Sermon for Prisons Sunday

Revd Wendy Carey

20th November Matthew 25 35-40

About twelve years ago, I was leading a Bible Study at Bullingdon Prison in Bicester.  It was a special day, because as well as the dozen or so prisoners who could usually be expected to attend, there were four new clergy in their first year of training, who had come to see what Prison ministry was like.  The morning went well; one of the prisoners had prepared to share the leadership of the study.  Everyone joined in, and it was about as good and worthwhile a Bible Study as you might wish to attend.  The curates were impressed, and as I escorted them back through the locked inner gates to the Prison gatehouse, one said 'But you've chosen the most respectable ones, the nicest ones, to come and meet us.'. Little did he know, but most of them were serving long sentences, two of them, including the pleasant, quietly spoken one who had prepared and co-led the session were Lifers, and one was serving a nine year sentence for very serious crimes that would have shocked them deeply.

The theme of this year's Prisons Week is 'can you see me, or are you just looking'?  We are challenged by Jesus' parable to look at ourselves and at others through fresh eyes, and without preconceptions.  The curates who met the prisoners at Bible Study met them without being given their labels, 'car thief'  'burglar' or 'murderer'.  Too often when we are just looking, rather than when we are really seeing, we only see what we think we ought to see, and it becomes harder to discern the person behind the label.

Think about the labels we each carry through life, and how they make us feel. In my life I’ve been wife, stay at home Mum, teacher, woman priest, pensioner, bus pass holder, and many more.  Some of them make me feel angry, because they turn me into a stereotype, none of them fully represents the person I am.  What are the stereotypes used to describe who you are, and how do they make you feel?

Jesus’ parable about the Last judgment, when people are finally divided like sheep and the goats, is thought provoking, and asks the question whether we are just looking or really seeing the truth.  An intriguing point about that parable is how unaware the people being judged were about where they fitted in.  The sheep did not know they were sheep, the goats didn’t know they were goats.  Both asked ‘when did we do these things, or when did we fail to do them?’  We only know truly where we fit in, when we are seen through God’s eyes, God who truly sees us, and is not just glancing idly in our direction.

The God who sees us, sitting here in the Church of Christ the Cornerstone, is the same God who sees the congregation of prisoners sitting in the Chapel of Hope in Woodhill Prison at this moment.  I bring their greetings, and the greetings of Chaplain Alan and the Chaplaincy Team, on whose behalf I’m speaking to you on this Prisons Sunday. 

When I was ordained Deacon in 1993, my license was a joint one, to be Honorary Curate at this Church, and Assistant Chaplain to Woodhill Prison.  For four and a half years I had the perspective of bringing together two places in the city, one, high profile and ‘respectable’, the other low key, and probably little thought about, unless you happen to be related to someone who works or resides there.  When you come into this city, you can see the cross on the dome of this church from a long distance away.  We are set on a hill, and visible, Woodhill is set away behind earth banks, few signs direct you to it.   Perhaps the people who are there today, either as prisoners or staff are ‘out of sight, out of mind.’  Today, on Prisons Sunday, we take a closer look, and try to see reality.

To help you look more closely at our prisons nationally, a few facts.

• When I began work at Woodhill as it opened in July 1992, the prison population in England and Wales was 43,000.  Today it is over 88,000.  That is, it has more than doubled in nineteen years
• A very large proportion of offences causing that imprisonment are in some way alcohol or drug-related
• It costs about £38,000 to keep someone in prison, that is, more than it costs to send someone to a top public school
• A disproportionate number of prisoners have been in care as children or young people
• About a third of male prisoners, and over half of female prisoners have mental health problems
• The majority of women prisoners have school aged or younger children
• Prison Officers, please never call them Wardens, do a most complex and demanding job, keeping our prisons under control and safe, a job that is very little recognised or celebrated.

And two facts to make you think, I hope – first, that more than 50 per cent of prisoners will re-offend within two years

And second, proportionately more prisoners will have been victims of crime, than an average section of the community – some of them being victims at a very early age.

If we are just looking, and not really seeing, we may easily make the decision that we can judge who in life is successful, admirable, blessed.  But Jesus’ parable of judgment tells us to stop and think again.  We do not know what it is that we may have done, to honour the Christ in those about us – Lord when did we see you and come to your aid.  Nor do we know when we might miss seeing the Christ among us – Lord, when did we see you and fail to come to your aid?

I spoke about the two buildings, The Church of Christ the Cornerstone, and Woodhill Prison as two very different places, this building, set high in the centre of the city, the prison on the edge, concealed.  But I’d like us to begin this Prisons week by thinking for a few moments of the things we have in common.

First, we are communities of hope.  Both buildings, and the people who come to them, have the expressed intention that what happens within this place will further the ends of justice and peace.  The Chapel of Woodhill prison is called the Chapel of Hope, and I have seen hope expressed there against all odds, and in really tough and challenging times.   As you think about our prisons as places of hope, I’d ask you to pray for Prison staff.  Most Prison Officers, Governors and administrators begin their prison service with high ideals.  They have to struggle to keep them, through disappointments, difficulties, and sometimes betrayals.  Please pray for them, especially in the week ahead.

Next, we are communities of faith, in the context of a society where faith is not always openly on view.  At Cornerstone we struggle to make sense of a context of the shopping and business centres.  Open expressions of faith may be rare, but there can be a recognition of the alternative values that faith can offer.  Similarly, there is little open recognition of the place of faith in the busy and routine of a prison, yet the prison chaplaincy can offer a quiet place of renewal and refreshment to both prisoners and staff.  Please pray for our prison Chaplaincy Teams, offering hope and new and positive directions through faith.  Pray for the team at Woodhill

We are communities of reconciliation.  Neither Cornerstone nor Woodhill can serve its purpose unless we bring change and reconciliation into people’s lives.  One of the saddest things about the waste of lives and waste of money represented by imprisonment, is the re-offending rate.  Only by helping people to take a realistic look at their own lives, at the harm we may have done, and the way back to wholeness of life, can we bring healing.  Such realistic recognition of the offer of new life is not just the work of the prison, it is the work of the church as well.  As we confess our sins week by week we recognise that we too need to realign our lives to the life offered in Jesus Christ.

And so, finally, we are both, Cornerstone and Woodhill, communities of forgiveness.  Many of our prisoners have committed crimes that make it all too easy to consider them as beyond our understanding, or beyond God’s forgiveness.  Yet it is for forgiveness, after true recognition of the harm done by sin, that we both exist.  And when the end time comes, God will be our judge about whether we reached out to the Christ in our neighbour.

I would like to leave the last words to a prisoner.  Paul, imprisoned at Woodhill in the 1990’s wrote this:

                       

A prayer for Forgiveness

I ask for forgiveness

and yet

I don’t feel forgiven. 

It seems that by sinning

alone I am driven. 

I believe in God

and his son

Jesus’ death 

And for my sins

he sacrificed

his last breath.

So why do I feel

so unworthy and unloved? 

Maybe because all

my selfish actions

I know God has seen. 

I want

I need

To be cleansed from within.

And to feel reassured

that God has wiped away my sin. 

I don’t care

whether I’m rich

or poor.

 I just want

the Lord

 to come through my door. 

Doesn’t he know it is open?

Amazing Grace: The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

Matthew 19.27-20.16

Amazing Grace: The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

Geoff Colmer

Sermon preached at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone Covenant Renewal service, 18 September 2011

Amazing Grace is a very popular hymn, the favourite in the USA. Because of its popularity, familiarity, maybe our understanding of grace has lost something of its cutting edge. If that’s the case there’s nothing like the parable of the labourers in the vineyard to give us a jolt. In a vivid and even abrasive story, the radical and offensive nature of grace is depicted, inevitably leaving the hearer saying, ‘But that’s just not fair’ and maybe having some sympathy for those who’d worked all day.

The setting would have been a familiar one. It was about a vineyard and there were lots of vineyards in Israel. Israel herself was referred to as a vineyard in the Old Testament, Isaiah 5.7, ‘The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel’.

And it was the harvest season. Because storms could ruin a crop there was a race against time. Many labourers were employed on a casual basis. They were like the migrant workers we have in our own country, without regular jobs and dependent on others for any sort of employment. The wage was typical if not generous for a twelve hour day’s unskilled labour. But those looking for work were often desperate and so they would wait even until 5 o’clock on the off-chance that there might be some work for even an hour or so.

When the vineyard owner arrives, he chooses some of those assembled for work. Just for the sake of illustration, let’s say that thirty labourers are there, and he chooses six and agrees to pay them the going wage. As an aside, there is an injustice of sorts done here, because out of thirty only six are hired. Yet there is no word of protest from those who are chosen at this point. They are more than pleased to have a whole day’s work ahead of them and the promise of payment.

The vineyard owner returns at nine o’clock and finds labourers still standing there so he tells six more of them to go to his vineyard and promises to pay them whatever is right. At twelve noon he does the same and also at three o’clock in the afternoon. At five o’clock with just one hour left there are still six labourers standing there, hoping against hope to get some work so that they can put something on the table. The vineyard owner asks, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They reply, ‘Because no-one has hired us.’ ‘You also go into the vineyard.’

I want you to notice that at this point everyone is partially satisfied. Everyone had received at least a portion of what he had wanted at the start of the day. No one was going away empty-handed.

Then at the end of the day, the owner says to his manager, ‘Call the labourers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those who have worked just one hour are paid they discover to their astonishment that they are given the wage for a full day. When those who came at three, at noon, at nine, and at six are paid, they are given the same amount. And it’s at this point that there’s trouble. ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’

The vineyard owner doesn’t hide behind his manager and let someone else clear up the trouble. Instead, he says, ‘Friend’, and that’s an interesting word when used by Jesus like this. ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

So let’s have a rain-check - how do we feel? I’m tempted to ask who thinks the owner was fair, and who thinks he wasn’t fair. It’s a natural reaction. Surely if the world operated like this people would sleep in, arrive late, and get paid for the whole day. The whole ‘equal pay for equal work’ principle would come unstuck. But it’s to miss the point, and to miss the question, which is, ‘What is the kingdom of heaven like? What is God like?’ Does he give us what we we’re due, what we deserve, what we earn? Or does he treat us in a manner which is of a completely different order? Such as gift, or as we call it, grace?

Jewish Parable

At the beginning of Jesus's parable we are told that this is what the king of heaven is like. And we know from the whole of Jesus's teaching that the king of heaven is in fact a very peculiar kingdom to our way of thinking. It is an upside-down kingdom. It sets the established order on it head. It constantly challenges our assumptions. And what God’s kingdom is like is a mirror of what God is like.

And the word that describes it is grace. But the fact is that our world doesn’t operate on grace. Instead, we are so used to things coming to us on the basis of merit, because we have worked hard and long and in tough conditions, and because we deserve them. And to show how deeply this is ingrained, if you don’t believe me just ask yourself how easily you receive something without having to pay for it, a gift, a favour, a compliment.

But God doesn’t operate like this. In his kingdom he gives us not what we deserve. This is called mercy. And on the contrary God gives us what we don’t deserve, forgiveness, acceptance, a relationship with him. This is called grace. And he gives us his grace in abundance. Ephesians 2.1-10. CS Lewis, ‘extravagant generosity’.

This means that we’re all on the same level. All are equally undeserving. There are no rankings. There is no first and last. No one can claim privileged status or special membership of the kingdom of heaven. In relation to God it does us no good to say, ‘My parents were Christians’, ‘I lead a good life’, ‘I’ve always gone to church’, ‘I’ve been a Church Officer for more years than I can remember’, ‘I’m a Baptist Minister’, ‘I’m a Regional Minister’.

Our personal connections don’t do it. And our worthy achievements, all that we do for God, doesn’t do it. God isn’t overly impressed, it doesn’t win his approval. The king of heaven, knowing God, begins with him, and his generosity to everyone.

God’s grace isn’t the sort of thing you bargain with, or try to store up. It isn’t the sort of thing that one person has a lot of and someone else only a small amount. And actually the point of the story is that what people get from serving God and his kingdom, isn’t a ‘wage’ at all. It’s not a reward for work done. God doesn’t enter into contracts with us, as if we could negotiate a better deal. God makes covenants, in which he promises us everything and asks of us everything in return. When he keeps his promises - which is what he does - he isn’t so much rewarding us, as doing what comes naturally from his extravagantly generous nature. And this is what you celebrate today on your Covenant Sunday. You make covenant with each other but only because God out of grace has made covenant with you.

This story wouldn’t have gone down a bundle with the Pharisees who were contemptuous of the common people. It wouldn’t have gone down brilliantly with the Jews in general. They’d spent two millennia punctiliously trying to keep the law and the thought of despised Gentiles welcomed on equal terms to them – not on your life.

But then maybe this parable wasn’t so much for them, as for the disciples themselves, and disciples in subsequent generations, you and me.

If you go back to the end of the previous chapter Jesus says to the disciples, Matthew 19.30. It may have seemed that ‘the first’ were the rich and powerful, whereas ‘the last’ meant the disciples themselves. However, that saying was part of the answer to Peter after his self-centred question in v. 27. It’s possible that Jesus is intending this saying about first and last, to be a warning to the disciples themselves. ‘Don’t think that because you’ve been close to me so far, you are now the favoured few for all time.’

In this parable Jesus warns them, and us, that they may have set out with him from the beginning, but others may come in much later and end up getting paid just the same, the regular daily wage.

In both Jesus's parable and the other one, some individuals had nothing, were undeserving, knew themselves to be powerless, and then grace erupted in their lives. As long as they focused on what had been given to them, they were filled with joy. However, as soon as they made comparisons with someone else, their joy was turned to bitterness. They didn’t have a problem with grace, they had a problem with grace shown to others.

It’s been said, ‘If you want to be miserable, compare what you have to someone else.’ Invariably there will be someone who has done better than you for some reason or the other.

For some people, the very notion of grace is a scandal, an offence. But for other people, the fact that grace is shown to others makes it ten times worse.

We can all too easily assume that we are the special ones, God’s inner circle. The fact is that God is out there in the marketplace, looking for the people nobody wants, and who everybody else tries not to hire, welcoming them on the very same terms and surprising them with his extravagant generosity. Who are they? – the very people who maybe you would rather not see in Christ the Cornerstone. And sometimes it’s hard to stomach. ‘Look we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have.’ Matthew 19.27.

This parable is a challenge to us because although we speak and sing frequently of grace, we lose sight of just how radical, how scandalous it is. Instead we domesticate it, we make it manageable, and yet there is a wildness about God’s grace to us his people, and God’s grace to those not yet his people. ‘Radical grace has most often been too radical for most Christians. We most often put conditions on God’s grace: God accepts you if … And whenever an “if” clause is added, grace becomes conditional and ceases to be grace.’

On this Covenant Sunday, let’s celebrate the grace of God for ourselves, and especially as we covenant together in our vision of unity. But let’s make sure that the vision of unity doesn’t become such a preoccupation that we fail to give ourselves to the wider vision and to have eyes to see where God’s grace is breaking out in unlikely places, among unlikely people.  

Meanwhile Down on the Farm

Luke 7. 36 -50 

Meanwhile Down on the Farm

A sermon by David Moore

The story of Jesus at the house of Simon the Pharisee is a fantastic piece of storytelling. 

Jesus is out to dinner.   A gatecrasher turns up at the party who is making an exhibition of herself.   She has latched herself on to Jesus.

The host, Simon the Pharisee, a man committed to a rule-based tradition, appears to be playing by his own rules - not following the normal rules of hospitality - no water to wash the visitor’s hands and feet!  And added to this Simon appears tolerant towards a woman with a questionable reputation who is ‘molesting’ his principal guest.

Jesus challenges his host with a story, the simplicity of which exposes a critical truth.   It is a story about what matters most of all in life.  The moral of the story according to the Gospel is:  the one who loves the most is the one who is forgiven the most!

So, at the Dale Farm Travellers’ Site in Essex today who is in line for forgiveness?  Is it the saints or is it the sinners?  

Basildon Council says the law is the law and our hands are tied.  The law is the law says the local MP.  One rule for us and for them, say local land and property owners.

In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus is suggesting there is something higher than the law - mercy, forgiveness, love.  

Presumably the Councillors, the Bailiffs, and local residents will be satisfied with the symbolic shedding of blood that has appeared (caravans leaving) and they will sleep in their beds in peace knowing that right is right and the law, in the end, will prevail.

The question I have for myself is ‘where is God in all this?‘  

My judgment is that God is locked up tight in the overwhelming silence of the Faithful, and that it has been left to a few scruffy and one or two posh protesting ‘angels’ to remind us that God is love and love is the ultimate obedience of law.

The TV News, with mass delivery of fences, the diggers, the hard hats, the apparent meticulous planning, eerily reminds me of the hard time the Gypsies had under the rule of the Third Reich.  (Most German Christians did not see what was coming as they welcomed Hitler).

Luke, in his record of Jesus being led away for crucifixion, has him speaking these words:  If such things as these are done when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry.’

Over the next hundred years, whatever happens with global warming, the dominance of Europe in the world economy is bound to shrink - life will become less juicy for most of   us.  We do need to be clear what matters most of all.

This story from Luke alongside the events at Dale Farm not only put my ecumenical vision into an uncomfortable perspective but also re-awaken Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s question ‘who is Christ for us today?’ or who is Christ for the Travelling Community in Britain?

Los 33

Sermon preached at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone

Revd Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga

 30 October 2010

This morning I would like to reflect on an event that had captured the imagination of the whole world few weeks ago. I am referring to the story of ‘Los 33’ Chilean miners trapped inside the mine of San Jose.

Thanks to the great media coverage, we were all able to see the dramatic pictures of the rescue. We were touched, moved, inspired.... We even wept, as one miner after another was freed and welcomed by their relatives. After weeks of anxious uncertainty, finally they were back to their families – safe.

As I watched the remarkable events on television, I began to notice something interesting: I realised there were two different narratives taking place at the same time. One was about technology and engineering; the other was about faith and mystery.

On the one hand, we had the impressive rescue operation. An incredible display of engineering and technology. An effort that excelled by its rigorous and meticulous attention to detail. It was a masterpiece of efficiency. A great achievement for a small nation like Chile.

On the other hand, we have the people and their world view. As they shared their stories and articulated their experience, we discovered a fascinating world view: a beautiful way to explain life through allegories and metaphoric language, where the supernatural elements blended into reality without any conflict.

These two separate narratives were not at odds, but quite the contrary. It is amazing that all the advances of the modern world have not taken away this beautiful way to explain, interpreted and understands reality.

In their world view HOPE, FAITH, GOD, MIRACLE, MYSTERY sit together comfortably with high power drills, advanced technology and complex engineering. As they see it, the real and the fantastic can live together, as the material and the spiritual, the visible and the invisible, the natural and the supernatural, secular and sacred – Heaven and earth – God and technology.

The American news network CNN broadcast this story:

One of the miners wrote a letter to his brother telling him what happened before the accident. In the letter, he explained that on the day of the accident he was driving a vehicle trough the tunnels when suddenly something compelled him to stop suddendly. It was a display of white butterflies flying around. In all his years working in the mines he never have seen anything like that. He was stunned by the beauty and unusual nature of this incident. He had to stop. Seconds later the sealing of the mine collapsed in front of him, blocking the way out. If he had not stopped to admire the white butterflies, he would be buried. The white butterflies saved him. When the story become known in Camp Hope, people interpreted this incident as a miracle. They started to refer to the white butterflies as the ‘angelitos blancos’ – little white angels.

This story encapsulates the essence of this world view, where miracles and unexplained things can happen any time. Sadly, in the West we have lost this way of seeing things. That is why sometimes we feel at odds when we read the Bible, because the Bible is full of this kind of stuff. Our culture in the West has numbed our ability to see the world in a more holistic way.

One of the psychologists from NASA who had been advising the Chilean government explained that, in his opinion, the reason why the miners survived such as tough and hostile conditions was their faith. These people survived because they had a faith that gave them hope and strength in unbearable circumstances. Faith kept them alive.

This story of 33 men trapped in the dark womb of the earth maybe is a metaphor for all of us. Something we can learn from this story is that a holistic world view is the key to our survival. Maybe that is the reason why this story has resonated and captured the imagination of the whole world.

Technology rescued the miners, faith save them.

Cornerstone Stewardship Launch October 3rd

Sermon at the launch of the Cornerstone Stewardship campaign

The Reverend John Bradley  October 3rd 2010

• Exodus 35.30 – 36.7 When the people gave too much!
• Matthew 6.19-34 The best investment

We have heard a lot this year about cut-backs in government spending and later this month the details will be announced of which programmes will be cut. Here at Cornerstone there is a gap in our budget for the coming year between the predicted giving and the budgeted expenses. This has led your Ecumenical Council to plan this Stewardship Campaign which we are launching today, but it is about far more than giving money.

The reason we are here is to follow Jesus, not just to keep the Church going. Following Jesus is about being a fully human being, not just being a Church member, and his teaching is about bringing in the Kingdom of God, not just growing the Church. So we do our Christian following far more outside this building than inside it.

Cornerstone is a city centre church in a mobile city; a few of you have been here since the beginning but most of us are here for a few years or even months and then will move on. However long or short, it’s important to belong somewhere because it is together that we are the Body of Christ. A human body only works because its different organs each take their different part. Its differences are part of its strength but only if the different parts work together. If you have ever broken an arm or a leg, you will remember how weak it felt when the plaster came off and you started to use it again. The muscles were weak because they hadn’t been stretched. It’s the same with the Body of Christ which this church is. Our strength is in our differences but what holds us together is that Christ is our Head. This body is going to be stretched through this Stewardship Campaign but the stretching will make us stronger.

Stewardship is about more than giving money and balancing budgets; it is about how we give ourselves to God so that His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. So before we come to the gifts that we give, we need to look at the people we are. We not only give gifts; each one of us is a gifted person. There is no such thing as an un-gifted Christian. Every Christian has at least one spiritual gift (Eph 4.7); how do you use yours? None of us has all the gifts needed to be a church but together we do. If you don’t use yours, the ministry of the whole Church is weakened, like an unexercised muscle. It means not just giving your money but also your time – which is harder for some to give.

When Paul wrote his letters to the Corinthians, he was writing to a wealthy church. When they took up their offertory, they didn’t sing ‘Hear the pennies dropping’; they sang ‘I hear the sound of rustling…’! But the example which Paul held up to them was the church in Galatia which was materially poor but spiritually rich. He writes of them ‘They gave themselves to the Lord first, and to us.’ (2 Corinthians 8.5) They had the right priorities in Christian giving. We give in response to what God has already given us. Titus 3:4-6 ‘when the kindness and generosity of God our Saviour dawned upon the world, then, not for any good deeds of our own, but because he was merciful, he saved us through the water of rebirth and the renewing power of the Holy Spirit, which he lavished upon us through Jesus Christ our Saviour.’ There is an extravagance in God’s giving to us and our giving is in response to that. So do it cheerfully or not at all! Don’t be reluctant payers! ‘Each person should give as he has decided for himself; there should be no reluctance, no sense of compulsion; God loves a cheerful giver.’ (2 Cor 9:7)

One day while I was going to catch a train my mobile phone rang and a young man had made a cold call trying to sell me an investment. I let him finish his patter but when he asked me if I was satisfied with my present investments, he clearly expected me to answer no. But I told him I was extremely satisfied with my investment: it’s thief-proof, moth-proof and rust-proof. Once you’ve invested, you can’t touch the capital but the interest rate is simply out of this world! I told him it’s called the Kingdom of Heaven and people have been investing in it for 2000 years. I hope he looked it up on Google afterwards! Paul told the Corinthians ‘Remember: sow sparingly, and you will reap sparingly; sow bountifully, and you will reap bountifully.’ (2 Cor 9:6) We can’t expect an abundant harvest if we sow casually; we need to plan for abundance. That means that instead of coming last, after you have spent your income on everything else, giving comes first. The Master speaks to our generation when he asks, “Where is the profitability in gaining the whole world at the cost of losing your own true self?” We pray that God’s kingdom will come, that God’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. If that means that the aim of your life is to leave the world better than you found it, a bit less like hell and more like heaven, you can do that by your giving. When you invest in the Kingdom of Heaven, there are people who will be fed and clothed and housed and healed and educated who otherwise would not be. You won’t know their names and will probably never meet them but their transformed lives are your true wealth.

There is a precious promise here which has been missed by the financial gurus and economic pundits: ‘you will always be rich enough to be generous.’ (2 Cor 9:11) The consumerist industry – what Jesus called Mammon – doesn’t want you to hear that because it wants you to keep spending on yourself, even if you can’t afford to. It wants you to be dissatisfied because that will make you a better consumer but following Jesus gives you the healthy alternative. I love the version of Psalm 23 which begins ‘The Lord’s my Shepherd; I have everything I need!’

We each need to decide whether our giving is going to be casual or deliberate. If we give casually, we will spend what we have on our own needs and then give from what is left. If we give deliberately, we will look at our total income and decide what proportion of it we are going to give. When giving comes first, the Lord who is our Shepherd makes sure that we have everything we need but when giving comes last, we never have enough. You will need to decide prayerfully what the right proportion is for you to give. In biblical times, the Jews gave 10% of their income and many Christians do that today but the biblical tithe also paid for some things which today we pay for through taxation. Some churches suggest that in Britain today, 5% is a reasonable amount to aim for. But whatever you give, give deliberately and cheerfully. Remember that while the Pharisees were pernickety about getting their tithes exactly right, Jesus noticed the poor widow who literally had only two pennies to rub together and she put them both in the offering chest. She was totally dependent on the charitable support of the Temple and could surely be excused from giving yet, as the Authorised Version puts it, she ‘cast in all the living that she had’ (Luke 21:4) and I expect she did it cheerfully!

This is a challenging time for the Church of Christ the Cornerstone. When this church began, our parent Churches gave generously to plant it here and have supported us financially until now. But the time has come for us to stand up and support ourselves so that those funds can be used to support new work elsewhere. We can rise to that challenge only by praying as if it all depends on God and giving as if it all depends on us. I believe that by God’s help the gap in our budget can be closed and that in giving generously, we shall all be blessed. Hudson Taylor, the pioneer missionary in inland China, once said that God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply. God is waiting to demonstrate that again here at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone.

Tim Cutting: 6 June 2010

Brief notes from the sermon delivered by Tim Cutting on Sunday 6 June 2010, at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone.

Tim has lived with his family in Milton Keynes since moving to work for Bridgebuilder Trust in 1993. He served as a schools worker with the Trust for over 13 years, then left to work with the national charity, Mission India, in promotion and fundraising. For the past 3 years he has worked out of a small office with the Church of Christ the Cornerstone. At the end of May this year Tim finished working for Mission India and is now prayerfully searching for God’s next ministry position for him. The lessons from the passage in Luke are things that God has challenged and spoken to Tim about….

Reading: Luke 5 v 1-11

Forgive me for mentioning a certain sporting event soon to place – especially as not everyone likes football! Yes, the World Cup tournament is about to ‘kick off’ in South Africa, and there will be 32 teams competing for the prize of football world champions. (Sadly there are one or two notable exceptions who failed to qualify, eg Peru - sorry Ernesto! - as well as Scotland, Wales and N Ireland… “Come on, England!”)

There will be ‘wall to wall’ coverage of the tournament and all the games, and every newspaper, radio and television report will draw out different aspects of each match.

Our reading provides us with a ‘match report’ of an incident early on in Jesus’ ministry, and Luke records the details of this seaside occurrence. Let me identify six main points that I observe within this report….

1. Jesus starts with what we do have available! v 2, 3

At the start the main focus is on ‘the crowd’ who are listening to Jesus. The fishermen are nearby ‘washing their nets’. But Jesus approaches them and asks to use one of their boats in order to preach from.

Jesus can always take and use what ‘resources’ (possessions, money, skills, gifts, abilities, etc) that we have available. He often starts with what we do have, and goes from there….

2. Jesus then makes a more demanding request! v 4

His request to Peter to “Put out into deep water and let down your nets” was significant. Peter, as the ‘professional’ fisherman knew it was naturally and humanly speaking a complete waste of time. They had fished all night and caught nothing. He knew there was no sensible reason to fish in the day, and in deep water too! However, here is one of the great Bible’s ‘but’s’…. “But, because you say so….” Only do what God wants if he says so. Faith is needed, so if Jesus says do it, we can trust Him for the more demanding challenges that will undoubtedly come.

3. Obeying Jesus leads to blessing – and complications! v 6

There is a great ‘blessing’ in responding to Jesus, but it can often bring complications too: their nets begin to break and the boats start to sink! I often like to receive God’s blessing, but not with any complications or problems that might come as a result of it! Be ready for God’s blessing – but also the complications that might follow. Jacob knew this when he ‘wrestled’ God for a blessing, then limped for the rest of his life!

4. It’s a team effort! v 7

Working for God cannot really be done alone; we need each other, for support, help and encouragement. Here Simon called his ‘partners’, and they came to his aide. We must be prepared to work alongside others and share the burden (and blessing!) together.

5. CV criteria: humility and awareness of sin! v 8

As I have recently finished work for Mission India, I have prepared my ‘CV’ for using in my search for a new job. Peter was an experienced fisherman, but in God’s kingdom and economy, it isn’t always ‘natural’ skills, gifts and experiences that will impress Him. Jesus wanted to see something different, and Peter revealed it:: “…he fell at Jesus’ knees and said,’ Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man’.” This was the response Jesus needed to hear, and the ‘CV’ that passed his interview test!

6. Courageous people given new opportunities! v 10

Jesus responds to Peter’s ‘CV’ statement with a word of encouragement, and a new commission: “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will be ‘fishers of people’!”

If we bravely and faithfully follow Jesus, he will give us new challenges and further opportunities to serve Him…. That’s what I want to experience as I follow Him in my life.

Environment Sunday Sermon

Sermon by the Reverend John Bradley, for Environment Sunday 2008

Note: 6th June 2010 is Environment Sunday. The following sermon from 2008 is as relevant as ever.

Isaiah 24.4-13 Matthew 11.16-30
Matthew 11.19 God’s wisdom is proved right by its results

I can remember a time when the word ‘environment’ was a technical term used only in geography, when few people had heard the word ‘ecology’ – let alone knew what it means – and to call somebody ‘green’ was not a compliment! It was when I learnt French that I realised that the root meaning of environment is what you see around you. The problem is that despite modern television news, many people only take notice of a small part of what surrounds them.

The crisis we are constantly reminded of today first came to my attention through a book called Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. She was a lonely voice in the early 60s warning that if we kept on spraying our crops with pesticides such as Aldrin and Dieldrin which not only killed the agricultural pests but also the birds which fed on them, the day would dawn when there would be no birdsong left and the trees would bud in a silent Spring. Hers was a prophetic voice which was dismissed by the agri-chemical industry but a movement began which challenged the major powers. Until then, most people believed that modern technology was always a good thing and anyone who thought otherwise was just being old-fashioned.

But the movement grew and its prophets were largely secular. One ecologist actually blamed the growing crisis on the spread of Christianity. As long as people believed that divine spirits lived in every tree and river, he said, they treated them with respect. But when Christian missionaries came and taught them that there were no such spirits, only one God in heaven, this new teaching gave them permission to cut down the trees and pollute the rivers without fear. The criticism was valid but the answer was not to stop spreading the Christian Gospel but to make sure it was the whole Gospel. That includes the affirmation of the Psalmist that the earth is the Lord’s and everything that it contains. That statement underlies the Hebrew economy of the land where, at its best, land was not bought and sold as a commodity but lent for a while to those who would take care of it. In Israel, the people did not own the land because it all belonged to God. There are still some places in the world today, considered primitive by most Westerners, where individuals do not own land any more than we own the air we breathe. It works when everyone recognises their share in the responsibility for caring for the earth together.

Today, the threat of major damage to the earth is far greater than the extinction of songbirds. If we needed more evidence of rapid climate change, it is there on the news every week. The latest I saw was an expedition in northern Canada which found ice which had been rock solid for thousands of years is now starting to crack. Christian Aid has reminded us that the effects of this rapid change fall mainly on the poor. Subsistence farmers depend more than most on the regularity of the seasons and have no cushion to protect them against drought, flood or unusual temperature. In the past, we would have had confidence that the scientists would fix it. Still there are some who expect that one day soon a technology will be announced which will put it all right. But the sober message is that the disturbance of the world’s climate is under way and cannot be stopped. The best we can do is stop making it worse. We can change only three things: change the way we live, change the way we help the victims and change our understanding of wisdom.

It has often been explained that the burning of fossil fuels releases gases into the atmosphere which change the way its temperature is kept in balance. I once met Dr Jim Lovelock, a brilliant scientist whose book The Gaia Hypothesis showed how the earth and its atmosphere behaves as if it were one huge living creature, regulating and balancing the composition of gases in the air in order to maintain life. His theory was also dismissed by some at the time but it has now been developed into the science of geophysiology. Our modern economy is changing the atmosphere on which life on earth depends. We have become so dependent on burning oil, coal and gas that it will cost us more to find alternatives. Some proposed solutions have themselves proved to cause other problems. In America, thousands of tons of wheat are being converted into bio-fuel as an alternative to oil. But the side-effects have been an increase in the virgin forest being slashed and burnt to clear land for growing grain and a world-wide rise in the cost of grain for human consumption leading to food riots in many countries.

Even if the world stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, climate change would continue to happen for at least the next century. Pharaoh needed the wisdom of Joseph to prepare for seven years of famine. We have other means of predicting disaster. It means that in order to prevent large scale starvation, we will need to double at least our giving for world development and famine relief for the rest of our lives. If we do nothing, or just carry on doing what we have done so far, all the benefits of relief and development so far will be swept away. That is a hard message but we must be prepared to hear it.

The third change is the hardest and will be the most unpopular; we need to change our idea of wisdom. In some ways it is a return to a former wisdom which has been eroded and abandoned. But it is also a new way of combining the best of the old and the new. Jesus said that when a teacher of the law has become a learner in the kingdom of Heaven, he is like a householder who can produce from his store things both new and old (Matthew 13:52). It won’t be easy because there is a huge industry out there which is dedicated to proving to you that what I am saying now is wrong. I like the version of Psalm 23 which begins ‘the Lord’s my shepherd; I have everything I need!’ but they don’t because they want to convince you that you need more things. Satisfied people don’t make good customers; their aim is to convince you that you need to buy things you never knew you needed. They don’t want children to grow up because the clamouring toddler, pestering its mother to buy sweets, is their icon of success. Combine that appetite for more things with the spending power of an adult and you have the ideal customer! Consumerism thinks the wisdom of God is foolishness. God’s wisdom shows that human beings need one day of rest a week and that a healthy society has a shared pattern of work and rest. But consumerism campaigned to end restrictions on Sunday trading and now Sunday is one of the busiest days at the ‘cathedral of mammon’ across the road! God knows we all need some things and will need to buy most of them. The wisdom is in keeping the buying of things in its proper place. Jesus taught us that if we make our priority the reign of God and the right relationships which come from that, all the rest will come to us.

There are still some people who question whether climate change is really happening, but they are becoming fewer. There are more people who see it happening but think there is nothing we can do about it. I believe we need the wisdom of God in this more than ever. God’s wisdom is proved right by its results but if we wait for the results of our present folly, it will be too late to save the earth. If we do nothing, in fifty years time our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will blame us for our selfish short-sightedness. When we lived in Devon, one day a letter came to the school where Marian taught addressed to ‘The Teacher Responsible for Saving the Planet’! It went around the staff room and ended up on her desk. So what about you today? You can’t do it all but you needn’t do nothing. Let us all renew our commitment to care for the environment, to reduce our own carbon footprint, to care for those who are already suffering most from climate change and to choose the wisdom of God rather than the foolish wisdom of this world.

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The glory of creation, throughout the universe,
So wonderful in essence, delightfully diverse.
Antarctica to Asia; the jungles of Brazil,
Established by the Father, with loving care and skill.

From mountain tops to valleys; in forests and in parks,
We watch the playful squirrels; we hear the joyful larks.
Wild orchids so unusual; bright parakeets so loud,
Rare butterflies so fragile; the tiger standing proud.

Deep mysteries, of oceans and unknown outer space,
Migration paths of swallows, the eagle’s nesting place.
The more we gain in knowledge, the less we understand
This world so rich and complex, created by God’s hand.

But crisis looms upon us; the planet’s under threat,
The global climate’s changing, the balance is upset.
The melting of the ice caps; diversity declines,
Extinction of key species; we’re overwhelmed with signs.

So Father please forgive us for spoiling Planet Earth,
Give us a chance to change it; to instigate new birth,
Let’s care for your creation, in details and in whole
Protect, preserve and cherish; may this be our new goal.

© Denzil Walton