Losing our memory...?

I’m rather late in posting a sermon for this Sunday. I’m sorry. We are trying to put a report together about this house we’ve just left to pass on to the Church who are responsible for the tenancy which cannot end until September, to prove we’ve left it in a decent state. It is taking ages! So perhaps you can use this for late night devotions...

This has been Conference Sunday, usually a day of celebration and renewal for the Methodist people. Things are being done rather differently this year with Conference meeting virtually, led by our officers in front of cameras in a room in Cliff College. I listened to the President’s address this morning, as we had no internet yesterday so I couldn’t listen live. Being a huge admirer of Walter Bruggemann’s writing on orientation, disorientation and reorientation in the Psalms, which Richard based the address on, very skilfully, there was a sentence that spoke to me...

“A church which loses its memory about its basic foundation has no future.”

There is much talk at the moment about churches “getting back to normal.”

But what was normal and was normal working? In most places, it wasn’t. So maybe the next few months are a God given opportunity to think seriously about what our “basic foundations” are, and what we need to hold on and what we can say goodbye, with thanks, to. 

We are built on the claims of Jesus Christ, welcomer, saviour, crucified and risen. 

We are built on the overwhelming love of God that is a gift for all. 

We are built on the faith stories of those who have gone before us, who dreamt dreams and saw visions. 

We are built on the values of the Gospel, to work for social justice and inclusivity, to be a voice for the oppressed and the poor, and to get involved in the world which ever bit of it we find ourselves in.

We are built on what Wesley called the “optimism of grace.” We believe the Kingdom of God will come one day in its completeness, and we celebrate signs of it around us now. We believe whatever mess today is, there will be a brighter tomorrow for God is working his purpose out. We are built on resurrection and hope because death does not have the last word. 

“A church which loses its memory about its basic foundation has no future.”

Was “normal” working? Many of our churches were finding congregations dwindling and many were struggling to survive, let alone flourish. Many of our churches were worrying about money and failing buildings and had little confidence. Many had, as the President said yesterday, begun to lose their memory about their basic foundation. Many did church but had forgotten why they did it, retreating into misery and negativity and having little clue about the story that should be at every one of their heart. 

So how do we build on “basic foundations?”

Here’s my answer. I’m sure the Methodist Conference this week will debate the Church’s future at length. I’m not there and I’m not important in its structure, but I believe we can all play a part if this thing Christ called long ago still has a use...

First, we have to relearn and be confident in the story of our faith. We need good, interesting, relevant preaching. We need a commitment to open the Bible. We need to rediscover house groups and study groups. We need to talk up what we believe. We are part of a heritage and we have a chapter to live today. We have to ask what God is doing at the moment. We need to seriously consider why so many people who haven’t been near organised religion are tuning in to on line worship and spirituality. My little plodges I film, just ramblings with no script, jade over 200 people a week watch them. That’s amazing. 

Maybe “going to church” won’t be the practice of all of us again. I certainly think we need to keep streaming services and using Zoom and You tube even when it is safe for us all to return to church buildings. For some, switching on to church when they want is attractive. I know of good faithful church members who have used on line stuff on a Sunday but at a time convenient to them - and you can listen again whenever you like! There is much to ponder about how we share. 

Then we need to celebrate that maybe these past few months we have, thank God, rethought what Church is. The Church has been at the heart of community through lockdown even with no building. We need a purpose which is exciting and meets the needs of folk who need basic Christian care. Today’s Gospel passage, while short, reminded us of our task: so easy, yet for many of us, too hard: and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’ 

Who out there needs a cup of cold water? While we can’t offer hospitality in church at the moment, we can be hospitable. We need to put sacrificial giving at the heart of our programme, not just when there is a crisis. The danger when this pandemic is over, is that those who were forgotten or left out will be again as we all think about ourselves, especially if we are facing a bleak recession as is likely.

Then I think we need to encourage each other. Yesterday was the 21st anniversary of my ordination at the Methodist Conference in Southport on 27th June 1999. I was sent this picture.

Peter and George were my ministers in Harpenden many years ago. Both were at my ordination service. Both taught me that ministry should be fun. Often for me it hasn’t been. But I’ve always tried to encourage churches rather than slap them down. I think if we all seriously pondered what we do well and what we celebrate as we contemplate our life and what matters, we will be more healthy if we spend time building up those things rather than struggling on keeping what the Vice President called in her address yesterday, “dead religion.”

“A church which loses its memory about its basic foundation has no future.”

I recall this old hymn which I offer you as this day ends. We celebrate “basic foundations” and remember them always. Remember the man who built his house on the sand. What happened to it? Great was its fall. What the President is saying to us is “if you forget your foundations and you fail, don’t stand there wondering why.” It will be obvious why it all died. 

My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus Christ, my righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
	On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; All other ground is sinking sand,   All other ground is sinking sand.
2	When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil.
3	His oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the whelming flood; When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.
4	When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in Him be found; In Him, my righteousness, alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.