Sermon 3rd September 2017

Today, our Assistant Minister, Gill Tayleur, preaches. The reading is from Colossians 1:3-14.

Last night I received a letter – well, email – to read out to you this morning, from Cameron and Jocelyn Barker! For any newcomers or visitors, Cameron was the vicar of this parish for 17 years before leaving in mid  May, to become chaplain at Harefield Hospital. The letter says:

Dear friends of Herne Hill!

You are all very much in our minds today, as this new school year begins. We can easily imagine the much fuller, noisier churches there, and we are certainly greatly missing being part of all that lovely, lively action ourselves.

We have a new venture starting here today too - launching what we hope will become a regular Sunday service in the hospital for patients, relatives and staff. It is all quite different to there, like my job as a chaplain is, along with the new life that is taking shape for both of us around it - but mostly that's in good ways, we think.

We're well settled into our new home now (even though we haven't found a church to join yet!) Thanks to all of you who've sent cards as well as contributing to the amazing contents of the box at our leaving tea. We have spent countless evenings this summer reading just a few of them at a time, laughing and crying at the lovely words and memories every time.

As we've often said, you are a very special church, and we have been so privileged to share so much with you all, over so many years. Your great generosity also means that we have been able to move in here, to make it into our home, and that we can now make ends meet for a good while in these different chaplaincy circumstances.

We are so grateful to you all, and we continue to pray for God's richest blessings on you. We're trusting Him for these coming months until a new Vicar is appointed; and very much for what happens then too!

With our love, prayers, thanks, and blessings to you all,

Cameron, and Jocelyn (and Caleb and Hope)

Yes. Right now the Parish of Herne Hill is in a transition period. Our vicar of the past 17 years has moved on, leaving the legacy of a large, thriving church community, at St Saviour’s and here at St Paul’s. We’ve grown a lot over the years, there are all sorts of things going on, within and reaching out from, the church community. We miss the Barkers greatly – I do! – but we’re keeping going, pulling together,

all of us volunteers playing our parts, caring for one another, and moving forward. And together we’re going through the very care-ful process of thinking and praying about how God is guiding us to find a new vicar to lead God’s church here, into the future as we’ve already heard from Mary.

Big change, saying goodbye to Cameron after such a long time of his faithful and loving leadership, and there’s more change ahead, during the vacancy, and in due course  with the appointment of a new vicar next year. How do we keep going, how do we keep growing & thriving, in and through this transition?

It’s into this context that the preaching team – that’s the 4 Readers Adjoa Adrian Simon & Trevor, plus Ben and I as assistant ministers, chose Paul’s letters to the Christians in Colossae and in Ephesus, the Colossians and Ephesians, to focus on this term. We’re expecting these letters will enlighten and speak to us, about how to be Christians, how to be church, in this situation, the importance of unity, of each person playing their part and caring for one another, and so on. Well, who knows what riches God has in store for us as we read his word together?!

It’s thought Paul wrote both letters while imprisoned in Rome in about AD60. Both places are in what’s now Turkey,

Ephesus on the coast and Colossae about 100 miles inland. There is much speculation about what if any issues each church was facing that Paul’s letters might particularly address, but regardless of that, most likely both letters were circular ones, for passing on

to other new Christian communities so that all might benefit from them. The passage we’ve just heard read from Colossians chapter 1 is headed up Thanksgiving and Prayer. In it, we learn a lot about prayer, and thanksgiving, and about faith, hope, love, joy, endurance, patience, the gospel, grace, redemption, forgiveness, growth and bearing fruit. It’s jam packed! There’s so much we could think about this morning! But the ideas we’re going to look at a bit more closely, are

What Paul thanks God for, for the Colossians, and

what Paul asks God for, for the Colossians.

And why? Why were these things important to Paul? Why did they matter? And do they matter for us, today in the Parish of Herne Hill in 2017?

First then, what Paul thanks God for, for the Colossians. Verses 3 to 8. “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you…”

Paul thanks God, for their faith, (& their love, and their hope), based on  what he calls the Good News or Gospel, of God’s grace, verses 5,6&7. “You have already heard the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you” he says. The Colossians responded to this Gospel or Good News with faith in Jesus Christ. They heard about it and understood it.

What is this good news or gospel truth? (I’ll answer that in a minute!)

Over the past few weeks, the summer series we’ve followed, has been on the Exodus. That’s the story of Moses leading God’s people the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, toward freedom in the Promised Land. Those Old Testament stories we heard, have raised some questions, about God favouring one people over another, about his judgement, about what God is really like and how that fits with what we read in the New Testament, this morning being a great example, about Jesus, and about the good news of God’s grace, forgiveness and love.

There’s not time to tackle all of that properly, but I do want to try and take a quick look at the overall big sweep of the story of the Bible as a whole, because that is the story of God’s saving love. The Bible is in the end, a single great story that comes to a climax in Jesus Christ. Here’s how preacher Tim Keller summarises the story of the Bible, very helpfully I think:

“God created the world and created us to serve and enjoy him and the world he had made. But human beings turned away from serving God; they sinned, went their own way and marred themselves and the creation. Nevertheless, God promised not to abandon them (though it was his perfect right) but to rescue them, despite the guilt and condemnation they were under and despite their inveterately flawed hearts and character. To do this, first God called out one family in the world to know him & serve him. Then he grew that family into a nation; entered into a binding personal covenant relationship with them; and gave them his law to guide their lives, the promise of blessing if they obeyed it. And he gave them a system of offerings and sacrifices to deal with their sins and failures. However, human nature is so disordered, flawed and sinful that, despite all these privileges and centuries of God’s patience, even his covenant people – who had received the law, promises & sacrifices – even they turned away from him. It looked hopeless for the human race. But God became flesh and entered the world of time, space, and history  in Jesus. He lived a perfect life, but then he went to the cross to die. When he was raised from the dead, it was revealed that he had come to fulfil the law with his perfect life, to offer the final sacrifice, taking the curse that we deserved and thereby securing the promised blessings for us by free grace. Now those who believe in him are united with God despite our sin, and this changes the people of God  from a single nation-state into a new international, multi-ethnic fellowship of believers in every nation and culture. We now serve him and our neighbour as we wait in hope for Jesus to return and renew all creation, sweeping away death and all suffering.”

That’s the big story of the Bible, and it’s the context for what we read here in Colossians about the Good News or gospel, of God’s grace. The good news is that Jesus Christ was God made man, who came to live, and die, and rise again, for us, so that we might be forgiven and brought back into relationship with God. To live as we were made for, to worship and serve and enjoy God and his creation.

And Paul thanks God that the Colossians responded to that good news/gospel with faith. He says in verse 6 they heard it and understood it.

And we can too. We too can hear, know, understand the good news, the best ever news, of God’s love and forgiveness

and grace in Jesus Christ. To quote Tim Keller again: We can know that we are more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe, yet more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. (Repeat)

Loved and accepted – that’s the good news, that’s the gospel! And Paul thanks God for the Colossians hearing and responding to it with faith. So the question for us today is: How will we respond to God’s love in Jesus Christ? Will we respond with faith?

Some of us here this morning, may say yes, I’ve heard it, I know it, understand it! I get it! While others of us are not at all sure, have lots of questions and doubts. Whatever mix of faith and doubt each of us has, or wherever we are on our journey, let’s all keep asking, thinking, questioning, grappling, talking, reading about this? Especially if you don’t really understand it, or get it, you might like to take one of these little booklets called Why Jesus, that explains this good news, very clearly. Don’t miss out what might be the chance of a lifetime, to hear, to understand and know, this good news, of God’s love and acceptance!

Secondly then, what does Paul ask God for, for the Colossians? verses 9 to 13

Paul prays that God will fill them with the knowledge of his will, with wisdom and understanding.

They’ve obviously known and understood something, a lot, as he has just thanked God for their faith in Jesus Christ. But the fact that he’s praying for more knowledge, wisdom and understanding, shows that this is something that needs to increase and grow, for ALL of us. It’s a process. And it takes time. It takes time to understand the will of God, time to learn more about what he wants, what the Bible teaches, what’s the best way to live, and so on.

But we CAN grow in this sort of understanding!

Do we need wisdom in making a big decision?...

Do we need help with a difficult relationship?...

Do we need hope when something has gone wrong?...

Do we not know which way to turn?

Like the Colossians, we can grow with knowledge, wisdom and understanding from God. With intention, with time, practice, and effort. There are lots of ways of doing this, of course. We grow in knowing God coming together to worship on a Sunday. We grow in knowing God reading the Bible and praying at other times, at home, or on our commute, or wherever, during the week. A great way of growing in knowing God is with others – you’ll see there’s a green flyer in your service sheet about the small groups there are in the parish, where people get together to read, discuss, question, explore, chat, pray, support one another in faith. Look what people say about their groups:

“Even after all these years, I just keep learning more about who God is, and how I can respond.”
“Lots of encouragement”

“To grapple with some issues about Christianity” and “We laugh a lot!”

Might that be one way you could try out, to grow? Details on the flyer for who to get in touch with to find out more.  Or nab me, any time.

Growing in the knowledge of God  is only one of the things Paul asks God for, for the Colossians. Another is the effect that this knowledge will have.“bearing fruit in every good work”

And elsewhere in these verses we read of the love, hope, joy, patience, endurance the Colossians showed. Paul prays that their knowledge won’t just be a matter of theoretical learning, but will change their lives! Change their hearts!

In another one of his letters, to the Galatian Christians, Paul speaks of the fruit of the Spirit, as love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, humility and self control. That’s not just a nice sounding list of positive traits, it’s a raft of behaviours to keep our lives afloat! Imagine, if instead of life provoking anger, bitterness, hatred, selfishness, greed, worry, all those things that pop out whenever there’s a chance – imagine if instead we were growing in love joy peace patience kindness and so on.That’s what Paul was praying for, for the Colossians.

And his prayer tells us, what’s the key to it all. The key to growing in faith, and to growing in living that sort of fruitful life. Verse 11 says it comes from the power of (God’s) glorious might

It’s not just a matter of us trying harder. It’s God’s power at work in us! When we accept his love and grace in our lives and hearts, we start to change. This isn’t a matter of duty or compliance. Look at verse 10 live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way.

Paul doesn’t say anything about duty or even obedience to God, only about pleasing Him.

If someone says, will you bring me breakfast in bed? How will you respond? If you don’t care for them, if you’re indifferent to them, or only obligated to them, you’re not going to want to do it.

You might do it, but it would be a chore and you’d begrudge it. Their happiness at having breakfast in bed would be had at the expense of your happiness. That’s compliance, that’s duty, doing what you have to or ought to do.

BUT if you love the person who’s asking, if you respect and value them, if you hold them dear, then their pleasure is yours! When they’re unhappy, you’re unhappy. When they’re happy, you are too! It’s a joy to serve them! Giving is then a pleasure, for them and for you. The pleasure of giving pleasure.

When we really grasp how wonderful Christ’s sacrifice for us is, his death on the cross for us,

when we understand the depth of his love and forgiveness and grace, then we’ll want to live to please him! Paul says, if you know God’s grace, if you know the depth of God’s love and forgiveness reached out to us, freely given, not earned, then living to please him becomes a pleasure and a joy. And so we grow, in his strength, in those fruits of love, joy peace and so on. It pleases him, and it pleases us.

To finish: John Newton, the captain of slave ships in the 1700s who became a minister and wrote the wonderful hymn Amazing Grace; he also wrote this:

“Our pleasure and our duty,
Though opposite before;
Since we have seen his beauty,
Are joined, to part no more:
It is our highest pleasure,
No less than duty’s call;
To love him beyond measure,
And serve him with our all.”

And so let’s pray: This morning, as we come to Communion, the symbols of Chris’s life death and resurrection for us, we ask you God for more faith, for more understanding and knowledge, and also for a deeper appreciation of your love and grace, to change our hearts, and to live for you. Individually, and as a church community at this time in our parish. Amen.