“HOPES AND
DREAMS”
[A Church Anniversary sermon]
|
|
A Church Anniversary sermon Readings: Joel
2:21-29, Luke 4:14-21 |
“He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up,
and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue…”
(Luke 4:16)
On
Church Anniversary Sunday we think about our Church community,
past present and future.
Traditionally this has also been an occasion to think quite specifically
about our chapel, our Church Building, our place of worship,
and give thanks for those who planned and built it and have cared for it.
And today we read in our NT lesson
about Jesus going into his local family place of worship,
the Synagogue at Nazareth.
What do we know about the building Jesus first worshipped in?
Well the simple answer is “not a lot”
Nazareth was a tiny agricultural village off the
main trade routes
and never even mentioned in the Old Testament.
A hilltop site has been suggested for the synagogue,
but that is by no means certain.
And as to who built it and when, we’ve no idea.
Nazareth supported the rebellion against Rome in the
years 67 to 70 CE,
so it is highly likely that the synagogue Jesus knew
would have been destroyed at that time and rebuilt later.
The
only thing we know for sure about the Nazareth Synagogue
is that Jesus of Nazareth stood there and read from the Scriptures
and proclaimed the Gospel:
Good news for the poor,
freedom for the captives,
sight to the blind,
release for the oppressed.
And
that of course is the key issue for every Church and every Chapel –
wherever and whenever they are built:
·
Is it a place like the Nazareth synagogue on that day of old -
·
Is it a place where the scriptures are read,
and in their reading the voice of Jesus is heard?
·
Is it a place where we are confronted
by the challenge and promise of the Gospel?
So
on we come to our Church Anniversary day.
We give
thanks for those who first built a place of worship
here on this site -
We
give thanks how from generation to generation,
the Scriptures have indeed been read and the Gospel proclaimed.
We
give thanks for this place where the Risen Christ
has indeed stood among us and spoken to his people
and proclaimed again the dream of God’s coming Kingdom
This is of course not the first Church to be built on
this site –
it is at least the fifth.
The building we now know was opened in 1970.
It replaced the original Methodist Chapel
opened on this site during the Napoleonic Wars in March 1813.
But the Methodist chapel replaced an earlier Church
–
a dissenting chapel which had stood on this site since the 1720s.
Before 1720 the site had no Church –
but if you go back further in time,
had you stood on this spot in 1536
you would have encountered Henry VIII’s soldiers
destroying the Church which then stood on this site.
(You might even have seen seven bold women
throwing stones at the soldiers
and being locked up overnight by the magistrates for their trouble)
Had you stood here before 1536
you would have found yourself
in the very middle of the second greatest Church of Exeter
after only the Cathedral itself -
the great Priory Church of St Nicholas –
the great West door over there and the High Altar over there.
Go back further and you would have found that even
that 13th C Church
was not the original Church on the site –
it rose from the ashes of the very first Church built on this site -
the original St Nicholas Priory Church,
later destroyed by fire, but first completed around 1102
and originally planned in 1087,
when the Benedictine monks first came here.
Buildings
come and go.
What changes have been seen in this place.
But for near 1000 years this has been holy ground -
and we give thanks for the generations who have worshipped here,
met with Christ here, and heard and proclaimed the Gospel,
and dreamed the dreams of the Kingdom here.
That
Gospel has of course been proclaimed not only in word but in deed.
The
Good News to the poor has been lived as well as spoken:
I think of those first Benedictine Monks
building the first Church in the 1080s and 1090s –
Times change –
I guess they might have been somewhat amazed and bewildered
by last night’s wonderful safari Supper –
but in their own way they knew all about hospitality and sharing table -
their monastic vows committed them to share their food –
and indeed they offered meals everyday to the needy of the town.
Times
changes –
but in the best of times and perhaps especially in the worst of times
people have lived out the Gospel dream of love and peace in this place.
I think of Mrs Susannah Guest,
a rather stern looking Victorian lady,
a member of this chapel in 1832,
known throughout the city for her tireless and fearless work
visiting those suffering from the Cholera epidemic of that year –
in best Methodist tradition administering brandy to the sufferers.
·
It is no good having a building
unless Christ is found there proclaiming the Gospel
·
It is no good hearing the Word of the Gospel
unless we respond and live it in the city.
Of
course we all know what happened
when Jesus brought his Gospel to the Nazareth Synagogue Building –
people listened –
and then turned away –
this was just Joseph’s son, a prophet without honour in his own country.
I
pray that such may not be the case here.
We
gather in this sacred place
hallowed by generations
to hear Jesus speak to us –
His
words challenge us with dreams and hopes of a new world.
Unlike
the men of Nazareth of old, I pray that we may
hear the words,
catch the vision
and live the dream..
This
site has been a building site on and off for 900 years,
and now we prepare to build again –
The
Church Council on Tuesday agreed in principle
to go forward to detailed design stage on the latest plans for the site
I thank everyone for your support for our plans.
We
will be dedicating our gifts in a few minutes time –
and asking God’s blessing on the plans for the future.
If
history teaches us anything
it is that over the years we need to refurbish and redevelop –
to cope with the crises of the past and rise to the challenges of the future -
But as in every generation
I pray that we will build well and worthily of those who have gone before us.
I like to think that as we think and pray about our
work here
there are Benedictine monks looking down on us
who remember this place
when they were first building God’s house here in William II’s
day.
And
I wonder if we will please them?
Only
I suspect if our new Church is more than bricks and mortar,
only if it opens its doors to the needs of the world,
only if it hears and lives the dreams of peace and justice which are the
Gospel.
The current Northcott
Theatre production is called
“Days of Hope” -
It is set in the closing days of the Spanish Civil
war.
The key characters have been fighting for the republican cause –
fighting to bring good news to the poor.
But the war is lost.
As the play ends the father and the mother stand
centre stage alone.
They know that the fascist army is on its way.
They know that almost certainly they will be denounced as republicans
and like thousands of others summarily shot.
The dream of freedom and justice in Spain is over.
But then the couple look at each other.
and in that moment they realize they have something
which even Mussolini’s planes and Franco’s army cannot defeat
And they remember their youth
when they danced and laughed
and they realize what they still have together.
And for the first time in years and years -
in spite of their terrible plight,
the darkness and doom of the approaching enemy -
they hug each other and begin to dance.
And the chorus joins them for the finale
As they sing
We’ve nothing to lose
We’ve nothing to fear
We may not be saved
From all trouble here
But while there are songs of love
While there are dreams of peace
While there are nights like this
There will be days of hope,
There
will be days of hope.
I
don’t know what the future holds
for Exeter, for the UK, for the world -
As we read our papers and think to the future
we may sometimes wonder whether
Cromwell’s army, the Cholera,
are but the beginning of the sufferings we must one day bear
in this place – I don’t know –
”We may not be saved from all trouble here”
But
really that is not what matters -
what matters is that as God’s people
we still love and dance and dream –
There
may be trouble ahead -
But
·
As long as we build with the Lord,
·
As long as we listen to the man of Nazareth speaking to us
·
As long as we open the doors of our Church and our lives
to the needs of the poor and
marginalized and lost,
·
As long as our young men see visions
and our old men dream dreams of a
better world
·
As long as we are filled with the spirit
·
As long as we dance the resurrection story
·
As long there are songs of love
and dreams of peace in this place
Then
whatever the world may throw at us,
this place shall be a beacon of hope in a dark world.
Then
when we build shall we build with the Lord,
and as the Psalmist knew of old, (Ps 127.1)
those who build with the Lord shall not build in vain.