{"id":2597,"date":"2014-04-23T00:55:53","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T05:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicandioceseja.org\/?p=2597"},"modified":"2014-10-02T11:40:01","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T16:40:01","slug":"the-rt-rev-leon-golding-synod-eucharist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/the-rt-rev-leon-golding-synod-eucharist\/","title":{"rendered":"SERMON BY THE RT. REV. LEON GOLDING"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUFFRAGAN BISHOP, MONTEGO BAY<\/strong>
\nAT THE SYNOD EUCHARIST, Wednesday April 23, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luke 24: 13-35
\n“Affirm the Past, Engage the Present and Envision the Future”
\nThat same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the
\neleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The
\nLord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what<\/p>\n

\"RT.<\/a>
RT. REV. LEON GOLDING<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the
\nbreaking of the bread.[ Luke 24:33 -35]<\/p>\n

I suppose that there are some of us who have felt at times like running away from it
\nall. Running away from all that reminds us of the death of a loved one or from
\nsome other crisis, from our work and even from our faith tradition or worst this
\nbusiness of Christianity. How many of us have felt like leaving the Anglican
\nchurch, and have found ourselves right back? And even now as I speak may not be
\ntoo comfortable with where we are at.<\/p>\n

Such was the experience of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were
\nrunning away from it all; and in the end they ended up where they started,
\nJerusalem. Downcast, the two disciples of Jesus made their way from the scene of
\ndeath and seeming defeat. Their last three days had seen their hopes dashed as they
\nwitnessed Jesus, their master, unjustly arrested, crucified, and buried. It was too
\nmuch to bear. They had to get away from it all. Not even the message from the
\nwomen, of the empty tomb seemed to make much different to them and to renew
\nhopes. The present situation was one of grief and despair.<\/p>\n

With drooping shoulders and downcast eyes the two disciples travelled along
\ndiscussing the events of the past three days. Journeying along they are joined by a
\nstranger, which unknown to them is the risen Lord. Through the record of God’s
\nmighty deeds with Israel, the scriptures, the risen Lord points the disciples to their
\npast. He reminded them of the words of the prophets as he interpreted the
\nscriptures and gave meaning to the recent events.<\/p>\n

By so doing Jesus affirmed something of their corporate past as a people under
\nGod. Israel’s past, history, was not free of flaws.<\/p>\n

Presently the state of our Diocese is not one to boast about. This is not to say there
\nare not good things happening but even with them the situation is not one we can
\nbe content with. Our problems are not just economic, they are more spiritual and
\nmoral. I know that some feel discouraged, for one reason or the other. Many of us
\nare trying in our respective congregations; but we are just not seeing the fruits of
\nour labour. Our efforts seem to be going to the wind. Some who use to walk with
\nus have left like the men on the road to Emmaus; to where there are ‘success
\nstories’ and things appear to be happening and happening right.<\/p>\n

Our Diocese and the Anglican tradition has a rich history but not without its flaws.
\nA history we need to affirm, the good as well as the bad. Our history is part of our
\nnation’s history. We have been a part of what has helped to shape Jamaica, the
\ngood and the bad. The nation cannot deny the church’s involvement, and our
\nDiocese’s involvement, in health care and education among other activities.<\/p>\n

We need to affirm the past, its positives and negatives as we engage the present. To
\naffirm the negative in our history is to acknowledge that God continues to redeem
\nhuman history. We have to own up to, acknowledge, the good and the bad in our
\nhistory as well as the recent past as Anglicans if we are not to repeat the mistakes
\nas we engage the present in mission.<\/p>\n

The task of mission is not about trying to recreate what some may see as the
\n‘golden years,’ a time past. Rather it is to present the gospel in a way that is new
\nand relevant to the present challenges. This is what ‘the marks of mission’ are
\nmeant to assist us to do, as we engage the present. As a Diocese we have a rich
\nlegacy that we need to affirm, that which has been tested and tried in the crucibles
\nof history and has stood the test of time. The treasurers of our tradition and
\nspirituality we must allow to enrich the present as we move forward. The Governor
\nGeneral has repeatedly asked us “to use what is right about Jamaica to fix what is
\nwrong with Jamaica”. We have something good which we must continually affirm.<\/p>\n

To the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the revelation of the risen Lord gave them
\na new vision of themselves, their world and possibilities for the future. Their eyes
\nwere open to new possibilities. They returned to the city, to the centre of things.
\nThey returned to the seat of religious and political power and where their lives
\nwould be most at risk. More importantly, they returned with new minds, hearts,
\npurpose and vision. It could not be business as usual Christ was risen and had
\nconquered sin and death, therefore the future is bright with possibilities. The
\nimplicit message was things as they are could not continue and would not remain
\nforever.<\/p>\n

I suggest that if we have experienced the risen Lord then we will envision a new
\nfuture under God. This is what the appearance of the risen Lord did for the two and
\nall Jesus’ disciples. It gave them the permission to dream, to imagine, what the
\nresurrected body and life beyond the grave could possibly be like.
\nTo envision is to anticipate, it is to imagine, what things could be. To envision the
\nfuture is to anticipate new ways of doing things, that are faithful to who we are and
\nthe rich tradition which we have received and have been tested and tried. We need
\nto envision a future that is not a copy of others, but is authentic to who we are and
\nto a context that needs to hear the good news afresh. We must envision a future
\nrooted in the apostolic faith.<\/p>\n

We note that it is through a re-interpretation of their roots, scripture, and the
\nfamiliar action of Jesus the “Breaking of Bread’ that the disciples eyes were open
\nto recognise the risen Lord in their company. It is that experience which reenergised
\nthem to face the present which led them to return to Jerusalem. They
\nreturned with a new hope, a new vision, that began a revolution.<\/p>\n

We are not running away, but we too will return from whence we came. It is my
\nhope that we will return to our congregations after this Synod re-energised. We
\nwill return re-energised by our experience of the risen Lord among us with a new
\nvision; as we hear scripture, break bread and discuss the business of the church
\ntogether.<\/p>\n

May we be inspired to return to encourage our brothers and sisters to face the
\nchallenges in the name of him who was dead and is alive, Jesus Christ our Lord.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUFFRAGAN BISHOP, MONTEGO BAY AT THE SYNOD EUCHARIST, Wednesday April 23, 2014 Luke 24: 13-35 “Affirm the Past, Engage the Present and Envision the Future” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermon","category-synod","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2597"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2930,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597\/revisions\/2930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}