Manifesto 3 - Us Not Them (Jamie Haith)

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Transcript

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That and we're good to go. Today we come to part three in our three-part mini-series entitled Manifesto, a manifesto for the church, global, church local alike. Week one was all about him, not me. Last week was we, not me, and this week is them, not us. And week one we looked at Ephesians 1. And at the first key area of church life, church is all about him, not me. It's about worship. Our worship is the starting point of life. And when we join together, we do a number of things. And they all began with E. Do you remember? Exalt the extraordinary, the majesty of God. We expect to engage in the intimacy, the immanence of God with us. And because of that, we express our emotion. Just be yourself with Him, be who you are. And fourthly, we expend our everything because our worship is all of life. It's not just an hour on a Sunday. Then last week we had Manifesto to We, not me, the reminder that my faith, my relationship with God is wonderful. It's a great gift, it's the most wonderful gift, but it's also so much more than merely mine. And we must strive to rediscover the corporate, the collective nature of faith. It's not simply my faith, but our faith. Remember the honeycomb? That image, the church being like that glorious collection of wax cells, the essential structure that houses the honey, the sweetness of our faith, and we build a church to be a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Apologies for my voice yet again, it's still not quite there. Finally, this week, Manifesto 3 goes under the banner, them not us. Mission. We'll have a look at various scriptures today. I just, I couldn't, I I was all over the place. It wasn't all over the place. I was just getting excited and I was going all over the place. And we're going to look at Paul's letter to the Ephesian Church, St. John's Gospel, thinking together about how St. George's is not here for the sake of St. George's, but for all the people who don't come here, who for some very good reason are somewhere else today. St. Paul saw that better than anyone. That the church, his own life, they were about bringing the good news of Jesus to all, even maybe especially to those who he himself used to think were beyond the care and the love of God. In Ephesians 3, verse 6, we read this through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel. That's massive for Paul to say that. He went around murdering people who said anything about Jesus, and here he is just taking on the love and the purity of Christ and the desire for unity of Christ. He says, Through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, shares together in the promise in Christ Jesus. Such grace, such overflowing grace from him. He says, I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. He's so humble, he's so in awe of all that God has done in his life. He says, although I'm less than the least of all of the Lord's people, this grace was given to me. And what then happens? To preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ. He's all about giving it away. Giving it away to those who haven't heard. Them, not us. This is not an exclusive club. St. Paul Saul before was all about this exclusive club that had to remain pure. And now, look at this, it's for everyone. This is not an exclusive club. I was actually, I had when I when I'm sort of writing a sermon, I do tend to sort of go off my thoughts. I was thinking about exclusive clubs. These are my top three favourite exclusive clubs. In at number three, the ejection tie club. To join this club of 7,798 members who must have survived being fired out of a military plane by ejection seat. This exclusive club of current and former servicemen and women who all at one point faced stared death in the face. Exists only to hand out special ties. No dinners, no get-togethers, no water bravery, just ties. That's the ejection tie club. What about this? This is actually happening in London as we speak. The Beef Steak Club. British Club goes back over 300 years. Only 24 members at any time are allowed to join the club. It's devoted exclusively to how awesome steak is. You should be in this. Club rituals include singing a song about steak, even wearing a funny outfit, including a badge proclaiming beef and liberty. Sounds awesome. What about the Giga Society? There are nine members worldwide. Why so few? According to their own website, you have to score more than 195 of one of their accepted IQ tests, IQ tests in is one in a billion individuals can qualify. That's what they say. Actually, my membership card came through just this week. Meanwhile, the church, the church is and always has been, has existed to be the opposite of that. In the words of the great William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury during World War II, the church is the only club that exists for the benefit of its non-members. So if that's true, do we live it out? I wonder, is the church really any different from a club? With our customs and our outlooks and our attitudes? I wonder if what we do could be perceived. No matter how we feel about it, it could be perceived as being highly exclusive. Is there a danger that all the things that happen in here that go unquestioned for us could well be perceived as actually quite private, rather restricted, really quite elitist? There's the building we meet in. I mean, we're going to reimagine this in the next few years because of the wonderful lottery funding we've got. But a church is not really, is it, I don't know, a part of modern society? There's the words and the phrases we speak. We talk the service, the liturgy, the collect, the special prayer for the day, ministry, vicar, worship leader. Then of course there's rectory that I live in. You don't hear that very often. Blessed, or the classic prayer phrase in our midst. And my personal favourite, which we're going to get on to later in communion when David leads us, intinction. That's not a word you hear very often. The result is that for the average Christian, we battle the constant danger of getting lost, I think, in something of an arc mentality. As in Noah's Ark, we batten down the hatches, close ourselves off from the real world in our own little bubble. Monks offer us the greatest invitation ever. There's so much that we're going to be able to do in these next few years. And much of it centers on what we offer as a welcome here. I actually believe that one of the finest forms of evangelism, whatever that word means, is another word for us, is simply welcoming friends, welcoming strangers alike into everything that we do. It's the amazing come and see approach. I love in the Gospel of John. When you read this, the next day, John was there again with two of his disciples. He saw Jesus passing by. He said, Look, the Lamb of God. And when the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them coming and asked, What do you want? They said, Rabbi, which means teacher. Where are you staying? Come, he replied, and you will see. It's this invitation, extraordinary invitation. And then you read through in the same chapter, verse 46, they say, This is Jesus of Nazareth. Nazareth, can anything good come from there? Come and see, said Philip. So he's been invited, he then goes and invites himself. Come and see, come and experience, come and be. But it can't just be that. That's not enough. Because for every one person who might come into our church buildings willingly, our church building willingly, there are ten more, there are 50 more, there are 700 more. If you believe the state the statistics, the vast majority, over 70%, wouldn't ever dream of stepping foot inside a church. And we don't understand that, do we? We look around, we say, it's so nice, this is so lovely, the coffee's so good. We can have cake. But we don't understand what that what that is, I think, for people to come. I and I often think of an illustration for myself, to keep myself aware of what most people feel when they come into church. I think, well, hang on, how would I be feeling right now if I was walking into a mosque or a good world? I'd feel nervous. I'd feel awkward. I'd feel I don't belong here. I'd be tempted to think they're just going to reject me. I wonder if that's how a lot of people feel. Even as they walk down Cosmo Place on a Sunday, and I'm standing here and I'm looking, I see people walk past the glass door and go, and they move on. Because for whatever reason they don't think it's for them. That's why we've got the pictures in Charlie Mackazine's artwork in there. That was an early thought that we were like, we need to give people a license to come into church, an extra reason to come in. That's what the books are. If you could see the books throughout the week, I mean you might think, why are we selling books in church? So many people come through throughout the week. It's wonderful to see. I often thought, you know, there's that step out there by the glass door where the raised floor goes down. And we built that ramp to go in so that it's uh fully accessible. I remember thinking that's kind of a metaphor for what we're trying to do with church. We're trying to give a little ramp into church because for some people, for a lot of people, it's a big step up spiritually, emotionally, mentally, psychologically, to go into a church. We had to constantly put ourselves in the shoes of those. There goes someone, it's kind of like it's still the problem. Problem is that we're still expecting people to come to us. We're expecting people to come to us, and that cannot be the only way. Jesus says exactly that. He says one tiny word, one tiny word that's hugely challenging to us in Matthew 28. He says, Therefore, go. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus categorically refuses the option, doesn't he, of buying some land and putting some bricks on top of each other and getting people to come to him. I think we so easily forget that about the ministry of Christ. It's this emphatic go. He went. And he calls for us to do the same. Go and live a life that's beautiful, go and live a life that's compelling, go and live a life that is so filled with peace that the world will, if not stop and stare, they'll at least go, Wow, that's beautiful and peaceful, and I want some of what that person has. The writer Donald Miller puts it like this: I want the people on my street to say of me, I may not believe what he believes, but how much worse would my community be if he wasn't part of it? Manifesto through the church is here, depending on us. Evangelism, witnessing, sharing, sharing our faith, and being ready at all times to do that. Paul writes this in Colossians 4: Make the most of every opportunity. He says, Pray for us too that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should. Be wise in the way you want, act towards outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everything. Make the most of every opportunity. He's saying there's opportunities all around us every day to share God's grace. What does that look like, I wonder? Then not us as a lifestyle. In the time we have left, let's take a look at one more scripture: a Jesus master class, and it's John chapter 4. Let's read this. Now Jesus had to go through Samaria. He came to a town in Samaria called Syca, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, You're a Jew. I'm a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asked you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Sir, the woman said, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The woman said, Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water. He told her, Go call your husband and come back. I have no husband, she replied. Jesus said to her, You're right when you say you have no husband. The fact is you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you just said is quite true. Sir, the woman said, I can see that you're a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. Woman, Jesus replied, Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth. For they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the spirit and in truth. The woman said, I know that Messiah called Christ is coming, and when he comes, he will explain everything to us. Then Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to you. I am He. When it comes to seeing what then not us looks like in action, we need look no further than the masterclass provided by Jesus when he engages with this Samaritan woman of the world. It's so lovely, it's so multifaceted, it's so full. By way of practical application for us today, I want to just draw out a few elements of what we see here. Elements I believe we can each employ in our daily life. The first is they're not us, means going along with unwelcome interruptions. Jacob's well was there. Jesus was tired from the journey. He sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. Samaritan woman came to draw water. Will you give me a drink? Verse 8, his disciples have gone into town to buy food. It's midday. Jesus is hot, tired, thirsty, hungry. The very human Jesus is taking some hard-earned time out from the crowds and the disciples. How easily this moment could have been missed? This life never touched, this story never told. Jesus didn't miss the moment. I do it all the time. Most of the best opportunities I think come when you're not in the mood, when you're tired, when you're busy. I'm often so busy wrapped up in my own agenda that I failed to recognise an opportunity right there for me to share God's grace with someone. A few years ago I was at a conference out in Brighton and it had begun and I was racing to meet some people and had to get a gift for someone. So I went into this, um I went into this, you know the Brighton Rock? I went in to get some some Brighton Rock. And the and the woman behind the counter was in such a rush, and she looked at me and she said, Are you at that Christian conference at the Brighton Centre? I said, Oh, uh yeah. And she went, but you've got the same face. Exactly. And then she said, peaceful. And I did not feel in any way peaceful. And I was so rushed and flustered that I paid for the rock and left. That was the end of the story. It's a terrible story. I wish I could tell you that. She said, What must I do to be saved? And I led her to Jesus right there, and then I didn't. I missed the opportunity because I was so focused, I was task-focused, task-oriented. I didn't feel peaceful. I was so taken aback at the thanks. Embarrassed actually. So instead of talking with her and finding out what she was going through, that peacefulness was something that she longed for. I I left. I actually bought some postcards because I felt guilty, so I paid some extra money. What an opportunity though. Lord have mercy on that dear woman and upon my stupid head. I missed it because it didn't fit with my agenda. Whatever we're doing this week, let's just allow for those moments where God breaks in, his grace comes, and we get the opportunity to share with someone. I want to be more like Jesus, recognising that them not us means being welcome to the opportunity, even if it presents itself as an unwelcome interruption. Secondly, them not us means winning the right to be heard. Them not us means winning the right to be heard. The Samaritan woman said to him, You're Jew, I'm a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? The Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus refuses to conform to the accepted cultural norms, the taboos. Quick definition: Samaritan religion was parallel to but separate from Judaism. Their claim is that their worship was and is the true religion of the ancient Israelites prior to the Babylonian exile, preserved by those who remained in Israel while the exile was taking place. In asking her for a drink of water, Jesus catches her completely off guard. Jews did not share eating and drinking utensils with Samaritans. But Jesus doesn't care a bit. And that would have blown her mind, so intriguing, so compelling. Who is this man? It's all completely out of the box. I don't know about you, but I want faith like that. He simply engages with her in conversation and he chats and he listens. I honestly think the vast majority of witnessing to the goodness and the love of God is listening to people, asking them good questions, and sitting in eye contact and showing care. Like we said last week, prayer, care, share. It really is as simple as that. A number of years ago I was a hospital chaplain at the Brompton hospital, and most of the time people didn't want to talk about God. I walked in with my collar on one day, and this one guy said to me, I'm not that sick, am I? So, and and and sharing God's love with someone came across by sharing prayer with them. Of all the hundreds of times I said, I pray for you, only once does someone ever refuse. Because people, I think, maybe don't feel they have faith for themselves, but they're quite willing to, as it were, hold on to the coattails of your faith. And so offering prayer is a really lovely way of looking after someone caring for them. And that might come at a very, very, like we said, a strange moment. I was walking through the parish two years ago. We've got chatting to this one guy, and um at the end of it, I said, Can I pray for you? And I think he thought I was going to go away and light a candle, which is fine. But I prayed from there and then, and I remember he said, No one has ever done that for me before. Just a simple thing, such a simple thing. To be able to, as it were, bring someone into the presence of God. I'm no means great at it, but I'm committed to get better at trying, just trying. Trying to show the love of God to everyone. The waiter, the bus driver, the flight attendant, the traffic warden, even the traffic warden. Thirdly, them not us means meeting people where they are at. Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asked you a drink, you would have asked him when he would have given you living water. I won't read the whole text, we've read it already. I love the way that Jesus starts with what interests her, don't you? Eventually he draws the conversation back around to the meaning of life. But he starts by talking about water, because that's what's on her mind. We can all do that. We just have to make a pact. Just do it in a weird, cheesy way. When you go for a meal and you're asked by the waitress if you want a top up of water, do not use that as an opportunity to say thank you, but I know Jesus is the water of life, therefore I do not thirst. Don't do that. Or the builder that's working on your house. It's a nice door, you're hanging a lovely grain in that wood. A carpenter would appreciate that grain. I know a carpenter. His name is Jesus. Do you know him? Don't do that. Let's just agree to be normal with people and look for that natural opening, look for what's interesting to someone else. Put ourselves in their shoes, as it were. Letting the flow of the natural, the natural flow of the conversation, starting with their thing, not mine. Having said that, it's easy, isn't it, to think, well, you're you're talking about coming with the sort of Christian agenda. Actually, no, I'm talking about loving someone. Seeing what's interesting to them, what matters to them, how we can bless someone's life this week. Fourthly, then not us means seeing the story beneath the surface. There's this extraordinary interaction where Jesus again, it's this whole fact that Jesus, that Jews do not. Associate with Samaritans, especially rabbis didn't associate with women, especially especially single women, coming to draw water in the hottest part of the day. Surely a time that there was so much animal to take on this heavy task when everyone else was resting in the shade. Don't you wonder who she was? I'm so looking forward to meeting her in heaven if I get her. What was that like to meet Jesus so randomly, as it were, for have him to speak so gently and yet so powerfully into her life? She is a picture of loneliness. And into that loneliness steps Jesus, treating her as a fellow human being, despite all of the cultural norms and taboos, showing an interest in her, showing her that she's worth the effort of his engagement with her, and revealing that she is known by God Himself. It's a very specific, singular word that he gives about her history, as it were. But look at what she goes and tells everyone else. Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ? Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. He made one comment about her relationships. He didn't tell her everything she ever did. I don't believe for a second they had a much larger conversation, which Jesus catalogued her entire life history, including everything I ever did. What she's indicating is that so great is this burden of sexual shame upon her that for her it is everything I ever did. It's become the core of her identity, it's become a core of her existence. That's the impact that it's had on her life. And at the thought of that cloud lifting, at the sight, that glimmer of hope, she's so excited she leaves her water jar behind. It's this tiny detail, but isn't it lovely? Her greatest priority is set aside in her longing for change. The wonder of being loved and known and set free. Fifthly, finally, the venue is being gracious, yet being bold and determined. Bible bashing only puts people off. It really does. And this will never be a church that does that. I know you're not like that. Everyone needs to discover God's grace. The fact that God loves you totally and completely, no matter what, through thick and thin. It's the most extraordinary message in the world. And that message doesn't get across if we don't act in an open and normal and gracious way. Them, not us, making the most of every opportunity, caring, sharing, praying, seeing the needs, recognizing that this harvest is all around us. Because that's what Jesus goes on to say later in the scripture. He says, My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say four months more and then the harvest? I tell you, open your eyes, look at the fields, they are ripe for harvest. He's saying to the disciples, the need is all around. What is this harvest? It's a world of empty people looking for satisfaction and contentment, having so much but never having enough. What is this harvest? It's a world of lonely people longing for connection, relationship, experiencing the frailty and the failure of human relationships and becoming increasingly jaded and increasingly disconnected. What is the harvest? It's the huge percentage of people right here in the UK today who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. They have no idea what we're on about. They're longing for water, they're longing for Jesus. And that is why this church is dedicated to them, not us. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you. Lord Jesus, when we open the Bible and when we read about just how lovely you are, just how countercultural. How you just went across all of the norms that were set out and you loved people. Your life poured with the grace of God. And we pray, Lord, that you would do that in us, in each of us, that our lives would overflow with the acceptance, the unconditional love, the grace of God. And I pray for each of us specifically, Lord, as we as we step into this new week, that each of us would have opportunities to not just enjoy that love for ourselves, but to share that love with others. Pray that we'd come back together next week, Lord, and we'd be able to share stories of how we've seen God's love in action in our lives, through our lives. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. We come now to our intercessions, and Andrea's going to come and lead us. You can bring Zara with you.