Simply Care
Today is George and Sarah's last Sunday here. Last Sunday George preached his last sermon as curate of St Thomas, and a number of people commented on how helpful it was. He reminded us of Jesus' final instructions - Go and make disciples (or learner-followers) of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and teaching them to keep everything Jesus had commanded them. George reminded us that St Thomas' mission statement reflects this: Speak the gospel - God's incredible grace, which causes people to become disciples/learner-followers, Teach the Bible - because that's where we'll find what Jesus taught, and Build community that demonstrates God's love - community grows from the people of all nations who become disciples.
I think George wanted to leave us with a sense of his and Sarah's enthusiasm for this!...so we follow in their footsteps '? put our sadness at their leaving into positive action!
George warned us that this won't be easy for at least 4 reasons: 1) our pluralist society is not as comfortable with absolute truth-claims as it is with opinions. So we are radically different from our society when we speak about the good news of Jesus as the - unique God-Man. So when we do, we must do so with the incredible humility of Jesus himself. Humble people don't use their status to force anyone, but combine'deep conviction with deep love'. I don't think anyone who has known George and Sarah has felt forced or coerced by their faith. Rather, their deep conviction has clothed itself in acts of love and service.
A second challenge George mentioned in following Jesus' instructions and by extension our mission statement is 2) ethical relativism - which just means where there's no objective basis for right and wrong, where morality is essentially arbitrary. Yet George and Sarah are convinced that we human beings have a very real sense of right and wrong given by God, and that Jesus came to rescue humanity, precisely because we are flawed. This again is a radical way of thinking because it claims that humans cannot create morality, because it's come to us from a creator God, and what's more, we cannot to live up to it, and need his help.
A third challenge George mentioned is 3) narcissism: a preoccupation with self, rather than the freeing, healthy commandments, full of possibilities and adventure, to love God with our whole being and love our neighbours as ourselves: thus creating human community. George and Sarah have been anything but narcissistic, in giving of themselves in love for God and us all, as they've built community here through Playgroup/Mops/Toms at Twilight, Youth group, Tom's Crew, Messy Church, and on many occasions when they've had people in their home.
The fourth reason it won't be easy to fulfil Jesus' final instructions, and by extension our mission statement, is 4) materialism. It is materialism that we'll focus on today.
This sermon is entitled Simply Care, and falls into two parts: firstly our relationship to the good earth '? the world of matter in which we live, and secondly the way we share or distribute the earth's material resources among our fellow'earthlings', justly.
I use the term'earthling', because the Christian worldview, teaches that we are of the earth, and will return there. So we're earthlings of the earth. But the reading from Genesis tells us that we're different from the animals in one respect '? we are made in the image of God,'like' God, to have dominion over and subdue the rest of the material world of animals, plants and inanimate matter.'Dominion' and'subdue' are strong words because we are not to underestimate the task, but they do not stretch to plunder, wantonness or exploitation, as has so often been the case in human history, not least the last century. But the other extreme is also to be avoided, where we deify nature and worship it, as some animistic religions and New Age groups do. God's expectation for the way we treat the earth is spelled out more in Genesis 2, where we are to'till it and keep it' - thus using it to live by and caring for it'