Cultivating Christians

From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul

Cultivating Christians: 19th June 2011: am: The Very Revd Frank Nelson

• Psalm 8
• Genesis 1: 1 – 2: 4a
• 2 Corinthians 13: 11 - 13
• Matthew 28: 16 - 20

“Go therefore and make disciples…” Jesus’ command at the end of Matthew’s Gospel is one that has inspired the Church through the ages. These last few verses of the Gospel are read on Trinity Sunday because they contain one of the few specific references to the Trinity found in the Bible: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But today I want to talk, not so much about the Trinity, as about the making of disciples enjoined on us by Jesus. And I want to do so in the context of a book we clergy are required to read in preparation for the Diocesan Clergy Conference in August, and our own trinity of concepts in relation to this Cathedral.

Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk are co-authors of the book ‘The Missional Leader” – both are North American, neither is Anglican. I gave an inward groan when first told of the expectation on us to read the book, and even more so when I first started reading it. Was this just one more example of an American evangelical church experience being foisted on us? But, as I read more, I began to feel a sense of familiarity. These two men were talking about something that resonates strongly with me and what we have in the Anglican Church and this Cathedral – even if, as sometimes seems to happen, we need an outsider to remind us of what we easily take for granted.

Their thesis is that we have become so obsessed with counting numbers that we have forgotten what is at the core of the Gospel. We have become side-tracked into encouraging a personal faith which is directed inwards and has little connection with the world in which we actually live; and that many programmes designed to promote church growth have been counter-productive, because they are not based on core Gospel principals.

At the heart of the Gospel is the statement by Jesus that the Kingdom of God is near, is upon us. In the few short years in which Jesus was around he spoke about and lived out what this meant. He called for a complete re-imagining what life in God was all about. Jesus did not run programmes, he invited people to join him, to follow him, to do what he was doing. This included regular prayer and worship – remember how he went off up into the hills to pray, how he taught his disciples to pray, how he spent so much time in the Temple? It included being open to people who were normally excluded from society – the lepers, the tax-collecters, the Samaritans and Gentiles. It meant keeping on learning as lives and society become shaped by the biblical values of loving God and neighbour.

Roxburgh and Romanuk talk about cultivating growth. The choice of the word cultivating is quite intentional; and involves far more than simply a one-off shot in the arm sort of process. Cultivation involves long-term commitment and sustained vision – sometimes not seeing the results of a particular action till years afterwards. Unless the essentials are attended to – weeding, watering, mulching – the fruit simply does not come.

Where I really engaged with Roxburgh and Romanuk was when they turned to consider the actual practices needed in the cultivation of a Christian life-style. Drawing deeply on the wisdom of accumulated Christian centuries they identify three particular areas: praying the Daily Offices, practicing hospitality and ongoing learning. Sound familiar? Of course it does. For the past six and a half years my mantra has been Worship, Hospitality and Education. On most of our Cathedral material, such as the Today sheet given to you this morning, we now have the words: Wellington Cathedral of St Paul: a sacred space of worship, hospitality and education. This trinity of ideas is as important for the individual Christian as it is for a congregation. Each contributes to the cultivation of a living, vibrant faith community that strives to live something of the Kingdom of God in the world.

Two things happen when we stop what we are doing and worship God. First, we are reminded that life is a gift from God to be embraced, a vocation to be lived in the presence of God and of others. Second, we realize how hard it is to keep any sort of disciplined prayer life because of all the other pressing issues around us. If we don’t make time for God through prayer and worship, how can we expect to know what God wants of us in the wider Kingdom picture? We live in a world which constantly tries to crowd out God. Each time we leave this Eucharist service we are sent out with the words: Go now to love and serve the Lord. And we reply: Amen, Yes, we go in the name of the Lord.

Worship of God, regular worship, daily worship, invites us, not to feel guilty, but to embrace the journey, the cultivation, of life lived in God’s presence.

In the ancient middle-east hospitality was an obligation imposed on all. It included welcoming the stranger, offering food and drink to every passer by, spending time in conversation which went beyond the weather. In our day hospitality rarely seems to go beyond the friendship encounters with those we get on with. Someone commented that when one sees a “Neighbourhood Watch” sign, it is a sure signal that the neighbours do not know each other! Among this week’s news stories was that of a man lying dead for twelve days before being found – in an environment intentionally set up to care for the elderly. Yes, I know that the individual chose to keep himself isolated – but the point remains, our modern way of life is geared not to interfere with others. Will you, today, deliberately speak to someone different this morning – a newcomer or someone you see regularly but have never spoken to? Listening to the stories of others is an integral part of hospitality, a simple enough thing in a world of increasing isolation and loneliness.

Later today we will enjoy a glass of wine over lunch in the Loaves and Fishes. I have found myself thinking a lot about that. Not that my tongue is hanging out for the wine, but wondering rather how it relates to other recent news stories about binge drinking and alcohol related deaths of young people. I suspect for most of us here today hospitality includes alcohol. There is an uncomfortable question lurking here. How hospitable are we if, when offering alcohol, there are those for whom it is a dangerous and potentially life-threatening drug?

The picture we get of Jesus in the Gospels is that he was forever teaching his disciples and the people who came to listen to him. How well do we know the story told in the Bible? Are we able to link the various threads – from Abraham to Moses to Ruth and David, Jezebel, Jeremiah, the Maccabees and on to Elizabeth? Have you ever really wrestled with the importance of the Exile to the ancient Jews, and wondered whether that story has anything to say to the people of Christchurch today? In our day, when there are so many options open to us, does the debate in Acts 15 about circumcision have anything to say to us? Do we simply discard Paul’s comments on marriage, on leadership, on generosity of spirit worked out in practical aid for the less well off – or do we take them on board, working them through till they become what shapes and fashions our thinking and living today?

On Trinity Sunday we could do a lot worse than to consider what it means to be a trinitarian congregation – worshipping, showing hospitality and ever open to learning more. Cultivation of worship, hospitality and education may not usher in the Kingdom of God, but it will certainly fashion and shape us into the mould of Jesus.