‘BACK TO CHURCH SUNDAY’

SERMON
PENTACOST 16
12TH SEPTEMBER 2010
TEXT: LUKE 15: 1-10
‘BACK TO CHURCH SUNDAY’
IN THE NAME OF GOD: CREATOR, PAINBEARER AND SPIRIT OF LIFE AND LOVE

Today is ‘Back to Church Sunday’.

Back to church Sunday began in the UK with the first one in Greater Manchester in 2004.

160 churches united around one ‘missing you’ message on a Sunday in September.

Back to Church Sunday was launched in Australia in 2009.

600 churches across 19 Anglican dioceses took part. On that day 12,000 people returned to church at the invitation of a friend.

What an appropriate story we have read today in Luke’s gospel - we can mostly relate to the two circumstances that are told.

We need not be farmers to appreciate the value of the lost sheep – especially given the prices commanded at present for lamb! Some of my family own a grazing property in Western Victoria and have just completed lambing for this year. In the midst of lambing they experienced an intense storm with much rain and freezing cold winds – the worst conditions they have had for many years. As a result they lost more than one third of their new born lambs.

That is a great financial loss as well as being very upsetting at the loss of life. My niece spent many hours out in the paddocks in bleak conditions trying desperately to save as many as possible – she suffered badly from the cold and has been mildly sick with chill and a cold since.

When I read this story I couldn’t help thinking of her and others like her who tried desperately to save their flock from the elements.

But I also read this story from Luke as being more about the nature of God, rather than anything to do with the nature of humanity. The element of the shepherd celebrating the return of the lost sheep surely demonstrates the value God has for each of us – and it’s not that God is concerned about financial loss- the focus here is right on God's very nature.
Dare we even consider for a moment that the Spirit of creation of the whole universe can be personally experienced by us mere mortals?

It sounds preposterous, doesn’t it? If you are a thinking person it doesn’t seem to make sense – it’s some human invention.

Well, God is not some old man with a long white beard somewhere up in the sky – that’s an out dated and ridiculous concept.

It’s because many people still think of God in those very terms – and sadly many churches do nothing to alter their view – that a lot of people have given church away.

I’ve got news for you! It’s not like that here. We here at St John’s have an entirely different understanding of God. God is a spirit – THE Spirit of creation – of life itself – and most importantly to humanity – of LOVE. God is also not some sort of heavenly puppeteer – controlling and interfering in our daily lives. God can never be known – nor spoken for – humanity cannot put words into God’s mouth. The unfathomable mystery of God can only be experienced – not rationalized. And the way God can be experienced is through the experiences of those who knew Jesus some two thousand years ago. It is in and through the life of Jesus of Nazareth that we glimpse something of the nature of God.

Here in this story we catch a glimpse of a God whose very nature is love. How can people say they know God when they deliberately exclude others? This story clearly shows us that God is inclusive of all – even those ‘lost’ in the depths of depression, crime, drugs and mental illness. This story clearly tells us that God will continue to search us out until we are found – that is until we respond to God’s love.

This story is also not only about those who are, as it were, outside the fold- who don’t give thought to the possibilities that God can bring to their lives – but also to those who are “in the house” – like the lost coin. The coin was lost ‘in the house’ not outside. So there is something to seriously consider for all of us here today – whether we see ourselves inside God’s house as with the coin – or outside it like the lost sheep.

There is a story told of a police officer who stopped a young bloke with a dozen GPS units in his backpack - stolen, of course. When relating the story the officer wanted to make the point that people should be aware of keeping valuables in the car, "hide it, lock it, keep it" was his message. But a clergyman who was present said, "All those GPS units- and the kid was still lost!"

Most of us today are not in the sheep business. But we do have plenty of lost kids, all around us. If we could think of them not as pains-in-the-proverbial backside, but as souls worthy of being sought, then we would be walking in the footsteps of Christ. But it’s not limited to those at the bottom of the heap as it were. This applies to all of us in this church this morning – good law-abiding citizens as we all are.

So, a very warm welcome to those visiting – I hope you might have glimpsed something of the nature of God by being here. These stories are also a thought provoking message for those of us already in this community – Let’s give God a hand in the search both for the sheep outside and also the coin somewhere under the bed or behind the fridge!

THE LORD BE WITH YOU.