Sermon – St James’ Newchapel 24th June 2018
How many threads can you plait? Most people can manage three easily
enough. Some can manage five, possibly more. I did learn at one time how to
plait together five threads in a horse’s tail and mane.
Today I am
holding four threads that I hope to weave together across the Diocesan
direction of travel where we have been asked to deepen our discipleship,
discover our vocation and engage in evangelism.
There is of course a fifth thread this afternoon!
If I put on my Panama
Hat that might give you a clue!
(World Cup 2018 - England v Panama)
(World Cup 2018 - England v Panama)
My first thread is the 30th
birthday of our youngest son Joe. Now that may not seem to a big deal, but it
is sobering to reflect that from today we have no children under the age of
30.
Edward is in honour
of his deceased maternal grandfather and John – because he was born on the same
day as John the Baptist.
Joe also reminds
me of another thread, my second thread. Joe’s full name is Joseph Edward John Banks.
Edward is in honour
of his deceased maternal grandfather and John – because he was born on the same
day as John the Baptist.
(However did
they work that date out?)
We heard the
account of John’s birth in our Gospel reading and we heard it said…
‘What then will this child become?’
Two
other very important threads today are that I am celebrating 32 years since I
was Admitted to the Office of Evangelist and Commissioned as a Church Army
Officer.
It is also Janet’s 30th anniversary. Back in the 1980’s we both trained at Church
Army’s residential college in Blackheath, London. The Course was for three years’.
So you can quickly work out that as I was leaving Janet was in her first year.
And is that a shared goal?
In the early days of Church
Army all Officers were required to play a musical instrument.
“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
Disturb us, Lord, when We are too well pleased with
ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
It is also Janet’s 30th anniversary. Back in the 1980’s we both trained at Church
Army’s residential college in Blackheath, London. The Course was for three years’.
So you can quickly work out that as I was leaving Janet was in her first year.
I
would like to weave these threads together using the Diocesan Direction of Travel.
In
May 2017 Bishop Michael at a Cathedral Celebration invited us to follow Christ
in the footsteps of St Chad, to deepen our discipleship, discover our vocation
and engage in evangelism.
Discipleship,
Vocation and Evangelism are now the Diocesan direction of travel and inform all
that we do.
On
speaking about vocation + Michael emphasised that this did not necessarily mean
along one of the recognised pathways or Reader training, or Ordination. But
rather that each and every one of us has a distinct and unique vocation to
fulfil.
Michael Quoist in his book
‘The Christian Response’ wrote…
You
are a unique and irreplaceable actor in the drama of human history, and Jesus
Christ has need of you to make known his salvific work in this particular place
and at this particular moment in history.’
God has constrained himself
to work primarily through the human medium in the redemption of the cosmos.
Partnering with God in the
redemption of the cosmos is our high calling and the fulfilment of our human
destiny – our one true vocation.
‘What then will this child become?’
We know that John lived out his vocation – as the one who
prepared the way, the one who pointed to Jesus, ‘Behold the Lamb of God,’ the one who was willing to decrease that
Jesus might increase and the one who was not afraid to speak out the truth even
if that was to cost him his life.
When I was in college I had
a tutor, Captain Roy Demery. On one occasion when we met for a tutorial Roy
said that I was a dreamer and that I struggled to grasp reality.
I worked with that and
pondered over it and concluded that I was a dreamer and I was happy about this
and that this was a gift from God.
Across the pond they have an
expression in the business world of creating a Bhag – a Big Hairy Audacious
Goal.
What’s your Bhag for St
James’?
Are you at St James’ like
the English football squad who are showing remarkable team work? Part of that
apparently is because Gareth Southgate sent them off to an Army boot camp to
learn how to operate as a team.
Switching metaphors, indulge
me if you will on a dream of my own – a universal dream of a cosmos being
redeemed.
Imagine this time a Jam Jazz
session with God on the lead piano playing in the Kingdom of God.
We might want to say we are
playing in a realized Lord’s Prayer.
To do this we need to listen
careful to God’s lead and we need to listen carefully to one another.
Together, partnering with
God, a redeeming creative dynamic emerges that opens up the everlasting doors
and ushers in the Kingdom of heaven come upon earth.
Just sit and imagine what
that would be like for a moment.
No wars, no starving
children, no homeless, no police, no knife crime, no locked doors, no fear for
our children.
Now that I believe is God’s
Bhag that was there in the beginning of creation until we messed up.
But in His grace, love and
mercy he came and showed us a different way, the true way in Jesus, to restore His Bhag.
And Jesus took all the filth
and the pain, all the hurt and the mess that we had made trying to sing our own
song, Jesus took all of that into himself and from the cross sang a beautiful new
song of redemption.
And now he says to you and
he says to me, do you want to learn that song?
God says to you and to me
will you sing out the song of redemption wherever you go, in each and every
place, day and night twenty-four seven?
The Psalmist declares - He has
given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he
has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the LORD. Psalm 40.3
And to do that we need to
become devoted disciples.
Last time I preached here
Janet was impressed that I remembered a quote from a sermon by our College Principle,
Charles Hutchins.
Discipleship is daily dogged
determinism.
In the early days of Church
Army all Officers were required to play a musical instrument.
This was largely to lead the
singing at outdoor rallies and meetings.
Wilson Carlile, Church Army Founder helped with the music at the Moody
and Sankey London Rallies and was himself a proficient musician.
I have tried several times
to learn to play the guitar but to no avail.
It takes a daily dogged determinism to persist and to get beyond a few
chords. And it takes the same daily dogged determinism to keep singing God’s
song of redemption to those around us.
‘What then will this child become?’
When we look at the
unfolding story of John’s ministry we see what a common was practise for
discipleship at that time and in that culture.
You can read the story in
John’s Gospel chapter 1 verses 35 – 40.
John the Baptist has pointed
out Jesus as the Lamb of God and two disciples (which I assume means two of
John’s disciples) ask Jesus where he was staying.
Turning
around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They
said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So
they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It
was about four in the afternoon.
To be a disciple was to seek
to emulate the teacher in every respect and so you followed them everywhere to
see how they reacted and whether what they taught was lived out in their lives.
We need to ensure that we
are emerged in Jesus, front, centre, back and front, up and down 24/7.
May the mind of Christ, my Saviour,
live in me from day to day,
by His love and pow'r controlling
all I do and say.
live in me from day to day,
by His love and pow'r controlling
all I do and say.
And from this place, with
the rest of the team playing together, we will become an evangelized and a
naturally evangelizing Faith Community.
We will naturally invite
people into amongst us so that they can taste and see that the Lord is good.
We can invite others to pick
up their instruments and play along with God in that great Jam Jazz session
playing in together the glorious Kingdom of God.
And we will be those People
of God who carry that song in our hearts and that is shown in our lives when we
are dispersed and out and about in our daily lives.
Next Saturday we meet as St
James’ Faith Community for a Parish Away Day when we hope to dream some dreams.
And having dreamed dreams we
will then begin to think about how we can turn those dreams into a reality
under God and to lay down some plans and strategies.
I hope many of you will come
and join us and play your part – remember this is God’s Church and it is God’s
mission we seek to fulfil and be faithful to.
Let me close with a prayer
attributed to Francis Drake. (And
offered to Church Army by Paula Gooder at a Church Army Gathering some years
back)
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
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