Sermon Details

a sermon preached by Rev Andrew Sails at the Mint Methodist Church Exeter

at 10.30 am on Sun 9th October,

on the occasion of the dedication of music copies

of the new Methodist hymn book Singing the Faith

The Psalmist in exile by the waters of Babylon is told to sing songs of Zion.

Instead he weeps and says:

How can I sing the Lord’s song is a strange land?

But the Israelites in captivity come to learn

that God’s love and power is not that easily destroyed -

you can sing the Lord’s song anywhere and in any condition. And because God is always with you, whatever your joys or sorrows, it is always good to sing his praises.

And - I might add  - if you are new here in Exeter and beginning to feel that Exeter feels a bit like the Babylonian captivity - remember that he who was with his people in exile drear

is most assuredly with you in Exeter too. God is with us always - that is why we sing.

Of course the trouble is - what sort of songs do you sing? There agreement is hard to come by.

George Eliot’s Amos Barton, tells of the parish of Shepperton in the 1830s. The vicar is one Mr Gilfil who “smoked very long

pipes and preached very short sermons” and was thus much loved. According to the tradition of his age, no hymns were sung in Church - only settings of the Psalms. But Mr Gilfil is replaced by a new clergyman who introduces the new fangled idea of hymn books.In the words of one of the parishioners, the new vicar was “a cofounded methodistical and meddlesome chap…. All for hymns and a sort o’ music as I can’t join in at all.”

Well twas always thus -

We all have our pet likes and dislikes,

and maybe you are tempted to go out today saying

“I don’t know why they put number….in the new book.” They put in number so and so of course

because someone - maybe the person next to you - finds it a help and an aid to devotion.

We don’t have to like every musical style personally,

but I hope and pray we can be open minded and inclusive enough to welcome a rich variety of music here

and help each other to worship.

The body of Christ is made up of many members with different gifts and also

with different styles of expression, verbal and musical - and we should cherish not stifle the rich diversity.

Some of you were here last Sunday afternoon for our Celebrate Together service at which many of the congregation had learning difficulties. One of the songs which went really well was “My God is a great big God”.

It was moving to see those adults with very limited communication skills throwing themselves enthusiastically into the song. And the important thing was that we all joined in -

we all did the actions - including those for He’s taller than a sky- scraper and deeper than a submarine.

It’s in our new book - I hope we can sing it one morning soon before the children leave - I need someone to teach and lead the

actions. Let me know if you can help.

Meanwhile you may say “I prefer Mozart and Bach, or Wesley and

Watts” - well fine - its not “either or” -

and let us never forget our music provides a chance for all to worship, each in their own way.

At the end of the day what really matters

is not how we worship (which tunes we prefer)

but who or what we worship.

We are still following the story of Moses,

and in our reading today the Children of Israel decide

to abandon the God who has brought them out of Egypt. They melt down their gold jewellery and make a golden calf and offer worship to an idol instead of the true God.

I don’t know what worship songs they sang -

no Stuart Townend, no Graham Kendrick, no Charles Wesley - even the Psalms weren’t written yet.

But that wasn’t the key issue - even the best songs are worthless when offered to the wrong god.

What about us -

I doubt if we melt down gold to build idols for worship. But in a deeper sense we are all idolaters.

An idol or a false god is something we have created and then worshipped - a finite creature

to which we have chosen to give ultimate allegiance.

So what counts as idolatry in today’s world? A few examples.

1. We can make an idol of our country

Contemporary US theologian Walter Wink describes nationalism as a false religion. Talking about nationalism he says:

“Its God is not the impartial ruler of all nations but a tribal god worshipped as an idol. Its metaphor is not the journey but

the fortress; its symbol is not the cross but the crosshairs of a gun. Its offer is not forgiveness but victory. … Its good news is not the unconditional love of enemies but their final elimination. Its salvation is not a new heart but a successful foreign policy.

It usurps the revelation of God’s purposes for humanity... It is blasphemous. It is idolatrous”

Happy Birthday to Desmond Tutu!

As he has powerfully reminded the South African state this weekend, when power politics militate against our calling of love, hospitality and concern for the oppressed, we must invoke a higher authority than the state. It is not our god.

2. We can make an idol of religion - worshipping not God, but the human institutions

we have created around him - giving all our allegiance to one denomination or creed or worship style, rather than to God

Victorian hymn writer John Mason Neale retains his place with half a dozen classic translations (including “O Come O come Immanuel”) in the new hymn book.

One of his less happy ditties has never thankfully made any hymn book - it is in praise of the Church of England with several side swipes at the non conformists.

Verse one goes like this:

The good old Church of England! With her priests throughout the land And her twenty thousand Churches How nobly does she stand! Dissenters are like mushrooms

That flourish but a day;

Twelve hundred years through smiles and tears

She hath lasted always!

The Church, our denominations, even the Bible itself,

these are not what we worship - they merely point towards God. These thin but to set them as the centre of our faith and lives

is effectively to focus all our attention on the glass in the

windowpane and never look through the glass to hat is beyond.

3. We can make an idol of consumer capitalism, which Tim Gorringe from Exeter University says might be considered as the religion of our current age. He writes:

“Consumer capitalism contains all the classical tributes of deity: omnipresence - saleswomen for Avon cosmetics target tribes in the Amazon; omniscience - we, and all our individual preferences, are logged onto its databases, which know to the scruple how much tea we drink and how much cheese we eat per week; and omnipotence - for ‘can do’ is its watchword. And ….as a system

it is predicated on infinite growth”.

(TJ Gorringe, the Education of Desire, SCM 2001 p84).

Only this week in the Tablet, Clifford Longley

has been writing about the global financial crisis.

He describes the violent monster let loose on earth - he calls it Econosaurus Rex -

like the dinosaurs of old, with a voracious appetite, ugly, and driven by neither morality nor reason.

He suggests that we have made the international money markets into a golden idol - powerful beyond our control, deemed to be infallible - the markets can’t be wrong -

and requiring to be placated with sacrifices.

So, he says “It is as an offering to this idol that the British Government devised its deficit reduction programme last year, and in the name of which it continues to insist there is no alternative.

It is similarly on this savage altar that the Greek economy is being sacrificed…. “

(The Tablet 8 Oct 2011 p5)

Which are your favourite idols? Which have you made? Have you given them your heart, your mind, your future?

If you are new to Exeter, it’s a good time to make big choices

about what matters to you, where our true allegiance is. But it is a good time for all of us to ask the question:

Do you worship the golden calf, or do you worship the true God? Let me leave the last word with Martin Luther King, who says:

There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God. We have genuflected before the god

of science only to find that it has given us the atomic bomb, producing fears and anxieties that science can never mitigate. We have worshiped the god of pleasure only to discover that thrills play out and sensations are short-lived. We have bowed before the god of money only to learn that there are such things

as love and friendship that money cannot buy and that in a world of possible depressions, stock market crashes, and bad business investments, money is a rather uncertain deity. These transitory gods are not able to save us or bring happiness to the human heart. Only God is able.

(Martin Luther King, Strength to Love, p. 51)

This is our faith!

In God’s name let’s sing it

In God’s name, let’s live it.

ORDER OF SERVICE

Sunday 9th September 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Morning Worship with Dedication of Music Copies

of the new Methodist hymn book “Singing the Faith”

Welcome

Hymn STF 74 “For the Music of creation” (see screen)

Prayers

Dedication of new hymn books:

All stand as members of the Usher family present copies of “Singing the Faith”

Minister: We thank you, Lord God,

for the long tradition of worshipping in song:

People: I will praise the name of God with a song; I will praise the LORD with thanksgiving.

Minister: We thank you, gracious God, that despite our human frailty you have been faithful from the beginning:

People: I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, for ever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations Minister: We thank you, Lord God, that in every generation people have written songs for your worship:

People: O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord all the earth. Minister: With all creation, O God, we sing your praise:

People: Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy. Minister: Thank you, gracious God, that your love is for each of us,

that each may respond:

People: I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.

Minister: We praise you, Lord God, for you call us into community with you. Praise the Lord! People: How good it is to sing praises to our God;

for the Lord is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.

Minister: We thank you for all the saints who have sung your praises on earth and now sing in heaven.

And today we give special thanks for the life of our brother John Usher, in whose memory these books are presented.

People: With choirs of angels and archangels, and all the saints on earth and in heaven, we join our songs of praise.

Minister: So we dedicate these hymn books to your praise and worship. People: May our singing bring glory to your name,

O Lord our God. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Opening responses are taken from Psalms 69:30, 89:1, 96:1, 98:8, 104:33, 147:1)

(MusicBooks are distributed to members of the choir

and the remainder to other members of the congregation).

Hymn STF 65 “Sing of the Lord’s Goodness” (see screen) (introduced and taught by Jean Usher)

The Peace Leader: Let us share the peace Adults: The peace of the Lord be with you Children: And also with you

Leader: Go in peace

[Young people leave for their own sessions]

Old Testament Reading: Exodus 32:1-14 (p. 90)

Song STF 544 “As the deer” (congregation remains seated) (see screen)

New Testament Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20 (p.1176)

Hymn STF 388 “Let every Christian pray”

(Congregation remain seated as choir sing verse 1

Then all stand and repeat v1 and continue with verses 2-4)

Sermon: “Singing the wrong hymns”

Hymn HAP 141 (STF 250) “Jesus calls us” (see blue hymn books) Offertory for Church and Circuit funds is taken and dedicated Prayers

Lord’s Prayer (sung, Tune STF 762 - Music: Joseph Lees)

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done;

On earth as it is in heaven.

(cresc) Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses,

(dim) as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

(cresc) For Thine is the kingdom,

(cresc) the power and the glory

(f) For ever and ever.

(dim) Amen

(pp) Amen.

Hymn STF 470 “Lord, for the years” (see screen)

Blessing