Celebrating God ~ Serving Together

​Rev Indrea Alexander 

Deuteronomy 34:1-12, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8, Matthew 22:34-46

That gospel reading pretty much sums up the Mission Action Plan we are putting into action together from today, a plan to love God and love your neighbour.
 
For months we have been working toward todays fresh commitment to being a church in growth. A church growing in our spirituality - in our love, understanding and commitment to God. And growing in our love of neighbour, through stronger, life-giving relationships within and beyond the church.
 
The draft Mission Action Plan distributed a few weeks ago has been tweaked in response to people’s comments, then further adapted and formally adopted by Vestry on Tuesday.
 
You will see that Vestry has chosen a new strapline for the parish: “Celebrating God ~ Serving Together.” This will go on our parish letterhead, our parish publicity, our parish magazine for the next 17 months as a snappy little summary of our intentions. I hope it gets written on our hearts and minds as well, helping to guide all we do.
 
“Celebrating God” ties with the gospel’s call to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind - the first and greatest commandment. When we love someone who loves us we want to spend time with them, chat with them, bounce things off them. We want to show them our love, through our words and actions. And we rejoice in being the focus of their love. Unearned. Unconditional.
 
God is the ultimate trustworthy soul mate. God delights in time spent with us one to one. God welcomes us sharing our joys whether expressed in words or song, art or a bubbling spirit. God also welcomes our concerns, pain and sorrow, whether we express it in words or in the groans and sighs of a heart weighted down beyond words. God responds with compassion. Loving us, hearing us, and offering salvation - salve for the deepest wounds of our body, mind and spirit. This is the God we will be celebrating together.
 
One of the three goals we share in the Mission Action Plan is to increase spiritual growth. That needs to happen in each of us, growth that draws us into the embrace of God the Father, disciples us into the ways of Jesus Christ the Son, and opens us to the Holy Spirit.
 
Together in the coming 17 months, we will offer and participate in Bible studies, explore aspects of Christian faith and life, discuss topical issues, and seek to respond to the questions and concerns that emerge as we share the ups-and-downs of our faith journeys.
 
Together we will seek to celebrate and honour God, worshipping in ways that are deeply authentic, and which resonate and emanate from the core of our being. Whether in song or silence, hymns or contemporary song. And we will seek to strengthen the skills and confidence of all who aid our worship.
 
And as we experience fresh spiritual growth, we will be reminded afresh that life with Jesus is better than life without Jesus, and we will want more keenly to share that reality with others.  
 
As the letter to the Thessalonians expressed it, we have been entrusted with the gospel to share, and “So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.”
 
That’s part of the “loving our neighbour” bit of the gospel. We will want to introduce others to Jesus because they have become dear to us. We will want them to know the embrace of God the Father. We will ant them to experience the renewal of the Holy Spirit. We will want them to know we care enough about them to share, however inadequately, the God we know, the faith we treasure. And we will share ourselves with them.
 
And it’s not only people beyond the church that need to know we care. Another of our goals is to improve pastoral care. To build stronger relationships between church members.
 
Do you like it if I greet you by name? Do you notice if I don’t?  Do you wear your name tag visibly so I and others can learn your name (or to provide a handy little reminder if we have a blank moment!) And now, with the boot on the other foot, do you know the names of everyone in the pews nearest you? Do you know the names of all the St Stephen’s and St Andrew’s regulars? I don’t, and I have had 11 months to try.
 
As our church grows, we will not be able to know everybody. We may or may not know most names or recognise most faces as the congregation grows to 84 to 184 or wherever the number get up to over the next few years. There will be some discomfort in that.
 
So together we are committing in our Mission Action Plan to building stronger relationships between church members in all sorts of different ways. The first item on the list under that heading is to have a men’s breakfast. And wonderfully, the men have got that underway and it’s happening in two weeks time on Saturday Nov 11. And then a couple of women said, “what about us?” so a dessert evening is being held the night before, on Friday Nov 10. If everybody at those events learns just one more name, or chats with even one person they don’t usually chat to, we will be on our way. Building stronger relationships between church members. And maybe a fair few of the people will invite a friend. I’m going, it’s going to be good, why don’t you come with me… and we are extending our care beyond ourselves.
 
Through the next 17 months we are also committing together to try other things, a cuppa or BBQ with people on the church roll in your neighbourhood. Maybe sociable tables for six, with people choosing whether to be a host or a guest at a meal for six.
 
In addition to those informal options, next year there will also be an invitation to commit to care cells of up to eight people. People who may choose to phone each other monthly, maybe go out occasionally, but definitely to pray for each other every week. There will be more about this initiative in the new year, along with steps toward a new pastoral care team.
 
I hope some of these things make sense to you, make you hopeful, maybe spark some joy. I also hope that you will prayerfully support new initiatives, even ones that aren’t your cup of tea. They may be just what someone else absolutely needs. Some of the things we venture won’t work, and we can learn from that. But that’s not a reason not to try.
 
A team of people have offered this week to co-ordinate an exhibition of nativity scenes in the chapel for five days in December. You may have a nativity set you would like to lend, beautiful, quirky, large or in a nutshell. The team will meet soon and decide how best this event can share the heart of Christmas - God’s gift of Jesus Christ - with children and adults in the community. Pray for them. Pray for this initiative, and pray that God will touch people’s lives through it.
 
And finally, I’ve mentioned prayer a couple of times, and prayer cards will be given to everyone today to use at home, with the invitation for Ashburton Anglicans to “Pause and pray at 12:12 every day”. You may simply take a moment to use the now familiar Prayer for Growth, or you may like to use the prayer prompts on the back, pray for one of the parish goals, or pray for upcoming events.  
 
In todays first reading, Moses, who had led the people of Israel for 40 years, was given a glimpse of the promised land, and then was told by the Lord, “I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.” We may or may not personally see the fruit of our coming months and years of work and prayers, but let us commit afresh today to Celebrating God and Serving Together.
 
We pray:
God of mission,
who alone brings growth to your Church,
send your Holy Spirit to give
Vision to our planning,
Wisdom to our actions,
Joy to our worship,
and Power to our witness.
Help our church to grow
in Numbers,
in Spiritual Commitment to you,
and in Service to our local community,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.