Sermon Notes: Trinity 5, Mark 6:1-11
- I am definitely getting old.
- Although last weekend was only the tenth anniversary of my Priesting, I have now spent so long in ministry that I am starting to reap the rewards of that length of ministry:
- I now find myself marrying off former members of my Youth Group
- I find myself being asked to baptise their children
- In my personal life:
- I am now enjoying going to the Pub with the young man now taller than me, whose nappies (terry nappies, of course!) I used to change
- Last week I celebrated with my middle daughter her 18th Birthday party which is why I was growing that ludicrous moustache!
- And yes, it makes me feel old.
- Perhaps it seems a little strange to you, to be ministered to by a man who is, in many cases for you, the same age as your children (and I’m firmly in my mid-forties, slightly amused by constantly being referred to as a young clergyman)
- I remember inviting a friend to come and house sit for us at our last Vicarage whilst we went to the Greenbelt festival, and I was anxious that Katrina would be alright in the house. She was after all, someone who I had known from youth club: gangly, self-conscious, but with a deep and profound faith. It was Lou who reminded me that
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- a) she was now 24
- b) married (and I married them)
- c) bringing her baby to stay
- Maybe she would be alright after all!
- But I couldn’t let go! I couldn’t forget the teenager, and allow the adult to show.
- How often are the young, or the new to faith, or those who have experienced challenge in their lives disempowered by a simple phrase:
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- “I remember you when…”
- In God’s grace, people grow, learn, develop, shape
- God forgives (for if he didn’t, where would any of us be?)
- So should we.
- One of the most telling things a young person said to me was “the problem with being a young person is that no-one takes my faith seriously. They assume that I don’t have a relationship with God. They patronise me”.
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- That man is now a Baptist Minister in Southend.
- Forget the past (for God surely does)
- Look to the future.
- We should ask NOT “what was this church like in the past” and rest on the laurels of that, for the past in the Church was always so much better wasn’t it?
- Instead we should be asking
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- “what will this church look like?”
- “what can we do when the Holy Spirit works within us?”
- NOT “what did we used to do? (and seemingly don’t do anymore)”
- BUT “what will we do now, where and to whom does God call us to minister?”
- The disciples ventured out to minister empowered by the hope of the future, for there was no past, only a message of forgiveness, healing and grace and a call to respond seriously to that.
- They were not custodians or guardians of a heritage, but bearers of a gift.
- Just as you are.
- The twelve sent out today do not represent the Clergy, or the Churchwardens or even the choir; but all of us
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- Each and every one.
- We are all sent as missionaries, fed at this altar for the road, and later today or tomorrow you will encounter someone who needs God
- Will you shake the dust off your feet before them and ignore their cry?
- Or will you be a blessing to them?
- By your presence
- By your kindness
- By your prayer
- The gift which is within each and everyone gathered here today is the most powerful gift in the world
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- A gift to change our community
- A gift to change the world
- It does not matter whether some will want to hold you back, remind you of your past, your exuberant youth, your occasional (or in my case) frequent mistakes
- The Gospel message has no need of the past
- The Good News takes us into the future with hope.
Amen
