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17th
January 2016 - Revd. Preb Maureen Hobbs |
Sermon for Epiphany 2
Isaiah
62. 1-5 John 2. 1-11
When is the right moment to reveal your true power and potential?
When you are first introduced to a new group of people, I wonder
what you do? Are you the sort of person who thinks, “Right
– better make a good impression! Let’ s leap in and
make a mark on this conversation..”Are you able to share
your views and opinions freely? Maybe thinking –“well
they’ ve two chances – like me or loathe me, and better
they accept me as I am!”Or perhaps are you the more cautious
type? When you are first in strange company do you wait to see
how the land lies?
Do you wait for others to voice their views and opinions to determine
if this is a group in which you will feel comfortable –where
there can be a meeting of minds? And now of course we have the
new realm of social media on which to decide how much of ourselves
to reveal? Are you someone who freely ‘ likes and shares’
lots of posts – maybe adding comments of your own? Confident
that even if you are leaving behind you an eternal digital footprint,
you don’ t mind who reads your opinions! Or are you –
like some friends said to me last week – Oh, we read all
the posts, but we never ‘ like’ anything! When is the
right moment to disclose something of ourselves? It is a question
that seems to have bothered even Jesus if we look carefully at
this morning’ s Gospel.
Not that I blame him.... Jesus is at a wedding for pity’
s sake! Enjoying a bit of fun and relaxation with his best friends
and family and probably with people who he has known for the
best part of his life.
Just like me on a Friday (my rest day) when the phone rings and
I immediately think “Oh go away – can’ t you leave
me alone!” So when his mother points out that this family
– friends or maybe even relatives - are about to be shamed
– thoroughly disgraced,- because their wine and therefore
the hospitality is running out, Jesus tells her he is not yet
ready to start work –not if it means revealing to all of
them who and what he is. Sensibly she doesn’ t try to argue
with him – just looks knowingly at him and then turns to
the servants –“Do whatever he tells you.”She knows
that her compassionate son will not be able to ignore the needs
of people close to him, even if it means showing his hand a bit
earlier than he would have liked. Even if it means some cost
to him – Jesus will not hold back. Will not refuse to reveal
his power and his potential. Not in the face of human need. Yesterday
the PCC and I spent a good part of the day engaged in planning
for the future of this church. Considering different ways in
which we can not only attract more people to come and join the
party in this place – as much as we want to achieve that....
But also how we can better take the benefitsof the party we all
enjoy here and share it with others outside, in the community.
Not just how we grow the church on Sundays, but how we take the
church outside these walls on all the other days of the week!
And very interesting and productive it was too. I came awaymuch
encouraged (I hope they did too!), and please be assured that
we will sharewith you all the direction of our thinking and dreaming
in the weeks and months ahead. Some things may have an immediate
impact – like how we can – by moving a table slightly,
ease the congestion that develops around our serving hatch when
we are all enjoying a cup ofcoffee. Other developments may take
a bit more time to sharewith you – not because we want to
keep secrets, but because we have more work to do on them before
we can share them more widely – and we want you to feel
as enthusiastic about them as we do.
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17th
January 2016 - Sermon for Epiphany 2 Sunday Evening |
Sermon for Epiphany 2
Sunday evening
1 Samuel
3. 1-20
Ephesians 4. 1-16
Please remember next week our service time changes as we welcome
friends from the Covenanting Churches of Wolverhampton West at
4pm – please come and support and welcome them. This is
one of those Sundays when I realise that I had a bit of a dry
run on at least one of our readings, as the Call of Samuel also
featured last Wednesday morning...
So I will begin by sharing with you what I said then which is
that I am struck by how often it is when other people articulate
a possible calling to us, that it begins to take on a ‘
reality’ we can no longer ignore. It seems to be that if
a third party says to us –“you know, you really should
consider doing this or that; I think you’ d be really good
at doing X or Y”– that is the point when we begin to
think, well, maybe I actually could ! It stops being a pipe-dream
that we may hold in secret and starts becoming an actual aspiration
towards which we can work.
Worth considering too that the person in our story who has to
help Samuel understand who it is that is calling him, is old,
failing in sight and in effectiveness and someone who has not
made an outstanding success of his own life. So sometimes thebiggest
good we can do is not only to listen for what God might be saying
to us personally about our own calling – but what God is
urging us to say to someone else! Words of encouragement and
positive urging... worth thinking about that as we begin to move
towards Easter and the inevitable Annual Parochial Church meeting
that will follow.... if you don’ t feel you could do more
either in Church or in your workplace, look around at others
and think what God might be calling them to do!
And I am not talking just about jobs in church – although
we need plenty of people to get involved and have a go at doing
them of course, but also what we undertake to do in our lives
from Monday to Saturday – for the sake of the Gospel –
the good news – the freedom and the gifts that God has given
us. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, reminds us that God’
s gifts are multi-faceted and many. And there are gifts that
maybe can be applied in more than one setting. So someone may
be a gifted teacher, working in a school and educating the next
generation – there can be few more important vocations.
But experience has taught us – especially in this church,
that for example, gifted teachers who are also people of faith
make excellent people to help lead our worship and lead our intercessions.
They may also have other gifts that can be applied in different
ways – and there are many who may not be teachers in schools
or colleges, but who can still do some of the same tasks well
and to the benefit of us all.
I think one of the conclusions we should draw from Paul’
s letter is that – just as we should not try to limit God’
s power by shutting him into our own little denominational boxes;
we should acknowledge that God is much greater than any of our
little human constraints that we put on ourselves, so too the
possibilities that God gives to us are much wider than we are
often prepared to admit. So the next time you catch yourself
thinking or saying “Oh, I couldn’ t possibly do this
or that, - I wouldn’ t know where to start!” just stop
and reconsider for a moment. Maybe God is pushing you in a direction
you had never thought of – and maybe this crazy idea that
someone has just suggested to you is one you should give more
serious thought?
No, we can’ t all do everything – and God does not
want us to try. But we can all do something. And as we start
to travel through January and find ourselves almost on the doorstep
ofLent, we could do worse than start to think not only of the
things we could give up... Things that get in the way of us fulfilling
our true potential in God’ s eyes. But also of the things
we might take up – things that would bring us closer to
God’ s image of us and dream for us.
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