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The
Fifth Sunday In Lent
Readings:
Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:11-18; Hebrews 5:7-10; John 12:20-33 Jeremiah
was a prophet during the time leading up to the Babylonian exile.
It was a crucial time in the history of the people of Israel.
He tried to warn them of the impending disaster.
They obviously did not want to hear any bad news.
They threw him into prison for saying that the Babylonians would
defeat them in battle. Even
in prison he did not lose hope. He
remembered the covenant which God had made with his people; he looked
forward to a better time, a time of spiritual renewal.
A time when the covenant would be written, not on stone tablets,
but in the hearts of the people. A
time when they would be a real community of faith.
When God would "be their God, and they would be God's
people." What
a community of faith that would be! Imagine what this community would be
like if every member of our congregation were in a deep relationship
with God. We would be a
community that trusted in God. We
would be a community reaching out in faith to a needy world.
Such a community would transform our world.
So why can't we get to that point?
To
begin with we are constantly reminded of the decline in the Christian
faith. We grapple far more
with how to close churches than with how to fill them.
The so-called 'Generation X' is largely unchurched and sees
little need to change that. People
question whether ethical issues have any relevance in today's world. They certainly do not look to the church for leadership in
making such decisions. Closer
to home, our Diocese undertook a demographic study to look at the
effects of population shifts on our Anglican churches.
If we look at the numbers I suspect we will become depressed and
simply give up. It would be
easy for us at St. Francis to do so.
We live in a community that is growing, yet our congregation is
not keeping up with that growth. It
is not difficult to see why that might be.
We are surrounded by houses, apartment buildings, the mall.
We cannot be seen. With three congregations in our building, the signage reads
The Church Centre. That
does not provide people with a clear picture of who we are.
There is little curb appeal, with our aging building and
crumbling parking lot. On
a global level, there is strife and discord amongst the nations of the
world. We are a world at
war. Canadians have opted
for peace, yet we find ourselves involved in combat in Afghanistan.
Our young men face danger, and some lose their lives.
The
mark of our day is alienation. People
feel alone, isolated. The
family is no longer the strong social unit it once was.
Lines of communication so easily break down. Research into family life came up with the statistic that the
average couple probably spends between nine and twelve minutes a day in
meaningful conversation. We
joke about who controls the remote control on the TV.
Joke though it may be, it points out how little we actually
communicate with one another. Far
more time is spent in passive activities like watching television than
in intimate conversation with one another.
How many people actually sit down together for a family meal?
Our
anonymous society locks itself behind closed doors. Often we do not even know our neighbours.
It is easy to say that you love your neighbour if you never have
to deal with them. Yet to
be human is to seek the strength and support that comes from being part
of a community. Companionship
is a human need. And isn't
that a strength of the Christian faith?
Isn't that one of the wonderful things we have to offer?
So
how do we go about offering that sense of community to people? People are searching for faith.
There is no question about that.
The real question is, Will seekers become members in our
worshipping community? How
important is it to us to reach out beyond ourselves to newcomers?
How inclusive are we? Do
we make it easy enough and inviting enough for people to come in and
experience what we have found? Amongst
those who came to worship at Passover were some Greeks.
Romans were politically dangerous to the Jews, but Greeks were a
more subtle danger. As
proselytizers, they were a real threat to Jewish faith and culture.
Yet here they are seeking Jesus.
"We wish to see him," they said to Phillip.
Truly a watershed moment in history, for two worlds are
colliding! As they are looking for food for the soul, Jesus is preparing
to become bread for the world. Everything
we do as a church is done so that we will see Jesus - in our own lives
and in the lives of others. But
do we ever get in the way? Are
there times when Jesus cannot be seen because of the way we present him? Are we so set in our rigid patterns of worship that we become
unintelligible to the uninitiated?
Are we so tied to a book or a way of doing things or our own
needs that we fail to let someone in to see Christ?
Are we so afraid of being the wheat that we live death instead of
life? During
this Lenten season we have undertaken a study based on the movie, Chocolat.
The underlying theme of the study is change and growth.
Those are two very difficult topics for us, both on a personal
level but especially as a community of faith.
We joke about our inability as Anglicans to change.
But resistance to change is not just an Anglican trait.
It is a human trait. The
movie portrays the church and churchgoers as guilty, burdened people.
It is the Chocolaterie that is the place of warmth and
invitation. Vianne has this
way of making people feel as if they belong.
They feel listened to. And
in her presence they change and grow.
They blossom. We
know that we have something wonderful to share. Knowing that you are
loved by God, knowing that you are accepted, is a wonderful liberating
experience. Here at St.
Francis we have a gospel that is precious.
We have a wonderful faith, rich spirituality, fine liturgy, good
programs for our children, a growing choir, a committed congregation.
We have a community that shares the sorrows and joys of life.
But we keep all that very much to ourselves.
There
must be no foreigners when it comes to following Christ.
There must be no 'them' and 'us'.
We must be a welcoming community of faith.
When someone comes seeking, we must simply do what we do in our
own homes. We must open the
door and invite them in. If we need to, we must expand the table, add a leaf, lay some
more places, find some more chairs, become truly inclusive.
But more than that, we must become the kind of community which
reaches out beyond itself. We
must be sharers of this wonderful faith. We must seek Christ in others, and let Christ be seen in us.
Let us be renewed in the Spirit this Lent.
Open
our eyes Lord,
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