And what was the vision? It was to bring the community of Barnacre together with All Saints Church at the Centre.

Transcription

1 1 Sermon for Barnacare Exhibition The Sayings of Jesus Well it's arrived the 2018 Barnacre Exhibition and once again our host of contributors have excelled with amazing displays around sayings of Jesus, with stalls, with catering and with all the work to make the grounds look spectacular. There are too many to thank so a huge thank you to you all. It s also Sea Sunday but we will be giving that a bit more of a focus that Choral Evensong this evening. Come if you can. Alex Peter s is playing the organ and afterward Alex and Adam will be playing music. But meanwhile back the ranch: it s amazing that an event started by the Revd Maurice Sutcliffe and his dear wife Joan should still be continuing with such energy and vision. And what was the vision? It was to bring the community of Barnacre together with All Saints Church at the Centre. This is where Church belongs. Church, Ecclesia, means gathering. But there has to be a reason to gather. And the reason for us to gather is because of what God has done for us, for you, for me, in the person of Jesus Christ. We want to see all our churches in the United Parish with Jesus at the centre and for all our churches in the United Parish to be the centre of the communities they serve. That can be harder for churches like All Saints and St John s because of where they are placed physically, so there must be another way of understanding what it means for us to be centres of community with Christ at the Centre. This year s theme is The Sayings of Jesus and the displays are fantastic and everyone one of these sayings points to what it means for us a Church and to be Christ centred centres of community: So have you found the sayings? "I am the way, the truth and the life" "I am the well of life"

2 2 "Consider the lilies of the field" "I am the Alpha and the Omega" I am the Light of the World I am the Good Shepherd Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's"... What others can you see? On Friday morning I attended the launch of the Morcambe Bay Poverty and Truth Commission it was three hours of harrowing stories that people across our community of Lancashire experience when trapped by poverty and the appalling treatment they receive at the hands of local council officers and through the incompetency of the Government s failing Universal Credit scheme. It s not universal, it does no credit to the government and it s a making people s lives a misery. But in the midst of the stories of despair there were some fantastic stories of hope. One young man, one of 9 children had been abused, exploited, forced to hide weapons for local gangs and sell drugs. He was not a considered a priority because he was a single man and 24 the programmes that had helped him had been closed down because of Government cutbacks. He was eventually taken in by a Christian Family, given a home and a hope and through the ministry of their Church he found the Way, the ttuth and the Life when he met with Jesus. He didn t meet Jesus in Church, he met Jesus in the Christian couple who picked him up off the streets. They were Christ centred in the centre of community and they heard the voice of Jesus saying I am the way the truth and the life. Be the same. Because of late and erratic Universal Credit payments a woman, a single mum but proud and working for little family faced huge debts she is bi-polar, but non medical assessors repeatedly failed to recognise her condition.

3 3 The bank did an amazing thing they heard her story and they wrote off her debts and helped her get back into a place where she could manage again. Jesus said I am the living well whoever drinks from the water that I give them will never thirst again. So many people in the world are thirsty for justice, for someone to see them, hear them know that they exist. Ethical and Bank these are two words that don t seem possible to have in the same sentence: but it was within the power of this Bank Manager to change a person s life for the better to see the person, not the bank balance. And this is our ministry if this Exhibition were only about the bank balance at the end of the day it would not be Godly. But if this Exhibition inspires us to be a well, where people and come and drink and meet with the risen Lord Jesus and receive the water of life then our Exhibition is doing its job. People will be saved and be added to our numbers. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. This is where our mission and ministry will stand or fall: if our focus is on our church as building our mission and ministry will fail. But when our focus is on taking Christ into community our mission and our ministry cannot fail. St Peter s Church in Scorton has been screening the World Cup, there is a pop up pub The Carpenter s Arms with real ale, lager, wine soft drinks. The church has seen 60 or more from the village who would otherwise never set foot in church, some not even at Christmas, Easter or Harvest you see that old Cash Cow has gone. But some regular churchgoers have criticized and along with other initiatives to reach out the community have not only criticized, but boycotted and encouraged others to do the same.

4 4 If we have a vision to be a Christ centred church at the centre of community then our doors must be flung open: Jesus said welcome the stranger the Pharisees said he s a drunkard and a glutton. Jesus said I played the pipe for you and did not dance I will never forget the Churchwardens at Dacre near Ullswater concerned about the Baptism services I put into the Sunday morning service instead of secreted away into the afternoon, privately: I know, it s noisy, they sit in the wrong seats, they don t know when to stand up or sit down they talk in the sermon Oh no, it s not that they replied it s the social calibre of the people you seem to be attracting that disturbs us. I am the Light of the World said Jesus. People in our community are walking in darkness and that includes a good number of those who do go to church it is possible to go to church all your life and never see the light. But Jesus calls us to be the light of the world. I m no astro-physicist but generally lights travels to the dark not the other way round. John in one of his letters says God is light and in him is not darkness at all 1 John 1v5 In the opening of John s Gospel the writer says: In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1v4-5 (Let s not mention black holes, although I think some churches can like black holes they swallow up the light) If we are to be a Christ-centred church at the centre of the community we have to go into the dark places of people lives: Jesus told this parable at the end of Matthew s Gospel: 41 Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.

5 5 44 They also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you? 45 He will reply, Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. 46 Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. Jesus may have said I am the Good Shepherd, and later the choir will sing The Lord is my Shepherd. But Jesus has some stern things to say those who are not his sheep. This is the hard message Jesus talks about the reality of hell and he desperately longs that no-one find themselves in the place. So Jesus calls us to follow him into the dark places of people s lives the sad, the lonely, the bereaved the sick, the dying, those in prison and those held captive trapped by poverty, addiction, crime,..slavery uyes, it s real and many are concealed behind low cost hand car washes, nail bars.. work gangs like the cockle pickers in Morcambe Bay who drowned. Render to Caesar that which is Caesar s. We all have a responsibility to contribute to society. You don t have to be Christian to be a good citizen, we should all be that. But then Jesus says render to God that which is Gods and that is you, your heart, your mind, your love, your soul. to the one who is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega. If this is what we hear the voice of Jesus saying to us and we respond to his call to follow him and be his disciples and make disciples: then we will be that Christcentred Church at the centre of community. The good news stories that bring change and transformation to those lost in the darkness of this world will be our Good News stories.

6 6 But God asks that we render to him all that belongs to him but in comparison to the what God has done for us in Jesus it is nothing but a drop in the ocean which is sea of God s love That love which is so amazing, so divine, that demands, my soul, my life, my all. Amen