90th anniversary - put Jesus first

This weekend we are celebrating the 90th birthday of the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon, the youngest of the 6 dioceses in the church in Wales... A little boy asked his mother where he came from, and also where she had come from as a baby. His mother gave him a tall tale about a beautiful white-feathered bird. The boy asked his grandmother the same question and received a variation on the bird story. Outside to his friend he said, "You know, there hasn't been a normal birth in our family for three generations."

The birth of the church in Wales was complicated and rather long winded as was the formation of the different dioceses – Swansea and Brecon Diocese was born in 1923, the year of the first FA Cup Final at Wembley, and 4 years before Cardiff became the only Welsh club to win the FA Cup, though none of that is particularly relevant !

What is relevant though is that it is perhaps appropriate that as we make this celebration, we enter a whole new era for the church in Wales, with the Governing Body’s decision on Thursday to allow the appointment of women as Bishops.

It’s an issue which has caused division, just as the issue of women Priests did. And it’s an issue which has taken up far too much of our time and press coverage ! When the church should be known as a loving and caring family serving God and serving other people and displaying something of the qualities of Jesus, we are too often known as a closed and exclusive club, where strange clothes are worn and strange rules apply.

Before going any further I am not for a moment suggesting that we should simply be governed by the rules and norms of society – but we do need to be governed by what is our primary message, and this is laid out clearly today, particularly in our New Testament readings.

In Paul’s letter to the Philippians (2:6-11) he sets out some facts about Jesus. As you’d expect from Paul they are pretty straight talking – he talks of Jesus, humbling himself and becoming a servant of people everywhere. He didn’t use his incredible power to ease any pain for himself, he didn’t use any of his power to cast aside enemies or win friends – he used simply the gifts of humility and love, love that took him to the cross to die for us.

There is incredible power in his death which speaks of his love for us, but there is even more power in the resurrection as, conquering death, Jesus offers a new life for all people. However dark a place a person may have been in, or may be in, he offers light and hope – he offers a future.

And that future, Paul writes, is in recognising this love and saving power – it is in recognising that Jesus is the name above all names… In him, we can trust because he has already done great things for us, and has promised to never leave us alone.

And then we have the gospel reading which contains perhaps the most famous bible verse of all, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life’ (John 3:16)

Jesus is the focus of transformation for us as individuals and for the whole world. Jesus is the person upon whom our whole existence as a church is dependant – our focus as Christians shouldn’t be on unity between churches, or on women priests or bishops or on issues of sexuality but should be on Jesus.

It is not to say these things are not important, but when they are clouding the view of Jesus from people who need to see him, then we have got something horribly wrong. When people are dying because of conflicts in the world or a lack of food, when people are struggling because of homelessness or unemployment, when people are living in poverty, even in our own town, many of those people see the church as being of no relevance to them. And they feel like that not because good things aren’t being done – they are.

Many Christians help to make life so much better for people by their work for charities or simply by living as good neighbours; many people live out a message of love and care for others, but so many of those things are not being recognised because people view the church as being out of touch, and because people are afraid to say that Jesus is relevant and meets people’s needs and expectations.

The message of Jesus is incredibly relevant today. He is the light of the world, a light no darkness can ever overcome. He was born into the world, loved by his parents, welcomed perhaps by members of the wider family and the whole community. He grew up and lived a life of service and humility, he lived a life of standing up for people who often couldn’t care for themselves.

And then he went to the cross to offer the greatest example of love that has ever been offered. His life, full of light in terms of his care and love for others, was suddenly plunged into darkness and taken away horribly. But the darkness was not the end – the message of Good Friday was that in the midst of even the most miserable darkness, light will shine through.

And that is an incredibly important message for us to share today. All of us will hopefully know many times of light in our lives, times when things just feel right, times of joy, times of peace, times of celebration, times when we know very clearly the love and support of family and friends. Inevitably all of us though will also face some times of darkness, times such as when we are struggling financially or with health problems, or worries about work, or concerns for people we love.

Life and death and light and darkness are images we all know well, but they should never be left as that – life and death is not the end and light and darkness are not the end. Life and death are human terms, but as we think of them in spiritual terms we follow life and death with new life.

Jesus lived and died to rise again. And as we are born we are called to die to our old lives to make the most of the new life offered by Jesus.

We cannot enter into our new lives hesitatingly or without commitment, because if we are recognising the incredible love that Jesus has displayed for us, we will respond to that love with our lives. Life and death has life at the end. And this is true for light and darkness.

Perhaps in our own lives, perhaps in the lives of people close to us, certainly in the lives of people living close to us we will see examples of darkness – some people are struggling with life. But Jesus speaks into these situations by promising to be with us always, by promising to journey with us through even life’s most difficult moments.

Jesus invites us to look to him – and trust him, the one who has conquered even what we may consider our darkest enemy, death.

I mentioned that famous gospel verse ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life’, and that is followed by one that is equally tremendous for us all, ‘God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him’.

As I mentioned last week many people have an image of the church as being negative, even boring, but that is not Jesus at all – this was a man whose friends adored him, who was capable of attracting huge crowds to flock to listen to him, who was humble enough to sit with children or with people others wouldn’t bother with, and yet strong and courageous enough to stand up again injustice and hypocrisy.

As the diocese celebrates 90 years we move into a new era. Sadly there will be some today in the church in Wales who will be meeting to plot ways of making the transition for women bishops as difficult as possible, and there will also be others who are gloating over the decision that has been made but there is no place for either sentiment in the church today. It is going to be a painful time for some, as well as a joyful time for others, but it is time to move on from arguments and divisions which take away the focus from Jesus and we must point people firmly to him so that we may be known as people and as an organisation extending love out into the world.

Casting aside distractions and divisions, may we focus on Jesus – may we recognise him as our Saviour as well as our example to live by, and may we share his love out into our communities, so that the church will never be seen as an exclusive club, but as a welcoming family with its members modelling ourselves on Jesus. AMEN