Be Open

The third sermon in our 'I will tell' series was preached by Angie Milne, the newest member of the Living Brook ministry team, on the first two Sundays in February 2019.

Julia and Steve have already started our Sermon Series with the theme of I Will Tell.

I – meaning each of us

Will- doing something even if it feels a little uncomfortable

Tell- tell the story of Jesus and all his wonderful deeds

Julia spoke to us about her meeting with the distressed young man in the park that led to a journey of faith for him. And Steve spoke about the Monk and his retreat and how rather than shouting about his faith he developed a quieter existence that drew people to him.

So where do I begin…..I Will Tell started long before Jesus arrived.  A few weeks ago, a reading from the book of prophets Isaiah chapter 62 started “I will not keep silent”, what was Isaiah refereeing to?  Isaiah chapter 35 verse 4 tells us “be strong do not fear, your God will come to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped”. Was this the talk of a Messiah that will come. 

Mark shares with us in his gospel the wonderful miracles and deeds carried out by Jesus in his early days of ministry, Jesus’ disciples witness his miracles and listen to his wisdom and correctly identify him as the messiah.

 Healing the deaf and mute man just as predicted by Isaiah.  The gospel of Mark chapter 7 verses 31-37 tells us ‘Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went into the region of Decapolis. There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and begged for Jesus to place his hand on him.

Jesus took the man aside away from the crowds, Jesus put his fingers into his ears. Then spat and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven with a deep sigh said to him ‘Ephphatha’ which means BE OPEN. The man’s ears opened his tongue loosened and he began to speak plainly.

Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone, but the more he did, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. He has done everything well they said. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak’.

Why did Jesus command them not to tell, was it because he did not want to draw attention to himself with large crowds forming around him having just arrived in a new region, he didn’t want to cause trouble, especially with the leaders of Jerusalem. Was Jesus worried, that the messages about his miracles would somehow change and not be accepted for the miracles that they were. But how could they not tell of Jesus’s good deeds, they had just witnessed something amazing they were overwhelmed, why would they not share this news?  Why would they not BE OPEN.

Perhaps Jesus asking them not to talk was a way of getting them to talk more, you know it’s one of those occasion’s, when your best friend calls you to one side and says, ‘I’ve got something really important to tell you but you’ve got to promise me you won’t tell anyone else’   what goes through your head … who can I tell first or perhaps I won’t tell them all of it, just a bit of the story. Whilst you listen as the story unfolds, in your head you decide if you should keep it quiet to yourself or tell everyone else.  There’s always that person you know that if the story is told to them then everyone will hear about it. We are all very good at spreading the news about something amazing that we’ve seen or heard.  

So why should spreading the news of Jesus be any different? We are all disciples called to spread the good news, are we sometimes embarrassed about our faith or is it that some people just don’t get it, how can they after all we didn’t witness these miracles? Every week when you come to church and listen to the readings, gospel and sermon your ears are being opened to the teachings of God   sometimes, there is a message in them that really affects you, it may be a word, a sentence but something. Do you then go home and talk about that message and how it affected you.  Or is it that you’ve never spoken about your faith or shared it, are you by not sharing denying everyone of this amazing relationship that you have.  What I’m asking you to do is BE OPEN at home, at work, with friends, family with people you meet. BE OPEN about the good deeds that Jesus did but also about your relationship with Jesus.  When was the last time you asked a friend to come along to a service with you, maybe they are just waiting for you to ask?  I’m sure we all ask friends to come along and support our amazing church events and cream teas but how about a service?

 In our Gospel reading Luke chapter 5 verses 1-11 Luke tells us -  Jesus was in the fishing boats with Simon Peter preaching just from the edge of the shore. When he had finished he said   “put into deep water and let down your nets”.  When the nets were cast and a bounty of fish was caught, Simon Peter was amazed. He fell at Jesus’s knees and said ‘go away from me Lord I am a sinful man’– but Jesus said don’t be afraid, from now on you will fish for people.

A few weeks ago in a Sermon from Beverley she asked us to choose slips of paper with words on – mine was COURAGE – Well  I believe that’s what we all need, the courage to BE OPEN speak and share the news about Jesus, there are some people that won’t listen, some that will question you and that’s fine.  We have to trust in all the stories in the bible, even though we didn’t hear or see them unlike Simon Peter but he also needed courage to BE OPEN and follow Jesus. If our ears are opened to the teachings of God will our tongues be loosened to share them…will you have the courage to BE OPEN?

 Jesus is sometimes called Immanuel – God with us, that’s what God had in mind for Jesus to be with us and that’s what he has in mind for us – to just be with other people and talk, BE OPEN and have the courage to tell. So, when you’re standing in the queue at the shop or in the school playground that might just be the place where God need’s you to be and start talking, sometimes it’s just about what’s in your basket or the weather but occasionally the conversation goes a bit further….  maybe it’s the day that you talk to that person and it’s the spark or invitation they needed.

So that’s what I’m asking you to think about and do – BE OPEN – about your faith and your relationship with God – BE OPEN to Jesus – and tell.  Tell the good news of Jesus.

So what’s my story……..

My best friend has two daughters neither have been baptised my friend wanted her children to choose, she comes from a semi practising catholic background and her husband is Church of England.  As families we go on holidays and camping trips together and whilst the men sit around drinking and playing music us ladies and children tend to go off to the local towns for coffee and always a visit to the local churches- they call that part the Angie pilgrimage. My friend has always been aware of my faith and the children are just beginning to recognise it. They have started to question me about bits in the bible and things we see on our visits to the churches, wow Lucky for me my work with Gill and the school’s team has helped me to remember a few bits from around the church I’ve even impressed myself!!!!

 Her eldest daughter is now at university, we don’t see her as often. We met for coffee during the Christmas holidays where she couldn’t wait to tell me about a trip, for her mum’s birthday.  A 3-day Angie style pilgrimage to Rome. To explore and learn more about her faith ……. And when she’s home she want’s to come to an Elevenses service.

So the message I would like to leave you all with today is

Have Courage

BE OPEN

And Tell

Go, tell

In 2019 Living Brook Benefice is encouraging everyone to tell their stories of God in their lives, and to pray for people to meet Jesus. We begin the year with a sermon series given by the Lay members of the Living Brook Ministry Team.What follows is the second sermon given by Steve Watson.

Our Benefice theme for this year is the phrase I will tell and Julia on behalf of the Benefice Ministry Team introduced this a fortnight ago. I too stand before you today to continue the narrative and Angie Milne will carry it on further in 2 weeks time.

My  theme for today is taken from the last few verses of Matthew’s Gospel; these are commonly known as The Great Commission.

Reading from verse 16

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. The Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

The first thing that popped into my mind when I read this was a few lines from a hymn:

Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere.

Go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born.

Shortly afterwards I read a piece in the newspaper about a monk who had been living on a bleak hill in Northumberland since 1971; first in a caravan and latterly in a house he built with the help of friends. The site now has a church and 4 monastic cells also built with occasional help. Brother Palmer could be described as a hermit but he is not a full recluse having visitors every week or two.

I started to ponder how to square the idea of the great commission with this life of comparative solitude spent largely in prayer and saying the various daily offices. For me the answer is in the epistle reading set for last week and today from 1 Corinthians. Paul describes how each of us is given different gifts; we are not to have all the gifts, but some of them, and we are to work together as a team helping each other.

Brother Palmer’s gift is for prayer and he has used it to provide a retreat where others who want to experience prayer in solitude can come and join him. He has chosen a life not of going out evangelising but of visibly witnessing to God mainly on his own. It seems to me that his vision of telling it on the mountain is to set a clear example of following Jesus that anyone can look up and see. The invitation is implicitly there to come and join him for a while and engage in prayer with the aim of becoming closer to God.

Frankly it is not a life or a lifestyle that I feel comfortable with – for one thing I have stood out on too many draughty building sites in the cold and rain and I appreciate my creature comforts in Piddington. That led me to think about some of the people I have known over the last 40 years and who have prayed in all 3 churches in our Benefice. One of the things that struck me as I reflected was that many of the people of my parent’s generation had a faith that was grounded in a thorough knowledge of the Bible and they were not apologetic about sharing it with anyone. A Christian Life was important to them and it showed in what they said and did both inside and outside the church.

Of course times have changed but I wonder how many people could say of each of us - I can see that they are Christian by the way that they lead their lives, by the example they set, and that they are prepared to justify their beliefs in public.

Today’s Old Testament reading is from Nehemiah. In Chapter 8 Ezra, the priest, reads to a large gathering from the Book of the Law of Moses. This is probably the Pentateuch – the first five books of the Bible where among other things Moses is setting a way of living for the Jews. Ezra is telling the people God’s word and the people are listening carefully.

The Gospel Reading from Luke Chapter 4 sets out that Jesus has been teaching in the synagogues and today he starts to give a clue to who he really is – he has been already, and is now, telling them what the Christian story is going to be.

Both Ezra and Jesus are speaking publicly, their actions and their words are inextricably linked

So what does Go and make disciples of all nations look like. While I was reading round I came across some figures.

According to research the ratio of non - believers to believers has steadily declined over the centuries.

At the end of the first century (AD 100) there were 360 non - believers for every single follower of Jesus on earth.

By the end of the first millennia (AD 1000) that number shrank to 220!

By the beginning of the Reformation (AD 1500) there were 69 non - believers for every Christian.

 As the last century began (AD 1900) the number was down to 27.

After two world wars (AD 1950) progress was still being made. The number of non - believers for every Christian totalled 21.

By 1980 that number had diminished to 11 non - Christians on earth for every “Great Commission Christian” – those committed followers of Jesus who are trying to spread their faith to others.

To be fair that sounds good; however the number of people on the planet has also vastly increased so in terms of actual numbers there are a lot more people who still have to learn about our Lord

Also a couple of figures from the Diocesan website I found last week:

·       52% of mission is led by non-licensed lay people (31% clergy, 17% licensed). Often not picked up by the system these hidden gems are doing outstanding mission work all across the diocese.

·       77% of all contacts with non-church goers happens in and around primary schools.

Going back to Brother Palmer, the monk on the hill, he was definitely not someone like Billy Graham who was comfortable talking to thousands but someone who interacted with no more than 2 or 3 people at any one time – and that it was where I personally feel more comfortable, along with, I suspect, many other Christians.

So where does that leave us here in Quinton / Hardingstone? How can we show and tell today?

 Here’s a couple of ideas - could anyone help support the Benefice Pastoral Team by giving a small portion of their time to visit a lonely person. Alternatively the Children’s Team are running Experience Jesus days at the end of March for the local schools in Hackleton and Hardingstone. I know many of you have volunteered to help previously at these events and found them very spiritually rewarding both for the children and themselves, please speak to Gill Watson if you can help. We are going to need additional help this year because Gill needs another replacement knee operation and will be out of action during the schools’ visits.

For an action –

At Piddington I suggested that it would be good if we could tidy up Church Walk again and trim back the tree overhangs so that the children can reach the church safely. A lot of people use that path, it’s on the dog walking circuit and it’s another way of showing the church in action.

In Quinton I was very impressed with the display of poppies on the church for Remembrance Day. Is there anything else that the church here can do to show that it is not just contained within these walls.

Here in Hardingstone you can now see the church from the High Street thanks to the efforts of a group of volunteers but is there anything else that the church here can do to show that it is not just contained within these walls.

In our brown hymn books the hymn immediately after “Go tell it on the mountain” has a chorus that goes

Freely, freely you have received;

freely, freely give.

Go in my name, and because you believe,

others will know that I live.

In many ways I think those few lines say a lot about Christian living and sum up what I have been saying earlier.

Go tell it on the mountain by all means – but much better to tell it here in Living Brook in both word and action.

Amen

Blue Christmas

Address for Blue Christmas service 21st December 2018

With many thanks to Pastor Jennie Lee for the kind invitation to preach at this service.

Those of us here tonight all know the feeling. We’ve been invited to a party and we just don’t feel like celebrating. We turn the radio on and it’s blasting out ‘Rudolf the red nosed reindeer’ and we just want to throw it across the room. Our colleagues are wearing silly jumpers and putting tinsel anywhere they can wrap it, and you just want to be quiet, away from the noise and the fuss and what feels this year like very fake jollity. Don’t they know how tired I am? Don’t they know that I don’t want to be merry?

And anyway, all that Victorian Christmas carol nonsense doesn’t help anyone. None of it was cute, Jesus definitely did cry – he was a real baby, and babies cry. Mary and Joseph no doubt had as many sleepless nights as any other parents, not helped by Joseph losing his job and his home when the Roman occupying army forced him to move to Bethlehem from Nazareth where he’d found work. The real story of this child being born was very tough. It involves homelessness, fear, being made a refugee, poverty, rejection, and terrible loss. We don’t tell it that way, because we don’t want to upset people, or to frighten the children, or to put them off. Instead, December is a series of sweet nativities and carol services, mixing folk stories like Santa with a gilded truth, and however lovely that all might be, perhaps in the midst of it the real truth can get lost, and the vital hope of the story is buried under the glitter and the tinsel.

In a time of trouble and confusion for the nation of Judah, the prophet Isaiah told his king that a sign of coming troubles would be the birth of a child, and that child would be called Emmanuel. The word Emmanuel translates as ‘God with us’, and as Isaiah unfolded his words (which we find in Isaiah 8), he makes it clear that God is with us is a real presence of god in the tough times. The times when everything around us seems to be going wrong because of the selfishness of the nation. god won’t prevent us from making the choices we want to make, because he gave us free will. But when our choices lead to war, to hardship, to opposition, he is with us. Right in the middle of it all.

The story of the birth of Jesus is the story of God with us. God with us in poverty. In homelessness. In loss of life. In times of fear and of anxiety. God, present with us in the worst that the world can do to us. Not waving a magic wand and making it alright – because if God kept doing that, we’d just become a bunch of puppets, and our lives would be valueless. God loves us so much that he gave us the choice, the freedom, to live for ourselves – and the big risk God took was that meant he left us free to choose bad things. He left the world free to contain bad things. Choice and control over our own lives, means that it isn’t always good. Mary and Joseph knew that as they ran, horrified, terrified, desperately sad, to escape the soldiers who wanted to kill their son, and who killed other people’s sons – and please understand that in a close-knit society, children would have died who were Jesus’ cousins, or who were born to friends.  God didn’t protect himself from the bad that is in the world, he came into it and lived though it in the same way that we do.

When Jesus was grown, and travelling the country calling people back to his father, asking people to change from their selfish ways to follow God who loves us, he made an invitation. ‘Come to me’, he said, ‘all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’

Remember that the man who offers that invitation is Emmanuel. God with us – God present in the things that make us weary. God offering not to take away the burden – that might not be possible – but to share the weight of it. God who knows what a burden feels like because he has carried them himself. Come to the man who lives right in the midst of our troubles with us – because he does get it. He doesn’t ask us to party when we don’t feel like it, just because it’s Christmas. He offers us a place to stop, and rest. To lean our heads on his shoulder and let the tears out if we need to. He offers to listen. And this is the deep listening of someone who has been there. Someone who has experienced grief and sees ours. Who has experienced pain and loss, and knows what is in our hearts.

And as we rest in Jesus, that is when the miracle of God with us can change us. God has a big purpose in coming to be with us, here, in the middle of the earth’s troubles. Jesus explained it to his friend Nicodemus: God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

This world, with its wonderful love, and beauty and joys, with its heartbreaking losses and meanness and pain, is not the end of the story. Jesus, God with us, lived, and died, and rose again and shows us the way to the place that he came from. Jesus opens the doors of heaven to everyone who believes in him. He offers forgiveness, and shows us how to live well. We have a greater hope, and as we rest in Jesus, that hope can enter our hearts. It is a real, solid hope. It’s not glitzy, not offering a fake promise – it isn’t a folk story like Santa that we’ll grow up to find isn’t true. It’s there, beneath all the packaging, behind all the loud music – Jesus, God with us, sharing our troubles now, and leading us to a real hope. Isaiah tells us, in Isaiah 11 that Emmanuel’s ‘place of rest will be glorious’. He tells us that the people who walk in darkness will see a great light.

If today you feel you are one of those walking in darkness, hold on to that hope. You will see a great light, You do have a real hope. And all the while you wait for it, God is with us, in the midst of us troubles, offering to share the burden, and to give us rest.

Resurrection

4th November                    1 Corinthians 15

Resurrection

Faith and hope will one day be unnecessary gifts, for we will see and know what now we believe and trust and hope in. But for now, our faith and our hope are essential, which is why St Paul ranks them among the three most important gifts of the spirit, alongside the one gift that lasts into eternity, love. Our faith and hope are not about what is now, but about what has been – the life and teaching and resurrection of Jesus - and about what is to come – the resurrection of the dead, our own life beyond this one.

People found this difficult even in the first generation, when witnesses were still living who saw Jesus in his lifetime, and who witnessed his return to life after crucifixion. They still find it difficult today. Astonishingly, folk myths take hold and are spoken of as if they were truths, taught to children as if they were more comforting than the truth. But how can it be comforting to be told that Grannie has become a star in the sky, when any child knows that stars are superheated gas balls set massive distances from each other on their lonely orbits. How can it be helpful to tell a child that Old Mr Jones has gone to become an angel? It isn’t true, and so it doesn’t prepare them to handle the actual truth. It seems when it comes to death, people either avoid the truth by indulging in sentimental storytelling, or when imagination and faith fail completely, by insisting that death is the end, that there is nothing beyond it. Because we do not at this time see the resurrection of the dead, many people deny it.

In Corinth there was a powerful group of people within the church who insisted that there was no resurrection. You live, you die, that’s the end of it. Paul, Apollos, Peter and all the others who had led churches in Corinth and taught the stories of Jesus, including of his resurrection from the dead, they were wrong. And so the authority, leadership and teaching of Christian leaders was completely undermined and the faith they taught utterly devalued. And yet these unbelievers continued to consider themselves part of the church, and as they spoke out they damaged the church more and more. Paul wondered why they bothered, because if they were right, and he was wrong, then ‘let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’

If you don’t believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, or that we can be raised from the dead, then what you do in church is a waste of time. Paul knows, and offers lots of witness statements to back himself up, that Jesus did rise. But if you choose not to believe that Jesus rose, then it follows that his death either wasn’t real or was the end for him. In either case, his teaching, his actions, the miracles, all become meaningless. And if Jesus is meaningless, then so is the rest of the story. If he didn’t rise from the dead, you won’t rise from the dead. And if that’s the case, why are you in church? Go and party, or have a lie in, or go shopping, because nothing in church makes any sense if don’t believe in everything that Jesus is.

Paul was pretty frustrated by this group of effective unbelievers who were exercising a lot of influence within the church and undermining the faith of others. You can see this frustration in the outburst: Come back to your senses! (v34). Paul knew that some of those who denied the resurrection would try to justify themselves by demanding a description of what life after death looks like. They’d see it as a clever question, because of course no one knows what life after death looks like. None of us has seen it, other than those first witnesses of Jesus, which is why it is a matter of faith and hope. Paul’s frustration shows again as he exclaims: ‘Foolish question!’

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash

But then Paul offered an answer to the question which has been definitive for Christians ever since. Let’s look at it this way. Imagine for a moment that you’ve never seen a flower seed or bulb before. You know, because you’ve been told, that if you put it in the ground, it will grow. But what might you expect that to mean? Becoming a bigger flower bulb perhaps? But no, the seed or bulb destroys itself. Apparently, the seed no longer exists. In its place there are roots, and a stalk or leaves. Eventually in the place where you buried the seed or bulb you find something quite, quite different. Could you have imagined it? From just seeing a bulb, could you have imagined a bright, golden narcissus? A narcissus is so very different from a bulb, isn’t it? And this is Paul’s point. The life of the resurrected is brighter and bigger, more colourful, more vivid than we can possibly imagine right now. It is as like the lives we currently live as the flower is to the bulb. The one emerges from the other, but the seed must die in order for the plant to emerge. Our current life is a mortal one, as mortal as Adam. Our future life is eternal, everlasting and spiritual – like our risen Lord Jesus. Now we are like Adam, then we will be like Jesus, and it will be indescribably wonderful!

What Paul describes is far more hopeful and far more lovely than the strange stories that people imagine bring comfort to children or even to themselves. He offers us something to hope for, a glorious end to the life of faith. Without this hope, being part of church is a waste of time, but with it, everything that we do when we worship, when we pray, when we spend time reading our Bibles and getting to know God better, is a preparation for the life to come. Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory over death and over faithlessness through Jesus Christ our risen Lord!

This is my body

1 Corinthians 11.17-end

It was a great day for a church picnic. Everyone was bringing their own food, but the PCC had implied that a certain amount of sharing would be encouraged, and the vicar had given Jo and Sam the impression that if they came straight to the picnic after their shift at the warehouse, it wouldn’t matter that they didn’t have time to sort out their own food. ‘Don’t worry’, she said, ‘everyone always brings too much. You just come.’ The picnic ran between 12 and 2, so it seemed fine to arrive as soon as they could after their shift – running for the bus meant they got to the site soon after 12.30. Not too late.

Photo by Christine Siracusa on Unsplash

The vicar seemed distracted when they arrived, getting ready for the communion service. The church members were sitting in groups around the site. Some of the members who came from the big houses at the edge of the area had occupied the picnic tables. They’d brought cloths and had plates and glasses and some very fancy looking dishes of food – a lot posher than any picnic Sam and Jo had ever seen. Other members were sitting around blankets with more ordinary looking food. It was obvious that they’d been eating and drinking for a while and some seemed to have finished already.  

Sam and Jo spotted the picnic organiser with his family at one of the tables and went over to them. ‘You made it then,’ he said to them. ‘We understand from the vicar that you couldn’t bring your own food. Shame. Never mind. There are some cheese sandwiches here.’ And from a bag under the table he pulled out a packet of sandwiches and a bottle of water. As he passed it to Jo, he seemed unembarrassed at his failure to offer any of the wine or lemonade on the table, or of the chicken Caesar salad, quail’s eggs or the delicate individual fruit pavlovas that looked so delicious. Not that there was much of it left.

Sam looked around for somewhere to sit, and found a space some distance from the tables. Soon the vicar was calling them together for communion – the sandwiches would have to wait. She broke the bread, using St Paul’s words about there being one bread and one body, but as Sam and Jo looked around the gathering, it didn’t feel like that to them. The people at the tables had only spoken to them when handing them the sandwiches that were so inferior to their own lunch. It seemed they had nothing in common. ‘But we should’, whispered Jo. ‘Didn’t Jesus die for us too? He didn’t think we were less important than anyone else. So why don’t people talk to us? Why are we over here and not siting at one of those tables? Why aren’t we worth a share in the nice food? Is it just because we can’t afford to put a lot in the collection, or because we’re late – it isn’t our fault that they always start these events while we’re still on shift. If this is the body of Christ, I don’t feel like I’m a part of it’.

What happens next? Do Jo and Sam go and find another church, one where they don’t feel looked down on for being warehouse operatives? Does the vicar spot what is happening and speak out to the wealthy members of the church? Perhaps those wealthy members haven’t realised just how unfair they are being. Perhaps they think preparing a few cheese sandwiches was a great kindness and that they did well – will she put them right? Will she tell them that they are amputating part of the body by behaving so thoughtlessly? Or will she keep quiet, because she’s afraid that these wealthy people have the power to make her life miserable, or even to take her job from her?

I’m not describing a real scenario. Jo and Sam are fictional. But I’ve seen close enough variants a few times in the course of my life to know that what St Paul described in 1 Corinthians 11 is still a threat to the body of Christ now. In those early days of the church, the sharing of bread and wine was becoming symbolic but hadn’t yet been separated from the sharing of a meal. Influenced by the shape of a Passover meal, bread was broken and blessed at the start of a shared meal, and the cup of blessing shared at the end of it. People reminded themselves of all that Jesus had asked them to remember, as part of the sharing in a full meal. But in Corinth the local customs for eating together were leading to divisions within the church. Wealthy hosts would eat in their dining rooms, starting as soon as they were ready. Poorer church members would arrive to find the meal in progress and their food – of a much lower quality – served in the hall. That was not how Paul, Peter and Apollos had taught the Corinthian Christians to behave, and it definitely did not reflect the teaching of Jesus.

As Paul reminded the Corinthians of the story of the Last Supper – and this is the earliest account of it that we have – he was doing it to show them how their behaviour was not a remembrance of Jesus, but rather it was letting him down. Jesus calls his people to be one body, united in love for God and for each other. The bread is the symbol of that body. Jesus, the bread of life, identified his body with bread and asked all who follow to see bread as his body. The bread of life, the body of Christ, both are one. And so, Paul says, when we share that bread, we are not just connecting with Jesus, in receiving something that becomes for us his body. We are connecting with the whole church – because we are the body of Christ. The bread is a symbol and sign of our identity as the church – we are the body of Christ, and so we are the bread of life for the world. Eating that bread is not only a personal spiritual experience. It is a shared experience – the word corporate really comes into its own. Eating the bread binds us as Jesus’ body here on earth, his presence in the world.

And if we believe that, then our behaviour towards each other must be completely respectful, loving and thoughtful. It isn’t acceptable to look down on other Christians. It isn’t acceptable to hand one a cheese sandwich while you eat lobster. Better for everyone to have cheese sandwiches. And to eat them together – not eating first but waiting. In my picnic scenario, the event should have been times to start when Jo and Sam were able to get there. And a proper planned shared meal would have been better too. With tables reserved for those unable to sit on the ground because of bad hips, or dealing with a baby, or old age, even if that meant some people used to a more refined way of living find themselves sitting on the grass. Those who really can’t wait to eat, Paul said – eat at home, because you are making it into a private meal, not a shared meal for Jesus’ followers. There should be no exclusivity, no looking down on people. We are one body and we need to behave as though that matters.

Because it does matter. It matters enough that it was one of the last things that Jesus prayed for, and St Paul and other first generation apostles spoke of it constantly. We are one body. And so let us live thoughtfully, respectfully, lovingly, always putting our fellow Christians needs ahead of our own. Jo and Sam and fictional, but the truth is, there are plenty of people out there who have been made to feel the way that they were. Let’s not be that church. Let’s be the church that Jo and Sam looked for – the one that welcomes, and includes and keeps things equal.

Run to Win

1 Corinthians 9

There are plenty of scholars who suggest that what we call 1 Corinthians – and the same applies to 2 Corinthians - is not just one letter but a number of letters redacted together, though there is plenty of disagreement about how many. It isn’t as straightforward as chapters 1-8 forming one letter, chapters 9-12 forming another. It looks more like the result of a redactor dropping a pile of papers and not picking them up again in the right order. Take that alongside possible later additions by other redactors, and the problem that modern readers have with Paul becomes larger than the one that his original readers had, because we see letters that are longer, and that jump about thematically, in a way that Paul almost certainly didn’t. Chapter 9 is a case in point. It breaks into a discourse on food sacrificed to idols that should flow on from chapter 8 to chapter 10. Suddenly Paul is protesting about his rights as an apostle and the way that apostles are financially rewarded. This, I believe, is a section of a different letter, part of a dispute that we know Paul struggled with in his relationship with the churches of Corinth. Paul’s right to be rewarded for his work, but not to be treated as if he was a mere client accepting the usual rules of patronage. He wasn’t at the Corinthians’ beck and call, or that of certain local patrons, and if that was what they wanted then he wouldn’t take their money. The results of Paul’s thinking continue today in the acceptance that clergy are officeholders, given a stipend to free them for the work they do, and not salaried staff working for the reward of pay rather than the rewards of the kingdom of God.

That’s all very interesting, but it’s not the chosen topic for this fifth sermon, which has been developed with one of the Inspire Leaders in the benefice, Anjana Austin, and with the benefice children’s work leader, Julie Austin. The theme which Anjana has chosen is ‘Run to Win’, and it is based on the final few verses of the chapter, 24-27, which stand alone within this letter and offer a challenging message.

The people of Corinth would have been very familiar with the pan-Hellenic games, most especially the Isthmian games, which they had hosted every two years since the re-founding of the town as a Roman colony under Julius Caesar. For us, as we imagine the games, we should visualise a cross between a modern multi event sports competition and a festival. Competitions included not only sports but also arts. Competitors entered a wide variety of disciplines. A famous example is the female athlete Hedea, whose name appears on an inscription in Delphi. She competed in games across the country and won the war-chariot race at the Isthmian games, the 200m at the Nemean and the Sicyonian games and the prize for young lyre-players in Athens.

For Hedea, and athletes like her, winning mattered. She ran for glory, the only prize being a crown of celery. She ran to win because it was winners who gained the interest of patrons, who got invitations to give after dinner speeches or play their instruments at events. She ran to win because if you did not win you were a loser. There was no glory in coming second, and much less chance of winning the patronage that brought an income and the freedom to train hard and to keep on competing and winning. In that, a classical athlete was not so very different from a modern one. Hedea won glory, and that is how we come to know her story. Her hard training brought plaudits that made her worth remembering on a monument in her home town. She worked hard for it. Each day would have doubtless involved running, riding, chariot practice, lyre practise to keep her at the top of the field. And her hard work was symbolised by a circle of wilted celery.

Paul compared being a follower of Jesus to the discipline required of an athlete in the games. We need to have the same determination and dedication in honing our skills as followers. We need to be equally focussed on being the best, not settling for anything less. The prize is a much better one though: not a short-lived, wilting crown of salad, but the eternal crown of glory that is being received, forgiven, into God’s presence forever. That is a prize so much more worth training for. Paul demands that we work as hard on our spiritual disciplines as the very best athletes. We need to be as committed in our training as Mo Farah is in his, to practice as hard as Lang Lang does at the piano.

But that raises the question: what are the disciplines we are practising hard at?

Perhaps you might consider these:

• ·       prayer – in all its forms, listening hard to the Holy Spirit of God
• ·       deepening your knowledge and understanding of scripture
• ·       building up the church in unity and love
• ·       caring lovingly for each other, inside and outside the church family
• ·       telling others about Jesus
• ·       caring for creation
• ·       seeking justice and being agents of mercy, peace and reconciliation

(and if you spot the five marks of mission embedded in that list, well done).

Hedea wouldn’t have done it alone, of course. Someone taught her how to ride and to race, showed her the fingering on the lute. Someone coached her at the gym, perhaps someone else encouraged her and cheered her on, and someone else made sure that she had a good meal at the end of a training session. So what about us? We don’t train alone either. Who are our supporters?

First of all, we are members of Team Jesus. The team is owned by God, and the Holy Spirit is an active, hands on manager. God has called people to be local managers across the nations. Depending on our traditions, we might call those people bishops, archbishops, apostles, chairs, moderators, senior pastors… they are there as vision setters, teachers, example givers, supporters. They in turn encourage and enable local leaders in churches who might be compared to the coaching team. Your parish priest or church minister or pastor is joined by elders or deacons or readers or lay ministers or leaders of teams, and they are able to help with that practice that is so vital every day.

Like anyone in training, we also draw a lot of support from those training alongside us. We encourage each other, spur each other on, and perhaps shame each other into turning up for training sessions, whether that’s a cell group, prayer group, house group, team meeting or simply turning up to a church service.

We draw some help from experts in the field too. Watching films, reading books or articles, listening to podcasts, attending courses or going to events beyond our own churches – a diocesan bible day, for example – all help us to improve and grow in our discipleship. And of course, we must always pay attention to the best help God has given us that we can handle, our bibles.

So, as you reflect on your training needs if you are going to train in such a way that you run to win a lasting crown, perhaps you can prayerfully reflect on these questions:

• ·       who do you need to talk to and get help from in order to improve your training programme?
• ·       are there people you can help with their training? Who should you be praying for and/or actively helping?
• ·       who is in training alongside you? who do you pray with, study with, go out to visit with? How can you support each other?

Follow God's heart

Sermon preached at a service of prayer following the marriage of Sarah and Vanessa Elliott-Hart.

I think that one of the mantras of 21^st century western society is ‘follow your heart’. We are encouraged to chase our own dreams, live according to our own desires, define meaning in life according to our own emotions. It’s well intentioned in some ways – following your heart requires self-awareness, and that’s good, and it suggests a loving attitude, which is also good. But it’s also a profoundly selfish and self-centred way of being – it is a way of being that asks you to do what you want to do. It doesn’t reference anyone else. So it isn’t a loving way of being and it isn’t, despite what some people think, a recipe for a good relationship.

So I want to suggest a Christian variant of this mantra, which I hope will serve you better: ‘follow God’s heart’. God’s is a heart of love. A heart that loved the world so much that he sent his only son so that all who believe in him will not perish but will have eternal life. A heart that loves so much that the process of giving us eternal life meant willingly going to the brutality and humiliation of the cross. Jesus told us to love as he loves us – and that is a sacrificial, other centred, self-giving love. The complete opposite of what the world requires, but when you look at our heroes, it is what the world often admires – people like Edith Cavell, Mother Theresa of Calcutta or Truus Weissmuller-Meijer, a Dutch Christian who risked her life on multiple occasions to bring hundreds of Jewish children out of Europe to escape the death camps. These women followed God’s heart and lived sacrificially to show God’s love to others. Of course, most of us do not live in such difficult times or places, and are not called to do such large scale acts of heroism, but it doesn’t change the rule of life for Jesus’s followers: follow God’s heart.

photo by Sebastian Unrau.

How do we do this? How can we possibly know what is in God’s heart, how can we bring the song of our own hearts into tune with God’s heart song? The clue is in the psalm, 139, and especially in verse 23, which we all said as a refrain throughout the psalm: ‘search me out, O God, and know my heart’. Throughout this beautiful psalm we are reminded that God knows us, thoroughly, completely, intimately. The writer invites God to search him, using a verb – haqar – that suggests an in-depth, intimate exploration. We’re not asking God to give us a quick once-over. No, we are asking God to give us the spiritual, emotional and intellectual equivalent of a fingertip search. And he’s never going to stop looking at us, wherever we are; whatever we do; he will know every moment.

In verse 3 the writer says ‘even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely’. That’s an interesting thought for when you are sitting down to write a sermon! From the moment of our conception God knows everything of us and loves everything of us. If we choose to respond to this intimate knowledge of God, then it moves from a one-sided approach by our all knowing, all present, all powerful God and becomes a relationship in which we can be touched and changed by God, and in which we can come to know God too. Verse 17 reads ‘how deep are your counsels to me, O God’. I love another translation of these words: ‘how precious to me are your thoughts, O God’. Actually, I find that awesome. The creator of the universe is yet so intimate with me that, if I’m prepared to listen, I can hear his thoughts. I can hear God’s thoughts – his counsel, wisdom, guidance, for me and for others. That’s astonishing – who am I, who are you, who is anyone, to hear God?

The big risk in this rule of life, following God’s heart, is that God expects to change us. As he searches us he cleanses, purifies, improves, directs and redirects. And God’s thoughts are new every morning. Yes, in essence, in love, God does not change. But as humanity grows and changes, as we individuals grow and change, the rules and conditions around us change. We must listen very carefully to God to make sure we get it right. Some people say that certain things can’t change. If it says something in the bible, it is fixed, an unchanging rule. And yes, changing things from what the bible says is very risky. We have to listen hard, be absolutely certain that we are hearing God’s deep counsel, his precious thoughts- that we are following God’s heart and not our own. When Jesus and St Peter and St Paul were here on earth, the bible consisted of what we now call the Old Testament. It set out clear rules for who could be included in God’s people and how they had to live. The people of those times, who read this psalm, would never have dreamed of adding sour cream to a beef stew, or eating a prawn sandwich, or a bacon one, or getting a tattoo, or changing the rituals that identified you as God’s child. And yet we think nothing of any of those things because the Holy Spirit showed the early followers that things could and should change. Peter and Paul faced years of opposition and hassle from others who didn’t want to risk changing what they found in scripture, who didn’t hear God’s thoughts as he told them to include people who had been excluded, and to change in order to welcome them. Paul and Peter faced a lot of abuse and harassing from fellow Christians as they argued for change. But they did it anyway because they were following God’s heart. It took courage, determination and a lot of prayer, but we benefit from that today.

I believe we live in such challenging times of change today. God’s precious thoughts, his deep counsel, challenge the church to see and do things differently, more inclusively. In a way I’m an example of that change as an ordained woman. I’ve had to deal with a lot of opposition and unpleasantness and I’m sure I have plenty more ahead of me. I’m hopeful that if I’m ever blessed with grandchildren they will grow up seeing that women and men as equal leaders is completely normal and obviously God’s will for his people. But we aren’t there yet. And there is a long journey ahead in listening to God as he shows us how to follow his heart when it comes to sexuality and gender identity. You are in the early days of change. I believe and hope that a new way is coming for those who allow God to search us and change us, those of us who really mean it when we pray ‘search me out O God and know my heart’. And we need to be as courageous, determined and prayerful as Peter and Paul. We have to be sure of our ground, sure of what God is showing us, and ready to live it out despite the opposition of people who see God’s precious thoughts limited to what we find in scripture.

God asks us to follow his heart because he loves us and wants us to love in the same way. Vanessa and Sarah, in marriage that means being committed to being changed by God and by each other. Being committed to seeking together, listening together, changing together. In marriage what changes and affects one person always changes and affects the other person – and in a marriage in which both people follow God’s heart, both people are changed and affected by God, and both live together to bring that love not just to each other but to everyone they have contact with. God’s design for humanity makes us much stronger, much more able, when we live in community – two are a lot stronger and a lot more able than one person to bear God’s searching, to hear God’s precious thoughts and to follow God’s heart.

So that is my prayer and my request to you: let God know your hearts, and together, follow God’s heart.

The news headlines

When God created the universe, breathing life into it all by his Holy Spirit, there was no preference for one nation over another. He made all with the same care, the same love. When he called Abram out of Ur to settle in Canaan and become father of a chosen people, that was not a rejection of the rest of the planet's inhabitants, but a message for them. God revealed himself through Israel with the intention that all nations would learn of him through Israel, and respond to him. This intention came to fruition in the person of Jesus. John the Baptist pointed everyone he met towards Jesus, the Son of God, present at the creation of the universe and bringer of God's saving love to every people. So the Jews baptised in the Jordan by John were part of Gods family, but the Greeks baptised in Ephesus by Paul were just as equally valued by Jesus and included in God's love.

This last week - Wednesday especially- seems to have been particularly violent and difficult, a week in which people with their own agendas have attacked innocent and undefended people. I have found myself concerned with the way that these events have been reported. The Jews of first century Israel would have been largely unconcerned with goings on in Greece, and would not have been willing to consider 12 people from Ephesus as worth their attention, and would not have wanted to include them in their care. St Paul was going very much against the prevailing mood - even amongst followers of Jesus- in working with Greeks. A first century Jewish news service would not have given much space to news from Ephesus, unless it somehow affected or attacked them.

Our news services seem to behave in much the same way. Now, I don't want to give the wrong impression. The events in France this week, the attack at Charlie Hebdo and the subsequent attacks and deaths, are sad, unnecessary, evil. To remember those who have been hurt, to stand by them in prayer and support, is important. But the priorities in reporting, especially on radio and tv, have been biased by our tendency to prioritise the local and the celebrity. We've been told the names of cartoonists who died in headlines, but I wonder how many of you would recognise the name of Frederic Boisseau? I had to search for his name, so I don't blame you if you don't recognise it. Frederic was 42, married with two children. You didn't hear about him in the headlines because he was the caretaker. I am grateful that at least one journalist considered him important enough to find out about. I believe that God values Frederic's life just as much (no more, no less) as the famous satirists and cartoonists who died, and his innocence in death is in some ways even harder to bear, because he did nothing to provoke a gunman to take his life.

While all this was dominating our locally focussed, Eurocentric news, and our Twitter feeds were filling with comments and 'je suis Charlie' statements (I understand that even the Arc de Triomphe is carrying that phrase in lights now), Islamic terrorists were killing others elsewhere in the world. If you rely on tv or radio you won't have heard much, if anything, of the other events, and that is sad. Because every life matters, and the betrayal of God and community by terrorists working in the name of Islam is just as bad whether it happens on our doorstep or somewhere far away.

On Wednesday 37 people were killed and 66 injured in a bomb attack using a minibus parked near a queue of people waiting to enrol at a Police Academy at Sunaa in Yemen. Did this news pass so many people by because it happened further away? Because the victims were mostly Muslim, so not like us? In offices in London editors were deciding that Charlie Hebdo's victims were of greater significance than Sunaa's, but I don't think God will have seen them as less important. The church issued prayers for France. Did it not write prayers for Yemen because violence happens more often there? The grief at loss of mother, brother, daughter, uncle is no less wherever you are. These two events happened on the same day. If you look at the Church of England website you will find prayers for Paris - and quite right too. But nothing for Yemen.

And also on Wednesday another group who claim to operate in the name of Islam, Boko Haram, went on a killing spree in Nigeria. The town of Baga, population 10000, has been razed to the ground, along with a number of nearby villages. At least 2000 people were killed, bodies strewn on the ground like litter. Thousands more, going wherever they could to save themselves, were stranded on nearby islands without any kind of supplies. Help cannot be got to them because of the forces of Boko Haram preventing others getting into the area. Many, many more might die before the crisis is over, and many many people are not accounted for. About 10000 people are believed to have got into neighbouring Chad, facing lives as refugees, having lost everything bar their lives. Perhaps you heard or read something of this, but it happened on the same day as the attack on Charlie Hebdo, and anyway, we are used to hearing news of Boko Haram's outrages : they aren't a novelty, so somehow they don't grab the attention. So perhaps you didn't hear. The prayer writers for the Church of England's website certainly seem to have missed it. The website headlines only offer prayer for Paris. Nothing for Nigeria, despite the severity of its situation. And yet, I believe that Jesus values every one of those 2000 people just as much (no more, no less) as the 17 killed in Paris.

I encourage all of you to read and pray more widely than the radio and TV headlines might direct. Look for the wider news of the places that might matter less to ordinary British people and to editors in their news offices trying to guess what British people will be interested in. Jesus cares about every single life and death, no matter what the nationality or religion or political stance of the person. He cares as much about the plight of the victims in Nigeria and the refugees of Boko Haram as he does about the people of Paris. He cares as much about the victims of the Yemen, and the people I have not mentioned because the length of this sermon would be just too long - those freezing in unusually cold weather in the Middle East, for example, where tens of thousands of people living under canvas having been driven room their homes in Syria, having already lost loved ones to terrorist violence, are now having to deal with freezing rain and low temperatures in situations where they don't necessarily have coats, jumpers or proper footwear. That hasn't made the top headlines this week either, and it would take a very slow news week for it to get there.

Read as widely as you can. Pray widely - you don't need the Church of England to write a prayer for you. I have every confidence that our leaders in the church are praying for all these places, and I hope that you will too. If you are not sure how to pray, keep it simple. Name the places and ask God to have mercy or to give his help - like a personal verse and response - I'll lead you in the sort of thing in a moment. If you are able to write letters of support or take other action, do that too. Charities like World Vision or the Foundation for Relief in the Middle East are working to get warm blankets, food and clothing to the Syrian refugees, and help to those in Chad. As followers of the Son of God, we are called to take an interest in the whole world, not just our bit of it; in all people, not just the celebrities. There are journalists out there reporting the news that we need to hear about, but we may have to dig deeper to find it, and to open our hearts purposefully in order to see the whole world, made and loved by God, and not just the bit of it that we most enjoy.

Prayer response: Lord, please help them and comfort them.

All those hurt or grieving by the attacks in France this week
All those hurt or grieving by the attack in Sunaa this week
All those hurt or grieving by the attacks in and around Baga this week
Those made refugee by the attacks in Baga this week
Those refugees suffering in the cold in the Middle East
Those suffering who we don't know because their news has not reached us, but are known to you, Jesus.

The Gates of Heaven

Recently most of my posts have been the texts of sermons, which I am trying to be in the habit of sharing as a way of making them accessible to those who are unable to be in church for any reason, or want to think more about what they heard, or who just like reading sermons! This week my Lay Reader is preaching, which will be a treat for the congregation at 11am, and so I've had time to think more generally.

At the moment I'm indulging myself in reading a book by one of my favourite theologians, Paula Gooder. In her book 'Heaven', she writes about how in ancient Israel the Temple in Jerusalem was understood as the place where God dwelt, literally, in the Holy of Holies. The Temple therefore was a symbol of God's presence, of God's favour for Israel and indeed of God himself. It was where his people went to encounter Him. The veil of the sanctuary which hid God's presence was like a gateway to heaven, the veil or raqia that divides heaven from Earth, mortal life from eternity. Passing through the veil into the Holy of Holies, and into God's presence, was to enter Heaven- to be in the place where heaven and earth come together.

The New Testament speaks of Jesus as the gateway, the way to the father; cf John 14:6 'Jesus said to him: 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' As Jesus died, the veil in the Temple was torn in two. The Holy of Holies was open to all, no longer reserved only for the High Priest, but flung open by the great high priest Jesus. In Jesus the presence of God is revealed, and the way to God is manifest. It was no longer necessary to go to the temple, because God's presence was to be found not in a place but in a person. Jesus. The temple had no further purpose and was destroyed by the Romans in 70AD and not replaced. God is no longer to be found there.

Jesus, ascending to heaven, sits at the right hand of the father and continues to be our way to the father's presence. Before his death Jesus spoke to his disciples of the work he would do, saying 'I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it' (Matthew 16:18). This saying was the focus of our thinking at the Peterborough Diocesan Ministers Conference last week. The church is Jesus's church, and Jesus is both architect and chief builder on the project. The church is not a building like the temple, nor an institution like the temple hierarchy, but a gathering of people who seek to follow Jesus and to live out his commands. 

Jesus replaces the temple, and so in Him we find our way to the dwelling place of God. He is the symbol of God's presence, of God's favour for all who follow him, and of God Himself. There is no longer a veil separating people from God, but rather an invitation to encounter the Father through Jesus the Son.

The church that Jesus is building is, Paul tells us, his body, of which he is the head (Ephesians 4:15). As his body, the church finds itself in the onerous and honourable position of being that place on earth where people can come to encounter Jesus, and through Jesus, God the Father. 

The church, as Christ's body, succeeds to the place of the Temple. Jesus is building in us a place where all people should be able to encounter God. No veils, no curtains, nothing to hide God or shield us from Him, or Him from us. Instead, coming to the church should be the way to meet Jesus, and it should allow Jesus to make each person who comes to be another building block in the church He is building. 

As each person becomes a building block, they become part of the active and real connection to God, the sanctuary of God's presence that Jesus is making of us. We stand at the gateway to heaven, in the place where the veil used to be, and so for those who approach us we are, in a way, the gateway to heaven. This is what Jesus surely meant when he told Peter that he was giving him the keys to the kingdom of heaven. We know the way, and we can direct people to it,  unlock the gate, usher them in, make them welcome. Or by our behaviour we can prevent people from finding a welcome and from encountering the Father and the Son. 

Jesus intention is that we will welcome people. The gates of hell- the only other place to go apart from the gates of heaven - will not prevail against Jesus' church. He told Peter that. Jesus does not want people going through the gates of hell and away from Him. He tore down the barrier between Earth and Heaven. The temple priests had to keep people out of the presence of God, worshipping from the other side of the veil. Our job as the church is to show people into the presence of God, to be a gate - the very gate of Heaven- that is open and unlocked, and to usher them through into the presence of Jesus.