Juan Bautista Mayno, Pentecost (Prado)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maino_Pentecost%C3%A9s._Lienzo._285_x_163_cm._Museo_del_Prado.jpg
Today we recall the birth of
the Church. So as we remember how the first Christians were inspired by tongues
‘as of fire’, what better Sunday can there to be consider where we are as a
Church and where we should be going as a Church? Are we ‘fit for purpose’? Not
our purpose, of course, but God’s. And what is God’s purpose for us?
Before we answer these questions, we would do well to pause
for a moment to consider the values of the world. We have frequently noted the
distinction between the values of the world and the values of Jesus himself and
his disciples, the embryonic Church. ‘I am asking on their behalf; I am not
asking on behalf of the world… the world has hated them because they do not
belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you
to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one’
(John 17:9, 14-15).
Now the Church has to be active in the world. It can no more
isolate itself from the world than can this congregation, as a community
church, isolate itself from, or confront, its community. Yet there is
necessarily a degree of tension between the Church community and the world
because the values of the world are not those of the Church. We cannot worship,
for example, the God of materialism. On the contrary we necessarily denounce
the false God of Mammon. ‘You cannot serve God and wealth’ (Matt 6:24; Luke
16:13).
The ‘vision of a community united by the common good, public service and the pursuit of justice’ is not an exclusively Christian one. But it is certainly one to which true
Christians would wish to subscribe. And if we as Christians want this for our
society we must also, as a minimum requirement, want this for our Church. But
we want other things as well. The Church of England has identified fifteen values which articulate the Christian vision for church schools, things which
give them their special ethos. One could have wished for a shorter list, because few of us can remember
fifteen values! (I can remember two or three…) But the list is of importance to
our concerns: the Church identifies reverence; wisdom; thankfulness; humility;
endurance; service; compassion; trust; peace; forgiveness; friendship; justice;
hope; creation; and koinonia (=
fellowship). Most of us can feel at ease with each of these values, the
background theology to which are explained in relatively simple fact sheets. I
particularly value the terms compassion, trust, peace, forgiveness and
humility.
But a Church school is not a worshipping community or a
mission-oriented organization in the sense that a Christian Church is; so there
are necessarily one or two additional values which make up the ethic of Jesus
which need to be added to our list and which perhaps should perhaps be our
principal or core values. In chapter 19 of the Gospel of Matthew, the Rich
Enquirer asks of Jesus ‘what do I still lack?’ – the ethic of Jesus offers us
something more, over and above the generally accepted principles of morality
which arise out of the Hebrew Scriptures. ‘Set your mind on God’s kingdom and
his justice before everything else’, Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 6, ‘and
all the rest will come to you as well’ (Matthew 6:33).
Sadly,
in this world, people define themselves by what they own and consider wealth
and valuable possessions to be a blessing, if not the chief blessing, that can
befall them. Success is also often defined in material terms: how much did X
leave in his will? (The emphasis is not on which good causes were the
beneficiaries of his generosity?) In contrast, the teaching of Christ is
dedicated to freeing mankind from the slavish pursuits of material possessions.
‘Do not set your hearts on the godless world or anything in it. Anyone who
loves the world is a stranger to the Father’s love. Everything the world
affords, all that panders to the appetites or entices the eyes, all the glamour
of its life, springs not from the Father but from the godless world of man. And
that world is passing away with all its allurements – but he who does God’s
will stands forevermore’ (1 John 2:15-17). Our church has to be a generous community. It has to give freely: of its
possessions, such as they are; of its hospitality; above all, of its love.
And
there is a second chief or core value which we need to espouse, and this is
actively to seek the intervention of the Holy Spirit in our day to day affairs,
in our services, and in our planning for the future. We cannot always be fired
up as were the first disciples when they received the ‘tongues as of fire’. But
we can always remember that first Pentecost and pray for its spirit to guide
us, our deliberations, our work and all we think about, we pray for, and all we
act for. And the second memory we can cherish is the Emmaus road experience
recounted in Luke chapter 24. ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he –
that is Jesus – was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the
scriptures to us?’ (Luke 24:32). That ‘burning experience’ is the individual
equivalent of the collective Pentecost experience.
I end with words
from Jonathan Gallagher on the ‘the Emmaus experience’, which to my mind sum up the core values of what we should mean by ‘Church’.
‘This Emmaus experience’, he writes, ‘is what we should be looking for. It
tells us that our faith is not to be founded on miraculous amazement, the signs
and wonders that Jesus refused to perform to his unbelieving generation. Nor is
it based even on blind and unthinking acceptance of whatever God says… Rather
Jesus appeals to all the evidence of God’s past actions, of the historical
record of his involvement in human affairs. This record, won at such great cost
to God, is the demonstration of who God is and how he chooses to act… (‘Then beginning with Moses and
all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the
scriptures’: Luke 24: 27).
‘The Emmaus experience is also the model for
our outreach. For once convinced, and with their faith energized by evidential
truth, the disciples rush back to Jerusalem to share with the others…
‘And
in his compassion, Jesus waits for these two disciples from Emmaus to explain
their experience to the others before he appears to the group. He wants the
reasons for faith to be explained even before he returns to speak personally to
his closest friends. For while they are still excitedly talking about what has
happened, Jesus appears…
‘Jesus
wants faith based not on the thrill of the moment, but on carefully-examined
evidence. So our words must also have that same ring of truth, without the need
to make appeal to gimmickry or emotionalism, signs or wonders, manipulation or
authoritarianism… We have the privilege of sharing our faith in a God who makes
sense, who does not need to use any means to overpower us, but simply speaks to
convince us of what is true and right, and who chose to die at our hands on a
cruel cross to convince us of that supreme reality of truth.’
I
want to end with a remark of St Francis of Assisi: ‘preach the Gospel at all
times’, the Association for Church Editors’ Web Site quotes him as saying,
‘and, when necessary, use words.’ It is a reminder of the need for deeds rather than words and for reflection
rather than just exhortation. However, it is not complete in itself. The risen
Christ on the road to Emmaus used words to his disciples to arouse the fire in
the hearts when he expounded to them ‘the evidence of God’s past actions, of
the historical record of his involvement in human affairs’. Evangelism requires
both words and deeds. ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking
to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ (Luke 24:32). We
must find new and better ways of communicating our faith to others. This is the
priority for us, and we trust that the Holy Spirit will make this possible for
the renewal of our Church.
