Pentecost thoughts...

I have had a long, but rewarding day celebrating the feast of Pentecost. This morning was a lively service at Christchurch, Bexhill, celebrating their Flower Festival, I had lunch on the beach afterwards, then went to our lovely village chapel at Ninfield, followed by a cup of tea with some lovely people who look after me, which included a disection of Eurovision! Then tonight we worshipped in the 16th century church at East Guileford, set in a field, surrounded by sheep, with no electricity. It was powerful reminding us we are part of a story that goes back centuries. A good day. 

I have tried to ponder what Pentecost is for today and have been thinking about colour and my thoughts went to this window as I prepared material for today. 

 I love to sit and look at this window. All of us have special places to go where we sense the presence of the God who calls us.This is the regimental chapel of the Manchester Regiment within Manchester Cathedral. The cathedral is situated right at the heart of the city, it is not very big, but every day is alive with people coming in and going out. This part of the cathedral is quite dark but came alive when this window was installed, a mass of red. First maybe we remember God’s Spirit comes to us as we are. Often when I need to sit in quietness in a cathedral or even on a bench looking at the sea it is when I am exhausted and need energy and refocus. There have been many times like that over the past year or so and even more in years past. Sometimes we simply need to stop and say to God, you know what, I need your help. Do you need energy as a church this morning? Not just because you are busy welcoming people this weekend, but do you need energy to keep going, do you need refocus, do you need a pouring of God’s blessing in your life here to enthuse you again to do what it is you are being asked to do. Too many churches it seems to me are in a perpetual state of exhaustion. The promise of God for us at Pentecost is this “I will put my Spirit within you, and you will live.” Live, not exist. Live. Live, not getting through. Live! What brings us alive today?

The Cathedral was badly hit by a bomb in World War II, which destroyed all the old windows. The Fire Window was installed in the chapel during renovation. It is meant to remember the blitz and the carnage outside. Perhaps a symbol that the world is not a nice place this morning, that it is difficult and dangerous out there, but we are led in our thoughts and intentions out there. That is the heart of Pentecost it seems to me. Previously wobbly disciples, unreliable turncoats, fearful of any challenge are transformed with power to go out and share in a world equally as difficult as ours is the colour and life of Jesus. More and more we are seeing churches grow because they are out amongst the flames and destructive forces of life. There are people in desperate need around your community today. I took a church on an away day. Most of them told me there is no need they can see around their church. I reminded them of private isolation and loneliness behind net curtains.

Pentecost is a reminder in the Church of the need to engage. This window by the way was damaged and had to be restored again in 1996. Why? Well in June 1996 an IRA bomb destroyed most of Manchester City Centre, a miracle no one lost their life. It was the last day of my second year in college. We were going into the city shopping. I overslept, so we didn’t go. I heard a loud bang. We lived three miles away. I will never forget walking and seeing the destruction that evening. The world is harsh and difficult but where we are meant to be. But there is hope. This window, every time I look at it, says, you know, whatever you are facing, God can transform it. The flame of love is stronger than anything. The Lord is here. His Spirit is with us. We need to pray for that Spirit to come and renew us every day. 

Perhaps I am calling for some positivity around and about. A church magazine issued over the weekend commenting on our Circuit mission audit said I have good ideas about the future. But all I am trying to do is remind people of the need to be positive because God invites us to live in the moment and every day can be an opportunity to experience energy and life and hope. I love the Eurovision Song Contest, sad individual that I am. I loved the Australian song. Guy Sebastian is a huge star in Australia, Other countries put huge stars into the contest. The UK does not, hence cinq points! I loved these lyrics:

I don't want tomorrow
Oh baby tonight's so good
Tonight's so good.
This is one tough act to follow
Oh baby tonight's so good
Forget tomorrow
We can do tonight again. 

Oh everyone's got their problems
There's always something on your midn
Oh but tonight we aint gotta solve them
For now let's leave them all behind.

Do want you wanna do... get on with it!

Live the moment! I have learnt to do that over the past few years. Worry less and live more. 

A generation or two ago the preacher would have shouted for revival on Pentecost Sunday. Perhaps today’s church needs to relearn the simple truth that God is all sufficient, and if God is all sufficient then we ought to be able if we know God, if we pray, if we read his word, if we know our context and if we trust one another to be confident in the future, oughtn’t we?? 

That's what I think, anyway. 

Ascension Day Peace

We have the resources given to us by God to live life to the full. But sometimes we forget his presence when life is full of stress. Do you get stressed? I was coming out of Priory Meadow car park this morning after getting my little bit of haircut. A different girl this morning – Lauren – so we had to go through the usual – “doing anything nice at the weekend?” “Off work today?” “Do people go to church, then?”!!!! Coming out I hit this queue. A lady had we ascertained after about 20 minutes managed to break the ticket machine so the queue behind her got irate, shouted at her, blew horns at her, and clearly was in a hurry. When we meet situations like this we think we cannot cope, the blood pressure rises, we feel it is too much so we forget that actually it will all sort – even if we are a little bit late to the next appointment. We stress because we think the situation we are in we cannot get out of and we sink into despair because we just want life to be smooth.

Forty days ago concerning Jesus we began to celebrate: He is risen! Today the Church remembers his Ascension –– the taking up of Jesus, 40 days after the resurrection, in the presence of his gathered disciples. The disciples had the resources, his love, presence, power, leading, guiding, peace at the broken ticket machine of life, times when they got confused and life was tough. And now, as he prepares to leave them again I wonder whether their initial reaction is stress. How are we going to cope with the world, alone, our resources gone?

Many of us will know the depth of emotions wrapped up in separation. Most of us know the depths of separation – of absence and endings. We’ve been thinking this last week about VE Day – people whose families were torn apart by war, as some celebrated reunion, others mourned as loved ones went and never came back. We have seen another earthquake in Nepal, people gone, despair and tragedy. We have had an election we are still analysing. There were a group of MPs who lost their seats, some after many years of service, on a news programme yesterday talking about not having a clue what they are going to do now. Separation from a world that they knew well. In life we have times of painful numb periods – after redundancy, after bereavement or the end of a relationship, wondering how life will be for us on our own, and you wonder what those years together were all about. We are made to be together, and apart is very hard to cope with. The empty chair, the places of memory, the adjustment to a life without the person you wish were still there or the job you wish you still went out to do.

Sometimes in apparent absence there is a deeper presence -which is worth noting on Ascension Day.

Perhaps today teaches that it is okay to have things stop, yes, there is adjustment, but after the pain and the acceptance things have changed, there can be a movement that is liberating. New relationships, new adventures, things we could not do before. The church is hopeless at finishing things saying this has been good but it has run its course. Sometimes ending things can lead to a new beginning for us. We have to separate from things, let go, in order to pick up again and understand what God might be doing.

The local Jesus on Ascension Day became very new. Today says to the Church, God is still present to you and to me – even if sometimes we have to look hard. It’s as if he loves to invite us to find him through our pressing into the world with our eyes and ears open to discern him – perhaps where we might expect to find him least. We have to look for him all around us. People want to find God and talk about him. This is a largely churchless society, hence Lauren this morning “do people still go to church?”

Am I so stressed even by church, I get enraged in a queue like cross motorists? Have I forgotten that I am not alone, but maybe I have to adapt my thinking as Jesus moves me on? Am I prepared to live in the world, and follow Jesus way, and not my own ideas? 

"While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.‟

They ‘returned to Jerusalem with great joy.‟ They had an unshakeable conviction in God’s sovereign power over all the earth.They knew that whatever fate befell them as individuals; ultimately all would always be well.

Christ does sit at the right hand of God, guiding his Church and us his people – always. Stress, separation and being sent – when we feel alone, we need to turn to him, and when we realise his presence we need to go his way. I stood by this window on Monday - called peace - in Canterbury Cathedral, for a long time. Peace is offered to us and sometimes all we have to do is look up for it... 

Commissioning of Street Pastors

I am about to go out and preach at the commissioning service for street pastors in our community in Rye. I have written this reflecting on this morning and on our call to be out there doing something... More information on our local project can be found here
www.ryeandbattleobserver.co.uk/news/local/pastor-project-hits-the-streets-1-6717763
and also:www.streetpastors.org/locations/rye/

“Why don’t you just do something?” Ever had that said to you? “I want you to make a difference to my life as it is right now.”

Tonight we gather at a momentous point in the story of the Christian church here in Rye and District as we commission street pastors and launch this wonderful and necessary ministry in this town and around. We are here not just as churches tonight but with police, the mayor, councillors, representatives of community groups and those who have already helped us with expertise – street pastors in Bexhill and in Hastings. We are here, after a lot of prayer, conversation, and more prayer to do something.

“Why don’t you just do something? I want you to make a difference to my life as it is right now.”

You know churches are good at talking, procrastinating, and then making excuses as to why we can’t do something. The need is there but we let the need remain a need as we worry about internal things and spend if we aren’t careful all our energy on a structure rather than a Saviour who sends us out to do. People, it seems to me want to see something coming out of the church today to engage with the church today. They want to know what we will do as a result of a faith we say we have. All the agencies here tonight are judged on what they do to make life better for others. Like politicians. Did you know there is a General Election this Thursday? Mr Miliband was in Hastings this morning. I went to hear him. He told me what will happen if I vote for Mr Cameron. I went home and found my post. A personal letter from Mr Cameron telling me what will happen if I vote for Mr Miliband. The joy of a marginal constituency. The question time on Thursday had the public wanting to know what the parties will do, not what the others will do, people want some action, not finger pointing.

Interestingly, I sat there this morning as Mr Miliband was somewhat late, writing this sermon on a piece of paper.I had this suit on but an ordinary shirt. I was pounced on by one of his people! “Are you a journalist?” she asked. When I told her I was writing a sermon for the launch of street pastors in Rye she had no answer for me!

Jesus tells perhaps the most famous of his parables in response to someone asking what must I do to inherit eternal life. The person quotes the law, love God, with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength and love your neighbour as you love yourself. “Do this, and you will live” says Jesus. The person asks “who is my neighbour” and Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan to make a point about doing the Gospel.

It seems to me the Good Samaritan story is an excellent one to challenge us about whether we are really Jesus sort of people. Let’s very briefly look at the three people who came across need on the street.

Consider the priest and the Levite. They were very cautious. They saw the man but could not risk stopping and helping. The Law had regulations about ritual purity, they couldn’t risk touching a dead body. Perhaps helping might cost money or disrupt the day. They perhaps were on their way to an important meeting! Are we too busy to notice the need on the street, and perhaps more seriously are we wanting the need not to be there, do we wish it wasn’t there? That sort of thing doesn’t happen in Rye. Some people have questioned why we need street pastors. Come to the nightclub at 3am on a Friday night. Walk in Hastings town centre on a Saturday night. There are people liked the beat up traveller, children of God, desperate for some doing from someone to make a difference, a moment of mercy and grace for them, right there.

It is so easy to ignore needy people, or label them, or say the responsibility for them lies elsewhere. We do not want to get involved if there is the slightest chance it will cost us something.

The priest and the Levite put their own version of godliness above human compassion, the meeting about the church hall before interaction with the world. They entered this dangerous territory where love of God is deemed more important than love of his children. Book religion, putting the diary first, instead of tending to the beaten up fellow child of God on the road. We can’t help, you see, it goes against our religion. We can’t help, you see, because there is too much to do at church!

Consider Jesus’ hero - a Samaritan – a mixed blood mongrel, one of those no hopers who denied much of the Scriptures and who kept their own heretical sectarian beliefs. As Jesus told this story, I wonder how many good Jews in the crowd listening spat into the dust when the word Samaritan was mentioned. Yet, it is this despised character who runs to the aid of the victim, tends his wounds, places him on his donkey, and delivers him to a hotel, where he pays for his upkeep.

At no stage, note, does the Samaritan stop and ask if this man is his neighbour. He lives not legalistically but offers the free grace of God. Yes, there was a risk that he like the others could be delayed, yes, he could have counted the cost and worried about money, or his own agenda.Instead, he gave the most practical help and footed the bill. Maybe my favourite bit of the story is this line: “Whatever else he costs, I’ll pay you on my return journey” unpretentiously, he accepts responsibility for a wounded stranger to whom he willingly became a good neighbour. Almost saying, you know, mine is yours, if you need it. When I needed a neighbour, were you there?

The help comes not from who you would have expected, it comes putting prejudice and history aside, it comes because of a desire to help, with no agenda, responding to terrible need.

And Jesus after telling the story says to the enquirer about life and about the neighbour’s identity, which one of the players in the drama was like a neighbour here, and he says “the one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus says “well, go and do likewise.” Perhaps Jesus tonight looks at us and says “why don’t you just do something?” Perhaps Jesus tonight is rejoicing that we have responded, several partners together to respond to a call to be on the streets, and to pray for those ministering on the streets. Perhaps Jesus tonight is saying thank God there is a Christian community, united beyond denominational stuff, intent on showing mercy and doing what I have asked them to do. Tonight is but a beginning but we should be encouraged we are at this point and in this place together in God’s presence and sent out by God’s equipping.

I want finally to make two points about this ministry and the streets. First we are commissioning street pastors to show God to people where they are. Someone rang me this lunchtime wanting to speak to me. His marriage is breaking down and he is in a right mess, and he needs someone to listen to him, urgently. He seemed surprised when I said I can see him tomorrow. A simple conversation, listening and a cup of tea might help him move on or sort some things in his head. Our doing likewise leads us to meet people where they are, and that can be messy and it can be disruptive. I could easily have said to the man “it is Sunday tomorrow, I have no time.” But I could not.  Street pastors are meeting people where they are, and this ministry will be messy. What is done in it? Surely it is offering friendship, respect, helping people to know that they matter no matter what state they are in. I like these words of Bishop Graham James of Norwich who commissioned some street pastors with these words:

  “There is a lot to be said for implicit religion. People don’t like sermons and words but they do believe in people – especially at 3am in the morning when no-one else is there. That is why you are doing this – it is at the very centre of Christian service, it is incarnational.”

“Why don’t you just do something?” “Go and do likewise.” We sometimes only speak of the incarnation of Jesus at Christmas. Our belief is that Jesus is involved in all of life, and not just the nice bits.

Then finally I think tonight is about fulfilling our calling as a church and about realising we are all called together, if we have a Christian faith or not, to build community here and to improve wellbeing here, meeting people’s need on the street and also trying to ease problems and potential for crime and serious consequences. There is a powerful phrase in that Isalah reading we had, a vision of community after exile. The prophet tells the people if they catch the vision of God’s shalom, they will be “a restorer of streets to live in.” Surely that is what we are commissioning tonight, people who walk the streets, minister to need on the streets, and restore hope in broken lives as God’s love is poured out. As one street pastor has said, "We believe that if Jesus was around these days he wouldn't be in a church or ramming the Bible down people's throats - he would be giving practical help to people on the streets.

"We do it because we get a kick out of being a friend to people."

 “Why don’t you just do something?” It is easy to blame others for need, it is easy to walk past it, pretend it isn’t there, have too much else to take up our life. Jesus way is to be there, on the streets, in the pain, in the drunkenness, in the abusive relationship, in the confusion and the fear of people. It is easy to talk about what we might do. Tonight let’s celebrate here in Rye and District all of us, together, and especially, Nizam and the street pastors we will commission, along with the prayer pastors, are doing something. May God be praised and Jesus met through this work.

And let us all, even if we aren’t out there at 3am in the morning, let us all think about what “go and do likewise” means for us.