Aylesbury Vale Methodist Circuit
Channelling God’s love for all people
Past sermons from Rev. David Jenkins
ENABLING
A Sermon first preached 25 June 2006
Our themes this month have been around the activity of God’s Spirit-energising, enfolding and enabling. Today the concentration is on enabling.
What is an enabler? Someone who doesn’t do everything for you, but give you the resources and encouragement you need to do them for yourself; someone who makes things possible for you. Where do we need an enabler? When there are things we long to do, but don’t seem able to do them on our own? When we can’t see very clearly the way ahead?
Pictures of enabling may include a carer who provides opportunities for a disabled person to go out; a learning support assistant at school, helping a child to grasp a mathematical concept and apply it; a careers advisor guiding a young person. It is above all the role of the parent, whatever age the child, who is there to give the child appropriate help at each stage of life.
Enabler is a word beloved by Methodist Ministers. Many Ministers see their role as being principally to offer to each church community resources and encouragement that church needs to fulfill its mission. The mission of the church is not done by the Minister so much as by the people of the church. The Minister’s role is as a facilitator, someone who helps things to happen, someone who links people together with the object of the church moving forward.
Part of the role we all have as followers of Jesus is to be like porters at an airport or train station-people who help others carry their luggage, to let them put down what they are loaded with, to make their load lighter and easier to carry. People don’t need to be carried all their lives or to have help at every point through their lives. Enablers are not those who make others dependant on them, but are like jump leads getting the engine’s battery started for someone else to continue their journey.
If we apply this principle of enabling more widely, we can see how the developed world is in a position to enable the developing world-through the provision of resources, expertise, finance and opportunities.
One of the questions we have been asking in this series is how does God relate to the world? How does God engage with our lives? Sometimes it may be through other people who give us the skill and opportunity to move forward. Sometimes it will be by the formation of an inward desire and the inspiration to put it into practice.
Out of the richness of God’s resources, we are enabled to achieve more than we might ever have expected. Such achievement is not simply for our own benefit, but is directed at the enrichment of life for others. Wherever interactions of this kind occur, there is the Spirit of God at work among us.
God does not set out to solve all human problems single handedly. We have been created with the freedom of decision making, with the capacity to learn, and if God did everything for us, it would deskill, dehumanize us. It would reduce us to dependant infants instead of grown adults.
But we are not left without inspiration, guidance and resourcing to support us in meeting the challenges of our lives. God does not control our lives. God does not dictate our decisions. God enables us to progress.
How can we draw on God’s enabling strength? Isn’t this what prayer is partly about? In prayer we consciously focus on God’s presence with us; and, in becoming more aware of God, we instinctively share what is happening in our own lives and are drawing upon, imbibing the strength God gives (like a bee imbibing nectar from a flower) to enable us in meeting life’s challenges and taking its opportunities.
In every aspect of Jesus’ ministry-facing temptations, proclaiming the Kingdom of God, healing those who came to him, he was conscious of being energized and enabled by the Spirit. He gave priority to prayer as the development of a dynamic relationship which sustained his life.
And we, too, need to let God enable us to become what we have the potential to be. We, too, need to be willing to accept the various ways in which other people can enable us, support us, challenge us, to lead us on. And we, too, are to exercise the great privilege of being enablers for others.
RESURRECTION FAITH
A Sermon first preached on 7 May 2006
1. What does it mean to have faith?
A Jewish Rabbi, Harold Kushner, was chatting to a young man called Paul. Paul told him, “I don’t believe in religion; I believe in God”. “What do you mean by that?” Harold asked him. Paul replied, “When I look at the beauty and intricacy of the world, I have to believe that God exists.”
“That’s very nice,” said Harold, “I’m sure that God appreciates your vote of confidence. But the issue, for people who have what you call religious faith, has never been the existence of God, but the importance of God, the difference God makes in the way we live. To believe that God exists in the way you believe that the South Pole exists does not really touch your life. The issue is what kind of people we become when we attach ourselves to God.”
To have faith in God means recognizing God’s importance and allowing God to affect the lives we live. We who believe in Jesus have an understanding of belief which can best be described as resurrection faith.
What is the root of such faith? What happened to Jesus? To some extent, obviously. Resurrection faith is rooted in an actual historical happening; but the essence of resurrection faith is a relationship with Jesus.
2. What difference does faith make to life?
In recent weeks, some of the people I have met have been through great shocks- for one couple, the sudden death of a young, apparently healthy, member of their family; for another person an immense physical struggle while life hangs in the balance; for someone else, who was very active in their community, the adjustment to living with impaired ability having had a stroke; for others the struggles are with complex relationships, or with a set of difficult emotions. What sense does it make to people in such circumstances to speak of resurrection faith?It can actually make a great deal of sense.
When we are bereaved, it makes a considerable difference whether we believe the one we have loved has totally ceased to exist, or whether that person, although we can’t access them now, is living, and indeed, living even more fully than before. To believe in “the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come” offers a huge dimension of hope to sustain us in bereavement.
And it gives our own lives greater purpose. Why bother to work for justice, for peace, for a safer environment if life is just going to be snuffed out to go nowhere? Doesn’t resurrection faith give us responsibility towards the continuing needs of our world?
Whatever challenges we face, believing in a God whose love and purposes are never defeated, can give us the nerve and will to keep persevering, to keep trying, to keep hoping.
3. What direction is the faith of my church going in?
Are we backward looking or forward looking? Is our faith rooted in how things used to be or in how they could yet become? If we saw packed churches in our youth and much less well attended churches now, it is easy to draw negative conclusions and to believe in inevitable decline.
But do we believe in resurrection and what does that mean in this context? Packed churches again? Maybe; or at least places of worship and Christian people with a vitality, a sense of purpose, a depth of compassion that can help to be a transforming influence in the communities where we are.
In a rapidly changing world, we acknowledge that we can’t stand still, so how do we explore new ways of expressing the Christian life while retaining the best of what we have known? Do we have faith to risk letting go of what doesn’t seem to relate to people, in order to attempt what might?
When people become members of the Church, that makes a statement. “We believe in what this Church is about. We want to identify with it. We want to be committed to it.” This is one area where we see the renewal of the Church. Resurrection faith means placing our trust in the risen Jesus, who is with us.
It is he who leads us forwards towards what he wants us to become.
4. In which direction is your own faith going?
Because Jesus believed in resurrection, he felt that the whole of his life had significance and was not leading to a dead end. He was prepared to endure the horrors of crucifixion because he believed that on the third day he would rise again.
Do you believe that your life has significance? Do you trust that God can take what you offer and use it for the good of others? Having faith in God is to believe in the value of what we can contribute. However limited we may feel our efforts might be, however inadequate they might appear, whether or not we see them come to fruition in our own lifetime, to have resurrection faith means believing that nothing we do for good can ever be wasted and no attempt to show love can ever be futile.
Faith is trust in the God of resurrection. It is God who inspires, encourages and guides us; God who makes our lives worthwhile; God who renews our Church and God who will use what we offer in a far more wonderful way than we can ever imagine.
March 2006 - Journey To Jerusalem
TEMPTATIONS
A Sermon first preached on 5 March 2006
Matthew and Luke’s Gospels spell out what they considered Jesus’ temptations to have been in a dramatic and imaginative way. Mark’s Gospel, the earliest and the most realistic, doesn’t say what Jesus’ temptations were- simply that he was tempted. I actually find the lack of detail more helpful. We can, I guess, do our own speculating as to what particular temptations Jesus might have faced.
Jesus’ ministry was about to begin. The temptations may have been around what could knock that ministry off course or prevent him setting out on it in the first place. A curious feature of Mark’s account is that it is the Spirit who powerfully compels Jesus to enter the wilderness where the temptations occur.
It is pictured as a kind of reliving of the temptations the people of Israel faced in the wilderness. Whereas they frequently gave way to their demons, Jesus confronted his and overcame them. They lost direction; he affirmed where he was going and what he was going to do. They were faithless; he kept his faith and trust in the God who had spoken of him as his son. Their faith prevented them from entering into the promised land at the earliest opportunity. Jesus’ fears (and it is very likely that he had them, from what we read of him later in the Garden of Gethsemane), did not prevent him from realising his vocation and fulfilling his ministry; he did not let them stop him from living out God’s promise.
It is helpful to us to know that Jesus was tempted. The letter to the Hebrews expresses it so well, “He is not unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, as he has in every respect been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Because he was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”
So what about our temptations, our wilderness and the Spirit who drives us to face our demons? The wilderness, for Jesus and the people of Israel, was a bleak and barren place, empty of all distractions.
Perhaps our wilderness is just the opposite- a place so full of distractions that we feel we have no time to think; a place so full of diversionary pleasures that we are unlikely to focus upon our true needs or to confront our demons; a place so full of noise that the silence in which to meet with God at depth has been banished.
Perhaps one of the leading temptations of our own times is to allow our thinking to be led by the popular culture –the pundits of television and newspaper. To what extent do we think for ourselves? To what extent do we allow ourselves to be influenced by the counter-cultural thought of Bible and worship and prayer? Where are our interests focused? Where is our decision making rooted? The temptation to go with the flow, to be absorbed by the values that are media driven, rather than Spirit- driven, may be a major one for us all. The Spirit drives us to face our demons. Popular culture may drive us towards ignoring them, colluding with them or simply being swamped by them.
How can we know what our demons are if we never face them? How can we face them in the wilderness of emptiness if we never enter that wilderness, because we are perpetually absorbed in the wilderness of distraction? The Israelites in the desert gave way to faithlessness and fear, and, as a result, lost focus.
Each of us has our own weaknesses, the areas where we are particularly vulnerable to losing our integrity. But might faithlessness, fear and loss of focus affect us too? Failing to be faithful to the highest we know? Losing hold of the steady, single-minded commitment to our primary relationships, including our relationship to God?
Might fear lead us into rash decisions and prevent us from realising our potential? Might our anxieties so distort our view of life that we rarely get to a place where we see things as they truly are? Can we so lose focus that we simply aim to get through each day, without really thinking what that day is for, how we can be thankful for it, how we can grow in it, how we can contribute to others through it, and how that day is part of a bigger design, related to our whole life?
I guess we could understand how people living on the bread line in dire poverty are in survival mode. The aim of life is simply to survive. But why should people in affluent countries be in survival mode? What is it we are surviving? Our basic needs of food and drink and clothing and money are met. Is our problem that life can just seem so overwhelming? The pace of life, the demands and expectations of others, the daily struggle to be sufficiently organised to meet each fresh demand can threaten to swamp us. Is that why each day is to be survived rather than enjoyed?
Because Jesus came through his temptations, he is able to help us with ours. Because he kept going, he can strengthen us when we feel like giving up. Because he received clarity of direction, he can help us to see our way and to keep on course.
Where might the Spirit be driving us? What are the yearnings and longings buried deep inside us which we might have been burying? Do we need to take the risk of entering the wilderness of emptiness rather than the wilderness of distraction; to find time for more quietness, time to think, and time to think independently? When and how are we preparing to confront our own demons; even to find out what they might be?
To become more faithfully committed, more courageously involved and more clearly focused on life’s main goals, let us allow God’s Spirit to direct us and God’s Son to inspire us, day by day.
BEING INCLUDED
A Sermon first preached on 26th February 2006 based on Matthew 15:21-28
This story is unique in the Gospels- the only time when Jesus appears to have been reluctant to act on someone else’s behalf. He felt he needed to concentrate on his primary objective of giving just to “the lost house of Israel”, as he called them. For a while, even Jesus, of all people, was blinkered.
I want to concentrate on the woman rather than Jesus, today; but because the incident is potentially shocking and disturbing, it may help to say here is a real person, not a plasterboard figure of perfection. Growing towards maturity involves the willingness to change. If our eyes are opened to see where ideas from our background are not helpful, we need the courage and grace to change. The way Jesus reacts to his own need to change is instructive for us. It takes humility to recognise where we need to rethink our attitudes. Let’s learn from the way Jesus moves on in his understanding.
But what about this pretty remarkable woman? What can we learn from her? She could easily have felt excluded because she was
- A woman in a man’s world
- A foreigner, even in her own country
- A person of another faith
Have you ever felt excluded? In a minority? Someone who doesn’t seem to fit in? Someone who doesn’t belong? Have you ever felt lonely, even in the middle of a crowd? Understanding what it feels like to be excluded, might make us feel more empathy for other people in the same position. It might make us more sensitively aware and resourceful to find a way in which they can feel a sense of belonging.
Nothing excludes people more strongly than when they are classed as “them” by “us”. “Us and them” is such a powerful divide that it leads to the worst in human life- the Jewish holocaust, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, genocide in Rwanda. Our present day divisions between Israeli and Palestinian, Moslem and non-Moslem, carry on the classic divisions between black and white, rich and poor, all the divisions of class, race and belief. When these divisions are so strong and so destructive, what can break through them?
This woman broke through the barriers of racial, religious and gender exclusion,
- By being persistent
- By responding with humour
- Because she loved her daughter so much.
She was politely persistent. She didn’t give up. She saw something in him beyond his initial words. If we are to attempt to break down barriers, by helping people to see, we, too, will need to be politely persistent people. There is a kind of persistence which is counter-productive because it puts people’s backs up –a person who keeps on in an abusive and rude way.
It is sometimes said that the people who shout, who make a nuisance of themselves, who are uncompromisingly stubborn are the people who get what they want. Maybe they do; but they don’t break any barriers down and they don’t open any eyes. Polite and patient persistence is most likely to engender an atmosphere of trust and respect where issues can be seen clearly and responded to positively. Some viewpoints need to be challenged. The most effective challenges are gentle and non-aggressive ones.
This woman breaks down barriers through her sense of humour. Her own ironic sense of humour appeals to Jesus’ strong sense of humour. The gift of laughter helps to restore a sense of well being and perspective to us. Laughter can defuse tension and relax people. We warm towards those who can make us laugh.
When people from the mosque visited us here, one of the special features of that evening was the times when we laughed together. Of course a sense of humour can be powerfully destructive. The cartoons in a Danish newspaper have stirred up a violently angry response. There is a world of difference between being laughed at and laughing with. None of us like to be laughed at; but to laugh with other people can be among the most glorious and healing experiences of our lives. If humour is to make fun of anyone, it will need to make fun of ourselves.
One week after church, a little boy said to me “When I grow up, I’m going to give you some money”. “That’s very kind of you”, I said, “but why is that?” and the little chap said, “Because my daddy says you’re one of the poorest preachers we’ve ever had”.
It’s OK to make fun of ourselves. Humour can be a weapon which can wound; or it can be a bridge which helps people to relate to each other, to meet in understanding. But the reason why this woman was so politely persistent and used a sense of humour constructively, is because she loved her daughter so much.
Whatever outer confidence she seemed to have, however calmly and clearly she reacted, inside she was frantically desperate. It was the depth of her love for her daughter that led her to confront barriers of misunderstanding. If she had been acting only on her own behalf, the initial rebuff would have deterred her. For the sake of her daughter, she had to find a way through.
Love for others can produce in us greater qualities of character than anything else. Persistence and humour may break down barriers, but nothing does so more powerfully than love for another. There are barriers of human relationship we need to break down each day. Will we do this, opening people’s eyes, helping them to see and to change, by our patient and polite persistence, our gentle humour, and our burning love?
BEING RESTORED
A Sermon first preached on 5 February 2006 based on Luke 5:17-26
The man lowered through the roof- 3 main areas to focus on-
Ø Other people’s faith makes a difference
Ø Forgiveness is a powerful ingredient of healing
Ø The man at the centre of the story- what this incident tells us about Jesus.
Other people’s faith makes a difference. Did you notice in the story that it is when Jesus saw their faith (the faith of the man’s friends) that he began to heal the man who was paralyzed? Whether the man himself had faith we don’t know. But they did. And their faith made a difference. They showed their faith-first by bringing their friend to Jesus; and then by their determination, that, come what may, they would get him to Jesus- even if it meant taking the ceiling down!
Jesus is impressed by faith like that- faith that shows itself in basic compassion and in great determination. You know sometimes that a young child comes here to be baptized, and we might think, “What faith can a baby possibly have?” “What sense can baptism make?” But baptism is not only in response to our own faith, but in response to the faith of other people. That may be the faith of the child’s parents, of the wider family or godparents or simply the faith of the church. And such faith makes a difference and Jesus responds to it.
Sometimes you’re setting out for church and a neighbour may call out, “Say one for me”. Knowing you’re going to church, they want you to include a prayer for them. Your faith is making a difference for them. Think of some of the people whose faith has made a difference to you. Who were they- parents, Sunday School teachers, Ministers, friends or family members? Their faith has influenced your life. And you can be a positive influence on the life of other people. They can draw inspiration from your example.
People on the streets- drug addicts, alcoholics, the homeless; people in prison; those with no self respect, desperately need people who will befriend them. The befrienders may come from Youth @Act here; or a volunteer, a Chaplain, a teacher, a Social Worker, who can give to that other person their faith that that person’s life is worth living.
The second aspect of the story has to do with forgiveness. It is curious that Jesus, when he saw their faith, should say to the paralyzed man, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” The man hadn’t come for forgiveness but for healing. Why does Jesus speak about forgiveness in this instance? Why doesn’t he simply heal the man? This isn’t what Jesus normally does when people come to him. Jesus is deeply aware of where this particular man’s need lies.
The cause of this man’s paralysis is not simply physical. There is something more deep seated and Jesus discerns that. Something in this man’s life for which he feels he has not been forgiven (by others and by God); –perhaps his failure to forgive himself may be at the root of his paralysis. It is a graphic illustration of a profound truth that lack of forgiveness paralyses life. And wherever we are in life, forgiveness is necessary to help us to move on. Have other people forgiven us? Do we believe that God has forgiven us? Have we allowed ourselves to receive forgiveness? Have we forgiven ourselves?
As a Christian community in this place, we want to offer what will make for healing. The qualities of welcome, acceptance and understanding will take other people forward; and will take us forward, too. Our willingness to bring pardon into a situation of injury offers a very powerful ingredient in the process of the healing of a person’s emotions, spirit, mind and body.
We need to recognize that forgiveness is not cheap and needs to be handled with care. Some of us may have very deep hurts we are carrying. However justifiable those hurts are, may we also acknowledge that the greater the degree of forgiveness that can be shown, the greater the degree of healing that can result. The family of murdered black teenager, Robert Walker, in their tear-stained grief have wanted to find some way to restore goodness into a savage and senseless event. They believed forgiveness was an essential aspect of doing that.
How each of us handles grief and hurt is unique to us; but if we, too, can find ways of bringing forgiveness into situations of hurt, we can help to bring the healing those situations desperately need. The incident speaks about the importance of other people’s faith and of how forgiveness is a powerful ingredient of healing. What it says about Jesus is also particularly significant.
Jesus possesses considerable awareness. He is aware of the friends’ motivation; he is aware of the paralyzed man’s true need; and is he aware of what people in the crowd are thinking. Jesus is aware of our motivation, our need and our thoughts. Let us pray to be more aware as he is aware.
Jesus is deeply compassionate. His concern is to heal, to restore, to set people on their feet again. His compassion can heal and restore us, setting us on our feet. Let us pray to be more compassionate as he is compassionate.
Jesus has the power, the authority and inner strength to confront opposition, and to bring health and restoration. His action is implicitly a claim to act as God acts. In his words and actions people see God at work.
He has the power to enable us to grasp hold of constructive change in our own lives.
True power is at the service of others.
Let us pray to be more powerful in the way that Jesus demonstrates power; a power which involves awareness of others, and compassion for them.
COMMITMENT TO MISSION
A Sermon first preached 22 January 2006
Our theme today is commitment to mission. I want to begin by going back. In the first sermon I preached here in September 2004 I said this, “Invite people to worship with you. This is one of the simplest and most effective forms of missionary activity you could ever engage in. If you believe that exciting and special things are happening here, why not invite other people to share that with you?” I would like to reiterate that today.
Commitment to mission includes inviting people to worship with us. A lady at Stoke Mandeville said to her best friend, “Would you like to come to an act of worship with me?” Her friend came; and so responded to what was happening in worship that she continued coming and, in less than a year of her first visit to the church, became a member of it. The friendship between both women has been enhanced by this extra shared dimension of the life of Christian involvement.
A lady at Stone asked her neighbour if she would come to the church with her. Her neighbour was delighted to come, and said of her experience, “I was wanting someone to ask me. I would never have crossed that threshold on my own.” It really does make an enormous difference to people’s lives, and it is so simple. “Would you like to come with me?” People are free to say no; but it may well be that they have actually been wanting someone to ask them, so that they do not cross that threshold alone.
That’s the first thing I want to say about commitment to mission. Who can we ask to worship here with us, and when will we ask them? For the second thing I want to say, I would like to go back to January last year. We had just taken part in a major consultation exercise called “The Way Ahead”. We said that our first priority was to support and encourage other Circuit churches in their work.
We have been doing that-in the way we give, the support given to events at the other churches and in sharing in Circuit worship in those churches and in our church here. This becomes an even more important priority this year when we become a new Circuit in September. Enabling existing and new church communities to feel a sense of togetherness in the Aylesbury Vale Circuit is one aspect of mission. Mission involves realizing and encouraging a sense of belonging.
A year ago we committed ourselves to being an Inviting Church. This has obviously to do with the quality of our own inviting of people, referred to earlier; to the outstanding quality of welcome, which so many people comment on to me; and to new initiatives, of taking special interest in those who have come into the life of the church relatively recently.
The coffee lounge here throughout the week offers a valuable symbol of invitation-as a place of meeting and of friendship. You know how we’ve been having our photos taken? – A new photo directory will help all of us to know each other by name, to pray for each other, to have more confidence in approaching each other.
Maintaining the church’s website and its publicity; newspaper articles ; notices and materials; the BBC 3 Counties radio programme that focused on our church; are all ways of actively engaging in this mission of being an inviting church.
We spoke about being a caring church. A fortnight ago we celebrated the caring that takes place through the church’s pastoral ministry.
We celebrate, too, the various activities that enable people to find an atmosphere of acceptance. These include all our plans to refurbish and improve our Community Centre. A great deal of activity is happening behind the scenes on a number of fronts- detailed discussion related to the building’s facilities and its costings; seeking grants and financial sponsors; and offering the facilities we have and will have to groups in the town who are themselves involved in caring for some of the most vulnerable people in this area. Supporting this project, as so many of you are doing, through your time, money and effort, is a profound commitment to mission.
A year ago we committed ourselves to being an outgoing church and there have been some encouraging developments regarding our relationships with people of other faiths and with other groups in Aylesbury.
Other aspects of mission we spoke of then included being a worshipping church, and as well as Sunday mornings, here have been a number of special evening services, -an experiment in café worship, Songs of Praise and choral singing, and quiet, contemplative, reflective services.
We spoke, too, about being a spiritual church, and our people have participated in courses and prayer events to take our development in faith further.
In all these areas there is plenty of room for growth and no room at all for complacency. It is good to be encouraged by what is already happening and excited by what we hope will happen, even as we see the need for other areas of our life together to emerge much more in the foreground.
So finally I have three questions for you.
- Where are you personally involved in the church’s mission?
- Where would you like to be involved?
- Returning to that vital area of inviting people to worship, who are you thinking of asking and when?
Let us deepen our commitment to mission together, through the God who is our constant inspiration and strength.
SEEN AS WELL AS HEARD
A Sermon first preached 18 December 2005
When I was a boy (and you can imagine what a cheerful, curly haired little chap I was), the main piece of adult wisdom directed at children was that they should be “seen and not heard”.
Things have changed somewhat. It is not only NCH who place “the child at the centre”- children seem to be pretty good at doing that themselves! Nowadays, children are seen and heard- and rightly so- most of the time, anyway! Children need to be noticed I their own right. They need to be listened to and taken seriously. They have a direct and simple wisdom of their own; and we would often do well to observe it. As Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child, will never enter it.”
What we are celebrating at Christmas is what John described like this:- “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and lived among us.” In Jesus God is both seen and heard. John says in his Gospel, “No one has ever seen God; it is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known”. As Charles Wesley puts it in one of his Christmas hymns, “God the invisible appears”.
Jesus reveals God by his actions. When Jesus heals someone, the compassionate power of God is seen in at first hand. When Jesus is thrust on the cross, the suffering love of God is shown for all to see. When Jesus is raised from death, the triumphant purpose of God is clearly displayed. In Jesus we see God. And in him we hear God. His wise teachings; his strong warnings; his thought-provoking stories express the mind of God. In Jesus God is seen and heard.
There are occasions when we have felt that Christian witness should be seen and not heard. “We’re not there to preach to people, but to live out our lives with integrity”; and it certainly figures that we need to show our faith by our actions and not just by our words; but does that mean that words are unimportant? Don’t our actions need some kind of explanation? Shouldn’t we be seen and heard? If there is something we can do which can actively help another person, don’t leave it undone. If we have something to say which can make a positive difference to someone’s life, don’t leave it unsaid. We’ve been given a tongue as well as hands. We have been given the gift of speech alongside our other gifts.
People need our words as well as our actions. They need to hear words of friendly interest; they need to hear words of deep encouragement; they need to hear words which can guide and warn and challenge and inspire. And they need to receive loving acts of kindness and thoughtfulness.
The people you will be seeing over the Christmas period- what are you planning to do to give the message that you care about them? What do you think you can say that might help them? Jesus expressed God’s love by being seen and heard. We can express love, too, in our actions and our words –so let’s do that!
WORD OF GOD?
A Sermon first preached on 4 December 2005
During December our focus is on a description of Jesus given in John’s Gospel- “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” John brings together at least four different ways of understanding “the word”. These understandings are from three worlds of thought:- Jewish, Greek and Christian.
In Jewish thought “the word” referred to the dynamic interaction between a person and God. Whenever a prophet spoke he did not convey his own message. In every instance “the word of God came to Jeremiah, Ezekiel” or whoever. The word that came to the prophets was the self expression of God. Their role was to declare the message God was giving to the people through them. The way John describes the word, as if it has a separate existence of its own, but is obviously related to and is one with God, is similar to the way Wisdom is described in the Hebrew Scriptures. The word of God is the distilled essence of the wisdom of our creator.
The New Testament is written in Greek for Greek speaking people as this was the prevailing language of the culture of the times. It was almost like English today- the nearest thing to a universal language. In Greek thought “the word” was understood in terms of reason. The word is the sane and rational logic of the mind of God. When Christians talked about the word they often meant the gospel. To preach the word was to preach the gospel –the whole truth of the good news of God.
When John makes this major statement about Jesus he is saying Jesus is the self expression of God’s mind. He is God’s message embodied in a human being. He is the wisdom of God. He is the sanity and rationality of God. He is the gospel, the good news of God. John’s statements about Jesus take us back to before the beginnings of time. Jesus was with God and was God and yet became a human being-“In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the Word was God. And the word became flesh and lived among us.”
The background to everything we will be focusing on this month is encapsulated in these words, so it’s worth spending some time reflecting on what they mean, especially as this is one of the profound descriptions of Jesus ever. But we’re bound to ask, “Well, what does all this say to me? If I have problems with my neighbours or my family; if I have anxieties about my own health or that of people close to me; if I have a busy and stressful job? Where is there relevance to my life in what is being said here?”
Did you just come into being by accident; or is your life part of a purposeful creation? If your life has meaning, isn’t that because your creator is the intelligence and energy that has planned and shaped the universe? And don’t you need what your creator has to give you? If we miss an important email, letter or phone call, some message vital to our work or life hasn’t been read or heard and we’ve missed out. Don’t we need to listen to the message God wants us to hear? Aren’t there times when we really don’t know which way to turn? Don’t we need to be guided by the wisdom of God? Aren’t there times when we could get life out of balance, and in our confusion, depression or irrationality, no longer see the wood for the trees? Don’t we need contact with the sane rationality of God to give our lives stability and direction? And aren’t there times when we doubt ourselves, lose confidence, and have low self esteem?
Don’t we need to take hold of the good news of the gospel that we are deeply loved, accepted and cherished; that we have significance in the eyes of God? All our reflections about Jesus as “the word” relate to our own lives. It is in and through Jesus that we most clearly understand God’s messages to us; that we draw upon the wisdom of God’s reasoning mind and that we appreciate the transforming news of how much our lives matter. Usually when Christians speak about the word of God today they mean the Bible. That’s a little bit odd as the Bible itself doesn’t do that! The New Testament writers occasionally refer to the Old Testament as the scriptures, but whenever the word of God is mentioned it is more in terms of the word that came to the prophets, where God communicates with and guides people.
Identifying the word of God exclusively with the Bible is unfortunate because it narrows this whole concept and has the danger of idolizing the Bible as if it were another member of the Trinity. “The Bible says” is sometimes treated in the same way as “God says”. It can force Christians into a mould of thinking that we have to accept everything in the Bible absolutely literally, without applying any imagination or reasoning to our reading. It can also put everything in the scriptures on the same level of inspiration; but aren’t there some passages which are much more inspired than others?
This way of regarding the Bible received much emphasis with the Protestant Reformation, yet this is what Martin Luther said, “God’s word does not derive its authority from the Bible. It’s the other way round. The Bible’s only claim to authority is that it testifies to the word.” He said that Christ is the judge of the scriptures and that the written word must be weighed by its testimony to the living word (Jesus). So the word of God is much bigger than the Bible; but obviously there is some relationship between the Bible and the word of God.
It may be better to think of it as a collection of writings which convey the word of God to us. They are not, by any means, the only way God speaks to us, nor has God stopped speaking to the human race since the last page of the Bible was written. If one danger is to exalt the Bible to a place of eminence that is greater than it should have, the other danger is to denigrate it and neglect it. It does have unique authority for Christians. Its writings are inspired. If we allowed God to speak to us through it much more than most of us do, we would find great value and immense help.
On this Bible Sunday, it is worth each of us reappraising our reading and listening to the scriptures. They are the primary evidence of the impact of Jesus. In this sense alone they are distinctive and indispensable. The scriptures are a mirror which holds up to us the human face of God. It is through the scriptures that we apprehend and are apprehended by the word that was in the beginning, the word that became flesh and lived among us.
Let us draw upon one of the primary ways in which we can hear God’s word addressed to us. Let us allow our lives to be influenced and shaped by the wisdom and rational mind of the God whose coming to us in Jesus is supremely good news. Sermons are meant to lead to action; so what will you do as a result of these reflections this morning? How will you approach the Bible? When will you read it? If these are areas where you feel you need help, do talk it over- there are many aids to help us.
Drawing closer to the one who is the word made flesh is an area we will continue to explore together this month.
OUT OF THE ASHES
A Sermon first preached 27 November 2005
Advent Sunday is a celebration of hope. It looks forward to the coming of Jesus. People longed for years for the coming of the Messiah, for things to improve in their situation; and don’t we long to move on from situations that have affected us? We recognize how much our world needs hope.
This has been a year which has seen colossal natural disasters, continuing terrorist atrocities, ongoing injustices and conflicts. We need hope like we need air and water. How can we retain hope that is grounded in reality; the kind of hope which can sustain our lives through all the knocks, shocks and discouragements we can face?
One of the vivid symbols of hope is the phoenix- the legendary bird which rises from the ashes. Where can hope arise from the ashes for us? Where has it arisen from the ashes of other people’s struggles? Arguably the holocaust in the Nazi concentration camps was the most systematic and planned inhumane abuse ever. These places were designed to take away any sense of personal identity. People were dehumanized, stripped of all dignity, transported to these death factories in suffocating cattle trucks, and then treated as if they were vermin. How on earth could the human spirit survive in such situations?
Out of the ashes of all that is worst in human behaviour, arose some of the greatest qualities people can have. 92, 000 women and children died in Ravensbruck. Near the body of a dead child, people found a piece of wrapping paper and on it was written these words,
“O Lord, remember not only the men and women of goodwill, but also those of ill will. But do not only remember the suffering they have inflicted on us, remember the fruits that have emerged because of this suffering; our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this. And when they come to judgment let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.”
Could forgiveness be an important part of our hope of moving on? Even in that hell on earth, that most hopeless of all circumstances, hope and faith persisted. A Jewish prisoner wrote on his cell wall, “I believe in the sun even when it is not shining; I believe in love, even when I can’t feel it; I believe in God, even when he is silent.” The very places that would lead us to despair of humanity are the same ones that help us to find hope.
Many centuries earlier, the Jews had been carried off from their homeland to live in exile in a foreign country called Babylon. Although some of them said, “By the waters of Babylon we sat and wept. Who can sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” it was in that situation that most of the Hebrew Scriptures were written. It was there that people discovered a deeper and more creative vision of the God who was with them wherever they were. Out of the ashes of the destruction of all that was most familiar, there emerged visions of the greatness of God that would guide and inspire generations of believers, including ourselves.
In our own experiences of exile, of living with unfamiliarity, uncertainty and loneliness, will we allow ourselves to receive the reassurance that God never abandons us? In between the Jewish exile and the Jewish holocaust, the Roman occupying power took a young Jew and strung him onto a cross on a hill outside Jerusalem. Out of the ashes of Jesus’ crucifixion, would emerge the glory of his resurrection, the greatest sign of hopefulness in human history.
Can you take on board this most wonderful truth that the last word on human beings does not belong to death and destruction and despair; but to life and light and love? Out of the ashes of our present life, we need a bigger hope than anything which is centered on ourselves, or upon other human beings. Will we grasp hold of God-centered hope this Advent?
As those who are seeking to be active peacemakers, will we inspire other people to rise from the ashes of negativity and despair and receive the life-giving hope that can transform us all?
FACING OUR HISTORY
A Sermon first preached on November 13th 2005
The trouble with peacemaking is that history gets in the way. Northern Ireland’s history has dragged back progress in community relationships for centuries. Yet there has been remarkable progress, despite the history.
The history of the Balkans has left its bloodstained fingerprints on the present. The challenge to Serbian, Croatian, Muslim and Albanian people is “Do we allow our future to be determined by our past?”
In any situation the longer the cycle of violence continues and the more savagely it is acted out, the harder it is to move beyond the power of negative memories. It would be too much to expect people to forget, when atrocities have been so terrible and prolonged. If there is ever to be peace, there has to be a way of remembering that honestly faces the past in order to seek a better way for the future.
We can learn from South Africa and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. All predictions were that South Africa would be a bloodbath where revenge took hold after the injustices and oppression that had been suffered. The miracle was that, so strong was the desire for peace, a nation faced its collective wrongs with the determination to replace revenge with reconciliation. Whatever your view of the European Union (and it seems curious that there are some in this country who want to pull out of it when more and more nations long to be part of it!), that too is a miracle. Nations that fought each other in two terrible world wars have achieved a remarkable degree of committed co-operation.
Remembering is important. Remembrance Sunday is not only to remember that people died on our behalf (hugely significant though that is), but that, in facing our history, we become more deeply resolved never to go down that route again. At least that’s the theory.
But there have been hundreds of wars since the Second World War and some of them (in Cambodia, Vietnam, Rwanda, Bosnia and many other places) have been excessively destructive. Britain herself has entered into a totally unprovoked war in Iraq. Is it any wonder that we have become a terrorist target?
We all remember events from our own perception, which can differ greatly from another person’s perception. History has often been told in a one sided way, distorting, falsifying, omitting all the facts. That’s how terrorists and bigots remember history. The particular historical interpretations of one group are reinforced generation after generation. Why should it matter to the present young people of Northern Ireland what happened at the Battle of the Boyne centuries ago? Because it is drummed into children’s consciousness from infancy.
Last week we reflected on obstacles to peace. It has to be said that history can be one of those obstacles. But it needn’t be. History can be one of the building blocks of peace. By facing what has happened –to all concerned- we have the choice to move forward into peaceful ways of relating. Let Remembrance Sunday be observed in that way and it has continuing and valuable validity.
Telling and listening to each other’s stories helps us to see a more whole picture. Apology and forgiveness, alongside seeing what each one has experienced, are among the building blocks of peace.
Our task, as peacemakers, is to face our history, not repeating its mistakes, but learning more constructive ways of relating.
We pray for the One who is the Prince of Peace to inspire us in such practical peacemaking- at home, at work, where we live and in the wider world –for the sake of us all.
OBSTACLES TO PEACE
A Sermon first preached on 6 November 2005
My next door neighbour, a Community Psychiatric Nurse, is using her retirement to offer her skills internationally. Yesterday she flew out to Jerusalem. She will be working with a couple there who have said about their situation, “What is needed is not passive peace talkers, but active peacemakers”.
It’s easy to be a passive peace talker. It’s easy, week by week, to pray for peace. It’s people on the front line- in Jerusalem and elsewhere who can be very much active peace makers. They are people who Jesus says have the blessing of God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
But perhaps that role is not denied to us who are not on the front line? We are not likely to be involved in international diplomacy. Our sphere of peacemaking may be limited to keeping the peace at home! Can we not be active peace makers in family, work and community situations? May there not be some opportunities where we can help people to understand one another better?Are there situations that have become stuck in bitter resentment where we might be able to help release the log jam?
Active peace making may not require a crisis to be solved; it may not need a situation of hostility to be overcome. We can still be active peace makers in peaceful times by being what John Wesley described Methodists as- “the friends of all and the enemies of none.” “Blessed are the peacemakers” could be understood as, “Blessed are those who make this world a better place for all people to live in”.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “Die when I may, I would like it to be said of me, that I always pulled up a weed and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.” Rooting out the negative; planting peace- this is a role we can play.
Being a peacemaker may involve taking risks, bearing other people’s fears and angers, being seen as a threat and possibly attacked by both sides you are trying to reconcile. If there is one quality peacemakers need, it’s perseverance; the determination to see something through, to hold on in faith, not letting go or giving up. Peacemakers need to be very tenacious people, because there are huge obstacles to be overcome.
What prevents peace from coming to the world?
Obstacle 1 is vested interest. There is a huge amount of money invested in military research and in arms manufacture. The “peace dividend” of the ending of the Cold War, symbolized by the breaking down of the Berlin Wall, led to people losing their jobs in these industries. Making war is in some people’s economic interests.
Obstacle 2 is prestige. Tin pot dictators, whose people may be starving, love to ride around in heavily armed cavalcades. The United States of America would be very reluctant to reduce its nuclear arsenal, which helps to guarantee its position as the World Superpower.
Obstacle 3 is political manipulation. Wars are usually vote winners. For centuries, the route to power has often been to play on people’s fears of a real or imagined threat. To appear a strong leader in such a situation has often been the way to gain support. The Falklands War certainly helped to reinforce Margaret Thatcher’s image as a strong leader. Has the tide turned? The Iraq War was far from being a vote winner for Tony Blair. If the tide has turned, with electorates becoming more sophisticated and discerning, so that the political manipulation of people’s fears by going to war no longer works, that is a massive boost to the cause of peace.
Obstacle 4 is putting national interests above those of humanity as a whole. For years nations, including our own pursue what is said to be “in the national interest”. If it is perceived to be in the national interest we will help another nation. If it isn’t, we won’t. Thinking internationally, as members of one world still seems to be ahead of where most of us are. There have been some reforms of the United Nations, but much more needs to be done. There needs to be far more commitment to acting as a world family rather than as separate nation states if, as John Lennon pleaded, we are to “give peace a chance”.
Obstacle 5 is the most personal. It is to do with us, each of us. The problem is the human heart, often described as the problem of sin. It is a question of attitude. Resentment, jealousy, greed, fear, anger and selfish ambition are among the main obstacles to peace.
What we often see in world politics is the worst features of each human being writ large. For the sake of one person’s ego millions of people may suffer. Of all obstacles this is the most serious. It is also the one we can do most about.
While we can campaign against vested interests, prestige, political manipulation and putting national interests above that of the whole human family, these tend to be issues external to us; but pride, selfishness and resentment are issues which affect us directly, because they are within us all. That is why we pray, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”
Each of us needs to ask ourselves, “Where am I being an obstacle to peace rather than a peacemaker?” “What attitudes of negativity and resentment do I give room to and allow them to grow?”
In all things we need Jesus, the Saviour of the human heart as well as the Prince of the world’s peace. “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”
MEANINGFUL DIALOGUE
A Sermon first preached on 30 October 2005
Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, is rightly a greatly respected person in the Christian world- a person of courage who called for change in South Africa’s apartheid years; a reconciling person, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in his country; a man with a great sense of humour and an infectious joy. This is something he has said about relationships with people of other faiths: -
“I believe that Jesus Christ is indeed the full, perfect and final revelation of God. I will yield to no one on that point. But that does not then give me the right to ride roughshod with muddy boots on what a person of another faith considers to be her holy ground, nor to denigrate and belittle what she believes is a revelation from a transcendent divine reality by whatever name it is called and however it may be conceived and described. To dismiss other faiths is not only unforgivable arrogance but it is a position which flies in the face of reality. There is so much that continues to separate and alienate us from each other. There is the growing intolerant fundamentalism and a resurgence of xenophobia and ethnic chauvinism. We are face to face with daunting problems that threaten us with catastrophe –Aids, poverty, disease, the population explosion, human rights violations and ignorance. We need to build coalitions with those who share our values. Though the religions of the world are certainly different, they do share some important values.”
Elizabeth Harris is the Methodist Church’s Secretary of Inter-Faith relations and she says,
“The idea of becoming friends with people of different faiths raises fears in some people. What will happen to my sense of the uniqueness of Christ? Will I have to water down my faith? Will I have to abandon mission? All these questions arise and they must be taken seriously. Yet the experience of those involved in inter-faith relations suggests that such fears are unfounded. I believe that building good inter-faith relations is no longer an optional extra but a necessity for the Church. My reasons are biblical, practical and personal.
Biblically, the lead can be taken from Jesus. He was a person of dialogue. He found faith and moral goodness where others did not, for instance among the Samaritans, a Roman officer and a Gentile woman.
Practically, the building of trust between people of different faiths is essential for the health of our communities. Tension between religions is present in many countries, Britain included. In towns where positive inter-faith relations have been built up, any tension which arises has a greater chance of being defused than where faith communities remain completely separate.
Personally, there is much to gain from meeting people of other faiths. Christians involved in inter-faith groups are more likely to speak of a strengthening of faith than a weakening of it. Where friendship based on trust and respect exists, the sharing of what one believes comes naturally. But of course if we expect others to listen to us, we must listen to them. The result can be enriching and transforming for all involved and I am convinced the Holy Spirit can be at work in it.”
A Methodist Minister in Shipley, Sarah Jemison, says that making friendships with people of other faiths is being true to the biblical call to be hospitable, to care and to love. Such friendships could reveal something of the God is beyond us all.
One of the most challenging books I have read is by a Canadian called David Lochhead. His book is called “The Dialogical Imperative”. He contrasts 5 different approaches towards people of other faiths.
The first is what he calls “The ideology of isolation”. Throughout most of our history, we have been aware of the existence of other faiths, but have had little contact with those traditions. We were geographically isolated from each other. While geographical isolation has largely been overcome, we can still be socially isolated, even from groups of people who live quite close to us. For example, Jewish communities have lived in the heart of Europe for centuries, but Christian and Jewish communities have largely had as little as possible to do with each other. An approach based on isolation assumes that people of other faiths live in the darkness and our Christian calling is to help them to see the light.
The second approach is what he calls the ideology of hostility. The other faith is seen as a threat, a kind of antichrist, deliberately distorting truth. Therefore we should treat followers of that faith with suspicion and with hostility.
The third approach he calls the ideology of competition. This is where we acknowledge that there are similarities between us and people of other faiths and yet we are also different and we are superior. The full truth is only to be found in the beliefs and practices of our own community. Other traditions, which point humanity towards other lords and saviours, can only be viewed as competitors to Christian faith. Living in a competitive industrial world where we are constantly bombarded with the message that one product is better than another, we are inclined to treat religious traditions like competing brand names. Some of the colonial assumptions that our way is better still linger on- in this area as in other areas.
The fourth area is described as the ideology of partnership. As churches learned to co-operate on the mission field and even to unite, the understanding is that our similarities are primary and our differences secondary and accidental. In relation to other faiths, this same understanding can be applied, that there is a common worship of God and that our differences are not essential to our faith.
Each of these four ideologies has its weaknesses. Each of them makes assumptions about other religious traditions without engaging in actual dialogue. The issue is how Christians relate to the world and its peoples. We need to recognise how every tradition, including our own, has its dark side as well as its light.
The fifth approach is the one advocated in the book. It is the approach of dialogue. Dialogue is a promise rather than a threat. Dialogue does not necessarily aim at reaching agreement, but in the first place recognises the need to understand one another. From understanding, we can make progress towards integration. For example, because of the thawing in relations between Catholics and Protestants over the last 45 years, most of us now would not define ourselves as Protestants over against Catholics.
To enter into dialogue is to come to see the world through other eyes. It is also to see our own tradition through the eyes of another. That does not mean ceasing to be committed and faithful members of our own tradition. It does mean that our seeing has been considerably extended.
Dialogue has to do with essential activity. Action for peace and justice, done in full consciousness of the realities of the contemporary world, cannot but include interfaith dialogue as one of its dimensions. Dialogue can move beyond people from one tradition talking and listening to people of other traditions, towards a mutual transformation of both traditions.
Dialogue is not so much a process of sharing truth as it is of discovering it. It is a relationship of openness and honesty, even more than it is an activity of conversation. Is not this one aspect of loving our neighbours as ourselves?
Such a relationship is a precarious, vulnerable one. It can at any time degenerate into either the other person or us delivering a monologue to which the other is expected to simply listen without critical comment. Sharing stories may be a more fruitful thing to do than to share monologues. It also may be expected to have a profound effect upon the way in which our own faith is understood. Dialogue ought not to require any prior conversion on either side-other than conversion and commitment to the process of dialogue itself. Such a relationship needs both the will and the grace to make it happen.
But what happens when there are some individuals and groups who are not capable of dialogue? Dialogue is impossible when two communities are incapable of mutual trust and openness. The call to dialogue is not simply about relationships with other religious communities. It is a call to dialogue with the whole world. Such a dialogue does not entail suspending our judgement or failing to be critical- for example about issues of injustice.
A Hindu writer, commenting on Christian and Hindu dialogue says that the emphasis upon a self-critical attitude, the demand that each party should try to see things from within the mind of the other, can easily mean that dialogue is simply an exercise in the mutual confirmation of different beliefs with all the really critical questions excluded. He says, “If it is impossible to lose one’s faith as a result of an encounter with another faith, then I feel that the dialogue has been made safe from all possible risks”. A dialogue which is safe from all possible risks is no true dialogue.
The Christian will go into dialogue believing that the sovereign power of God’s Spirit can use the occasion for the radical conversion of his partner as well as himself. Yes there are risks, but to take no risks would be the like the man in Jesus’ parable who buried his talent in the ground. To be faithful stewards of the treasures of God’s kingdom does not consist in simply holding fast to the tradition we have received. It has been entrusted to us for a purpose, that by sharing it, it can grow.
I would suggest that the way forward for us, for the sake of faithfulness to Jesus, and for the sake of better community relations and of world peace, is that we engage in building friendships with people who approach life differently from ourselves- people of other faiths and of no faith. In this vulnerable process we can expect to see changes in other people and in ourselves. Such changes are not to be feared. They can be the very way in which God works among us for the transformation of human life and society. As a deliberate policy of our church’s mission let’s keep building friendships.
WHAT’S UNIQUE ABOUT CHRISTIANITY?
At my sister’s funeral last year, her husband, who had himself only months to live, spoke about her commitment to inter-faith dialogue and said she was engaged in this from a position of being “secure in her own faith”. It was an interesting phrase to use. In dialogue with other Christians we may be able to contribute most when we are secure in our belonging within Methodism.
In dialogue with people of other faiths, we may be able to contribute most when we are secure in our faith as Christians. If engaging in inter-faith dialogue requires us to be secure in our own faith, we need to know our own faith and to have confidence in what it offers.
In a world of many different faiths, what distinguishes Christianity? What is unique about this expression of faith?
It’s called Christianity because it’s centred on Jesus, the Christ. Christian faith is that he is God with a human face; not a founder of a religion, but an expression of the living God himself-the clearest revelation of God in human history. A claim like that is not made for Buddha, Mohammed or any other great figure of religious faith. Jesus is not only the revealer, but the Saviour of humankind.
In this he displays the kind of grace that searches people out and comes to them where they are. Hindus believe we have to climb the ladder of austerity by our own efforts; Christians believe that Jesus comes right down to the bottom rung of the ladder to help us up. Jesus the revealer and Saviour, uniquely expresses God in the words and actions of his life.
It is the history of what happened to Jesus of Nazareth that is another important distinguishing characteristic of our faith. The symbol of our faith is an empty cross. Jesus, who died in agony, was raised to new life. In vulnerability and suffering Jesus reveals the love at the heart of God. In his dying and being raised to new life, he most effectively acts as Saviour of humanity.
It is because of him that the distinguishing emphasis and insight of Christianity that God is love came to have such prominence. It needs to be acknowledged that the Christian Church through the ages has not always followed Jesus as closely as we should. There are times when Christians have been identified with many different emphases and the conviction that God is love has sometimes seemed the last rather than the first thing people would associate with Christians.
Christianity is also distinguished by an understanding of the nature of God. God is one, but is multi-faceted. God in three ways of being one expresses divine nature through the Father, Jesus the Son and through the Holy Spirit. The Trinitarian insight is another unique aspect of Christian faith.
Another major aspect is that we are to bear witness to our faith. And that’s where problems can arise! At one stage in history, and according to some churches in this town today, aggressive evangelising designed to convert people of other faiths to Christianity, was what we needed to be doing. But many Christians today would find such an attitude unacceptable. Their wish is not to be agents of aggression but of reconciliation. And this conviction is strengthened by meeting people who are Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims as fellow-citizens.
Such meeting leads to the discovery of people who are frequently more devout than many natives of these islands. More appropriate than aggressive evangelizing is learning to make friendships, to respect one another, to live alongside one another and to learn from one another. We are also learning that the human race can’t survive unless we learn to live together at peace and with justice.
We have a dilemma, though. We have the calling to be bearers of a gospel for all humanity. From the beginning Christianity entered a multi-cultural, multi- faith world, bearing witness to Jesus. Don’t we still have the urgent task of sharing the faith we hold? Didn’t William Booth have a point when we said, “Evangelise or fossilize?” And wasn’t Methodism from the beginning a missionary movement, where repeatedly John Wesley would say of his activity, “I offered Christ”?
Twentieth Century theologian Emil Brunner said “The Church exists by mission as fire exists by burning”. If we remove evangelism from our agenda, do we fail to be true to what we are and do we also lose our way by pulling the carpet from under our feet? If we no longer have the imperative to “go and make disciples of all nations”, what purpose do we have for existing?
How do we hold together the need to respect and to learn from the other, with the missionary imperative which is the basis of our existence? Christian mission is expressed in a number of ways- through our worship; through the fellowship of care for one another and building each other in faith; through costly involvement in the life of society, offering a depth of compassion for the most vulnerable; as well as through dialogue and evangelism.
Christianity is not something that is static and frozen in a timeless past. It is growing and developing. In our encounter with new cultures, new aspects of the fullness of God come to light. The Church of the Twenty first century is not the same as the Church of the 4th or 17th centuries. This is a dynamic movement of continual development and of fresh discovery, alongside all the core beliefs which continue to form the basis of our understanding.
We bear witness to Jesus as those who are “secure in their faith”, those who, being deeply rooted in Christ, can enter into complete self-emptying and exposure into the world of another faith to bear faithful witness to what gives our lives coherence and meaning. This whole area of meaningful dialogue is what we will concentrate on together next week.
For now, let us seek to grow in the faith of Jesus- not from a conviction of being better than others, more competent or more enlightened than others, but as those aware of God’s transforming grace.
A few years ago, Rev. Inderjit Bhogal was President of the Methodist Conference. He came from a Sikh background and did not feel it necessary or desirable to renounce his being Sikh in order to be Christian. He wore his Sikh turban when attending the Bible class at the Methodist Church as a boy. He made the decision to become a disciple of Christ. He said, “My own family was concerned and questioned my developing commitment. “Why have you become a Christian?” they asked. “You do not need to be a Christian to know God. You know that. God is with us and within us all. Our relationship with God is not inferior to that of Christians”. I shared those sentiments. All this caused me great pain.
Why then, if I did know God as a Sikh did I have to go and make my commitment to Christ? This was an experience which did not warm my heart. Then one day I happened to be sitting in the garden, reading the New Testament. I came to John 15:16. The words there give me strength to this very day: “You did not choose me, I chose you.” It is one thing to trust and to love God. It is quite another thing to know that God loves you, trusts you, calls you, chooses you.
I began to see the decision I had made as actually a response to God. In my development as a disciple of Christ, far from abandoning my past or my Sikh culture, I have actually learnt to affirm it and to be proud of it. In fact, my understanding of Sikhism has grown as a result of my Christian discipleship and I am a keen, though critical, student of Sikhism. I have seen a continuity between my upbringing as a Sikh and my Christian discipleship as important. Jesus’ first disciples followed him as Jews all their lives. Paul, after his Damascus road experience, did not cease to be a Hebrew but remained proud of his culture, although he questioned some parts of it. So I try to follow Christ within the Sikh culture.”
As people who aim to be more secure in our faith, as people trusted, loved, called and chosen by God, let us meet with others, bearing witness, by our words and our lives, to the love of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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