St Mary's 9:30am Sermon - Sunday 13th March 2016

Sermon from St Mary's on Sunday 13th March

Reading: 1 Corinthians 11 v 17-34

Preacher: Dorothy Haile

This passage is about two meals. The early part of it (verses 20-22) sounds like a shared lunch gone horribly wrong, and then Paul goes on to some strong words about the importance and meaning of the Lord’s Supper, or Communion as we usually call it here. In order to see the connection Paul is making between these kinds of meal, which may at first look unconnected, I think it is helpful for us to think for a minute or two about the city of Corinth and the church.

This major city had a quarter of a million citizens plus many slaves and so was the largest and most diverse that Paul had come to. He arrived from Athens, probably in about AD 50. Corinth was a Roman colony, an important crossroads for sea and land routes, cosmopolitan, multi-cultural, a centre of commerce, wealth, idolatry and immorality. Paul worked there for about 18 months and many people came to faith. Inevitably, because of the sort of city Corinth was, the church was made up of a wide variety of people, who would not normally have had much to do with each other in a personal way. He had spent much of his time teaching these new Christians, who were learning to live their Christian lives in a very challenging environment, so he had a special relationship with them. Later he went to Ephesus, and it seems that while he was there he started to get news of divisions in the church at Corinth. There is lots of discussion in the commentaries about the exact sequence of events that led to what we now have in our New Testament as I and 2 Corinthians, but there is no disagreement that the situation in the church was pretty bad. When you read the letter you find Paul addressing very diverse – and sometimes rather odd - issues, but if we can remember that he is responding to reports, questions, and concerns, it may help us to see some themes.

In our passage verse 18 refers to divisions among the Christians, and in chapter 1 of the letter Paul says that there were factions – some of the Christians saying that they followed Paul, others, Apollos, others Peter and others that none of these men was as significant as Christ – they were the really spiritual people in fact! We can easily identify with this sort of division today, depending on which of the preachers and leaders we find most helpful, or most sympathetic to our particular views. These and other differences are inevitable, Paul says in verse 19, and they bring out the genuineness of our faith and how it is applied in our lives. I think he is saying that differences of opinion among genuine believers should not destroy relationships. I had a colleague in the mission who used to say that we had to learn to agree to disagree agreeably. Our passage today about the unhappy meals they had together is one example of the divisions, but there are several other examples earlier in the letter – they were taking each other to the secular courts instead of sorting out their legal differences among themselves; there were different convictions about eating meat that had been offered to idols before it was sold in the market – some said it was wrong to eat it and others that it was OK because idols were meaningless anyway; some were saying you should not do a certain thing because it could offend another Christian, some of them probably thought that if other people were offended it was their problem. This sort of argument is familiar now as well, because we don’t always agree about what it is right to do as Christians. Here again I think it is really important that we have respect and sensitivity for each other, and don’t allow these differences to destroy our relationships.

So we come to the symptom of disunity in today’s passage: it seems that the Christians of Corinth met together quite often in their homes to eat together, and then to have Communion together. But the problem was the lack of ‘togetherness’. At this shared meal there was discrimination among them – apparently the rich people brought lots of delicious dishes and didn’t share them; the poor people in the church who didn’t have enough anyway and couldn’t bring anything the others were willing to eat were excluded and went away hungry. This would be bad enough if it were what you might call ordinary hospitality.

But the crunch came because they were going on after this shared meal to have Communion, which is a stimulus to real unity as well as a symbol of it. As Paul writes in verses 23-26 we have this special meal to remember what Jesus did for us when he died on the cross. In fact another theme that is woven all through this letter is Paul’s emphasis on the cross of Christ and the implications of it. Back in chapter 1 he says that he came to Corinth to preach the gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ – as simply as possible, not like a specialist Greek orator. In chapter 2 verse 2 he says ‘I resolved to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified’. Why was and is that so important? Because, I think, we are all equal in our need of God’s gift of salvation. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, young or old, well-educated or not, privileged or not, ashamed of things in your past or not - we all need God’s grace and forgiveness if we are to become part of his family of saved people. That gift of God’s forgiveness and new life in Christ is possible only because Jesus died for our sins. The ground is level at the foot of the cross, as someone has said. And because of this we all come to Communion on the same basis. We come remembering and thankful for the death of Christ, eating the bread and drinking the cup, and (verse 26) proclaiming to each other and the world (including the unseen spiritual world) that our salvation depends utterly on the death of Christ for our sins.

Also, I think, this passage challenges us to look at how we relate to people whose Christian faith we share, but who may be very different in other aspects of life – perhaps political views, or lifestyle choices, or social background. How can we welcome each other in genuine ways with respect and love? The people of the church in Corinth were all Christian believers, at different stages of Christian maturity, and with a great range of attitudes and backgrounds beyond their shared faith. What about us? I’m still pondering what this might mean for me.

Paul ends this passage by going right back to the place where he began – when you have these meals together, wait for each other and be together in a real way. Our Christian faith has very practical implications: for the people in Corinth it meant changing their behaviour and living like people who all followed Jesus and loved each other, as he says in chapter 13. The implications for each one of us will of course be different in some ways from the exact situations that applied to Corinth nearly 2000 years ago. The challenge to me, and to us all, remains – how can I live as a follower of Jesus, in unity with my brothers and sisters, and showing in all aspects of my daily life that I am a believer? I depend on God’s grace each day, and come to Communion this morning, as you do, to remember the life, death and resurrection of our Lord, knowing that he told us to do this until the day of his return. May the Lord help us to have real togetherness as we worship and as in a whole variety of ways we serve the Lord.

St Mary's 11:00am Mothering Sunday Sermon - Sunday 6th March 2016

St Mary's 11:00am Mothering Sunday Talk, Sunday 6th March 2016

Readings:

Exodus 2:1-10

John 19:25b-27

Preacher:

Craig Young

When preparing for today’s sermon I found this on the Mothers Union website

We come here today to thank God for mothers and carers around the world. It takes a very special love to care for a family. Today we’ll celebrate that love and thank God for his own perfect love for us all. We’re not all mothers ourselves but we all have a mother, whether or not they are still with us, and we are all children of God. He is our loving Father but is also the one who remembers and comforts us as a mother comforts her child, and draws us close as a hen protects her chicks.

Here we see an idea forming that the love which God has for us is like that of a mother and that image of a hen gathering her chicks under her wings for loving protection can be found running throughout our faith like a strand of DNA. Jesus himself uses this image of God’s love in Matthew 23:27 when he says of Jerusalem, “how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” This goes right back to the beginning and we see it referred to in Psalms from the Old Testament. God’s love for us, his children, is something which is as vital to us today as it was to those who wrote the psalms. This love is best exemplified in our humanity by the bond of love which runs between a child and its mother. As you will probably detect I am not a mother and this is something which try as I might I cannot experience. My relationship with others whilst loving is not the same. However my love should always try and emulate the love which Christ showed to us and which he told us is the same love which God has for each and every one of us because we are children of God.

In our readings today we have two pictures of that love in action.

Moses in his life was the great deliverer who brought the children of Israel out of oppression in Egypt and we can see God’s plan being worked out from the very day Moses was born. What was special about Moses was that the Egyptians had passed a law that all Hebrew boys, of which he was one, were to be killed at birth because their race was increasing and the Egyptians feared that this immigrant community would one day turn against them. Moses’ mother hid him and when he got too big or too noisy to hide at home and she made a floating waterproof protective capsule for him and hid him at the river’s edge where he was found by Pharaoh’s daughter. Pharaoh’s daughter obviously felt for the child and by virtue of the fact that she organised the care of the child had also adopted him. As Moses adopted mother she would see him become a powerful man, a prince of Egypt. His natural mother was actually paid by Pharaoh’s daughter to do the very thing that she would naturally want to do. God’s plan for the salvation of his people was made secure by one of their enemy’s leaders, a princess of Egypt. The most unlikely people are able to demonstrate the love of God which transcends all barriers which our earthly authorities can build.

God’s love is something very special indeed and in our Gospel reading we see how Jesus in his last act as he hangs on the cross demonstrates that love which we should hold for others. Jesus says to his friend and disciple that his mother Mary will now be his mother and he her son. No forms to fill in for the adoption people just an undertaking that these two people will now love each other as mother and son. Like Moses, Jesus goes on to secure our salvation. Isn’t it amazing that in his last act before securing our adoption as children of God Jesus demonstrates how we should love one another?

If we take a look at children and how they are treated by society in general we can see that as they grow they will make mistakes and we see how they may be disciplined and offered guidance to ensure that they avoid the pitfalls of life. If they err too much quite often those who do not have a close relationship with them like neighbours or other adults in the community give up on them and call them delinquents or hooligans but their parents don’t. Parents particularly mothers stick with their children warts and all and live in hope that they will turn out to be fine upstanding citizens. God’s love for us is like that. God wants us to come to him as a child comes to a parent but in a way He cannot ignore the times when we did go wrong. As long as we are truly sorry and have changed so that we no longer do what is wrong we can with the help of Jesus approach him. It was for this reason that out of his love for us God sent Jesus to offer us guidance.

I remember one time losing one of our children, just for about half an hour as it turned out. I remember that sense of dread and panic as we tried to find him. How we kept blaming ourselves for not taking more care and how we kept blaming our son for not doing what he had been told which would have kept him safe. I think that God feels all of that about us and longs for us to be safe.

We may have doubts and are a bit like a child who has stayed out far too late and dreads going home because they are worried about the consequences, the ticking off, the punishment but totally unaware that whilst mother will shout and rage at them for being so inconsiderate inside she is thanking God for their safe return. As children we have doubts not realising that in fact Mother does look out for us and has our best interests at heart even if it doesn’t always sound like it. With “GO TO YOUR ROOM RIGHT NOW.” Ringing in your ears.

God’s plan for each of us whilst unique and personal to everyone is that we enjoy His love for us. With life’s experience even with making mistakes along the way we can in the end feel secure in the knowledge that when we get home we will not be shut out, that we will be loved and cherished and gathered up under His loving wings like a hen gathers her chicks.

Jesus was sent to show us all from the very beginning right up to the end of time how we should behave towards our loving parent, God. Jesus teaches that we can safely go home to God the Father who loves like a mother because he is both Father and Mother to us all.

Being a Christian is all about following Jesus home to our loving Father and Mother in heaven. We need to live as he did so that we will not become lost. That’s the problem some do get so lost that they never find Jesus in their lives and can never go home. God loves them all the same but unless they get home they will be shut out. He has sent Jesus to look for them, to guide them to safety but they avoid him for one reason or another.

As Christians we need to ensure that we not only for ourselves, but for those whom we love and know, that we will find our way to God and help and encourage the others along the way. How we do this is to live as much as we can in the ways of Jesus. That maternal love which exemplifies the relationship between child and mother is strong in the relationship which we have between Jesus and God the father and mother of us all.

Today is Mother’s day when we reflect on that undying love that mothers have for their children and we seek to find our way to God bearing in mind this example of his love for us. But it is also Lent when we try to find what it is that God wants of us.

As Jesus meditated in the wilderness so we must meditate and try to see how we fit into God’s plan for his Heavenly Kingdom something in which we see ourselves forgiven and accepted.

What we need to do whilst we live in the world is to find ways of loving those we encounter as a mother loves a child. We need to find that love which is not selfish and only rewards those who are nice to us. We are to seek ways in which we can be deeply compassionate and see the person, the one who Jesus is looking for. We need to look beyond the warts and all of the human condition and do what we can to help Jesus guide them home to a loving Father who loves them like a mother. If we can do this in our hearts we can then turn it into action. But we begin with our hearts.