Words for Worship

Ministry Today

Faith Builder 7

 

Texts: psalms 78 v1-6 (589)

Matthew 13.31-35 (980)

 

Intro

 

Human proclivity

to invent jargon

never fails to amaze me.

 

During last week alone,

Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme

had two shining examples.

 

The first came

from the owner

of those hot pasty stalls

you see in railway stations.

 

On being asked whether pasties were really a health option,

he replied that

his product would always be popular

as a traditional out of home

eating opportunity.

 

To cap that,

next morning

they had

the representative of the secondary ticketing agents association on.

 

And what is secondary ticketing ?– well it is the reselling

of pre-owned tickets.

 

In other words – ticket touts.

 

But the whole of business

s is prone to management babble.

 

Nevertheless one of their concepts is useful this morning

and it is called a SWOT analysis.

 

Now this looks at any enterprise

in terms of its strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities and threats

in order to predict its future.  

 

And we could valuably look

at all these features of faith

today

so that we might predict

its future in the 21st Century.

 

Because we are now

at end of the first stage

of St Luke’s Faith Builders programme

and what better than

to look into the years ahead

and put the whole belief business into God’s hands.

 

 

In modern warfare,

any armed force

requires to us great buckets

of radio waves

for its communications,

navigation and radars

in order to operate.

 

Their enemy

on the other hand

is going to go

to every effort

to deny them this resource.

 

And to do that

they throw oodles

of electronic noise

into the ether –

a spoil sport activity

that is known as jamming.

 

Well if we start by looking

at the apparent weakness of faith in the future

then it must be

its potential to be jammed.

 

For there is almost unlimited choice available today;

chances to travel,

ways to be entertained

and new ideas

to be to be challenged with.

 

This week’s news reminds us

there is also

infinite choice in what we eat.

 

These coupled

with increasing work pressures and family decisions

mean that

the average brain

is reaching overload.

 

Take for example,

our mind’s constant bombardment by the media –

the 24 hour news cycle

that is so veracious

for information

of any quality

that it is known

to Spin doctors

as the beast.

 

Indeed, if you watch

that new kid

on the broadcaster’s block – aljissira –

you will see

its active news centre

daily orbiting the globe

from Qatar to London

before moving to New York

and finally to Kala Lumpa.  

 

The problem then

amongst all this hullabaloo

is that

the finding of silence is difficult, choosing solitude is hard,

thinking clearly is demanding

and listening for God

is a labour of love.

 

For God tends not to shout

above the rabble.

 

Rather he expects his creation

to make an effort to listen.  

 

Or, as the psalmist put it

, to listen to the words of my mouth.

 

However, we must also realise

this weakness

of 21st Century living

is also faith’s great strength.

 

For this era’s noise

is almost entirely about immediate gratification;

 buy now –

switch over

or get there.

 

Its jamming then

is aimed at pulling you back

into a spending opportunity whether that is of money,

time or attention.

 

As a result,

this 24/7 world

is full of people talking about

the wheres,

the whens

and the hows

but rarely the whys.  

 

And the biggest question in life is why .

 

Let us then pray

that the future church

never forgets

that its greatest strength

lies in it constantly and persistently asking – why.  

 

As constantly and persistently

as the parrots in this story.

 

There once was a man

who bought a parrot

which he taught only

to say "Today."  

 

When he got up in the morning and when he came home at night, heard: "Today."

 

There was no procrastination around that bird.

 

"Today, today, today," he screamed.

 

About six months later

the man bought another parrot.

 

This time he taught that bird

to say only  "Tomorrow."  

 

For as he said,

"I have been living

as if there were no future.

 

Today was all there is,

and I've found it isn't so."

 

Put another way

the question why

forces humans

to look beyond

what in the front of their brains.

 

The question why always

Asks

is there any meaning to all of this; is there any purpose to my life

and is there something more permanent

than today

for me to invest in.

 

Ultimately that why

prompts thoughts

as to who may be behind all of this and what is his motive.

 

The question why then

is the prequel

to the answer of faith.

 

 

 

Yet we cannot doubt

that there are also

very specific threats

to faith at this moment.

 

 Some are quite obvious.

 

Not least,

some recent events

have moved

the popular view of religion

from yawning boredom

to that of a dog

which is foaming

at the mouth.  

 

Maybe not surprisingly then,

as the result

of a very tiny minority,

opinion polls say

that the morality

which religions offer

is good

but their out-working is bad;

very much a matter

of how without the why!

 

 

Similarly, opinion polls

suggest the growth

of what is basically

atheism.  

 

The belief that any answer

to the question why

out with current scientific understanding

is but misleading superstition.  

 

Yet that viewpoint offers

no answer at all to why.

 

However, the greatest threat to Christian faith in the 21st century

is

I believe

more insidious.  

 

And it is the fragmenting

of religious belief

into as many religions

as there are human beings.

 

For just as every news report

from anyone

with a camera mobile phone

gets an airing

no matter its true value,

so too every personal belief

is gradually

being given equal weight

no matter

how ill thought through

that view is.  

 

Put directly,

everyone

is so deafened

by the world’s roar

that they have no time to think and study what God

has already revealed of himself; the things that

were naturally hidden.

 

The net outcome is

they are coming up

with their own deity

and too often

it is in their own image.  

 

And faith in such an idol

is no faith at all.

 

 

 

Nevertheless, we are not

standing in the Athens

of 2000 years ago

as Paul was.

 

For like him,

we have seen

the unknown God

as he really is

through Christ.

 

But unlike Paul,

the church now

has vastly increased opportunities to communicate

the faith

which that self-disclosing God engenders.

 

In fact, once again

on radio this week,

was a very interesting programme about religion and the internet.

 

In it,

they reported that

one London online church

saw 41,000 people logging on

in one day

and has nightly

well attended prayer meetings.

 

Closer to home,

our own website

takes less than 2 seconds

to be accessed in,

say,

Australia

and sees over 100 visitors a week.  

 

And if Christians

need further inspiration

to be innovative

in telling out

the nature and motives of God then they must look

no further than Jesus.

 

For in his earthly ministry,

he was constantly imaginative

in finding new ways

of revealing his father.

 

 Take likening the Kingdom

to a mustard seed.

 

Here he uses

the advice of the psalm

to open his mouth in parables

to explain God’s plan

for all humanity.  

 

And as a result

he sparked of faith.

 

Indeed, that was

the very reason

the crowds were surprised

that he did not teach

as the other rabbis did.

 

Therefore the future community of faith

requires to grip

all of its new opportunities

to speak out.

 

It must use the new technologies, novel methods

and above all

the talents of God’s people

just like the service

we are having today.

 

Modern faith builders

need to communicate

by ways that

are currently relevant

and accessible

and effective.

 

Moreover, the whole church

will have to be

less obsessed

with the wrapping

around the gospel

and more committed

to just getting the message

over in the first place.

 

To illustrate that,

let me tell you

of first transcontinental flight across the United states

from New York to California.

 

Now it was completed by

one Cal P. Rodgers

in an early Wright flyer

in 1911.

 

Abd  his actual journey time

 was 3 days,

10 hours and 14 minutes.  

 

Because his aircraft

was forced down by weather

and mechanical failure

more than 30 times

resulting in "light crashes"

to crashes

that required major repairs.

 

 When Rodgers landed

in Long Beach

the only original parts

on the airplane

were the rear rudder

and the oil pan on the engine.

 

In other words

what carried him

was not important,

just exploiting everything

to getting himself there

was!

 

 

A management textbook

tell us

that if a SWOT analysis

does not start

with defining a desired end state or objectives,

it runs the risk of being useless.

 

Well this morning,

we have conducted

our analysis

of future faith building

with clear objectives

and end state in mind.  

 

For speaking plainly,

those objectives

must be to pass on

true belief

to our children and our children’s children –

it must be to see

the Church of law and parable

and question

survive until the 22nd Century.  

 

And it must be to reveal

to a nearly deafened world –

God better and with more.

 

And what of our desired end state?  

 

That can be nothing less

than the mustard seed fully grown – that quiet thing

hidden

since the creation of the world – the only destination of our own purpose and faith and heart’s desire.

 

For that surely is

the why for all –

and that is the kingdom of heaven.  

 

Amen

 

 

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