I’ve been asked to share the words I felt led to offer to my former Circuit as I bade farewell to them earlier. I shall never forget the kind words about my ministry and the fact lots of people didn’t want me to leave...
I’m overwhelmed by the numbers of you who’ve come this afternoon. Thank you.
The last 11 months since I had any contact with most of you have been for both of us extremely difficult.
Both of us have been unwell with terrible breathing difficulties. For me, to have a long period unable to speak without coughing; unable to walk far without going violently hot, and unable to do anything without feeling shattered afterwards has been tough. We are both turning the corner - I’m now only under two hospital consultants - it was four.
I remain deeply deeply sad I have to leave this Circuit - I don’t want to go, but circumstances meant I had no choice but to make that decision. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. In 11 months away and even after curtailment I want you all to know we haven’t stopped caring about you.
I don’t want this afternoon to be about me but about you. I want you to think about your call to be a Circuit, responding to God’s invitation to be faithful.
Three invitations...
First the invitation to be God’s people, God’s people building the Kingdom not merely the church..
When life gets you - those times of uncertainty and vulnerability all of us in this room have faced at some point when we’ve felt we cannot cope, we need the invitation to come to God with all of that stuff.
We need direction as the answer to our prayers if we have the strength to pray at all...
The late Dave Allen used to tell this story:
I was on my way to Limerick and I said to this fella do you know where this place is? And he said, “Ahh yes. Ahh yes. Oh God yes. Now go down the road, straight down the road just follow your nose. Ahh keep going straight and you’ll see a turn on the right-hand side. Now ignore that. And then there’s a second turn on the right-hand side and ignore that one as well. There’s two, three, four, five. Five turns on the right-hand side, ignore them. Then you see a house on the left-hand side, turn left there. That’s where you want to go.” And I said why did you tell me about all the right hand turns? Why didn’t you just say take the first on the left? And he said “Who’s giving these directions, me or you.”
The direction we are invited to share is less complicated than Dave Allen’s Irishman gave.
“O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.”
O come let us sing for joy to the Lord, an invitation to share joy. An invitation to remember our blessings and to say thank you. An invitation to put worship at the heart of the Hastings Bexhill and Rye Circuit agenda, thinking, and planning. Worship of God should be our priority and our motivation to keep going.
What’s concerning you at the moment? Money, falling numbers, maintaining buildings?
Some of you have called me naive over the last seven years for saying this but I’ll say it one last time and then go —- put worship, singing for joy to the Lord first then all your other problems will sort. I’ve been put back together through corporate worship. Lis will tell you over tea for several months last autumn I would make every excuse under the sun not to go to church on a Sunday morning. I couldn’t be bothered to go. She dragged me into the church at Hailsham one Sunday and denied being with you, that congregation let me be and gently encouraged me. Most of them never knew I was a minister, until I shared in a service in May there. I needed to come back. O come let us sing for joy to the Lord.
Then secondly, the invitation to do our best. I chose as our Gospel reading Jesus invitation to ordinary folk like us to follow him. The disciples went as they were. Jesus saw huge potential in them. They didn’t always get it right. And sometimes Jesus got really miffed with them. I just want to say use your gifts and celebrate them. In our seven years together, you’ve worked hard on opening churches to serve your communities, through new drop ins, book cafes, good quality well managed premises, wildlife gardens, Flower Festivals, engagement with schools and nursing homes: the list is long. Messy Churches have grown, ecumenical co operation where it works has grown, some of you have made brave decisions to do things differently, and we’ve done some good stuff studying missiology and spirituality together. We cannot do everything, else we burn out. We are called to do those things we do well, really well. We are called to do our best as a response to the amazing grace of God.
I always use these words in my last service in a Circuit. You weren’t meant to hear them until 2022, they are words of Oscar Romero:
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime
only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise
that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete,
which is another way of saying
that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No programme
accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives
includes everything.
That is what we are about.
We plant a seed that will one day grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations
that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects
far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything,
and there is a sense of liberation
in realising that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning,
a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace
to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
The invitation to do our best. What are you good at? Rejoice in it and keep doing it. If I in some way in this time have planted seeds or laid foundations then my being here, whatever difficulties there have been, will have been worth it.
Then finally the invitation to just be faithful.
Psalm 95 has this warning to us: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” Part of the Psalm is an illustration of Israel in the wilderness as a people who hardened their hearts against God.
It ends suddenly with God’s frightening warning “Therefore I swore in My anger, truly they shall not enter into My rest.” God making it clear if we get our priorities wrong there are dire consequences. So friends keep being faithful, simply that. No matter what the future holds keep being faithful.
In all your actions, conversations, and when things aren’t as you like, act like you are God’s people, let God’s love direct you.
I find myself after 22 years of circuit ministry without appointment. I have no churches to care for and I’m under the direction of others as I build myself up residing in The Fens Circuit for the next year. I need to be reminded I’m still a child of God, I have gifts to use and to do my best. Albeit in a place I never expected to be. We are getting used to The Fens - the pace of life is slow, the roads all look the same and have great ditches either side of them and a good congregation in some villages is four people! We’ve made them six! And I’ve had to get Hymns and psalms out again.
You travel on here as a Circuit community, perhaps wondering where you’re going next. Please gather in a few weeks to celebrate Peggy’s eight years with you as she sits down, and as the new church year opens, will you do one thing for me? Will you look after Tricia, your next Superintendent. Thank you.
As for me, it’s been a huge privilege to serve you. We will both remember you in our prayers. My first steward had a vestry prayer - we thank you for your servant Ian now blot him out. In the end it’s all about God in Christ. Remember the invitation. God bless you.
Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
Thanks be to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment