Church With No Maps in Lockdown

This sermon can be listened to here

Gate Pa – 12th  Sunday in Ordinary Time- Year A - 2020

Readings:

Psalm                         Psalm: 86:1-10, 16-17

First Reading:              Genesis 21:8-21

Second Reading:        Rom 6:1b-11  

Gospel:                        Matt 10:24-39

What I want to say:

We have spent 10 years hearing about not having maps for how to do church anymore. We certainly had no maps for doing church over the last 3 months. We had to make it up as we went.

What I want to happen:

What was your best experience of church during the lock down

What was the hardest thing

What was the gift of that time

What three wishes do you have for the future as a result of your lockdown church experience

“What do you see as the long term positive and negative effects of COVID-19 for your parish?”

 The Sermon

          1.     Introduction:

Couple of years ago Bishop Andrew used Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory by Tod Bolsinger to help us think about how to be church in this post-modern secular world we find ourselves in.

None of it was new.

10 years ago Bishop David invited Alan Roxburgh, the author of Missional Mapping, to speak at our clergy school.

His message was simple

The maps we used for so long to build good churches no longer work. And they haven’t for some time.

Our assumptions about our place in society are no longer are valid.

And since I came here 8 years ago, I have talked about it as well.

We are like those 2 women last week, lost on the motorway in a borrowed car, only we have not friends to phone.

But we have had no idea what to do about that

It is hard for us to imagine doing church any other way.

Until now

           2.     Lockdown

3 months go everything changed overnight

One week we were preparing for an AGM

And then we were planning how to be church in lockdown

No maps

No one given us help on what we might do

We had to work it out ourselves

Thankful for work of vestry and number others helping us create new maps

New ways of being

So, what can we take into the future?

 I have some questions

Find some people to talk to

·        What was your best experience of church during the lock down?

·        What was the hardest thing?

·        What was the gift of that time?

·        “What do you see as the long term positive and negative effects of COVID-19 for us as a parish?”

·        What three wishes do you have for the future as a result of your lockdown church experience

           3.     AGM

2 final comments

a.     We need to take these learning into the future.

-  They are helpful hints for us

b. It would be easy for us to fear for the future

honest we have good reason to if we look around.

I want to invite us to not give into fear

But to hold hope

Last week and this week we have heard some hard stuff Matthew gospel

Describing what lay in story for those disciples

And those who would become disciples in the future

We, like them, have been invited to share in Jesus’ task of bring kingdom of God in the midst of humanity.

I’ve talked about what that might involve in the pew sheet.

Jesus in Mathew wasn’t saying it to put them off

He said those things within the wider theme of “Do not be afraid”

I am with you until the end of the age

As we take our learning into the future

Let us not be afraid

But open and faithful

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Get those PSA Blood Tests Done Boys!

I had a strange conversation a few months ago. I was lying back in a chair, naked from the waste down, holding a nappy over my bits while I waited for the skin under my bits to go numb enough from liquid nitrogen or some such thing, so that they could inject the local anesthetic and then punch a couple of holes through to the prostate. All in all a fun experience. And while I waited the nurse made small talk and asked what I did. "I'm retired", I replied. "Oh, what are you planning to do now you are retired? any travel?" "Turns out not" I said, "It seems I'm just keeping my dairy open for dealing with health things." And I am still keeping my dairy open and still dealing with them. This journey began last year. I was already dealing with two other things, including a lump in my parotid gland which has been slowly growing there for about 3 years. When I got back from being overseas on sabbatical my doctor called me in to talk about that an...
Read more

What a Ride! - Thankyou and Goodbye!

Image
You can listen to this sermon here   Gate Pa - Ascension Sunday and Easter 7 Year B, 2024 Readings: Palm                            Psalm 1 First Reading:             Acts 1:1-11, 15-17,21-26                     Bible Page 884 Second Reading:        1 John 5:9-13                                       Bible Page 991 Gospel:                         John 17:6-19      ...
Read more

"Just Enjoy The Coffee"

I was just sent this on Anglicans All. Being a coffee enjoyer and a Franciscan I enjoyed it. I hope you do to: Even if you are not a coffee drinker...Have a good day!!!! A group of graduates, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain ,plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite, telling them to help themselves to the coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee, the professor said: If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the simple and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases, it is just more ex...
Read more