The readings for this sermon are Matthew 28: 16-20 and Isaiah 40: 12-17, 27-31.
We often put a lot of weight on people’s last words, especially if they know that they are their last words. People often use them to share something of what they have learned in their lives and want others to know too or maybe to offer comfort to those who will soon be hurting at their loss. Jesus’ last words to the Apostles is no different, these are the among the last words He will speak on earth before His return and so they are worth paying attention to. And what are these last words? A declaration that He has been given all power on heaven and earth and therefore all authority and using that authority He sends the apostles and us out into the world to tell them all that God has done, to disciple them, to baptise them and to teach them. Having just celebrated a week ago the sending of the Holy Spirit it is appropriate that we this week see the reason why. We’re not given the Spirit for our own personal benefit, He comes to us to help us in our walk with God and to empower us to share the Good News with the world. To paraphrase the commissioning of the disciples in Acts ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Cardiff, in all Wales and Britain, and to the ends of the earth’. It’s a tall order but that is what these men went on to do going as far as west as Italy and as far east as India. And why did they do this? Because they truly knew how much God had done for them and the whole world and wanted to share it with as many people as possible. With the help of the Holy Spirit guiding and encouraging them they went from people hiding in an upper room with their hopes dashed to missionaries traversing the known world debating and sharing and planting churches. Their faith had fundamentally changed them because they finally understood the scale of God and His mercy and grace. If we turn to the passage from Isaiah we heard this morning we see just how amazing our God is; He who has weighed the mountains and measured the waters in His hand, to whom the nations of the world are as dust. And yet He loves each one of us exactly as we are, giving us power when we are faint, strengthening us when we are powerless. The one who cannot be taught or counselled, the one whose understanding is unsearchable raises us up on wings like eagles, gives grace by the bucket when we fall and repent. What good news this is, how could we not share it? Later as we hear the Eucharistic prayer, as we recount all that God has done for us, as we recall His faithfulness let us be truly be grateful and at the end, at the amen where we affirm our gratitude let’s not say it as though we have just prayed any other prayer. Instead let’s use that moment to pour all our thanksgivings into one great joyous amen, affirming all that God has done. And as we go deeper into worship, as we realise more and more each day all that God has done then that overflows into wanting to share that with others, that they too may know all that God has done for them. St Francis of Assisi is accredited with saying ‘preach the Gospel and use words if necessary’, I’m not fully convinced by that approach. Krish Kandiah, a well known theologian, looking back at his time at university recalls that the shared kitchen in halls was virtually a biohazard it was such a mess, he decided it was a moment he could shine as a Christian and so walked around bubbling with positive energy and occasionally facing germ warfare for his flatmates by doing a pile of washing up by himself. After 10 weeks one of his flatmates knocked on his door and it seemed success was at hand when she said the words he’d been hoping to hear ‘Krish, there’s something different about you’. Finally, here was his chance to share Jesus, all the smiles and scrubbing and sensitive pastoral care had paid off. But what she went on to say wasn’t exactly what he’d hoped for ‘I’ve noticed something that you do – it seems to give you a buzz – and I’m thinking of giving it a go. Where can I get hold of those vitamin C tablets you have?’. As a result, he decided to stop taking so much Vitamin C and started actually telling people bout Jesus, doing good things to share our faith is no bad thing but when it’s not backed up with words about our faith we’re just another helpful person or volunteer organisation. You may be thinking that the only reason we have this Gospel reading today is just because it has the words ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’ in it, but it’s not. The Trinity is at the heart of sharing our faith. This God whom we worship and seek to share exists as Trinity; the one in three and three in one. Jesus commands us to baptise in the name of the Trinity, and our liturgy is deeply soaked in the language of Trinity. But this isn’t just a dry claim about the mechanics of God’s being, this isn’t some intellectual concept for the theologians to think about because the heart of the doctrine that our God exists as Trinity is our whole life as Christians. God exists as an eternal community between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, an eternal relationship of love as the very foundation of who God is. We don’t worship an aloof and uncaring God who is sits on His own with no care for anyone. Neither do we worship a God who created us out of a need for relationship, a God who is needy and fragile. No, we worship a God who created us out of the overflowing love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And as Christians we are invited into that relationship, we are invited to receive that same love and to love God in return even though our love is completely inadequate for what God deserves. When we share our faith and when we invite people to know God for themselves we invite them into that eternal relationship which has been since before the universe began. And we as a church are to reflect that life of God, if we are to be the people of God then our lives should reflect the God whom we profess. We are to be a community who loves ones another, who supports each other, who lovingly corrects and who desire good for our brothers and sisters even more than we desire it for ourselves. A place where God’s love and grace and mercy are visible, where people can admit their weaknesses and failings and not be judged, instead being built up and helped to grow further into the person God has called them to be. The fact that God is community should shape our community as we seek to live out that eternal life of God here on earth, we will never manage it perfectly or consistently, but in striving for it we will be drawn closer together as the people of God and closer to Him. We aren’t striving for this on our own either, Jesus promises to be with us to the very end of the age and has given us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. So let us pray for God to go with us and empower us as we seek to be the individuals He has called us to be as He draws us together into the community He has called us to be. And may we daily become more aware of God’s great love for us, His abundant mercy and grace and out of that growing awareness may our love for Him overflow out of this place into the community as we share the love of God with all we meet. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Amen
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AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
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