Sermon – St
John the Baptist Lent Three 2019
Fruitfulness
on the Frontline – Ministering Grace and Love
Luke
10.25-37 – The Good Samaritan
What were you doing this
time last Sunday?
Last Sunday I was pounding
the pavements with nearly 3,000 others in the Stafford Half Marathon.
2,828 runners finished the
13 miles – adding up the collective mileage is 36, 764 miles. That’s enough
miles to take you to Peru and back three times.
My chosen charity this year was the Mothers’ Union who do a fantastic work across the world, including Peru. There they run a programme reuniting families with severely disabled children who have abandoned or neglected them.
So a massive thank you to
all those who gave so generously.
This will help Mothers’ Union members demonstrate love and grace in action on their front-lines.
And most of the others
runners were also raising funds for all sorts of charities.
They didn’t have to, they
choose to do it.
That’s grace and love in
action.
In support of the runners
are a small army of volunteer marshals manning drink stations and guiding us safely
around the course.
That’s grace and love in
action.
I also heard a number of
runners saying ‘thank you marshal.’
That’s grace and love in
action.
On Tuesday night last week
I attended a meeting at the Council offices with the Stafford Litter Heroes.
The difference they have
made in the last year is immense and I have seen them out in all weathers and
in all sorts of places picking up rubbish that others have carelessly abandoned.
On their Facebook page you will see how they are taking places like supermarkets to
task for not clearing up enough and they are now beginning to respond.
They don’t have to do
this, no one is paying them.
That’s grace and love in
action.
And note if you will that
the examples I have given are by people of all faiths and none.
And you and I as God’s
people?
Happily I can say that we
have our very own Litter Hero in Kate Norman and the Team St John’s Litter Heroes, allied to Stafford Litter Heroes.
That’s grace and love in
action.
And I am sure I wasn’t the
only person motivated by my Christian faith to get out onto the streets on
Sunday last.
I do know that Rising
Brook Baptist had runners along with fielding a number of people as marshals
and manning drink stations, many of them wearing Love Stafford T-shirts and
sweat shirts.
They didn’t have to do it
– they could and perhaps some might argue that they should, have been gathering
for worship on a Sunday morning.
But that’s love and grace
in action.
Love and grace in action
is outrageous, it is often messy and it is often an inconvenience as it looks
outwards with a concern for the other.
In the story Jesus told
about the Good Samaritan the Priest and the Levite with their outward show of
religiosity and punctilious devotion to God’s law fail to demonstrate God’s love
and grace in action.
As Jesus was to say on
another occasion, they had become good at straining gnats while swallowing
camels.
What gave rise to the
parable of the Good Samaritan we heard today is a lawyer asking what he had to
do to inherit eternal life.
Jesus’ response was to ask the lawyer what was written in the law and how he read it. The lawyer’s response was…
‘You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and
with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as
yourself.’
For this Jesus commends
him as having succinctly encapsulated the whole of the law…
But this is a lawyer and
there has to be sub- clauses…
His sub-clause is, so who
is my neighbour?
And of course he wasn’t
asking Jesus if he knew who lived next door to him.
Then Jesus tells a story,
a story that in some ways reminds us about those running in the Marathon or
helping as Marshall's, or of those involved with Stafford Litter Heroes.
They are people outside
the Faith Community and yet are motivated by grace and love – although they may
well not put it that way.
So let me ask this
question…
Where will St John’s be
this time tomorrow?
I am sure that the
Churchwardens are hoping that this building is still here – but what about the
St John’s Faith Community sitting in front of me.
Where will they be?
On average we spend around
10 hours a week involved in Church as a gathered community of God’s People.
Given time for sleeping
and eating we spend 110 hours as a dispersed or scattered Faith Community.
And yet it does seem that
our main focus is so often on the 10 hours and what happens in here to the
neglect of the 110 hours as a dispersed Faith Community out there.
David Pytches put it well
in his book ‘When the Spirit Comes.’
‘The meeting place is the
learning place for the market place.’
I often like to say that
our gathering on a Sunday is like a hinge between one week and the next. We
bring before God all of our week past, to rejoice, ask forgiveness for or to
pray about issues we have encountered.
Then we focus on the new
week ahead seeking to learn and be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be Christ’s
ambassadors in the situations we may find ourselves and with the people we
meet.
That is our front-line.
And it is on those
front-lines that we have an opportunity to make gestures of love and grace
flowing naturally from the God of all love and grace.
Those gestures might be
grand and even off the scale but for most of the time they will often go
unnoticed.
The Good Samaritan made a
grand gesture of grace and love and it worth noting the steps he took.
First he noticed. How
observant are we on our front-line? Do we
notice people and situations? We may not feel we can get involved but we can
certainly pray.
Secondly he stopped on his
own journey. He inconvenienced himself.
He put his own needs to one side for
the moment. How good are we at stopping once we have observed something.
How good are we at being
in touch with God so that we know that we are being called to do something?
Remember the story in Acts
3 of the beggar outside the temple gate.
As Peter and John are on their way to
the temple they hear a beggar crying out, so Peter and John stop, ask him what
he wants and then pray for him. To the beggars utter amazement he asked for
alms but got legs.
They must have passed him
a lot of times and there were certainly a lot of beggars around. So why that
beggar and why this day and time?
We just don’t the answer
but obviously Peter and John felt the call of God upon them to do something on
this occasion.
Back to the Good Samaritan,
who had also noticed and stopped and then acted in a very practical way. It was
obvious that the man beaten up and what he required – and at that point it
wasn’t to know the Seven Spiritual Laws or how he could gain eternal life – he
had very obvious physical needs.
Therefore in our
encounters on our front-lines if we are prompted to act we also need to discern
how best to act.
Like our emergency
services, they act first and later may discuss how the situation came about to
see if lessons can be learned.
I.e. best not to travel
from Jerusalem to Jericho on your own.
Then the Good Samaritan follows
through by taking the man to an inn and pays for his keep until he is
better. He is going to see this one
through.
And here some of Jesus’
listeners would have nudging each other and saying, ‘yes, okay he looked after
the guy, but giving the inn keeper a blank cheque, really!
But that’s God’s
outrageous love and grace – the same type of love and grace we are called to
demonstrate on our front-line.
And never, ever for our
own sake or for people to say how wonderful we are – but as Jesus said…
‘…your light must shine before people,
so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.’
How will people know about
God’s extravagant love and grace – through us as the People of God as we live
out the Gospel on our front-lines.
And we may be called to
the grand Good Samaritan gesture but equally we may be called to the ‘cup of
cold water gesture.’
That small kindness, maybe
allowing someone who is obviously in a hurry to check out at the supermarket
before us.
To smile kindly at the
person serving us or helping us check out – saying please and thank you.
Giving up your seat for
someone on a busy train, saying thank you to the person cleaning out the loos
or sweeping the streets.
I can tell you every one
of those marshals during the half-marathon when they were thanked, you could
see their appreciation.
Now this isn’t going to
solve the world’s problems, but I am reminded about the starfish story and the
little boy.
Along the beach one day
there were hundreds of starfish in great danger of dying in the sun.
A little boy is picking
them one at a time and putting them into the sea. An older man comes along and
asks what he is doing and the boy explains. Well how can you possibly hope to
make a difference says the older man, there are hundreds of them. The little
boy picks up a starfish and drops it into the sea saying – it will make all the
difference to this one.
It will make all the
difference to this one.
I have no idea where the
week ahead will take you, who you will meet on your front-line, what situations
you will find yourself in.
But this I can say with a
100% certainty – you and I will have countless opportunities to act with love
and grace out in the market place on our front-lines.
However you will need to
have taken to heart the most important words you will hear this morning and the
most important words you will say this.
Some of the most important
words you will hear come at the very end of our time this morning as a gathered
Faith Community – ‘Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.’
And then as we pray –
Almighty God,
we thank you for feeding us with the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ.
Through him we offer you our souls and bodies
to be a living sacrifice.
Send us out in the power of your Spirit
to live and work to your praise and glory. Amen.
we thank you for feeding us with the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ.
Through him we offer you our souls and bodies
to be a living sacrifice.
Send us out in the power of your Spirit
to live and work to your praise and glory. Amen.
And as those who will be sent out as ambassadors for
Christ on our front-lines can I invite you stand if you are able and let us say
together this prayer – that is also on your Notice Sheet.
O Christ in the
synagogue at Nazareth,
O Christ in the
pulpit of our Churches,
O Risen and Cosmic
Christ
O Voice of the
Compassionate
And righteous God,
Give us no peace
until we become
workers for your Gospel.
