Sermon. Richard Spicer. Sunday 28 February 2010.

26 - The Cost of Discipleship -
Luke 14. 27-33.

Let’s bow our heads for a few moments in prayer – Lord Jesus, help us to understand the message you have for us this evening as we study the words of your servant Luke about the cost of discipleship. Amen.

One of my relatives – my mother’s cousin to be precise – has spent most of his life working as a missionary in Peru. He was called by God to uproot himself and his family from Staffordshire to South America many years ago before I was born. I have met him and his wife only a few times when they have been visiting in this country. These meetings have been brief and so I have not had the chance to talk to them about how it was for them to leave their relatives and move to the other side of the world.
Our Gospel reading this evening is 6 verses from chapter 14 of Luke’s Gospel topped and tailed by Jesus saying the following to a large crowd –
Verse 27 – “if you don’t pick up your cross and come after me, you can’t be my disciple.”
Verse 33 – “….none of you can be my disciple unless you give up all your possessions.”

Strong and unambiguous words! I will come back to them shortly. But, first, I want to look at the 4 verses in between in which Jesus gives 2 pictures to illustrate his points. I want to put these 2 pictures in context.

The first picture is in verses 28 to 30. Jesus said,
“Supposing one of you wants to build a tower; what will you do? You will first of all sit down and work out how much it will cost, to see whether you have enough to finish it. Otherwise, when you’ve laid the foundations and can’t finish it, everyone who sees it will begin to make fun of you. “Here’s a fellow”, they’ll say, “who began to build but cannot finish!””
Jesus was specifically referring to the Temple in Jerusalem that Herod the Great had started to build and his sons were continuing to build. His audience knew about this building project with its massive beautiful towers, the most important and biggest project of the time. It was, of course, designed to show off Herod and his heirs. However, Jesus knew that it would soon become a smouldering ruin.

The second picture is described in verses 31 and 32. Jesus said,
“Think of a king, on the way to fight a war against another king. What will he do? He will first sit down and discuss with his advisers whether with ten thousand troops, he is going to be a match for the other side who are coming with twenty thousand? If they decide he isn’t, he will send a delegation, while the other is still a long way and sue for peace.”
Here Jesus refers to Israel’s oppressors of the time, the Romans. If the Jews are planning to rise up against them they had better think again because the Romans would be much too powerful a force to overcome. However, Jesus’ warnings were falling on deaf ears! The crowd wanted to hang onto the possessions that they had inherited and were itching for a battle that would set their land free from the occupying Roman forces.

What does this all mean for us in Cubbington in 2010? Well, some will be called, like my relative and his family to upsticks and move to a foreign land far away. Like those first disciples of Jesus, the apostles, they had to leave the vast majority of their possessions behind to begin their new life.
However, most of us will not be called by God to do that. But in 2 distinct ways we are called by God to become his disciples, and in doing so, to “take up our cross” and to “give up all our possessions.”
Firstly, to renounce our love of acquiring material possessions. We are all only too aware of how the secular world relentlessly bombards us with advertising exhorting the need for us to buy the latest gadgets, new cars, bigger houses and exotic holidays. What do we really need?
And, secondly, I think we can put our spiritual life in order. Again we need to stop putting material and earthly things, our own agendas, in the way of worshipping God and carrying out his work. As Ian Watson, the Archdeacon of Coventry, told us very clearly in his sermon last Sunday morning we must put God first.

So, Jesus exhorts us tonight, as he did the large crowd nearly 2000 years ago, that if we are to be his disciples we must be prepared to run the whole race. And that can mean giving up all of our possessions that we can hold dear. However by doing that we are allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us both individually and corporately into new places and new situations. That is a most exciting vision for us to take home with us tonight. AMEN.

Talk to Cubbington Church.      Felicity Hawke.     Sunday 14th February

Marriage – does it make the world go around?

Rosemary asked me to come a speak at this service today, at the end of National Marriage Week, because of my role in the Mothers’ Union. After being the Diocesan president for the past 6 years, I have just started as Provincial President, a member of the central trustee board, with responsibility for the 30 dioceses from Derby southwards, and including Europe!

You may have heard of Mothers’ Union, your mother may have been a member, and you may have wondered if it still exists. I can assure you it does, it has 3.6 million members around the world and operates in 78 countries. In Coventry and Warwickshire alone there are over 1000 members.

The first aim of the MU is to support and promote marriage, specifically Christian marriage, but that doesn’t mean we are only interested in married people. Much of our work involves helping those with difficult family lives, as well as looking for ways to encourage and improve relationships of all kinds. That is why I’ve decided to talk about how MU is working with families of all shapes and sizes, not just the probably mythical “typical” family with married mum and dad, and 2.4 children. I found a lovely Chinese proverb the other day which says “No family can hang out the sign ‘nothing the matter here’.”

I recently visited Zambia with the Mothers’ Union. The Diocese of Coventry is linked in the MU Wave of Prayer to the Diocese of Central Zambia, and members in the two countries pray for each other particularly on 21st-25th March each year.

One of the many gifts I was given while I was there was these carved wooden implements. When I looked a little puzzled, the president explained to me that they were a symbol of marriage. This seemed a bit odd, as they are a pickaxe and a mattock! But apparently in rural Zambian society, they would be put up in the house, as a symbol of the husband and wife working together on the land. Not perhaps an obvious image of marriage, but I’ll come back to it later!

The reading from St John this morning is all about the famous wedding at Cana, a time for celebration, and very appropriate for a service on St Valentine’s Day and the end of National Marriage Week. The Philippians reading starts with the word “rejoice” – just what we normally do at weddings. But actually, I don’t think that is the point of these readings and it’s not what I want to draw out of them today.

I want to look at two qualities that I believe are vital to not just a good marriage but also any relationship that we are involved with, Trust in God, which comes directly from the Philippians reading, and Respect for each other, which is implied and which is central to much of what Mothers’ Union is about.

I’ve been married to Nigel for 33 years, and during that time I have been a student on the opposite side of the English Channel, he has worked long hours in the City, and later spent many weeks overseas, usually at least two continents away, and we have both had times when we have had to be away from home. I found a quotation which says “Marriage is like a duet: we need not play the same part, but we must be playing in harmony”. I rather like that – it reminds us that being married isn’t about doing everything together, or always agreeing, but about looking in the same direction, working towards the same goal, just as those Zambian tools symbolise a man and woman working together for the good of the family.

A large part of that is trusting in God, relying on him when it’s tough, looking to him for guidance. As St Paul says in verse 6 “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” And the result of that? “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”

One of the most important things I have found in my Christian journey is that God is always challenging you to step out in faith, but he always stands beside you and gives you the skills and resources you need for the job. One of those resources in my case has been the time to get involved with Mothers’ Union, a charity which seeks to share God’s love through the encouragement, strengthening and support of marriage and family life. Nigel’s job has meant that I was able to be a full-time mum and also to get involved in voluntary work first with a Mums and Toddlers group, then young families and projects with Mothers’ Union. If I had had to go back to work, I wouldn’t have had that chance. But if I hadn’t taken up the challenge from God, and stepped out in faith, I would never have dreamt that I could do so much.

Through my membership, I have learnt how to run a Parenting Group, how to be Chairman of a Charity, how to engage and enthuse volunteers, and most importantly, how to pray and to trust God to answer those prayers. I have seen people healed when they have been prayed for by the MU Prayer Chain, people come forward to take up roles they never dreamt they could do, and lives changed through the commitment of members all around the world. Stronger marriages are just one aspect of this. A friend of mine joined Mothers’ Union because, as she said, “who else is there who is consistently praying for marriage and particularly Christian marriage?”

Mothers’ Union is a worldwide network of women and men committed to supporting relationships, through prayer, projects and social change, and to sharing God’s love with those around them. Many of our projects can help support marriage, even if that is not their primary aim.

Our Literacy and Development Programme in Rwanda, Malawi and Sudan, teaches people to read and write. Nothing unusual there, you might think. But because it concentrates on women, not men or children, it affects the whole community. The mothers can teach their children and support them if they are lucky enough to go to school. They can check that they are getting the right change in the market, read the labels on medicine bottles, write to the local council about issues affecting their community. As a result of this, women are starting their own businesses and employing others, they can improve nutrition and health and bring about change. Not only that, they are also getting more respect from the men in the community (usually after some initial suspicion!). This in turn leads to better relations with village elders, equal status with the men, and better relations between husband and wife. That is far more than was ever envisaged when the programme was started ten years ago.

More confident parenting can also improve a marriage, and build better relationships. Our Parenting Programme, for which I am one of many facilitators, helps parents enjoy parenting more, be more consistent, more respectful and more realistic in their parenting. When both parents are involved in a group, they work better together as a team. Friendships are developed within the group. One of the first groups I ran in 2001 is still meeting monthly to share experiences and ideas and they have built up a real bond of friendship. I’m sure you’ll agree that when the children are happy and fulfilled, then the whole home runs better and more smoothly and everyone is affected. One of the things we always say to parents, and particularly mums, is take time for yourself, to relax and do something you enjoy. If you are always everyone’s servant, you cannot be yourself. Just as I said earlier about a good marriage, it is important to be your own person, as well as part of a family.

Both of these projects help to build respect, for women, for children, for other members of the community. Good relationships, whether within a family church or community, depend greatly on respect. We need to respect our partner’s need for time to themselves – though how much will depend on the people involved, and I suspect working that out is one thing that can lead to many arguments! We need to respect our children’s rights to their own opinions. But we also need to respect each other’s failings, background, assumptions and fears. Verse 5 in the Philippians passage says “Let your gentleness be known to all.” When life is chaotic, even scary, we need to be gentle with those around us. It’s all too easy to shout, get angry and become very selfish, but it’s probably the time when we most need to slow down, take deep breath and allow ourselves and others some space. That’s when prayer is vital, though it’s often the last thing we think about. If we can listen to what the other person is saying, respect their feelings and not take out our own hurts on them, but be gentle with each other, there is a much better chance we will get through the situation together. That may be our husband or wife, parent, child or neighbour.

St Paul also reminds us to dwell on what is honourable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent and praiseworthy. In other words, look out for the good in others, notice and praise what they are doing. Again MU so often can encourage gifts in others and gives people a chance to develop their talents in a safe and nurturing environment. For women that is particularly important. In many parts of the world, women are seen as second class citizens, not worthy of respect or responsibility. Being part of MU may be the way they achieve that status. Any relationship, whether at home, at work or in the Church, should be doing the same, helping us to become the people we are meant to be, not putting us down, discouraging or belittling us.

Sermon. Rev. Rosemary Pantling. Sunday 7th February

Christ the King who Stills the Storm

Revelation 4 Luke 8 22-25

What a splendid picture we are given in St John’s vision, the Revelation given to him by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Graham Sutherland’s tapestry in our own Cathedral in Coventry shows Christ enthroned in glory and it picks up on some of this vision of John. Neither St John nor Graham Sutherland are saying this is exactly what heaven is like, or exactly where and how we might see Christ for ourselves. Notice John says he was “in the Spirit” Rev 4.2). There have always been, and there still are, some Christians who are given the gift of pictures to help them understand what God is saying to them. It never means these pictures are literally true, but pictures can have a way of taking us to deeper understanding than words alone can do – so the symbols in John’s vision and those depicted in the tapestry can be a means for God to speak directly and deeply to us.

We’ll come to the tapestry in a minute. What does John’s vision have to tell us? The throne shows us that God reigns supreme. Who are the 24 elders? There were 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles – so they probably represent all those redeemed by God for all time both under the Old Covenant with the Jews, and the new Covenant with those who now knew and followed Christ. The redeemed are made pure, so they are dressed in white and crowned with gold. So they symbolise for us every person, both Jew and Gentile, who are now part of God’s family and elevated to heaven with him.

It is not just the splendid throne that tells us God is King. His power is symbolised first in the thunder and lightning. The seven blazing lamps represent the Holy Spirit. Around the throne are four creatures, not real animals, but symbolic attributes of God. They are described here in Revelation and it is these four which are particularly portrayed by Graham Sutherland in the tapestry: you may just be able to make out:

on the top left the man represents intelligence,
on the top right the eagle symbolises sovereignty,
the lion represents majesty and power,
the ox faithfulness.

A glorious vision then of a mighty and powerful God.

Luke portrays for us a mighty God, but in a very different way, when he tells us of the storm on the lake.

There will be quite a few here today who feel they are in the midst of a storm in their lives. Illness, uncertainty about jobs and finance, pressures at work, quarrels in the family, disputes and disagreements – we often feel battered, overwhelmed, frightened, powerless.

The disciples felt all these things. Most of them were fishermen who had spent their whole lives on Lake Gennesaret, also of course called the Sea of Galilee. Inland water it may be, but it is a massive area of water and in bad weather the risk is as great as setting out to sea. So when the disciples felt fear it was real and justified; their lives were in danger.

The Jesus we meet with in this story is the Jesus of whom later Christians were to speak as the king, one with power and authority. Remember how John in his vision described flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder, to show the power of God. Now Luke describes the one who can quell earthly thunder and lightning, the one who can command even the wind and the waves. Power which could make us afraid – the disciples were. In fear and amazement they asked one another “Who is this?”

So if we stand in our cathedral, when we raise our eyes to the enthroned Christ in the tapestry does this invoke fear and awe? It might, perhaps sometimes it should. This is an awe inspiring vision. In John’s vision after all, in awe and wonder all the redeemed in heaven worship God. You remember how our passage finished, with the 24 elders, representing us who are saved, laying down their crowns before the throne and saying:

“You are worthy our Lord and our God to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things and by your will they were created and have their being”. (Rev 4.11)

So Christ in glory, as Jesus in the boat, makes us respond by worshipping him But most importantly this powerful Christ brings reassurance and peace.

Because have you noticed in Graham Sutherland’s vision, where the human figure is? Tiny in our reproduction – six feet tall in the original – but still tiny in comparison to the great figure of Christ. The figure which represents you and me. Where do we stand? Between his feet, looking out. He protects us, surrounds us, behind and around us. His majesty and power to the right in the lion, his faithfulness to the left in the ox. In his protection we know his peace. The storm may still rage around us, but we know he is there, his strength is ours.

If you are feeling you are in the midst of a storm, take yourself to the cathedral sometime. Sit awhile and just gaze at Christ in glory. If you tell someone your vicar has sent you to look at the tapestry and that you want to spend quiet time praying with it, you can ask to sit in the chapel right at the base, at the feet of Christ. Be the figure looking out between his feet, and know his peace. The disciples trusted Jesus in their fear and turned to him for help. Through his Holy Spirit if you ask him he will rebuke whatever the wind and raging waters may be which are battering you – and Christ the King of Glory will give you his peace.

Sermon. Rev. Rosemary Pantling.

Sunday 31st January 2010. Education Sunday.

2 Kings 5 Naaman, Luke 2 Jesus in the Temple.

In a few weeks time, on Valentine’s Day, we are going to have a morning service with the theme of marriage. We are inviting all the couples who have recently been married here and all those planning to be married here this year. When we get together after the service, I often get the couples to tell each other how they met. You hear all sorts of stories about how husbands and wives first met each other and often they involve friends introducing them to each other.

Unless you are one of those bold spirits who walks into a room full of strangers and introduces themselves, we often hold back ‘til someone introduces us. I want you to think for a moment - who introduced you to Jesus? However old or young we are, there must have been a first time when we heard who Jesus is. It might have been Mum and Dad, reading us stories when we were tiny, or a grandparent perhaps. It might have been a friend later on, asking us to come to a social event or a service.

Our first story from the Bible today was about someone who hadn’t met God. Naaman didn’t know God because Aram was the land next door to Israel, where they worshipped other gods.

A little slave girl introduced Naaman to God – or rather to God’s prophet, Elisha. And when Naaman was healed, he met God.

Our second story today was about the one person who didn’t need an introduction to God - Jesus. Jesus knew where he belonged. Jesus knew God as his Father and so when Mary and Joseph took him to Jerusalem he felt at home straightaway in the Temple - his Father’s house. More than that, it was obvious to him that that was where he could learn more about his Father, though it sounds as if he was already teaching rather than learning!

For some of us, church has always felt like home. For others, it’s a rather daunting and perhaps scary place. We aren’t sure what we should do, we don’t know what goes on here. Christians are always wanting to introduce others to Jesus and as part of that we want church to be a place where we can learn more about him.

I am sure you all know that here in Cubbington we have a Church school. That means the school and everyone in it are a part of our church family. As the vicar I am automatically a governor of the school and we provide two more governors, called foundation governors, who at present are Theresa and Gill. It’s such a great privilege and opportunity to be able to be involved with the education of our children and helping to make sure Christian values are at the heart of our school life.

There are obvious public things we do to show school and church belong to each other. The school come into this building during the school week for services such as Harvest festival and Easter. I go there to take assembly from time to time. And this term there is perhaps the most exciting opportunity of all, as the school is looking for a new Headteacher, so as governors we are involved at every stage in the appointment of the new head.

Did you know that Church schools have an extra inspection, like Ofsted, but by the Church authorities? They want to check how well we are doing at making this a Christian school. In other words – what are we doing to introduce children to Jesus?

How do children get introduced to Jesus? A school is not a place for indoctrination. Every school must be open to those of all faiths and none. But we have a special opportunity in a church school to introduce children to the Christian faith, and if we are really open in our relationship with children and our school, we will find it is sometimes the children who will lead us on in our faith journey. Just as Jesus was teaching as well as learning in the Temple.

I will admit to you, and the other foundation governors know this, that when I arrived here and found out about the responsibilities of being a governor, I went to the diocese to ask if there was a way for someone else to do it instead. I did not see how I could find enough time to do what was needed properly. But when I met with Linda Wainscot, who is the Director of the Diocesan Board of Education, she spoke to me so convincingly about the unique opportunity a vicar has as governor of a church school that instead I came away inspired to try to find every chance I could to make the most of being a governor.

Certainly when I speak to colleagues, many of them are very envious of how easy it is for me to be involved with school. For a lot of vicars find some suspicion or at least indifference when they try to make contact with their local school. They can spend hours trying to make appointments to see head teachers and try fruitlessly to suggest ways the school and church might work together. Our school is so proud of being a church school that there is an open invitation which I have been delighted to accept, albeit in a more limited way than I would really like. Every church wants to reach out to young families – and here they all are on our doorstep.

Who introduced you to Jesus? In your list there will be people who taught you, at school, at Sunday School, parents and older family members.

We give thanks today for all who work in the world of education, school, college university, community education. It is no coincidence that it is the church which has been at the heart of education in this country’s history. We know that God has given us gifts and talents but those gifts need nurturing to enable us to use them.

At the heart of the Christian faith is the belief that we all need to make our own faith commitment. How can we make a real commitment to Jesus unless we understand and know to whom we are committing our lives? We need to be able to read his word in the Bible, make our own informed interpretation of what is written there and apply it to our own lives. Just this week we began confirmation classes and we have three people exploring what it means to be a Christian. It’s not too late to join them as they prepare to be confirmed by the Bishop in the Cathedral at dawn on Easter Sunday – just ask me after this service.

Jesus in the temple listened and asked questions. Education was the foundation for his ministry. He taught as he had learned, for we hear of his disciples listening to him stories, and asking questions. They often got things wrong, but that didn’t matter because we all learn from our mistakes.
I’ve told the confirmation class that as we go on our Christian journey through life we should expect to end up with more and more questions, not necessarily all the answers.

At the end of this service we are going to pray for everyone involved in education. We are going to wait ‘til the end so we can include those teachers and children of our Sunday school who will join us then.

In the meantime, give thanks for those who introduced you to Jesus, who taught you and laid the foundation for you Christian life. And all of us need to remember our church school, make it a priority in our church life to build up the links between us, make sure your next vicar has plenty of time to give to their role there, so we in the church support the school and the school supports us. We are all on the journey of faith together.

Let us pray.

O God, the teacher of us all, open our hearts and minds to learn from you. Thank you for the times when we are able to tell others about you, and thank you for all those who take us by the hand and lead us on to new horizons. Amen.

Sermon. Aidrie Felix.    January 24th 2010

Paul tells us “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all it’s parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we are all baptised by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Corinthians 12: 12-13)
Aim To show how the church can and should work together as one body
Introduction
The week of prayer for Christian Unity 2010 invites the whole Christian Community throughout the world to pray in Communion with the prayer of Jesus. “ that they all may be one” ( John 17: 21) The Church Unity Octave, a fore runner to the week of Prayer for Christian Unity, was developed by Father Paul Wattson, at Graymoor in Garrison New York; it was first observed at Graymoor from January 18-25 1908. Since 1968 the week of prayer for Christian Unity has been based on a theme proposed by ecumenical groups around the world.
We have inherited the divisions of the church, but we must work for the unity. This is unity of the Spirit, not uniformity of forms of worship or organisations.
Our body language can sometimes be portraying something very different from what we are actually saying. In 21st Century more people have become aware of what body language is actually saying; through the signals we actually make but are not aware we are saying, e.g. If we are in an interview, the person interviewing us may ask are you comfortable? We may answer yes thank you. Our body though is giving a completely different answer we have clenched fists our knuckles may have turned white because we feel uneasy and nervous.
It is part of our lives today for body language to actually portray how we really feel about something or someone, our approval or disapproval. On many occasions we are not aware that we have said something different with our body language.
Christian Unity. When the gospel of hope God offer us is rightly understood and truly accepted, there must be unity. Even though we all come from different walks of life and all have different views about things, there is one thing that we as Christian share it is that we are baptised with the Holy Spirit. The body of believers is one; believers have been called by the one hope offered them by God, One Lord, One faith, One God and Father of all. As members of society our Christian brothers and sisters worship the same Lord, and serve him. Many different members from all over the world make up the body of the Church. These members may belong to a different denomination/branch of the Christian Church. But we are all members of the Churches body, we all have a part to play to enable it to grow.
Paul has told us that our body is made up of many different parts, but they need to function together if they are to function properly. (If one part of the body is hurting, then the rest of the body suffers too. If we are sad the whole of our body is sad. If we are happy the whole of our body is happy. )
Any person can join the Christian church, Jew, Gentile, Master, slave, men and women, old and young, rich, and poor, educated and uneducated. When individuals become Christians they become members of one family, brother and sister in Christ. As far as our Lord is concerned it makes no difference what ever as to which denomination we worship in; e.g. Church of England, Roman Catholic, Methodist or Baptist to name just a few. We still all belong to one body. We are all needed, Just like Paul uses the human body as an example, each part has a part to play. This in turn means that each individual member has a special part to play.
The Christian body – the church should not be fighting against itself. We are all members of the body if we have allowed the Holy Spirit to enter our lives. As Christians we should all try to live in harmony. This can be achieved through humility, gentleness, patience, making allowances, love and peace.
We should not consider ourselves as independent we need to work with our brothers and sisters in faith. We need unity with each other. Unity does not imply uniformity, it does not mean that all Christians will think alike or perform identical ministries. It does imply a common purpose and interdependence within the Body of Christ.
Think of a football team, each player of the team works for the good of the team. They want the team to succeed instead of being disjointed. Like a golf player who only plays for him/her self.
By Gods design the physical body is a beautifully coordinated organism. The body of Christ is the most coordinated thing on earth. Every member is responsible for the reputation of the Church.
e.g. You have a group of friends who have purchased a very large old house, which requires a great deal of renovation. They assumed that the best way forward would be to employ a builder who could carry out the work for them. After he informed them; that by employing him and his workers to carry out the renovation work it would be very costly. So they set out to do the work themselves.
At first they were very unsure would they be able to do the work? As time went by they found themselves slotting nicely into their natural niches and forming something of a dream team. One person learnt to plaster, one had a gift for painting; another person was great at removing old wallpaper from the walls of the old building.
There was one member of the group who was blind and thought she would be redundant, but it turned out someone needed endless patience to obtain quotes, instruct builders, liase with architects and generally make sure the jobs got done. That particular job suited her very well. This group of friends learnt that they needed to work with each other not pull against one another, to enable the renovation work to be completed. They found out that they all had something to contribute towards the restoration work.
This is how it is with the unity of the Body of Christ.
We are not meant to be stand alone members each of us has been given a job/ tasks we can do to enable our Lords work to be carried forward e.g. arrange the flowers in church, lead a bible study group, listen to an individuals problems over a cup of tea. Some times all we need to do is show Gods Love to people. Others may be called to preach Gods word. We belong to a team. We are members of the body of Christ.
“We don’t choose to be in the body. Our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made by our creator, and various members in our bodies are placed there by God. The same is true of our participation in the body of Christ. We do not choose it; we are chosen and included by God. Even in the baptism of an adult, the ultimate choice is the Spirit’s, not ours.
Different parts of the body are made to grow in various ways by genetic coding and process; they do not choose what part to be, nor do they grow on their own. In fact, cells that grow on their own—rogue cells, if you like—have another name in our culture: cancer. The growth of the body is something that happens only when every part of the body is working together. This is also true of the body of Christ. While each one has a gift to share, that gift is given and shared in concert with the rest of the body, with the growth for the individual and the whole provided by God. Rogue individuals, who grow not in God but of themselves, become to the body of Christ as cancer might to the human body. But in the case of the body of Christ, death is followed by resurrection both for the individuals and the body as a whole (Theology and Mission third Sunday after Epiphany)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer made a bold connection between Christ and the church:
The body of Christ is identical with the new humanity which he has assumed. The body of Christ is his church – community. Jesus Christ at the same time is himself and his church – community (1 Corinthians 12: 12). Since Pentecost Jesus Christ lives here on earth in the form of his body, the church - community…. Through the Holy Spirit, the crucified and risen Christ exists as the church – community. (Holding Together. Christopher Cocksworth Canterbury Press)
We need to deepen our commitment to Christ, to love, to people; and certainly not by trying to hide behind the rest of the group or going it alone. Paul states “You can’t hide, because the whole body suffers or rejoices with every part.”

Read Body language p77. Eddie Askew
“ Part of the body of Christ? Who me? Lord, help me to know myself. To recognise, and face, just who I am beneath the words. To open up, to you. To come out from behind the choking smokescreen of spurious spirituality into the clean air of your truth. And, in the clear-eyed recognition of who I am, may I know that I am loved, and accepted, and healed. Then, Lord, I may lean to love and accept, and share in the healing of others. Not because I can project a new image of whom I am, but because what people see in me is you. And nothing else. (Eddie Askew. Many Voices One Voice. A collection of Meditations and Prayers 2002)
Jesus is the head of the church and he needs each one of us to work together in unity to enable his church to grow. Enabling others to accept him into their lives; and become an active member of the body of Christ.
Amen

Sermon. Peter Took.

Sunday January 24th 2010.

Acts 22: 3-16

Heavenly Father, be alongside us this evening as we examine this account of Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus. Help us to experience and understand the message that your word has for us, and equip each of us to play a part in taking that message into the world today. Amen.

Paul was a powerful preacher and teacher, but arguably the very best thing that he had to offer to the world was his personal testimony. A little later in Acts 22 he reveals that he was born a citizen of Rome; his parents (or possibly his grandparents) must have been awarded the rights of citizenship for some good done on behalf of Rome. How the citizenship was acquired by Paul’s family we have no means of knowing, but it is very reasonable to assume that it was for valuable services rendered to a Roman general or administrator in the south-eastern area of Asia Minor.

Therefore, Paul was an extremely rare individual. It was uncommon to find such an educated, intelligent, devout Jew who was also a Roman citizen. Paul’s unique background was to be used by God in a special way, exactly as he wants each of our unique backgrounds to be used in a special way.

So here was Paul, in Jerusalem, standing up to address the crowd, and speaking in Aramaic. This was a similar language to ancient Hebrew. It was the language of the Persian Empire and the Jews had learned it while under Persian control.
So it’s not surprising that they became very quiet (as it says in verse 2). They wanted to hear what he had to say -a perfect preaching opportunity for him, to speak to friends and opponents alike.

First a careful preamble. “I’m a Jew” he says “and although I was actually born in Tarsus, I was brought up right here in Jerusalem! And I was educated by a well known and very respected local Rabbi.”

This was a good start. The crowd would have been impressed.

He continues. “At first I hated the followers of Jesus and I persecuted them”.
(He called them the “followers of ‘This Way’, which was an early form of reference to Christians).
“I arrested men and women and threw them into prisons” . The fact that Paul did this to women shows the intensity of his persecution of Christians at that time of his life.
“Then one day when I was on my way to Damascus, there was a sudden blinding flash of light, and I was converted!”
Well. Paul doesn’t actually say “converted” but that is how history remembers the event. The story of Paul’s conversion must be important for it is found several times in the New Testament – three times in the book of Acts alone. In chapter 9, here in chapter 22, and again in chapter 26. We also find reference to his conversion twice more in Paul’s letters, once in Philippians and then in
1 Timothy.

Like Paul, the best thing that we have to offer our world is not clever academic argument but a personal testimony of what God has done for us. I suspect that most of you have heard my own testimony, but you’re going to hear it again! I was doing a fair amount of platform speaking in my work, and one day I heard a voice in my head, saying: “so you can do public speaking, so why aren’t you doing it for Jesus?” For two years I tried to chase the voice away, and in the end I felt that I just had to do something to resolve it. I got an interview with the then Warden of Readers, who sent me off to join about a dozen others for a day of interviews by a Selection Board. It was a Saturday at St Margaret’s Church at Whitnash. At the end of the day, we each had a personal assessment, and I was told that I wasn’t ready!

That was one of the most devastating moments of my life! I was convinced that the Holy Spirit had been leading me in a positive fashion, and officialdom had decreed otherwise! But.. it was suggested that I should attend an Exploring Christian Ministry course, which was one evening a week for about six months. I can honestly say that that course changed my life. I went back to the Warden of Readers, to ask what happened next, and he asked me to tell him about the course. He listened patiently as I recounted just how fantastic it had been, and then he grinned and said: “Now you’re ready”. He was absolutely right. The immense disappointment of the initial rejection had led to the wonders of a steep leaning curve – learning about myself!

That course was in 1992 and was led brilliantly by Mark Bryant, who at that time was on the staff of Coventry Cathedral, and who subsequently became Archdeacon of Coventry, and in 2007 was installed as Bishop of Jarrow. This was no surprise to me!

Back to the story!

The Kingdom of God will not come to this earth by powerful preachers putting forward articulate arguments. It will come when Christians start telling the story of what Jesus means to them.

Look at the example of advertising on television. we do not have University Lecturers explaining the value of the products. Occasionally a well-known face will present the attractions of life assurance, or what to do about the dangers of high cholesterol, or why we should shop at a specific department store, but mostly we see housewives and the man next door talking about toothpaste, cars, and car insurance. And what do they say? “It works for me.” We buy the product because we can identify with these people and with what they are talking about.
They are ordinary people just like us. This is a powerful reminder of what we should be doing with our witness for the Lord. Someone put it this way:
“Christians should talk to the Lord about their neighbours
and then talk to their neighbours about the Lord.”

Back to the story!

Paul is told to go into Damascus where he will learn what he has to do. The flash of light has blinded him, so his companions lead him. Paul’s temporary loss of his sight raises an interesting point regarding his “Thorn in the Flesh” which he refers to specifically in 2 Corinthians 12. “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me”

There are many theories. Epilepsy and Malaria have each been put forward as the trouble. A logical explanation would be ophthalmia, a condition of the eye caused or worsened by the temporary blindness on the Damascus road. No-one knows, of course, but speculation based on known facts is always interesting. In the mathematical world it’s known as extrapolation. We sometimes call it “guessing”.

Back to the story!

A man named Ananias appeared. We are told that he was highly respected by all the Jews in Damascus. The first thing that Ananias did was to restore Paul’s sight. Apparently he did this simply by saying “Brother, receive your sight!” Then he said:
“The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his Will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard”. This is an important sentence (two sentences, in fact), so it’s worth looking at the separate phrases.

“The God of our Fathers” - Paul wants to make clear that it was the God whom the Jews knew who had contacted him and commissioned him. Paul was not called by any other god than the God of Judaism.
“To know His Will” - God’s primary Will is for humans to know Jesus . God’s further Will for Paul was to be an Apostle to the Gentiles.
“To see the Righteous One” - Paul had had the privilege of a personal revelation of Jesus.
“And to hear an utterance from His mouth” - Paul had heard the voice of God.

And in verse 15, Ananias tells Paul that he is to witness all that he has seen and heard, and that this is for ALL. The gospel of Jesus Christ IS for all. Not all will hear it, but all are included in God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice and Paul’s preaching!

And so we reach the conclusion of this passage. Verse 16. Ananias’ words, directed at Paul, but pointed straight at us! “What are you waiting for?” Get up and sort yourself out, in the name of Jesus”.

I couldn’t have put it any better!

So be it. So say all of us. Amen.

Sermon.  Richard Spicer.  Sunday 17th January 2010

25 – Transforming Communities – “Onward Christian Soldiers”. John 13. 34-35.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Did you see the fascinating programme on a Saturday night a few weeks ago on BBC2 about the night of the blitz of Coventry on 14 November 1940? Using eye-witness accounts and black and white footage shot during the night and in the days that followed the programme graphically described the devastating effects that the events of that night had on the community in the city.

The theme for my talk this morning is “Transforming Communities” – part 3 in the series “Worship God, Make Disciples and Transform Communities based on Bishop Christopher’s vision statement for the Diocese of Coventry. I am going to start my talk this morning by defining the words of my title - “community” – a body of people living in one place united by origin and/ or interest. And “transforming” as changing completely or strikingly. Please hold these definitions in your heads for the next few minutes.

In a recent letter to all Clergy, Readers and Licensed Lay Workers in the Diocese Bishop Christopher followed up his vision statement by writing,
As a preparation for the Jubilee celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of the consecration of the new Cathedral in 2012, the Friends of the Cathedral are re-publishing Stephen Verney’s spiritual classic Fire in Coventry. I am delighted about this and I am keen for this fascinating account of a significant movement of the Spirit in the Diocese fifty years ago to be read again in our day.
This book tells the story of the preparations that were made throughout the Diocese in the three years prior to the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral in 1962 under the guidance of the then Bishop of Coventry, Cuthbert Bardsley. I am going to précis that story for us this morning as we consider “Transforming Communities”.

The story begins with three events,
• The destruction of the second Coventry Cathedral in 1940 during the blitz.
• The proposed consecration of the new Cathedral in 1962.
• The appointment of Stephen Verney by Bishop Cuthbert as Diocesan Missioner and his “getting to know you” visit to the clergy Chapter in Monks Kirby on 17th February 1959.
The ten-strong clergy Chapter in the Rural Deanery of Monks Kirby would at that time meet together once a month to discuss matters of mutual interest, receive instructions from the Bishop and organise joint activities. As part of his visit Stephen Verney posed the question, “What is the Spirit saying to the Churches?” During the discussion that followed the meeting reached a consensus view that “what God wanted was not just a consecrated Cathedral, but a consecrated people living around it”. In order to tease this out further the group went on a “quiet day”, from which it emerged that that they were being called to meet together every week. And despite the business of their lives this they did for a year with amazing results. They studied the Bible and prayed together. They got to know and trust each other to a level they could not have dreamt about before – even to the point of critically appraising each other’s sermons – steady on, now!
They realised they must share their discovery. So in the Autumn of 1959 the Monks Kirby Chapter wrote to Bishop Cuthbert. He called a meeting of his staff and they decide to arrange a three-day residential meeting at Balliol College, Oxford to discuss this issue and all the other issues surrounding the forthcoming consecration of the Cathedral. Following this meeting all Rural Deaneries in the Diocese were invited by the Bishop to set up their own groups along the lines of the Monks Kirby Chapter and almost all did.

The next stage was to set up clergy-laity groups throughout the Diocese consisting of three clergy and nine laity. They met on a regular basis to talk and pray together and to get to know one another.

The third stage saw the formation of groups within parishes to study and pray together on the same model.
Two more initiatives happened before the consecration of the Cathedral. Firstly, the Bishop preached about faith for ten nights to a total of 20,000 people, mostly people from church congregations around the Diocese. These events took place at All Saints, Leamington Spa. And secondly, over forty days and forty nights a “Cross of Nails” from the ruined Cathedral was paraded through all the parishes of the Diocese from parish to parish.

The effect of these five stages throughout the Diocese was like dropping a stone into the centre of a pond and watching the ripples flow out to the edge across the whole pond surface. Five ripples - the clergy groups, the clergy-laity groups, the parish groups, the Bishop’s Mission and the parading of the Cross of Nails throughout the parishes - consecrated the people and transformed their communities in preparation for the consecration of the new Cathedral on May 26th 1962.

So, what was fuelling this transforming force? The answer is spelled out by Jesus in John, chapter 13, verses 34 and 35,
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another”
By meeting together in their various groups, by getting to know each other the Christians of the Coventry Diocese in the late 1950s and early 1960s had started to love each other in the way Jesus loves. They were becoming a consecrated people and the Holy Spirit was able to work through them.

If you walk through the churchyard you will (soon) see the beautiful carpets of snowdrops. How do we know they are snowdrops? Because they look and behave like snowdrops. Each individual one acts like a snowdrop so that together they transform the floral community in the churchyard at this time of year. If you plant them somewhere else they will transform the floral community at that place.

In his book Fire in Coventry Stephen Verney tells the story of an Angolan girl named Maria who when asked the question how do you evangelise in your church replied, “We don’t give pamphlets to people or have a mission. We just send one or two Christian families to live in the village, and when they see what Christians are like, then they want to be Christians themselves.” (Verney 1964:74).

The message identified by Bishop Christopher for us this morning is clear. We have to transform our own community – our own community of St. Mary’s, Cubbington – into a people who truly love each other as Jesus loves us, a consecrated people, and then through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Grace of God we will become true soldiers of Christ. Then the community out there in Cubbington will start to be transformed. Like we will be singing in our next hymn this morning, “Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war, with the Cross of Jesus going on before.”

Let’s pray. Jesus, help us love each other as you love us so that we can transform ourselves and then, like the first Christians of your time, like the Christians of our Diocese and Maria’s Angolan Christians half a century ago start to transform our community of Cubbington. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen.

Reference:
Verney, S. (1964) Fire in Coventry. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

Sermon. Jo King. Sunday 10th January 2010

Luke 10: 1-12
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

LK 10:5 "When you enter a house, first say, `Peace to this house.' 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

LK 10:8 "When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, `The kingdom of God is near you.' 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 `Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.' 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

Acts 10:34-48a
Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached-- 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

AC 10:39 "We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen--by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

AC 10:44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.
Then Peter said, 47 "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have." 48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Making New Disciples

Readings: Acts 10:34-48a
Luke 10:1-12

Last week Rosemary started us thinking as a congregation on the first statement of our vision, Worshipping God. As she explained Richard and I are looking at the other two aspects: Making new disciples and Transforming communities. These three aspects are interlinked and intertwined; you cannot have the last two without the first, and for the first to develop you need the last two.

Worshipping God with all our being and in all aspects of our life should be at the heart of our faith. It is essential so that we are in partnership with God in sharing the Good news with others. Yet for many the purpose of Church is to concentrate on worshipping God and nothing else. But that is only one aspect of what we are called to be and do. The second two statements in the vision are about not just looking to God but also looking out beyond the church’s walls to those whose faith is struggling and those who are without Christian faith.

For many including me this can be the most daunting aspect of being a Christian. I used to think that this was for the Evangelists like Billy Graham or the Vicar but not ordinary me. But when I think of my faith journey, I can see how many different people were involved in my growing faith and that made me think again of my role in making new disciples. We all have different gifts and God wants to use them to bring others to faith.

I realised that my difficulties came from me thinking that I had to do something I was not comfortable with, but when I started just talking about what God means to me, gossiping about Him if you like, and how important he is in my life, I find I have no difficulty. We sometimes have International Students sharing Christmas with us and on one occasion we had a Chinese boy who knew nothing about Christian faith I just chatted to him about Christmas and what it meant to me and thought no more of it but he did and went on an Alpha course and became a Christian.

Making new disciples starts with us explaining how important, exciting, life-changing, challenging, comforting etc God is to us. Often seeing God active in our lives starts others on their journey of faith. But if our faith is not known to others then others are not going to know that God important to us

In the lesson from Acts we see Peter actually in the act of making new disciples. It highlights some of the principles that we are called to use. The passage in Acts is the climax of a story that starts with God touching someone who was not a believer, Cornelius the Centurion, and giving him a vision to send for Peter to answer his questions.

First principle: Is to understand that God has often gone before us to the individual to prepare the way. We should be praying that God has already started his work in their lives before we ever open our mouths. This was so with the Centurion Cornelius who was a God fearer in other words a good man doing good deeds, but did not know God. Acts tells us at the beginning of Chapter 10 that: “One day at about three in the afternoon Cornelius had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!"
Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked.
The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.”

Second Principle: Cornelius sent to Joppa asking that Peter would come to him. People have to give us permission to share our faith story with them. Just preaching at everyone you meet will on the whole be counter productive and might even cause the opposite to what you intend. But being given permission is not necessarily verbal or direct and people can ask questions at any time. If they know that you are a Christian then they may be comfortable enough to ask when the time is ripe for them. 28 Peter said to them: "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?"
If as a church we welcome all at whatever stage or age they are at and are ready to reach out as Peter did with Cornelius, even if it takes us outside our comfort zone then we will see people becoming new disciples. We must be ready to go wherever God sends us even if it is not our normal thing, i.e. to the pub, other organisations etc. Peter at the beginning of this chapter was not very comfortable at being in the house of a gentile, but God in preparation for the invitation from Cornelius, gave him a vision telling him to eat food that the Jews considered unclean, Peter was reluctant "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean. "The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." Acts 10:14-15. To do God’s work Peter had to go where he didn’t want to. 28 He said to them: "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. 29 So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection.
By stepping out we meet people who might never come to church such as the youngster that we meet at Nightlight who are amazed that we are giving them free hot drinks and that we are volunteers from different churches.

Third Principle: Is that we are to share the good news with everyone because as Peter puts it “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” The good news should be shared with all ages: young and old, rich or poor and all races. God loves his creation and desires all to know him.

Fourth Principle: Is that we all need to know what the good news is and to know the reality in our lives. We can’t explain about God’s love if we don’t know it ourselves. Peter is clear that we all should: “know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.” If we not confident about how to share the good news then doing a course such as Alpha or joining a Home Group is a great confidence builder.

Fifth Principle: Is that ultimately it is the work of the Holy Spirit that brings people to faith: While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. Our responsibility is to be prepared to share the good news when God wants us to. We can’t make new disciples on our own but only through the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Sixth Principle: Is that once someone decides to take a step of faith then it our responsibility to help that person understand more about God and learn of his wonderful love for us and all that it means. Here again the courses such as the confirmation class that Rosemary is running at the end of January or an Alpha are really helpful. Peter did not leave it at just preaching he arranged for them to be baptised and looked after.

Finally we need to be aware that we may be one of many who share the gospel with an individual and it may be many years later that they become a disciple. The word disciple means being a student and for all of us it is a lifelong journey that we are all on. Nobody knows everything about faith and there is so much for us all to learn. The more we learn of God, and the more we are open to his Spirit working in our lives, the more excited we will get about God, and in turn the more people will want to know why we are so excited, the more we can tell them about God. Jesus commanded us to go out and make disciples. If we don’t then our faith and our church will not grow and will die. We need to take up the challenge and be ready to share our faith and make new disciples as Jesus commanded.

Sermon. Revd. Rosemary Pantling. Sunday 3rd January 2010.

Worship God
Worshiping God, Making new disciples, Transforming communities.

These are the three parts of the vision statement for our Diocese, Deanery and parish. The three sum up what we, the Church, are for.

Over these first three Sundays of our new year, myself, Jo our reader and Richard our reader in training, will be looking at each of these three aspects of our church life. They are very important for us all to consider. What we say in these sermons is just by way of opening up the subjects. What I do want to urge is that you take time to think about where you stand and what you think is important about each of the three, and then you make the effort to find out what those who lead our church think. Our Annual meeting in April may seem a long way away, but it will come round all too soon. Those you choose as churchwardens and PCC members are the ones who put the vision into practice. It matters what they believe about the three aspects, worshipping God, making new disciples, transforming communities. If they are to lead this church in the right direction they must care about each of these three aspects of our church life and you must know what they think about them.

We begin today with the first, and I would say the foundation of what it is to be the Church – that primarily we are worshipping God.

How we worship God can raise strong feelings in Christians. All too often heated discussions seem to entirely centre around our own personal preferences, music style, language, books, clothes, what we say and what we do. But how often do we honestly ask ourselves what God wants?

At this time of year it is in the story of Christ’s nativity that we find much to guide us as to what is asked of us in worship. At Christmas we heard of the coming of the shepherds, the first people to worship Jesus. Today we heard the account from Matthew’s gospel of the coming of the Magi. Let’s see what each of these have to tell us.

First the shepherds. They were Jewish, they were insiders. They were in a way the equivalent for us of those who have been born into Christian families, grow up learning the stories and experiencing worship as part of everyday life.

It means they were on the spot when this extraordinary event happened, and understood what the angels were saying to them. They recognised the word of God spoken to them. It may not have been an everyday occurrence to see and hear a host of angels, but they knew a Messiah was expected one day, so they were ready to hear the news. They acted on it straightaway. It was the natural thing to go to worship the new born baby. We then, if we are insiders used to coming to church often, familiar with the words and actions of worship, would we recognise when and if God was telling us something important?

Those of us who have been brought up to worship need to be ready to recognise God speaking to us in an extraordinary way. And when he does, notice that the shepherds’ immediate reaction is to go and worship. “So they hurried off” (Luke 2.16)
Not, “let’s wait til it’s convenient”, “til we’ve got someone in to look after the sheep”, “til it’s daylight”. They hurried off – eager to worship. Are we always eager to come and worship?

And when they got there - notice they did not have a problem with the unfamiliar setting. The familiar routine of regular communication with God allowed them to be open to the unfamiliar. They did not say, this can’t be it, this is a filthy stable, just a poor couple, just a baby. With open hearts and minds they hurried in. And what they met with there, as they worshipped the baby, was so life changing that they rushed off to share the news with everyone else. Jo will talk to us more about that next week, but just for now notice that meeting and worshipping Jesus automatically led to wanting to spread the word.

And the worship did not stop as they left the building. The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God. The worship in the holy place spilled out into worship in their daily life – they took home with them that attitude of praise.

So if the shepherds represent those of us who have been brought up to come to church and worship regularly – would we, like them, recognise God’s message directly to us when it comes? Do we respond by coming to worship eagerly, and do we return from worship letting our awe and wonder and joy spill out into our everyday lives?

What then of the Magi? The wise ones, not necessarily men of course, for we are never told that, neither are we told how many there were.

The Magi are traditionally understood not to have been Jewish, for they were from a land far away. They represent those of us who were not brought up as Christians, who have other beliefs or none, other understandings of the world, and who are far from God. However God does not always wait for us to find him, he will meet us where we are. These wise people studied the stars, so it was a star God used to draw them to him.

In their wisdom they did not think they had all the answers. They thought the star was important, and were willing to undertake a hazardous journey to an unknown destination. Acting on what they knew of the world they naturally sought the King of the Jews at the royal palace. When those unfamiliar with church are led by God to seek him here – do we make our church the equivalent of Herod’s palace or the stable? Is it here they will find Jesus or will our fixed ideas send them away to seek elsewhere? The Magi were open minded enough to realise that they had gone to the wrong place and to go on looking. Are we like them, open to exploring new ideas, willing to make a great effort, eager to seek God for ourselves?

God will continue to draw us to him even when we let our own expectations get in the way. Do we seek God only in certain places and situations we deem fitting? Do we think worship can only happen in special buildings and with special people?

And let’s look at the way the Magi worshipped when they found the one they were looking for.

They bowed down. Kneeling, bowing, both signs of humility before one greater than us.

When we worship we recognise the worth of the one we worship is so much greater then we are. We cannot worship if we are concerned with our own status, with things being the way we want them. True humility, true worship, is so bound up with the one worshipped that we do not notice ourselves and our concerns.

Have you noticed that every posture we use in churches can be one of respect and humility? We kneel, or sit if our joints and backs won’t let us kneel, to make ourselves lower, in awe of the greatness of God.. We raise our arms to show that we look up to the one greater than us. We stand as we would stand up out of respect when someone enters a room. We bow as we may bow for royalty. If we have our eyes and hearts fixed on Jesus it does not matter and we will not notice what we or any one else is doing. A truly worshipping group of people will be in myriad different postures all at once. It’s only when we take our eyes off Jesus and look round that we notice if we are all doing the same thing.

The Magi came, knelt and opened their treasures. Opening, a gesture of generosity and sharing. And they offer gifts. Gold. What is gold? Wealth, currency, money. Gold for a King, payment of what is due to him. This Christmas we have naturally spent money generously on our loved ones. As we come to worship we naturally offer generously out of our wealth that which is due to our King.

The second gift, Frankincense. Interesting in our modern times that so many spectaculars, from pantomimes to Rock Concerts, rely on the ubiquitous dry ice to provide that special sense of atmosphere. Long before we discovered how to harness this useful property of carbon dioxide, to help the Good Fairy or our Rock Gods appear mysteriously out of nowhere, ancient peoples have used incense in just the same way in worship. It creates that same special atmosphere – the sense of mystery when clouds of incense obscure the sight, the sweet fragrance exciting the senses, the smoke rising symbolic of prayers rising to heaven. Frankincense then, is used to make an atmosphere of reverence and mystery, of harnessing all our God given senses in worship.

But Christian worship is not just about mystery. We do not come to worship only to be reminded of the distance between us and God. And that is where the 3rd gift comes in. Myrrh. The spice used for anointing the dead. The reminder that Jesus came, not a remote and divine being, but a human baby, who would grow into a human man who would die for us on the cross. A death which would break down every barrier between us and God. A God who wants not distance and mystery between us, but intimacy and human relationship. Worship in the end is about meeting the awesome and mysterious God and discovering that he is our intimate friend.

The Magi met Jesus in the stable, not in the place where they expected to find him. We will meet with Jesus where he takes us, if we have the courage to go. We should expect to meet him when we worship. And as we meet him we will know ourselves loved, and our worship will spill out into joyful encounter with him everyday and everywhere. And that will lead us on into making new disciples and transforming our community. But that’s for next time.

Sermon 20 December 2009. Richard Spicer

24 – “Four Candles!” The Light of the World.
John 1. 1 – 18.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, open our eyes and hearts to your message for us this evening. Amen.

Let me start by asking you a question. What am I holding up before you? (Holds up 4 large candles). That’s right, four candles. What does that remind of? The famous “Fork handles” sketch by the Two Ronnies by any chance. That iconic sketch was said by Ronnies Barker and Corbett to be their favourite and they had a few brilliant ones to choose from. I’m sure that sometime over the Christmas TV that sketch will be shown and rightly so.
The Two Ronnies were excellent on their own, Ronnie B in Porridge for example, but together they were exceptional with their individual talents fitting together wonderfully – the two individual parts when put together making something much greater than on their own.
And the same can be said for these candles. They are made up of two distinct parts – the wick in the centre and the wax surrounding it. Individually they will do something – the wick will burn if you light it and the wax will melt if you heat it, but you will only get a black mess and a pool of molten wax respectively. You WILL NOT get a useful light.
However, if you put the two parts together with the wick in the centre and the wax around it and then light it the candle will produce a bright and useful light which WILL burn for a good long time.

And, you know, it is exactly the same with us and Jesus. If we do not engage with Jesus he is still there waiting for us. But the light is dim and only in the background of our lives.
However, if we do interact with him and put him at the centre of our lives wrapping our lives around him then the light will shine brightly. Indeed the light, the light of the world we heard about in the final reading tonight, will shine so brightly in our hearts and our lives both this Christmas and into 2010 and beyond.

So, this Christmas let’s really celebrate the birthday of Jesus. If you have not interacted with Jesus and recognised him as your personal Saviour then seriously think about doing that this Christmas – put him at the centre of your life and build your life up around him as the wax surrounds the wick in the candle. And then the light will shine both in your life and out from you for the rest of the world to see.
And if tonight you do know Jesus as your personal Saviour then this Christmas recommit his position to be at the centre of your life and the light will continue to shine both in your life and out from you for the rest of the world to see.


Let’s pray again. Lord Jesus, that tiny babe of Bethlehem in the first Christmas, help us to put you at the centre of our lives this Christmas. And then like the Two Ronnies, like the wick and wax of the candle, together we WILL shine a light, a bright, bright light out into the world. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

Sermon.  Revd. Rosemary Pantling      Sunday 15^th November 2009 

Hebrews 10.1-14, 19-25  Opening the way to God

A man dies and meets St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. Peter says to the man, "Here's how it works. You need to have one hundred points to get into heaven. You tell me about all the good things you've done. They are all worth a certain number of points. If your total is one hundred or more, you can come in."

"Well," says the man. "I was happily married to the same woman for 52 years. I never looked at another woman. I was attentive and loved her dearly."

"That's great," says St. Peter. "That'll be two points."

"Hmmm," says the man. "This is going to be harder than I thought. Well, I attended church regularly, volunteered my time and tithed faithfully."

"Wonderful," says St. Peter, "That's worth another point."

"One point!" says the man. "Okay, okay. I was involved with a prison ministry for twenty-five years. I went into the prison, at least monthly, and shared Jesus with them."

"Wow!" says St. Peter. "That's another two points!"

"Only two points!" says the man. "At this rate, it'll be by the grace of God that'll I'll ever get into this place."

"Bingo!" says St. Peter. "That's one hundred points! Come on in." 

We have always wanted to know how to get to heaven.  We know God made an agreement,  the covenant, between  himself and his people.  Covenants of course are two sided agreements.  God would always keep his side, but the Jews for their part were supposed to remain faithful to God, to worship him alone and keep his commandments.  They knew they often broke their side of the agreement.   

And so they needed priests.  Priests to make offerings to God and pray to God on behalf of the people.  Because it was believed that God was so holy that sinful people couldn’t go near, priests were entrusted with the detailed knowledge of the rituals which would put that right, and so only they could perform the sacrifices, and eventually only in the one place, the most holy place, the temple in Jerusalem. 

And the High priest in particular had the most important function of all.  Once a year, as on the Day of Atonement, he made the sacrifice which took away the sins of the people and which enabled him to enter, only he and only on that one day, the most holy place of all, the inmost part of the temple known as the Holy of Holies, the place where God was most especially thought to dwell. 

So the High priest was the ultimate go-between, needed because God is so terrible and powerful and awesome that it is quite impossible for sinful humans to go anywhere near him.     

Only by first making atonement, offering a sacrifice, may we approach, and even then only the high priest, as intermediary, as go-between, may enter God’s presence.   

But the sacrifices don’t work.  The writer of the letter to the Hebrews points out that if they worked, they wouldn’t have to keep repeating them year after year.  The Jewish law “can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.  If it could, would they not have stopped being offered?”  (Heb 10. 1,2) 

So Jesus has come.  He has done away with the need to make payment for sin, because he is both the priest and the sacrifice.  Jesus the High priest has offered the ultimate sacrifice, the sacrifice of his own life.  And this will not need to be repeated once a year but has been accomplished once and for all.    

We don’t sacrifice animals any more, but Christians still act as if they can pay their way into heaven.      But actually it’s not possible to earn heaven.  And in fact heaven is not what any of this is really about.  It’s not that we want to be good enough for heaven, but good enough for God.  It’s not about what happens after we die, but about whether we know God now. 

Priests acted as go betweens.  Between God and the people.  Because God was too great, too frightening, too dangerous, to go near. 

You will remember that powerful phrase from the moment of Jesus’ death on the cross in Matthew, Mark and Luke  

the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom

The curtain which cut off the Holy of Holies is symbolically torn apart – now all may approach God, without fear.

Well for us the language of access, of opening up the way to God, is still very important.  We nowadays recognise more and more how important go-betweens can be when relationships have broken down, from Marriage guidance to Acas, from United Nations diplomacy to teachers arbitrating in playground disputes, we know that often we can’t sort things out alone.

And maybe once in a while, if we manage to take God really seriously, when we allow ourselves to properly realise what separates us from God, our inadequacy, our failure, our collusion in so much that is evil and unjust in this world, in the face of that awesome power and might, that perfect holiness – dare we really approach?  If we really think about who God is and what God is maybe we should be scared, and overawed, and realise our utter need of Jesus to help us approach our God.

Often when we come into this church building we will find this red cord across the chancel, and the gates to the sanctuary closed.

What does this rope say to us?  That we may not enter?  Why? Why shouldn’t we come into this part of church?  Especially in fact if we want to pray in peace, this may be the best place to come into.  Why again should we not come into the sanctuary, the bit with the communion table in it?  If we are saying this is the most special bit of the church, where we share the bread and wine, should we not be saying we are all welcome to approach this special part?  What especially do the rope and gate say to visitors to this lovely building?  Is God welcoming them in, or keeping them out?  How do we decide who may come in?

Jesus died to remove the barriers.  Why do we put them back up?  As we think about the rope, the gate, lets ask ourselves what is my rope, my gate, that is closed against God?  What stops me getting near to God?  What barriers do I put up?

Earlier in Hebrews in chapter 4 verse 16 we find these words

Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Let those be the words we remember as we approach and meet with God  in the bread and wine this morning 

Or if that’s rather a long phrase to keep in your mind, remember the man trying to get into heaven.   

"Only two points!" says the man. "At this rate, it'll be by the grace of God that'll I'll ever get into this place."

"Bingo!" says St. Peter. "That's one hundred points! Come on in."