Being Formed over 30 Years
This can be listened to here
Gate Pa – Year A 30th
Sunday of Ordinary Time, Reformation Sunday, 30th Anniversary of my Ordination as a Priest
Readings:
Psalm
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
First Reading:
Deuteronomy
34:1-12
Second Reading: 1 Thess
2:1-8
Gospel:
Matthew 22:
34-46
What I want to say:
On
this Reformation Sunday I want to explore some of the elements that have helped
re-form me over the last 30 years. I also want to suggest that our gospel today
gives us hints as to how we might as a church be re-formed as we move into our
own time of Reformation
What I want to
happen:
Invite people to prayerfully
consider what has helped re-form them?
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
Tuesday marked the 30th anniversary
of my ordination as a priest by Archbishop Brian Davies in St. John’s Anglican
Church, Feilding.
It was a grand occasion for both of us who
were ordained that day
a next step in my ministry.
I have never called that call a call into THE
ministry
we all have ministries
none more important than others
but priests have important roles in gathering
communities
and this was an important step
It has been an amazing 30 years
it has been a privilege
a very different one from what I thought would
happen 30 years ago.
23 years of that was out of parish ministry
resourcing those who worked with young people
at regional, national and international level
Those experiences have led to me see what
being a priest and being church is about in very different ways
to many of my fellow priests
and if we are honest, to many of you
2. The Influences
The biggest thing that shapes how I see being
a priest and what we are one about as church is being Franciscan
12 years ago I was at Taize, and in my small
group was an OFM friar (catholic Franciscan) lived in Angola.
he introduced me one day to a friend as “John
– a Franciscan priest.”
Sometimes we in the Third Order think of
ourselves as the supporting act to the real Franciscans who are the first order
brothers and sisters – the ones who wear the brown robes.
That brief introduction reminded me/taught me
that we are the real thing
we don’t wear brown robes
this cross is our habit
but we are as Franciscan as any friar or sister
I was taught that day that being Franciscan is
who I am
That my calling to walk in the footsteps of
Francis and Clare
who walked in the footsteps of Christ
shapes everything
including my being a preist.
3. What shaped Francis?
An initial call for Francis was when he was
praying before crucifix in the little dilapidated church of San Damiano just out
of Assisi
he heard the crucified and risen Christ on
that cross
“Francis, you see my church is in disrepair.
Rebuild my church”
He obeyed that call for the rest of his life
was not so much into church growth
or attracting people to come to church
or making the church relevant
He didn’t look at the registers and see what
attendance was doing
or how many baptisms or confirmations had been
performed
He just lived what he had found for himself.
he lived love.
4. The Leper
In his testament Francis said that his moment
of conversion was a little earlier
when he was still the troubled once playboy
and he rode past a leper
someone
he feared and loathed
normally he would have stayed as far as a
possible from this despised once person
but on this occasion he felt drawn to dismount
cross the road
embrace this diseased and bewildered creature
to kiss him
and offer him alms
one version of the story says that as he rode
off he looked back as saw the risen Christ standing where the leper had just
been
he would return often to minister in that
hospital
minister to the crucified and risen Christ he
saw in each one
all his early brothers were similarly
commanded to do the same
5. Invitation
two years before he died, Francis was on
retreat preparing for the feast of St. Michael and all the Angels
He is said to have prayed that he would be
marked with the same depth of love that Christ expressed as he hung dying on
the cross
He was granted his wish
he was marked with the stigmata
marks of love
rest of his life carried the marks of that
love
the wounds of Christ in his own flesh
Francis and Clare rebuilt the church of his
day with love
love for the least
the forgotten
the despised
love for the powerful
the corrupt
love for the ordinary people who struggled to
survive day by day
On his death bed Francis said to his brothers
“I have done what was mine to do, may Christ
show you what is yours!”
My ministry as a priest is marked by this
calling
living in response to what Christ shows me is
mine
6. The Gospel
I offered all that in part because today marks
a disconcerting milestone for me
30 years.
Francis thought that all he had to do to
rebuild the church was to live the gospel
literally
live the gospel
go sell everything he had and give to the poor
it worked!
literally
love God with all you heart and soul and mind
and love your neighbour as yourself
that worked too
you know both of those are equally hard aren’t
they
too often we stop with loving God
when I looked up this passage in google
a really big percentage of images were like
this
loving God becomes the thing
however we think we do that
loving neighbour becomes a much less important
and optional thing
and then there is the issue of who is my
neighbour?
earlier this year I accidentally commented on
a discussion about Trump’s travel bans
-
started by a south African who
critiqued it
-
defended by Americans
o
who I assumed were both Christian and
white
o
who stated “we have a duty to protect
our neighbours!”
o
who are our neighbours?
o
to story of the good Samaritan would
suggest the very people Trump is still trying to keep out
o
the very people Francis learnt were
his neighbour when he kissed the leper
-
who are our neighbours?
7. Reformation Sunday
This Sunday also marks the 500th
anniversary of when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church doors and
sparked the Reformation
others had tried but this time it had
protection and traction
and all hell broke loose.
Some people have suggested that the church
goes through one of these periods of upheaval about every 4 or 500 years
sure enough, here we are in the middle of a
similar upheaval as new forms of church emerge
we in the traditional church are once again
asked to reform ourselves
what would it look like to reform?
some have said
get rid of liturgy
others – don’t
robe
others – lets do
messy church
others – lets be
relevant
all of those are about finding ways of
surviving as an institution
but I would say
following Francis
and Clare
let us love
love God with all our heart and soul and mind
and body
by loving all our neighbours as ourselves
when we follow in the footsteps of Francis and
Clare
and in doing so walk in the footsteps of
Christ
when we love as they loved
we will do what is ours to do
we will rebuild the church
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