Back to Church Sunday 30th September 2007

It has been estimated that up to three million people in Britain would go back to church if only they were invited. With this in mind, the Diocese of Manchester launched 'Back to Church Sunday' three years ago, and the scheme has proved so succesful that it has been adopted nationally. The evidence suggests that, on average, 12 people per church respond to the invitations to come on Back to Church Sunday, and many become permanent members (for a church the size of St Martin's that would mean increasing our average adult Sunday attendance by over 15%).

Back to Church Sunday will be taking place on 30 September 2007, and this year St Martin's will be participating in this scheme.

How does this involve you? The most effective way to attract people to church (maybe for the first time), is to offer to accompany them to church. I therefore want to issue you a challenge, over the next four months, I would like you to pray for three or four people who do not currently attend church, who you can invite to St Martin's on Sunday 30th September. At the end of June we will be distributing invitation cards for you to invite your friendsd to church.

This is a wonderful opportunity for us to really grow the church, and it is something we can all do. Please do pray about this scheme, and for the people you will invite.

Simon

Ministry in the Work Place

I want you to spend a moment thinking about what activities you consider to be Christian ministry and service.

Get feed back

It is interesting how often we tend to think of Christian ministry in terms of the activities we do in ‘church’. For instance being a home group leader, or running Sunday school, or cleaning the church building, or being a warden. And there is nothing wrong with this, these are forms of Christian service. But how many of us think of what we do Monday to Friday at work as part of our Christian service and ministry?

Mark Greene has written extensively of mission in the work place, and in his book ‘Thank God it’s Monday’ he quotes one person who said the following: “I’ve been working for seventeen years and it’s only in the last year or so that I’ve recognized my workplace as a ministry. How many Christians die without ever realizing the ministry God had for them?”

So this morning I want us to think about ministry in the work place, the challenges and the opportunities that as Christians we face. What I want to say this morning, isn’t just restricted to those who are in paid employment, it relates to all of us.

Why Work is Important

We only have to look at the opening chapters of the Bible to see how important work is in God’s scheme of things.

First of all we see that God is a God who works. The Bible describes creation as the work of God. For six days God works, and on the seventh he rests from all the work he has done. God is a worker and it is something he chooses to do- it is part of his plan. And we see that God takes pleasure in his work. We’re told that when God finished creating the heavens and the earth he said that it was ‘very good’.

Work was part of God’s gift to humanity in creation; it was part of his original plan. God has created us for work, and this work is given to us as a blessing. We see this in Genesis 1:28, God blessed them and said to them. ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” And from Genesis 2:15 we read: “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” And as we see from this verse, we have a responsibility in work to care for the environment, and to care for others. There is a moral responsibility which is connected to the work we do. Elsewhere in the Bible it talks about the importance of working in order to support those in need. Working in order to improve the life of the community as a whole.

God always intended us to be people who work, and God intended work to be a source of satisfaction and pleasure.

And in the New Testament Paul calls upon Christians to do their work for God. Paul writes to the Colossians 3:17, “whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Work is one of the ways in which we serve God.

Why the workplace is so important?

In 1945 the Church of England produced a book called ‘Towards the Conversion of England’. In it are written these words. “We are convinced that England will never be converted until the laity use the opportunities daily afforded by their various professions, crafts and occupations.”

As Christians God has called all of us to be his witnesses in the world. The greatest mission field in the world today is right on our doorstep amongst our friend’s neighbours and work colleagues. Britain today is a largely post-Christian society. Fewer and fewer people are attending churches; the level of Christian knowledge in our society is at an all time low.

And this is why being an effective witness in the workplaces so important. Because it is the place where we spend much of our time, maybe up to 40 or 50 hours a week. In the workplace Christians and non-Christians are able to meet and are subject to the same work cultures, and the same pressures. The work place is one of the few places where a non-Christian can actually see the difference that knowing Christ can make to a life, week in, week out. And through the workplace we will know many people, and have many friends, and we will be in contact with people at important points in their lives. For instance when face divorce, illness, or bereavement.

So we see the wonderful opportunities that we have as Christians to minister to those we work with. As Emil Brunner said, what the Christian community needs to do is to regain the lost sense of work as a divine calling.

The challenges of the workplace

We only need to consider the issues facing workers today, to realize what opportunities we have as Christians to bring something positive into the work place.

British workers work longer hours than any other nation in the European Union. And increasingly people are suffering from increased levels of stress, anxiety, depression and less job satisfaction. And people are being forced to work these longer hours, because they fear that if they don’t, their employers will find someone who will. For most people, job security is a thing of the past.

Also consider the values that shape the work place, and the desperate need for a positive Christian witness. For example, most contemporary workplaces assume that God does not exist, and that there are in no way accountable to him, and that he does not intervene in the affairs of business.

The challenge for us as Christians is how to we remind people that we are accountable to God for our actions. What assumptions and attitudes exist in your workplace, and how to they compare to the values and attitudes that God has, such as truth, honesty, justice, and fairness. And what are the values that we bring to the work place? Do we allow our Christian faith to have an impact upon what we do at work?

A further challenge is that increasingly people are seen in terms of what functions they perform in the business, rather than being treated as human beings. And as we work longer hours, people tend to see their work as a measure of their identity and worth. Yet the Bible reminds us that we are created in God’s image, and this attaches a special worth and dignity to each individual person, irrespective of what we do. How can we ensure that this message is heard in the workplace?

So we can see both the challenges, but also the opportunities that we have as Christians in the world of work. So for the remainder of this talk I want us to consider how we can develop a Christian vision for the work place.

A Christian Vision for the Work Place

1. Our work matters to God

The first thing we need to be reminded of is that our work matters to God. God is deeply concerned about the work we do, he is concerned about every part of our lives, and not just what we get up to on a Sunday morning. The work that I do as a priest in God’s eyes is no greater or more important than the work you are involved in. We tend to talk about the priesthood as a vocation, a calling, but secular employment can be just as much a vocation. Think about how important it is for us to have Christian teachers, doctors, nurses, accountants, etc. In fact we need Christians in every walk of life.

If we look at the Bible we see that many of the great biblical heroes were people who had what we would term secular jobs. For example, Joseph who became the chancellor in Egypt, Daniel the imperial adviser to Nebuchadnezzar, or Nehemiah who was the cupbearer to king Artaxerxes.

2. Our primary calling is to be a servant of Jesus Christ

Secondly we need to remember that our primary calling is to be servants of Jesus Christ. A man standing on the platform waiting for the train to take him to work was asked, Who are you? He replied… I am a Christian thinly disguised as an accountant.

If we begin to see our workplace as the context for mission and evangelism, it will change our whole attitude to those we work amongst. For example do we pray for those people we work for? When you go into work do you ask God for opportunities to share your faith with those you work with? And do you meet up with other Christians who work at the same business as you to pray and study the Bible & support one another? Jesus said, Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. The harvest is ripe, we should ask God to preparing and using us to share his love. The important point is that it is not about getting people into church, it is about telling them about the love God has for them.

Being an effective witness in the workplace doesn’t require a degree in theology, just openness to God as the following example demonstrates.

Emily, a small Chinese lady, works at the United Nations. One day one of her co-workers wasn’t feeling well. ‘Can I get you a cup of tea?’ Emily enquired.

‘No’ the other replied rather shortly. ‘I don’t like the tea here. I only drink camomile.’ Emily left her, quietly slipped on her coat, took the lift down several floors and went down the street to a nearby shop. She returned with a box of camomile tea and gave it to this lady, who immediately enveloped her in a huge hug, exclaiming, ‘Emily, I love you’. Emily replied, rather muffled from the epicentre of the massive hug, ‘I love you too.’

Emily’s story illustrates a number of important points:
· We need to be ministry minded- Emily could have just smiled and gone on her way. Instead, because she was ministry minded, because she listened, because she saw the other person’s need and desire, she took an initiative that totally transformed that person’s mood and day.
· Time is on our side- the opportunities will come. We don’t have to create situations in which we can minister- they will happen by themselves. We simply need to pray and be alert.
· Ministry is to individual people- Clearly camomile tea wouldn’t have been a good idea for everybody, but it helped this one woman. We need to care for people and love them as individuals.
· Ministry doesn’t demand- it gives- Emily asked for nothing, not even the money for the tea. She gave expecting nothing in return. Our expressions of love for others shouldn’t have any strings attached. We need to be sensitive and distinguish between the opportunities to serve and the opportunities to communicate the gospel verbally.

The Revd. Tim Montgomery from St Thomas’ Kendal wrote the following in the Westmorland Gazette. ‘My greatest pleasure comes not from singing hymns, in long prayers, in dressing up in funny robes, in bowing or kneeling, in lighting candles or taking up an offering (or any other number of things people tell me church is all about!) It comes from seeing just one person meet with God, draw close to Him and pick up a new life with real hope and a future.’ I totally agree with him, seeing someone come to faith is the greatest privilege on earth, and it is my sincere hope and prayer that all of us will take seriously the call to be God’s witnesses in the world today. Amen.

Acts 11:1-18 Breaking Down Barriers

Introduction

The autumn of 1989, was a momentous time in history, as the Berlin wall which had separated West Berlin and East Germany for 28 years was torn down. Although I was only 12 at the time, the images of that event remain firmly in my memory. It was a great moment in history, a moment of celebration as a symbol of division and separation was destroyed.

The Acts passage is about the destruction of another terrible wall built of pride, racism, and superior attitudes. What we find in this passage, is a church struggling to come to terms with change, and facing issues that could threaten to tear it apart – does this sound familiar?! We see the barriers that can so easily be put up between people, and also how we can overcome these divisions.

Background

The early church was a Jewish Church. Jesus was a Jew, his disciples were Jews, and Jesus’ ministry had been spent amongst the Jewish people. And although Jesus’ commission to his disciples in Matthew 28:19 was to “go and make disciples of all nations,” up to this point the followers of Jesus were mostly Jewish.

But now the church was beginning to see Gentiles, non Jews, coming to faith in Christ, and this posed some significant theological and practical problems. For example, the Jewish Christians continued to observe the Old Testament food laws and circumcision, and one question that arose was should Gentile Christians observe these same laws or not. If not, how were Jewish believers to maintain their own obedience to food laws when fellowship in Christ involved eating with unclean Gentiles? And how would close association with Gentile believers affect the relationship of Jewish believers with other Jews who did not share their faith in Christ? These issues were dealt with in more detail at the Council of Jerusalem which you can read about in Acts 15, but in this passage these issues remain unresolved.

And what we see is potential divisions emerging between Jewish and Gentile Christians.

In Acts 11:2 we read, “when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers (i.e. Jewish Christians) criticized him and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them." In the previous chapter we learn that Peter, after receiving a vision from God, had visited the home of Cornelius, a Roman Centurion who lived in the town of Caesarea. Whilst Peter was with Cornelius and his family, the Holy Spirit came upon them. This event was a turning point for Peter, because he realised that the Holy Spirit, which had been promised by Jesus, and had been poured out on the day of Pentecost, was for all people, and not just the Jews. But now back in Jerusalem, Peter comes under attack by members of the Jewish Christian community for eating with ‘uncircumcised men’ in other words, Gentiles. Although these were fellow Christians, who preached the gospel, who had themselves received the Holy Spirit, they were also still very legalistic in their Jewish practices. If they felt bound by the Jewish food laws, then there could be no fellowship with Gentile Christians, unless the Gentiles were circumcised and observed the Jewish food laws themselves. And so what we find, is that legalism, and fear of what this change meant, was threatening the very mission of the church to carry the message of Jesus into the entire world. What in affect was happening was barriers were being built along religious, racial, and ethnic lines.

And the same can happen today. There are all sorts of barriers that we can build between ourselves and other people. Barriers built along racial, religious, or social grounds. Barriers based on age or sex, upon education, or political affiliation, social or cultural barriers. Whatever the barrier is, it draws a distinction between us and other people. But barriers built on the grounds of racism, ageism, sexism, religious or social and cultural grounds are totally unacceptable, because it is offensive to human dignity, and because it is offensive to God who accepts without discrimination all who repent and believe. What Peter came to learn when he met Cornelius is that God does not show favouritism.

There are also some striking parallels between the church in Jerusalem and the church today. Today the church nationally and locally finds itself in a time of change, and transition, and it we can be left feeling threatened and vulnerable. For example, the church which was once at the very heart of our society, now finds its self on the margins. We are living in an increasingly pluralistic society, where people are interested in spirituality, but reject institutional forms of religion. The church finds itself in a culture, where once it was respected, but now it has to fight to make its voice heard. And the culture of the church and the culture of society can feel so at times very different, and in these situations it can often feel easier to retreat into our church buildings, and stick with what we find familiar, comfortable and safe, rather than engaging with a society we don’t always understand. This in effect builds a barrier which people find hard to cross.

So how did the church overcome these barriers?

1 Dialogue

Notice that Peter did not get drawn into an argument with his critics in Jerusalem. Proverbs 15:1 says, A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

So Peter describes in great detail what had happened. He relates the vision from God, and his own initial opposition to the vision, and how God challenged him about this, and what happened when he visited the home of Cornelius.

Peter could have easily been drawn into an argument about the law, but it would have been futile. But by explaining what happened, his audience is able to begin to understand the reason for Peter’s actions.

So often the barriers that we create are as a result of not understanding enough about a person or a situation. It is very easy to make assumptions about people, but if we are open to dialogue, it opens us to the possibility of these allowing these assumptions to be challenged and changed, and this is turn can lead to healing and reconciliation. This is one of the reasons why the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established in South Africa after the end of apartheid.

Constructive dialogue requires a willingness to listen, as well as to be heard, and to allow our perceptions to be challenged. The importance of listening to someone in the midst of a conflict does at least three things:1. it obeys God’s word (James 1:19,20)2. It shows honour to the other person (Phil 2:3)3. It may be God’s way of teaching us something about Himself (as in this text).

2 Following the leading of the Holy Spirit

What we see from this passage in Acts, is that Peter, follows the leading of the Holy Spirit. In verse 12, Peter relates he acted at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, who told him to go with the three men who had arrived at his house. Peter goes onto explain in verse 15, how the Holy Spirit came on the people in that house, just as it had done on the day of Pentecost, which demonstrated both to Peter, and to the others that he had heard the Spirit correctly. What we see is the Holy Spirit moving and working and Peter responding.

The Spirit of God is the one that is meant to lead us, as a church and as individuals. But for this to happen, we need to be open to the Spirit, to hear and respond to the leading of the Spirit. To recognise the movement of the Spirit, we need to grow in our intimacy with God. When you go sailing, if you try to sail directly into the wind, the boat comes to a standstill, to get movement you need to set your sails with the wind, and the same is true with God’s Holy Spirit, if we try to go against the Spirit of God, we get no where. Instead we need to go in the direct that the Spirit is leading.

The Holy Spirit is the source of community, and helps build up community, and therefore breaks down the divisions that would otherwise separate people. If our lives as individuals and as a church, are filled by the Holy Spirit, then we should see the fruits of that spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Those things that promote and encourage unity.

3. Submit to the word of God

The third and final point, is that Peter submitted to the word of God. Acts 11:15 Peter says, “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with[a]water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' Peter recalls the words that Jesus spoke about baptism, just before he ascended into heaven.

So what is the difference between John’s Baptism and being baptized by the Holy Spirit? John’s baptism was a baptism of preparation – preparing the people for the coming of the Messiah. The Holy Spirit’s baptism was a baptism of identification – identifying those who have placed their faith in Christ into the body, i.e., the church. So Peter remembered the word of the Lord, and realised that it was the same outpouring of the Holy Spirit that had been witnessed on the day of Pentecost. And so Peter realised, “if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" (Acts 11:17) Peter submitted his will, to the word of God.

Conclusion

This issue of how the church was to respond to the inclusion of Gentiles into the Christian faith, could have ended very differently. But because Peter entered into dialogue, because both he, and the church in Jerusalem were open to what the Holy Spirit was doing, and because they submitted to the word of God, they were able to avoid a potential split.

I think we also can draw lessons from this passage both as a church, and also as individuals on how we can help break down the barriers that cane divide people. And Jesus is the example that we follow, because it comes down simply to one command, and that is to love people, the way God loves us. If we are committed to living this way, not only will it prevent barriers being erected in the first place, but it will help break down those we find, just as God has broken down the barriers that once separated us from him.