Tuesday 30 September 2008

Sunday 28 September 2008 Revelation 12:7-12 John 1:47-end ST MICHAEL Bruce

In August 2005 I was given the words to our first song this morning. It summed up my hopes and aspirations for what it means to be a Christian here at St Michael’s. I am intrigued to notice that the phrase Open to All was there then, and possibly has been with me for all my Christian life. I think I am still so amazed that God could love even someone like me, that I am determined that his church should reach out to everyone, to be Open for All.

Tomorrow is the feast of St Michael and All Angels. Ray Simpson comments that “Michael is looked upon in scripture as the protector of the individual against evil forces and as the protector of the God-honouring nation against hostile forces. In the Apocrypha Michael is portrayed as ‘the great captain’ who also wards off the devil at people’s deathbeds and escorts them to heaven. Later Christians also regarded Michael as a healer. Many Christian churches on high places are dedicated to St Michael, which means ‘who is like God’: often these are associated with angelic appearances.”

In our first reading today, we read from Revelation of the warfare in the heavenlies. The pivotal role played by Michael is mentioned, but the focus is on the triumph of the Christ, Jesus, the Lamb; we hear of the sacrificial love of the people of God, and the word of their testimony.

In the second reading we revisit the story from John’s Gospel that Robert preached about on St Bartholomew’s day, where Jesus encounters Bartholomew, also known as Nathanael. Nathanael has been meditating on the story of Jacob’s vision of God, and of a stairway where angels ascended and descended from heaven. Robert’s key point was that Nathanael was someone who recognised Jesus when he came, and that we should be a church community which makes that possible for people today. St Michael’s needs to be renewed as we ask what sort of people God is calling us to be, and what sort of building will help us to live that out.

The writers of Lectionaries have had us return to the passage today, however, because it mentions angels.

Why angels? Because they are fundamental to our understanding of God and of how we fit into his world. The New Testament is full of language that refers to Powers, Principalities, Thrones, Dominions, and so on. It may seem archaic and outmoded to us, but it is of great importance. Walter Wink writes:

“ … our eyes and minds are themselves captive to a way of seeing and thinking that can only regard such entities as mere fantasies …. Thus a gulf has been fixed between us and the biblical writers. We use the same words but project them into a wholly different world of meanings. What they meant by power and what we mean are incommensurate. If our goal is to understand the New Testament’s conception of the Powers, we cannot do so simply by applying our own modern sociological categories of power. We must instead attend carefully to the unique vocabulary and conceptions of the first century and try to grasp what the people of that time might have meant by power, within the linguistic field of their own worldview and mythic systems. It is a virtue to disbelieve what does not exist. It is dangerous to disbelieve what exists outside our limited categories.”

If the ancients spilt a drink, or tripped over a step, they did not necessarily see that as a demon fiddling with them. They were as matter of fact as we are. But they were not trapped by a materialistic mindset that limited their appreciation of how the world really works. Organisations and groupings of people have a spirit, what some have called an angel. When the Head of Education for a midlands borough was asked “What makes a good school”, he replied that it was one with “a good spirit”. We cannot always define it, but we know what it means. Some of us have been here when we looked at the concept of the “Angel of the Church”. You will remember that the four factors that come to mind are the physical setting of the church, its history, the leadership, and the sense of call to be who God wants us to be.

For over 157 years St Michael’s has sought to answer that call to be open to all. People who know us speak of a warmth of welcome, and worship that is carefully crafted to meet the needs of many different sorts of people.

Why St Michael? The front cover of the September Magazine posed the question “What is St Michael’s for?” The various images speak of community and love, but also recall the imagery of conflict that is associated with the name of Michael. He carries a sword and a shield, and is ready to combat evil. The banner that Louise Graham painted for us in 1996 puts into pictorial form the truth that we are in a conflict. Exactly as in the first century, there exists cruelty and injustice in the world today. There are wars and disasters. The financial and economic systems are tottering. In our local context there are people who are sad and feel neglected, relationships in difficulty, pride and disillusion. When we pray “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”, we remind ourselves that we inhabit two worlds and seek to bring this earth into alignment with heaven. When we pray “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”, we do this because Jesus knew that we need to do so.

The church is at the forefront of this struggle. Jesus said he would build his church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. The body of men and women, boys and girls, who have a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus, and who together form God’s family here on earth are central to his plan. They, we, reveal his love and grace throughout the world. I believe in the church!

But that does not mean that every manifestation of church is obedient or will survive. There are areas such as Turkey and Northern Africa which were thriving Christian communities once, but today are hardly Christian at all. There are many chapels and church buildings in this country that have been demolished or converted to other use.

Why us? Why should we pour effort and resource into St Michael’s? Surely that can only be justified if we are convinced that it is God’s will. This is the question that we addressed together 18 months ago. We felt strongly that in a town of 30,000, where 1,500 are in church on an average Sunday, there is room for the existing eleven churches, and that St Michael’s is essential to this task. We have a unique “take” on what it means to be a loving, serving, worshipping Christian today. We are a varied family of folk, centred on Jesus Christ, each aspiring to be a disciple becoming more like Christ, each aspiring to be a minister serving more like Christ, each working to build the community of Christ and each ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us, so that more people can be helped to encounter God in Christ for themselves, and grow in him.

We find our reason for being in the statement Open for All. Can I encourage you to take that phrase and roll it around your mind? Open for All …

Kinds of people?
Age groups?
Levels of physical ability?
Interests?
Insights into who God is?
Kinds of music?
New possibilities?

As people and society change, we must constantly be aware and alert, so that we can continue to be as open in 2008, 2009, 2013, as we were in 1851, 1893, 1913. Our only safety lies in a constant, real time encounter with God, and an openness to keep growing in him.

Next Friday marks an important milestone in our pilgrimage, our journey together. Two firms of architects will come and each give a presentation of how this building can be secured so that it will continue to be Open for All in the future. There has been a long gap over the summer in terms of information, because there has been nothing to report. But now we are all invited to a public meeting that is Open for All. The meeting is ostensibly about the building, but it is actually about something much more important and fundamental than that.

What kind of people is God calling us to be? How will we live it out? It is hard for us to visualise the future. We cannot easily build on our past experience because so many possibilities have been blocked off from us. When couples are cancelling their weddings because they cannot afford a hotel reception, we have never been in the position to offer a church hall large enough. When we struggle to accommodate the growing Sunday Club, how can we conceive of future ministry to children and young people?

And how is it to be afforded? How open are we to the idea that God, the living God, will supply all our needs out of his riches in glory? That when we ask him for our daily bread, this is more than a meaningless phrase repeated, it is the actual experience of God’s people day by day. He will provide for us. Are we resolutely self sufficient, or are we open to all that God would like to do in us and for us, learning to trust him?

Today we are privileged to gather to praise God, together with angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven. When we do this we are not withdrawing from the real world, we are consciously inhabiting the real world, where God’s love and power are made concrete in the lives we live, and the decisions we make. May God bless you this St Michael’s tide.

Please bow your heads for a special prayer for our Renewal Project:

Dear Lord,
help us so to encounter you,
that we may daily grow in faith and love,
open to all that you have for us,
open for all that you would teach us,
open to all who seek for you,
and open to follow you wherever you lead us,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Discussion Starters
1. What is St Michael’s for?
2. How can we be more Open for All?
3. What actions or ministries can you imagine that God might be calling us to here in Camberley?

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