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Sermon Notes - Page 9

  • St. Andrew's & Bamford 15 October 2006

    "What's the cost? What's it worth?

    Who’se the greatest? - those with wealth? and the power and influence to use their wealth? Jesus has challenged ideas about belonging, brought children before them, talked about service, about losing life, he has pointed to the outcast and the vulnerable and still we think that God’s blessing comes in the form of wealth and power and influence.

    The man wanted to follow Jesus - but at what cost? was it worth it? - all his possessions given to the poor just didn’t seem worth it - and so he goes away - goes through life sad - he is looking for liberation - but is not prepared to pay the price. Being rich is not the problem - it is what he does with his wealth and what his wealth does to him that is the problem - it binds him, it possesses him - he is no different to those who are filled with demons, But the cost of healing is too much and values his possessions more than the life Jesus offers.

    Amos has no problem with wealth either - just how it’s gained and how it is maintained - do we trample on the poor? - no? what about cheap clothes, cheap food - at whose cost? is it worth it? Where are our pension funds and savings invested? Do we maintain our wealth with injustice and fraud? Can we walk with Jesus and trample on the poor? - the rich man realises that he can’t and chooses his wealth before the walk

    Good teacher - only God is good - I have kept all the commandments - then do this - how can any of us be saved? All things are possible with God - grace ... undeserved, unearned, love that throws open the gates of the Kingdom to all who will enter - yet for those who hang on to wealth and power and influence as markers of status and blessing it will feel like trying to steer a camel through the eye of a needle.

  • Masseycroft, 2 October 2006

    So pondering on the last line of my previous post I began thinking about the message I might bring to the people of Masseycroft this afternoon. Masseycroft is a sheltered housing complex where an Ecumenical Service is held every Monday afternoon - they are a thoughtful lively bunch with the host of disabilities that you will find amongst any group aged 70+

    Mark 9:42-50
    If we were to take this passage literally what a state we would be in. All around us one handed, one eyed, unipeds - hobbling along the Kingdom Road. (Cue Dudley Moore/Peter Cook sketch? "I've got nothing against your right leg. The trouble is - neither have you")

    These are harsh words by Jesus - and probably not aimed at everyone in the community, but at those whose sin was abusive and caused others to stumble. Yet it has still had me pondering the nature of such a community. Jesus still wants people to have the chance to follow, to enter the Kingdom of God despite their disabilities - and so as we follow there will be those around us whose journey will be a lot harder than simply putting one foot in front of the other.

    It's not the image that the world wants to present. We live in an age obsessed by physical perfection and with the means to  "heal" our natural imperfections. Disability embarrasses us - and yet look at us here - each with our own  disabilities, - age, ill-health, natural lack of certain abilities - affect each of us - some can be seen others can not. 

    Yet think about some of the people chosen by God - the ineloquent Moses, the stuttering, depressive Paul, the reluctant Jonah, the outcast Woman at the Well, the barren Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth et. al. the blind, the lame, the desperate that gathered around Jesus - all called to follow, to hobble, drag, carry, guide, grope, themselves and each other along the Kingdom Road.

    We are a disabled community, enabled by God
    We are an impure community, who are salted by God
    We are a troublesome community, called to live in peace.
    Let us follow, hobbling, crawling, carrying, our way along the Kingdom Road


  • St. Andrew's 1 October 2006

    Another Harvest service linked around the Elijah stories of 1 Kings 17:1-16 - but also linking in the  gospel at Mark 9:38-50. I thought I was just going to look at belonging in general and our project helping local failed asylum speakers in particular but 
    disclosing new worlds/  challenged me to look at it from the view of sexual abuse and so I tried to make the jump and connection. Not sure if the discomfort in the congregation was all to  do with the subject matter or was partially that the progression didn't make sense - however it went something like this:-

     "A place at the table"
    Who will we welcome to a place at the table?

    Elijah - no resources - relied on ravens & widows - was welcome at the table
    charity - needs to be given and received! The poor understand that more than the rich who fear being beholden - owing a debt - having a place at the table is as much about accepting a place at someone elses table as welcoming others at ours

    Disciples - think they can decide who is welcome - the church has followed the disciples lead - statements of belief - the right baptism/confirmation giving access to eucharist - unwritten rules about social status, behaviour,  - Jesus does not make these rules, he seeks people willing to follow in actions not words - Jesus says “whoever is not against us is for us” - important when we are working in partnership - beauty of partnership with New Life - our style of worship, approach to theology is very different - each bearing the name of Christ. It is a good partnership to have - enhanced by acting together in feeding those who need to be fed.

    However, Jesus is not all welcoming - if any put a stumbling block ... - might be a reference to sexual abuse - children are property, least powerful members of society - “Foot” - euphemism for a penis; hand and eye are far more obviously relevant to a context of sexual abuse. The process of “seeing, coveting, taking and using” is about the exercise of power, and sexual abuse is all about power. & God condemns abuse in all it's forms, God cares about everyone who is abused - even the least powerful most abused members of our communities. - and God would rather have a disabled community than a community with an abusive power structure - “be at peace with one another”

    Who will be welcome at the table?

    For just and unjust, a place at the table,
    abuser, abused, with need to forgive,
    in anger, in hurt, a mind-set of mercy,
    for just and unjust, a new way to live,

    For everyone born, a place at the table,
    to live without fear, and simply to be,
    to work, to speak out, to witness and worship,
    for everyone born, the right to be free.

    Shirley Erena Murray © 1998, Hope Publishing Co.

    and I've come away thinking maybe I should have explored that thought about the disabled community - an armless, footless (castrated?!!), half-blind community - hobbling, groping, crawling along the way.