Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Winterslow, Morning Worship - – Sunday 11th April 2021
Acts
32-35
Thank you
again for your very warm welcome here at Winterslow this morning. It is always a delight to be here with you
and the hymn which we have just sung, which I wrote this week especially for
this service, I am dedicating to you and this church in recognition of the all
your support and growth of my faith over the many years I attended here
regularly as a member of this congregation.
It was with
extreme sadness, yet I guess not surprise, that we heard that the Duke of
Edinburgh died on Friday morning – in fact I didn’t hear of it until quite a
few hours later. I think it will leave a
hole in the lives of many and marks the passing of an era. As the Archbishop of Canterbury said he
faithfully supported our Queen over 73 years of devoted service through
turbulent and changing times from the end of Empire to the establishment of the
British Commonwealth of Nations; through the numerous changes of government and
prime ministers and above all the triumphs and tragedies of Royal Family life –
never unwavering in his support and dedication to our Queen. Without him, Queen Elizabeth must feel a
great loss and emptiness and we pray that at this time her family and ministers
will all pull together to support her, just as her husband did.
Our reading
from Acts couldn’t be more appropriate. It reminds us how those early
Christians, the followers of Jesus, conducted themselves after Jesus’s return
to his Father on Ascension Day. They too would have been at a great loss –
probably disorientated and in despair immediately following his crucifixion –
anxious worried and frightened. Then
bewilderment at his resurrection and return amongst them – so bewildered and,
in Thomas’s case unbelieving, that it must have taken quite a strength of
belief to get their heads around it all. Then, finally, his farewell and
ascension into heaven leaving them probably more bewildered and disorientated
than ever.
Of course,
we know how the story continues – Pentecost and the coming down of the Holy
Spirit to them and to all believers then and in the future including us today;
but I am getting ahead of myself. Pentecost is still a few weeks off.
The NIV
version of our passage this morning reads “All the believers were one in heart
and mind”. Let us just pause there for a
moment – “all were one in heart and mind”. I wonder how many times today we can
say that about any group of individuals.
In my years as both a lawyer and minister rarely have I come across such
situations – indeed, my legal career was built on and around disputes of one
kind or another and upon people doing unlawful things to others. Even in church and voluntary bodies, let
alone the work environment, there are frequently clashes of personalities,
differences of opinion and long running disputes and feuds. Churches I have to
say, in my experience, are particularly bad which seems such a contrast and paradox
to what we have just heard about those early Christians.
We are all
human and therefore we do, indeed, have different views and opinions but it is
really how we behave towards others even when we might be in dispute over
whether to serve bourbon biscuits or custard creams with the morning coffee –
if only we could! When you read the
letters of Paul, they are frequently replies to letters that he himself
had received from the various churches
questioning his theology or asking him to settle disputes amongst themselves –
Galatians is a good example. It would be quite interesting to read those
letters to Paul as well as the letter we do read from him. I think we might find many of them written in
a similar vein to Victor Meldrew or “Annoyed of Tonbridge Wells”.
The
importance of this narrative in Acts was that in their early days the first
Christians were trying to establish themselves as a group of people looking
after themselves and the needy – following in the footsteps of Christ,
following his example of not amassing possessions for themselves as individuals
but of sharing. When I first read this
passage I thought that it sounded very much like a Communist manifesto. Indeed, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was accused
by the White Supremacist Government of South Africa of being a communist
activist in his preaching and writings. His response was to say that nothing he
preached or taught or spoke was at variance with what they would find in that
same book upon which each and every Member of Parliament too their Oath of
Allegiance when they took up their office – the Holy Bible. The Archbishop of Cape Town was simply
reminding them that as a Christian nation their duty was to uphold those same
principles taught in that book.
Today I
believe the Church has a most important role to play in our society – in
upholding morals and reminding the population at large of our duties to show
compassion and help to those less fortunate than ourselves and ensure that we
keep those objects always in our sights.
I heard a
lovely story once about a group of villagers on the Cornish coast who were
concerned about the number of shipwrecks and loss of life happening along their
particular stretch of coastline. I think
it might be a story which Nils told and my apologies to those who may already
know it, but I think it acts as a good parable today. Anyway, this group of villagers decided that
they needed to do something about it and clubbed together to found a Lifeboat
Society which produced a lifeboat and clubhouse. Things went well and the lifeboat did indeed
save many lives but as time went on the social side increased and they built a
bigger and better clubhouse, increased their membership, formed different
committees, held dances and gala dinners whilst all the time the lifeboat and
boathouse started to fall to pieces and before long nobody really could
remember why they had formed the club in the first place. Factions arose, disputes arose and out at sea
people continued to drown. One faction
broke off and founded another Lifeboat Club and the same thing happened all
over again.
The moral of
the story? Well I think it is quite
self-explanatory. We should never stop
thinking why any society or organisation was formed in the first place and the
church is no exception. I have seen it
happen in churches – and I hasten to add I am not including Winterslow by the
way – but in quite a few “free churches” I have seen the wonderful founder’s or
planter’s very laudable aims evaporate as different factions or authoritarian
administrators have taken over. Like
those early disciples we need to get back to the basics of Jesus’s teachings.
At this time
of the Christian calendar we remember the great sacrifice which Jesus made for
us all on the Cross – celebrated in the words and music we heard today – but
let us also remember his earlier ministry, his teachings, parables, and actions
and follow in his footsteps, “with one heart and mind” just as did those first
disciples in Acts.
Amen MFB/157/10042021
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