship by which we see our whole life as it really is - as lent us by God - so that we are his and St Giles is God’s Church.
Today is stewardship Sunday. For the last two years Lent has brought with it the opportunity to review the gifts we employ in God’s service, time, talents and treasure.
It’s also an opportunity to see how much more our Church is becoming God’s Church and not just a fellowship that enjoys meeting on Sunday in a Grade I listed building of outstanding beauty.
Let me touch on the second area first.
It was evident at last Sunday evening’s healing service that we’re a Church that recognises God at work in lives. What Peter Vince and James Nicholson shared about that was so powerful and made all the more powerful in my mind by their day by day commitment to the fabric and worship of St Giles.
St Giles, unlike New Labour, does God. You may laugh but some churches are guilty of what Paul describes in 2 Timothy 3.5 of holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Members are so concerned to keep their social club comfortable they’re wary of God talk and keep up the outward ritual of Church whilst barely acknowledging their stewardship of God’s mission. One Church over Chichester way fought having a sign to them from the main road in case outsiders came to disturb them!
I prefer to be called Father John, whilst respecting folk who find it too distant. This is because I aim to be everyone’s friend but am primarily here to be God’s priest for us. Do pray for me in that perilous role, as Maker’s rep, called to make our fellowship at St Giles more godly and less proprietorial.
The best people to teach us about where we stand on this are our visitors. If you see a strange face in Church is it your instinct to make time to welcome them after the service or does that concern get lost in your business after service keeping up with your mates at St Giles?
Archbishop William Temple said the Christian church is the only organisation on earth that exists for the sake of non-members. Do we?
I’m only asking because it’s Stewardship Sunday!
There are good signs of our getting there as a Church. Over the last year we’ve started: St Giles Night, a monthly evening with a spiritual focus, to help deepen discipleship, monthly healing ministry on Wednesday evenings and monthly prayer ministry after the all age eucharist. All of these ventures have seen lay members receiving as well as sharing spiritual capital. It’s also been good to see increased attendance at our occasional and regular midweek eucharists.
In terms of stewardship of buildings the glazed inner porch doors installed last May open up St Giles making the building seem more accessible. We’re still working at and praying for the right development of toilet facilities that are so necessary in terms of comfortable access. The thinking behind these changes, and significant changes in the Martindale, isn’t or shouldn’t be proprietorial. We’re not doing these things out of pride in appearances but as stewards wanting to be more effective as a missionary Church. We seek to make the worship of God accessible by better engagement with the local community.
This is what Christian stewardship is about – but it begins like Lent with you and I recognising we’re lent and not our own.
In this holy eucharist, Sunday by Sunday, day by day, we profess this truth of stewardship which sees life as it really is, as lent us by God.
Our Lord Jesus gave himself for the Church to make it his own. He came in fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham that he’d build a fruitful people. In today’s Gospel Our Saviour warns that as he would suffer on the Cross so we will suffer to lose our lives for his sake.
In the eucharist we gratefully recall Christ’s self gift, pledging our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice alongside his self-offering. As we reflect in Lent on the engagement of our time, talents and treasure with God’s Church, may what we say we offer be reflected more in our lives. The test of any act of love is that it hurts self interest.
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