Thoughts for the last day of a church year...

I love that old story of a church likened to a fence round a cemetery – those inside the fence cannot get out, and those outside the fence don’t want to get in!

For church to be authentic and to be taken seriously today we need to take our inner life, worship, bible reading, prayer times, fellowship and support of each other seriously. But we cannot stop there, our inner life must equip us to be God’s people in the world where we are placed and attract other people to us, not necessarily to our building but to Him in whose name we go out.

I am writing this on August 31^st, the feast day of St Aidan. From the monastery he founded on Lindisfarne, Aidan shared the Christian gospel in a way that enabled it too take root in England for the first time.

In his 'History of the English Church and people' the Venerable Bede writes: "Among other evidences of holy life, he [Aidan] gave his clergy an inspiring example of self-discipline and continence, and the highest recommendation of his teaching to all was that he and his followers lived as they taught."Bede (writing around the year 700!) also notes of Aidan "His life is in marked contrast to the apathy of our own times"

Aidan’s blessing is powerful – citing both bits of spirituality and discipleship we need.

Leave me alone with God as much as may be

As the tide draws the waters close in upon the shore, make me an island set apart, alone with you God, holy to you. Then, with the turning of the tide, prepare me to carry your presence to the busy world beyond,

the world that rushes in on me. Till the waters come again and fold me back to you.

There is a statue of Aidan on Lindisfarne carrying a flaming torch, the fire of God's love, the light of the good news he carried. Some people think its an ice cream cornet but it IS a torch!

Hear today the challenge of these words from an authori called William Brodrick, which were true of Aidan and demand our allegiance today: 

We have to be candles, burning between hope and despair, faith and doubt, life and death, all the opposites.

That is the disquieting place where people must always find us.

And if our life means anything, if what we are goes beyond the monastery walls and does some good, it is that somehow, by being here, at peace, we help the world cope with what it cannot understand.

As a new church year begins tomorrow (a unique thing in Methodism we begin the year in September) let’s fill ourselves with God and then be God’s people where we need to be. 

Jesus pondering whether all are really included...

Reflecting on today's Gospel - Matthew 15: 21 - 28  

What is it like to be outside of a group, unwanted, not taking notice of, isolated and alone in your need because you are different?

What is it like when everyone else gets something and you get nothing?

What is it like when there is a warm welcome but not for you?

While on holiday I did something very rare, I sat and received worship led by someone else twice on a Sunday. We did one Methodist and one Anglican service. The Methodist congregation in Sidmouth were extremely welcoming, possibly because we were about 25 years younger than anyone else there that morning so they were a bit excited! 

The Anglican 1662 Prayer Book Evensong “miserable offenders” brigade at Ottery St Mary didn’t really expect visitors, but they were thrilled we walked in. They told us not to sit under the falling masonry one side of the choir stalls! Opposite us was an elderly man with an elderly dog. He asked loudly who we were, then exclaimed even more loudly “foreigners!” After the service as I walked round the church to have a look at it, some of them came up to me and said “go and rescue your wife” as Lis was being got by him! “Change your hair colour” he told her “I like something smooth!” Then he told us how his wife was a “dreadful woman”! Anyway, you don’t go to church to be called a foreigner do you and be insulted?

The world we live in today likes to keep with its own sort, and it likes to exclude and make the “different” feel even more different by shutting them out, often violently. Every Saturday afternoon as I sit in my study writing my sermon I think “I’m not going to mention Donald Trump this week” but every week I have to. It is surely no coincidence that the world has become more exclusive and nasty since January 20^th is it?

Someone wrote on social media from America this week they thought they’d done some time travel and had woken up in the 1960’s with threats of nuclear war and racial hatred boiling over on the streets. The scenes in Charlottesville were shocking. Then what sort of world do we live in when people think in their brain let’s go and drive a truck or a van into a crowd of tourists and cause carnage. We remember Barcelona this week. It isn’t the first time this has happened. What sort of a world do we live in where there brutal stabbings, this week in Finland and in Russia? What sort of world do we live in where there continues to be tragedy like in Sierra Leone after horrific mud slides, caused according to Fitz who I was chatting to on Friday, by people ignoring the plea not to build houses for the poor where it could be dangerous. This is not the first mud slide in that country where poor people have nothing.

Hasn’t it been a relief to have a lighter story at the top of the news? While sad Sir Bruce Forsyth has passed on, we have for a while been diverted with remembrance of a British icon in entertainment. Didn’t he do well? What a lovely audience you are, so much better than last week!

       

The problems of the world are all about discrimination and disharmony, of one group believing it is more important and has more rights than the other, of one group being threatened by another and doing all it can to eradicate it. It is reminiscent of the Nazi ideology of Hitler in the 1930’s and during the war. All be the same, get rid of the other. Or ignore it and it might go away, pretend it isn’t there. In affluent Storrington where I lived before here, there was a council estate, which they thought was rough even though it wasn’t. I used to walk through it from church to home every day. My folk would say “how can you walk through that estate?” The village planted trees on the edge of it so you couldn’t see it from the pretty road it was inconveniently nearby. People were excluded from village policy and were deemed a problem. “Young people” were causing trouble in the village. I got in trouble for pointing out a) they were only sitting on a wall and b) they were bored as there was nothing in the village for them to do, but they were labelled and didn’t stand a chance.

Psalm 133 reminds us how good and pleasant it is for us to live in unity. Together. With difference, on a shared pilgrimage. And we say it is, but let’s not include women, or young people, or those who are gay, or people who vote Labour, or vegetarians, or those who have different opinions, or those who are left handed (remember that left handed people when they tried to make you write with your right hand at school? Abuse! Us lefties have to stand up for our rights to be lefties!) and let’s definitely not include as our man at church thought “Foreigners!”

Jesus came to offer God’s love to everyone, didn’t he? But then you read this passage in Matthew’s Gospel. He seems to struggle with everyone being included.            

He’s moved north out of Israel into what we know as Lebanon, to the ancient cities of Tyre and Sidon.

Immediately a woman accosts him, not with a polite request, but with shouting.

In her pleading, her shouting, she asks first for mercy and then for healing. Apparently Jesus keeps on walking, but she follows. She doesn’t give up. Jesus, however, is silent. Even his disciples, embarrassed at her shouts, ask him to respond, to send her away. They, too, are certain that because she is not a Jew she doesn’t have the right to ask him for anything.

Now Jesus says something not to her or to them: It’s obvious that he is examining a question in his own mind: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This is his mission as he has known it up to this moment.

And he has worked at it every moment of his days – to bring his own people back to God.

The woman hears his words, but she is the kind who is not deterred by national and religious differences. She will not let them keep her from seeking help.

Jesus uses language that separates those who think they are God’s chosen from those whom they consider outside God’s grace. The Israelites are the children, and the outsiders are the dogs. In our age and our culture this is serious language. Bread is the essence of life. It must be given to the children.

The mother, however, does not budge. “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the masters’ table.” This poor outsider understands that God’s mercy is so great that even the tiny bit that escapes from the chosen ones is enough for healing and for doing good.

This is what faith means. She knows who he is and she knows that only Jesus can heal her daughter. The rest does not matter. And Jesus responds to this faith instantly. In those few minutes, he recognizes that his mission has expanded. A poor woman has shown him this much: He did not come just for the children of Israel. His mercy extends to everyone.

Full of admiration, he responds first to her great faith, and then to her wish for her daughter: “Your faith is great. Your daughter is well.”

He struggles with it, and alters his mind when he sees her faith and perhaps realises he was wrong. Jesus is infallible and must have made mistakes. It’s only for my sort, not for her sort.   

Jesus engages Pharisees, disciples, and Canaanite women, revealing the expansion of the heart of God to include foreigners and outcasts. God is an inclusive God; those we despise are our brothers and sisters, too. We may want to send them away but God brings them near, even to the master’s table. Crumbs are enough for the Canaanite. It may not be what everyone else receives, but she’s grateful for even a little piece of bread—because in the brokenness of that crumb, her daughter finds healing. She fights for a little piece of the dream so that her child’s nightmare can end.

And it does end, because Jesus has mercy on her. Jesus welcomes her and her daughter—however begrudgingly—despite cultural, religious, and gender differences.

This scriptural border crossing brings to mind “The New Colossus,” the sonnet by Emma Lazarus inscribed on a plaque on the inner wall of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, the “Mother of Exiles”:

From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome . . .

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

A poetic remix might add, Give me those you consider dogs. Send these to me: the refugee, the alien, the foreigner, and more. Send the wretched refuse, the ailing daughters of ostracized women, because they yearn to be free. The unnamed Canaanite woman reaches out to touch the golden door of God, to set her daughter free. They are words for Trump’s America this morning and for other places we just don’t know what to say about.

We believe in a God who in Jesus embraces, loves, welcomes even after an internal debate – we forget he would have been educated in Jewish ways perhaps some of his Rabbis were exclusive. But there is also that vision we had in Isaiah where foreigners, unlike opposite Gil in Ottery St Mary Parish Church are included, listened to and learnt from.

An article I read about Charlottesville reminded its readers that in 1967 there were riots in our streets, poverty and unbridled racism in our midst, and a war far away tearing people apart at home. In that moment, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a book, his last one, with a message that rings poignant today. It was titled, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”

One of his insights then was that a moment of crisis is always a moment of decision. It was true then and is true now. Where do we go from here? Chaos? Indifference? Avoidance? Business as usual? Or Beloved Community?

Through the way of love, he has shown us the way to be right and reconciled with the God and Creator of us all. Through his way of love, he has shown us the way to be right and reconciled with each other as children of God, and as brothers and sisters. In so doing, Jesus has shown us the way to become the Beloved Community of God.

The writer goes on to say:

“I know too well that talk of Beloved Community, which Jesus was describing when he spoke of the kingdom of God in our midst, can be dismissed as nice but naive, idealistic yet unrealistic. I know that.

But I also know this. The way of Beloved Community is our only hope. In this most recent unveiling of hatred, bigotry, and cruelty, as Neo-Nazis marched and chanted, “The Jews will not replace us,” we have seen the alternative to God’s Beloved Community. And that alternative is simply unthinkable. It is nothing short of the nightmare of human self-destruction and the destruction of God’s creation. And that is unthinkable, too. We who follow Jesus have made a choice to walk a different way: the way of disciplined, intentional, passionate, compassionate, mobilized, organized love intent on creating God’s Beloved Community on earth.”

Pondering the world I ask myself what church is for.

Surely we have a task to make sure everyone is included, welcomed, listened to, part of us.

Surely we are here at the heart of this community to create community. Perhaps today like Jesus we need to grapple with stuff. Perhaps people don’t do church like they did, or behave like we do. Perhaps people outside of the religious norm need to find faith differently and it might be messy but that love and care are there to be found and we need to be open to new ways.

.

Surely we are to rejoice together when people find faith no matter who they are or where they come from.

No one is outside of God’s love. That is certainly the Methodist way. 

There is no one outside the realm of God’s love, even if we don’t like it! The Kingdom of God comes when everyone is included, together in an amazing community of diversity. Imagine this morning if all of us were the same. Wouldn’t it be boring and dull.

Surely we have a task to try and alter the wrong in the world. Surely when there is evil in the world we need to name it but also the love that will defeat it. Surely we need to pray and also have our prayers met in equal measure by our actions to dismantle systems of injustice and oppression that dehumanise and deny dignity to some of God’s children who have just as much right to that dignity as we do.

It is the only way things are going to change. A woman pushes boundaries and reminds us that always is it about us not just me. And everyone can have that love that we know.

The church and its future - some personal thoughts from this morning...

I preached this morning at a service to dedicate my largest church's major refurbishment scheme. I ended up challenging us all to be more mission focussed. I was asked to post my sermon for those who did not get to the service this morning and those who want to consider the issues we explored further...  

"We have set today aside to rededicate ourselves as a church and dedicate all the refurbishment work that has gone on in recent months, done for the glory of God to enable us to be his people more effectively in this area where we are called to be. We are grateful to those who have worked so hard to get us here. It’s not quite finished yet as the floor in the hall is done later in the month and painting of the bricks and more discussion about notice boards and what to put over the bricks but today is an important moment as we mark the fact we have a building more appropriate for proper mission and outreach which some of us have dreamt about for a long time.     

I want to think for a while about rededication. What are all these improvements for? Why have we bothered? It is about a desire to refocus. Within the Hastings and St Leonards review a few years ago we decided we were called to stay here rather than join another church to do something new. We decided our call was to serve this community in its diversity and need, and since that decision we have begun some new work looking outwards, not least Messy Church and the Wednesday drop in both of which are now becoming established. New things take time to develop.

Let’s think again about the Temple of Solomon which was dedicated in our reading from the Old Testament.

We have a picture of a building in which no expense was spared, built unquestionably to the glory of God – though probably a fair dose of pride and self-satisfaction too!

None of the building of the Temple happened easily. Solomon’s glorious temple was born in struggle and frustration if you read the various accounts about it – and only the guiding hand of God kept the vision alive.

After the Israelites conquered Canaan the tabernacle (the box containing the Law and symbol of God’s presence) – was not carried from place to place anymore. For a time it remained in Shiloh and was later taken into battle and captured by the Philistines. But it brought them trouble and they sent it back! Eventually King David brought it to Jerusalem – where he had land ready to build a permanent temple – but as much he wanted it – circumstances (aka God) did not allow it! So David had to content himself with making plans and gathering materials so that his son Solomon could eventually bring the dream to reality.

And then finally we have this great moment: God’s presence is in this holy place: “Now I have built a majestic Temple for you, a place for you to live in for ever.” Imagine being there on the day of dedication – an amazing awe inspiring time of renewal about the glory of God and the might of his people. Remember in Jewish theology if the Temple stood things were great, when it fell, spirituality went down the toilet. 

Indeed however much the first Temple might have been divinely sanctioned or inspired. However architecturally perfect or well-appointed it might have been, it did not last forever and the people were taken into exile in Babylon.

The temple we read of Jesus visiting was in fact the second replacement for that building. But the desire for and use of such a place highlights the longing of the people to have somewhere that could be the focus of their devotion and represent the glory and presence of God in the world.

We love our church, and we talk about our building and we spend a lot of time talking about our buildings. I had two encounters yesterday in the two largest churches in the Circuit with people with angst about what to do about their large premises…  

But we learn that Jesus was wary of it and the practices that it embodied. Interestingly I don’t hear Jesus saying that the temple never had a place – but he did have lots to say about it’s right use.  I have been introduced to Poldark – we’ve got through two series on DVD and have nearly caught up with this series. George Warleggan is an evil so and so, condemning people as magistrate to be tied to a pole in a public place and be lashed, scheming to be top dog in society and owner of the local church. There are enthusiastic Methodists in the current series who dare to turn up and sing hymns in his church so he bans them. They then turn up and sing the other side of the church wall! It is his church with his rules. You went for respectability and to be seen rather than any expression of faith or living the Gospel.    

If the Temple became a nice comfortable place to be, a place of ease or self-satisfaction then of course it would be doomed. Remember Methodism was raised up to spread spiritual holiness throughout the land. It was a response by a frustrated Church of England priest who was called by God to shake up his church because ordinary people weren’t hearing the good news of Christ. Respectability, the George Warleggan’s of his day tried hard to stop it by banning it from inside the churches but it oozed out into the world and changed society. We have not refurbished here to keep us going for a bit longer, we have refurbished here for mission and to show people Jesus, no other reason, although us men are very glad we don’t have to go down several steps to go to the necessary anymore, thank you!

If you read more about the Temple, you’ll see it became fixed in time, place and ritual.

Go to some churches and sit in someone’s pew. I love this picture! We can become fixed. We sit where we like to sit, but it can be a different experience trying somewhere else. We like what we like in worship when people need something very different. We want the good old days back when everything was perfect. Some churches produce the same old programme year after year never reviewing things and wonder why no one is coming. The world moves on but we stand still, rooted to what we know and then we hit crisis point and we wonder what to do. God is moving but we are not. We need to keep building, spiritually, every day. We must always be renewed else we will not be here and people will ask what's happened as rumours of our death spread.It’s like a genuine letter redirected to me from my Mum’s post: “Dear Mrs Pruden, we are sorry to learn that you have died. If you could ring us to let us know what has happened that would be helpful…” and as our President of Conference has said, “I know I am part, at present, of a declining Church, but I am not part of a declining gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is here to stay, but has the time not come of us to be radical? To take some risks in order that we can grow… Because, you see… I don't believe that God is done with us just yet." 

It doesn’t matter where we sit, how we do it, whether today the preacher isn’t to our liking or we make mistakes today it is why we do it. We are called to keep moving. Moving is scary but together supporting each other, trying to understand the world and what people need and how we meet that need, we can grow. Let’s use our facilities and be flexible. Let’s celebrate what God has given us and be confident we still have a purpose.

The Temple was for everyone but its ritual and access were monopolised by a few. The rules for its use handed control to an elite. It was not a place for all 

We’ve got a new porch with lovely new glass doors and we are using that as our main entrance now which is brilliant. Churches with glass doors are a good thing. People can see what is going on in them. Imagine shopping and you couldn’t see what was in the shop through the windows. But a glass door also enables us to see out into the world and a door lets us out as well as people in.

So our dedication today challenges us as well as enjoying our building and using it to go out of church and be church where we need to be. Jesus did church in the street to people like Zacchaeus. He reached out to the unlovable and despised and invited them to be part of his party. 

One positive feature of the Temple, as Jesus experienced it, was that it was at times a vibrant, transient community –with pilgrims coming from far and wide. I wonder what happened after Jesus finished with Zacchaeus. Was the despised tax collecting cheat embraced into a community of believers? Are we really inclusive and do we want everyone through our doors? I don’t think we’d have done all this work if we didn’t.

Some of us from St Helens church went to look at a Methodist project in Dover on Friday called Footprints at the Beacon church. The old London Road church in the centre of Dover owned two dilapidated shops.

It amalgamated with another Methodist church and a URC one to form the Beacon and had a vision to do mission out of the shops.

Now a refurbished space run entirely by church members and run on donations apart from outside bookings offers a weekly lunch, paid for by donations, a youth coffee bar, the town food bank, support for refugees, an English language conversation group, a cooking on a budget course, a craft group, a parent and toddler group, a children’s reading and story club. The place is also used for a community hub and for restorative justice work, it is a safe space and buzzing with the gospel in action. I asked how it is entirely run by church members. I was told “well, we have vision.” I asked how it is entirely run on donations. I was told “the money comes.” I asked how it has affected the worshipping community. I was told “we have found new life and purpose.” I asked what the influence of the place is on the town. I was told “we are respected and known.” I like their mission statement. It sums up what I think church should be, what we should be today, what this work has been done for. “We seek to address the needs of the local community, especially in relation to loneliness through the provision of community activities and programmes that are appropriate to combat deprivation, poverty and inadequacy in all forms. We seek to welcome all and exclude no one.” 

In a moment in our prayer time as we rededicate ourselves we will move round the building to each new space. We celebrate the space for outreach through Messy Church and toddlers, and hospitality and the CAP Life Skills course which has begun and a space for friendship and help on a Wednesday which I will gently be adding some worship to from time to time from September.

We celebrate our welcome and our openness, our desire to reach out perhaps with food out of a decent kitchen, we celebrate our worship life and the challenge of God in Christ to be church, for today, together.    

So I thank you for being Calvert today and I encourage you to share what we have been given, we mustn’t get fixed in our place or our ways and we must continue to welcome and include.

God’s people have always built – built to the glory of God – and in return God has always challenged the people to be and do more.

All are welcome in this place!

In the name of Christ, the Lord of the church who is our cornerstone and on who we build. Amen."

Listening for the shepherd's voice - a meditation for a church annual meeting

We have a General Election in this country in just over a month. We hear the voices wanting us to choose them. This election more than any I can remember, is less about policies and more about leadership and who you choose to listen to. It’s also about soundbites. Mrs May tell us we need “strong and stable leadership in the national interest”; Mr Corbyn tells us we need “an agenda for the many not the few”; Mr Farren tells us we need a strong opposition; and Mr Nuttall tells us well, I’m not sure what really, his lot have done their job. He’s standing in Boston in Lincolnshire and on Sky News the other day they played a game showing him pictures of towns in Britain and he was asked “is it Boston or not Boston?” He got most of them wrong. Elections are about who, with our own deeply held convictions, we choose to listen to. Perhaps disillusionment is why only 36% of us chose to vote in the local elections on Thursday.

Whose voice do you trust today?

My Mum doesn’t now listen to the radio or watch the television very much. The only voice she trusts is the one telling her it is dinnertime or who brings her her medication in the nursing home.

But growing up she would come out with stuff and you’d say where did you hear that, and she’d say “on Jimmy Young” and then later on television “on Loose Women!” The authoritative voice.

Is the Church a voice you can trust? Sometimes we don’t say much to be listened to outside our own private club but we are getting better at being more confident with our message. People expect the Church to say something even if it is disagreed with. A voice about injustice and respect and worth and how you live in community, a voice that speaks about the social evils of this age, a voice that says there is a different way.     

        

Perhaps there are three voices we can trust if we listen for them.

The first voice is that of Jesus.

The Church grew after Pentecost by spending time remembering Jesus, praying, searching the Scriptures, supporting each other, putting Jesus at the centre before they did anything else. Perhaps the modern Church problem is that we don’t spend time listening for the voice. We don’t trust it because we don’t hear it.  

The second voice is the voice of the Church.

So many voices have resorted to behaving like the ‘thieves and bandits’ condemned in today’s Gospel (John 10: 1 - 10)by Jesus. Where the passage comes in John’s Gospel he’s just had a run in with other voices – the Pharisees – they’ve called him names and he says it is all words – they don’t really care for the people around them. They sneak in among them. Whereas Jesus cares and the sheep he cares for know his voice and find comfort in hearing it.

Remember just after the crucifixion the disciples huddled in a room in fear, now in perhaps the same room they found confidence in the divine voice, and safety in the person who showed them the immense of love of God. What is the voice of Calvert saying today? What are we saying to each other, to Messy Church families, to toddlers, to CAP partners, to those who pass by and drop in? What are people hearing from us? What is the thing that matters we need to talk about at an AGM. 

What are we saying and can our voices be trusted? Will people know our voice and feel safe and loved? We can make a difference. 

Then finally, the voice of God.

There is a lot at the moment that is quite mad. I have a lot of voices competing for my attention and sometimes I just want some space from them, politicians, media, personal, church. I sat on a visit back to Peterborough Cathedral on Friday afternoon and gazed up at the crucifix with Christ there and the Latin on it – now I failed Latin spectacularly at O Level. I got ungraded. You only need to write your name on paper and walk out of the room to get ungraded. Anyway -   stat crux dum volvitur orbis, Latin for "The Cross is steady while the world is turning." And that’s God’s message I think for today. Keep listening, keep focusing, I am here, in the midst of Brexit and elections and violence and hatred and uncertainty in life, all that we face. Stat crux dum volitur orbis.  In Psalm 23, the shepherd is diligent in providing the best resources to hand, as in ‘green pastures’ and ‘quiet waters’, and in providing a restful environment free from fear of danger, the irritation of flies or parasites, disturbance within the flock, and too little food or sustenance.

We need to listen, to hear, and to share what we experience of Jesus, of each other journeying and of the awesome God who has it all under control. At Rye Primary the other day the children put an Ed Sheeran track on the music player to come in and walk out of assembly to – Galway Girl: she played a fiddle in a Irish Band, she fell in love with an English lad. The children were word perfect. An exasperated teacher standing next to me said in despair: “I wish they’d learn their times tables so easily!” Sometimes we are as bad remembering the spiritual support we have heard. Let’s be renewed today.

Whose voice do you trust?     

Easter Surprise

It was a long day and a long night. Matthew tells us that the women got up early and went to the tomb of Jesus to grieve, perhaps to just sit quietly and recall the love Jesus had shown to them. Never in their wildest imagination had they dreamt of what happened next.

“Behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from the sky, and came and rolled away the stone from the door, and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him, the guards shook, and became like dead men”

And that’s where Easter begins. Easter is a shock to the participants of the story. It shouldn’t have been, but having seen the brutality of the cross and the dead body of Jesus placed in a tomb and a stone sealed across it, it was not expected, despite all that Jesus had said.  

This morning I want to suggest to you there are three Easter events in this passage from Matthew for us to see and respond to.

First, Easter is an earthquake.

There was an earthquake, not just a tremor or gentle rumble, but a violent earthquake. Perhaps this is symbolic of the way Jesus’ resurrection would rock the whole world and shake up our understanding of Jesus’ power over death. Jesus’ resurrection would shake up the world’s understanding of who Jesus was and how he came into the world to die to save all people and to rise again on the third day.

There are two earthquakes in Holy Week. They happened just three days apart. The first one occurred when Jesus breathed His last on the cross. 'The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"

The second one occurred just three days later. 'It was toward dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.'

Two great earthquakes mark the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is as though almighty God is announcing the great and awesome thing that His Son Jesus Christ has done by shaking the earth, first in His great wrath and then in His great joy. God is tying the crucifixion and the resurrection of His Son together with a seismic knot.

The women went to “see the tomb” much like we go to a cemetery. It's good to have a place to focus our grief and connect the sorrow we feel to the loved one for whom we grieve when death comes into our life.      

God in heaven sees these two Mary's headed for the tomb of Jesus. How will they know that the One for whom they are grieving is not dead but alive? The stone that the Chief Priests ordered rolled in front of the entrance to the tomb is blocking their view. 'No problem,' says God. He dispatches one of his angels to hurry down to earth and roll that stone away from the entrance so that these women can see that He has raised His Son and their Lord from the dead. 'I'll shake the earth and you roll that blasted thing aside. And make sure the see the place where He lay. They need to see it to believe it.' And after the angel had rolled the stone away from the entrance of the tomb, he sat on top of the stone, waiting for the women to arrive. Just another day's work for an angel of the Lord.

Can you imagine it? Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, their eyes red and still filled with tears, barely able to see where they were going because of their tears and because of the early morning light.

The two Marys who had witnessed Jesus’ death and helped lay his body in the tomb, saw the huge stone rolled over the entrance of the tomb, could not believe their eyes when they saw this angel, as bright as lightening on dark night, roll the stone away and then sit on it.

The stone wasn’t rolled away to let Jesus out; he had already risen. It was rolled away so that the two Marys could look inside and see that the tomb was empty. Matthew tells us that this wasn’t just the imagination of some over stressed women. There were other witnesses to this, independent witnesses if you like. The guards at the tomb saw all this and were terrified.

He is not here. We know the end of the story, we’ve brought our flowers this morning and dressed the cross. Death is defeated. But for those women it was a shock, there was an earthquake, an angel rolls the stone away - it is huge. I think I say every year, the first response to Easter has to be awe. We do the death bit for a while on Good Friday, but then we want Easter and its loveliness to come. I was shocked driving round on Good Friday how many Easter egg hunts there were. We parked in the churchyard at the Parish Church in Rye on Good Friday afternoon to attend the hour’s devotion there at 2pm. Having led so many services this past week it was nice for me to be led. I did go to sleep in one of the talks but it was good to be there. We got blocked in the churchyard though, because the minute the benediction was pronounced the ladies from the Flower Guard began the military operation of putting Easter flowers all over the church. Good Friday afternoon was not Easter. Yesterday, Holy Saturday in some traditions, was not Easter. The Saturday should be used as a day to watch and wait and offer God those things we think will never be sorted and then and only them do we journey to Easter morning.  Easter takes some time to sink in. Imagine God having an earthquake here this morning. What needs to be shaken and rocked to remind us of his power in our lives?       

Secondly, Easter is an announcement of good news. 

The angel sitting on the stone speaks, “Don’t be afraid”, he said. “I know that you seek Jesus, who has been crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, just like he said. Come, see the place where the Lord was lying.”

Matthew, unlike the other Gospel writers, doesn’t tell us if the women actually went inside the tomb, but filled with fear (who wouldn’t be!), over awed at the power of God, they ran with joy and excitement to tell the disciples. As far as Matthew is concerned, they didn’t need to look inside. They believed the impossible. Jesus was dead – now he is alive.

Why is it that we so often only hear the first half of Jesus' prediction: "The Son of Man will suffer and be killed..." and forget what comes next?

I especially love the angel in Matthew's version of the Resurrection. This is an angel who knows how to make an entrance. He comes in with a flourish! He rolls back the large, sealed stone. This is an angel with attitude. After he rolls back the stone, he sits on it, and crosses his angelic arms. He glances over at the guards who are displaying certain physical symptoms of extreme terror we won't go into. He doesn't tell them not to be afraid, I assume, because he doesn't care if they are afraid or not. That message is being reserving for someone else, or two someone elses.

This angel rolls his eyes, as if to say: "Take that, Caiaphas. Take that, Pilate. That's what God thinks of your effort to put the Messiah in a tomb! A tomb as a prison for the Prince of Peace, the Son of God? Think again! A tomb for his final resting place? I don't think so."

Then, for his main message, he turns his bright angelic eyes toward Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and says: "Do not be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He has been raised, as he said."

Matthew wants to make sure we notice these three little words "as he said." Because in Matthew's gospel, Jesus told you so—three times.

Why do we—like them—despite the witness of Scripture, tradition, and our life of worship and service, still come to so many situations looking for death when we have been promised life is waiting there for us?

The announcement of good news at Easter means two things I think. First, that death does not have the last word. We need an angel to tell that to our world this morning. A world of threatening words and impending military force to see whose muscles are stronger – North Korea, China, Russia, America. Talk of nuclear weapons, and dropping of bombs on nations with unrest to sort it out. Funny before the 20^th January we had little of this. And nearer home, Spanish ships sailing round Gibraltar. That’s the reality of Brexit etc. We need an angel in our community, to remind people there is always hope. Perhaps we are to be the angel! And second the angel sitting on the stone shows us you cannot limit God.  You can’t put God in a tomb. Dick Dengate helpfully writes about this in his book of sermons warning us when we do that in church:

“Time and time again various denominations, or little sects or congregations, or individual believers, seem to be claiming that their limited point of view encapsulates the full vision of God.  God loves me and the way I do things, with all my faults (if any) but he condemns to eternal punishment the people over there who are not quite like me. In so many ways we behave as if we think we have got God trapped. We have placed barriers in front of God’s love. God cannot be restricted by the will of mankind, nor even by the will of religion. He can roll away the stones. Even they with all the grief and apparent finality they symbolise do not allow the grave to be a silent prison, but turn it into a gateway to God’s glorious kingdom.”   

Easter reminds us just when we think all is lost, God does something. Sometimes we need to go to the place we hurt and name it. It’s no use just bemoaning President Trump seems to be unhinged, Kim Jong Un having a parade of his arsenal to wag his finger back and the world crazy, we need to pray for it earnestly. Go read some Psalms. I picked a strange one today for you: Psalm 136.  A reminder on a bad day that God’s love is steadfast. The Psalmist lists all the things God has done to make the world he made better again. He confronts evil. He subdues the likes of Og, King of Bashan.  He was who, along with his army, was slain by Moses and his men at the battle of Edrei. The Jewish Talmud tells us that Og was so large that he sought the destruction of the Israelites by uprooting a mountain so large, that it would have crushed the entire Israelite encampment. The Lord caused a swarm of ants to dig away the centre of the mountain, which was resting on Og's head. The mountain then fell onto Og's shoulders. As Og attempted to lift the mountain off himself, God caused Og's teeth to lengthen outward, becoming embedded into the mountain that was now surrounding his head. Moses seized a stick of ten cubits length, and jumped a similar vertical distance, succeeding in striking Og in the ankle. Og fell down and died upon hitting the ground… Evil, death, threats, you see do not have the final word. 

(I need to tell you here while I was writing this paragraph I was listening  to Pick to the Pops from 1974 on Radio 2, my Saturday routine, and moved quickly from being despairing about the world to singing along to Remember You’re a Womble!! You see death does not have the last word. How many of you have Womble records on vinyl? Oh just me then J    

Also sometimes when it feels God isn’t doing anything we need to voice our lot. I imagine the women voiced their sorrow as they journied. And sometimes when we are not looking for it, God comes and points us to a way we never felt possible.

We were travelling one direction and then we get this good news invade us, in a person or a event, that life is never the same again.  Easter is an announcement of good news. So, let’s make sure Calvert is alive with it every day.  Whose tombstones do we need to sit down and tell them, you know that, there is a new way for you. Death is no more. 

And thirdly on this Easter Sunday, let’s remind ourselves Easter was always planned and we need to get on and live it. 

Perhaps Palm Sunday, a week ago, seems a distant memory – but remember Jesus entered Jerusalem we think in a procession at the same time Pilate entered on the other side of the city to show us, that God has another way. That violence is not the way. That hatred is not the way. That brute force and brutality are not the way.

Jesus came to show us there is another way. The way of unselfish, sacrificial love. That’s why he entered Jerusalem. That’s why he went to the cross. It was the power of that love poured out from the throne of God that even after the horror of the crucifixion would raise him from death to life.

God came among us in the person of Jesus to start a movement. A movement to change the face of the earth. A movement to change us who dwell upon the earth. A movement to change the creation from the nightmare that is often made of it into the dream that God intends for it.

We are called to speak the truth about the things that corrupt, that nail godliness to a cross, that destroy hope and potential; and then we are called to offer a glimpse of what Walter Brueggemann calls ‘newness after loss’. This means enabling people to be surprised by Sunday when Friday and Saturday seem so endless.  Like those women found.

Resurrection isn’t the nice, neat resolution of the horrors of injustice and pain; rather, it reinforces the compulsion of God’s people to plunge themselves into the realities of the world, willing to suffer, not escaping from it all, but unafraid: because both our living and our dying have been transformed by God who raised Christ. Let’s go out from here to be people of the Resurrection through our worship and our activities, our mission plans, our care for each other, our interaction with our community. Let’s follow in the way of Jesus. Let’s not be ashamed to love. Let’s not be ashamed to follow Jesus.

He sends his church, his people, those in pain and fear, those who cannot believe there is anything good in this world for them, those worrying about the world, and indeed the world that not even the titanic powers of death can stop the love of God.  Today we proclaim, he rose from the dead, and proclaimed love wins.

Holy Habits Session 8 - Making More Disciples

Holy Habits Session 8: Making More Disciples

Share with your neighbour:

What you had for your Sunday dinner yesterday.

A conversation you had in church yesterday.

A news item that you react to at the moment.

Something you watched on television today or yesterday. 

We find it easy to talk about food, and news items and Eastenders, we even find it easy to talk about church, what we are doing. We find it less easy to talk about the reason we do it, commending the Saviour, sharing our faith.

Read again Acts 2: 47. A summary sentence which highlights the core theme of the book of Acts, namely the spread of the word of God and the growth in the number of followers of Jesus.  A deep and committed Christian community which lives out the Holy Habits is a powerful witness to the reality of the saving love of God. 

Peter writing his first epistle to the scattered and growing early Christian Churches: ‘... in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…’ 1 Peter 3: 15

In groups for 15 minutes consider three questions:

1.        What does it mean to make more disciples to you? Where do we start?

2.        How are you doing evangelism?

3.        What is stopping you from evangelism?

Plenary

Evangel-ism = presentation of good news. See Isaiah 40: 9f for example. Jesus embodies good news and talks about it. Apart from telling Mary off in the Temple at 12 in Luke’s Gospel, what are the first words of Jesus in the Gospel: The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the Gospel.” The Good News is the long awaited reign of God. NT – heart of the good news is not an event but a person. In Jesus God’s reign on earth has begun. A new life for people. And it is to be passed on.

Almost every reference to the Good News is linked with words like “preach”, “proclaim”, “tell” “bring” etc.

Andrew Kirk: “Evangelism is a process of spreading the good news that new life is present with Jesus, and calling upon people to renounce all alternatives and enter into its enjoyment.”

Read Evangelism through the local church page 9

What stops us? Pages 12 and 15.  

What is the difference between making disciples and making church members?

Jesus didn’t tell us to go and make churchgoers, or converts, he told us to go and make disciples.

Read Matthew 28: 16 – 20

Take this passage to bits and see what Jesus is saying to his disciples here:

Go

Make disciples

Baptise

Teach

The command is to be disciples and to make disciples. Not a question, not an invitation, but an imperative: Go.

I suppose if we were to think of a modern equivalent of discipling someone, we might use terms like teaching, leading, counselling, coaching or mentoring. Mentoring is an increasingly popular area of expertise within the workplace – advertisements for mentors and lifestyle coaches abound in certain professions – and many people pay large sums of money to spend time being led, encouraged and enabled by a person of greater experience and wisdom. There’s a huge market too in fitness coaching, paying someone to literally walk, run and exercise alongside you to encourage you out of your couch-potato inclinations.  Christians have been there, done that and got the T-shirt, because the supreme leader, encourager and enabler of people is Jesus, as we see so often in the gospel stories. The problem is that many Christians lack the confidence to rely on our master to lead, encourage us and enable us. We worship rather than follow – because it’s easier.

Being a disciple can take us where we don’t really want to go, because Jesus went to the difficult places of suffering, ridicule, betrayal and death. Who in their right mind would want to follow anyone on this path? Who would want to be a disciple of a man who ended up being executed as a criminal? It is not an easy path. But then life isn’t easy either, is it? We don’t have a choice about the walk through life, but we do have a choice about whether we allow Jesus to walk through it with us. He has been there before us, though all the pain and suffering, the misery and disappointment of life, and he chooses to walk our path with us if we will be his disciples and learn from him the way of life. The question is: will you?

Do you think of yourself as a disciple of Jesus? In what way is that made clear in your life?

How does your church make disciples of people within the regular congregation, and those outside or on the fringes?

How would your church look if you allowed Jesus to lead you more fully?

Interesting that in Matthew 16: 18 we find Jesus saying to Peter “I will build my church. “ It is Jesus job to build the church and ours to make disciples!  

What’s the best way to share faith with someone?

Have you ever helped someone along their Christian journey? Tell the story.

Tell the story of how you were helped along your Christian journey by someone.

The abbot of the monastery called the novice into his office and instructed him to give the homily at the next morning's chapel. Well, the novice was struck with fear.

This young novice had apparently voted many times in the surveys, because there was no way that he was going to do it; but the abbot insisted.

So the next morning, chapel came. He stood in the pulpit. The brothers were there. His hands were trembling. His knees were knocking. His voice was quivering. There was a long pause before he first spoke, and he asked a question.

"Do you know what I'm going to say?" They had no idea, so all of their heads went back and forth almost in unison, as if it were choreographed. He said, "Neither do I. Let's stand for the benediction."

The abbot did not appreciate this. So he called the young novice into his office and said, "You must do this. It's for your own good. Tomorrow is your day again. Be prepared, and this time do it right."

The next day was almost an exact repeat of the day before. All the brothers sat there before him. His hands shook. His knees knocked. His voice trembled. Long pause. "Do you know what I'm going to say?" he asked.

Well, after the previous day's experience, they had a pretty good idea. All of their heads went, Yes, we know what you're going to say.

"Then there's no need for me to tell you. Let's stand for the benediction."

The abbot was angry beyond description. He brought the young man into his office and said, "If you do that again, you are going to be in solitary confinement, bread and water for thirty days and any other punishment that I can think of. Tomorrow morning give the homily; do it right."

The third day, chapel attendance hit an high. They were all there to see what he would say, and it was, again, almost an exact repeat.

He stood, trembled, voice quivered; and after the long silence, he asked, "Do you know what I'm going to say?"

After three days of this, about half of them had a pretty good idea and they nodded their heads up and down. Yes, we know.

But the other half noticed the switch from day to day, and they really weren't sure what was going to happen; and so they shook their heads back and forth. No, we don't.

The novice observed this, then said, "Let those who know tell those who don't. Let us stand for the benediction."

The simple definition of evangelism: Those who know telling those who don't.

What do we know?

How do we share it?

How often can we over complicate the idea of sharing faith. We make it into this big deal that needs to be tied up in doing a course or having some big awkward conversation, when actually the thing it mostly revolves around is simply making talking about faith normal. Discussing it with friends and chatting to people about it. It's a part of our lives so why don't we just make it normal rather than weird.  

Play a game.

TEN FACTS ABOUT FAITH ON THE FLOOR. TEN VOLUNTEERS.  THE REST OF US CAN ASK QUESTIONS, SAY WE DON’T UNDERSTAND ETC. Keep it simple!

1.     How do I know God loves me?

2.     How do I know Jesus is my friend?

3.     What do you mean Jesus died for me?

4.     What is this Holy Spirit you speak of?

5.     Tell a favourite bible story.

6.     How do I know God forgives me?

7.     What do you mean Jesus is my saviour?

8.     What do you believe about heaven?

9.     Why is there so much suffering in the world?

.            Why bother joining your church?   

How do we equip ourselves to share faith naturally?

Two interesting things from the book to end this course with. The Holy Habits are all about reminding today’s church of the marks of the infant one to                       re-invigorate it for mission. Today is about for many blessing, then belonging and then believing (previously it was believe then belong) –read article in book. Is this true of our work together?

Do we as we do our work as a church believe we might grow anymore? Luke presents the rapid growth of the Jesus movement enjoying the good will of all  the people. Should we be surprised? Not if we believe that the same Jesus who said “I will build my church”, you “go and make disciples” and you will be “clothed with power from on high” knew what he was on about.