4th Sunday Before Lent, St Paul's Knightsbridge
“Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you.” (1 Peter 3.15)
Our illustrious former curate, The Revd Richard Coles was in touch with me last week, seeking spiritual guidance. He wanted to know what tune a good former Baptist like me would sing to “There is sunshine in my soul today!” Curiously, it’s not in The New English Hymnal. I sent him a YouTube rendition and no doubt it will appear soon on a radio near you.
It reminded me of all those choruses I used to sing as a boy in my Baptist Sunday School. I’m sure I’ve told you before that I must have been 5 or 6 before I realised that what I had been singing as “I will make you vicious old men” was in fact “I will make you fishers of men” - from Mark’s version of the calling of the disciples we read of in today’s Gospel.
Luke clearly links the miraculous haul of fish with the mission and ministry of the Church, the Ship from which Christ preaches the Gospel. You are sitting in the nave – from the Latin navis, ship.
Whether we like it or not, as far as the mission and ministry of the Church of Christ is concerned, we’re all sitting in the same boat.
We would often like to rewrite the calling of Isaiah that we heard this morning:
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send the vicar!’
So what is the Ministry and Mission to which we have all been called as faltering followers of Christ?
It is nothing less than to continue the ministry of our Lord. Jesus said to his disciples before he left them ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you…’
And what was the ministry of our Lord?
Well it was to preach the Gospel, heal the sick, release the captives, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned… all those good works, which we associate with our Lord and with his teaching and parables.
And we must never become so pre-occupied with raising money and building projects and mission action plans – that we forget that simple instruction, to do good in society, in our families, in our neighbourhoods.
Our formation programme this year at St Paul’s helps us to focus on some of these issues as they translate to our own particular time and place.
But there is another aspect of Christ’s ministry, which we could overlook.
Jesus spent three years building up his disciples, ministering to them, so that they could minister to others.
And we too are called to exercise our ministries in building up one another. We are to be responsible for one another and to use the gifts of the Spirit to help each other grow in grace.
Now in most churches that’s sometimes a taller order!
One of the reasons that Alpha and Emmaus and all those ways of introducing people to Christianity, have been such a success, not just with people on the fringes of the church, but with those of us in the church as well – is because it gives people an informal opportunity to sit down over a meal and to discuss their Christian faith. It’s a safe place to ask questions and to encourage and pray for one another.
Part of our ministry to each other must be to provide a safe space; a loving and accepting community that not only welcomes people, but helps them to grow in the understanding and practice of their faith.
We are not only the Ship of Christ, but the Body of Christ, of which our Patron Paul reminds us that: “each part, working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.”
And there is yet another aspect of Christ’s ministry and therefore of ours. Our Lord didn’t just tell people to love God and neighbour – he also upset the religious and political authorities.
He spoke out about hypocrisy and injustice and called for repentance and a change of heart. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the temple. He was afraid of no one.
And so this is our mission as well – to proclaim the Gospel – to make Christ known, and to speak up for Gospel values among our friends and in our communities; to speak up for the powerless and those on the edges of society, for the immigrants and for the minorities. This is all part of our mission.
I’m old enough to remember that the media has been writing the church off as a spent force for the last 50 years. We were supposed to be gone by 2,000. And the latest pundits are saying we’ll be all but gone in England by 2022.
What nonsense! We know it’s not all about numbers,
But these are interesting times to be followers of our Lord. Worldwide the church is growing at the rate of about 100,000 per day – 3 million every month.
Sadly, in Europe and North America the growth is much more limited, but it is still growth.
The Church of England in London has been growing steadily for 15 years and we are well on course to planting 100 new missional communities by 2020 and doubling our number of ordinands. Of course, you don’t generally hear much about that in the media.
We started with my text from the epistle of Peter “Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you.”
Evangelism - the Evangel is the Gospel – taking the Gospel to people – is for all of us, not just evangelicals.
That doesn’t mean we have to climb on soap boxes in Leicester square, or hand out tracts to shoppers outside Harrods, or make ourselves embarrassing by asking friends if they know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour.
I rather like story of Lady Helena Levy going door to door in our daughter church, St Mary’s Bourne Street, during a Parish Mission. She asked the lady who came to the door carrying a cocktail, if she would like to come to one of the services at St Mary’s and hear the guest preacher.
“I’m afraid I’m an atheist,” she replied.
Lady Helena looked genuinely concerned and said: “O my dear, I am so terribly sorry.”
Tell people you will pray for them when they share their worries – and do pray for them.
Don’t be afraid to mention church or your faith, and indeed your doubts about your faith.
It is our certainties that divide us – our doubts unite us - and lead us into deeper faith.
So in whatever way is natural to you:
“Always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you.” (1 Peter 3.15)
