Sermon
preached by the Rector on 17 April 2005Today
I want us to look together at the life of St Nicolas Church. As we
prepare for the church's annual meeting on Tuesday week, it's good to
reflect on what sort of church we belong to. And this is something it's
best if we do together - so, as we go through, we'll come to a moment
when we'll have the opportunity to turn to a neighbour or two and have
a bit of a discussion... So then - what are the
things that matter to us? In which directions are the church's leaders
seeking to take us? Where are we heading next?
As
you may have noticed, this sort of discussion is also happening on a
rather wider scale just now. Similar questions are being asked of those
who are inviting us to vote for them in the forthcoming General
Election. What are the things that matter to us as a country? In which
directions are our leaders seeking to take us? Where are we heading
next? You may have been hoping for a bit of a breather from the cut and
thrust of election coverage as you came to church this morning!
A
few years ago now, the leadership of St Nicolas - that is, the clergy
and lay people who make up what's called the parochial church council -
drew up a list of core values in preparation for the appointment of a
new Rector - who turned out to be me! One of the reasons I came was
because what was said so closely chimed in with what I believe about
the life of a healthy church.
St Nicolas is about
four things which together spell out the word 'LIFE':
'L' for Loving God,
'I' for Involving Everyone,
'F' for Finding Faith and
'E' for Enabling Growth.
These
are what make us who we are. These are the general directions in which
the church's leaders feel it's right for us to go. These are the things
that are important to us. They're not just a convenient set of good
ideas. Taking them on board is both challenging and costly. Loving God?
It's easier just to turn up and go through the motions. Involving
everyone? It's easier to let just a few people to do it all themselves.
Finding faith? It's easier just to hang on to those who have already
begun the journey with us and are already on board. Enabling growth?
It's easier just to stay as we are and to leave the risk-taking to
someone else.
In trying to engage a bit with the
General Election over the last few days, one of the things I've done is
to download the manifestos from each of the main parties to see what
they have to say. Who knows, I might even find time to read them as
well! But perhaps this might be a helpful way of approaching what we're
about today. What would you include in a manifesto for the future life
of St Nicolas Church? Here's something to chat to your neighbours about
for a few minutes. You can choose up to three things each. They don't
have to encompass everything. If you want to write them down and let me
have them - that would be great. But let's just take the temperature
and see where we are. What would you like to see in a manifesto for the
life of our church?
I find it ever so easy to make
suggestions about what other people should do, don't you? You don't
have to be a doctor to be in the habit of prescribing for other people!
And so before we move on, please just look at your three things for a
moment and ask how you personally might help them to happen or to
grow...
At the moment, the life and ministry of the
church is divided into five areas, each of which has a team working to
support and develop it - for discipleship, for evangelism, for pastoral
care, for worship and for work with young people. I'm hoping to add a
sixth one soon - more details anon! - but these are the five we have at
the moment: discipleship, evangelism, pastoral care, worship and young
people. These are the five areas that matter to us. These are what come
as chapter headings in our manifesto.
Of course, we
could say that the whole business of creating a manifesto for the
church has already been done. Turn to Acts 2:42-47 on page 1094 of the
church Bibles. Here's how Luke describes what the church did right at
the start.
'They devoted themselves to the
apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and
to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and
miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were
together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and
goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to
meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and
ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying
the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily
those who were being saved.'
I'm sure
we're right to use this as a foundation for our thinking about the
church today. Just as for our political parties, there needs to be a
close connection between what they put in their manifestos now and the
directions set by those who started them up in the first place!
What
then do we learn from the end of Acts 2 about creating a manifesto for
the life of the Christian church?
1. A COMMITMENT TO LEARN
First
of all, the members of this young church demonstrate an impressive
commitment to keep on learning and growing in their Christian lives.
Here are people who have decided not to settle down where they are but
who want to keep digging deeper to explore the goodness of the God they
have discovered in Jesus Christ. As a result of the work of the Holy
Spirit in their lives, they have a thirst for Christian teaching to
expand their horizons and to help them grow. This is why we read in
verse 42 that they 'devoted themselves to the teaching of the
apostles'. Here are people who want to dive into a three-course meal
and who won't be satisfied with a snack!
For us, the
equivalent of the teaching of the apostles is of course the Bible. This
first mark of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church is
that people dig deeper into the Scriptures to understand and absorb
their truth into their lives. Just as, in today's Gospel reading, Jesus
opened the minds of his disciples so that they could understand the
Scriptures. A healthy church is characterised by an insatiable thirst
for the teaching of the Bible. A commitment to learn.
2. A COMMITMENT TO SHARE
A
second mark of the Spirit's activity in their lives is their profound
commitment to one another. As Luke comments here, 'they devoted
themselves... to the fellowship'. What does he mean? Simply that, for
them, the life of the church community was high on their list of
priorities. They devoted themselves to each other.
How
this worked out in practice for them is described in verses 44-45: 'All
the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their
possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They
broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere
hearts...'
Notice how Luke puts it. They were
together. They spent time in one another's company. The life of the
church wasn't limited to a service or two each week. Moreover, they had
everything in common. It wasn't that no-one had any personal property.
But that they were set free to treat their possessions lightly. If
someone else needed something they had, then they were happy to pass it
on. Indeed, if necessary, they would sell things to meet one another's
needs.
They didn't have to. It wasn't a rule of
admission into the Christian communuty that all your possessions would
be logged into a great big book and sold off when the need arose. No,
it was all entirely voluntary. A further mark of the free flow of the
Spirit is the prising apart of acquisitive hearts and their
possessions. The difference in social conditions then and now means
that I don't think it's necessarily appropriate for us to follow their
example to the letter. But neither must we write this aspect off
completely. An example of what we can do is the freedom to be
hospitable in verse 46: '...They broke bread in their homes and ate
together with glad and sincere hearts.' A healthy church is
characterised by a freedom to be generous and to give. First, a
commitment to learn. Secondly, a commitment to one another.
3. A COMMITMENT TO WORSHIP
A
third thing this passage - and what we heard earlier from the end of
Luke's Gospel - reveals is their commitment to worship. As Jesus had
told his disciples, the Holy Spirit delights to bring glory and honour
to him. So it's only natural that the Spirit guides the church to focus
on their Lord and express their love for him through their worship.
This
passage tells us important things about the way they worshipped
together. First, in what we're probably right to understand as Holy
Communion, they met to obey the command of the Lord Jesus to remember
his death for them. Verse 42: 'They devoted themselves... to the
breaking of bread'.
And they also met to pray
together. They continued with the pattern established at the end of
Luke's Gospel. They waited to be 'clothed with power from on high' -
not just for the period before Pentecost but day by day. We read about
one such meeting a little later at the end of chapter 4. Quite a
powerful time it was too: it ended like this: Acts 4:31: 'After they
prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.'
Their
worship was marked by a blend of the formal and the informal. Look
again at verses 46: 'Every day they continued to meet together in the
temple courts...' They didn't give up on the more formal side of their
devotion to God. They didn't abandon tradition completely. But neither
did they limit themselves to what they had been brought up with.
Perhaps we could say that they revelled in ancient hymns and in modern
songs! Verse 46 continues: 'They broke bread in their homes and ate
together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God...' The formal and
structured services were balanced by the more informal and spontaneous
home meetings.
This passage contains another balance
too. Worship that is truly inspired by the Spirit contains a blend of
two things. There are the glad and sincere hearts which are praising
God and enjoying the favour of all the people in verses 46-47. But
there is also verse 43: 'Everyone was filled with awe...' A healthy
church is characterised by a dependence on God that is reflected in
joyful and reverent worship. Not one or the other. Not just rejoicing
and laughter, as if worship were a constant party. And not just
reverence and solemnity, as if worship were a perpetual funeral. But a
healthy balance as we meet with a God who is both the Father who takes
us in his arms and hugs us and the Lord before whom we bow. First, a
commitment to learn. Secondly, a commitment to one another. Thirdly, a
commitment to worship.
4. A COMMITMENT TO GROW
So
far we have looked at the internal workings of the early church. But it
would be wrong to stop there. There's a fourth aspect which this
passage brings out, again echoing the thrust of what is going on at the
end of Luke 24. Here in Acts 2, the end of verse 47 makes clear that
this was a church which, in obedience to its Lord's command, was
reaching out to others and so growing daily. '...And the Lord added to
their number daily those who were being saved.' There was a commitment
to grow.
This sentence says a great deal. It reminds
us that although we have an important part to play in reaching others
with the truth of the good news of Jesus, at the end of the day, it is
the Lord who does the work. In the wooing of sinners by the Saviour, we
are merely the go-between.
Notice too the way Luke
says that 'the Lord added to their number daily those who were being
saved.' A healthy church is characterised by growth that is continual
and consistent. It isn't limited to spurts of activity during special
missions. Just as the worship of the early church was daily, so was
their witness.
And then notice how 'the Lord added
to their number daily those who were being saved'. This is important
too. The Lord did not add them to the church without saving them.
No-one was a Christian in name only. And the Lord did not save them
without adding them to the church. No-one was a Christian on their own.
You only joined the church if you were a Christian, someone who had
embarked on the process of being saved. And once you became a Christian
you were immediately linked into the church.
These
then are four characteristics which marked out the life of the early
church. First, a commitment to learn. Secondly, a commitment to one
another. Thirdly, a commitment to worship. Fourthly a commitment to
grow. Four of the priorities which the Holy Spirit led them to focus
on. Four commitments for us to reflect on. Four areas where I'm sure
there is scope for us to develop further.
A healthy
church is characterised by an insatiable thirst for the teaching of the
Bible.
A healthy church is characterised by a freedom to be
generous and to give.
A healthy church is characterised by a
dependence on God that is reflected in joyful and reverent worship.
A
healthy church is characterised by growth that is continual and
consistent.
Do these things ring bells for you too?
Is this the sort of thing you'd like to get behind? Well now, if these
are our aspirations, what sort of policies will we need to put them
into effect? There are all sorts of things in the melting pot - but let
me just suggest a few headlines and then invite you, over the next few
days, to tell me and/or other members of the PCC what you think.
It
seems to me that we're not really praying together in the way that we
need to. It won't be easy to sort out, but there is a gap between where
we are and where we should be in this central aspect of our life
together.
It seems to me that the work in progress
to strengthen our home groups is vital, especially the plans the staff
and the discipleship team are working on to improve the way we support
our home group leaders. I want the Bible study, fellowshop and prayer
that takes place in our small groups to be such that no-one will want
to be left out!
It seems to me that the time is more
than ripe for us to develop new work among people with no Christian
background, especially among the young people of our town. We need to
explore fresh expressions of what church is about for those who are
neither willing nor able to fit in with our present ways of doing
things. I've asked Edward to work towards establishing a new mid-week
activity at a secular location from the autumn.
And
then it seems to me that we need to make some changes to this building
- not just so that we as the existing congregation can feel better
about the place but so that this building can help us more than it
presently does in our mission to the town. This means looking after it
more than we do at the moment. And it means exploring a possible
re-ordering of the interior of the church and taking a fresh look at
our landscaping outside.
One of the biggest
temptations we face as a church here at St Nicolas is to rest on our
laurels. To sit back and enjoy the life, the health and the growth that
have taken place here over the last few years. How easy it would be to
stop moving forwards and so allow the tide to carry us backwards! We
could decide just to turn up and go through the motions. We could make
do with just a few of us doing it all ourselves. We could just try and
hang on to those who have already begun the journey of faith with us
and forget about everyone else. We could just stay as we are and to
leave the risk-taking to someone else. Or we could go for LIFE - Loving
God, Involving Everyone, Finding Faith and Enabling Growth. I know
which direction I'm going in. Who's prepared to follow?
©
2005 David
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