Sunday 24 May 2009, Easter 7, Acts 1:15-26, John 17:6-19, The Risen Ascended Christ Known Through His Church, Bruce.

The central panel in the east window at St Michael’s shows Jesus appearing to his remaining eleven disciples on that first Easter Sunday. It was to be through their testimony that the good news would spread.

Just before he returned to his Father in heaven, Jesus commanded his disciples to return to Jerusalem and wait for the outpouring of promised Holy Spirit. They are to abide in him, because they can do nothing without him.

Instead, they hold an election. Luke is recording this for us does not pass judgement, but more than one commentator has wondered if Matthias, of whom we never hear again, was not the true replacement for the traitor Judas. Much stress is laid upon the calling of Paul to be a true apostle. Matthias or Paul? Does it matter? It was of prime importance that each apostle should be a witness of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The church could only be led by those for whom this was a living experience.

Here then is a paradox. God has decreed that the world will know the good news of his love through the flawed, contradictory life of his church. We aspire to be the best, and yet the ways that we live often seem foolish and hesitant. Not every decision made by a church council is necessarily God’s will. We need to be humble, always open to the possibility that we are wrong.

Notice, however, that Jesus in our Gospel passage lays stress on the ways that we are protected and kept safe, and sanctified, made holy, by the truth of his word, and (elsewhere) by the action of his sanctifying, Holy Spirit.

So we have a purpose in being here. The particular way that we express this is that we exist to Encounter God and Grow in Him. This is deliberately ambiguous: I need to encounter God afresh, every day, and I never stop learning and growing. We encounter God as we gather for worship and praise, and also in our smaller groups. But we also exist to help others who have not yet had that first encounter, or who are tentative, exploring.

What was God thinking when he entrusted this task to us? Are we not doomed to fail?

Fear not. Jesus has promised to protect us and to sanctify us. And he promised to fill us with his Holy Spirit. You will remember that we started to think about this last week, and I asked you pray the prayer from the back of the Yellow Peril each day: “Lord Jesus, fill me with your Spirit.”

But is the church not failing, in decline?

This is not true, at least not everywhere. It is not true in south America and Africa and large parts of Asia. It is true, though, that in the affluent west the historic church has less creditability and influence. We have been wedded to a parish model suited to the needs of Christendom, that endured for perhaps a thousand years. We have not recovered, however, from the enlightenment and the industrial revolution. What worked in villages and small settled communities has been lost in large towns and the explosion of mass media.

That is why some of us have begun to explore the lessons we can learn from Christians who have faced the dislocation of civilisation and society in a previous age. There have been times before where the civil authorities have seemed weak and rudderless, where tides of pagan thought and morality have swept away the moral boundaries and compass. It is instructive to examine the lives of these hardy individuals- Patrick, Aidan, Hilda, and the communities they set up at Iona, Lindisfarne, Whitby, and elsewhere. There are stories of early Christians that are frankly legendary and imaginary, but these people actually walked the earth of our country. They worshipped God, preached Christ, loved people, and formed communities in Ireland, Scotland Wales and England.

It is not possible to recreate their lives exactly, not would we wish to. We can, however, learn some important principles from them. We can work out for ourselves what it means to live lives of simplicity, purity and obedience. We can explore principles of life-long learning, spiritual journey, and a rhythm of prayer, work and re-creation. We can work together to become the church God wants us to be, in Camberley, in 2009, and have the courage to face renewal and change in the years running up to 2013.

The challenge is to live lives in communion, koinonia, with Jesus who is risen, ascended, glorified, and now prays for us. The challenge is to love God totally, and our neighbours as ourselves. The challenge is to worship with all of our hearts on Sundays, also seven days a week. The challenge is to allow God’s kingdom to come behind each of our front doors, wherever we live throughout Camberley and beyond.



Questions for Discussion

1. What most encourages us about being part of God’s church?
2. And what gives us most difficulty?
3. Jesus prayed for us to be protected (John 17:15), and for us to be sanctified. How do you respond to this?