Sermon, Sun 12 May - Christian Aid Sunday

Christian Aid Week begins today and our service picked up the CA focus on Sierra Leone, and of encouraging and supporting girls to gain equal access to education... and also, of supporting mums to be in gaining access to better care - especially when in labour.
We heard the stories - and dreams - of schoolgirls Kadiatu and Patricia. Thereafter, we heard Tennah's story about the loss of her first child, and the subsequent safe delivery of her second, due to having access to a properly trained nurse - Judith....

READINGS/ John 10.22-30; Acts 9.36-43; Revelation 7.9-17

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

‘We believe in life before death.’
It’s the great tag-line or motto of Christian Aid –
and it’s an excellent reminder that our faith is a living faith:
Christianity is not just about ‘pie in the sky when you die’;
it’s not like some great golden ticket you get
and tuck away out of sight in a safe place,
until the day you hand over to St Peter at the pearly gates;
it’s not just eternal life insurance for the future.
Christianity is about the now
as well as the not yet.

Jesus’ first recorded sermon, in Luke, chapter 4,
is to the people of his home town of Nazareth.
He first reads a passage from the prophet Isaiah about the coming of God’s kingdom –
which, incidentally, bears an uncanny resemblance to our reading from Revelation.
Having done so, he looks at the gathered company in the synagogue and says:
‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’
Basically, he’s explaining to them that, the kingdom is here
because he is here among them.
In the act of God becoming human and living among us,
so the beginning of the kingdom begins:
the kingdom is now...
and, it’s also not yet fulfilled:
it’s a process –
one that’s crossed the starting line
and hasn’t yet reached the finish line.

If you like, ever since Jesus walked the dusty roads of the Holy Land,
ever since God took upon God's self what it was to be fully human,
those who have followed in faith have been working within
two different time zones at the very same time:
There’s the heavenly time zone, and focusing upon what’s to come –
the fulfilment of all things when the kingdom is fully established...
And then, there’s the earthly, or human, time zone, looking at the now –
and seeing the good things, delighting in them...
but also seeing the hard things such as the many kinds of injustice at work in the world.
Seeing things like poverty, and the way it stops people from living life fully.
In seeing the now, we see how far we are from the vision of God’s kingdom.
We see how people’s lives are stunted;
we see how poverty prevents people from blossoming and flourishing,
prevents them from daring to dream,
prevents them from being able to reach their full potential –
and benefit not just themselves but the lives of others.
By seeing injustice, by seeing poverty and its effects in the present,
it’s the promise of what will be
that inspires us to find ways of working to see signs of the kingdom now
and not just at the end of all things.
The future glory, as seen in our passage from Revelation,
inspires us to find a little of that glory within our present reality.
How can we be builders of God’s kingdom
in our homes, in our communities, in our world?

So often in his encounters with people, Jesus spoke of life in all its abundance:
living life to its fullness rather than seeing life as just merely existing.
Having spoken of a life lived fully,
so he assured those who believed that, no matter what they endured,
God would be with them –
holding them through all the storms of life, not letting them go –
as Jesus says in John chapter 10:
nothing would be able to snatch them away from the Father’s hand.
With that assurance, so followers are given the strength
not just to sit back and wait for the not yet
but to move out from the places of comfort and explore
what life in all its fullness looks like:
life before death,
not just life in the kingdom to come.

It’s a balancing act.
For as much as we’re called to prayer and reflection,
so Jesus calls us to live out our faith in action on behalf of, and in service to, others.
Not just ‘sending thoughts and prayers’ but perhaps being the answer to prayer
through the work of our hands or the way we make use of
our money, our gifts, our time, and our skills.
As Teresa of Avila once said:
our hands are God’s hands in the world...
We are Christ’s body.

We see something of this in our passage from the Book of Acts:
let’s think of the people mentioned.
There’s Tabitha – also known as Dorcas.
She is well known in Joppa for doing good – she helps the poor.
Clearly, she is well-loved, for when she dies,
her friends and neighbours gather round, and mourn her passing with tears.
So, the practical outworking of Tabitha’s faith
to help others -
to love her neighbours –
has impacted positively upon their lives.

Also in the story, there’s the two fellow-believers:
they know that Peter is in the area,
and so, their faith draws them to act –
they go off to find him, and, bring him back, if possible.

We also have Simon – we see him living out his faith – his love for God –
through his act of offering hospitality.

Then there’s Peter.
When asked to come, he does so immediately.
He goes to Tabitha’s room, and prays –
and, extraordinarily, miraculously,
she, like Lazarus, is brought back from death.
Each person in the story enabling an astonishing ending to it – or rather, new beginning:
new life, to God’s praise and glory.

Loving God, following in the way of Jesus,
is a little like watching ripples in a pond.
We love God, and from that love, we act –
by loving one another...
love rippling from family,
to friends,
to neighbours,
to the world –
love reaching like hands across the world;
love in words,
and love in practical hands-on care and kindness.
Many of us can’t go to places like Sierra Leone – don’t have the skill sets required to be of help.
But others do – and we can help them with what we do have:
using our voices to raise awareness,
using our money to help fund projects.
So, we can help projects that enable young girls to get an education:
to have an equal chance at dreaming of the future,
of opening up their horizons,
of fulfilling their potential.
We can help projects that help women deliver their children safely –
that train midwives,
that bring in community workers to teach basic, life-saving hygiene;
that create essential basic buildings that are sanitary and safe
for mums-to-be and their babies.

Every year, organisations like Christian Aid
help with the wider vision of bringing in God’s kingdom in the present –
a vision born out of love and compassion,
a vision inspired by that great vision of the future –
when God’s kingdom has reached the goal, the finish line, and the kingdom has been brought in.
It's a vision we get a wee glimpse of when we read the Book of Revelation,
where we see a scene of what worship looks like:
endless praise of God arising from a full understanding of who God is and
what God has done, is doing...
a vision where we see those who have undergone suffering being lifted up by God,
being honoured, by God.
Those who, having undergone much, have not been snatched from God’s hands.
We see a vision in which there is:
no more suffering,
no more hunger...
of not being beaten down or burnt by ‘the elements’/ sun or heat,
but rather, of being led to springs of living water where there will be no more thirst.
And in the end, we also see that every tear will be wiped away.

The kingdom of heaven is the place where humanity finds life in abundance:
no longer broken,
no longer suffering,
but life in all its wholeness.
The vision we see in Revelation is the work that Jesus
set about to do as he brought in the kingdom –
and which he asks his followers to continue to do:
for we believe in the now and the not yet;
we believe in eternal life,
and, we believe in life before death. Amen.