Todays sermon

I was encouraged to post this today.

Do not be afraid little flock… it is the fathers pleasure to give you the kingdom.
George Appleton wrote Journey for a soul in 1976, here he wrote “ The Kingdom of God was the main subject of the early preaching of Jesus. He claimed that in himself the kingdom had drawn near, was in operation, and he called to men to accept this fact in faith and to change their attitudes, behaviour and world view. Many of his parable dealt with the meaning of the kingdom, as if he were wanting to ensure that those who could not at first understand would remember one vivid human story, and that one day the penny would drop.”
As you may know I am a great fan of St Francis of Assisi. A saint of some magnitude and one who is well known for all sorts of reasons.
St Francis is often described as a saint for our modern age and certainly many are moved today by his example.
Without going into long biographical detail, Francis journey to canonization began when he held on to something ultimately simple, “it is the fathers pleasure to give you the kingdom”
Francis realized that the church of his day had apparently made the kingdom a complicated thing, and had put it apparently beyond the common folks grasp unless they had peculiar access to the church via the priest. The church held the keys to the kingdom and it was not about to share them.
Francis set about living very simply to the words found in the gospels, and the “rule” that he compiled for his followers was basically a few chosen words form the gospels, and all simple words of Jesus. Poverty and simplicity being the groun rules for his method of living.
In this day and age some people still behave as if Living the Kingdom was a difficult and onerous task, and one which is heavily administered by the church (authorities)
Of course you and I know differently.
Why do you and I come to church then? Is it necessary?
Partly yes and partly no.
Some people might say that those who come to church are doing so to fill a gap in their lives. (As if having a gap was a negative thing and it was being filled with something that sounds pseudo) Well I guess the same could be true of any sort of activity, from playing bridge, playing golf, or just going to a bar and drinking with friends.) In this respect we are all of us all the time filling gaps with things.
For me coming to church is a time when I meet with other folk who also in some ways believe that God has a part to play in the life of the world (not a gap filler, god of the gaps stuff. And in meeting with like minded people (like joining a golf club) our game is improved, our relationship with God is improved, and our love for God and one another is also improved.
Of course the way we might to these things vary, from drinking coffee to sitting in silent prayer, to receiving Gods love through physical things like bread and wine.
We may come to church because we are used to it, it may have become a habit, but this may not be a bad thing at all.
We are here because we recognise something of God here and not just here but within ourselves and each other. This is a very liberating thing to do.
Sometimes we do not know what we are are going to discover when we come here, even when we can say the liturgy is the same often.
Understanding that Gods love actually lives inside each one of us, releases us from the thought that the church might hold the essential key, and in the end we realise like Francis that God has given us all the keys.
Having the keys ourselves means that we can duly feel quite excited about the part we play in the kingdom. Each of us are part of what we are doing here. Each of us is responsible.
The word Liturgy, as I think I have explained before means “the work of the people”. It is very important to begin to realise that indeed we all play a part not just in living Kingdom lives but also here in our weekly worship together and at any time we gather for prayer.
Often there may be a leader of the worship, who is designated sometimes president, the one who presides, but without everyone else the activity is almost worthless.. In our tradition we play our part in every way possible, in singing together, in standing and sitting together, in praying together both out loud and in silence, in listening together and in responses. We are always playing a part, even in the Eucharistic prayer which is OUR great prayer of praise and thanksgiving.
Filled with the bread and wine of the kingdom, fired up with love for God and each other, we are then ready to take this Kingdom and God into the worlds in which we live, and just sometimes nobody needs to know what love fires our hearts as we know ourselves that is God we serve and whose kingdom we dwell in. (What I think I mean here is that we do not often need to make anyone feel awkward about us being Christian….)
Again coming back to Francis…. Go and preach the gospel… and only if necessary use words!
George Appleton again, “ The Kingdom is something within you which has the power of growth like a seed, something that you discover almost accidentally. Something that you are searching for, and of whose value you become more confident and excited as the search proceeds, and you discover truer and lovelier things which are constantly being surpassed.”