Trinity 1...being blue isn't too bad!

First Sunday after Trinity Sunday (Pentecost 2)

As we think back to the last few weeks of Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the Church, and Trinity Sunday remembering the threefold nature of God, and even Corpus Christi which was celebrated on Thursday, we could easily look at the great expanse of ordinary time, right up to All Saint’s day, and think that church was going to be a bit boring without a good festival for a few months.

However, these are the weeks when we can relax a bit, and think about all the great gifts God has given us. It is time to hear parts of the Bible that we just don’t hear usually, and to think how this affects us on a day-to-day basis.

Over the last few weeks, we have been hearing about the gifts of the Spirit, and today we are hearing about the gifts of God, and there is a difference. The gifts of the Spirit are many and varied, but as far as I can see, the gifts of God are always the same. And that gift is people. God sends us to people, and he sends people to us, to reveal his purpose and the meaning of his love for us. We are in relationship with others, and however those relationships happen, they may just be a gift from God.

Like all gifts, there are ones we like, and ones we do not like – like those presents at Christmas that you still haven’t tried on – the socks or jumpers - There are people we are uncomfortable with, and others we are happy with. However, to be in relationship with others is to receive a gift from God.

The cup of water

In the Gospel reading this morning, Jesus says to his disciples ‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me’.

The message is clear – We are to be involved in the lives of others – because they are God’s gift to us and we are entrusted to take Christ to them.

He then goes on to say that ‘and whoever gives a cup of water to these little ones in the name of a disciple – truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’

Even the smallest kindness (like a drink of water) is important and nothing is lost.

The greatest part of being a Christian, and the best part about what I do, is being allowed into the lives of others. I’m lucky enough to do this through marriages, baptisms, funerals. These are all great opportunities for me. They all help me see God working out his plan for us slowly in the world.

A few years ago, I lectured at Trinity College Carmarthen. I don’t think I preached about it at the time. It was the one and only time I did…I wonder if it went down well?

Anyway, I was preaching to Theology students about the ‘perfect community’, that would give us the opportunities to be ‘as Christ to others’ and in the context of this morning, give us more opportunities to ‘give each other a drink of cold refreshing water’ more often.

I looked at the First Christian communities, the early church – but many of the communities expanded so quickly, with struggles and difficulties that St. Paul and others needed to put them back on track. I wondered whether these could be good role models for us, but they grew and changed so quickly, they expanded way beyond the first community in Jerusalem throughout the Hellenistic world and even beyond the Roman Empire. I wasn’t quite sure if that would help us to think more clearly about our own church today. They were too diverse and changed so quickly.

I then looked at ‘Christian Base Communities’ primarily in Latin America, where groups of the poor and oppressed live together to learn and share, to work and survive, usually supported by the church and a priest or lay person. They are concerned with the material things of life; food, medicine, housing and justice for the people who live there. They study the Bible, then act accordingly in terms of social action. I wasn’t quite sure if this would be the ideal model either, for us to consider in our quest to find some ideas how to bring God to others. In our community, we aren’t oppressed to the same degree, but we continue to pray for those who are.

I thought a little more, and when I was looking at the BBC website yesterday morning, I realised what community we could emulate.

The SMURFS give us a model for community that is hard to beat…

It is a place where neighbours are always willing to lend a hand, where everyone has a certain skill and is willing to employ it, without personal reward and for the benefit of everyone.

The Smurfs were created in 1958 by the Belgian Artist Peyo, and In 1981, Hanna-Barbera began to produce a cartoon series that resulted in 256 episodes, dubbed into some 30 languages (Including Welsh, where they are called ‘Y Smurfs’), they are still being shown on more than 120 television channels around the world today.

The SMURFS live without money and use their individual skills for the common good, without individual reward, to ensure the community thrives. Each SMURF has sufficient food, clothing and housing (even though they live in mushrooms) and even though there are stereotypes from the everyday world, lazy, grouchy and brainy Smurf they all fulfil the tasks required of them.

The stories from the community are tales of bold adventure where wrongs were righted and the underdog had been given justice.

It might be at this stage in the sermon that you think I have lost all the wheels from my wagon, and I realize that. However, there is one important piece of evidence for the SMURFS being a perfect example of community – a community that we could do well to emulate.

A community, in the context of the Gospel that would give us many more opportunities to take the refreshing cold water to others.

There original name Les Schtroumpfs, was a word born at a meal when Peyo was having a meal with a French friend and had temporarily forgotten the word for…’the salt’.

The SMURFS are ‘the salt’, in Peyo’s bad translation. But for those who read the BIBLE this is very interesting.

TO be SALT and LIGHT, as it says in the SERMON on the mount, differs slightly from being the SALT OF THE EARTH, found in the Gospel According to St. Matthew, but they are both reminders for us to be ‘in the world’ but not ‘of the world’, to take God with us into the very human situations, and speak the words of life to them…

The next time we meet someone who is considered to be less than human; the homeless, the criminal, the disabled or the poor, even those people we find difficult to love; We should take a moment to think…

They may just be God’s gift to us, an opportunity to be as Christ to them, taking them the cool living water.

The overarching irony is that we cannot live out our faith on our own, we need others to share the love of God with. To do that, we need to realize that we are dependent on each other in our communities, our nation, and that world.

So (and I’ve been looking forward to saying this);

May we live together like the SMURFS, being the salt and light to those around us.

The Sunday after the Ascension

Sunday after Ascension

Jesus prayed, “I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours”.

Quite possibly these 13 verses of the Gospel according to John is the greatest prayer ever prayed – Jesus looks heavenward and starts the prayer “Father…”

Jesus prayed these words in the Upper Room on the night of his betrayal, knowing that crucifixion would follow with the coming sunrise. The words are part of his final words, and final words have a history of being intense, focused and passionate. So it was with Jesus.

Had his disciples ever heard him pray like this before? What did they think, knowing that with the actions of the next day all would be lost – they would be thrown into turmoil and upset? Could they feel in that moment the importance of their role in the story of Christianity? Were they praying and hoping that it wasn’t all for nothing – wasted years. Who knows what they might have been thinking – but as they shared the last meal with Jesus, they heard this prayer.

The greatest Prayer ever prayed?

This prayer that draws together everything they have seen and heard – the prayer is so complete and co

Jesus asks for His disciples to be kept in unity. He prays that they may be kept from evil, and He prays that they may be sanctified – made holy. Jesus has been their protector, and he gives an account of that – they are living in a hostile land, and when He goes they will need to look after themselves.

The reading goes on to tell us that Jesus tells God that not one of them was lost “except the one destined to be lost”. This comment about JUDAS puts the lid on it really for him.

Strangely, Jesus says that his prayer is not on behalf of the world, but just his disciples gathered there - The NEW church in its’ earliest form.

All we can hope and pray is that this 2,000 year old prayer is for us today as well. That the church may live in unity – all Christian peoples together, away from the attraction of evil, sanctified by GOD for the work we do in spreading the Gospel for the present and the future. There is nothing so certain to make you feel unworthy as this suggestion, that perhaps this prayer – the prayer of Christ – is for us – Disciples of the NEW MILENNIUM, the people entrusted with the message of peace, justice, love and righteousness.

Yesterday, I sent an email to someone who is investigating that most strange form of discipleship – becoming a Priest. And as I wrote the email I thought how some of the things I said were applicable to all people.

When we become Christians – following in the tradition of the first Disciples and following the call of Christ – not all of us will need to dress up and stand at the front. Not all of us will say the words of institution over the bread and the wine, or marry, bury and baptise. However there are some certainties for all those who accept the call of Christ to join his army of disciples.

Being set apart from the world, but also being part of the world. Taking a view of all things through Christian values, making a stand for justice, peace, love and an end to the things that make us somehow less as humanity.

The other thing is, of course, that God changes us to be more like him as we spend more time in his presence. So, prayer is life changing in that sense. Getting together as Christians to plan how we can take this message into the world is as important.

The reading from the Acts of the Apostles gives us another account of the ascension of Jesus, there are many through the first few books of the New Testament, the one thing that stands out though, is the fact that they are rather boring compared to the rip-roaring adventures, the highs and lows, the rollercoaster ride of emotion of the life of Jesus in the Gospels.

All the accounts are a bit matter of fact really. They went from staring into the sky watching Jesus ascend to heaven, then it tells us their next action was;

…..Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying…then it gives a list of the disciples (and Mary)

It doesn’t tell us what they did next, who said what, what they ate, nothing.

Why so matter of fact? Well I think the point of the story here is that this is where the work of building the church started. The people reading this story will have been members of the new church, they would have known what had happened from that moment.

After reading what happened and hearing the small list of disciples and Mary, I think they would have thought – “and look at us now” a new church, suffering under persecutions in some areas, but growing nevertheless. “from little acorns…..and all that”.

And I think that we should we too should remember that. As disciples of the NEW MILLENIUM, we should remember that the real importance of the story is that when Christ went back at the ascension, that was not the end, it was the beginning.

The chance to build a brighter future for all God’s people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN