Colossians 1.3-6
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is the present and it is a healing present from the Lord if we will but accept Him in this moment, in this healing hour.
From yesterday Christians receive apostolic teaching and ministry. We’re here to celebrate Saint Luke and the apostolic call to healing which his Feast recalls.
From tomorrow when God will be all in all we receive by anticipation a touch from heaven. Whenever Christians gather they bring their Lord into their midst and the healing touch of the heavenly kingdom.
So as we read God’s word this evening from Colossians chapter one we welcome it with Paul as indeed the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to us (v5). Good news that’s not in words alone but which comes down to this day, forwarded through the centuries, with healing power. There is no word of God without power!
Then as Paul also says to the Colossians we should be grateful because of the hope laid up for us in heaven (v5). Because Our Lord is the same yesterday, today and for ever this hope has impact right now so that the apostle continues, saying this hope is bearing fruit among us from the day we heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God (v6).
The healing power of Christ flows forward to us this evening from the cross and resurrection by the teaching of the apostles handed down and backwards to us from heaven where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more for the first things have passed away (Revelation 21.4).
God loves us and wants us well. Let’s not doubt it. God’s perfect will for us is health of body, mind and spirit.
This is what Jesus showed us in the days of his flesh. Saint Luke hands on from the Lord to us this truth, as in Chapter 9 of his Gospel in verse 11 where he tells us that crowds followed Jesus; and he welcomed them, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured.
God’s ultimate design for healing shines back at us simultaneously from heaven, so to speak, when we ponder the last chapters of the Bible from which I just read.
Our Father loves us, Jesus says, and he wants us well. This is Saint Luke’s witness and it’s to be our experience in Horsted Keynes tonight as we gather together around God’s word with quiet confidence in the power of God’s promises.
I would say that there is an extra element of blessing due to us tonight at a service across denominations. That is the blessing expressed in Psalm 133: Behold how good and how lovely it is: when brothers and sisters live together in unity…For there the Lord has commanded his blessing: which is life for evermore (v1,4)
For Christians to unite together in faithfulness to God’s word, to pray as we are doing this evening with confidence in what he has promised and humility before his provision, this is very powerful indeed.
All the graces we receive as Pentecostals, Anglicans or Roman Catholics do not come from ourselves or our denominations but from God through Christ in the Spirit.
Our greatest resource as Christians is the sense we have of our baptism, the sense of our need for cleansing from sin and refreshing in the Spirit. This unites us – our need for forgiveness and healing and our openness to receive from Jesus.
This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are those who are called to his supper. Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.
The supper we have celebrated today around different tables anticipates the same heavenly marriage supper that lies ahead. The healing we claimed in Holy Communion today has no denominational allegiance.
So tonight we bless oil to be used ‘ecumenically’. As we do so we put faith in the Lord to act as our healer. Has he not invited us in his word to anoint the sick and needy?
When Our Lord came to earth he worked with St Joseph in a carpenter’s shop. He knew how to mend what was broken. In his 30th year he went to the Jordan where heaven opened and God revealed himself in a voice and a Dove. This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.
The sky got torn so heaven showed itself to earth. It got torn as Jesus came and it stayed torn as Jesus ministered, died and rose again. Tonight there remains in Jesus something of a gap in the heavens. O Saving victim opening wide the gate of heaven to man below. Our foes press hard on every side. Thine aid supply, thy strength bestow!
Yesterday, today and tomorrow come together in Jesus who is the same yesterday, today and for ever (Hebrews 13v8).
So in this present moment, at this evening hour, the Saviour is present to us, present to forgive, to heal, to deliver. He will honour your faith and mine, the faith that has come down to us from the apostles and which anticipates and brings into today the joys of the world to come.
Our Father loves us and wants us well. Do you believe it? Exercise your faith tonight. Comprehend, grasp the grace of God! Reach out to the Lord and let him reach out to you from heaven to bring you a touch of the healing that is to be yours in its fullness one day. The hope laid up for us in heaven …that is bearing fruit among us in Horsted Keynes!
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Trinity 19 What Jesus does for us 18 October 2009
What does Jesus do for us?
What does it mean for us as he says in today’s gospel that he came to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10.45)?
There are three main Christian doctrines – the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Atonement. This morning the readings centre on this last doctrine, Atonement, how God and humanity are made one by what Jesus does for us.
How do we understand this making God one with us that Our Lord achieves?
More importantly how do we not only understand the doctrine but see it taking effect so that we know God not just only as our maker but as our saviour?
These are questions that spill out of all three scriptures this morning.
The Isaiah 53 passage was chosen to illuminate the text I read from Mark 10.45 at the end of today’s gospel. There Jesus makes a prediction of his coming Passion which pours cold water on the arrogance of James and John who thought their Lord was going to take worldly power and wanted part of his worldly glory. No, Our Lord says, my kingdom will be built from suffering service. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
In saying this Jesus was identifying himself with the Suffering Servant figure described in an Old Testament passage that was up to that point rather obscure. Everyone thought, and the Jews to this day think, that God’s Messiah, his chosen servant who would bring in the end of the world, would come in power and majesty. Already though the blueprint for God’s saving purpose was written out in this obscure passage, the 53rd chapter of the prophet Isaiah which Jesus knew by heart and was to act out from the heart.
As the Lord thought ahead to what was ahead for him as Messiah this was the passage he picked up and the church has picked up ever since as the best description of what Jesus does for us.
Let’s look at the passage. It’s the second half of verse 11that Our Lord picks up in the Gospel reading. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and shall bear their iniquities. Look back to the beginning of the passage and you’ll recognise the prediction of Our Lord’s Passion written by Isaiah eight centuries before Christ. Let’s read verses 5 and 6: But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah foresaw the lonely figure on Calvary who would bear the immense burden of sin separating human beings from their maker and how that sin bearing would cost the suffering servant his life like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. The passage hints at the tomb of Jesus given by the rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, verse 9, they made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich. It concludes with a prophecy of the resurrection, verse 12. Let’s read it. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Jesus himself gave no explanation of how his death and rising again made atonement other than to point to this scripture. Only after his resurrection did his followers reflect more fully upon what Jesus did and does for us as Saviour.
So we can move on to the second reading by the anonymous author of the letter to the Hebrews. Here in this letter is the best source of teaching in scripture on the doctrine of the Atonement. This teaching centres on the priesthood of Christ by which Jesus takes what he did on Calvary and pleads it for all time in heaven. It’s this his pleading that we join to at the Eucharist.
Today’s small section of Hebrews is from chapter 5. Let’s read verse 1: Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin.
Priests have a ministry of representing mortals to the immortal God and the immortal God to mortals. The passage goes on to outline how Christ was appointed high priest by God but with full sympathy for humanity. He is the Son of God become Son of Man. In this passage we see graphic evidence of Christ’s humanity. It’s a powerful account actually of the passion of Our Lord that begins with his tears in the Garden of Gethsemane. It provides one of the most moving evidences in the bible of how deeply Jesus engaged with our pain and sorrow.
Let’s read this account in verse 7: In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
What does Jesus do for us?
He shows us God sharing our loud cries and tears in reverent submission. Jesus shows us a God who expects nothing from us he’s not prepared to go through. But he shows us much more. He shows us God’s love and holiness, our need of them both and how we can attain to both.
Our Lord brings us atonement. He makes a way for the God of love and holiness to be one with us in our dignity and frailty.
This morning’s gospel reading should be read in context. In this Year B of the Lectionary we’re coming to the end of Mark’s Gospel, the second Gospel in the New Testament. On Advent Sunday we begin a new Church year by starting St Luke. This morning’s reading from Mark 10 is almost the last before the passion narrative in St Mark. Do read the whole gospel yourself. It takes an hour and a half for the average reader. This morning’s reading is on the hinge between Christ’s teaching and his atoning work. It has Jesus saying in one powerful verse what he is doing on earth at all. He is come as God’s Son to give his life a ransom for many.
In giving himself he does so in costly love. He does so on account of the requirements of God’s holiness. He does so because only by the Cross and its pleading for ever in the heavenly sanctuary can women and men be won to glory.
When we look at the Cross we see four things.
We see the love of God fully displayed.
We see the holiness of God in his hatred of sin. The Cross shows what sin feels like to God.
We see our dignity because this act of atonement is given to rescue us for eternal glory.
We see our frailty. Where else do we see the terrible consequences of our sin?
It was no accident or mistake that brought Our Lord to the Cross. It was as Isaiah and the author of Hebrews explain the countering of our going astray. If human disobedience was no great thing why would God who made us and wants his life and glory for us have to confront it as he did? Human disobedience, yours and mine, confronted by perfect goodness crucifies him. The ‘I’ll do it my way’ attitude makes the Atonement as costly as it is.
The doctrine of the Atonement is an awesome mystery. We will never fully understand the doctrine but that won’t stop us seeing it take effect in our lives so that we know God not just as our maker but as our saviour.
How does it effect our lives?
The Cross is once and for all but Jesus lives as eternal high priest to plead its benefits. Inasmuch as we repent of our sins and trust Jesus all that he has done for us comes into operation in our lives bringing forgiveness, healing, deliverance and freedom in the Spirit.
As verse 9 of the Hebrews Chapter 4 passage states Jesus has become the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. What is salvation other than an eternal relationship with God sealed on his side by love and ours by the obedience of faith.
Yes all that Jesus does for us comes to us as we obey. That means as we seek to direct our time, talents, treasure, gifts, energies towards what God wants. Faith isn’t a feeling it’s obedience, costly surrender. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done is the prayer of Christian faith and it means an obedient overcoming of self will that’s day by day, hour by hour.
It has its beginning in baptism, which is our great ‘yes’ to God and ‘no’ to self. It has its end in the vision of God face to face with the selfless adoration of all the saints.
The good news of Christianity is very simple.
God made us for friendship. Sin became a barrier to that friendship. God sent Jesus to lift away that barrier making us friends of God.
Things get between us and God so that we’re not at one. Sin, fear, sickness, bondage, anxiety, death and the devil get in the way. Jesus brings atonement – at one ment literally – because what he did in his coming, his suffering, death and resurrection has established the means to overcome these evils - if we use them. That means that the words we read today in Isaiah he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases come true when we trust his healing power. When we read he bore the sins of many that can become true in our experience when we seek his forgiveness and become one of the many who’re made one with God through Jesus.
Atonement isn’t just a doctrine it’s a way of life. It’s living one to one, heart to heart with God.
This is what Jesus does for us. It’s here this morning because what happened once for all on the Cross can become operative in our lives as we surrender our lives to the Jesus who says again to us This is my body given for you, my blood shed for you. Here those words in your heart’s depth this morning. As we sang: Because the sinless Saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free; for God the Just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me…the Lord most High has bowed down low and poured on me his glorious love.
What does it mean for us as he says in today’s gospel that he came to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10.45)?
There are three main Christian doctrines – the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Atonement. This morning the readings centre on this last doctrine, Atonement, how God and humanity are made one by what Jesus does for us.
How do we understand this making God one with us that Our Lord achieves?
More importantly how do we not only understand the doctrine but see it taking effect so that we know God not just only as our maker but as our saviour?
These are questions that spill out of all three scriptures this morning.
The Isaiah 53 passage was chosen to illuminate the text I read from Mark 10.45 at the end of today’s gospel. There Jesus makes a prediction of his coming Passion which pours cold water on the arrogance of James and John who thought their Lord was going to take worldly power and wanted part of his worldly glory. No, Our Lord says, my kingdom will be built from suffering service. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
In saying this Jesus was identifying himself with the Suffering Servant figure described in an Old Testament passage that was up to that point rather obscure. Everyone thought, and the Jews to this day think, that God’s Messiah, his chosen servant who would bring in the end of the world, would come in power and majesty. Already though the blueprint for God’s saving purpose was written out in this obscure passage, the 53rd chapter of the prophet Isaiah which Jesus knew by heart and was to act out from the heart.
As the Lord thought ahead to what was ahead for him as Messiah this was the passage he picked up and the church has picked up ever since as the best description of what Jesus does for us.
Let’s look at the passage. It’s the second half of verse 11that Our Lord picks up in the Gospel reading. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and shall bear their iniquities. Look back to the beginning of the passage and you’ll recognise the prediction of Our Lord’s Passion written by Isaiah eight centuries before Christ. Let’s read verses 5 and 6: But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah foresaw the lonely figure on Calvary who would bear the immense burden of sin separating human beings from their maker and how that sin bearing would cost the suffering servant his life like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. The passage hints at the tomb of Jesus given by the rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, verse 9, they made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich. It concludes with a prophecy of the resurrection, verse 12. Let’s read it. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Jesus himself gave no explanation of how his death and rising again made atonement other than to point to this scripture. Only after his resurrection did his followers reflect more fully upon what Jesus did and does for us as Saviour.
So we can move on to the second reading by the anonymous author of the letter to the Hebrews. Here in this letter is the best source of teaching in scripture on the doctrine of the Atonement. This teaching centres on the priesthood of Christ by which Jesus takes what he did on Calvary and pleads it for all time in heaven. It’s this his pleading that we join to at the Eucharist.
Today’s small section of Hebrews is from chapter 5. Let’s read verse 1: Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin.
Priests have a ministry of representing mortals to the immortal God and the immortal God to mortals. The passage goes on to outline how Christ was appointed high priest by God but with full sympathy for humanity. He is the Son of God become Son of Man. In this passage we see graphic evidence of Christ’s humanity. It’s a powerful account actually of the passion of Our Lord that begins with his tears in the Garden of Gethsemane. It provides one of the most moving evidences in the bible of how deeply Jesus engaged with our pain and sorrow.
Let’s read this account in verse 7: In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
What does Jesus do for us?
He shows us God sharing our loud cries and tears in reverent submission. Jesus shows us a God who expects nothing from us he’s not prepared to go through. But he shows us much more. He shows us God’s love and holiness, our need of them both and how we can attain to both.
Our Lord brings us atonement. He makes a way for the God of love and holiness to be one with us in our dignity and frailty.
This morning’s gospel reading should be read in context. In this Year B of the Lectionary we’re coming to the end of Mark’s Gospel, the second Gospel in the New Testament. On Advent Sunday we begin a new Church year by starting St Luke. This morning’s reading from Mark 10 is almost the last before the passion narrative in St Mark. Do read the whole gospel yourself. It takes an hour and a half for the average reader. This morning’s reading is on the hinge between Christ’s teaching and his atoning work. It has Jesus saying in one powerful verse what he is doing on earth at all. He is come as God’s Son to give his life a ransom for many.
In giving himself he does so in costly love. He does so on account of the requirements of God’s holiness. He does so because only by the Cross and its pleading for ever in the heavenly sanctuary can women and men be won to glory.
When we look at the Cross we see four things.
We see the love of God fully displayed.
We see the holiness of God in his hatred of sin. The Cross shows what sin feels like to God.
We see our dignity because this act of atonement is given to rescue us for eternal glory.
We see our frailty. Where else do we see the terrible consequences of our sin?
It was no accident or mistake that brought Our Lord to the Cross. It was as Isaiah and the author of Hebrews explain the countering of our going astray. If human disobedience was no great thing why would God who made us and wants his life and glory for us have to confront it as he did? Human disobedience, yours and mine, confronted by perfect goodness crucifies him. The ‘I’ll do it my way’ attitude makes the Atonement as costly as it is.
The doctrine of the Atonement is an awesome mystery. We will never fully understand the doctrine but that won’t stop us seeing it take effect in our lives so that we know God not just as our maker but as our saviour.
How does it effect our lives?
The Cross is once and for all but Jesus lives as eternal high priest to plead its benefits. Inasmuch as we repent of our sins and trust Jesus all that he has done for us comes into operation in our lives bringing forgiveness, healing, deliverance and freedom in the Spirit.
As verse 9 of the Hebrews Chapter 4 passage states Jesus has become the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. What is salvation other than an eternal relationship with God sealed on his side by love and ours by the obedience of faith.
Yes all that Jesus does for us comes to us as we obey. That means as we seek to direct our time, talents, treasure, gifts, energies towards what God wants. Faith isn’t a feeling it’s obedience, costly surrender. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done is the prayer of Christian faith and it means an obedient overcoming of self will that’s day by day, hour by hour.
It has its beginning in baptism, which is our great ‘yes’ to God and ‘no’ to self. It has its end in the vision of God face to face with the selfless adoration of all the saints.
The good news of Christianity is very simple.
God made us for friendship. Sin became a barrier to that friendship. God sent Jesus to lift away that barrier making us friends of God.
Things get between us and God so that we’re not at one. Sin, fear, sickness, bondage, anxiety, death and the devil get in the way. Jesus brings atonement – at one ment literally – because what he did in his coming, his suffering, death and resurrection has established the means to overcome these evils - if we use them. That means that the words we read today in Isaiah he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases come true when we trust his healing power. When we read he bore the sins of many that can become true in our experience when we seek his forgiveness and become one of the many who’re made one with God through Jesus.
Atonement isn’t just a doctrine it’s a way of life. It’s living one to one, heart to heart with God.
This is what Jesus does for us. It’s here this morning because what happened once for all on the Cross can become operative in our lives as we surrender our lives to the Jesus who says again to us This is my body given for you, my blood shed for you. Here those words in your heart’s depth this morning. As we sang: Because the sinless Saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free; for God the Just is satisfied to look on him and pardon me…the Lord most High has bowed down low and poured on me his glorious love.
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Harvest Festival Encouraging the Church in Guyana's Interior 11th October 2009
This Sunday our theme is one of thanks for the fruits of the earth – our harvest festival.
We’re showing our gratitude to God by giving to others. As we gather round the Lord’s table this morning we do so with produce that will support families in need across Sussex. Our harvest lunch raises funds for a needy part of the church overseas, the Diocese of Guyana in South America.
Anne and I worked there as USPG missionaries twenty years ago and the family have been back three times on extended visits. I served as Theological College Principal in Guyana helping train Amerindian priests for the interior of that land near the Brazilian border. They serve some of the toughest parishes in the whole of the Anglican Communion, with Churches accessible often only after weeks of paddling up creeks and hacking one's way through bush and jungle.
Do not worry about your life says the harvest gospel reading from Matthew 6.25.
This morning on Harvest Festival the Church reminds us that our whole life, past, present and future is in God's hands. To be truly grateful is to believe that God is in control of our lives and the life of the world.
A Christian is someone who is able to see the hand of God behind everything. We have faith to see that we come from God, belong to God, go to God.
At harvest we recall this faith, that helps us rise above worry, and we look outwards to the needy. Anne, James and I are delighted that the PCC agreed to make a new overseas mission focus supporting the mission of the Anglican church in our old home in Guyana’s tropical rainforest. Guyana is one of the poorest countries in the world. Because of our personal links there is an opportunity to make a real difference there. We also hope to arrange visits in years to come to the Amerindian communities we have served and keep in touch with.
This is especially timely with the consecration of a new Bishop, Cornell Moss, in December, which opens up a new chapter in the Anglican mission there.
20 years ago I served as Theological College Principal training up Amerindian priests. In the indigenous communities of Guyana parishioners live 'around the cooking pot'. Money is in use, but much of the economy relies on age-old barter from hunting, fishing and handicraft. Harvest festival was the main source of income for the church.
Anne and I well remember the harvest festivals in the church at Yupukari where we were married in and in which we first worshipped together. I recall one where a sheep was tethered to the altar and was slaughtered afterwards so that the village ate meat afterwards for the first time in weeks.
Do not worry about your life the Lord says.
In the deep rain forest of Guyana the natives may have less possessions but they have few worries. When I was planning a week’s trip up river to a remote mission I could ask my boatman to take me at very short notice. It took him five minutes to pack - a toothbrush, a bar of soap and a spare pair of underpants was all he needed with his hammock. I took far longer to gather my tackle - mosquito net, insect repellent, books to read, torches, toilet paper (they used leaves), tins of food, sun hat, mass kit, vestments, short wave radio for the BBC World Service..the list could go on!
The Indians tell a tale of the Amazon a few hundred miles south of Guyana. There was a shipwreck off the Brazilian Coast and some of the men managed to survive on a life raft. They drifted for two weeks by which time they were pretty well dying of thirst. Eventually they encountered a boat and were hauled aboard. The crew were surprised the men were thirsty. You see they were drifting by then across the mouth of the Amazon River, the largest fresh water source upon the earth.
Sometimes we are literally resting like those sailors upon the answer to our problems.
Do not worry about your life the Lord says.
God’s Spirit is always with us like streams of fresh water welling up within us. When worry dries us up the Holy Spirit is at hand to refresh us and here is the place above all places to welcome the Spirit through God’s word and through the body of Jesus given to us in the sacrament.
Only our unbelief stops us acting as if God were with us, just as the ignorance of those sailors kept them thirsty when they were floating on fresh water.
Let’s keep silence as we prepare at this Eucharist to entrust ourselves, our souls and bodies, as a living sacrifice through Christ to the Father.
We’re showing our gratitude to God by giving to others. As we gather round the Lord’s table this morning we do so with produce that will support families in need across Sussex. Our harvest lunch raises funds for a needy part of the church overseas, the Diocese of Guyana in South America.
Anne and I worked there as USPG missionaries twenty years ago and the family have been back three times on extended visits. I served as Theological College Principal in Guyana helping train Amerindian priests for the interior of that land near the Brazilian border. They serve some of the toughest parishes in the whole of the Anglican Communion, with Churches accessible often only after weeks of paddling up creeks and hacking one's way through bush and jungle.
Do not worry about your life says the harvest gospel reading from Matthew 6.25.
This morning on Harvest Festival the Church reminds us that our whole life, past, present and future is in God's hands. To be truly grateful is to believe that God is in control of our lives and the life of the world.
A Christian is someone who is able to see the hand of God behind everything. We have faith to see that we come from God, belong to God, go to God.
At harvest we recall this faith, that helps us rise above worry, and we look outwards to the needy. Anne, James and I are delighted that the PCC agreed to make a new overseas mission focus supporting the mission of the Anglican church in our old home in Guyana’s tropical rainforest. Guyana is one of the poorest countries in the world. Because of our personal links there is an opportunity to make a real difference there. We also hope to arrange visits in years to come to the Amerindian communities we have served and keep in touch with.
This is especially timely with the consecration of a new Bishop, Cornell Moss, in December, which opens up a new chapter in the Anglican mission there.
20 years ago I served as Theological College Principal training up Amerindian priests. In the indigenous communities of Guyana parishioners live 'around the cooking pot'. Money is in use, but much of the economy relies on age-old barter from hunting, fishing and handicraft. Harvest festival was the main source of income for the church.
Anne and I well remember the harvest festivals in the church at Yupukari where we were married in and in which we first worshipped together. I recall one where a sheep was tethered to the altar and was slaughtered afterwards so that the village ate meat afterwards for the first time in weeks.
Do not worry about your life the Lord says.
In the deep rain forest of Guyana the natives may have less possessions but they have few worries. When I was planning a week’s trip up river to a remote mission I could ask my boatman to take me at very short notice. It took him five minutes to pack - a toothbrush, a bar of soap and a spare pair of underpants was all he needed with his hammock. I took far longer to gather my tackle - mosquito net, insect repellent, books to read, torches, toilet paper (they used leaves), tins of food, sun hat, mass kit, vestments, short wave radio for the BBC World Service..the list could go on!
The Indians tell a tale of the Amazon a few hundred miles south of Guyana. There was a shipwreck off the Brazilian Coast and some of the men managed to survive on a life raft. They drifted for two weeks by which time they were pretty well dying of thirst. Eventually they encountered a boat and were hauled aboard. The crew were surprised the men were thirsty. You see they were drifting by then across the mouth of the Amazon River, the largest fresh water source upon the earth.
Sometimes we are literally resting like those sailors upon the answer to our problems.
Do not worry about your life the Lord says.
God’s Spirit is always with us like streams of fresh water welling up within us. When worry dries us up the Holy Spirit is at hand to refresh us and here is the place above all places to welcome the Spirit through God’s word and through the body of Jesus given to us in the sacrament.
Only our unbelief stops us acting as if God were with us, just as the ignorance of those sailors kept them thirsty when they were floating on fresh water.
Let’s keep silence as we prepare at this Eucharist to entrust ourselves, our souls and bodies, as a living sacrifice through Christ to the Father.
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Trinity 17 Enhancing our buildings 4th October 2009
I want to think with you this morning about enhancing our buildings.
This is the last of a three part sermon series on the priorities we identified in July at our thinking day at which those present identified three priorities:
Renewing our worship
Engaging with youth and families
Enhancing our buildings.
If your memories are good you may recall a similar threesome which we looked at before the thinking day – the ABC of the diocesan Life Together vision. Remember?
Attending to God
Building Christian community
Commending God’s love for the world
God is calling us to work for what is upward in renewing worship, who’s around as we gather, young and old into Christian community, and who’s out there as we work to commend God’s love in action and words and through our buildings.
We are wonderfully blessed in Horsted Keynes to have our worship sheltered, by this beautiful building that has heard God’s praise for over 30 generations. Keeping the House of God in good repair so that it is passed on to the next generation is a prime responsibility of mine and yours.
Our buildings, Church and the Martindale, are a given and we aim to make pragmatic adjustments to them in the name of Christian priorities. They need enhancing to meet the evolving needs and expectations, which goes beyond their necessary maintenance.
Bricks and mortar aren’t in the gospel overmuch. Christianity travelled light to begin with. What mattered was the Christian formation of individuals and families within God’s family.
Today’s scripture, for example, from Genesis 2 and Mark 10 sets forth marriage as God’s building block for human society. It has our Saviour Jesus Christ blessing children. A Christian society depends on the faithfulness of husbands and wives and on their faithful love for their children. It depends on the commitment of people to God, the Christian community and the needs of the world.
ABC – commitment to God, the Church and the world – these are priorities to clothe with Christian buildings! Trouble is the buildings are already there, which is not the ideal, and we have to develop them without ruining them!
I’ve been set up by our Thinking Day and the PCC’s desire to forward its three aims to speak this morning of our buildings and how we can enhance them.
Here goes then, and I hope we don’t stray too far from the readings we’re digesting on this 17th Sunday after Trinity!
Enhancing our buildings came down to two main priorities – a toilet for St Giles and refurbishing the Martindale.
There are other buildings we’re linked to. I spoke about Saint Giles’ School two weeks ago in the context of Engaging with youth and families. Then there’s the Parish Hall which stands on land belonging to the Diocese. There’s not much we as a parish can engage with on that account, save making sure any development of the Martindale complements the Parish Hall.
Firstly, then, a word about the proposal for a church toilet. As you know we already have access to the school toilet at this service but it’s quite a long way away. There are also occasions like funerals during term time when we cannot easily use the school toilet.
The annual cost of maintaining Saint Giles Church averaged out over the last ten years is in the order of £12,500. Our parish share is, additionally, around £50,000. Overall expenses are just short of £100,000 which is a lot for a church with Sunday adult attendance just over 50. Finding the extra £50-100,000 we’d need for the toilet would be a challenge but if it is in God’s plan it will bring with it God’s provision.
Every five years church is inspected under diocesan regulations and we are completing the repairs recommended in the 2007 inspection. You should shortly see the porch painted which will greatly enhance access to our church. Other areas due for painting are in the Lady Chapel, Crossing and above the High Altar where damp penetration has now been overcome. The Tower bell frame is to be further stabilised. The Sacristy and Choir Vestry are being renewed to be more fit for purpose. There are shingles to be replaced on the spire. All of these agreed repairs should be covered from designated funds.
The PCC agree with the consensus of the Thinking Day. We aim to raise funds in the medium term to enhance Saint Giles by installing a toilet and refreshment facilities beyond the north door by the font. All church growth theorists, and I was a church growth guru before coming here, all church growth theorists say that however awesome, intriguing and accessible worship is in a building three things will affect attendance. These are car parking, church heating and toilets. It makes sense for us to work on what’s missing here and so enhance this beautiful House of God by making it more accessible to young and old.
Secondly the PCC is working on the best way to develop the Martindale. We picked up the feeling expressed clearly on 5th July that having a church property situated near the middle of the village is a vital mission resource that we should develop to the best of our ability. Such enhancement would serve to make more of a meeting place and to build occasions where church members and non church members meet for a common purpose, such as the Wednesday toddler group and the Thursday coffee morning. In thinking and planning ahead the Martindale committee are aware that the success of any enhancement will depend on the emergence of ventures and leaders allied to Martindale use that are for the good of our community.
The vision needs broadening and promoting if the enhancement is to be useful. We don’t want St Giles left with a facility no one wants to use.
May I commend these two building enhancement schemes at this stage to your prayers?
We need to land a clearer forward plan as well as the human and financial resources to implement them. God willing there’ll be some specific proposals to put to the church and the village around the end of this year.
In reflecting on this third priority of enhancing our buildings the scripture readings for today look at first sight unpromising. What have the Genesis account of marriage and Our Lord’s reiteration of it and commending of children to do with our buildings? A few steps removed, certainly, but there is the business of recovering the main things and making the main things again the main things.
In Our Lord’s day we heard how a man was allowed to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce his wife. Jesus takes us back to first principles and restates the principle, neglected then and certainly neglected now, that marriage is unbreakable in God’s eyes. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.
What we are about at Saint Giles is setting priorities as best we can. We have seen some things that we need to major on – renewing worship, engaging with youth and families, enhancing buildings – and this morning has been an occasion to state those principles more loudly so to speak. As a Church we are being called back to these tasks just as the Jews of Jesus’ day were called back by him to a view of marriage they’d lost sight of.
Another Spirit given connection between Thinking Day priorities and the scriptures this morning might be in the importance of using our buildings to strengthen marriage and family life which are just as much under threat today as they were in the Palestine of Our Lord. The provision of toilets is another move towards family friendliness in our worship. Thinking ahead on the Martindale we could see ourselves, with renewed facilities, being in a position to run marriage enrichment and parenting courses which benefit not just church members but the whole community.
Enhanced church buildings in Horsted Keynes would create spaces that better serve to engage families in worship and training in marriage and family life.
I’ve talked about the need to keep the main things the main things. On the ABC model the main thing of the three main things is Attending to God
The St Giles, Horsted Keynes main priorities are similarly headed by renewing worship.
Our worship and attending to God is both corporate and individual. The quality of this Eucharist is the summation of what the church membership aspires to as we offer our souls and bodies as a living sacrifice. Similarly the quality of our individual spiritual life is enriched by coming together in the way we do to hear God’s word and unite our own spiritual sacrifices with the Sacrifice of Christ. We can’t plead Christ’s Sacrifice in public without admitting his purchase on our lives.
When it comes to discerning God’s timing and provision for enhancing our buildings our individual and corporate attending to God will be pivotal.
Let’s keep the main things as the main things at St Giles by lifting up our hearts not just in Sunday Eucharist but in daily prayer, receptive to his possibilities for our lives and for our church.
This is the last of a three part sermon series on the priorities we identified in July at our thinking day at which those present identified three priorities:
Renewing our worship
Engaging with youth and families
Enhancing our buildings.
If your memories are good you may recall a similar threesome which we looked at before the thinking day – the ABC of the diocesan Life Together vision. Remember?
Attending to God
Building Christian community
Commending God’s love for the world
God is calling us to work for what is upward in renewing worship, who’s around as we gather, young and old into Christian community, and who’s out there as we work to commend God’s love in action and words and through our buildings.
We are wonderfully blessed in Horsted Keynes to have our worship sheltered, by this beautiful building that has heard God’s praise for over 30 generations. Keeping the House of God in good repair so that it is passed on to the next generation is a prime responsibility of mine and yours.
Our buildings, Church and the Martindale, are a given and we aim to make pragmatic adjustments to them in the name of Christian priorities. They need enhancing to meet the evolving needs and expectations, which goes beyond their necessary maintenance.
Bricks and mortar aren’t in the gospel overmuch. Christianity travelled light to begin with. What mattered was the Christian formation of individuals and families within God’s family.
Today’s scripture, for example, from Genesis 2 and Mark 10 sets forth marriage as God’s building block for human society. It has our Saviour Jesus Christ blessing children. A Christian society depends on the faithfulness of husbands and wives and on their faithful love for their children. It depends on the commitment of people to God, the Christian community and the needs of the world.
ABC – commitment to God, the Church and the world – these are priorities to clothe with Christian buildings! Trouble is the buildings are already there, which is not the ideal, and we have to develop them without ruining them!
I’ve been set up by our Thinking Day and the PCC’s desire to forward its three aims to speak this morning of our buildings and how we can enhance them.
Here goes then, and I hope we don’t stray too far from the readings we’re digesting on this 17th Sunday after Trinity!
Enhancing our buildings came down to two main priorities – a toilet for St Giles and refurbishing the Martindale.
There are other buildings we’re linked to. I spoke about Saint Giles’ School two weeks ago in the context of Engaging with youth and families. Then there’s the Parish Hall which stands on land belonging to the Diocese. There’s not much we as a parish can engage with on that account, save making sure any development of the Martindale complements the Parish Hall.
Firstly, then, a word about the proposal for a church toilet. As you know we already have access to the school toilet at this service but it’s quite a long way away. There are also occasions like funerals during term time when we cannot easily use the school toilet.
The annual cost of maintaining Saint Giles Church averaged out over the last ten years is in the order of £12,500. Our parish share is, additionally, around £50,000. Overall expenses are just short of £100,000 which is a lot for a church with Sunday adult attendance just over 50. Finding the extra £50-100,000 we’d need for the toilet would be a challenge but if it is in God’s plan it will bring with it God’s provision.
Every five years church is inspected under diocesan regulations and we are completing the repairs recommended in the 2007 inspection. You should shortly see the porch painted which will greatly enhance access to our church. Other areas due for painting are in the Lady Chapel, Crossing and above the High Altar where damp penetration has now been overcome. The Tower bell frame is to be further stabilised. The Sacristy and Choir Vestry are being renewed to be more fit for purpose. There are shingles to be replaced on the spire. All of these agreed repairs should be covered from designated funds.
The PCC agree with the consensus of the Thinking Day. We aim to raise funds in the medium term to enhance Saint Giles by installing a toilet and refreshment facilities beyond the north door by the font. All church growth theorists, and I was a church growth guru before coming here, all church growth theorists say that however awesome, intriguing and accessible worship is in a building three things will affect attendance. These are car parking, church heating and toilets. It makes sense for us to work on what’s missing here and so enhance this beautiful House of God by making it more accessible to young and old.
Secondly the PCC is working on the best way to develop the Martindale. We picked up the feeling expressed clearly on 5th July that having a church property situated near the middle of the village is a vital mission resource that we should develop to the best of our ability. Such enhancement would serve to make more of a meeting place and to build occasions where church members and non church members meet for a common purpose, such as the Wednesday toddler group and the Thursday coffee morning. In thinking and planning ahead the Martindale committee are aware that the success of any enhancement will depend on the emergence of ventures and leaders allied to Martindale use that are for the good of our community.
The vision needs broadening and promoting if the enhancement is to be useful. We don’t want St Giles left with a facility no one wants to use.
May I commend these two building enhancement schemes at this stage to your prayers?
We need to land a clearer forward plan as well as the human and financial resources to implement them. God willing there’ll be some specific proposals to put to the church and the village around the end of this year.
In reflecting on this third priority of enhancing our buildings the scripture readings for today look at first sight unpromising. What have the Genesis account of marriage and Our Lord’s reiteration of it and commending of children to do with our buildings? A few steps removed, certainly, but there is the business of recovering the main things and making the main things again the main things.
In Our Lord’s day we heard how a man was allowed to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce his wife. Jesus takes us back to first principles and restates the principle, neglected then and certainly neglected now, that marriage is unbreakable in God’s eyes. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.
What we are about at Saint Giles is setting priorities as best we can. We have seen some things that we need to major on – renewing worship, engaging with youth and families, enhancing buildings – and this morning has been an occasion to state those principles more loudly so to speak. As a Church we are being called back to these tasks just as the Jews of Jesus’ day were called back by him to a view of marriage they’d lost sight of.
Another Spirit given connection between Thinking Day priorities and the scriptures this morning might be in the importance of using our buildings to strengthen marriage and family life which are just as much under threat today as they were in the Palestine of Our Lord. The provision of toilets is another move towards family friendliness in our worship. Thinking ahead on the Martindale we could see ourselves, with renewed facilities, being in a position to run marriage enrichment and parenting courses which benefit not just church members but the whole community.
Enhanced church buildings in Horsted Keynes would create spaces that better serve to engage families in worship and training in marriage and family life.
I’ve talked about the need to keep the main things the main things. On the ABC model the main thing of the three main things is Attending to God
The St Giles, Horsted Keynes main priorities are similarly headed by renewing worship.
Our worship and attending to God is both corporate and individual. The quality of this Eucharist is the summation of what the church membership aspires to as we offer our souls and bodies as a living sacrifice. Similarly the quality of our individual spiritual life is enriched by coming together in the way we do to hear God’s word and unite our own spiritual sacrifices with the Sacrifice of Christ. We can’t plead Christ’s Sacrifice in public without admitting his purchase on our lives.
When it comes to discerning God’s timing and provision for enhancing our buildings our individual and corporate attending to God will be pivotal.
Let’s keep the main things as the main things at St Giles by lifting up our hearts not just in Sunday Eucharist but in daily prayer, receptive to his possibilities for our lives and for our church.
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Trinity 16 Empowerment Sunday 27th September 2009
Numbers 11.16,24-29, Mark 9.38-41
Contrary to popular understanding Christianity is about empowerment and not encumbrance.
To live with Jesus is to live free from burdens in the power of the Spirit. That’s what catches people!
It’s a baptismal Eucharist and we celebrate with Sean, Kathryn and Antonia the gift of Rupert empowering him for life in the Spirit.
Today’s scriptures are all about the release of the Holy Spirit.
In the passage from Numbers we have the greatest Old Testament passage on Holy Spirit empowerment. Moses appoints seventy elders and God gives them also his Spirit. Up to this point in the Bible the Holy Spirit has only been given to selected individuals and not to groups of people.
This anointing showed itself as a real empowerment so that when the spirit rested on them, they prophesied. God spoke words of wisdom through them. The point of the exercise was to empower more leaders for the Israelites. Moses was finding the going hard and needed help.
After this charismatic manifestation ceased we read. Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. Somehow they were seen as outsiders and that they seemed to have got the Spirit was too much for Joshua. ‘My lord, Moses, stop them!’ He wouldn’t though. This was his response: Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them’.
I think we’ve all met Joshua’s. Over careful folk on the eye out for untidiness! I’ve got a bit of the Joshua in me! Moses’ response was to say the Spirit can’t be confined to the regularly appointed in the church. He’s free to blow where he wills.
Move on 1300 years from this incident to today’s Gospel incident that’s got the same chemistry about it. Now God has come on earth in Jesus to bring a greater deliverance than he brought his people through Moses. People were finding, not just his immediate followers, that those bound by all sorts of conditions could be freed by invoking the name of Jesus. John, his beloved disciple, like Joshua checks his boss. Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us. Jesus answers just like Moses. Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.
3,300 years on what are we to make of God’s word in our situation?
When God comes to earth and into lives there are no holds barred! Yes, he uses his prophets and his priests, but his aim is the empowerment of all his people and that empowerment even spills outside the church. Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets! …Do not stop them…Whoever is not against us is for us.
My goodness there’s wisdom for us here this morning whether we’re regular church goers or not! Whether we’re priest or lay member!
Contrary to popular opinion, the God of Judaeo-Christian tradition isn’t a heavy handed restrictive encumbering God but a light handed, permission giving, empowering God.
Contrary to popular opinion, to be baptised isn’t to take second place in a hierarchy under priests but to take first place in a ministry that priests serve.
To be baptised is to be empowered by the Spirit to be a priestly people.
Break off your fetters, people of God – recognise your dignity and your empowerment!
A King of France said he thought more of his baptism than his coronation because it gave him the greater dignity. All the baptised are anointed princes and princesses in their Lord’s family.
Today is in a sense Rupert’s naming. Jesus was also named at his baptism. He received the name ‘Christ’ meaning Jesus the anointed One. Why? Because at his baptism the Holy Spirit was seen to come upon him with a voice and a dove from heaven making him Jesus the Anointed, Jesus Christ.
We probably won’t see a dove or hear a heavenly voice at the font this morning but we should believe this. Jesus who passed from sight after his death and rising has by his Spirit passed into the sacraments.
This morning through the outward and visible signs of water and bread and wine an inward and spiritual grace will be given by the invisible Christ through his Spirit.
As Jesus was anointed Christ at his baptism Christians come at their baptism to be empowered by the same Spirit through sharing their Lord’s anointing.
How can a sprinkling of water be so important? Of course its importance links to faith. So many people are baptised and forget it. It’s as if the present they’ve received from God stays wrapped up.
By contrast Christians like Martin Luther saw baptism as the be-all and end-all. When tempted or depressed Luther would mutter Baptisatus sum: I am baptised. I belong to God – God has claimed me as his own.
At times when Christians feel down the remembrance of baptism can rekindle their faith in the empowerment that’s in their life from God.
St Paul once reminded his associate Timothy to fan into flame the gift of God he had been given (2 Timothy 1:6a). Let Rupert’s baptism be a reminder to all of us who are baptised of the gift of empowerment that we need to be fired up with if we’re going to be believers who set the world on fire.
This will come back to mind at the end of the service this morning when Sean, Kathryn and Rupert will be given a lighted candle to carry out in the procession.
Empowered, fired up by the Spirit they will be made a reminder to us all that we Christians are called not to encumbrance but to empowerment.
A last point. The scriptures today warn us to be on the look out for the work of the Spirit outside church walls. Remember Eldad and Medad! Keep humble as God’s people knowing that even if God is in our lives we can’t tie him down to our own world or the world of the church. As it says in the book of Wisdom The Spirit of the Lord fills the whole world. It holds all things together and knows every word spoken by man.
Life in the Spirit is a life that’s together. It’s an empowered life of freedom and it’s full of surprises because our God is a God of surprises! Let’s take a moment of quiet to open ourselves to that God.
Contrary to popular understanding Christianity is about empowerment and not encumbrance.
To live with Jesus is to live free from burdens in the power of the Spirit. That’s what catches people!
It’s a baptismal Eucharist and we celebrate with Sean, Kathryn and Antonia the gift of Rupert empowering him for life in the Spirit.
Today’s scriptures are all about the release of the Holy Spirit.
In the passage from Numbers we have the greatest Old Testament passage on Holy Spirit empowerment. Moses appoints seventy elders and God gives them also his Spirit. Up to this point in the Bible the Holy Spirit has only been given to selected individuals and not to groups of people.
This anointing showed itself as a real empowerment so that when the spirit rested on them, they prophesied. God spoke words of wisdom through them. The point of the exercise was to empower more leaders for the Israelites. Moses was finding the going hard and needed help.
After this charismatic manifestation ceased we read. Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. Somehow they were seen as outsiders and that they seemed to have got the Spirit was too much for Joshua. ‘My lord, Moses, stop them!’ He wouldn’t though. This was his response: Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them’.
I think we’ve all met Joshua’s. Over careful folk on the eye out for untidiness! I’ve got a bit of the Joshua in me! Moses’ response was to say the Spirit can’t be confined to the regularly appointed in the church. He’s free to blow where he wills.
Move on 1300 years from this incident to today’s Gospel incident that’s got the same chemistry about it. Now God has come on earth in Jesus to bring a greater deliverance than he brought his people through Moses. People were finding, not just his immediate followers, that those bound by all sorts of conditions could be freed by invoking the name of Jesus. John, his beloved disciple, like Joshua checks his boss. Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us. Jesus answers just like Moses. Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.
3,300 years on what are we to make of God’s word in our situation?
When God comes to earth and into lives there are no holds barred! Yes, he uses his prophets and his priests, but his aim is the empowerment of all his people and that empowerment even spills outside the church. Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets! …Do not stop them…Whoever is not against us is for us.
My goodness there’s wisdom for us here this morning whether we’re regular church goers or not! Whether we’re priest or lay member!
Contrary to popular opinion, the God of Judaeo-Christian tradition isn’t a heavy handed restrictive encumbering God but a light handed, permission giving, empowering God.
Contrary to popular opinion, to be baptised isn’t to take second place in a hierarchy under priests but to take first place in a ministry that priests serve.
To be baptised is to be empowered by the Spirit to be a priestly people.
Break off your fetters, people of God – recognise your dignity and your empowerment!
A King of France said he thought more of his baptism than his coronation because it gave him the greater dignity. All the baptised are anointed princes and princesses in their Lord’s family.
Today is in a sense Rupert’s naming. Jesus was also named at his baptism. He received the name ‘Christ’ meaning Jesus the anointed One. Why? Because at his baptism the Holy Spirit was seen to come upon him with a voice and a dove from heaven making him Jesus the Anointed, Jesus Christ.
We probably won’t see a dove or hear a heavenly voice at the font this morning but we should believe this. Jesus who passed from sight after his death and rising has by his Spirit passed into the sacraments.
This morning through the outward and visible signs of water and bread and wine an inward and spiritual grace will be given by the invisible Christ through his Spirit.
As Jesus was anointed Christ at his baptism Christians come at their baptism to be empowered by the same Spirit through sharing their Lord’s anointing.
How can a sprinkling of water be so important? Of course its importance links to faith. So many people are baptised and forget it. It’s as if the present they’ve received from God stays wrapped up.
By contrast Christians like Martin Luther saw baptism as the be-all and end-all. When tempted or depressed Luther would mutter Baptisatus sum: I am baptised. I belong to God – God has claimed me as his own.
At times when Christians feel down the remembrance of baptism can rekindle their faith in the empowerment that’s in their life from God.
St Paul once reminded his associate Timothy to fan into flame the gift of God he had been given (2 Timothy 1:6a). Let Rupert’s baptism be a reminder to all of us who are baptised of the gift of empowerment that we need to be fired up with if we’re going to be believers who set the world on fire.
This will come back to mind at the end of the service this morning when Sean, Kathryn and Rupert will be given a lighted candle to carry out in the procession.
Empowered, fired up by the Spirit they will be made a reminder to us all that we Christians are called not to encumbrance but to empowerment.
A last point. The scriptures today warn us to be on the look out for the work of the Spirit outside church walls. Remember Eldad and Medad! Keep humble as God’s people knowing that even if God is in our lives we can’t tie him down to our own world or the world of the church. As it says in the book of Wisdom The Spirit of the Lord fills the whole world. It holds all things together and knows every word spoken by man.
Life in the Spirit is a life that’s together. It’s an empowered life of freedom and it’s full of surprises because our God is a God of surprises! Let’s take a moment of quiet to open ourselves to that God.
Trinity 16 8am May Christ dwell in our hearts Sunday 27th September 2009
Our whole life as Christians is a looking to Jesus. Our life is this prayer and this prayer, this looking to Jesus is our life.
The Lord wants a deeper place in our life and that of our church because Christianity is always about getting more of Jesus Christ into our lives and shedding self-interest.
This thinking is evident in this morning’s epistle from Ephesians Chapter 3. For this cause I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
In Christian prayer repetition of the name of Jesus as part of seeking his indwelling has had very special significance and power all through the ages. Writing in the 4th century St. John Chrysostom had this advice about the indwelling of Christ in the hearts of Christians: Abide constantly with the name of our Lord Jesus, so that the heart swallows the Lord and the Lord the heart and the two become one the saint advises but he also warns that this work is not done in one or two days; it needs long effort and a long time. For much labour and time are needed before the enemy is cast out and Christ comes to dwell is us.
A quotation from another early Christian writer, Hesychius of Jerusalem captures something of the positive, joyful goodness that seems to flow from the repetition of the name of Jesus in prayer. The sun, passing over the earth, produces daylight; the holy and worshipful Name of the Lord Jesus, constantly shining in the mind, produces a measureless number of sun-like thoughts.
For this cause I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
Seeking that Christ may dwell in our hearts is warfare against the fear that counters love, against the deadening spiritual impact of the world, the flesh and the devil.
Prayer is warfare because Jesus calls us to a fullness of humanity that involves our shedding constraints, shaking off what Hebrews calls the weight and the sin that clings so closely (12v1b).
In prayer we see ourselves in a true light and take action against the dark forces that impel us. Hesychius of Jerusalem writes: As it is impossible for the sun to shine without light, so it is impossible for the heart to be cleansed of the filth of wicked thoughts without prayer in the Name of Jesus…let us utter this Name as often as we breathe. For it is light, and those others (wicked thoughts) are darkness. And He (the Jesus we invoke) is God and Almighty Lord, whereas the others are servants of the demons.
As today’s epistle implies the indwelling of Christ through prayers counters malevolence with benevolence, the capacity to enter the good will of God for all people, especially in intercessory prayer.
Christianity is not merely a doctrine or a system of beliefs Thomas Merton wrote, it is Christ living in us and uniting people to one another in His own life and unity. For Merton a hermit monk there is only one true flight from the world; it is not an escape from conflict, anguish and suffering, but … flight from disunity and separation to unity and peace in the love of other [people].
We look to Christ to be with us now and with all those for whom we pray in the Holy Communion Service. He lifts us up into His Perfect Offering and as we come before the Lord with people and needs on our hearts they are entrusted to him with confidence.
In this service we also receive in Holy Communion itself empowerment as an inner gift from Jesus in these holy mysteries…the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of…our Saviour Jesus Christ.
For this cause I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
The Lord wants a deeper place in our life and that of our church because Christianity is always about getting more of Jesus Christ into our lives and shedding self-interest.
This thinking is evident in this morning’s epistle from Ephesians Chapter 3. For this cause I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
In Christian prayer repetition of the name of Jesus as part of seeking his indwelling has had very special significance and power all through the ages. Writing in the 4th century St. John Chrysostom had this advice about the indwelling of Christ in the hearts of Christians: Abide constantly with the name of our Lord Jesus, so that the heart swallows the Lord and the Lord the heart and the two become one the saint advises but he also warns that this work is not done in one or two days; it needs long effort and a long time. For much labour and time are needed before the enemy is cast out and Christ comes to dwell is us.
A quotation from another early Christian writer, Hesychius of Jerusalem captures something of the positive, joyful goodness that seems to flow from the repetition of the name of Jesus in prayer. The sun, passing over the earth, produces daylight; the holy and worshipful Name of the Lord Jesus, constantly shining in the mind, produces a measureless number of sun-like thoughts.
For this cause I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
Seeking that Christ may dwell in our hearts is warfare against the fear that counters love, against the deadening spiritual impact of the world, the flesh and the devil.
Prayer is warfare because Jesus calls us to a fullness of humanity that involves our shedding constraints, shaking off what Hebrews calls the weight and the sin that clings so closely (12v1b).
In prayer we see ourselves in a true light and take action against the dark forces that impel us. Hesychius of Jerusalem writes: As it is impossible for the sun to shine without light, so it is impossible for the heart to be cleansed of the filth of wicked thoughts without prayer in the Name of Jesus…let us utter this Name as often as we breathe. For it is light, and those others (wicked thoughts) are darkness. And He (the Jesus we invoke) is God and Almighty Lord, whereas the others are servants of the demons.
As today’s epistle implies the indwelling of Christ through prayers counters malevolence with benevolence, the capacity to enter the good will of God for all people, especially in intercessory prayer.
Christianity is not merely a doctrine or a system of beliefs Thomas Merton wrote, it is Christ living in us and uniting people to one another in His own life and unity. For Merton a hermit monk there is only one true flight from the world; it is not an escape from conflict, anguish and suffering, but … flight from disunity and separation to unity and peace in the love of other [people].
We look to Christ to be with us now and with all those for whom we pray in the Holy Communion Service. He lifts us up into His Perfect Offering and as we come before the Lord with people and needs on our hearts they are entrusted to him with confidence.
In this service we also receive in Holy Communion itself empowerment as an inner gift from Jesus in these holy mysteries…the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of…our Saviour Jesus Christ.
For this cause I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Trinity 15 Engaging with youth and families 20th September 2009
I want to think with you this morning about engaging with youth and families.
This was promised as part of a three part series on the priorities we identified in July at our thinking day at which four groups of the 35 or so who were present identified independently – as if from the Lord - the same three priorities:
Renewing our worship
Engaging with youth and families
Enhancing our buildings.
Two weeks ago we looked at renewing our worship. I want to look today at the second priority and what we’re doing and might do to accomplish it. In two weeks time we will look at the third priority of enhancing our buildings
Engaging with youth and families then. Have another look at our Gospel reading. Which verses leap out at you as we reflect upon this priority which was affirmed again at Monday’s PCC?
Which verses? Mark Chapter 9v36-7 surely!
Then Jesus took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’
Jesus did this to stop an argument. He knew his followers had been arguing who was best so he gave them a wake up call by pointing to a child.
It’s my task with the PCC to give us all a wake up call this morning by pointing to our need to engage with youth and families.
It’s harder to point to them here in St Giles Sunday by Sunday though we are breaking more ground. At this very moment, of course, by design, they can’t be pointed to, though they were last week in Church on our Patronal festival.
You could have pointed to 120 of them on Friday though. Every Friday St Giles School gathers in Church and seven of our church members take it in turn to lead a Christian assembly.
What a privilege in this day and age to have a school coming into your church week by week! Not on a Sunday, sadly, but at least on a Friday.
It’s a chance to salute the church members who work as governors and in other capacities with our head teacher Mrs Francis to equip each of our pupils, to the best of our ability, with knowledge, skills and understanding, so that they may develop fully as individuals with Christian values and contribute to, participate in and enjoy the world in which they live.
I’ve just read out what’s called ‘the broad purpose of education at St Giles Church of England Primary School’. It’s something we should own and the PCC are very keen that we do so more effectively as we engage with youth and families. If the Lord is leading you to serve this purpose alongside our School in any capacity you should talk to me or our Chair of Governors, Marion Lott. The School needs Christians on board if its Christian purpose is to be accomplished more fully.
Just looking at our purpose statement, it seems to define Christianity as nothing less than humanity in its right mind. That’s exactly about developing fully as individuals and contributing to, participating in and enjoying the world in which we live.
If few people contribute to society in this way it’s their loss and the world’s – and it’s a loss of the enjoyment many of us in Church this morning know comes from humble service.
Our Lord took that child in his arms to put his proud followers in their place.
Children can, of course, be outrageously proud and that’s one of the struggles we have as parents, teachers or youth workers!
We’re born self-centred but destined to lose that self-centredness. Christianity is about knowing ourselves to get to loving ourselves to get to losing ourselves. This is how human beings get themselves to what they’re meant to be. We had some advice about that in the second reading didn’t we? Do not be boastful and false to the truth James wrote. Where there is selfish ambition, there will also be disorder…submit yourselves therefore to God…Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
It’s really a choice between two religions in the end – that of the Child in the Manger or that of the Dog in the manger!
The Dog in the Manger is a fable attributed to Aesop, concerning a dog who one afternoon lay down to sleep in the manger. On being awoken, he ferociously kept the cattle in the farm from eating the hay on which he chose to sleep, even though he was unable to eat it himself, leading an ox to mutter the moral of the fable: People often begrudge others what they cannot enjoy themselves.
Think of the child who discards a toy - until his brother or sister tries to play with it! The child suddenly becomes possessive about something it hadn’t wanted up to that point.
Jesus commended the humble dependence of children. His word also calls us to ‘put away childish things’ (1 Corinthians 13.11) which includes the self interest that sees others as a threat to our domain.
At the Eucharist our prayer climaxes in the prayer Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. Take me into your purposes, Lord, we are praying. Let me be part of the kingdom of this world becoming the kingdom of our God and of his Christ (Revelation 11.15).
The Christian values we seek for our children come from this ultimate vision. It’s my belief that when a young person sees this he or she will go for it. They just need to hear the good news and see it lived in an intriguing Christian community. Intriguing, yes, boring no! How dare we make Christianity dull – but we do, preachers often most of all!
I would ask you, and I would ask myself: how intrigued are you with Jesus? Have you lost your first love somewhat? Jesus is ever new and his power to make you and I new will never fail because he’s the same joyful, holy, good, inspiring Jesus yesterday, today and tomorrow! Gathering for this hour with him, with his word and with the sacrament of his love, every Lord’s Day should be transformative – is transformative. It is Jesus hour we’re in – an awesome hour, an hour that should be accessible to young and old.
We’ll best engage with youth and families if we can speak of Jesus and show we’re here because of the out of this world dimension of Christianity. God make us more Christlike and less likeminded because in an older church likemindedness can exclude youth and families, let’s beware! Beware especially in your conversations before and after the Eucharist.
Besides deepening our own integrity and depth as believers the best we can do to serve this identified priority is to be there for youth and families in our acquaintance and in the life of St Giles - and by not getting in the way of their most helpful engagement with the Lord.
Yes this means being accommodating, for example in our musical preferences. Yes it means coping with extraneous noise as best you can, welcoming noise as a problem of life. Churches needs ushers and not hushers! Microphones and loop systems are given to reinforce those who speak in church. They also help him or her rise above the noise of children in unfamiliar and sometimes to them alien surroundings.
However good the words are in church unless priest and people walk the talk they’re on a hiding to nothing.
Last Sunday we had half a dozen choristers. The junior choir serve us well. They do sing. How much we miss Rachel Rawdon-Mogg though! The choir are sheep without a shepherd especially with Lucy going to College. Here’s a vital realm for service if anyone could rise to it. The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few when it comes to musicians. Chris Wheatley and I are holding the fort as best we can, with the support of Martin and Jamie.
I wrote these prophetic words in this month’s P&P – at least I hope they are prophetic: We are working to build up the choir and form a music group employing the abundance of musical talent in the village. This sermon is part of the working!
I added – and this is actually happening even as I speak: More teaching is being provided for children and young people during the 10am Eucharist. This is a signal achievement for a church with our membership - a six week rota for Sunday Club - but we do need more hands on deck.
Is it possible for one or two people here this morning to offer one Sunday every couple of months to be part of the Sunday Club team? This won’t exclude you from the Eucharist, just mean you miss the sermon once in a while!
Our young people aren’t just the church of the future. They’re the church of today!
Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me the Lord says.
Saint Giles is welcoming children and youth but there are questions. How can we give them more of a voice and make space for them to lead?
Our other two priorities of renewing our worship and enhancing our buildings connect with this of course. No stated priorities will get anywhere though without ownership, which is why I am seeking to promote what the Spirit seems to be saying to us in this important part of our Sunday worship.
We want our church to be God’s church in the sense of being a place where youth and families are engaging with him and not just entertained, loved practically and not just admired, a place where young people can learn both to give and receive and to develop fully as individuals… contributing to, participating in and enjoying the world in which we live.
So be it – and let’s walk the talk on this as best we can. The PCC needs everyone on board!
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