Sunday sermon - Christian Aid Week 2017

READINGS/ 1 Peter 2:4-10; John 14:1-14

SERMON
Let’s pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. amen.

The palm trees have gone,
our ‘Alleluias’ have been taken down...
and over the last weeks, since Easter, we’ve been hearing stories of resurrection:
of new life;
of hope reborn;
of renewed commitment on the part of Jesus’ friends –
to love and to follow him wherever he may call,
and to do whatever he may ask.

In our gospel reading for this morning, we see Jesus in conversation with his disciples.
In answer to Thomas’ question:
‘we don’t know where you’re going, so how can we know the way?’
Jesus responds with:
‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’
And then, reminds his disciples that whoever sees him, sees the Father.
That the Father lives in him...
and, that ‘anyone who has faith’ in Jesus, will do what Jesus has been doing.

Let’s remind ourselves of some of what Jesus had been doing:
teaching – about God’s kingdom:
what life would be like with God at the centre...
no more war,
no more suffering,
no more injustice...
a place where everyone
had their own place
to be,
and to rest,
and to find safety, peace, and love.
God’s kingdom
and
God’s kin – dom:
a place of belonging,
of community,
of kinship to God as beloved sons and daughters,
and of kinship to one another,
as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jesus not only taught of the kingdom, and of kin-dom,
he showed it:
in the way he lived his life –
one of compassion...
tending to wounds both physical, and spiritual;
extending the boundaries of God’s grace by welcoming and eating
with those who were considered outcasts;
by feeding the hungry;
and caring for the poor...
Showing God’s justice in action
and challenging injustice;
speaking up for those whose voices had been crushed.
Reaching out,
restoring, redeeming...
rescuing the lost.

As the writer of 1st Peter reminds us:
Jesus is the cornerstone,
the living stone...
and as his friends,
as those who profess to follow him,
we are chips off the block, if you like:
we are his living stones –
people who have been
rescued,
restored,
redeemed...
called out of the darkness and into his marvellous light...
people who have received God’s mercy,
and who continue to live in God’s mercy and grace...
people who are called to be like Jesus:
called to do the work
of welcoming,
of restoring and rescuing...
called to bring others out of the darkness
and into the light...
called to see the image of God in every human being;
called to see Christ in the stranger’s guise.

In the gospel of John, Jesus talks of preparing a place for us:
‘In my Father’s house, are many rooms,’ he says.
Room enough for all.
Welcome...for all.
Enough...for all.
At the beginning of this Christian Aid Week,
we’re reminded once more, of the many who have no place to call home,
of the millions forced into making the fearful, awful choice
to journey into an uncertain future,
rather than live with the certainty of death, poverty, or starvation
should they remain where they are.
And, let’s make no bones about this:
unlike some self-serving politicians who wilfully and appallingly
conflate immigration with asylum seekers and refugees –
as Christ’s followers,
we
will
not.
There’s a world of difference between someone moving to a new country
for a change of job, and someone having to flee for their life,
who would, in other circumstances, prefer to stay in their homeland.
Let’s be those people who take our politicians to task each time they make such
reprehensible and inhumane comments
just to stir up fear and unrest for their own political purposes.
For we are called to speak truth to power.

As we think of the refugee crisis, however,
we’re reminded of the scale of it all, and hear of countless millions...
and it can all feel ... overwhelming:
‘What can one person do?’ 
‘How can one person ever make a difference?’
we sometimes find ourselves asking.
You may have heard this story, but it’s a good one, so bear with me:
Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing.
He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work.
Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed
and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see,
stretching in both directions.
Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching.
As the boy walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer,
the man could see that he was occasionally bending down
to pick up an object and throw it into the sea.
The boy came closer still and the man called out,
“Good morning!  May I ask what it is that you are doing?”
The young boy paused, looked up, and replied
“Throwing starfish into the ocean. 
The tide’s washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves. 
When the sun gets high, they’ll die, unless I throw them back into the water.”
The old man replied,
“But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. 
I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”
The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish
and threw it as far as he could into the ocean.
Then he turned, smiled and said,
“It made a difference to that one!”

As God’s people,
as followers of Jesus,
we are called to make a difference.
As the saying goes:
‘be the change you want to see’,
in Jesus’ name, amen.