Sermon: Acorns and Rubber Bands
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
Acorns and Rubber Bands 9 May 2010:am
The Revd Jenny Wilkens
- Acts 16:9-15
- Rev 21:10, 22-22:5
- John 14:23-29
http://wellingtoncathedral.org.nz/index.php/Sermons
Acorns and rubber bands - yesterday our Vestry had a morning of retreat together, and our discussions generated some interesting images and pictures of the church. Two that have stayed with me are acorns and rubber bands - more about them later.
Our Bible readings today too give us some very different but complementary pictures of the church of God, the community where God makes a home and expresses his continuing presence in the world.
I want to begin where it all ends, if you like, in that wonderfully extravagant picture from the book of Revelation of the holy city, the new Jerusalem, [which we're also singing about in some of our hymns today]. Those who first heard this read would have recognised a plethora of images from the Hebrew prophets, especially Ezekiel. For us city-dwellers, it's interesting that the future place of God's dwelling is described in terms of a city, but one where there are no problems with the street-lighting or security, for God and the Lamb are its light, there is nothing evil so there is no need for security, its gates are always open.
More than that, though, there is an abundance of imagery straight from the Garden of Eden. Here is the new creation, with rivers of the water of life, and the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. And indeed the nations of the earth and their kings will bring their glory into it, here is a vision of creation restored, of a world finally at peace and in harmony.
But what binds this picture together is the presence of God and the Lamb, the unmediated presence of God such as that no temple is needed, the vision of God where we may see God face to face and bow down in worship. Here is a community where God makes a home among his people, here is a vision which has inspired and encouraged Christians through the centuries, in good times and bad.
But the amazing thing is that this is not just a vision of 'pie in the sky when you die', this is not just a vision of one day in heaven. Rather, we are called to embody that vision by being communities of God's presence in our world now, both as the body of Christ together, and as individuals gifted with God's presence through his promised Holy Spirit.
This week on Thursday we will be celebrating the ascension of Christ, his return to the Father's glory, what has been termed Jesus' homecoming to the Father. And yet perhaps with Jesus' disciples, we might struggle with Jesus' words in our Gospel reading today: "I am going away, and I am coming to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father…(John 14:28).
How can we rejoice in the absence of Christ? You can imagine how bereft the disciples felt at Jesus' words. But they had to learn that Jesus' going to the Father would enable the sending of his Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God, to be with and in all God's people. "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. (John 14:23).
We here are a community where God makes a home among us, and in us. God dwells in this sacred space where our white marble floor in the sanctuary reminds us of the sea of crystal before the throne of God, another image from the book of Revelation. (Rev 4:6)
But equally God dwells in us as a people as we gather over the coffee cups in the Brian Davis Room or the Loaves & Fishes Hall, and seek to welcome those who come among us looking for a spiritual home, a place of belonging and family. One of the things mentioned yesterday was our hospitality as a Cathedral community to those who come to Wellington to work or to study, and how we can be a 'home away from home' for them.
On this Mothers' Day, I thank God for those here who are 'mothers' to those of us who no longer have our mother's physical presence with us, but are thinking of them today worshipping with all the company of heaven. So yes, God dwells in and through the family of God here.
But even more than that, when we go out of our glass Cathedral doors, we are reminded that God by his Spirit goes in us and with us. Those glass doors should remind us that when we are here worshipping and praying, we must never lose sight of the world God loves, the world into which we are sent in God's name.
This was something that Paul and Silas and Timothy learned by experience as they forged ever further in their travels across Turkey, and by trial and error sought to discern the leading of God's Spirit as to where next they should bring the good news of Jesus. I hope that when the pilgrimage group return from our travels that we will be able to speak from experience about the places mentioned in our reading from the book of Acts today with all its tricky names!
We know that this was a critical juncture of the missionary endeavour as the Gospel reached beyond Asia into Europe, and first into Macedonia. Paul and his companions recognised that God's Spirit went ahead of them, they had the good sense to look for what God was already doing, to look for where God was being worshipped, even if was down by the riverside among the women!
We hear of the strategic conversion of Lydia, a businesswoman at the top end of the fashion market, a woman no doubt of some means, and with good networks. 'The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul', she and her household were baptised, and she offers Paul and his team hospitality and a base in her home. God makes a home in Lydia's heart, and Paul and his companions by staying in her home incarnate God making a home midst his people.
While this was a great start at Philippi, we know things weren’t all plain sailing for Paul and the others later on. But yet Paul's letter to the Philippians reminds us that a church did grow at Philippi. Philippi was a Roman colony for ex-veterans, they were proud of being citizens of Rome. In the same way, the church at Philippi was like a colony of heaven, and Paul reminds them in his letter to them that 'our citizenship is in heaven' (Phil 3:20). And it is with the values of that citizenship that we seek to live our lives on earth now.
How do you feel about being a colony of heaven here? A community where God makes a home. This is where the rubber-band comes in!
We explored yesterday how our church is like a rubber-band which you can put around your fingers, God's Spirit holds us together, and yet there's still a lot of room to move. There is room for diversity, and for a fair bit of push and pull as we live together as real human beings with all our warts and failings.
Of course, any analogy has its limits - you might want to ask, are there any limits to the stretching of our diversity? What if the rubber band breaks? What would cause it to break? If we push and pull against the rubber band, what does it take for us to heed its call, God's call, to come back together, to find our home together, to learn to live in the love of God, the grace of Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit?
Rubber bands and acorns. Yesterday was the feast day of Julian of Norwich and to describe the church I used one of her images, an acorn, well actually she speaks of a hazelnut, an acorn was the nearest I could find! So often we are aware of the church's frailty and vulnerability, of our own frailties and inadequacies, but Julian looked at something as small and fragile as an acorn and said this, " In this little thing I saw three truths. The first is that God made it. The second is that God loves it. The third is that God looks after it."
Julian had an unshakeable faith that a community where God makes a home, whether it be the world, whether it be the church, whether it be God making a home in our life, each is a place where we can trust that 'all shall be well'.
She said this: 'We see such evil deeds done, and such great harm caused by them, that it seems to us that it is impossible that any good deed should come out of them. And we look on them, sorrowing and mourning over them, so that we cannot find rest in the joyful sight of God, as we ought to. The trouble is this - that the range of our thinking is now so blinkered, so little and small, that we cannot see the high, wonderful wisdom and the power and goodness of the blessed Trinity. And this is what he means when he says: 'You shall see for yourself that all manner of thing shall be well.' It was as if he said: 'Have faith, and have trust, and at the last day you shall see it all trans¬formed into great joy.'
