Easter VII 2010

Sermons 2010

Well, a couple of weeks ago I was speculating whether a vicar's choice of hymns for the Sunday following a general election might betray something of his political convictions. Things were unclear last Sunday, of course. But I couldn't help noticing that the first hymn to be sung in this church after the forming of the new coalition government was "Hail the day that sees him rise..." I just wondered which of the three election-time party leaders this might be understood to be referring to.

Things have been exciting on the national political front. They are certainly different, and interest seems to have been stirred in people who have previously shown no interest in, or care for politics. That in itself must be a good thing. But what of a coalition government, the first for 65 years, in which people of previously-competing convictions are now being asked to work together in unity for, in the words of the Prime Minister, "the national interest and the common good"? Speculation about its ability to be effective and weather a storm has already begun. The media is delighting in highlighting differences of opinion to be found amongst members of the two governing parties: who, of course, might just happen to be people who haven't been given jobs within the new government. Good heavens, is cynicism catching!

Now, what is the relevance of all of this for us in church this morning? Well, obviously, we need to be alert to these developments so that we can pray for them. We do well to ask for God's guidance and strength for Mr Cameron and his administration; there is much to be done for the benefit of the common good. But there is another benefit from reflecting on this business of coalition and the overcoming of differences for the sake of an effective unity. It helps us to see these self-same themes in our readings this morning. It helps us to consider in a fresh way the nature of the church: who are we who are its members? How different are we from each other? Where does our unity come from? And how is it expressed and worked out in mission?

Just think about the reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Paul and Silas are in the middle of what we might call a missionary journey in Macedonia. They come to Philippi and a slave-girl with a spirit of divination - a lucrative asset as far as her owners are concerned - shouts for all to hear, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation." She went on like this for days. Now why that should have annoyed Paul, I don't know; she was only telling the truth. However, annoy him it did, so he exorcised the sprit from her.

Well, you heard the narrative: the owners are furious, the two men are dragged before the magistrates, after being severely flogged they end up - no doubt bleeding and bruised - in prison singing hymns and praying. An earthquake then frees all the prisoners from their chains, they stay there and Paul prevents the jailor from committing suicide, and he and his family are baptized. Then he gives Paul and Silas their breakfast! And to set this in a slightly wider context, it helps to appreciate that just before all of this, Paul and Silas have managed to convert a wealthy business woman who dealt in purple cloth, Lydia who lived at in the nearby city of Thyatira. It is to her comfortable house that Paul and Silas now go, but only after putting great fear into the magistrates by letting them know that they, Paul and Silas, are Roman citizens.

Now, this is all fast moving and dramatic, to say the least. In the power of the Holy Spirit the church advances and grows, its mission becomes more conspicuous and it is ever-more clear that everyone is invited to be a part of it. This is a coalition of the very different and those previously opposed to each other. This is a church in which the very wealthy Lydia is called to be united with those at the bottom of the pile - such as the slave girl whose ability to see the truth got her, Paul and Silas into trouble. This is a church in which a jailor is brought into unity with his prisoner - after kneeling at his feet and begging for forgiveness and baptism. And this collation is all for the sake of the Kingdom and the salvation of the world.

It's no different today! The church brings us into close contact with all sorts of people whom we might otherwise never know.

This is one of the great advantages of the church, and certainly of the parish church. Obviously, people can always opt to come to a church that isn't strictly their parish church, and that's good: we benefit from that there. But we who do choose to come here share in the church's mission to this whole parish: to all its people. It doesn't matter whether they are of different political persuasion from us; or whether their bank balance is radically different from ours; or where they were born; or what the colour of their skin happens to be; or whether they are introverts or extroverts, old or young, big r small, and so on. This is the place where all differences should be overcome.

Now, I suppose we hope that the people sitting around the cabinet table these days will be prepared to forget about their differences for the sake of the need to govern effectively. But then, that is probably no different when one party forms the government. Despite all the talk of marriage this past week, no one is asking Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg to love each other, just to get on with each other. This, of course, is where the mission of the church is much more radical and far reaching, as our Gospel reading reminds us. When we who might otherwise be strangers are brought together with Christ in his church, we are called upon to love each other.

Praying to God the night before his crucifixion, Jesus, according to St. John, asks that his disciples might become completely one "so that the world might believe that you have sent me." When people in churches fall out and fail to see that the mission of the church is much bigger than their petty differences and their marginal interests, then the church is brought into disrepute, its integrity weakened and its mission damaged. "The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one." And that unity comes from love - nothing less than the love that is to be found in God himself. "I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

It is the awesome responsibility of each and every one of us to ensure that the Church made up of very different people is much more than a coalition, but a community of love. Jesus prayed for this: it is our words and actions that determine whether his prayer is answered.

With my very best wishes,

John

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