Sermon 17th January 2021 –
2nd Sunday after Epiphany
Text: John 1:43-51 – Come and see Jesus
This is my first week back for 2021
so firstly I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year. In my break I have
tried to contemplate what will 2021 look like. We are already hearing about a
new strain of Covid that has entered Australia from overseas. We’ve seen
restrictions tightened in Victoria – we’ve seen other states going into
lockdown. Churches in greater Brisbane had to cancel their services at short
notice last Sunday. I guess for me, as a Pastor, one of my concerns is for our
outreach.
My role as a Pastor of this
congregation won’t change- I’ll always be here for you. At times it might get
impacted if some of the earlier restrictions return like the 5km rule. There
are some restrictions on visiting nursing homes and hospital. But the biggest
concern I have is our outreach. It’s hard to do what Philip did with Nathanael
when he reached out to bring him to Jesus and said – come and see. It’s hard to
say to someone – come and see but I first need to ring our booking line to make
sure there’s enough room. Or what do you say to someone who arrives at church
unannounced for the first time and it’s booked out? Do you say “come and see”
next week and I’ll book you in.
I guess we’ve always worked with the
objective that Sunday church is our goal – and to an extent that is important. But
we have been challenged in the last 12 months – what becomes our mission if our
church building is not available or if we will continue to face limits on how
many we can have and can’t even fit all our regular members in? I know that for
me the Covid experience has made me evaluate how we do church – how we do
evangelism. For me, prior to Covid – getting as many people into church –
getting the budget paid – justifying the amount of work I was doing were my
priorities. But look at Philip’s priorities – look how Phillip does evangelism He
shares his experience with Nathanael. He shares his excitement and invites
Nathanael to come and see Jesus and experience a relationship with him. And
whereas the church building on a Sunday was the place we would have as our
objective – to invite people to come and see Jesus - is that the only way?
St Paul reminded us in our 2nd
reading today – you are the temple of God’s Holy Spirit. The church is not a
building – the church is the people who gather to create the body of Christ. If
we have no church building – we still have church – you are the church. And as
important as our Sunday gatherings together is, it is not the only way that the
church can exist. If our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit then we can
invite people to come and see Jesus in our own lives – in our own homes.
We’ve already experimented this past
year with smaller gatherings outside of our regular church times – can we
explore that further – maybe in our own homes where some newcomers to the faith
might even feel more comfortable – less threatened. We know how often we have a
visitor come along and they slip away either because they don’t feel
comfortable or they feel no one has come up to them to speak with them. We can
let this pandemic defeat us or we can grasp the opportunities and look for ways
to adapt to new challenges.
Personally I like the sounds of new
challenges and would like to see us look at new ways of doing church. It
doesn’t mean that we do away with Sunday gatherings here in our church buildings
but we can look to ways to supplement our Sunday gatherings and take church
outside of these 4 walls. Phillip was excited and I believe that if we are
excited about our faith then we will look for and find ways to be the body of
Christ – to be the church in new ways. Maybe God is speaking to us through this
experience and, like Samuel, we need to stop and listen and say – speak Lord,
your servant is listening.
There is nothing I have loved more
than a full church with music and singing at full blast- but what happens when
those things are taken away from us? Do we take the position of – well that’s
it – or do we say – okay, what’s next.
The digital revolution has helped to
keep us going but that cannot be our goal. Like everything else, it supplements
what we do.
The Christian faith is a personal
experience – one of being together with each other – supporting one another.
I’m sure if they had internet
available Phillip would not have said to Nathanael to log onto to the internet
and watch this. No, he took him to Jesus. He didn’t just tell him about Jesus. He
showed him Jesus and shared his own experience and then said – Come And See.
It’s going to be a challenging year
ahead of us but it is in times of challenges that allows us to respond in new
ways. As I have said previously – what we do that is essential won’t change. Word
and Sacrament. How we do these has started to change with the common cup not
being available – gloves and mask being part of the way we do things. Even our
music has presented us with challenges. It’s not to say it will always be this
way but it has shown us that we can adapt and we shouldn’t be afraid to adapt. How
we do these may change even further – where we do these things may change even
further.
Let us not be afraid to grasp these
new challenges but trust where God is leading us and like Samuel let us be
prepared to respond: Here I am, for you called me.
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