{"id":2615,"date":"2014-04-24T01:31:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-24T06:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicandioceseja.org\/?p=2615"},"modified":"2014-10-02T11:35:28","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T16:35:28","slug":"the-rt-rev-robert-thompson-synod-eucharist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/the-rt-rev-robert-thompson-synod-eucharist\/","title":{"rendered":"SERMON BY THE RT. REV. ROBERT THOMPSON"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUFFRAGAN BISHOP, KINGSTON<\/strong>
\nAT THE SYNOD EUCHARIST, Thursday, April 24, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sermon text: Luke 24: 38-39, 46-48<\/p>\n

\"RT.<\/a>
RT. REV. ROBERT THOMPSON<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cJesus said to them, why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your
\nhearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see;
\n\u2026And He said to them, \u2018Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise
\nfrom the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to
\nbe proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are
\nwitnesses of these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most peculiar things about Luke\u2019s Resurrection story is the way Jesus
\nidentifies himself to his friends. \u201cLook at my feet\u201d, he says to his frightened, doubtful and
\ndespairing disciples. Jesus wanted them to see the wounds and it was important for the
\ndisciples to look, because they had never wanted to do this before. They ran away from
\nfacing up to the real cost of discipleship.<\/p>\n

Some two thousand years after the disciples were challenged to look at the wounded
\nbody of Christ and after 350 years of Anglican witness in Jamaica, we too are called to
\nlook at the wounds on the Body of Christ – his Church. Yes – we must look at the wounds;
\nwe must pay close attention to our ageing and declining congregations. We must pay
\nattention but we must never allow our wounds to define us. If we do we will not be able to
\nengage the second part of our Gospel text, which is to witness to the Easter Joy. We live
\nin an age and at a time when there is far more emphasis being placed on freedom and
\nvery little on practice and discipline. It is also an age where committed church-going
\nstruggles against the weight of secularisation, consumerism and individualism.
\nDiana Butler Bass in her book Christianity After Religion, observed that \u201cRoughly 44
\npercent of Americans have left their childhood faith in favour of another denomination or
\nreligion or by dropping any religious affiliation at all\u201d.<\/p>\n

She further wrote; \u201cFifty years ago, people were born into a religion \u2013 a faith often passed
\ndown through many generations \u2013 and tended to stay with their childhood church.
\nInherited faith was an important dimension of personal identity, -\u2018we have always been
\nand will always remain Anglicans\/Episcopalians, Catholics or Jews\u2019 – no longer carries the
\nswing. The connection between identity and family tradition is unravelling as people
\nchoose their own spiritual paths, embracing faiths that may once have been outside the
\nrealm of possibility for their ancestors.<\/p>\n

This is the world to which we must witness today. A world where no one idea holds any
\nclaim to truth over the other. What this means is that Christians – and Anglicans in
\nparticular – can no longer take the church and what it represents for granted. Its claims
\nand position in society are no longer as secure as they once were. There is however no
\nneed to despair. Despite the fact that we have lost something of the earlier power to
\nexplain to the world the redemptive message of Jesus Christ in terms that are readily
\naccessible, we still possess opportunities to witness to the liberating presence of Jesus
\nChrist. As Bishop Stephen Cottrell reminds us in his book, Catholic Evangelism: \u201cit is the
\nfirst time for a long time that we have been in a situation like this, but it is not the very first\u00a0time\u201d. Our multi-faith, pluralist society has some interesting similarities with the world of\u00a0the Roman Empire into which the Christian Faith was born. Then, the Christian faith had\u00a0to jostle alongside many other philosophers and religions. \u201cIn the end it won the day\u201d\u00a0(pg.8). On a whole we are not winning the battle. Yet all of these challenges present
\nexciting opportunities for recalibrating the way we engage the society with the gospel of
\nJesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Evangelism was effective in the early years of the Christian movement because it was
\nbound up with being a church in mission. In those first centuries the church had either to
\nbe a missionary church or not at all. Whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, we are at
\nthat very place once again and our message will not be heard, our ministry will not be
\nreceived, our values will not survive, unless we grasp the challenge of mission and
\nevangelization with both hands. Archbishop John Sentamu puts it well, when he said
\nrecently in relation to the Church of England \u201cwe must either Evangelise or fossilise\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cottrell argues that Christianity won the day for three distinctive reasons:
\no The credibility and intellectual integrity of the faith that was being shared;
\no The ability of faith to speak to the culture in ways that could be heard
\no The evidence in people\u2019s lives for the transforming energy of the gospel.
\nI invite you to reflect very briefly on these three points as we contemplate the first two
\nmarks of mission,
\no to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, and
\no to nurture new believers in faith.<\/p>\n

When the work of evangelism – making known the gospel of Jesus Christ – is woven
\ntightly together with sound reasoning, Christian witness and nurture in the lived
\nexperience of the Christian life, the results are surprisingly wonderful.
\nSo let me say first of all that many members of our congregations are faithful Christians,
\ninsofar as they attend church regularly, but they have not grown into that maturity of faith
\nwhereby they feel able to live the Christian life Monday to Saturday.<\/p>\n

Firstly – to achieve this, we will need a theologically literate church. While it is true that a
\nfew keener members of our congregations have availed themselves to undertake some
\nsort of theological study, the vast majority have only a slender grasp on the intellectual
\ncredibility of the Christian faith. We have allowed the truth about God, as revealed in
\nJesus Christ, to become a private option. No wonder so few have the confidence to speak
\nabout their faith as public truth, or as the lived experience of God that informs all that
\nmatters in life. The scriptures say that we should all be able to give a reason for the hope
\nthat is within us (1st Peter 3:15). It is in the local congregation that people should be
\nlearning about their faith and exploring its relevance for life.<\/p>\n

The evangelising church must never be satisfied with anything less than this, which goes
\nway beyond the standard six-to-ten-week confirmation course, which is the structure for
\ninitiation used in many of our churches. I believe that a major factor to becoming a
\nwitnessing church is this equipping of the people of God to be able to articulate their faith
\nin ways that will allow them to dig deep into the social conditions. Only then will they
\nconvince others to make the same journey.<\/p>\n

Secondly, when the church becomes a place where people\u2019s questions and doubts are
\naddressed it will also become a place where trust can develop and one\u2019s journey in faith
\nbegins. This was echoed in the Emmaus Road story. After Jesus asked the two
\ncompanions what they are discussing, they begin a conversation about how the Messiah
\nwas destined to suffer and die. When they arrived at Emmaus, evening is falling and
\nJesus makes as if to go on. \u201cStay with us,\u201d they say (Luke 24:29). These words are very
\nsignificant. At this moment in the story they still don\u2019t know that it is Jesus they are talking\u00a0to, and yet they ask him to stay with them. Why? His words had intrigue, challenge and\u00a0appeal. What could be more natural that to invite him to supper?<\/p>\n

We also need to be open to these moments of tentative response. Even if people have
\nnot yet made all the connections, and not yet made a real response to God, they have
\ndiscovered enough to know that the church cares for them, takes them seriously and
\nvalues their questions.<\/p>\n

Finally, the evidence of a witnessing church is seen through the faithful stewardship of
\nthe gospel. The catechism [BCP page 403 #83] puts it this way: \u201cGod the Father calls all His\u00a0people to witness to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring
\nothers to a knowledge of Him.\u201d You and I will never succeed in fulfilling this call except
\nthrough prayer and through the life we lead, seeking to ensure that our standards and
\nvalues reflect the values and standards of the gospel. So let us ask ourselves: is my life a
\nblessing to those around me? To what extent do people meet Christ when they meet
\nme? These are hard questions, but facing up to them is vital if we are to allow the faith
\nwe celebrate on Sunday to shape the lives we lead beyond the church door. \u201cOnce
\npeople have discovered that we go to church, whether we like it or not they will be
\nevaluating the church and the gospel on the evidence of our lives. And if our lives are
\nindistinguishable from everybody else\u2019s, then no wonder our evangelism is ineffective\u201d.<\/p>\n

This does not mean we are supposed to be better than everybody else. What really
\nmarks out a Christian life is the generosity, tolerance and grace that flow from a life that
\nknows something of God\u2019s love for us.<\/p>\n

It is our need of God, and his loving mercy to us, that enables us to be more merciful,
\nmore humble, more generous and more forgiving with those around us. In this way, more
\nthan any other, we witness to Christ.<\/p>\n

The most effective form of evangelism is the Christ-like witness of ordinary Christian
\npeople in their ordinary daily lives. I believe this is the evangelism we all dream about,
\nand it can happen when the congregation is rooted in Jesus Christ and our lives become
\ntranslucent of the Gospel.<\/p>\n

CONCLUSION<\/strong>
\nAs someone said; \u201cWe are welcoming people into relationship with God as citizens of
\nGod\u2019s Kingdom; not recruiting members to a cash-strapped organisation\u201d. If survival and
\nambition are our motives for evangelism then we are bound to fail. Getting it right the first
\ntime around is important. And we get it right only when we can acknowledge, that the
\nwork of evangelism is the work of God. We need humility in our evangelism and we need
\nto be stewards of the gospel for the present generation. We do it out of faithfulness to the
\nLord\u2019s command to make disciples. It is for God\u2019s vision of a renewed humanity and a
\nrenewed creation \u2013 that we evangelise.<\/p>\n

Rt. Rev. Robert Thompson
\nJamaica Church Missionary Society (JCMS)
\nSynod \u2013 April 24, 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUFFRAGAN BISHOP, KINGSTON AT THE SYNOD EUCHARIST, Thursday, April 24, 2014 Sermon text: Luke 24: 38-39, 46-48 \u201cJesus said to them, why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; \u2026And He said to them,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2615","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\/2615","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=2615"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2927,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615\/revisions\/2927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicandioceseja.org\/copy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}