Church Services Coming Up in the Next Month Sunday 9 July – 10:30 at Glasidale, St Thomas, Holy Communion. Monday 10 July – 18:00 at Egton, St Hilda, Confirmation with Holy Communion please come along and support this, if you can, as we celebrate two children from Egton School making the decision to be confirmed – Bishop Paul will be presiding and there will be refreshments and cake after the service in The Vicarage. Sunday 16 July – 10:30 at Egton, St Hilda, Holy Communion Sunday 23 July – 10:30 at Grosmont, St Matthew, Holy Communion Sunday 30 July (Fifth Sunday) – 10:30 at Egton, St Hilda, Holy Communion followed by refreshments/lunch in The Vicarage - please do come along – we’ll be having an extended ‘house warming party’ all afternoon (until 5 pm) - Just bring yourself and any friends/family too, all welcome! Readings for Sunday 2 July follow these links to view the readings: Romans 6:12-23 Matthew 10:40-42 Sermon for Sunday 2 July "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me:" I’d like us to focus on those words this morning. --- Picture the scene. It's the final of the 4 by 400 metres relay in the Olympic Games. We're all together in the stadium cheering our team on! Each person in the relay runs their lap, pushes themselves to the limit. The baton gets handed on smoothly each time. The exhausted runners stumble from the track and watch their teammates continue the race. At the finishing line they're cheering on the last runner as loudly as we are! And we've done it! All the hard work has been worth it: our team has won! An outstanding team effort, against all the odds. Now it's time for the medal ceremony, and all four of our team are on the podium. Our flag is raised, the National Anthem is sung loudly. Our whole country celebrates! --- There's maybe something of a relay race in today's Gospel reading. Jesus is handing the baton on to his disciples. The baton is passed on from generation to generation of disciples down through history. The baton reaches the Church of England in 2023; York Diocese; Whitby Deanery; The Benefice of Middle Esk Moor; The Parish of Goathland. The baton arrives with us this morning! 2050 years ago, Jesus sent out his closest disciples to continue his own mission of both proclaiming and putting into practice the good news of the kingdom of God. And we’ve been working our way through the last chapter of Matthew’s gospel over the last few weeks. Matthew recalls how Jesus named the twelve apostles. And Matthew records the instructions that Jesus gave them for their mission: they were to heal the sick, drive out evil spirits, bear witness to Jesus, and announce that the kingdom of God was near. It would be a difficult task. They would need to risk hardship, have to cope with disagreements with their loved ones, and their very lives would be in danger. Why, then, should they bother? Well, in this final passage of the chapter, short as it is, Jesus sums up the whole purpose of their mission. The people who listen to them, the ones who welcome the good news they bring, will receive a reward: a prophet's reward, and the reward of the righteous. A prophet's reward is to see their prophecy come true. And the reward of the righteous, as Jesus made clear in the Beatitudes during the Sermon on the Mount, is nothing less than a place in the kingdom of heaven. This, then, is the ultimate purpose of the mission: those who are listening to the disciples will know that the disciples' words come from God; those people, too, will be welcomed into nothing less than the kingdom of heaven. There is a sequence here, almost like the handing on of a baton in a relay race: God reveals his love in Jesus, Jesus passes that love to the disciples, the disciples spread that love on to those who listen to them, Jesus is welcomed into the lives of others, the church grows, disciples multiply. But I think there are some important differences between the model of the relay race and the reality of mission and ministry in any particular place. When we hand on the baton of God's love, we don't lose touch with it ourselves! The Holy Spirit keeps us full of God’s love – full to overflowing! Love, especially the love of God, is so amazing that it can be kept and passed on at the same time. And, as you might have experienced yourself, those who listen to the good news often hand it back, polished and shining, as a gift to enrich our own lives. That’s certainly my experience. As I’ve started this role here, I’ve found that a good number of the people back in Haworth, that I tried my best to serve and love, are now supporting me, encouraging me to pass the baton on: visiting, sending messages, checking up on how I’m doing. --- The relay race of love is like a divine dance. It goes on and on, round and round the track of our lives. God's love flows through Jesus, through the action of the Holy Spirit, through the Church, through us as individual Christians, into the lives of those who hear about that good news for the first time. And God’s love then flows back to God in our worship. We’re caught up in the dynamic which is at the heart of God the Holy Trinity: love in action. --- We’re the disciples; we’re the runners. And, if the baton that’s passed to us is so good, surely we should want everyone to have a chance to hold it!? Like dedicated athletes, we’re not coerced into this race: we choose to enter it. Each of us has chosen to be here this morning. It’s a free choice for us to be part of God’s church in this place. And the reward for this race, not earned but freely given by God, is nothing less than eternal life! Isn’t that amazing! Isn’t that something so very precious that we simply must share it with others? Like the original disciples, we’re called to spread the good news of the kingdom of God, the good news of God's love. What a privilege! But what a responsibility too! Talking about it isn't enough though, we need to do the sharing, like the early disciples did 2050 years ago. Are we good at sharing the good news of the kingdom of God in the Church of England in 2023? Are we winning the race? Does it sometimes feel like were running a 4 by 400 metre hurdles race rather than a standard relay race? In my time here over the last 5 weeks I’ve discovered a number of hurdles. Maybe you’ve discovered some too in your time here? Maybe our visitors this morning have already spotted some? --- I think there’s another important difference, between the model of the relay race and the reality of mission and ministry in any particular place. It comes down to time. I was having an interesting discussion with some of you about time after last week’s service. It got quite complicated, and I’ve been thinking about time this week. There’s essentially two kinds of time identified in the Bible: The first is Chronos, chronological time, the time that we measure using our watches, the time that we can use to determine who has run a relay race, even one with hurdles in it. We can measure our progress; determine we have won or lost, down to very precise measurements. But, I wonder, can we actually accurately measure how good we are at spreading the good news of the kingdom of God? Can we measure our progress along the relay race, when that very race is enveloped in a divine dance with the Holy Trinity? I don’t think Chronological measurements work too well in the church. I don’t think we’ll be able to define enough key performance indicators to measure our progress accurately. What we need is another way of looking at time. There’s also Kairos, God’s time, in the Bible. And this is a time that elapses and envelopes us in a way that we can’t measure: a time that points us towards things that we can see and things that are currently unseen: a time that holds us within God’s love in the present moment: a time that’s controlled by the Holy Spirit: a time that can’t be rushed but a time that measures out God’s love: a time that exists outside of our understanding of space and time. If we accept that there are various hurdles facing us here in our church community, then maybe we need to take the time to discover them slowly and carefully. And, maybe if we can try our very best to do that, then we’ll notice the ways that the Holy Spirit is guiding us around the hurdles and showing us new ways of spreading the good news of the kingdom of God? Maybe if we slow down and pay attention, we will notice the amazing surprises that the Holy Spirit has in store for us as a church in this place? In our celebration of Holy Communion together today, maybe we should remember that Jesus didn't just preach about the kingdom of heaven: Jesus has opened the door to the kingdom of heaven for us! And we meet Jesus today in God’s time. It’s not a race to come forward and receive the holy sacrament. It’s a slow divine dance: It’s love in action. Jesus welcomes each of us into that divine dance, slowly and carefully. Jesus helps us to remove the hurdles: Jesus helps us welcome others as he welcomes us. Like the original disciples, we’re called to spread the good news of the kingdom of God, the good news of God's love. What a privilege! But what a responsibility, too! Amen. --- these two books, edited by Jane Williams, were very helpful with planning this week’s sermon writing: Williams, J (2011), Ed., ‘Lectionary Reflections, Years A, B and C.’ Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, UK. Williams, J (2009), Ed., ‘Lost for Words, A Sermon Resource for the Anglican Three Year Cycle,’ Redemptorist Publications, Chawton, UK. --- The Reverend Anthony Bennett --- Interim Minister & Deanery Enabler Middle Esk Moor | Whitby Deanery | York Diocese --- email: anthony@egtonvicarage.org landline: 01947 899843 mobile: 07484 735284 web: middleeskmoor.org blog: thoughtsfromegtonvicarage.org
