St James Patronal Festival
Today we celebrate the Patronal Festival of St James’ Church – earlier this week a similar festival was celebrated in St Mary Magdalene Church. At any such celebrations, as with any birthdays, it’s natural to reflect on what has happened in years gone by – and a recollection of such events even from people gathered here today could, I’m sure, fill up many hours with memories.
In the reading from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians (4:7-15) we heard of how Paul wrote to the Church there about the troubles they were experiencing as they grew as a Christian community. He wrote of the need to persist, to never give up, just as God would never abandon them, and he reminds the community that the reason they continued with their work through suffering and adversity was because they believed in God – ‘I believed in God, and so I speak’, wrote Paul.
It’s one very short sentence, but a tremendously important motivation for our actions. As we reflect on our Churches in years gone by, one of the most staggering things must simply be to think of the amount of work that went into building them. There was no great machinery, just people committed to constructing a building that would be the centre of the community, to be used for all kinds of community activities, and most importantly as a beacon drawing people to Christ.
People were committed to building because they believed – and what they believed was that life with Jesus was better than life without him. For most of those who wanted to see a Church built, it was exactly the same sort of faith that drove Paul and his followers nearly 2000 years ago – if we believe we must speak – and just as Paul and the early Christians often spoke by giving their lives because the gospel message was so important, and those who built this Church spoke by building a lasting centre of worship and hope, so we must speak today.
Paul ends the section we heard from that reading today with the line, ‘…as God’s grace brings more and more people to Christ, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.’ You will notice that there is an assumption that the kingdom of God will continue to grow, and that reminds us that the hope of eternal salvation which we have never lightens our responsibility for the world around us today – we can never look to the future with a sort of ‘I’m alright Jack !’ attitude.
Christian compassion means a concern for all people, and Christian witness is a way of addressing that concern.
Our task in our communities today is no different from the task all those centuries ago when our Churches were built, and that is drawing people closer to Jesus. Our work is vital and our work is urgent.
Many of you will have heard about some thoughts of changes to our buildings – can I just assure you first of all that I am no drastic revolutionary who wants to throw out everything old, and any changes will be discussed at length beforehand, but change sometimes has to happen, because things that don’t change are by their very nature decaying and dying. I can assure you that there are many occasions when I think it would be better to do nothing, to leave everything just the way it is because it’s the way for me to have an easier life, but it’s not necessarily a way forward.
Through the centuries the Church has changed immensely – the inside of today’s buildings would be totally unrecognisable for someone just a couple of hundred years ago. The Church, like God, must be living and moving and responding to need all around.
In our Patronal Festivals we celebrate the life of our Churches, we think of the example of St James and of St Mary Magdalene, but more importantly than that we think of what they have meant to people over the centuries, of the part those buildings have played in life changing events, and that is why our Churches are so important.
It is quite right that people should be attached to beautiful buildings, and to the memories they help us to reflect on, but the most important memory that we must keep going back to is the living reality that God was with us at every step of our lives, and that God continues to walk with us wherever we are and whatever we are doing.
My niece plays table tennis to quite a high standard and some time ago she spent a month in China on a training camp. When she got home my sister thought it would be nice if Amy could choose a tea – a sort of celebration meal to celebrate her coming home. After a month in China my sister was a little surprised that Amy chose a Chinese take away ! When Jill suggested she might have had enough Chinese food over the past month, Amy replied that the Chinese food in China didn’t taste quite right !! The authentic is not always what people like, or what people are used to !
We are stewards of wonderful buildings, and we must ensure that the buildings are cared for and maintained for future generations – and the best way of doing that will be something that will, no doubt, involve a lot of discussion, but more importantly than being stewards of the buildings we are stewards, or carriers, of the gospel message – a message of hope, joy, peace and love. And that is a message that will outlast us into all eternity, because God has already won the victory over death, and opened that gate to eternal salvation.
And so, we give thanks for what has been, we must celebrate what is now, and we seek a vision of what will be, knowing that in all things and at all times, we walk with God at our side. AMEN
In the reading from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians (4:7-15) we heard of how Paul wrote to the Church there about the troubles they were experiencing as they grew as a Christian community. He wrote of the need to persist, to never give up, just as God would never abandon them, and he reminds the community that the reason they continued with their work through suffering and adversity was because they believed in God – ‘I believed in God, and so I speak’, wrote Paul.
It’s one very short sentence, but a tremendously important motivation for our actions. As we reflect on our Churches in years gone by, one of the most staggering things must simply be to think of the amount of work that went into building them. There was no great machinery, just people committed to constructing a building that would be the centre of the community, to be used for all kinds of community activities, and most importantly as a beacon drawing people to Christ.
People were committed to building because they believed – and what they believed was that life with Jesus was better than life without him. For most of those who wanted to see a Church built, it was exactly the same sort of faith that drove Paul and his followers nearly 2000 years ago – if we believe we must speak – and just as Paul and the early Christians often spoke by giving their lives because the gospel message was so important, and those who built this Church spoke by building a lasting centre of worship and hope, so we must speak today.
Paul ends the section we heard from that reading today with the line, ‘…as God’s grace brings more and more people to Christ, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.’ You will notice that there is an assumption that the kingdom of God will continue to grow, and that reminds us that the hope of eternal salvation which we have never lightens our responsibility for the world around us today – we can never look to the future with a sort of ‘I’m alright Jack !’ attitude.
Christian compassion means a concern for all people, and Christian witness is a way of addressing that concern.
Our task in our communities today is no different from the task all those centuries ago when our Churches were built, and that is drawing people closer to Jesus. Our work is vital and our work is urgent.
Many of you will have heard about some thoughts of changes to our buildings – can I just assure you first of all that I am no drastic revolutionary who wants to throw out everything old, and any changes will be discussed at length beforehand, but change sometimes has to happen, because things that don’t change are by their very nature decaying and dying. I can assure you that there are many occasions when I think it would be better to do nothing, to leave everything just the way it is because it’s the way for me to have an easier life, but it’s not necessarily a way forward.
Through the centuries the Church has changed immensely – the inside of today’s buildings would be totally unrecognisable for someone just a couple of hundred years ago. The Church, like God, must be living and moving and responding to need all around.
In our Patronal Festivals we celebrate the life of our Churches, we think of the example of St James and of St Mary Magdalene, but more importantly than that we think of what they have meant to people over the centuries, of the part those buildings have played in life changing events, and that is why our Churches are so important.
It is quite right that people should be attached to beautiful buildings, and to the memories they help us to reflect on, but the most important memory that we must keep going back to is the living reality that God was with us at every step of our lives, and that God continues to walk with us wherever we are and whatever we are doing.
My niece plays table tennis to quite a high standard and some time ago she spent a month in China on a training camp. When she got home my sister thought it would be nice if Amy could choose a tea – a sort of celebration meal to celebrate her coming home. After a month in China my sister was a little surprised that Amy chose a Chinese take away ! When Jill suggested she might have had enough Chinese food over the past month, Amy replied that the Chinese food in China didn’t taste quite right !! The authentic is not always what people like, or what people are used to !
We are stewards of wonderful buildings, and we must ensure that the buildings are cared for and maintained for future generations – and the best way of doing that will be something that will, no doubt, involve a lot of discussion, but more importantly than being stewards of the buildings we are stewards, or carriers, of the gospel message – a message of hope, joy, peace and love. And that is a message that will outlast us into all eternity, because God has already won the victory over death, and opened that gate to eternal salvation.
And so, we give thanks for what has been, we must celebrate what is now, and we seek a vision of what will be, knowing that in all things and at all times, we walk with God at our side. AMEN
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