It will be available as a podcast soon (oooh, I hear you say, or maybe not)
Warning, I may have used the opening story before....
Eat
Drink and be Merry ?
A priest
takes up his new role as rector of a parish. All seems well during
his first Sunday service and as people start leaving the minister
says goodbye at the door and has the usual 'lovely sermon', 'thanks
for joining us', 'welcome', 'glad to have you on board' etc from
those leaving, until about ten people along a dishevelled looking man
says 'long winded', and 'dreadful voice' and then wanders off back
into the church. A few more folk shake hands and say farewell with
'thank you for your words for today', 'good to have you here' etc and
the same chap returns saying 'boring', 'what have we done?',
'dreadful sermon'.
It
happens two or three times, a dozen or so of the congregation come by
offering welcome, with this chap returning and saying very negative
things. At the end of the welcome following the service the new
minister goes to the vestry and the Associate Priest asks 'so how was
your first service, then? To which the priest answers 'it was great,
though there was this one guy who seemed very strange.' “Oh, says
the Associate, don't worry about him, he just goes around repeating
what other people are saying.”
Hope I
don't that kind of reaction....
I should
say 'hello I'm Alastair and I will be your Rector for today... and
hopefully a number of days to come” It is a huge privilege to be
here, and to have the responsibility for serving you as your
Incumbent, and to support you all in your ministry to this local
community, and to the city of Victoria. It is a joy for me to be
able to share worship with you and to offer some thoughts and
teaching to you. In short, I am very pleased to be here, and I look
forward to getting to know you and to being your minister.
So, you
are probably wondering what your new Rector has to say for himself.
I did wonder whether to hijack this sermon and take this time to say
something about myself, but actually I want to start as I mean to go
on and to offer some thoughts from the Scriptures set by the
Lectionary for this Sunday. Also, you have plenty of time to hear
about me, and you will discover that sometimes this pulpit, or the
front of the dais, or wherever can take on something of a
confessional aspect on my part – because I am sharing this journey
with you. I am not standing here as the expert with all the answers,
but as a fellow pilgrim on this strange, wonderful, disturbing,
exciting, hopeful, life giving journey which is following Jesus, on
being a person who is struggling with, celebrating and embracing the
life of faith. So you`ll get to hear plenty about me. I look
forward also to hearing your stories in these coming weeks and
months.
When I
read the lections for this week, and as I started to really think
about how I might start my preaching ministry with you good people of
St John the Divine I had a couple of reactions. One was oh yes, what
a great set of readings, the second was that if I wasn`t careful I
could easily come across as somewhat negative and grumpy as I tried
to share something about these passages, particularly the Gospel
reading for today.
What I
mean by that is, for instance, that when Jesus is asked to sort out a
problem for a person in the crowd – when he says tell my brother to
divide the family inheritance with me – Jesus says no, I am not
going to do that for you. It would be too easy to apply that to a
discussion on the role of a new Rector.
It`s true
that I don`t come to sort everything out and I am not a miracle cure
to what we might feel ails the Church! I heard Larry`s excellent
last sermon ( http://podOmatic.com/r/lEywnE) and this passage fits beautifully with the idea of the
rescuer, victim and persecutor. The kind of game playing, as Larry
called it, that Jesus refuses to join in with! I could take that as
foundation for my thoughts today and say that I won`t be the rescuer,
should anyone feel in need of it! This may be true, but firstly you
had a very good sermon on this two weeks ago and secondly what I am
sure you would want to hear is what we are going to do, not what
isn`t going to happen.
So what I
want to do is ask some questions. Questions that I hope will
characterise our life as a Church, and our own individual walk as
Christ followers.
My first
question is `where is God in this` I don`t mean in a simplistic `God
turns up at the end of the parable`kind of way – but to ask
something which we should ask about every part of our lives. In what
way is God active in the whole thing, and in what way do we include
God in our activity.
It
strikes me that before the shocking denoument of this parable, where
the `rich fool` as he is often called is struck down by a God who
challenges the man`s self obsession – before that moment God is
quite obviously, and deliberately, excluded from the story. In
sharp contrast to last week`s passage from Luke`s Gospel where Jesus
teaches the prayer we call `the Lord`s Prayer`, the rich man is not
content with `daily bread` but stores up treasures for himself. He
is concerned not just with fulfilling his needs but with getting as
much as he can. He way well have done this through wise stewardship
and thoughful planning, though it seems much more likely that is was
just `luck` as the passage says `his land produced abundantly`. For
this provision there is no gratitude, just a consolidation of the
man`s own wealth. And in response to this bounty is not to give
thanks to the giver, nor to use it in provision of others, but for
this rich man to turn inwards.
`I will
say to my soul, Soul you have ample goods laid up for many years;
relax, eat, drink, be merry`
One
writer, Robert Hamerton-Kelly says this turn of phrase is no
accident. The word translated `soul` is the greek word `psyche`-
the man – with almost comic effect -formally
addresses his own ego! There is no acknowledgement of a world beyond
himself, but only of his own self-sufficiency, and a sense of self
congratulation and, indeed, selfishness!
The
result of this, in Jesus` parable is God`s direct, even vengeful,
intervention. And a word of condemnation `You fool! This very night
your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared,
whose will they be
So where
is God in all this.
God is
there in the challenge to us, as we engage with this scripture, to
consider whether we include him in our lives – not just in our
church, but in our attitude to the things we own, to the things that
fill our lives, our time, our families.
God is
the there in the challenge for us to look beyond ourselves, both in
the sense of being ourselves open to the need to engage with the
other – in the form of neighbour, colleague, friend and stranger
and in the form of the God who wishes to be a part of our every day.
Another recent lection, the Gospel for July 14th just
gone, sums up this outward looking attitude. Luke 10.27, a young
man`s summary of the law to Jesus
`Love the
Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and love
your neighbour as yourself`.
In that
summary we have balance between loving God with all that we are –
intellect, emotion, soul, alongside loving our neighbour, and having an
appropriate love for self! It should not be one at the expense of the
other. But that may well be a sermon for another time!
But as we
are challenged to look beyond our own internal world, we are
challenged also as a church community to do the same. And this is my
challenge to myself and to each one of us at the start of my service
here in Victoria!
There is
a phenomenal amount that St John the Divine can be pleased about in
the way that this Church community engages with the world around, in
the care and compassion that characterises so much of the activity
and life of this parish. There is much to celebrate and give thanks
for in the shared life and spiritual growth that this parish Church
has obviously enjoyed over some years. This is much that is good in
St John`s. There is so much going on that I find inspiring,
exciting, and I have no doubt enjoyable too! Enjoyable is good, fun
is good, inspiring and exciting is good!
But we
cannot as a community, as the pilgrim people of God afford to rest on
our laurels, to consider ourselves a `successful church`. I know
there are things which we want to address and explore as a church in
the coming weeks and months. I know there are issues, ideas,
concerns and hopes. I`m glad I can be here to share these things
with you, as you will all no doubt – as is says in investment
advertisements - `past performance is no guarantee of success` we
cannot just look to the past, to what we have achieved before and
what we have done – but together we will, I hope, discern where God
is leading us as his people serving downtown Victoria and one another
in this body of Christ.
I believe
that God is calling us together to continue to engage with our faith
in worship, prayer, learning, wrestling with and understanding
Scripture. I believe that God is calling us to engage with one
another in this community and to continue to be a place where all are
welcomed, embraced and have a place in our life together.
I believe
that God is calling us to be a people who share our bounty with
others. Who continue to reach out to the people beyond our walls and
who help the needy, speak out for the oppressed and powerless, and
seek the welfare of all.
I believe
that God is calling us to challenge ourselves to grow, to be
faithful, to be loving and to be willing to follow where Christ
leads. And in all of this I believe the Spirit of God will be the
life affirming, live giving inspiration that will help us do and be
these things.
And so I
will say again that I am very pleased to be a part of this next stage
of the life of our Church of St John the Divine, Victoria. I look
forward to being with you, to sharing all that is to come, and to
laughter, life, love and faith held in common and enjoyed.
May the
love of Christ dwell in us richly, and may we Christ indeed be all
and in all for us.
Amen.
