St Andrew's Zurich

Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 148; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:15-21

“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”

So that’s Christmas for another year.  I don’t know about you, but there’s something satisfying about tidying away the tree, the decorations, the candles, and getting things “back to normal”.  There seems space to breathe, to live, to move again, without Christmas getting in the way.  Although, those of you with real trees will probably be finding little reminders of the season in the pine needles which seem to hide away right up until Easter.  There now, back to normal.  The crib is swaddled again in copious amounts to newspaper to preserve it just so.  And the last portion of turkey and sprout curry has been served.  All is back to normal.

I wonder if all went back to normal for the shepherds after their eventful night!  Did it all just get packed away in their minds, as real life and troubles pushed the images into memory?  Did the song of the angels just become a long-remembered dream?  Something to talk about on those long, cold, dark nights …”Do you remember when?…”.  Did the time when they were taken out of the ordinary, when they saw heaven and earth touching and were inspired to go running into town, leaving the sheep on the hillside, to find this thing that has taken place just become a distant memory?  Was something left to remind them – like the pine needles in the carpet – or did everything just return to normal?  Or perhaps, everything became a new normal?  Did something change for them?

Because yes, we do have to return to “normal”, to pack away the tinsel, glitter and glitz.  Just as after the birth of a baby, once the crooning and doting family and friends have come and tickled, and huddled and adored the newborn, the parents are left to figure out what happens next.  What do we do with this thing that has come to us?  This gift that has been given?  And the responsibility!  Grandparents and friends can step aside, but the parents, are left literally “holding the baby”.  And this is sort of where we are now, after Christmas.  We are left holding the baby.  We search for routines and normal life, but something is different.  There’s something else to take notice of – it is a new normal.  And life should never be the same again.  For Mary and Joseph, life had changed.  And for the shepherds?  They had seen heaven on earth, had seen the promise fulfilled.  And they went back rejoicing and praising God.  They responded, let the message change their reality, even if only for a few days.

And with our Christmas?  Do we just unpack it, enjoy the festivities and then pack it away again until next year?  Or do we let it change us?  We have been given the gift, we have heard the angels’ message, heard of the promise fulfilled, and seen the baby lying there, vulnerable, defenceless, relying on us to pick it up, care for it, love it.  The gift from God entering our world, driving out darkness, showing us how to love and live as God’s children and heirs.  And so, after the warm glow of Christmas services, carols, mince pies and mulled wine, we now need to decide what we are going to do next.  Do we just pack it away and forget about it – once it’s in the loft, out of sight out of mind?  Or do we pick it up, take responsibility and accept this gift and all that means?

Because, to paraphrase an old advert, Jesus is for life, not just for Christmas.  In fact, Jesus is life.  The birth of Jesus brings change to the world – no longer is God keeping his distance, but from this moment on God is with us in a unique, intimate, deeply spiritual and real way.  God has come into the world, entrusted us with the Son and we have the choice to take up the Son and learn from him – just as parents learn so much from their children.  In Jesus we see humanity, ourselves.  Jesus shows us how to live as humans, shows us what is possible.  And Jesus shows us God, what God wants for us and from us.  Jesus shows how powerful the love of God is – so powerful it can transcend even death.  A love that trusts us, places itself in our hands, vulnerable, and which gently walks with us on a journey.  Our journey.  Guiding like the star – leading us back, even when we go astray.  Waiting for us to see the light again and turn back.  Jesus reveals who we are and who we can be, if we choose to follow his example and obey his commands: the commands to love God with our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbour as ourself.  To love with the love which reached out to the shepherds, the ones kept on the margins of society, and sent them to the manger as witnesses. The love which brings the excluded inside, makes them included.  That brings the outsider inside.  The love that makes itself vulnerable, a love willing to suffer for us, to die for us, to show us we are loved and how we are to love others. 

And so, as we pack away Christmas in its separate boxes, as we move on from this season, we need to remember that although the trappings have gone, the baby in the manger is still with us, still reaching out to us, still among us, in us, in each other.  We need to remember Jesus is for life: life led in all its fullness, for everyone.  We need to remember that Jesus still asks us from his vulnerability to love him as he loved us.  And we are asked to accompany him in the world, to take him and his message of peace and goodwill to all into the world, living as he showed us to live, as fully human.  Loving as he showed us to love: with all our being and to all beings.  And, like him, we need to include the excluded, to listen to the poor, and reach out to the outsiders, those who are shoved out of the way, like the shepherds on the hillside.  After all, they were so important to God that God’s angels sang God’s message to them first of all; and their response of joy and wonder, glorifying and praising God, taking the news and the message back into their world is one we are called to emulate. So let us go forward into the New Year like the shepherds, returning from our Christmas glorifying and praising God, but also like Mary, let us treasure what we have heard and ponder what it means for us in our lives today.  I end with the last verses of Betjeman’s poem “Christmas”:

And is it true?  And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue,
A Baby in an ox’s stall ?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me ?

And is it true ?  For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare –
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.

Amen.

https://allpoetry.com/poem/8493411-Christmas-by-Sir-John-Betjeman

“O that today you would listen to his voice!”

“Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Preparing for this sermon this week, I was reminded of the Pantomimes Mark and I took our children to: there are an awful lot of characters in these pantos who are not what they seem.  Take the Pantomime “Cinderella”.  Cinders meets an old lady in the woods, and out of the goodness of her heart, helps her find wood.  Later on, of course, we find out that the old lady is in fact Cinder’s Fairy Godmother, and that small good deed done by Cinderella ends up transforming her life and rescuing her from poverty and oppression.  It wasn’t a huge gesture, just helping someone so that their day went better.  Cinderella helped someone who was struggling, who was unable to help themselves.  And it changed the world.  “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

Over the past few Sundays we have had readings that tell us about the kingdom. Through parables, Jesus has described what God wants, how God wants the world to be.  What the Kingdom of God looks like.  And what does it look like?  What does God want?  What does the rule of God, of Christ the King, mean?  Well, to put it in the words of Rowan Williams: the essence of the law, of justice, of the kingdom, for God is “that no-one is forgotten” (1).  Christ’s kingdom, where God’s rule is paramount, is where the “very nature of God” is present in all things (2), where the qualities God in Jesus displays are how life is lived.  And we see these qualities throughout the Bible, and especially in our readings today. These are qualities of “justice, love, mercy and peace”, as Bishop Adrian Newman puts it.  Christ the King desires a kingdom where the hungry have food, the thirsty have water, where God’s “sheep” are not bullied but cared for in green pastures.  And Bishop Newman explains that the world in which God’s reign is known, where Christ is King, will be one where “justice, love, mercy and peace” should guide our behaviour (3).  And in such a kingdom, no-one would be forgotten.  All would be seen as valued, worthwhile, where “no-one is invisible” (4).

“Just as you did it for the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”  The first time Jesus announces his mission, his ministry he declares God’s intentions, God’s bias: Jesus picks up the scroll in the synagogue and reads ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ (Luke 4:17-21)  And his life fulfills these claims, culminating in that great act of service, the crucifixion and resurrection.  He is our God, the servant King, who calls us now to follow him.  His hands that threw stars into space also touched the unclean, healed and held those in need (a).  And so he calls us to follow him.  Because by doing these things, by feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, visiting those in prison, welcoming strangers we are not only welcoming Jesus, welcoming God, but we are also being Jesus in the world.  In his life and mission “all (were) “touched, welcomed, received and affirmed by Jesus” (5).  He reached out “to those who are forgotten, those who do not have leverage and power in their society and those who are not acceptable within the religious framework of the day” (6).  And this is our God, the servant king, the one who sits at the right hand on God, on the “throne of glory”, who calls us now to follow him, as the hymn goes (a).  The King we celebrate today as Christ the King, is the servant who came down, was born to parents who were just ordinary, who lived in a normal town, amongst ordinary people. Christ the King is the king who washed the feet of others, who touched untouchables, who loved the unlovable.  This is our God, the Servant King.  Who calls us now to follow him.  To follow his example and obey his command.  Because: thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, as we pray every Sunday.

Because if we pray thy kingdom come, thy will be done, what we mean is let us follow you, your example of service, love and humility, so that Christ the King’s rule of peace, love, justice and mercy will govern the earth.  As Rowan Williams says, what does God’s kingdom look like?  What does God’s reign look like?  “A community in which each is living for the good of all, in which every person is precious” (7).  A reign in which peace and prosperity are linked with justice and care for the poor under God, under Jesus, and where the powerful serve as Jesus served (8).

And this reign of God’s justice, love, peace and mercy begins with us.  But it doesn’t need to be daunting.  It isn’t daunting.  We are not asked to change the whole world by ourselves.  Rowan Williams tells us: “You don’t have to make every kind of difference, but you do have to make the difference that only you can make” (9). Like in our pantomime at the beginning, Cinderella couldn’t relive the old lady’s poverty, but she could do something to help her, and by doing so changed the world by bringing kindness and compassion where there was need: by simply picking up sticks for someone unable to do so themselves.  The actions mentioned in the Gospel are small things we do almost naturally – clothing the poor, giving someone food or a drink, talking to someone who is lonely.  These are not impossible acts. We are doing them already. We are not asked to change the world, just to see where God is already changing it and do our bit, however small or big, to join in.

And this is what all of us can do, regardless of age, strength, situation.  And for this we can give true thanks to God for all of us. Because even the smallest and the youngest can do acts which bring in the kingdom, in their own way – you just have to see a child’s smiles or the sharing of toys.  Everyone can contribute to spreading the kingdom, of allowing God’s will be done, God’s kingdom to come.  And this is something we can be thankful for – that we don’t need to have supernatural powers to be part of God’s kingdom, we just need to be us, ourselves, ready to do our small part in that kingdom to respond to the needs of the least of God’s family, God’s children.  And we can be thankful for the example of Jesus which shows us how to care, how to love others as he loves us. We can be thankful for his just and gentle rule which leaves no-one out. We can be thankful for each other as we reach out, one to the other, in welcome, love and compassion, and from each other out into the world.  And we can be thankful that through God’s gift of grace, through being created in God’s image, we share in this work, begun in Jesus, and now continued through us, and on into the future in the lives of others.  If only we will listen to the voice of Christ our Servant King and follow him.  Amen.

(1)Rowan Williams No One Can Be Forgotten in God’s Kingdom Anvil 25-2 March 2008 p.119 https://biblicalstudies.gospelstudies.org.uk/pdf/anvil/25-2_117.pdf 

(2)Bishop Adrian Newman “(Some) Theology to Save the World”  November 2020 https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/leading-thinkers/some-theology-to-save-the-world

(3) Bishop Adrian Newman “(Some) Theology to Save the World”  November 2020 https://togetherforthecommongood.co.uk/leading-thinkers/some-theology-to-save-the-world

(4) Rowan Williams No One Can Be Forgotten in God’s Kingdom Anvil 25-2 March 2008 p.119 https://biblicalstudies.gospelstudies.org.uk/pdf/anvil/25-2_117.pdf 

(5) Rowan Williams No One Can Be Forgotten in God’s Kingdom Anvil 25-2 March 2008 p.121 https://biblicalstudies.gospelstudies.org.uk/pdf/anvil/25-2_117.pdf 

(6) Rowan Williams No One Can Be Forgotten in God’s Kingdom Anvil 25-2 March 2008 p.121 https://biblicalstudies.gospelstudies.org.uk/pdf/anvil/25-2_117.pdf 

(7) Rowan Williams No One Can Be Forgotten in God’s Kingdom Anvil 25-2 March 2008 p.121 https://biblicalstudies.gospelstudies.org.uk/pdf/anvil/25-2_117.pdf 

(8)Jane Williams in Gooder et al (2016) Refelctions for Sundays Year A Church House Publishing London p.261

(9) Rowan Williams No One Can Be Forgotten in God’s Kingdom Anvil 25-2 March 2008 p.126 https://biblicalstudies.gospelstudies.org.uk/pdf/anvil/25-2_117.pdf 

(a) Hymn 205  Anglican Hymns Old and New (2008) Kevein Mayhew Suffolk

Revelation 7:9-17; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12

“From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast, through gates of pearl stream in the countless host.”

So, who are these robed in white and where have they come from?   As the elder in Revelation asks.  Who are these saints?  What do you think of when think of a saint?  Perhaps St George striving against evil, killing the “dragon”, and martyred for his faith.  Perhaps St Andrew, apostle and martyr for Christ.  Perhaps St Cecilia, another martyr, and patron of music.  Or Stephen, martyred, Saints Peter and Paul, again martyred?   Hmm, there seems to be a theme here!  Do we see saints as those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for their faith?  Something we hope we are never called upon to do.  Something we possibly see as unobtainable for us ordinary mortals.  Saints must be something special, something above and beyond.  Surely. And yet, in Revelation we are told: “there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages … robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.”  Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host, as we have just sung.  Who are all these saints?  Where do they come from? 

So I ask again, who are these robed in white? Who is a saint?  After all today is All Saints’ Day.  And there we get a clue.  Who is a saint?  What is a saint?  And for an answer I turn to the words of Rowan Williams: “When we celebrate the Saints, we celebrate those who have given evidence, who have made God believable by how they have lived and how they have died.“ (1)  Saints are those who witness to God through their lives, their actions and words.  Yes, some will have done incredible acts of witness, standing alongside the victims of tyranny or oppression, and suffering for it.  But many also witness in quieter ways, unobtrusively following Christ in their daily lives.  As Williams says elsewhere: “the fullness of the apostolic witness includes those whose only contribution is that they have lived faithfully in the company of Jesus.” (2)  Those who attend church, who give to charity, who offer comfort in times of need – that cup of tea after a shock or bad news; the lift to the shops when travel is difficult.  Those who sit and listen when an ear is needed.  These are saints, and I am sure we all know, and have known, people like that.  People who have made a difference in our lives, and the lives of others, quietly, lovingly, selflessly.  Those who have given, but who did not count the cost.  And, as I stand here, I can see a countless host of saints like that sitting before me.  Because, everyone has those moments when we are there for someone else – donating time and gifts generously for charity causes; phoning a friend because you’ve not seen them for a while; bringing someone a chair at coffee time; welcoming and smiling at newcomers, and long-standing members.  All of you, all of us, do these things, without thinking, lovingly.  And because of these simple acts of kindness and love, all of us are part of the countless host, that great multitude that no one could count.  Because by doing these things we are following the example and obeying the command of the one sent from God to bring us to salvation and bring the kingdom on earth.  Jesus Christ.

But why do these things make us saints?  And here we turn to the Beatitudes.  Jesus’ own teachings on what it means to live a life for God. To be “holy”. Because these statements tell us that those whose lives act out the Beatitudes are “Blessed”. Holy.  Doing God’s work and being Christ in the world is to be holy.  To be meek – to put others first and love God’s people as God loves them is to be holy.  Being meek for God means accepting God’s rule and living it in our daily lives.  This is not weakness.  It is a call to live differently, to turn the world back the right-side up by living forgiveness, generosity, selfless caring, commitment to justice, and love for our neighbour, and our enemies, and God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (3). These are the values of the kingdom, values that we are called to uphold to and in the world, that we are to believe in our hearts and show forth in our daily lives – as the RSCM choristers prayer puts it. (4).  As holy ones of God we will act for peace and reconciliation between peoples and between God and God’s children; we will be merciful; seek righteousness with our whole being; and we will be those who comfort the distressed, the scared, the lonely and the oppressed.  And it is by doing these things, living the work and love of God in the name of Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit that we become holy, part of the noble army of saints.  We become part of the fellowship divine, although feebly struggling as human beings here on earth to fulfil this calling, but knowing that when the kingdom comes all will be made whole, and our acts of blessedness, of holiness, will be made whole in Christ.

Who are these dressed in white, and where have they come from?  They are the saints across the ages, past, present and future, who have lived God’s love in the world, bringing blessings to God’s people to God’s glory.  And right now, you are sitting next to one.  As Malcolm Guite puts it in a last beatitude:

And blessèd are the ones we overlook;
The faithful servers on the coffee rota,
The ones who hold no candle, bell or book
But keep the books and tally up the quota,
The gentle souls who come to “do the flowers”,
The quiet ones who organise the fête,
Church sitters who give up their weekday hours,
Doorkeepers who may open heaven’s gate.
God knows the depths that often go unspoken
Amongst the shy, the quiet, and the kind,
Or the slow healing of a heart long broken
Placing each flower so, for a year’s mind.
Invisible on earth, without a voice,
In heaven their angels glory and rejoice. (5)

(1) https://holycomfortermd.org/a-great-cloud-of-witnesses-2/

(2)Williams, Rowan. Candles in the Dark: Faith, Hope and Love in a Time of Pandemic (p. 24). SPCK. Kindle Edition.

(3)Pritchard J in Gooder P et al (2016) Reflections for Sundays Year A Church House Publishing London p.251

(4) https://www.rscm.org.uk/support-us/prayer/

(5) https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/29-october/comment/columnists/malcolm-guite-poet-s-corner

And Hymn number 190 For all the saints, Anglican Hymns Old and New

Our Burning World

Our burning world is turning in despair,

I hear her seething, sighing through the air:

‘Oh rouse yourself, this is your wake up call

For your pollution forms my funeral pall

My last ice lapses, slips into the sea,

Will you unfreeze your tears and weep from me?

Or are you sleeping still, taking your rest?

The hour has come, that puts you to the test,

Wake up to change at last, and change for good,

Repent, return, re-plant the sacred wood.

You are my children, I too am God’s child,

And we have both together been defiled,

But God hangs with us, on the hallowed tree

That we might both be rescued, both be free.’

Malcolm Guite (1)

Did you know that the ice in the Arctic Sea has shrunk to its lowest amount? (2)  That sea temperatures have reached major highs? (3)  That the glaciers in Switzerland have lost 10% of their volume in 2 years? (4)  Does it matter?  I mean, it might affect the skiing season, but then, I don’t ski, so, you know, it’s not that important is it?  And warmer seas?  Well, it might mean I can actually go swimming off the coast of Britain, so a win there for me. And the arctic is so far away from us, so what happens there is out of sight, out of mind.  Isn’t it?  “My last ice lapses, slips into the sea”.  So what? Who cares? Doesn’t affect me, does it!  “Will you unfreeze your tears and weep from me?”  Because our planet is changing, affected by raised temperatures, by climate changes.  But what do we do?  And what does it mean for us as Christians?  As followers of Christ? As believers in the one Lord God?

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).  What happens to God’s creation matters because we believe that God created “the heavens and the earth”.  That all things come from God.  That God set all in motion, and what we live on, what we see around us, came from God.  And God saw that it was good, no, God saw that it was very good.  So, we are living on holy ground, we are part of something holy: something that belongs to God.  We belong to God, the plants and animals, birds, fish, all belong to God.  We are the tenants in God’s vineyard, charged with caring and tending for the vines, bringing them to their full potential for God.  In the words of John Eaton: “we were to be God’s faithful stewards in the living world, strong, but answerable to him.” (5).  The creation stories show animals, plants, the whole of creation “wonderful creatures of God, beloved by him, and entrusted by him into the care of humanity”.  So if we believe in “God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible”, as we say every week, then we believe that God creates and loves creation.  And that God trusts us as tenants in the vineyard of creation to care, to love and to nurture creation, all of it, not for our own sakes, our own needs but to the glory of God and for the love of God.  Because when we forget to see creation as God’s loving plan, as held in God’s love, then, like the tenants in the vineyard, we abuse our position and the planet, and all of us suffer.  God’s trust in us to care for, sustain, nurture and support all God’s creation is really important.

Because it is in creation that we see God’s glory, God’s glory in action: “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork” says our psalm today.  And in the glorious hymn of praise: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God almighty! All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.” (6) And in another, “Let all things their Creator bless, and worship him in humbleness” (7). I love to be in nature, to walk in the mountains, the woods: because literally, “When through the woods and forest glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees; when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur, and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze: then sings my soul my saviour God to thee, how great thou art!” (8).  We are given the sacred trust by God to strive to protect the integrity of God’s creation, to safeguard, sustain and renew that creation.  And we need creation to remind us of God, to reveal God’s glory, God’s love and care for us, and for all creation.  Without the birds, the mountains, glaciers, woods, animals, our praise is diminished, and through our actions we diminish God, because if we allow these things to be damaged, to disappear, then we are diminished and our praise to God is diminished and we lose something of God in our lives.  And God, like Jesus, weeps for us, for creation.  Again, John Eaton reminds us that the “Bible texts again and again (prompt us) to see the life of the earth as one living community, with wind and waters, mountains and trees, animals and peoples belonging together in the hand of the creator.” (9).  How can we sing the majesty if we cannot see it in the world around us?

Melting ice caps affect us, affect animals, affect the whole planet.  Retreating glaciers and wildfires due to increased summer temperatures affect the creatures dependent on those habitats – the marmots, arctic foxes and rabbits, koalas, wombats, elk and birds of prey.  Rising sea temperatures affect whales, dolphins, fish, us.  And the loss of these affects our relationship with each other, with nature, and with God.  The God who, after creating all things rests and commands that all creation rests also – the land, the creatures and humans, And who in the 10 Commandments enshrines for all creation a resting time: “a time of loving relation with all species and the planet” (10) .

Our planet is not a “nice to have”, it is a gift, the loving gift from our loving God.  It is not a gift to be played with and then thrown away.  It is a gift which is entrusted to us as God’s tenants here on earth.  And, like the tenants in the vineyard, it is a gift for which we are accountable.  We cannot assume that we can take charge and use it as we want – to reject the guidance and ownership of the one who entrusts it to us.  On our own, as we can see, the planet will not thrive.  And it will be taken from us.  No, as honest and trustworthy tenants we must remember whose “vineyard” this is, whose planet, whose creation this is.  And “if (we) would be servants of the living God (we) must answer to (God) for (our) care of all that lives, the care (God) has entrusted to (us).” (11) . I finish with the call to action from Malcolm Guite’s poem:

The hour has come, that puts you to the test,

Wake up to change at last, and change for good,

Repent, return, re-plant the sacred wood.

You are my children, I too am God’s child,

And we have both together been defiled,

But God hangs with us, on the hallowed tree

That we might both be rescued, both be free.’ 

Amen.

Jackie Sellin

References

• https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2020/02/15/our-burning-world-a-collaboration-with-rhiannon-randle/
• https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/26/antarctic-sea-ice-shrinks-to-lowest-annual-maximum-level-on-record-data-shows
• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/28/crazy-off-the-charts-records-has-humanity-finally-broken-the-climate
• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/28/swiss-glaciers-lose-tenth-volume-in-two-years-climate-crisis
• Eaton J (1995) “The Circle of Creation – Animals in the Light of the Bible” SCM Press Ltd London p. 105
• Anglican Hymns for Today, 310: Holy, holy, holy.
• Anglican Hymns for Today, 10: All creatures of our God and King
• Anglican Hymns for Today, 563: O Lord my God
• Eaton J p. 105
• Eaton J p.4
• Eaton J p.111

Exodus 3:1-15; Psalm 115; Romans 12:9-21; Matt 16:21-28

Not to us, O lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

A quiet but helpful member of the form.  That was how my teachers generally described me in my school reports.  As a teacher I now know that it means I never opened my mouth, but I did help tidy the classroom!  And so, when at training college I actually did open my mouth to answer questions or put my point of view – mainly because we were all sitting there a little nervous of speaking out so someone had to – I did feel as though I was stepping right out of my comfort zone.  Speaking my view on something theological or ministry-based seemed presumptuous.  And I am sure we’ve all been there.  Stepping forward, into an unknown situation, into the unknown.  It’s scary.  No wonder Moses asks God, what really, me?  Are you sure? It’s a feeling those who have sensed a call to ministry often feel.  What, me, Seriously?  Moses felt unworthy of the call, of God’s trust in him, felt it called him into the unknown, out of his comfort zone.  And many who are called to step outside their comfort zones feel like Moses, unworthy, scared.  But, like Moses we step into the unknown because God says: I will be with you.  However, it doesn’t start with this sending, it starts earlier, when, like Moses, we respond to God’s presence – even if we don’t initially recognise it as God.  Moses saw something, turned aside to see what was going on, and found God.  He saw God was there, responded, and God spoke.   It is then that God takes him out of his comfort zone of life as a shepherd, and sends him out to speak for God’s people, pushing him into a life of service: whom shall I send?(a).  The God who hears the people cry, who sees their pain, responds to them by calling Moses and working through him to bring salvation, to speak God’s word to them and to those who oppress them.

Not to us, O lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

Calling and response and stepping beyond.  Quite appropriate for a day of a baptism.  Because God is calling our candidate today, tiny as she is, out of her comfort zone and into a life lived by God’s ways.  And it is no small undertaking.  It will take her, as it takes us, out of our comfort zones.  In our Gospel, Jesus himself tells us what being Christian, following Christ, really means –: ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it”.  Jesus calls us to step outside what we know, where we are comfortable and listen to him, follow him, do what he does: “take up your cross and follow me if thou wouldst my disciple be.”  Take up the cross, with its weight and shame and “calmly ev’ry danger brave”(b).  That’s quite something to be asking of our candidate today.  It’s quite something to be asking of anybody.  But this is what we are called to do.  But it is not something we are called to do on our own.  Thankfully ,as we heard in our hymn, there is comfort, there is more: “his strength shall bear thy spirit up”, “’twill guide thee to a better home”(b).  God’s steadfast love and faithfulness will support and guide us. 

But what is it we are called away from the comforts of our safe lives to do?  How are Christians supposed to live?  And here we have the template set out by Paul, and what a template, what a challenge.  Love one another – ok, that’s sort of achievable – hate what is evil – yes, again, ok.  Bless those who persecute you – er, what?  Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.  Never avenge yourself, and “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  The whole of the passage from Paul is challenging and takes us out of our comfort zones, the ways the world expects us to behave, the ways we are used to.  It asks something more of us: love for all, even our enemies; forgiveness of others, and humility.  To bear persecution and not repay evil with evil.  These are easy to say, but not so easy to do.  They challenge, they ask much of us, and run counter to how we are taught to respond by the world around us. 

But.  But, what if we could do these things?  If we could step outside our comfort zone and offer love instead of hate?  If we could “heap burning coals on” the heads of our enemies by returning their evil acts with love?  To act in ways which the world would ridicule?  These are “long-haul virtues”, requiring constant work, and which won’t result in praise from the world around us (1), but if the world can be persuaded, can be shown through our actions, that they are good, that they are things to aim for, then what a world we would live in! 

Not to us, O lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

“Take up thy cross, the Saviour said, if thou wouldst my disciple be.  Deny thyself, the world forsake and humbly follow after me.”(b) These are weighty things. It means living a life that challenges us, takes us out of our comfort zone.  And as followers of Christ, we are called to take up our cross, step out of our comfort zone and put ourselves where Christ is.  And, as Rowan Williams explains, “being where Christ is means being in the company of the people whose company Jesus seeks”: the excluded, disreputable, wretched, self-hating, poor, diseased (2). But thankfully, as Moses found out, stepping out, doing the will of the Father, following Christ and going where Christ is, is not something we do alone:  God said: ‘I will be with you’.  Jesus guides us: “his strength shall bear thy spirit up, and brace thy heart and nerve thine arm,”(b).  We have the gift of the Holy Spirit – the “rushing burning wind and flame of Pentecost”(c).  And we have each other.  We are never alone in our calling.  If we step aside, respond to God at work in the world, then God will be with us, work with us, through us, through the power of the Holy Spirit.  And this is a comfort to us.  We are not alone, we have each other to support us, love us and strengthen us, and we have the love of God to support us, love us and strengthen us.  The Lord who “the Cross endured”(b), and who lived to show us how to live.  So, let’s step forward together with God, out of the comfort zone of the world’s expectations, take up our cross and follow Christ by working on those virtues that Paul speaks of, supporting each other, and trusting in God, the faithful and steadfast God, and let all our actions, our doings be for God’s glory, not claiming to be wiser, or being superior to others, but humbly following the example of Christ.

Not to us, O lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

Amen.

The Revd Jackie Sellin

References: 

Hymns:

337: I, the Lord of sea and sky

689: Take up thy cross, the Saviour said

172: Father, Lord of all creation

(1) Williams J (2004) Lectionary Reflection Year A SPCK London  p.104

(2) Williams R (2016)  Being Disciples: Essentials of Christian Life SPCK London, Kindle Edition  p.10/11

Readings: Genesis 45:1-15; Psalm 133; Romans 11:1-2a,29-32; Matthew 15:21-28

“For the love of God is broader than the scope of human mind, and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.”(1) Human beings are very good at building walls. We have built them around our cities, around our countries – just look at Hadrian’s Wall, the Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall, and the Korean Wall. We build them to keep people out and to keep people in. Those who we feel threatened by, or whose ways of life are different to ours. Those who may “take what’s ours and what’s our children’s”. So, we draw into ourselves, fight to protect our interests, defend ourselves from change and the threat to our position. Just as Joseph’s brothers did in the Genesis story. They went out of their way to build permanent barriers, permanent separation from their brother, someone who threatened them, who they saw as a danger to their inheritance, their claims. They threw Joseph out of the group, got rid of him. And yet, he turns out to be the only one who can save them in the end. If he chooses to. And, through the grace and the understanding of the generosity of God and God’s love that he learned through his experiences, Joseph welcomes them, loves them despite their actions. Asks only that they feel welcome, not guilty, or afraid, but loved and welcomed by him. “Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept… and he kissed his brothers and wept upon them.” And then they talked. How many of us could be so forgiving, so loving after what the brothers did to Joseph? But Joseph saw how God’s grace and love held him through all his difficulties, his experiences gave him wisdom and insight, and allowed him to see that for God, justice means reconciliation, not revenge, it means rebuilding broken relationships and breaking down barriers, walls, opening the heart to all, even those who have done us wrong. As the psalm puts it, “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.”

The readings today all speak of God’s nature, of what God wants for God’s creation, God’s created beings. The divisions caused by the jealousy of Joseph’s brothers and Joseph’s own boasting are overcome by the love of God showing both sides that relationship is important, and that forgiveness heals. And it is in unity, in relationship with each other and with God that God wants us to live. And this is repeated in our Romans reading – that God loves all. God does not reject anyone. (2) It is humans who reject each other, build walls to separate one from another, and put restrictions on who is in and who is out. God’s love is for all peoples – as Paul says elsewhere, there are no barriers between people in God’s eyes: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28). We are all united, brought back together through God’s redemptive act in Jesus Christ (3). Through the grace of God in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus we are brought back into the right relationship with God and with each other – or we should be.

But we are human. Something we see in the Gospel today in the actions of Jesus’ disciples, the ones who have listened to him speak of God, of God’s love and inclusion of all. The ones who have learned from the prophets about God’s love for all outsiders, for all who are seen as unclean, unwanted, useless, or just dismissed. The disciples try to persuade Jesus to ignore a woman in need. A woman seeking healing for her daughter. A woman who, despite being a Canaanite recognised the Lordship of Jesus: every time she speaks to Jesus, she calls him Lord. In the previous chapters of Matthew we see Jesus’ Lordship challenged by Pharisees and others who cannot understand, but here, a woman from a despised group acknowledges and turns to Christ. And Jesus is challenged by her to acknowledge that God’s grace, God’s love, is truly universal: the crumbs she mentions reflect the earlier story in Matthew of the feeding of the 5000 where the crumbs left numbered 12 baskets. (4) And Jesus responds by recognising her faith: “Woman, great is your faith!” Then Jesus demonstrates that there is enough of God’s love for all people by healing her daughter, instantly. (5) Through the woman’s persistence, strength and faith, Jesus was able to prove God’s love was universal, that for God there are no borders, no barriers between humans. All people are beloved children of God. It makes me wonder, how persistent are we in recognising the Lordship of Christ and demanding that we be recognised by others as beloved children of God? And in recognising those others are also beloved children of God? Would we turn to Christ so adamantly?

But, of course, that is what happened in our Sunday service when the parents and godparents of our baptism candidate stated, before the congregation exactly that: I turn to Christ. I recognise him as Lord, Saviour and Son of God. I recognise that God’s love is for me, for the baptism candidate, for everyone here, for the whole world. And that they intend to show that, to live as a baptised child of God in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To be guided by the words and deeds of Jesus, as they are called to emulate them and live them in the world by working with Christ to bring God’s people back into relationship with God and with each other. It is something we have had promised at our own baptisms, that many of us have acknowledged at our confirmation. And that I hope we show forth in our lives. That we too can work to unite and overcome divisions, those walls we build and see around us which prevent humanity from being what God wants. “For the love of God is broader than the scope of human mind, and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.” And though we often “make his love too narrow by false limits of our own” (1) each week in penitence and faith we acknowledge this and seek to turn to Christ, to submit to Christ as Lord and to live as Christ in the world, as children beloved of God, recognising that all whom we meet, whom we hear of, especially those crying out for help and reconciliation, are also beloved children of God. Then “our lives will be all gladness in the joy of Christ our Lord.”

Amen.

The Revd Jackie Sellin

References: (1) Hymn 747 “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy” Anglican Hymns Old and New (2008) Kevin Meyhew Ltd Buxhall Suffolk

2) Andrew Davison in Paula Gooder et al (2016) “Reflections for Sundays Year A” Church House Publishing London p.204

(3) Johanna W H van Wyk-Bos (2005) “Making Wise the Simple” Eerdmans Michigan p. 293

(4) Jane Williams (2004) “Lectionary Reflections Year A” SPCK London p.101

(5) Martin Kitchen et al (1998) “Word of Promise” Canterbury Press Norwich p.99

“No storm can shake my inmost calm
while to that Rock I’m clinging.
Since Love is lord of heav’n and earth,
how can I keep from singing?” (1)

How can I keep from singing?  I am sure we all have memories of those songs our parents, or we ourselves, sang to us, to our children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, etc.  I can still hear my mum singing: “Jesus bids us shine with a pure clear light, like a little candle burning in the night” – to my three children in the desperate attempt to induce them to go to sleep, or so it sometimes felt in those long evenings!  But the music did calm the ‘savage beast’, and they would fall asleep in mum’s arms.  My song for sleep was Mayenziwe ’ntando yakho (thy will be done on earth O Lord) from an Iona song book (3), slower and slower until both of us were dropping off.  Music, it has the ability to touch our souls: “Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear that music ringing. It finds an echo in my soul. How can I keep from singing?” It can bring out emotions we try to hide, it can inspire us, and send us out refreshed and strong: “No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I’m clinging. Since Love is lord of heav’n and earth, how can I keep from singing?”  And so we sing hymns, psalms and spiritual songs.  As Paul says: “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts”(2) –   to glorify God here in Zurich. Which is a little ironic as Zwingli, the Protestant reformer most influential in this city, refused to allow singing in churches!

But music is more than just a call on the emotions – which is precisely what Zwingli objected to.  The words we use, the tunes we put them to, help tell the story of Christ, of God, and of our faith.  Just think of your favourite hymns: My song is love unknown tells of Jesus’ birth, his journey to the cross and the reactions of the people to him: “sometimes they strew his way, and his sweet praises sing…. Then crucify is all their breath and for his death they thirst and cry.” (4i)  The hymns can express deeper truths in their poetry.  We have just sung “I danced in the morning when the world was begun” (4ii), a beautiful, familiar hymn that uses the dance of God in creation and the world to express salvation.  “They cut me down and I leapt up high, I am the life that’ll never, never die, I’ll live in you if you live in me, I am the Lord of the dance said he.”  Last week was Trinity Sunday and that hymn speaks of the dance of the Trinity: God there at the beginning of time: “I danced in the morning when the world was begun:” incarnate, here amongst us: and “I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth”; sharing our lives, dying and rising for us and living on in us through the Spirit.  Music helps us to understand the words of God, and can express how we feel, what we believe:  “I was glad when they said to me we will go in to the house of the Lord” is made more emphatic through the anthem by Parry: I was glad, glad when they said unto me..  And the haunting melody of ‘I know that my redeemer liveth’ expresses our faith and belief beautifully.

And music in worship fulfils more than this.  It can help us address difficult times. “What though my joys and comforts die, I know my Saviour liveth. What though the darkness gather round? Songs in the night he giveth.”  And of course, the beautiful words of Psalm 23 sung to the tune Crimond: “The Lord’s my shepherd I’ll not want” (4iii).  Of course, the psalms were the first songs of Ancient Israel, and used by the Israelites to speak of their relationship with God, of God’s message: ‘Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High. Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.’, our Psalm today tells us.  Psalm 150, which the choir sang on Tuesday, tells us to “praise God in his holiness, praise him upon the lute and harp”, …in the cymbals and dances.  “Let everything that hath breath, Praise the Lord.“

Music helps us in our lives – we all have favourite songs, musicians. And it helps us in our faith – again, we all have favourite hymns, psalms and spiritual songs.  Music helps us to worship – in the liturgy it guides us through the stages of the service: a bright opening, a thoughtful preparation for the Gospel, a contemplative lead to communion and then a triumphal sending out, knowing we are loved and inspired by God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  “The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, a fountain ever springing! All things are mine since I am his! How can I keep from singing?” Through music we express our faith and deepen our understanding of the story and meaning of that faith.  And music gives us a message from that meaning, inspires us to act as faithful people of God: “Here I am Lord, is it I Lord, I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord, if you lead me, I will hold your people in my heart” (4iv). A favourite of many called to ministry. “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?  Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?” (4v) “Yea, though I walk in death’s dark vale, yet will I fear no ill.” These familiar words put to familiar tunes help us, inspire us, guide us, and send us out in the power of the Spirit to live and work to God’s praise and glory.  They bring the message of God to us in ways that reach inside us. They bring God to us and allow us to express our love, our faith in God in.  So, don’t just listen to hymns, psalms and spiritual songs, with the mind, listen with your mind, heart, soul and strength and let them deepen your faith, your understanding, and your relationship with God, and let them inspire you to respond to God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength so that you can go in peace to love and serve the Lord.  After all, “No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I’m clinging. Since Love is lord of heav’n and earth, how can I keep from singing?” 

Amen.

Revd Jackie Sellin

References and “How can I keep from singing?”

(1) How can I keep from singing:Source: Voices Together #605

https://hymnary.org/text/my_life_flows_on_in_endless_song_above

(2) Colossians 3:16

(3)  Mayenziwe, from Bell J L and Maule G (1990) “Many and Great”  Wild Goose Publications, Glasgow

(4) Hymns from Anglican Hymns Old and New

i. 521 My song is love unknown

ii. 329 I danced in the morning

iii. 723 The Lord’s my shepherd

iv. 337 I the Lord of sea and sky

v. 834 Will you come and follow me

How can I keep from singing:Source: Voices Together #605

https://hymnary.org/text/my_life_flows_on_in_endless_song_above

My life flows on in endless song,
above earth’s lamentation.
I catch the sweet, though far-off hymn
that hails a new creation.

Refrain:
No storm can shake my inmost calm
while to that Rock I’m clinging.
Since Love is lord of heav’n and earth,
how can I keep from singing?

Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear that music ringing.
It finds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing? [Refrain]

What though my joys and comforts die,
I know my Savior liveth.
What though the darkness gather round?
Songs in the night he giveth. [Refrain]

The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,
a fountain ever springing!
All things are mine since I am his!
How can I keep from singing? [Refrain]

Isaiah 40:12-17,27-31; Ps 8; 2 Cor 13:11-13; Matt 28:16-20

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”.

Trinity Sunday is a perfect day for a baptism.  After all, I am about to baptise in the name of the Trinity: in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Fulfilling those words given to us by Jesus in our Gospel reading: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”; “God in three persons, blessed Trinity”, as the great Trinity Sunday hymn tells us. And of course, it is through a baptism, the baptism of Christ himself, that we see the Trinity: Jesus comes up from the waters of the Jordan, the Spirit descends like a dove, and the voice of the Father declares Jesus his beloved Son.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit together (1). This marks the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, this ministry, through which by uniting the human and divine in himself, Jesus restores the relationship between humanity and God, by living as God incarnate among us, sharing our human lives, showing us in his life on earth what it means to be and live as a child of God. 

But what does it mean to be baptised in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit? This Trinity? John Polkinghorne states that for the early church the doctrine of the Trinity was “expressing its belief that the one true God exists in the eternal interchange of love between the three divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit” (2).  God the creator loved so much that everything was brought into being, and held in that love.  God so loved the world that God became human, came down and lived among us, revealing that love to us and bringing us home: “Father of all we give you thanks and praise that when we were still far off you met us in your Son and brought us home”, as one of the great post communion prayers says.  God loves us so much that God is with us, “to the end of the age” through the coming of the Spirit.  God, three in one, loving us into creation, into redemption and into the future – Calling us to rejoice in that love and go out and share it with all humanity, all God’s children, reuniting all humanity in the love of God, through our actions, words and love for all.

Through the baptism today, our candidate will become a child of God, will begin a new life in Christ in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and begin their life in faith; take up their role in the call to love.  And their parents, godparents and our church community will promise to help them grow to understand what being a child of God is.  What it means to be baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  To love God, through the example of Jesus and guided by the Spirit, means we step out of our old life and into a new one in Christ Jesus, responding to his call to follow him.  Rowan Williams says of baptism: “to be baptised is to recover the humanity that God first intended…. that human beings should grow into such love for him and such confidence in him that they could rightly be called God’s sons and daughters”(3).  Baptism restores us, enabling us to see ourselves as beloved of God, as a child of God, empowering us to act in the name of the Trinity. 

So, baptism in the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit means we become what God intends, reconciled to God, and fully human, fully part of God’s created humanity.  Just as God intended.  But if in baptism we are to join with the God of love, following Christ’s example, that means we are called, like Jesus, to reveal God’s love to the world. To be, as Rowan Williams describes it, “led to where Jesus is”, because “being baptised is being led towards the chaos and neediness of a humanity that has forgotten its own destiny”(4), the destiny to be God’s children.  Through baptism we become not just part of the community of the faithful, learning to live and love as faithful followers of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are also united with all humanity, with all God’s children.  Through baptism we are led to where Jesus is, in the “chaos and neediness” of the world.  We are led out into that world to the powerless and those who struggle, to be examples of God’s love, the God who loves, and who gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless, as the Old Testament lesson tells us. 

Baptism changes us.  We become fully who we are intended to be, called by God to join Christ where he is in the world in the messiness of life, and in the power of the Spirit to strengthen the powerless and needy and bring others out of their chaos and darkness.  Baptism, the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace makes us children of the same heavenly Father, inheritors together of the kingdom of God, welcomed and loved by God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  And that sign is more than words. It is action, as it leads us into relationship with the Trinity, into God’s love so that we can bring God’s love to all God’s children.  Quite something for us to be asking our baptism candidate today.  But the fact that this is Trinity Sunday should be reassuring.  The demand, the calling, is not something we do alone: at his baptism, Jesus, God the Son, was assured of the love of God the Father and the blessing of God the Holy Spirit on his mission.  And in baptism, all of us, can be reassured that through that baptism, we are led out to follow the Son, not on our own but assured of the love of God the Father and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We have been shown how to live as children of God by God the Son, and we are supported and strengthened to go out to all who live in darkness and chaos by God the Holy Spirit, knowing that God is with us always to the end of the age. We go with the power of the Spirit, in union with Christ and with the love of the Father.  So, in the words of Paul in the epistle today, I pray that “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” And with our baptism candidate and their family today and always. 

And now, let us fulfil the command of Jesus to baptise in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 

Amen.

Revd Jackie Sellin
Assistant Chaplain

---

1. Williams R (2014) Being Christian Kindle Edition SPCK p2
2. Polkinghorne J (2010) in Oord TJ ed. “The Polkinghorne Reader” SPCK p193
3. Williams R (above) p3
4. Williams R (above) p4/5

Acts 17:22-31; Psalm 66:7-20; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments”

Today is special day in many ways.  It is Mother’s Day here in Switzerland, it is the baptism of one of our community, and it is also the beginning of Christian Aid Week.  All these are important, and all are linked to our Gospel reading today because they are to do with family.  Our own families, and the important part each of us have in them; the global family, the way all humans are interconnected; and the Christian family which Jesus’ life, death and resurrection create.  As Desmond Tutu writes:
“The world saw a veritable miracle unfolding before its very eyes as all sorts and conditions of women and men, rich and poor, slave and free, Jew and Gentile—all these came to belong in one fellowship, one communion” (1) when the Church started its first steps in following Christ. 
Family is something we cannot escape from – we are all part of a family, somehow, somewhere.  As humans, we are part of the “Family of Man”, of humanity, and again, that is not something we can escape from.  And of course, we are also part of God’s family, as it says in our reading from Acts, God’s offspring, God’s children, and again, that is something we cannot escape from.  Family. 

And Mother’s Day is about family.  I am sure many of you will be visiting family, sharing time together as a family, sharing food together as a family today. It is wonderful to be able to meet each other and celebrate being your family.  Because family is important. It is where we should be able to share our thoughts, fears, doubts in safety and without fear of ridicule.  It is where we can come when we are sad or scared.  They are the people we should be able to trust, the ones we can turn to and know we will find home, a welcome.  And I realise that this is not always so for many, but that is what family should be, when it works well.  After all, again using Tutu’s words,
“You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.”(2) 
But we are human, and humans are not faultless, they are fallible, so human families are not always perfect, which causes sadness and deep emotional distress.  They should be places of safety, but sometimes they are places to escape from.  And then there is the need to find another form of family, others who can be your safety net, your sanctuary and support. 

But the ideal of family is not something that should be ignored, just because sometimes it goes wrong.  The ideal is there to be strived for.  And used to help us understand wider issues.  Such as the ones charities like Partner sein and Christian Aid Week bring to our attention.  Why should we be bothered about women, in places like Malawi, struggling to feed their families following Cyclone Freddy, or those facing starvation due to drought because of climate change.  They’re miles away, surely nothing to do with us?  And I turn to Tutu again:
“If we realized that we are family, we would not let this happen to our brothers and sisters.”(3) 
We are family with all humanity across the world.  It matters what happens to those in Canton Vaud, in France, in Morocco, in New Zealand, South America, Africa, Asia.  Because we are family, they are our brothers and sisters, children of the same heavenly Father, children of God.  And because if we love Jesus we will keep his commandments, the commandment to love our neighbour as ourself.  And by keeping Jesus’ commandments, we show we love him and remain in his love.  Brothers, sisters held in the love of God: “those who love (Jesus)will be loved by (his) Father”, our Father, who art in heaven.  As Tutu puts it:
“If we could but recognize our common humanity, that we do belong together, that our destinies are bound up in one another’s, that we can be free only together, that we can survive only together, that we can be human only together, then a glorious world would come into being where all of us lived harmoniously together as members of one family, the human family, God’s family. In truth a transfiguration would take place. God’s dream would become a reality.”(4) 

And this is as important for us in our church family.  To love and support and welcome each other, and newcomers, into our fellowship. To sit down with them at God’s table and share communion.  To listen, support and care – to love each other as God loves us.  Because to not do so is to turn away from God.  Granny Weatherwax, in one of Terry Pratchett’s novels, puts it most succinctly: “Sin, young man, is when you treat other people as things including yourself. That’s what sin is.” (5)  When we don’t treat others as ourselves, when we don’t love them as ourself, then we cannot love God, love Jesus.  “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me” are Jesus’ words in the Gospel.  If we recognise others as fellow children of God, as our brothers and sisters in Christ, in God, then we should treat them as our brother, sister, family.  We should not be able to treat others in ways that hurt them, to ignore their needs, to watch them suffer because of inaction, climate change, violence or natural disaster.  Because we are brothers and sisters, children of our Father who art in heaven.

“If you love me you will keep my commandments” says Jesus, and by keeping them, we show we love Jesus, and that we are loved by God.  But keeping these commandments, loving Jesus, means loving all God’s people, all God’s children. Tutu describes this as God’s dream for us: “that My children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God’s family, My family.” (6)  So, today let us pray for all families, for our own families, for families where there is sorrow, families that are dysfunctional.  Let us pray that those whose families reject or harm them might find a community to be their family. Let us pray for our worldwide family, for peace, love, hope amongst and between them. And let us pray that we do not forget our brothers and sisters in God, and that they do not forget us.  After all, we are children of the same heavenly Father, welcomed and welcoming. 

Amen.  

Revd Jackie Sellin
Assistant Chaplain

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1)Tutu, Desmond. God Has A Dream (p. 21). Ebury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
2)Tutu, Desmond. God Has A Dream (p. 22). Ebury Publishing. Kindle Edition. 
3)Tutu, Desmond. God Has A Dream (p. 23). Ebury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
4)Tutu, Desmond. God Has A Dream (pp. 23-24). Ebury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
5) Pratchett, T (1999) “Carpe Jugulum” Corgi Books, London. P.314
6)Tutu, Desmond. God Has A Dream (p. 20). Ebury Publishing. Kindle Edition.