Love, share, focus
Each Sunday I tend to be in different churches – it’s not just that I’m not usually allowed back I promise (!!), sometimes I do go to the same places but there is a good amount of variety, and different churches and different congregations very often have different characteristics. And that is a really good thing!
But there are certain characteristics that must clearly mark out any church and those things can be found in our readings today.
Sometimes in training sessions, I’ve asked people what they think needs to stand out in a church – whether it be in worship or in general behaviour and there’s often quite a variety of things that come out, but I think the things our readings point to today have to be at the top of any list…
Firstly, in the reading from the 1st letter of John (4:7-21), ‘Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.’ At the very heart of our faith is love – the love of God for each one of us, but also his command to love one another.
And we know that love isn’t easy. Sometimes love can be the greatest joy, but sometimes it can be complicated and demanding, sometimes just plain difficult when we think of people whom we find it difficult to even like, let alone love!
But in this Easter season, we are once again drawn back to the cross – the love of Jesus dying on the cross praying for those who put him there. The love of Jesus as he spoke to the repentant criminal on the cross next to him, ‘today you will be with me in paradise.’ The love of Jesus who, with arms outstretched reminded people that they are welcomed into a huge embrace, the embrace that provides assurance of life, of light winning over darkness, good over evil…
In this Easter season as we celebrate the joy of the resurrection we are challenged to live out God’s love through our own lives. ‘Let us love one another, because love is from God.’
The second reading I want to think about is from Acts (8:26-40). In this reading Philiip has listened to the voice of God and travelled to this road between Jerusalem and Gaza. There, led by the Holy Spirit, he meets the Ethiopian who was reading from the prophet Isaiah. He was reading, ‘like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.’
The Ethiopian asked Philip about this reading and Philip took the opportunity to tell him about Jesus. What he tells him is so powerful that a bit further down the road, he sees water and asks Philip to baptise him.
This was a powerful story for all kinds of reasons – firstly it’s about the conversion of an influential person who would surely go and tell others of his experiences, but it’s most exciting because it reminds us of the power of God who can do anything, and do anything even through us, unworthy though we may consider ourselves at times…
In a church where we’re often lacking in confidence. In a church where we often try to talk about other issues and do other things to help show our love and concern for others, we’re reminded that there is something powerful in just talking about Jesus. I wonder whether sometimes our confidence is so lacking that we can be too timid as we do that.
Again, we remind ourselves in this Easter season of the awesome nature and power of God who loves immeasurably and who promises to be with us always, and who challenges us, but surely also encourages and inspires us, to share the good news of Jesus widely.
We’ve thought about love and about sharing good news. Essential characteristics for any church, but that means any Christian because it’s us who make up the church. We’ve thought about God’s promises to be with us always, and the gospel reading (John 15: 1-8) provides us with a reminder of one more absolutely essential characteristic and that is to focus on God.
It seems an obvious thing to do as a Christian, but lots of us will have had experience, I’m sure, of getting so immersed in the work or the business of the church, that we lose a bit of focus as to why we’re doing it in the first place. Returning to the basic questions of why we come to church? Why is our faith important to us? is really important.
In some churches, people will stand up and offer their testimony, effectively a story of their faith. It's not a great tradition in the Church in Wales, but it’s actually a really important thing because I wonder how many of us think enough about why our faith is important to us? We may never stand up at the front of church and tell our story, but we should know what our story is.
And the point of saying that is back to the gospel reading and the reminder of Jesus’ words, about him as the vine and we as the branches. And about our need to abide in him and allow him to abide in us.
We are challenged, we are invited, to live our lives close to God – and that means taking the bible seriously and getting to know it better and it means praying – talking and listening to God in everything we do – living in God and allowing God to live in us.
So I think there are 3 powerful characteristics for the church in our readings today – love, sharing good news and remembering who we are as disciples of Jesus by living close to him.
And those are 3 powerful, transformative characteristics for the church, and that means for us. They’re about being – in other words knowing who we are and they’re about doing.
And I think there’s another aspect to the reading from Acts which helps to bring these things together today and that is that we’re told that Philip was on that road from Jerusalem to Gaza…. Of course, it’s an area which we hear a lot about at the moment, an area torn apart by conflict. I’m not going to think about who is right and who is wrong this morning in this, but just to highlight the need for prayer for the situation there.
Christians are there who are trying to display the characteristics we’re thinking about in some of the most demanding of situations – and our need to support them in prayer is obvious and real.
Let’s go back to the reading from Acts and see Philip, asked about a passage of scripture and immediately ready to share the good news of Jesus. Let’s see Philip, so inspired by God that he’s listening and ready to go wherever he is led to go… Let’s see Philip, ready to move on to the next place God wanted him to be… How closely do we see ourselves in Philip? Ready to serve, ready to love, to share good news, staying close to God always.
Today, Gaza is in the most horrible mess – but even out of darkness we are called to believe light is possible, and so we pray, and if there are practical things we can do, then we do them too…
Driven by love, inspired to share good news and confident because we know God with us and in us, may we be ready to believe that the gospel message changes lives – changes our lives day by day, and changes the lives of others, and recognise that maybe, definitely, God is wanting to use us to be part of that change for others too. Amen
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