SERMON AT ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH WINTERSLOW & ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH FARLEY – SUNDAY 11th JUNE 2023 – FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
HOSEA
5:15-6.6; ROMANS 4:13-25; MATTHEW
9:9-13, 18-26
May I speak in the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit and may these words be yours and bless all who hear them. Amen.
I have always been intrigued by the fact that the American
writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens, perhaps better known as Mark Twain, was born
in 1835 when Halley’s Comet was in the sky and died in 1910 when again,
Halley’s Comet had returned to our skies. Indeed, Mark Twain had always told
his friends that he came to Earth with the comet and would leave with it. His prediction became very true. However, earlier than 1910, a newspaper
contacted him to enquire whether rumours that he was seriously ill and dying
were true. Twain penned a humourist response to the effect that “I can
assure you that rumours of my impending death have been seriously exaggerated”
and this quote has now become commonly used in circumstances where suggestions
have been made that something is coming towards its end or dying.
Those of you who attended the Clarendon Team Service at
Alderbury on Sunday 30th April will recall that Debbie McIsaac
preached at that service. As she was leaving
the pulpit at the end of her sermon she stopped and uttered one last sentence
to us to the effect that “we can be assured that with Jesus at the Head of our
Church, it will cannot die”. In other words, all the negative comments which
have been made in recent times about the demise of the church and Christianity,
cannot be correct if we truly believe that its head is Jesus because God will
not let it die.
Afterwards, I complimented Debbie on having spoken out in
this way and told her that above everything else which she had preached, that
final sentence was the one which resonated most with me and which I would take
away and remember. I felt it such an
encouraging line. She told me that she
had actually finished preaching and was simply going back to her seat when the
words of this last sentence came to her spiritually and she felt compelled to
say them. Truly, God was talking to her and we can all take refreshed
encouragement from them.
In
his weekly letter, Simon Chambers described the theme of this week’s readings
as ensuring that our lives are aligned to
God's purposes. In our reading from Hosea the prophet appeals to the
people who have strayed from God's ways saying 'Come let us return to the
LORD' for 'his appearing is as sure as the dawn'. In St Paul's letter to
the Romans we hear how Abraham was faithful, and he believed that he would
become 'the father of many nations', and so he 'grew strong in his faith'. And
in our Gospel reading we hear Jesus calling Matthew saying 'Follow me', and
also hear how Jesus heals a woman, and a daughter is brought from death. 'Take
heart, your faith has made you well'. Jesus says to her. Through all of these
readings we are invited and encouraged to 'strengthen our faith, build up our
hope, and grow in love'. I would just like to dwell a little longer though on
our Gospel Reading – another favourite of mine.
This
reading was one of my devotional readings earlier in the week and the one thing
which stuck out was that Jesus was a party-goer. He enjoyed the company of others especially
over food and drink and we read in Acts that the early Christians also enjoyed
meeting in each other’s house and “breaking bread and drinking wine together.
However, in Jesus’s case he didn’t restrict his party’s to what I might call
“Holy Huddles” but, as we read, he sat at dinner with Matthew and other tax
collectors and sinners. I think we are
all familiar with this narrative but it is worth reflecting upon it from time
to time as we can, sometimes, find ourselves spending most of our time with
fellow Christians and not with those who we might consider outsiders. We
naturally tend to drift towards people who are like ourselves and are repelled
by those who are different. That is
where Jesus is so different and why the Pharisees were troubled and confused by
his conduct. If Jesus was indeed such a
holy man why on Earth would he want to associate with those who were so
despised in Jewish society – tax-collectors who cheated the people for their
own profit and general “sinners” – those who disobeyed the Jewish laws and
ordinances.
Jesus’s
answer is wonderfully simple – “those who well have no need of a doctor, only
those who are sick”. Such a beautifully
simple explanation as to why Christ came down to Earth. Although simple he
furthers explains it by saying “I desire mercy, not sacrifice for I have come
to call not the righteous but sinners”.
There
is a story, which I think I have told before but which I think it is important
to tell again of a suburban parish church where there was a new rector
installed. Shortly afterwards he put up
a billboard outside of the church reading “All Sinners Welcome”. The PCC met and asked him to remove it which
he refused to do. The PCC had been
approached by members of the congregation to complain that the notice would
attract “undesirables” and upset their nice cosy church community. Eventually the new rector was indeed replaced
and found a position in an urban church environment. What a missed opportunity. From the words of this morning’s gospel he
had exactly the right idea. God wants
us, as Christians, to go out into those darker places and spread the light of
Jesus and the Holy Spirit to brighten up our world.
The
second part of our gospel reading emphasises the need for Faith. Again the stories are well known and very
familiar but there are two points which I think it worth underlining. The first is that if we have Faith and have
the courage to ask God, through prayer for something, he will hear, however
busy he might be, and answer. You might
not always get the answer you want but he will answer and give you the answer
you need at that time. The second is
that a delay is not fatal either and that Jesus always has time for us. In our reading Jesus was on a mission of
mercy to heal a sick girl. It is clear
that her illness is such that the healing is time critical. Nevertheless, he
stops and has a discussion with the sick woman who has had the faith and
courage to touch his cloak believing that she will be healed – and she is. Jesus then continues on his journey to find
the sick girl has died. He raises her
from the dead those performing two miracles.
There
are some who think that miracles no longer happen. I am sure they do and I am certain that most
of us can look back at times in our own lives or the lives of others where
there have been “god-incidences” for want of a better word. Sometimes they occur after a particularly
difficult time in our lives.
So the
messages I think we need to take away from this morning’s scripture is that it
is important that we don’t keep to our holy huddles, that we take encouragement
to strengthen our faith, we embrace change and those who may not yet share our
faith, that we live not apart within our own culture but mix our faith and
traditions into our surrounding culture – live within our modern culture whilst
retaining our faith and integrity where it differs. Jesus did not become a sinner by mixing with
sinners, he remained “apart but within” and by example brought people to
salvation. In spreading the Good News of Christ’s redemption it is better to
integrate within our local communities than set ourselves apart and so shine
with the light and love of the Holy Spirit which we all carry within us.
Amen MFB/10062023/187
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