Ss Peter & Paul, Kettering
Being Christ where we are
There’s a temptation that many churches drop into and that is forgetting that we are here to be the body of Christ in the place where we are, and that our actual role is not just to be a pleasant distraction from the world for an hour or so, but that we are to be gathered here to enrich, enliven and resource ourselves such that we can go out from here at the end of our time together to spread the good news of the Kingdom of God to all those that we meet.
We meet in Christ’s name to learn of Him, to meet with him, to be fed by him. We meet him in the Word, in the sacrament and in each other.
We are strengthened by fellowship with him and with each other – through the ways of prayer and communion.... and then we are to take that out and spread that Good News of Christ to the world.
Our New Testament lesson is a great one for teaching us about this primary task of ours in the church – a task that we should never set down or bypass.
Paul is in Athens and he has been preaching in the Jewish synagogues and so on – places where he has a ready audience – even if they don’t always agree with him.
But Paul knew that the Good News of the kingdom was not just for those who might give him a hearing, not just for those who might easily be won over. No, Paul was called to go out to all the people – as is the church of today.
He was called to go out and preach to those who had no real idea of the One God Almighty – to preach to those who worshiped other gods and goddesses that were far easier on the conscience than the God of Israel who had arranged for His own Christ to be crucified.
Paul was faced with the problem that so many of us have at such times: Where does one start?
That’s why it was easy to preach in the synagogues. They had a basic starting point of knowing the same God, of knowing the Old Testament and hence had the background knowledge that a messiah was to come. But what of those who simply didn’t have that background?
Rather like today, when we realise that successive generations are less and less Christian by culture. It’s not just children who know not the Lord’s Prayer today – but it’s adults as well. It’s not just the youth of today that fail to attend church.
I see many families as I prepare for funerals who haven’t been in a church for many years and who only have the most rudimentary idea that they want a Vicar to do the service because it somehow makes it proper.
How do we start to reach out to people who have no real understanding of what it is to be a Christian – and a real Christian at that, not just a member of some middleclass cultural group that likes traditional things. How do we tell out what it is to be a real Christian; and how do we get that over to them in a meaningful way?
The book that I’m reading at the moment (and we’re supposed to do far more reading that I get time to do) is a book about Mission in this century. It is written by a number of writers mostly from places in Africa and the like.
Places where in previous centuries White Europeans have all but forced the native populations to abandon their ways and take on Western religious practices.
It makes for interesting reading as we hear the voices of those who have struggled to make sense of Western religion in the context of their own faith story.
They argue quite strongly that if the white-man had only done what Paul had done all those years before, then faith and religion would have been far more settled into these places, and the tensions that we have now between national churches would be far, far less.
Indeed even if we look at how Christianity grew in this country we can see that we did not simply abandon all pagan signs and symbols, or nature based practices. Even in our own Parish church there are three images of the pagan Green Man – and religious festivals such as rogation Sunday and of course the Harvest Festival have pagan roots.
The point the book is making is that the way that Paul sought to connect with the Greeks of Athens, is the same as the way that our ancestors were won over to Christianity and can be the way we move forward to bring Christ afresh to our society today.
It is a case of finding their own stories, listening to their stories and finding out what it is that they are looking for. Finding where they connect with the spiritual elements of their lives and what elements make sense to them in their spiritual experience. In other words – what and where is the God shaped hole in the lives.
And it’s no good just assuming that if we say – ‘Jesus loves you’ people will simply just change their lives. It would be great if they did, and I’m sure that occasionally a few will, but most people will need to feel that reality of Christ’s love for them before they will even recognise it as such.
I read a quote this week from Jackie Pullinger who founded the St. Stephen’s Society caring for the marginalised in Hong Kong. She said: I went up to a man and said. ‘Jesus loves you’... but I realised it didn’t mean anything unless I did it.
This is the reality of what it is to be a Christian disciple. Just saying the words to someone means nothing unless it has our faith and our love behind it.
And our faith and our love finds it source in Christ. And if we can say and show our love in a way that connects and makes sense to the person being spoken too then we have the real chance to bring them closer to the Kingdom of God.
But, as I said before, we need first to listen to their story – to hear where they are and so understand what it is that they are searching for.
As Paul walked around Athens he found an altar to an unknown God. The Athenians knew that there was something else – something that they still had not found, they still had a God shaped hole in their lives, and so Paul was able to bring them the word of God such that the gap in their lives could be completed.
When I listen to people tell me about what it is that they are missing in their lives, I might get to help them see where God and His Christ can fulfil their lives and bring them healing and wholeness.
And that is what the church is called to do. Not just the church as a corporate body and not just ordained people – for it would be far too easy for us all to leave it to someone else, but it is the responsibility and calling to each and every one of Christ’s baptised people to go out and to share and spread the good news of the kingdom of God.
Now I’m sure that a number of you will be saying – I can’t do that. I don’t have the nerve. But this is where today’s gospel passage is so important to us as well.
Jesus promised that he would send the Holy Spirit to his people; And he did this in spectacular fashion at Pentecost as we will celebrate in a few days time.
But that Spirit was not a one-off event, it is here and inspires true Christians day by day, year by year, all through the centuries and even today.
There are those who will ignore the Spirit – not wishing to be troubled by its enlivening aspect, content to sit and moan about everything and every one else.
But thanks be to God, there are those who embrace the Holy Spirit and accept the gift it brings to bring life, hope, joy and peace to the Christian disciple even in the toughest of times.
The church is called to share and spread the good news of the kingdom. We are called by Christ to share and spread the good news of the kingdom, and as we gather together week by week in this place, we are here to be encouraged and enlivened by meeting with each other, meeting with the Holy Spirit, and meeting with the risen Christ himself so that we can go out there and do as God bids us in his name. Amen.
The Reverend Robert Hill, April 27th, 2008
Office Address:
The Rectory
Church Walk
Kettering
NN16 0DJ