St Anne's Lutheran Church Forums

Vatican ii

patrick — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:24:50 GMT

New years greetings to everybody,Patrick.

Webwise

patrick — Thur, 18 Dec 2008 11:04:09 GMT

Greetings Latvian friends,thesanctuary website requires some web wise input.Playing christian and sacred sounds,advice with respect to translations would be very good.If this sounds like you-Im waiting to hear from you.Have a good christmas and new year 2009,patrick.

Forum: Vestry

Posting Sermons

AGawlikowski — Thur, 23 Oct 2008 08:50:10 GMT

I'm itching to read the sermons that I have heard over the last few months. We have had really marvelous preaching at St. Anne's, and I have really enjoyed the variety of voices that we are hearing from the pulpit. So many times during recent sermons I have had the following thoughts:

* Wow, this is a special sermon... Praise God!
* Oops, I missed what he/she just said because I was rummaging for an apricot to give hungry baby Laurel. Ha!

So here's one vote to bring back sermon posting! Thanks to all preachers for their love, study, leadership, and openness to the Holy Spirit working in them.

Forum: Coffee Corner

Help

KFrancis — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:26:29 GMT

Hi

I believe that i am a good Christian or at least i try to be and i have to admit that sometimes it is very difficult in this day and age. I am 24 and i feel like i have not done enought to please God and it's like everyday i am alive i am sinning and i don't mean to.

I reckon i have done everything God detests and that is not exaggerating. All the things that will get you into hell i have done except one...which is murder, although i have contemplated suicide. Infact i contemplate it everyday for along time now. I remember the first time i tried was at a very young age which is 6. At that time i just wanted to die, i didn't think it was bad or wrong i just wanted to sleep for a long time and i tried but failed miserably because what does a kid know what to do at that age. Anyway, i reckon i must be cursed as i was thinking of that when i was 6 and i also had other really really bad thoughts at that age and i have done some really bad things. If i was to write them down on here i am afraid people would think i was messing about and trying to shock and waste peoples time but i am so scared. I don't know if i can take this any longer.

I feel like these suicide thoughts are haunting me for a reason...because i am a bad person and maybe not to people as i believe in karma but i have done bad things in the eyes of the Lord and i read the bible everday and i know it says that we must stop punishing ourselves and move on and except that Jesus died for our sins and God is all forgiving but how can that work for me when i think about ending my life everyday and i am even looking through the bible to see if suicide is OK. Samson commited suicide and he was good so maybe it is OK. But then murder is a sin and i would hate to go to hell, i feel like i am going through it now, i would hate to go through it again for eternity. So i am trapped in this body where my mind is aching to end my life, and i want to so badly but i can't because i could go to hell when all i really want is peace. I feel so alone and rejected and i have no one to talk to who really cares. I have been to a psychologist but sometimes you don't want someone to talk to who is getting paid to listen to you but someone who genuinely cares about you and will listen like i do for so many people. I hate life, i am 24, never had a boyfriend, never had real friends who care about me, the only family i have is my dad, mum, my sister, two brothers and an uncle who comes round only on Christmas.
My ultimate dreams would be for me to end my life, and for me and my loved ones to get into Paradise after judgement day as i reckon we deserve it but it would be nice if everyone in the world could get in to of course.

I guess i am hoping someone will reply and say yes it is OK to jump and that God would not be angry as i feel like i'm suffering mentally and i can't get this voice in my head to stop. This urge to jump. It's killing me and i am scared.

Please help

God Bless

Forum: Vestry

Sunday 27 July 18.00 Bach Festival Mass - Pastor Jeruma-Grinberga

PJ — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:37:15 GMT

Sermon Bach Vespers 27 July 2008

Cantata 105, Luke 16:1-9

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

You may well be very relieved to hear that this is going to be a very short sermon. In a sense, as is often the case, Bach does it for us the Cantata we are about to hear is one of his very greatest in terms of music. But it is also wonderfully made in a theological sense, and theres not really all that much that a humble preacher can add to it.

The basic premise of the text, by an unknown author, is that the soul is restless and agonised, tortured by knowledge of its own sinfulness, until it finds faith and rests in God.

As Saint Augustine says at the beginning of his famous Confessions:

Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we men, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you we also carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that you thwart the proud. You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you.

Sin is all around us, as both our reading from 1 Corinthians and the Gospel pointed out. People me, you, the Archbishop of Canterbury, St Augustine are sinful; thats just how it is. But God has given us the remedy for that in his Son, Jesus, because He is faithful, and will not let us be tested beyond our strength. He welcomes us home, and longs to soothe and still our worried souls.

And Bach points to this truth in various ways: in the soprano aria How the thoughts of the sinner tremble and waver the strings tremble; and there is no bass line, no continuo very unusual for Bach. One of the few other places where this happens is the famous aria, also for soprano, from the St. Matthew Passion, "Aus liebe." There the lack of continuo represents Christ hanging on the cross without support from his disciples, and with nothing but the nails holding him. Here it seems to represent the soul, wavering, struggling, trembling, without the support of faith faith which is the base/bass/basis of life, without which there is no foundation to build on. And in the last movement, which starts out with the same wavering motif in the strings, the rhythm gradually settles from agitated semiquavers to triplets to quavers and crotchets, ending on a held semibreve, which symbolises the soul finally reaching home, and finding there the serenity of faith. Once again, Bach shows us that he is almost as good a theologian as he is a composer, and that the combination in him is unique.

Over these last eight years people have occasionally said to me that Bach Vespers is a bit of an anachronism, and that the church might spend its time, energy and resources better in pursuing its mission in the midst of this very contemporary, fractured world. Should we, rather than performing music that is hundreds of years old (285 in the case of this Cantata) be turning ourselves to worship groups and rock music to address people better, to reach out to young people more effectively. This cantata gives one very powerful reason for our continued ministry through music, in the way that we do it now and have done for 25 years. There are other churches that have different sorts of music, and do that very well and effectively. But for us it seems that the message that Bach, the 5th Evangelist, carries, is so powerful, and so contemporary in its timelessness, that it seems both important and valuable to continue to bring it to congregations, here in the City of London, now, in the 21st century.

Now, I know, You shall quiet in me
my conscience which gnaws at me.
Your faithful love will fulfill
what You Yourself have said:
that upon this wide earth
no one shall be lost,
rather shall live forever,
if only he is filled with faith.

Amen.

Forum: Sermons

Sunday 27 July 11.00 - Pastor Jeruma-Grinberga

PJ — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:28:59 GMT

Sermon 11am 27 July 2008

Congregational Anniversary

1 Kings 3:5-12; Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

It is great to welcome old friends and new ones here today, and to see that so many of you have come to mark the 57th Anniversary of St Anne's. A particular welcome to Pastor Johann Schneider, one of our founding fathers- as well as to Sarah Foyle, visiting from Ireland, and to my sister- it's a complete surprise for me to see her here, incidentally.

I hope you will all forgive me if today I dont preach one of my usual carefully crafted, exegetical sermons: this is likely to be more of a reminiscence, I guess.

The first sermon I preached here as pastor of the Latvian Congregation some 11 years ago looked at the name of the congregation not, perhaps, the shortest and pithiest name a community has ever had, as it is United London Latvian Evangelical Lutheran and Peace Congregation but it certainly does do what is says on the tin. The idea was to look at the name of that body and meditate on what the individual parts might mean, theologically and in practice.

So: lets do something like that today, too a suitable process for the 57^th Anniversary of St Annes.

We here are St Annes Lutheran Church: so, first of all: St Anne who was St Anne, and why are we named after her?

St Anne is the name by which we know the mother of the Virgin Mary Jesus granny, if you like. Obviously enough, Mary must have had a mother: but she is never named in the Bible. The name Anne (Anna, Hannah) for Marys mother occurs first in the much later Gospel of James maybe 120 years on. Why are we named after her? Well, the church has actually gone through several name changes we started off as the English Congregation of St Marys German Church, then when we became independent, we were St Johns but after 1966, when we moved to worship here, the name finally settled at St Anne, because of the name of the church building. So the daughter congregation of St Mary ends up being Anne, her mother!

But this is not a bad thing, although it is a bit bizarre.

It points up for us that things like name changes, moving building, changing hymn books, even, are not the most important factor. Our external faade may well change many more times in the future: but that doesnt matter. What does matter is that we remain true to our calling and our mission, and that we carry on proclaiming the one Gospel of Christ

Also: it may be quite good to be named after Anne. We know nothing much about her, except that she enabled Jesus to be born: we might assume that she did the usual grandmotherly things for him babysitting, teaching him songs, reading the Scriptures with him But we dont know, really. And perhaps its something of a comfort and an inspiration to all of us to know that there are so many anonymous saints, whose role in the church has long since been forgotten, but who have faithfully served and been a blessing to those around them. In the end the church is made up of the anonymous people doing their small part week in, week out, not seeing huge results in terms of massive numbers of souls saved or churches planted, but just serving, in humility and patience

Secondly, we are very definitely Lutheran. If I had a pound for every person whod asked me why I bother to make the long trip into London when there are perfectly good Anglican, Methodist, URC churches on the way, Id be well, not rich, but Id be able to afford a tall skinny caramel latte with extra cream and a muffin at Starbucks But we come here, all of us, because we feel that it is important to maintain our Lutheran identity, or because this is where we feel at home. Actually, that would be an interesting survey if the Council ever get a free moment, maybe it could get done. Why do you come here, passing maybe 20 other churches on the way in? Heres my best guess at some of the reasons.

As Aki Tesfai memorably said at a Lay Ministers Training Day: Were Lutheran because were boring and we like it. And I kind of know what he means: there is something about the stability, the unchanging character of Lutheran worship, the traditions that we have, which are very valuable. They can be especially important to people far from home, as they act as a reminder of childhood, or earlier certainties, enabling them to step into a comfort zone where they dont have to keep explaining about Martin Luther (no, not Martin Luther King), and spelling Lutheran to everyone who wants to spell it Lutherian. Tradition can, though, become too comfortable, too unchanging and stultifying: and that is still the challenge for St Annes how to accommodate the need for the familiar with the continuing need for the community to grow spiritually and to be challenged.

But there are things that we all love, and would miss in many other churches the music, the familiar hymns, the liturgical structure of the service, the knowledge that we are connected by our faith, the creeds and the catechisms, with Lutherans all over the world, and throughout the ages, the emphasis on sound preaching

Well: just before we think about the last element the church bit lets refresh ourselves, and sing a song from Tanzania this is hymn 513 in the book, and Tumaini is going to lead us in it.

So, lastly, we are St Annes Lutheran Church. We are this paradoxical thing the Body of Christ, but which yet is made up of human beings. We share with each other our joys and sorrows; we are, as Teresa of Avila said, the mouth, the feet, the hands of Christ in the world today. But at the same time, we are still fallible, sinful human beings. All of us, as St Paul said, have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We dont come to church because we think we are better than other people, but because we are quite sure that we are not. And yet, in a way that is mysterious and miraculous, this makes us a community of pilgrims, sharing a burden and mission, all of us taking up our crosses and following Christ. All of us, as todays Gospel says, have caught a glimpse of the Kingdom of God, and we want to know more, to explore our faith and to draw closer to Jesus, the greatest treasure of all. That doesnt make us perfect; it doesnt iron out all the difficulties and disagreements. But here, somehow, we find a home and a family of faith. We find here people who dont always sing in tune; people who dont always believe in tune; we find people who irritate us, and people who uplift and strengthen us. As I look out at the congregation week by week, I see rich and poor, old and young, black and white, singing, praying, worshipping side by side. Together we are, in some way, part of the Body of Christ, part of the great company of saints, drawn together in love by the grace of God. Thank you for letting me be part of that for the last 8 years.

Amen.

Forum: Sermons

Sunday 20 July 11 am -Pastor Jeruma-Grinberga

PJ — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:22:04 GMT

Sermon 20 July 2008

Isaiah 44:6-8; Ps 86:11-17; Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

I dont know if any of you have memories of particularly memorable teaching experiences. Do you remember a teacher at school, or someone at college or university who taught you something unfogettable? Maybe you have the opposite a teacher who bored you rigid, and whose lessons have left no trace whatsoever in your brain? oftentimes it is not straightforward delivery of facts that we remember best, but innovative lectures, and particularly when we are led to discover things for ourselves, rather than being given facts on a plate.

And from reading the Gospels we know that Jesus was a brilliant teacher: he teaches in different ways, depending on his context, and who he was talking to: he uses visual aids coins, nets of fish, fig trees.... But particularly Jesus uses this medium that we heard today: the parable, a picture that illuminates and clarifies an idea by means of another picture. It seems here that Jesus is not so much teaching people, as putting an idea, or picture, to them, and asking them to think about it. What we heard about today in our Gospel Reading was Jesus making truth and faith available to his listeners by the medium of a very memorable parable. None of this is direct facts, none of it says anything directly (with one exception, which well come back to): but it makes the disciples come back to him, still perplexed by what they have heard, and wanting him to explain more.

So what is the truth that Jesus wants people his original audience, and all those who read this parable through the ages to understand?

There will be a judgement at the end of the ages. Angels envoys or messengers of God will be sent to sift through the world, sorting the children of the kingdom from the children of the world (language that echoes very much what we have been studying in Revelation this year). There is an absolute standard of good and evil, the good seed giving birth to the children of the kingdom, and the seed of the devil bringing forth children of the evil one

But judgment is not in our hands. we are not angels; we are not given the authority to judge between good and bad, weeds and wheat. One point that we might miss in this story: it used to be known as the parable of the wheat and the tares. Tares are not just any old weeds: they are weeds that look just like ears of wheat: and it is very difficult to distinguish between the two when they are not yet fully ripe. If you were to try to weed out tares from a field of wheat, you would inevitably be weeding out healthy, productive plants with the unwanted ones. So Jesus is pointing out that we cannot tell from external appearances who the good and the bad are: indeed, its not really our job to try. That is Gods business. Our job is to tend Gods field, to irrigate it with the water of prayer and ensure that the seed of the Gospel is cast as widely as possible. We are here to care for each other, not to condemn; we are here to ensure that all of Gods children can grow, not to cut others down

We are all children of God if we allow the Gospel to grow in us; and we are safe in Gods hands. God has the problem of evil ultimately under his control, even if sometimes we feel that weeds are springing up through all the cracks. So dont fret, dont worry about things that you cannot control, cannot begin to understand; do your bit for the Kingdom in your patch of the world, and that is enough.

Because the one exception to the allegorical language in the parable is the very bald No! that we hear in the middle. Do you want us to gather up the weeds? No! says the householder, aka God. Here Jesus obviously wants everyone to understand unequivocally: no, that is not your job. Firstly, it is really not up to us to judge who is in and who is out; and secondly, as Pastor Mark Hardy said in his sermon at Pastor Tumainis ordination service yesterday, we are all a bit of a mixture of weeds and wheat.

So today especially, as we celebrate a new pastor, 3 new baptised members of our community, 3 people making an affirmation of their faith, or confimration, and 3 people joining us as members from elsewhere we affirm with them that we are saved by God in hope, and that we ask the Holy Spirit to lead us in growing in faith.

Forum: Sermons

Sunday 6 July - Lay Minister Phoebe Luk

PJ — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:59:48 GMT

To what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not mourn. For John came neither eating nor drinking and they say He has a demon; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. At that time Jesus said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants: yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

What is your first impression of todays gospel? I thought I understand it completely when I first read it. This is one of those passages that you have heard it being preached so many time that there is no reason for it to be difficult to understand. Then I made a fatal mistake, I read it again and again! Thought about it some more, then came to the conclusion that I have no idea how to begin.

So I took a break, I watched an episode of grumpy old man.

For those of you who have never seen Grumpy old man, I shall explain - it is a TV program that invites celebrities to vent their frustrations about things that make them grumpy and I must say I like it very much because not only is it very funny, but I feel that the people speak the truth. Whats more, it is precisely my thoughts as well!

One of the topics that I remember was technology mobile phone the sole purpose of it is to make a call, connect people, but technology has advanced so much that not only can you call someone, but it also lets you play music, take pictures, play games and even watch films.

And yet the problem with the mobile phone is the look. It is too big or too small, chunky or even ugly, too many buttons or they are too small for the fingers. And the most important thing is that they have yet to perfect the mobile reception, I mean one can never get signal in the underground or in a lift!

Then I realised something vital about this passage.

Is Jesus trying to tell us that we have become Grumpy old Men or just grumpy generation?

So I came up with 3 points about this passage; let me explore them with you

Simplicity is bliss

I believe I am not the only one to say that we have a habit of over complicating things and to top it all off we like to find faults as well. Whether I am referring to the generation in the passage / our generation, we are often too demanding and difficult to please, we want our phone to do everything for us, entertain us, put on a show, handing information to us on a plate and more importantly it must be sleek and slender on the outside because image is everything!

So if I may conjure up an image for you, John the Baptist is just like the loud speaker in the mobile phone; he was there to prepare the way for Jesus, proclaiming that he is coming. He was not there to look pretty.

This means that John and even Jesus did not fit into vision of holiness, they hang around with riff raff like the tax collectors and sinners and they eat the strangest of things, or for John a lack of things. So they were dismissed, Jesus is effectively saying they have switched off their phone and thats why they didnt get the message. Is our phone switched off too? Are we the same as them? Have we broken our connection to Jesus because we cut off our reception/our loud speaker? Are we, too, blinded by our ideals and our tendency to over analyse things?

Are we too busy with the look (Is the packaging) we fail to hear the little ring tone that connects us to the message, so we search again for our Saviour.

This connects to my second point.

We shall search no more

Jesus talks about the wise and the intelligent not being able to understand his message. And it got me thinking about a conversation that I had with my colleague. He told me that, when we get older we get wearier and thats because we understand how the system works. So I ask what system, he said you know the system! I must admit I dont understand what he meant but it got me thinking... I am more cynical than I used to be and it makes me sad. For starters I dont trust the underground announcement board anymore, when it says 1 minute... It usually means 5 minutes...especially on the northern line, so I search for the answer and realise thats because they use a point system instead of a tracking system and there are some things that seem too good to be true, so I use a magnifying glass to search for the fine print that tells me where and what the catch is.

So yes, we are more cynical because we are always searching for that invisible but. We lost our innocence, we believe we know everything and if dont we search for it on google or yahoo. We work the system and wont let the system work us.

Jesus here tells us that the true understanding for his message is not for us to search, but it is given freely and without reservation when we are least expecting whether we are intelligent, wise, naive, or innocent.

He is willing and we should be accepting.

The last point I believe is the most important

Rest in him

When Jesus said, take my yoke for mine is easy and my burden is light. He was actually referring to the Jewish laws, being overly complicated in those days the people are governed by strict laws restricting their daily activities.

And since we are not obeying all of the Jewish law, may I take this opportunity to compare it with something else.

Now that we recognise we are demanding, complicated, cynical, (wise and intelligent!), we cannot re-establish the connection with our heavenly Father anymore, we are too complex to be simple, too weary to believe and certainly our burdens are too heavy to carry.

Jesus invites us to take refuge in him and him alone because he has been through the worst he understands the pain and our invisible chain. He tells us to learn from him, he certainly is not simple, but his solution to combat the obstacle he encounters is.

Prayers give him strength.

So to conclude, let me paint a picture for you

Next time your phone rings or you see someone on a call, realise that the loud speaker for God comes in all shape and sizes that includes you and me. The ring tone maybe annoying, but the message within is powerful and awesome.

Amen

Forum: Sermons

29 June 2008 - Sts Peter and Paul - Pastor Jenny Welsh

PJ — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:56:23 GMT

St Annes

June 29, 2008,

Feast of St Peter

John 21:1-19

Some years ago, my family and I went to France, where we hired a cottage in a small square in this little tiny village in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Right outside our cottage was the local restaurantand we ate there a lot and over the course of a couple of weeks, and worked our way through the menu--twice. Mealtimes in our house are quite important as I am sure they are in yours, and one of the nice things about being on vacation is the chance to sit down to an unhurried meal, when no one needs to rush aray to do homeowrk or go to a meeting, and we can just enjoy each others company and talk and laugh together. Generally they are quite cheerful occasions.

But meals can also be times when difficult things are said: perhaps you know what it is like to sit at table with someone you were at odds with, and to find that the food doesnt have much flavour, and that it is hard to swallow, and that you have lost your appetite, because the conversation around the table is so difficult.

Throughout the gospel stories, mealtimes and food are a recurring theme in the life of Jesus, tooindeed the conversation we heard in the gospel passage this morning happens in the context of a meal. All through Jesus ministry, we find him eating and drinking with all sorts of people: We see him sitting down to eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners, and being seen in company that a respectable person might generally want to avoid. We hear of his reputation as a glutton and what the authorised version of the bible calls a winebibber. We see him having a picnic, and using food offered to him by a small boy, to miraculously feed the crowds that had come out to hear him preach. We see him in the company of the great and the good at a dinner party which is interrupted by a woman of questionable reputation who anoint hims, and weeps over him and covers his feet with kissesactions guaranteed to make the average hostess turn to the cooking sherry. We see him at the last supper, doing simple things like passing bread around and sharing a cup of wine, and telling his friends to repeat these actions whenever they can, to remember him--actions which we will repeat in a few minutes.

And last of all, we see him, on the shores of the lake, cooking breakfast for his friends, and sharing the meal with them, one last timeit is here that we join the story this morning. For the gospel writers, it seems that it was the meals that were important: these were times when the conversation flowed, when the disciples began to understand what he was about, though the didnt get the point much of the time, it seems.

Meals were times when hard things were said. For Jesus and his friends, the last supper must have been terrible, as Jesus talked about how he would be killed, and how one of them would betray him and another would deny knowing him.

But then there are the meals which were joyful and almost unspeakably wonderful: imagine the two disciples at supper in Emmaus, sadly listening to the man they thought was a stranger and then recognising him in the breaking of the bread as their friend, as their master, as their Lord. What joy there must have been at that table, as they recognised Jesus by the way he shared a meal with themthe way he broke the bread, the tone of his voice as he said the blessing, the look in his eyes, as he offered them the food.

So too, at the meal that we find esus at this morningwe are told earlier in the chapter that the disciples were out fishing, but saw jesus on the shoreline cooking over a charcoal fire, and peter became so excited that he jumped out of the boat and swam ashore ahead of the rest. Once again, the disciples found that it was in the meal that they recognised himin his hospitality and in his welcome that they found their way home to him.

But for Peter, this was not going to be like any other meal that hed shared beforeand I think that this is why we have this particular gospel passage today on his feast day. There are so many stories about him that we could have heardabout how Peter left his nets and followed Jesus just because he asked him to; about how Peter was the one to proclaim Jesus as the Christ, the son of God when all the others were just guessing about who Jesus really was; about how he stepped out of the boat in order to walk across the surface of the water to Jesus, but then lost heart and needed to be rescued; about how he asked the question how often do I need to forgive someone who offends me?, and how he was told that even seventy times seventy wasnt enough. Each of these tell us so much about this impetuous, passionate and eager follower of Jesus, and about how much he loved him.

But, instead of these we are told the story of this conversation over breakfast, on the lake shore, the story of the moment in Johns gospel when Peter and Jesus talk for the first time since the last supperthe first time Peter had to face Jesus after denying that he knew him. The writer wants us to make that connection, clearly, and he helps us do that by drawing a parallel between the three denials around the charcoal fire in the temple courtyard with the three questions Jesus asks Peter as they sit by the charcoal fire on the beach: Simon, son of John, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? And we may wonder, I suppose, what that meeting must have felt like for himwas he perhaps a little nervous, or afraid? Did he feel ashamed or guilty as he faced Jesus? What we do know it that this meal was a moment of forgiveness, and of reconciliationPeter, like the prodigal son, was welcomed back and love was restored between them. But more than that: it was also a moment of commitment when Jesus gives Peter a job to dohe cant simply go back to his old life as if nothing has happened. If he loves Jesus, then his job is to live out that love by feeding and tending his sheep and his lambs, and responding to Jesus final invitation, which was the same as his first one: Follow me. The first time Jesus said that, Peter ran to follow him without a thought, not knowing what was going to happen, or indeed what sort of person Jesus wasbut this time, he was very aware that following wasnt going to be the simple and easy thing hed expected the first timeit may well lead down some pretty scary roads, and through some pretty difficult timeswe heard about one such event in the reading from Acts today--and yet, because he loved Jesus, Peter was happy to do it.

We too, are about to share a meal with our Lord, at his table. We too are invited to come and eat, as he offers us his forgiveness for the times when we by our words or actions have denied knowing him, and as he offers us reconciliation with him and with one another. We too are given a job to do: to follow him, and to love him, and to share that love by joining the work of tending and feeding his sheep, his lambshis people-- with that same bread of life and the cup of salvation that he gives to us this morning.

Let us respond, as Peter did, Lord you know that we love you.

Forum: Sermons

22 June 11.00 - Pastor Jeruma-Grinberga

PJ — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:54:17 GMT

Sermon 22 June 2008

Jeremiah 20:713; Psalm 69:710 1618; Romans 6:1b11; Matthew 10:2439

As you all know, I think, St Annes has been looking for a new pastor for the last few months. Our very competent and talented Call Committee have been working hard to identify the right candidates, and to find the right person to be the next person to serve this congregation. Among the first things that they did was to set up a Job Description, guided by the questionnaires that all of you completed, which described the sort of person and the sort of ministry that you would like to see here. So its sort of appropriate or apposite that in todays Gospel we read a kind of Job Description. But this is one that Jesus issues for those who are called to be his disciples in other words, for you and me.

So what are the characteristics we hear about?

Slavery and obedience

Being maligned (or badmouthed)

The possibility of our bodies being killed

The prospect of strife with our families

Taking up a cross, an instrument of execution, to carry with us

And, once more, the possibility of losing our lives

That doesnt actually sound like a terribly attractive prospect: and it is one that applies to every single follower of Christ. All our Gospel readings for these last few weeks have been about discipleship: and what we have already learnt is that we are all called to be witnesses for Christ. Let us leave aside for the moment what that means in practice; and let us consider one other factor in this. The word in the New Testament in the original Greek for witness is martyr: so actually, we are all called to be martyrs. This means witnessing to Christ and to serve as he deserves,
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labour and not to ask for reward,
except that of knowing that we do your will.....

to quote the marvellous prayer of Ignatius of Loyola which was todays prayer of the day.

And so Jesus warns us in todays passage of the consequences of that wholehearted witness. We may well find ourselves in conflict with those around us if we speak about our faith. WE are likely to be mocked, and laughed at; in many parts of the world Christians are still killed for their faith. When Laila was living in Tanzania, there was a girl living next door, Maryam, a house girl in the pastors home, who had been a Muslim, but who had wanted to convert to Christianity and be baptised. When she finally took the decision to go ahead, her father threw her out, and said he never wanted to see her again: so she was living hundreds of miles away from her family because of her decision to follow Christ.

But then the big question is: why would we want to do this? If the Call Committee had put out a job advert that said slave wanted, conflict and disagreement guaranteed, untimely death a distinct possibility how many applicants do you think they would have got? And yet the paradox is that, despite our terrifying Job Description, hundreds of millions of people throughout the world still take up their crosses and follow Christ. Why?

Part of the answer is to be found in our reading from Jeremiah today. As the introduction to the text says, Jeremiah accuses God of forcing him into a ministry that brings him only contempt and persecution. But the commission from God to prophesy in his Name is so strong, and so compulsive, that Jeremiah is unable to stop, even though he is persecuted.

you have overpowered me,
and you have prevailed.

⁸For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
I must shout, "Violence and destruction!" says the prophet. There is a burning fire in his bones which makes him speak: and this burning fire is the living Word of God, unstoppable and uncontainable.

So for some people the compulsion to obey Gods will is such that, together with Martin Luther, they find themselves saying: Here I stand. I can do no other.

But most of us are not called to be prophets and if you are not called to prophesy, you cant do it. It is not a career choice, like being a doctor or a plumber: you either are called by God or not. But as Tumaini said in her sermon last week, we are all called to share in Gods mission in one way or another in our vocations, in our daily lives, in our work places and homes. So are we all doomed to a life of misery and conflict, with the shadow of the cross looming over us?

One of the greatest paradoxes of our faith is this: that despite our Job Description, and despite the fact that we walk through life carrying the cross of our own possible persecution, and in the shadow of Christs cross, Christians are often the most joyful, happy, positive, funny, outward looking people. It seems almost that accepting our discipleship, our role as slaves of Jesus, releases us from worldly anxieties and concerns and allows us to focus on what really matters.

So wherever God has called us to serve in the pulpit, in the choir, in our homes, on the church council, behind the counter at Starbucks let us take up our crosses joyfully, and follow our master and friend.

Let us say Prayer of the Day once more together.

Teach us, good Lord God,
to serve you as you deserve,
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labour and not to ask for reward,
except that of knowing that we do your will,
through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord.

Amen

Forum: Sermons

8 June 2008 Bach Vespers - Pastor Jeruma-Grinberga

PJ — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:58:05 GMT

Sermon Bach Vespers 8 June 2008

1 Peter 5:5-11; Luke 15:1-10; Cantata 9

When I started researching tonights Cantata, I realised that I seemed to have an unique opportunity. Two books I consulted both said that this was not one of Bachs best Cantatas, adding a bit sniffily that Bach could hardly find the topic the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith rather than works sufficiently stimulating to fire his imagination. Indeed, the three recitatives we are about to hear, all sung by the bass, have been compared to a preacher, delivering a sermon on theology to a congregation. So it seemed to me that for once in this series of Bach Vespers the preacher might have a chance of upstaging the Cantata; and that of the two sermons tonight my spoken one and Bachs musical one mine might just turn out to be more interesting. Well! What presumption. As Martin said when I asked him about it, Bach, even on a relatively poor day, will outwrite any other composer.

And in any case, I suspect we are about to find out that many of the more dismissive composers are just wrong. Firstly, it is a huge assumption to say that Bach would not be inspired by Lutheran doctrine. This particular theological principle that we are not saved, or brought to faith, by anything that we can do, but only by Gods gracious and loving acceptance of us, is absolutely fundamental to our Lutheran faith; and in fact, it turns out that Bach interprets the dichotomy between Law and Gospel, faith and works, lostness and savedness in various ways through the music.

We heard in our Gospel reading tonight about the joy that rules in heaven when just one sinner repents, when one lost sheep, cold, wet, frightened, is brought home on the shoulders of the shepherd who loves her. So what we see here is the contrast between two places, or two states of being: with Jesus and without Jesus; and Bach, in this Cantata also urges us not to be afraid, not to say No to our Saviour when he comes to find us, but to trust Jesus to bring us to share happiness and joy with him.

In the first movement, there are a couple of hidden pointers to the deepest and most profound layers of faith. Bach includes references to other chorales, which together point to one message. The flute line derives from a chorale "Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ" ("I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ.") In response, the great Christams hymn emerges in the continuo: From heaven above, Von Himmel hoch, I bring you the news of Jesus coming. We call: and Jesus comes. Indeed, apparently From heaven above is heard 10 times: and these 10 announcements of Jesus coming parallel the 10 Commandments of Moses law: Jesus comes to fulfil that law, and bring us instead the gospel, the good news of love and of salvation.

Then the tenor aria depicts vividly the fall of the sinner into despair; into the dark abyss; while in the soprano and alto duet we hear the beauty of faith, with the obedience of the Christian pictured in the use of many canons. And one more level: this movement repeatedly refers to another chorale Come, Holy Spirit; Komm, heiliger Geist implying that it is the Holy Spirit who leads us into faithful obedience.

Well all that might sound a bit complex, and a bit difficult for us to follow, especially without a score in front of us! But the point is this: a cantata so complex and profound in its theology and structure is not really the result of someone who is a bit bored by the ideas it is depicting. Quite the opposite: Bach was obviously trying, with all his considerable resources of genius and intellect, to reach the hearts and souls of his listeners, rminding them, with Peter, to cast all their anxieties on God, trusting in his goodness, standing firm in faith.

And with Luke he reminds us that God seeks for us because he loves us, and that his hand will draw us out of the abyss and make us safe. And then the joy in heaven will be something to behold.

I think Bach wins in the contest between preacher and music, incidentally.

Amen.

Forum: Sermons

8 June 2008 11.00 - Lay Minister Sarah Farrow

PJ — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:56:28 GMT

This Gospel is often used as a reminder that we should be more inclusive, that we should love our fellow man. That we should sit down with those whom society often excludes that this is one of the things that makes us a good Christian. It can easily be seen as an us and them passage. Those of us over here are okay, but those guys over there are not quite right. I see it more as an us and us story. We are like the Pharisees and we are like the sinners. We can often act as the Pharisees do and make judgements about others according to how they act, but we are also like the sinners not only in our own sinfulness, but also in our need to know Jesus.

Lets look at Matthew who Jesus calls to be a disciple. Matthew was a tax collector. Nowadays we may not look too kindly on someone that works as taxman, but then it was seen as even worse. A tax collector would have been seen as a traitor, as an agent of the Romans. He would have been deemed to be unclean and barred from attending the synagogues. Tax collectors were seen to be on the same level as thieves and adulterers, hated and excluded.

So why does Jesus choose someone so hated and excluded from society to be one of his disciples? Then to make it worse, he eats with a whole group of sinners. Why would he be seen with these people that acted outside the law of the land? People that have been judged by society to be unfit to mix with? When questioned by the Pharisees, Jesus answers with three points:

1 Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

2 I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

3 I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.

These three points bear so much meaning. So much meaning for our earthly lives and so much meaning for lives built on the grace of God.

1^st point It is those who are sick that need a doctor. This point reminds us that it is the Lord that truly heals us of our sins, as a doctor may try to heal us of our physical ills. But its also interesting that he uses the metaphor of the doctor because, as the children and I discussed, its not always that great being around sick people.

I can admit that when Im commuting into work, I slowly step away from the other sniffling, sneezing commuters not only because its a bit yucky, but also because I dont want to catch whatever it is they have! But doctors put up with all of that in the hopes that they can help the body heal.

And that makes us wonder, when the Pharisees are asking why does Jesus eat with sinners, is it that theyre concerned that the sinfulness will spread? And do we do the same? Do we avoid those cast out from society because we think we may become like them? Do we advise people to stay away from the wrong crowd because they may end up acting wrongly themselves?

Or do we ostracise the sinful because of just that theyre sinful! And we believe that we cant really be around them until they straighten themselves out. Well, how does that straightening out happen? If we only discuss the love of Christ within the four wall of this church, how will everyone else out there get to know his love? How can we take this wonderful message out there? How can we spread the Word?! How can we do this if we close the door on some people because we think theyre not right? Well, I think the answer is that we cant. We need to welcome everyone.

One of my favourite quotes of all times, which I say to myself again and again, is from a French philosopher and it goes, Love humanity, but love them as they are. Why do we find this so hard to do? We are constantly judging those around us. Putting our own expectations onto others as to how they should act, how they should do things, how they should worship! And opposite to all of this, Jesus is telling us to sit with those that we exclude and to engage all people with the Good News.

But we also need to remember the other point that is being made here and that is Jesus saying that he will sit with us! He shares the Good News with us! He comes to us, broken and sinful as we are. Which brings me to the second point:

2 I desire mercy, not sacrifice. And you may have noticed this is originally from the Hosea reading, where the term steadfast love is used instead of the word mercy. Both words are very powerful.

We have just spoken about how Jesus comes to us, as broken and sinful as we are, he comes. The reading from Romans remind us of the story of Abraham and Sarah, but let us look at the last line in that reading, which reminds us that Jesus was handed over to death for our trespasses. For our sake he was crucified. And we may take up so much of our time debating about whether or not we deserve that action of steadfast love but its still there. That awesome act of love is still there. Jesus is still there, Gods love is still there whether or not we think we deserve it. And in the reading from Hosea it continues from I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice to also say that the Lord desires the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. We may have often asked ourselves what do we think we could possibly offer to God when all we have is given to us by God? And that is when this passage comes in perfectly. He does not ask us for anything but steadfast love! So why are we so reluctant to give it! Who are we to judge others, who are we to deny love to others when Jesus denied no one?!

Within the Christian Church we have so many differences that we set up between ourselves and we may get wrapped up in how we think things should be done, that we may lose sight of Gods mandate to share the kingdom of heaven with everyone. We forget the fellowship we share at Gods table that everyone is invited to. Jesus did not turn people away from his table, so why should we think we can turn people away from his table? It even says in the Great Thanksgiving that, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to all to drink, saying: This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin. We come to break bread together.

And now we come to the third point.

3 I have come to call not the righteous but sinners. He comes to call us its not the other way around. As we have heard many times before, we do not call God, God calls us. And He calls those who desire to know Him, that know their need of God in their lives. Is that us? Instead of constantly asking about those around us, we need to take a look inside ourselves. As Pastor Jana said in her sermon last week, we need to continually ask ourselves, are we keeping God in our hearts in all we do? Do we acknowledge our own need of God in our lives, the sinner inside ourselves that needs the healing touch of God?

Again and again, Jesus reminds us that he calls us. That it is only by the grace of God that we are saved through faith and not by our works. We dont decide that were going to do whatever it is that we think we need to do in order to be saved. We are all called by the Lord to the kingdom of heaven. We do not scramble our way up by our good works. God calls us, as we are called to his table, we are called to the kingdom of heaven all of us.

I would like to end my sermon with a story that many of you may have heard but it is one that is always worth repeating. If there is any one message I would like you to take with you today it is underlined in this story which goes:

There once was an elderly pastor who every Sunday was carried to the pulpit to give his sermon, and every Sunday, the pastor said the same thing Little Children, love one another.

And then one Sunday a member of the congregation asked, Pastor, why do you say the same sermon every Sunday?

And the pastor replied, Because we still have not learned it.

Forum: Sermons

I June 2008 - Pastor Jeruma-Grinberga

PJ — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:55:17 GMT

Sermon 1 June 2008

Matthew 7:21-28

This year the text we have heard today carries a particular resonance for me.

At the moment, we are beginning to build a house in Latvia. And if you have an hour or two to spare, Im more than willing to tell you all about the complications of getting legal permission to build a house, about protracted negotiations with builders and architects and all that kind of stuff. But what it has meant is that todays Gospel reading about foundations caused me to wince in sympathy. I realise now, much more than ever before, the importance of foundations in a house! Previous house that was built on that site had inadequate foundations; so the walls of the old house are cracking, the floors are sagging, and the house is beginning to come apart.

Now you might well be saying to yourself serves her right! If she chooses to build a house, thats bound to come with a degree of aggravation and inconvenience. And thats right: but in todays parable, Jesus is not talking about the lucky few in this world who can afford to build their own houses. He is talking about a building project that each of us has to undertake, and that is the building of the house of our life. We might think that we can choose not to build a house, but just to live from day to day, just managing, existing but thats never the case. We have , each of us, to make something of our lives, whether its a haphazard shelter for our souls, a small cottage, or a palace; and Jesus asks us today to consider what exactly is the basis and the foundation on which we build that house.

Let us think first of all about the first 3 verses.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ²²On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name? ²³Then I will declare to them, I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers..

Sounds terrifying at face value, doesnt it? because it seems as though Jesus is saying that calling him Lord will not be enough to guarantee our salvation, and our entrance into Gods Kingdom. Are we at risk of Jesus saying to us I never knew you?

Well, not really. What Jesus is saying here is that he doesnt want lip service from us. He doesnt want us to make clever speeches, and say emotionally moving things; he doesnt even want perfectly formed prayers and worship. What Jesus really wants, indeed, what he longs for, is true worship of the heart. Being a follower of Christ is not about organised religion, or carefully thought out theology: this is about a heart-to-heart relationship with the God who loves us. The risk, indeed, is that we will say to him, Lord, Lord, did we not preach wonderful sermons in your name? Did we not write marvellous Old Testament commentaries? Did we not build glorious and ornate buildings in your honour? And Jesus will turn to us and say But were my words in your heart and soul? Was I the foundation on which you built your life? Interestingly, the word in the original Greek text is not so much evildoers, but workers of lawlessness people standing outside the law. So Jesus is saying that for him to recognise us, we have not just to have his name on our lips, but to live within his law. Remember also that this passage comes right at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus has been explaining at length the implications of living as his disciple, of loving the Lord our God with all our hearts and minds and souls and strength, and loving our neighbour as ourselves.

In a sense, this takes us back to things we have been hearing all year: last Sunday Robert preached on that marvellous text - seek first the Kingdom of God; and Tumaini many months ago reminded us do we really mean it when we say we want to be like Jesus?

So: what are the priorities in our lives? What are we building the foundation of our lives on?

Building houses on rock is harder, slower, costlier, more thorough. Building them on sand is cheaper, quicker, easier: but if we build the house of our life and faith on the shifting sands of fashionable worldviews and philosophies, what will hold that house together when the hurricanes of personal disaster beat on the roof? What will stop us sinking when the waters of disillusion and disappointment begin to rise around us?

What we hear today is that only if we build Jesus, the Word of God, into the very foundations of our lives, can we hope to withstand the storms that life will inevitably throw at us. We might also add into that building on Jesus as our rock will mean that we have to work harder at the structure of our lives, but that the end result will last into eternity.

What this doesnt say to us, of course, is what the finished product will look like: and we each choose to build the house that we need and are able to. But the foundation is and remains the same: Jesus, our Lord, our Saviour, our Healer, our Redeemer, our Friend.

Amen.

Forum: Sermons

Second Sunday after Pentecost - 25 May - Jazz Vespers - Martin Flower

sylvestris — Sun, 25 May 2008 20:55:20 GMT

Dear friends.

Some three thousand five hundred years ago, Moses lead the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt into freedom, into the promised land. For a generation they traveled through the wilderness and on their journey they stopped at mount Sinai. Moses climbed the mountain where he spent forty days and forty nights in the presence of God, and God gave him the law written on tablets of stone, written by the hand of God. When the Bible refers to the law of Moses, it is a reference to the first five books : Genesis to Deuteronomy. These are known in the Jewish tradition as the Torah. According to the Jewish interpretation, there are 613 commandments, 248 positive commandments - things you must do, and 365 negative commandments, things you must not do. Of all these commandments, there are ten which tower above the others. These are the ones of cardinal importance, and which contain the essence of the entire Torah. And so that we dont forget them, the original builders and restorers of St Annes have helpfully written them on the wall in front of us for us all to see where they are depicted as two tablets. There are two positive commandments (things you must do) and eight negative ones (things you must not do).

Todays gospel reading is taken from the Sermon on the Mount which spans chapters 5 to 7 of Matthews gospel. In this section Jesus walks up the mountain and delivers a new law - he appears as the new Moses, not to abolish the Torah, but to fulfil it. In the section we read today, Jesus gives us an explicit new new commandment.

Do not worry, saying, What will we eat? or What will we drink? or What will we wear? Indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The commandment Jesus gives us is to seek first the Kingdom.

Seek !

To be a follower of Jesus means to be someone who seeks. It means to be someone who has not yet found, who has not yet arrived, who has not yet achieved their objective or goal, it means to be someone who is not yet at rest, it means to be someone for whom everything is yet to come.

To be a Christian is to be someone who seeks - but not seeking just anything, not someone who moves from this to that, not someone who has thought they found their precious discovery but after a while are disappointed and who then move on to the next big or fashionable thing, To become a Christian is not to find release or peace or solutions to your problems or relief from your illness or to enjoy some time of quiet or excitement or escape. It is not getting away from. It is a search with a purpose - and it is not just any search, it is a search with one particular goal, it is the search for the face of God.

The psalmist says

My heart says of you, Seek his face! Your face, LORD, will I seek

To be a follower of Jesus Christ means to seek one thing only - to seek the face of God.

The Christian life is one of a living journey. It is in traveling that we fulfill our vocation, that we come alive. The Christian faith is not a static or fixed item that can be discovered, captured, grasped and appropriated - but it is a movement, it is something dynamic, it is something that brings life - that brings life as long as we seek.

When Jesus commanded his audience to seek he was not speaking to the unbelievers, but to those who were his followers - to those who believed in him. He did not say : seek hard enough and you can become my follower, but since you are my follower, this is how you will seek. This evening God has drawn you to St Annes and you may have thought, hmm, this is a nice place to be, (nice music) is this the end of my seeking ? Is this the place Im looking for ? Have I arrived - have I found the answer to my search ? Or maybe youve been part of St Annes for years and youve never questioned that you have arrived, that this place is the answer to your prayers. Either way, let me reassure you that your own belief and faith is not an arrival, it is a beginning. Being here tonight makes you during this hour we share together not a member of those who have found the Kingdom, but rather a member of those who have started out together to seek the Kingdom. And our conversation together on the road is not about celebrating our arrival, it is about sharing our questions and sharing our searches and looking together.

My heart says of you, Seek his face! Your face, LORD, will I seek.

At our baptism God has placed this command in our heart, to seek his face. And through our busy lives we put up with a lot of background noise and there are so many other things to do and so many distractions and this voice gets buried and forgotten. We spend our lives in an amnesic state, we have forgotten who we really are, we have forgotten who our Father is, we have forgotten where our true home is, where we really belong.

Then one day we hear the voice again to our surprise. Why am I doing what Im doing ? Why am I living the way Im living ? Is that all there is to life ? Is there not more ? Is there not something else ?

In the parable of the prodigal son we read that

After the younger son had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

And then he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father.

The community of Christians are the community of the prodigal children who have heard in their heart Gods voice to seek his face and who have set out to seek him together. The community of Christians at St Annes is united not in that we all share the same answers or the same discoveries, but we are one in that we all share in the same questions, in the same search. The search that unfolds over our lifetime as disciples of Jesus Christ.

In todays passage Jesus speaks of the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the water that we drink - Jesus speaks of our primary needs. We all have a primary need to breathe clean air, we all need water to drink, we all need food to eat, we all need clothes to clothe us, we all need shelter, we all need friendship and love and affection. These are the things that make us human - we can live without Tesco Finest, Gucci, the iphone, holidays in the sun, job promotions; but we all know that our lives would come to an rapid end without air, water, food and so on. Jesus embraces us as human beings : he acknowledges and affirms our primary needs, but he goes beyond the well-known ones, and he tells me that as a human being I have a primary primary need - this is the need for seeking God. He reminds me of the call which was placed in my heart. To hear that call, that is my primary need, that is the beginning of the journey, that is my first glimpse of the Kingdom of God.

My heart says of you, Seek his face!

Amen

Forum: Sermons

Trinity Sunday 18 May - Lay Minister Mandy Oleson

PJ — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:45:41 GMT

Sermon for Trinity Sunday, 18 May 2008

St Annes Lutheran Church, London

Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Matthew 28:16-20

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Please join me in prayer:

Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.

Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This prayer comes from the old Lutheran Book of Worship and I believe youll also find it in the new hymnals. I love this prayer because I think it really captures the uncertainty we feel when we think about the future, as well as the reassurance that our times are in Gods hands. We dont really know whats coming, what joy and sadness or triumph and tragedy we may experience. Its a bit how I feel at the moment. I spent this past week making all the preparations to move back to the United States. One segment of the path is already starting to fade behind me and the other is only slowly beginning to take focus. Many of you probably understand what I mean. We are a community drawn from all over the globe; we have left home and family to be in London. We are itinerants, transients, travelers. We know what it is to say goodbye and walk into the new and unfamiliar.

Do you think the disciples might have felt some of the same emotions when Jesus gave them this commandment: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you? They had just been scattered once when Jesus was crucified. His resurrection drew them back together. And here he is telling them to go out again: to leave their communities, their homes, their families, their friends, their work. Hes asking them to sacrifice everything for God and Gods mission. Scary prospect, isnt it?

Yet what he is asking of them is nothing less than what he did. Today, we celebrate Trinity Sunday and that means we celebrate God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, if you will. The Trinity can be one of those confusing theological doctrines with difficult Greek words like ousia, hypostasis, and perichoresis. Well leave those words to the theologians, though, and instead let us focus on what it means for us that God is the three in one, the one in three. It means that God is a relational being. It means that the divine life of God is a life of shared community, of concern for the other, of mutual service, and of sacrificial love.

It means that God chooses to share Gods self with us. God chooses to create and when the creation falls away from God in sin and brokenness, God chooses to send the Son to redeem the creation by hanging on a cross and overcoming death, and God chooses to send the Spirit to be our Advocate, Teacher, Comforter, and Helper. The key here is that God chooses. God was not bound to reach out to us or share Gods self with us. Yet God did reach out and come to us. In that sharing of Gods self, we become infinitely richer because through the Son and the Spirit, we can know God, we can ask him to come to us and make his home with us, and in faith, we can trust that his Spirit will dwell in our hearts.

When that happens, we can be sure that our lives will never be the same. In the power of the Spirit through Christ Jesus, God will call us to ventures of which we cannot see the ending. It is a call that originates in the waters of baptism. When the baptismal waters flow over us, our old self is washed away and we are raised to new life in Christ. We are united with him in both his death and his resurrection and we turn to him for our example. Have you ever noticed that the creeds we regularly say, that is the Nicene and Apostles Creeds, dont tell us much about Jesus life. We skip right from born of the Virgin Mary to suffered under Pontius Pilate. What happened to the life of Jesus? A group of missionaries to the Maasai tribe of Kenya and Tanzania addressed this deficiency when they wrote a new creed, called the Maasai Creed. Its a powerful and beautiful creed, and I would encourage you to read the whole thing online, but theres one part I want to bring out. It goes like this: Jesus Christ, a man in the flesh, . . . left his home and was always on safari doing good.

Theres something very incarnational, very real, very lifelike in that description. Jesus, sent by the Father in the power of the Spirit, moved out from the Godhead to take on flesh and blood. And he went on safari, which is a Swahili word for journey. If our Lord and Saviour was on safari, then in the waters of baptism where we are joined together with him in new life, we, too, begin a journey. This journey is a journey of faith and discipleship. We hear the call to this journey in todays Gospel: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, establish and maintain communities of faith, build Gods family on earth. When we confess that God is triune and so lives in relationship, loves in communion, and shares in fellowship, we, too, must baptize into a community of faith, promising to love, support, and pray for one another. Today in this community we will baptize Elisia Goodluck Mboya, we will welcome her as a child of God, and we will accept her into Gods family. Through Gods Spirit, active in this congregation, we will become a part of her journey of faith.

Whatever comes our way on each of our journeys of faith and discipleship, I ask you to remember one thing: they do not happen in isolation. Just as God is a being who lives in relationship, we, his creation, are also called to live in fellowship with him and with one another. Whether God brings us to new places or new endeavors, it is the people who will make it special and meaningful and worthwhile. We are each others traveling companions. We are the vessels through whom the Spirit of God works and shares, loves and laughs, cries and celebrates. And so we find the courage to go out, perhaps not knowing where we are going, but more importantly knowing who is going with us when Jesus promises us: I am with you always, to the end of the age. Amen.

Forum: Sermons