Some of you were here at the Sunday morning service at the beginning of this year, when Caroline painted this picture whilst I preached.
That morning I talked about fire. I talked about a number of threads that had been coming together, giving me a sense of God giving us a heart for the lost in our communities. Of God doing that by building a fire. Of a long term vision for the growth of the church, not because we want more people at our services for our sake, but for their salvation.
We picked up a phrase from Paul’s second letter to his protege, Timothy. Paul writes,
“Fan into flame the gift of God.”
As we thought about what it means to fan into flame the gift of God, we introduced a couple of prayer initiatives that I thought might help us to do that.
The first was called “pray for 5”. The idea is that each of us identified five people that we were going to pray for to follow Jesus. We’d pray for these people in our services, in our small groups, and in our own prayers at home.
The second built on the prayer walks that Nick Brooke had been organising. We have been prayer walking the whole parish, a section at a time. On the third Saturday of the month, we’ve met to walk and pray around our parish, praying for those who live in these places to come closer to Jesus.
I finished off by asking if we really wanted the church on fire and then shared something of my answer to that question saying,
“I do. I want this church on fire. I want this church on fire because I want it to be a beacon of hope in the darkness, a place of warmth and light, a place where people can find company, where there is good food that nourishes the soul. And most of all, a place where people encounter the holy fire of God, burning but never consuming.
I don’t know what that will look like, and it scares me a bit, but I do want this church on fire. Will you join me in helping to build the fire and fan the flames?”
I wonder if any of this is ringing any bells for those of you who were here are the beginning of the year? I wonder if you remember the sermon series we went on to have, exploring different aspects of God’s fire? I know that for many of you, you weren’t here, because you are part of the fire that has been built since then. If you have started coming along to All Saints since the beginning of this year, it has not been an accident. You are part of something that we have been praying for, that God has been doing.
Today is the nearest Sunday to All Saints day, the day in the Christian calendar when we celebrate all those who have followed Jesus over the centuries and around the world. We celebrate our common faith and commitment to follow Jesus’ way. We celebrate this church and all that is good about it. The original plan was for us to have a confirmation service today, but Bishop Sarah is on sabbatical, and Bishop Michael couldn’t come to lead that service until December, so it freed today up.
At the same time, we have been experiencing a lot of new folk joining us, our fellowship is growing, and I started to think that this would a be great opportunity to take some time to notice that and to celebrate it. To remind ourselves of what we thought about at the beginning of the year. Then a couple of weeks ago I received an email from a couple of local prayerful Christians who shared a prophetic sense that they had that God is saying to All Saints, “It’s time.”
“I felt myself inside All Saints….it was covered in and full of fire…I saw you in the midst of fire , arms raised , calling to Jesus….people were busy around you and someone ran to prop the doors open…and in this same moment I heard a birth cry from heaven.”
One of the Bible passages that they shared with me was the passage from Joshua that we have heard read this morning.
Let’s step back first and understand the context. What has been going on?
Who here is taking part in rehearsals for Prince of Egypt? Who has seen the film? So, the people of God are in slavery in Egypt, and God sends Moses to lead them out of slavery and into freedom in the Promised land. They leave Egypt behind, miraculously cross the Red Sea on dry land and head for the Promised Land. But, when they get there they are scared of the inhabitants, and refuse to go in. Instead they wander around the desert for 40 years. During this time Moses dies, and his place is taken by a new leader, Joshua. The book of Joshua is the account of how he lead the people of God into the Promised Land, and we heard a few verses from the beginning of that. The people have crossed the river Jordan and have recommitted themselves to their covenant relationship with God which, for all the men, meant getting circumcised.
There are three things from our reading this morning that I would like us to notice.
Firstly – this place is called Gilgal which means “roll” – difficult and painful things from the past have been rolled away. The stone has been rolled away. This is a place and season of transition and new beginnings. Of recommitment. That might have been a painful process, but it is an important step on the way to new life. At the beginning of the year I talked about the need for us to maintain harmony through this year, and I want to re-emphasise the importance of that. As we grow, and as new relationships form, there are plenty of opportunities for folk to get upset or fall out. Let’s be alert to that, love each other, make space for each other, and continue to build a harmonious community that follows Jesus together.
Secondly – they celebrated the passover together. The passover meal celebrated that original day of freedom for the people of God forty years previously. It was this meal that Jesus turned into our communion meal, when we remember and celebrate the even greater freedom that Jesus won for us on the cross with his body and his blood.
Thirdly – The manna stopped. For all the time in the desert God had provided for the people by the provision of a miraculous food called manna that appeared from heaven every night. That wasn’t needed now. From now on the people would eat of the fruit of the promised land. It wasn’t that God was going to stop providing for the people, just the way in which the provision would come. To be honest, I’m not sure what the significance of that is for us, but it felt important for us to notice it.
Maybe you feel like you’ve been wandering in the desert- and God has been there with you, providing for you, but now God is bringing you into the fellowship of the church, into a new place, and a richer and more varied diet?
The other reading I choose for this morning was one we had at that service at the beginning of the year. It’s a familiar reading to many of us. It is a great summary of Jesus’ ministry and the call on our lives. Jesus came to tell people the good news of God’s kingdom, and to be that good news. He was motivated by compassion. He saw people and he loved them. He still sees people and loves them. He sees each one of us here this morning and loves us. He sees each person living in our communities, our friends, our families, our neighbours, and loves each one. He calls us in to be closer to him and then sends us out to be closer to others, to experience the good news and then to share it, to be part of the harvest and then to be the workers.
Through this year many of us have been praying for people we know to come to faith. Some of us have seen things shifting in those people’s lives.
Some of us haven’t. But, it seems to me that the general temperature rise in prayer has been part of us seeing more people coming to faith and coming back to faith. So, let’s persevere in this. Over the next couple of months we are going to have many opportunities to invite people to church for our Christmas services, let’s pray for opportunities to do so, and for the courage to take those opportunities.
Let’s continue to fan the flames, to be prepared for them to grow hotter. To be ready to run and open the doors and welcome those that God is bringing in. It’s time.
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