All Saints, Borehamwood: Fourth Sunday before Lent
“For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Cor 3.9)
It’s a particular privilege to be with you this morning to personally welcome you into the ‘new improved’ Deanery of Barnet – ‘improved’, that is, because since the beginning of this year, Elstree & Borehamwood are a part of it!
Last Autumn I was lucky enough to have a 3 month sabbatical, and returned to the parish and deanery having made one or two ‘notes to self’. One immediate (and so far long-lasting) effect was a more or less daily visit to the local gym which so far has been of great benefit. As well as providing me with a ready excuse to watch Loose Women every day on the TVs in front of the treadmills, I’m subjected to the continuous information feed of Sky News. But even if your news information intake has been of a more moderate level in recent weeks, you won’t have failed to notice that something has happened in Egypt. After 18 days of tumultuous public protests and hard, stubborn refusals to leave a position he's held for 30 years, Egypt’s President Mubarak gave up power on Friday, handing over authority to the nation's military leaders. In the latter days of the unrest, Mubarak's regime attempted to disconnect Egypt from the Internet. Why? Because they perceived that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter were key tools in marshalling support to topple their long-time ruler. (see subsequent article posted on 25th February 2011 by Sarah Charlton, Arab Revolt - Social Media and the People's Revolution.)
My apologies if this means little to you, but in its simplest definition, internet social networking is the means by which an unlimited number of individuals are able to exchange ideas, opinions and information across the globe within seconds, and with a wide mix of people. Three years ago, an activist started a page on Facebook in support of striking Egyptian workers. Since then that page has drawn in more than 60,000 people concerned with issues like free speech, the country's poor economy and a growing frustration with the government. The result was to motivate a vast body of people into action, not just on the internet, but in the real world too. And culminating in this last week, we have seen the amazing end results of that action.
St Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians “…we are God’s servants, working together….” He doesn’t exhort them to be motivated by social networking, or to be bound together by information imparted in 140 characters or less. Rather he calls them to recognize and realize (to ‘make real’ in concrete terms) their common purpose as disciples of Jesus, and members together of the body of Christ – despite their differences and rising above their disagreements.
The deanery of which you, this church, are now an important part, along with the other churches of the Elstree & Borehamwood team, is in itself a microcosm of the worldwide Anglican Communion. We’ve got anglo-catholics and we’ve got conservative evangelicals; we’ve got liberal-catholics and those of a central churchmanship; we’ve got open evangelicals and prayerbook churches; we’ve got forward in faith parishes and inclusive parishes; and we’ve even got one church that in practical terms refuses to have anything to do with the rest of us because we’re not ‘proper’ Christians. So welcome to a very diverse family! As you can imagine, when it comes to working together, we have to work quite hard. But because as a deanery we are committed to St Paul’s vision of being ‘God’s servants, working together’ it works, and we are seeing results.
Just this last week our Deanery Synod met for the second in a series of talks based on Bishop Alan’s 3-fold charge when he came to the Diocese - which has subsequently developed into the diocesan initiative Living God’s Love. We invited 3 speakers from dramatically different points on the Anglican spectrum – with potentially conflicting standpoints – and asked them to talk about what it means to Go Deeper into God, Transform our Communities, and Make New Disciples. The first speaker was Dr Mike Ovey, the Principal of Oak Hill Theological College. He spoke about those three priorities from the standpoint of a conservative evangelical. At the end of the evening, one of our anglo-catholic clergy said in all sincerity: “I think I must have been a conservative evangelical all my life because broadly speaking I agree with everything you have said tonight”
This last week our speaker was Bishop Lindsay Urwin, Administrator of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham – a polar opposite role to that of the Principal of Oak Hill in so many ways! The next day I had an email from one of our conservative evangelical clergy saying “Thank you so much for organizing last night. What an inspiring guy to listen to. So much of what he said moved me and challenged me”
“For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building”
I think it’s fair to say that the same rapid internet communication and networking that brought political change for Egypt has in recent years has played a part in undermining the ‘bonds of affection’ that held together our Anglican family across the world. But I think it’s also fair to say that, as we have experienced within our Deanery, if we are prepared to work with our differences and disagreements, then we are able to move beyond them and discover afresh our common purpose in Christ. Significantly, the things which Jesus speaks against in Matthew 5, this morning’s gospel passage, are all things which divide: anger, insult, unfaithfulness, falsity. They are all things which break down relationships, communities, churches, and nations – rather than build them up. And St Paul is unequivocal as he writes to the Corinthians that such divisiveness, whether it is based around individual personalities or particular issues within the Christian community, such divisiveness is clear and simple evidence of immaturity. “For as long as there is jealousy and quarrelling among you” he says “are you not of the flesh and behaving according to human inclinations?”
So how do we do it? Well in those few words of 1 Cor 3v9 Paul gives us the clue we need. “For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building”
This is God’s church, not ours. The Church, our mission and ministry, everything is always bigger than we are and our understanding of it. And when we forget that, when we believe we have the full and final answer, ‘the definitive position’, then in truth all we really have is an insipid arrogance that both harms and hinders our growth as the people of God. Sometimes as Christians we can be so busy being ‘right’, that we forget to be Christ-like.
Facebook and Twitter played a huge part in uniting the people of Egypt in a common purpose that brought revolutionary change. The Bishop’s 3-fold charge of Living God’s Love points us towards the common purpose which St Paul identifies as the Church’s life-blood, the Church's sign of maturity, and the Church's very reason for being: Go Deeper into God, Transform our Communities, and Make New Disciples…..
“For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building."
Amen
