Sermon 12th May 2013 (AGM)

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, give a talk as part of a shortened service due to St. Paul's AGM being held afterwards.  The reading is from John 17 verses 20-26

Now, you know that saying, “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings” ... ? Well, Anita once asked: “Dear God, is it true my father won’t get in Heaven if he uses his football words in the house?”

Amanda requested: “Dear God please will you put another holiday between Christmas and Easter. There’s nothing good in there now”.

Joyce chided: “Dear God, thank you for the baby brother; but what I asked for was a puppy. I’ve never asked for anything before. You can look it up”.

Janet complained: “Dear Mr. God, I wish you wouldn’t make it so easy for people to come apart. I had to have 3 stitches and an injection”.

Norma asked: “Dear God, did you really mean for giraffes to look like that; or was it an accident?”

Larry advised: Dear God, maybe Cain and Abel wouldn’t kill each other so much if they each had their own rooms. It works best with me and my brother”.

Frank reassured: “Dear God, I am doing the best I can. Really!!!”

Thomas admired: “Dear God, I didn’t think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset you made on Tuesday night. That was really cool”.  

And Nancy mused: “Dear God, I bet it’s very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it”.

I could go on, of course; but on this AGM Sunday it is only a short talk – and the key point is already made, I think. Or maybe it’s projection, and your prayers are different to this mixture that we’ve just heard. I suspect, though, that we often do pray in this way, with friendly advice; information-giving; gentle complaint; admiration; and making outright requests of God. Of course I’d like to think that the series that we did in the middle of last year changed that, a little. Looking again in depth at the Lord’s Prayer should have taught us both how Jesus himself prayed and also how he wants us to pray – to our Father, in heaven. But it still seemed a good idea to return to this same territory, as today we look back over church life in 2012, and also ahead, to the rest of 2013.

Yes, it is weird to be doing this in mid-May; but that is how the system has to work. So we just need to make the most of it. And we can do that by bringing it all to God: past, present, and future; in the context of prayer, I thought. Our reading from John’s Gospel just ‘happens’ to be the set Lectionary one for today. But how better to pause our current series on the first letter written by this same John than in this way? Now all of John chapter 17 is, of course, another of Jesus’ prayers (and I’m sure that it hasn’t escaped your notice how he did a lot of praying). This was a rather more urgent one, because it was Jesus’ prayer on night before he died, which gives it huge added significance.

What’s most amazing is that, in those dire circumstances, Jesus prayer included us! In the first part of this chapter Jesus prayed for his disciples. Where we picked it up, he said: “I pray not only for them (the disciples) but also for those who believe in me because of their message”: i.e. for us! Even as he faced his own death – and all that involved – Jesus had the bigger, eternal picture very much in his mind. No doubt there are several lessons to be learned from that – including the most obvious one. The bigger picture does always need to be kept in mind, because very little ever happens by itself! As the old saying goes, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll certainly hit it”. Usually it takes being intentional about it: first aiming, and then achieving it.

We could say that was our primary learning point of 2011: being intentional about learning, growing, and doing. But our collective reading of Rick Warren’s book Purpose Driven Life two years ago mostly focused us on what we knew, and were doing already. We’ve long had a Parish Aim statement by which we measure all that we do. Being intentional certainly has carried on since 2011; but today we have chance to review that, to see if we have, or are, achieving what we set out to, within that bigger picture. And it certainly seems to me that we need to do that in the bigger-picture setting of Jesus’ final recorded prayer. So: “I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be one, so that the world will believe that you sent me”, Jesus prayed, for us – right before he died.

Well, there’s enough in just that one verse for us to be getting on with, I’d say! As we look back, and as we look forward, how united are we in what God is doing in this place? And how much do we focus on ensuring that people here believe that Jesus is God’s Son? All I can ever do is to ask the questions; and then invite us to address them – intentionally, of course! The year ahead has amazing possibilities for the Parish of Herne Hill, I truly believe. We’re starting to re-imagine mission, working outward from the Milkwood area. The St Paul’s redevelopment is imminent, we hope. And that’s ‘just’ the major new stuff! The key questions, for all of us, in all of this, then are: how united are we in them; and how focused are we on people coming to faith through them?

Those are the bigger-picture questions that I hope – and intend! – we will keep at forefront of our collective mind, and prayers, as we go through rest of year. We have got to be of one mind in this; and it has got to be about people coming to know Jesus as God’s Son. Today’s happy news is that we have a new member of the up-front team to keep us choosing to walk along this path through the year ahead. Ben Hughes has been on our preaching rota for some time now. His ‘secret’ is that he was ordained years ago in the Diocese of London. Negotiations have now been concluded for him to be licensed as an Honorary Assistant Minister here. He will now play his part in helping us to be united in people coming to know Jesus. But of course that can only ever happen if all of us are up for it. So there’s the question that’s put to each of us on this AGM Sunday: are you ready and willing to play your part too? Let’s pray ...