My Last Sermon at St Mary's



Seventh Sunday after Trinity
Sermon by Revd Mark Coleman, Rector of West Derby, St Mary and St James’

I am full of mixed feelings. We are sad to leave West Derby after nearly 7 years, but excited about beginning a new ministry in Rochdale. We will miss you and Liverpool. But after 13 years working in this area – I was 5 ½ years at St Christopher, Norris Green,  - it’s time to explore new horizons. I thank God for all that we have done together – in worship, welcome of strangers, in service, in Christian fellowship. These last few weeks I have been reflecting on and reliving the many good memories. (I think there is “a do” afterwards so please do stay as there are many thank-yous we would like to make.)

People have asked why we are going to Rochdale. It’s place of social and economic need where I hope we can make a positive difference - life expectancy is 7 years lower than here. It’s a place of many faiths, I want to help build good relationships between the faiths. It has a town centre, and I want to help the Church be present be a positive presence in the town. I will be vicar of Rochdale, St Chad’s and vicar of St Mary’s in the Baum.

Just imagine !
If the world was like our holy communion service today. Imagine if all the people of Gaza and Israel got together round a big table and shared bread. Imagine if young and old, male and female, black and white, gay and straight, rich and poor, said hello to each other and recognised we had the same father in heaven. Imagine if all the different sorts of Ukrainians shared the peace together. Imagine if all the delicious foods of the world were shared and everyone had enough to eat – just  as we bring up the bread and wine and distribute it to each equally with favour. 

Of course, a lot of the time it is like that, at some times and in many places. But if you listen to the news it feels like not many good things are going on, and our soul shrivels up. We get defensive. It’s understandable, but it’s wrong.

But in churches like St Mary’s (and also Rochdale Parish Church and St Mary’s in the Baum) the imagined becomes real. We bring the heavenly to earth in our liturgy – we make it real. We anticipate the promises and hope of God when all things will be made just right.

Abundance
What stories have you got when everything all came together and things worked out just right. Can you think of times when there wasn’t a lot and suddenly there was enough. When gloom and grumpiness turned to smiles and possibilities. When people shared and there was enough, even too much. Even 12 baskets too much. These are times of abundance

I picked up some stories at the Church’s summer fair yesterday - on a wet August Saturday! Now it is true that the weather kept many away, but still I heard stories of abundance. What happened was very simple. You have all seen it many times but have you really looked ? People came together to do something – money was raised, and newcomers were welcomed. People listened to each other share stories of sorrow and joy – there were enough friendly faces and kind eyes. Here are a few stories of abundance. 

  • ·         Someone told me what they had seen on TV. BBC Two's Secret History of Our Streets told the story of how a group of pioneering residents took on the Glasgow Corporation in a battle to save their homes. Little people took on the big boys in suits and won back their homes.
  • ·         As the rain came down I remembered when we hosted the fund for the flood victims in Deysbrook
  • ·         As I looked at the pubs I recalled when a few people from the Churches in the area got together to start Street Pastors.
  • ·         I spoke to some of the regulars from the 8am service and thought with a smile how our monthly breakfast has grown.
  • ·         I walked past the big hamper which gathers the food for the Foodbank, and I remembered how a few items from many of us keeps many people away from hunger.
  • ·         As I looked at the cakes in the St Mary’s Millennium Centre I recalled other events when people bring food for a bring and share supper and there’s plenty. I remembered the Women’s Fellowship and how the simple bringing together of some of the older people of the parish in a room in the centre with tea and biscuits creates joy and laughter.
In Church, in the wider world, when people come together to do a good thing, to do a Godly thing something special happens. It becomes more than the sum of its parts. This is abundance

Sometimes we put blocks in the way of abundance. We mess it up. Now I do this and you do this. These are some of the blocks and barriers: When we don’t share –for fear that there won’t be enough for No. 1. When we stay at home – for fear that it’s a dangerous world out there. When we create boundaries and walls and gates – whether in Israel, or West Derby. When we say you are different from me, we worship an other God. We have to look at Gaza and Israel and other places where hate divides and weep, as people suffer.

What Abundance is not
It’s not always easy for us in the UK. Those crowds who followed Jesus were hungry – for food and perhaps a way out of all that was crushing their spirit. We sometimes suffer from the wrong sort of abundance – too much stuff, too little time, basic needs met but still something missing. We need to re-boot, send ourselves to the life Laundry, de-clutter our lives ! Some of us in the rich nations are suffocating ! Some of us in all parts of the world are starving ! Some of us are so busy we don’t have time to think. That’s overload.
I do want to say to those in leadership in the Church, those who run things. Don’t do too much, enjoy the people you work with, see who else you can draw in to share the burden and bring. That’s the nature of the feast with Jesus – there’s always some new to come to the table. And we diminish our Father in heaven when we allow a clique to form. I don't see that at St Mary's - there's a good welcome - but it's always a risk.

Round us – both in Rochdale and West Derby – there are real material needs which need satisfying, and lots of isolation, where love and kindness are required.
The Gospel Story
The disciples wanted to go home and put their feet up. They wanted to change the channel – they had had enough of the clamouring crowds. But Jesus expected the disciples to come up with food and he sat the crowd down. We know what happened next – he took the bread and the fish, and broke the loves and gave them to the disciples for distribution. It was heavenly meal – and there was enough. More than enough. That’s what heavenly meals are like. You are full with out being stuffed and there is enough to share with someone new.

It’s interesting that Jesus doesn’t feed the people himself – he gets the disciples to do it. That’s us – our ancestors. It’s like he knows our psychology. We say it can’t be done – but when it’s happened we realise it isn’t so hard and we can say thank you God.

Our own slender resources are enough.
It’s not like the Gospel from Mathew 14 ends with the crowds getting food. It goes on and rams home the point:
  • ·         All ate and were filled
  • ·         And then they took up what was left over and the broken pieces
  • ·         And then twelve baskets over
  • ·         And then those who were ate were about 5k
  • ·         And then not including women and children.
This is what happens with Holy Meals. There is plenty. A feeling of plenty even if not enough

The Future is now
This Holy Communion which we share at St Mary’s whether at 8, 10 and 4 is an anticipation of God’s reign. It brings a bit of the future, God’s future into the present. We share in that future when have we love God with all our heart and soul and our neighbours as ourselves. This holy meal is what will unite us when 40 miles apart (that’s all it is from Rochdale to West Derby). I shall pray for you, please pray for us.

Our Eucharist is also a thanksgiving – that’s what the difficult to pronounce Greek word means. When we thank God for what we have, we appreciate better what we have and the cup overflows.
And how much we are blessed with – I have made a list. If I look at you all, the lovely building, the Church school, the volunteers, the groups, the pastoral visitors, the counsellors, the grass cutters, the tea makers I see an army of blessing providers. And the many ways in which this parish church welcomes so many for Baptism, Wedding and funerals. I thank God for all that has had His life and energy and care and hospitality.

The genius of Church life is not our genius – we are not clever, but rather when we come together in love and peace in the name of Jesus something happens – the whole adds up to more than the parts. Much more. What we have is not ours – we share it for the good of all, the wider church.
Our God is a God of life giving abundance. I thank God for that abundance and what we have experienced together. May we do all we can to bring the abundant life to those who are in need of it. As the prophet Isaiah says “everyone who thirsts come to the waters; and you that have no money, come buy and eat !"  May God bless you and draw you still deeper into his generous life.

Mark Coleman
3 August 2014
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Churches not Prisons

Building the temple

11 Now the word of the Lord came to Solomon, 12 ‘Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, obey my ordinances, and keep all my commandments by walking in them, then I will establish my promise with you, which I made to your father David. 13 I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.’
1 Kings 6
In the readings set for tonight’s Evensong we have a story of a temple and a story of a prison. The building of a fine temple and the escape from a prison, a dark and unpleasant place. We have two places as far apart as you could imagine. Each man made, each at opposite ends of the scale of desirability. We would like to visit a temple, we do not want to be in a prison.

Buildings have been very much part of my ministry here. They continue to be a big matter, perhaps the biggest concern for the PCC. Just a couple of weeks ago lead was stolen off the roof and so much work has gone into emergency repair, insurance claim, CCTV, Police and the like. Buildings take time and money. It must be nigh on two hundred thousand that has been spent on repairs to walls, the roof, heating, organs over the last 7 years. And then there are the routine running costs of maintenance - heating, insuring, etc.

Many would say it’s worth it. The young couple who come to St Mary’s holding hands and gaze in wonder up to the rafters. The many who want their family funerals to be here, because they say it looks like “a proper church”. A Diocesan group has looked at churches in the dioceses and considered what might be the criteria to be used by PCCs and others as to whether that Church should be closed. Up the top of the list is keeping what they call “Iconic Buildings”. St Mary’s is surely an iconic building.
 
But what does the building mean? What does it signify or represent? Buildings always say something. We can think what they mean to us - we should also consider what they mean to others.  For many of us this building we are in tonight says come and wonder before God, and share in the meal that our Lord Jesus gave us, come to the table. You are welcome.

But I remember seeing a play at The Everyman Theatre a few years ago when someone referred to our Anglican Cathedral as “A big F*** Off Cathedral”. I don’t like to think about it but it is surely true – at times in the past and perhaps even in the present Church people and Church buildings have said to the outsiders you are not good enough and have said to the insiders – we are the elect, the chosen.

St Mary’s is a fine building - not quite as fine though as Solomon’s temple. What a fine temple it was. There was a lot of gold!

21 Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold, then he drew chains of gold across, in front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. 22 Next he overlaid the whole house with gold, in order that the whole house might be perfect; even the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold.

The Old Testament scholar Ceresko[1] tells how with the death of David, Solomon moved ruthlessly to consolidate his power and establish a firm grip on the apparatus of government. He introduced new taxes and conscripted workmen from all over Israel. He consolidated his power. The temple and his palace were extremely luxurious. Ceresko says this was consolidate Solomon’s monarchic power and it represented a concrete visual statement of the shape and strength of the new socio-economic, religious and political order which Solomon had established.

If we agree with that then Solomon’s temple is like the Shard or Canary Wharf. It says that someone is very rich and wants to make a statement. If you are a feminist or a Freudian you may have something else to add about who has built it and why….!

Yes, I think we must be suspicious of the way human power and earthly empires become gods in their own right. We have seen with horror the human propensity to stake out our territory and to deny others entry. It happens in Israel/Palestine/Gaza. It happens in local communities. But this is I fear too cynical.

The giants have been in Liverpool and Grandma has been sleeping in St George’s Hall. Buildings, perhaps funded by the fruits of slavery are redeemed by the public uses they are put to.

When the people fill the building, and the people’s praises lift the roof, this Church is a temple where the living God is worshipped. The dead are remembered but this is not a mausoleum because the ways of Jesus are talked about and stories and liturgies shape lives in the here and now. Things happen here; people talk, sing, lament, laugh, and cry. People hear the word of God and share the sacrament of Holy Communion. In a place of beauty, God’s beautiful people gather to remember and to commit afresh to do what Mother Teresa called “Something Beautiful for God”.

Another Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann has another take on Solomon’s Temple.[2] He says that from Sinai on Israel anticipates a full and rich life with their God, Yahweh. Buildings like Solomon’s temple are a theological statement that Yahweh will be with Israel in all circumstances. There is an accent on the visual – the whole system of tabernacle, priesthood, mercy seat and sacrificial system is both visual and material. You can see it, perhaps smell it. He says that worship that was visual, active dramatic and all-comprehending was a thing of joy for Israel.[3] Yes there may have been a source of power for the Jerusalem political establishment – but that was never the whole story.

Buildings are on my mind as I prepare to go to Rochdale where I shall have two churches in my care – St Chad and St Mary in the Baum. I shall be living adjacent to another, redundant, church, St Edmund’s. There is some fine architecture in all three.

When we worship and sense our freedom to respond to God’s call to us, we cannot but remember those who are in prison. As part of the disproportionately high UK prison population or, in these days, the urban war-zone prison of Gaza. We pray that they may know the beauty of God, somehow.

I hope that our Churches in Rochdale and Liverpool may be places which draw people in to worship that is engaging and transformative. I hope that we facilitate wonder and express welcome. I thank God for all our Architects and musicians which assist people to grow in the love of Jesus and to live lives that are Jesus shaped.







[1] Anthony R. Ceresko, Introduction to the Old Testament: A Liberation Perspective (Maryknoll, N.Y. : London: Orbis Books, 1992).
[2] Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy, Pbk. Ed., with CD-ROM (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2005).
[3] Ibid., 669.



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Radical Abundance

I came across this You Tube presentation by David Korten recently and I am really enjoying his writings and talks. It's all in the past - but this is what the flier says:

God created the earth and entrusted its care to us

As we rethink how to grow, build, supply, consume, dispose, and recycle everything in our lives, we often fail at partnering with the marginalized and powerless, and thus adversely affect them. Building sustainable communities goes hand-in-hand with thoughtful building of infrastructures and physical spaces. Is there a theological basis for living abundantly while striving for justice and sustainability?
In 2009, Trinity Institute will explore sustainability through the lens of liberation theology, which views Jesus not only as redeemer but also liberator of the oppressed. It posits a vision of Christians working together toward social justice by considering all people as full partners in healing our planet and our communities, regardless of their social or economic status. Only in striving for sustainable relationships, rather than accumulating and consuming more for ourselves, can we discover true abundance.
Through previously recorded keynote speeches and panel discussions by leading theologians and grassroots activists, this two-and-a-half-day conference will consider radical ideas about abundance, sustainability, and well-being. You will be invited to share your own experiences and solutions with fellow attendees during small group break-out sessions.  Keynote speakers include Majora Carter, Timothy J. Gorringe, David C. Korten, Nestor O. Miquez and Miriam MacGillis.

I can recoomed the Korten talk. I shall check out the others.... but before I do I want to share the thought that has got clearer to me after his talk and thinking about the title of this conference: we do so need to imagine how things could be better in a sustainable, time-rich, new economy society. We need to talk about it with others and get all of us away from the stories that close down any hopeful option for the future. I'm for abundance (and that's different from shopping...)
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The psychology of blame

The very idea of being "on the hook" makes me wince so the thought of being "off the hook"it is very attractive. I have been reflecting during this time of study leave how we often create a mental world where whatever's wrong is the other (blighter)'s fault.

The trouble with my area of study is that it doesn't really allow for "the other". Christianity says we are all made in the image of God, and ecology says we are all part of the earth. So blaming the other guy gets difficult. The other is our brother/sister or a member of the same community of creation. True, their attitude and behaviour may be what Christians call sinful, but we can't write them off. There will be a mote in  my own eye for sure if not a plank !

Writing up the research I have been doing with my excellent co-researchers in Liverpool reminds me of this. At various times our conversation would turn to those Chinese building all those power stations, or the madness of consumerism, as if we weren't part of the problem too. (to be sure tho' -  much of the time we were very self-critical. And painfully so ..)

It's very hard to live with climate change and to be reminded that we are part of the problem. We want to be off the hook. An article on nuclear power today in the Guardian suggests we project our fear and anger elsewhere. We blame nuclear power rather than the more humdrum coal.

We would do well to be aware of the games we play to get us off the hook. Sure we're guilty - but there's freedom in the honesty of facing these truths. Then we can act responsibility and hopefully. I pray for the grace to be aware and honest.





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Changing the truth - Peer pressure

Two strands of thought have come together for me this morning. I was reading about how Margaret Thatcher, in 1990 made the conservative case for climate action but by 2003 had shifted her position.

In 1990 Global warming was, she argued, “real enough for us to make changes and sacrifices, so that we do not live at the expense of future generations.”. But by 2003 she was calling climate action a “marvelous excuse for supra-national socialism". This is all recorded on the Grist website.

Why the shift for Margaret ? Is the answer peer pressure?  It's not just politicians who follow the pack, we all do. To step outside of the reassurance and identity of the group you belong to, takes courage. It seems that Margaret Thatcher was influenced by right wing think-tanks. And I don't imagine that the ordinary conservative voter wanted to hear about the need to change lifestyle. (None of us do.... )

The other strand was hearing about Hannah Arendt's and the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961.  I understand that her thesis, as presented in her journalism then in the book "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A report on the banality of evil" is that ordinary people who carry out the law as it is and conform to mass opinion, are part of the evil. (I feel more comfortable using the word "Sin". It's in the same ball-park as evil 'though)

Behind this is a truth. We often do a lot of bad stuff just following the crowd.

We can scape-goat our politicians to try and make us feel better - but the truth is that we are each prone to doing nothing, changing our minds, and going with the pack.

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Staying in a French Village

Wendy and I have spent our first night at Courcelles des Montbard with the kind hospitality of the villagers. The heating was not working at the house we had booked to stay in. So we were fed and lodged at a neighbor's home.

It's been such a privilege to receive the kindness of these strangers. When we say thank you they say "C'est normal" and we pick up how much these villagers value community - and regret too much "individualisme".

Ironically the advent of second homes - such as we will be living in - has not been good for villages like this. Nor has big industrial farming (we have heard about the virtually disappearance of the swallows) or supermarkets (no shops in the village).

So it seems to me that the hospitality we have received is at the same time both human kindness and a political protest against all that atomizes and damages society.

Behind the quiet exterior of this pretty village lurks human kindness and concern.


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Dust, glorious dust !

Dorothee Soelle in her sadly now out of print book "to work and to love - a theology of creation" takes as a maxim that we are made from dust. When we do not take this into account in our theology we
get trapped in an "ideological superstructure".

Here in Turkey, enjoying the image of my friends' cat wallowing in the good dust. She has no truck with superstructures !




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