I wonder if anyone remembers these? Perhaps you had one, or your children or grandchildren. Anyone going to own up? Now, I have two admissions to make. The first is that I thought that care bears were a thing of the past, but when I googled to find a picture of them, it became apparent that you can still get them. Who knew? The second admission is that when I typed it into google the first time I made an error. This is not a care bear. This is a car bear. <\/p>\n
Why am I going on about care bears? Well, this term we are spending our Sunday mornings finding out a bit about what life was like in the early church, and what we might learn from this about our life together as a congregation. In previous weeks we\u2019ve explored what it means to be a worshipping church and a baptising church. This week we\u2019re thinking about being a caring church, which goes together really nicely with the sharing church theme that we\u2019re going to be looking at next week in our harvest festival service. <\/p>\n
This idea of being a caring church is one that is central to our core values of loving each other and loving our neighbours. We can\u2019t love people without caring for them, and we can\u2019t care for them if we don\u2019t love them. It seems to me that caring is the practical expression of love. Caring is love in action, and I think that we see that in our two readings this morning.<\/p>\n
The first is the well known story of four friends bringing someone to Jesus. I\u2019m not going to spend ages on this, but I\u2019d like to bring a couple of things out by thinking about some of the characters in the story and asking, \u201cWhat do they care about?\u201d<\/p>\n
Firstly, what do the man\u2019s friends care about? The man\u2019s friends cared for him, and demonstrated this care by bringing him to Jesus. Now, whose faith is it that Mark says Jesus saw before he forgave the man? It was the faith of the friends. Mark is silent about the faith of the man. These friends showed their care for the man by exercising their faith. <\/p>\n
Secondly, what does Jesus care about? Jesus cared for the man. He showed this by forgiving him and then healing him. Notice this order. I sometimes wonder if the friends up on the roof, and maybe even the man himself, heard Jesus declare this forgiveness and think to themselves, \u201cthat\u2019s nice, but what about the legs?\u201d Jesus did care about the man\u2019s physical healing, but he cared more about his soul, was he right with God? Sometimes when we bring people to God, in faith, God doesn\u2019t always do what we expect.<\/p>\n
Thirdly, what did the religious people care about? The religious folk cared about something, but it wasn\u2019t the paralysed man in front of them. They cared about the religious rules, and who was allowed to forgive people, and this stopped them caring about the man in need in front of them. <\/p>\n
What about our Acts reading, our little glimpse into the life of the early church. What does that show us? Well, in these six short verses we find life turned upside down. There is so much practical love and caring here that it is almost impossible to imagine. <\/p>\n
There are signs and wonders \u2013 which surely would have including people being healed as they prayed for each other. The believers held things in common. When one person had a need and another could meet that need, they helped, even to the extent of selling property. They met together, they shared meals together, they prayed and praised together.
\nThis is practical love in action, it is caring and sharing. As I said, we\u2019re going to be focussing on the sharing elements in our harvest service next week. But what about the other stuff, the sharing life stuff of caring? What might that look like in our church life? We live in a different time, a different culture, a different context. The temptation might be to try and explain this away as not practical, as not realistic. Maybe it\u2019s just too difficult? <\/p>\n
And, to be fair, the reality we discover as we read through Acts is that it didn\u2019t always work out then either. In Acts 5 we read of Ananias and Sapphira who weren\u2019t convinced by the \u201cholding everything in common\u201d thing, and lied about how much they were contributing to the common purse. It didn\u2019t end well for them. In Acts 6 we read of disputes breaking out in the growing church about the lack of fairness in the distribution of food to the widows. In a number of Paul\u2019s letters we read him having to persuade and encourage churches in one city to send support to poorer fellowships elsewhere. <\/p>\n
So, the early church didn\u2019t always perfectly put into practice what it aspired to, it was after all made up of people. But I don\u2019t believe that it this should stop us aspiring to what they aspired to. Love in action. Caring for each other. <\/p>\n
In his first letter John, the friend of Jesus, writes this, \u201cIf any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongues but with actions and truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, my sense is that we are actually pretty good at this. I see so much generosity, of time, money, care, attention, in our relationships in the life of this community. We say that we value loving each other and loving our neighbours, and as vicar I have the privilege of seeing this value being put in to practice in so many different ways, and in a moment I\u2019d like to share a few of them with you. <\/p>\n
Before I do that though, I do want to acknowledge that we don\u2019t always get it right. I don\u2019t always get it right. You might be sitting here this morning feeling angry or upset because you haven\u2019t received the care that you needed when you were hurting. And if that\u2019s you this morning, I want to say sorry to you. I\u2019m sorry that we\u2019ve let you down. I\u2019m sorry that I\u2019ve let you down. If you feel able, please get in touch with me so that we can change what we do, so that others don\u2019t get left out in the same way in future. <\/p>\n
You might also be sitting here thinking, \u201cI need some help \u2013 but I\u2019m embarrassed to ask.\u201d I want to assure you that if you get in touch with me, requests for help are handled with discretion and care. Whether it\u2019s financial, emotional, spiritual support you need, there is help available, and we will do all we can to support you in a way that empowers you. <\/p>\n
So, here are a few examples of what I see happening in the life of All Saints which we can celebrate and join in with as we care for each other. <\/p>\n
Today is luncheon Sunday, when members of the church open their homes to those who would normally eat alone for Sunday lunch. This is a lovely, practical way to express love and care through hospitality and sharing life. It\u2019s probably a bit late for this month, but if you would like to be part of this in future, either as host or guest, please speak to Lynda Bunn. <\/p>\n
Every week, on the notices, is a little reminder that we have a Prayer Chain here at All Saints. This is a group of people who are committed to pray for whatever is emailed to them via the chain. If you would like to be part of this, to commit to pray for people, then just drop me an email. If there is something you would appreciate prayer for, then use the email address on the notices, and we\u2019ll pray for you. <\/p>\n
I could go on all morning, about Oasis lunch, the bowls club, small groups, the Pastoral care team, the Hospitality and Pastoral Care Action group, all the informal things I see of people loving and caring for each other, and I\u2019d still miss some. <\/p>\n
There is one more initiative that I would like to highlight though, as I know that it impacts so many of us in different ways. This is our intent to be a dementia friendly church. Gill Reeves and Rose Kershaw have taken the lead on this and have helped us be more aware of the ways in which we can support those living with dementia in our church family.
\nOne of the resources that they have pointed me towards is a series of videos made by a Christian family in the diocese about their journey with their Dad in his dementia. I\u2019d like to share one of these videos with you now, as it seems to me to be such a good example of practical care. <\/p>\n