Sermon at St. John’s Parish Church West Grimstead and All Saints’ Parish Church, Farley - Easter 3 – Sunday 14 April 2024
Acts
3:12-19; 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48
May I speak in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
On Wednesday evening this week I attended a meeting, over a light supper
at Sarum College, where Bishop Stephen met with a large number of lay people
from five of the deaneries, including our own, which make up the Sarum
Archdeaconry. The purpose of this
meeting was for him to tell us of his vision for mission – “Making Jesus Known”
and finding out what the laity felt it needed to assistant them to carry this
out – or rather what members of the laity felt they were lacking as a
resource. As you can imagine there was a
great deal of discussion and many questions but out of this, one thing spoke to
me louder than any other and this is reflected in our gospel reading this
morning.
Bishop Stephen told us a story about when he had first been appointed as
the Dean of Gloucester Cathedral. At his
first service, he had witnessed the departure of a long-standing director of
music and at the end of the service a presentation was made and he asked the
congregation to give a round of applause. Afterwards, a leading member of the
congregation pointed out to him that people do not give applause in cathedral
services and also, whilst on the topic, they also object to being referred to
in his sermon as “disciples” – that is far too evangelical. They prefer to be
called churchgoers. Quite a number of
the people at our meeting laughed or gasped but I think some others sympathised
with the Gloucester member of the congregation.
It got me thinking - how do we in our rural churches see our ourselves?
Churchgoers or disciples? Well certainly we are the former, if we regularly
attend church, but what does that mean?
Are we going simply in the hope of doing the right thing by God or are
we really following the teaching and mission of Jesus Christ?
So, what is it to be a disciple? Webster's definition of a disciple is "a
pupil or follower of any teacher or school.”
A true disciple is therefore not just a student or a learner, but a
follower: one who applies what he has learned.
This was the assumption or hope which Bishop Stephen was expressing to
his cathedral congregation in Gloucester and this is the assumption and hope
which he is expressing today in his new diocese of Salisbury – to us all! That we know Jesus – hence “Making Jesus
Known” not simply “knowing about Him”.
In
our first two readings this morning, first from Acts written by Luke and
secondly from John’s First Epistle, we reflect upon the mistakes of the past in
not fully knowing Jesus. Luke in our first reading reminds us that Jesus was
put to death on the Cross by people who were ignorant of who he was and also
the reason why it was necessary for him to die. John in our second reading
reminds us that now we know him we can be truly called God’s children and, when
Jesus is revealed to us, we can be like Him.
That explains why properly knowing and following Jesus is to be a
disciple - a true follower and that is why, if we are to call ourselves
Christians, we have to acknowledge and realise that we are true disciples and
that in everything we do and say we do so in the spirit and grace of Jesus.
Our
gospel reading reminds us of the disarray in which those first disciples found
themselves after the death and resurrection of Jesus. It occurs after the resurrection and they are
all together in one place talking about what they had heard; rumours, as they
would have been, of Jesus having risen from the dead. It must have been an awesome experience for
them to have the risen Christ suddenly appearing in front of them. Even after he had shown them the scars of
Crucifixion they were still disbelieving – no doubt thinking that he was some
sort of ghost. It is for that reason that he demonstrated that he was really
still flesh and blood and alive by asking them to give him some food – a piece
of grilled fish. He then reminds them that all this was foretold in the Old
Testament and that having known him and having witnessed his resurrection they
can be true witnesses of all that has happened, witnesses of God’s love to the
people of the world and that those who truly repent are forgiven their sins
without the need for the Temple ritual previously required.
It would take a long session to consider all the arguments about the
meaning of the Cross and its significance but I think we can be well satisfied
that God sent Jesus into a broken world, a religiously corrupt world so that
Humankind could be reconciled with God and that through the death and
resurrection of his Divine Son, Jesus, we could seek direct forgiveness through
repentance and prayer – hence the tearing of the Temple Veil to signify that
every believer and follower has direct access to God without the need of
complicated rituals and hierarchy.
Today, this service is being led by me, a Licensed Lay Minister, not a
Priest. My role is to teach and preach in a pastoral context. Yes, I may have gone through four years of
theological and ministerial training and wear these robes of church authority,
but, like all of us here today, I am simply, at best, a follower of Christ and,
hopefully a reasonably good disciple although, like many of those original
disciples, I often get it hopelessly wrong!
So how can we be good disciples and how can we undertake the role we are
being asked of making Christ known if we don’t know Christ ourselves? In my
view only by studying and following the example of Christ – first by studying
the gospels and secondly by “walking the talk” just as Jesus requested of those
first disciples in Matthew 28 – the Great Commission – which I think useful to
set out again here -
Then the eleven disciples went to
Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When
they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, 20 and
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am
with you always, to the very end of the age.”
So ends Matthew’s Gospel as well as the
TV production of “Jesus of Nazareth” but do note that even here, at the end,
some disciples still doubted, even after all this time and experience.
In his talk last Wednesday night, Bishop
Stephen ended with another story. As many of you will realise, the Bibby
Stockholm barge, housing a number of asylum seekers at Portland, is within
the Diocese of Salisbury. Bishop Stephen, together with a local priest, went
there on Maundy Thursday after the Chrism Service in the cathedral and washed
the feet of some of those asylum seekers.
As he did so to one particular man, the asylum seeker said “Surely,
we should be doing that for you”!
Bishop Stephen used this story to
illustrate that this is an example of where we can “evangelise” our faith to others
– doing as Christ did to his disciples.
Serving and not being served and teaching others by the way we
demonstrate our good discipleship and knowledge of Jesus to those who have yet
to know him.
As we shall say, once again at the end of
the service, let us depart in peace to be sent out to love and serve the Lord.
Amen MFB/201/11042024
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