Welland Fosse Group of Churches

The Fishing Net.

Trinity 7, Sunday 26 July 2020.

The Pandemic.

This pandemic has raised some serious questions about the church. Is it locked?  If it’s not the building, then what?  Is it the people gathered on Zoom or those who wait for the church to be re-opened?

Jesus also toys with this question as he explains what the church should be like to his apostles, most of whom were fishermen. He says that the earthly expression of the Kingdom of God is like a fishing net that catches both good and bad fish. This then seems a good moment for us to consider what the church is.

Characteristics of a Church.

I used to run a college chaplaincy. The students were great fun: passionate, outrageous, devout, exhausting.  They came to chapel in good numbers on a Sunday, bringing with them all sorts of musical and theatrical skills. But was it a church?  That worried me. Geraldine and I were often the only people over 30 and it felt unbalanced in terms of age.  So we encouraged staff members to attend, which they did willingly. Immediately the atmosphere changed. It was still passionate, outrageous and exhausting but also with a gravitas which all of us appreciated.

1. We are all agreed that Church is not just the building, though the building is important. Is it like the pub, which gives shelter to those thirsting for a pint or a meal? Or is it like Waitrose, which caters for a particular class of shopper? Or a political party, with a specific agenda – ‘The Tory Party at Prayer’, for instance?

Our hymn for today –‘Teach me My God and King’, No. 690 – Helps us to clarify our notion of The Church.  It was written by George Herbert, a 17^th century clergyman from Salisbury.  He wrote it as a poem and included it in a collection of poems called ’The Temple’.

 In The Creed, we say that ‘The Church is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic’. In verse 1, Herbert illustrates the Oneness of The Church: it helps us to see the One God in everything and to adapt all that we do as if we did it for Him. So ‘Church’, at its best, helps us to concentrate every element of our lives on the One God.  It is here that we learn the language of God, refine our priorities, find encouragement from our prayers and one another to orientate our lives towards Him.  Do you say ‘Grace’ before any of your meals for instance, either privately or together?  That is a way of acknowledging One God who is even more revered than Delia Smith! We belong to one family in Christ.  Like all families, we have our disagreements. Thus many styles of church have sprung up but there is One Creed, One Baptism, One Eucharist – each of which illustrates the Oneness of God.

In verse 2 and 3 Herbert encourages us to look beyond the material to identify the Holy in our midst, both immediately, as in glass but also through it to the creator, symbolic of heaven beyond. It can lift our eyes and hearts so that we can ‘the heaven espy’. I think the bread from King’s Cliffe Bakey – sold locally in our shops – does just that for me.  The humble loaf is of such good quality! Furthermore, I visited the bakery just before it was transferred to Corby.  It was tiny, stuffed into the back room of a house in Main Street,Kings Cliffe. The baker sacrifices his sleep and rises early so that we could have fresh bread for breakfast! My mother lived through the last war and its restrictions.  She would be very critical if we even thought about throwing away our crusts.  They were precious, holy even.

The Church is also catholic – and here we come to the point of Jesus’ Parable of the Fishing Net, in which are to be found the good, the bad and the very smelly. In verse 3, Herbert says that we can all partake in God; nothing is too simple or unworthy. Furthermore, God’s tincture – God’s Holy Spirit – will improve us who devote our prayers and our lives ‘for thy (His) sake’. Rural church life tend to be non-selective.  There is only one church in a village so believers of all colours will come – unless they commute. We then miss that richness of variety.  We can also be a bit choosy ourselves, raising an eyebrow when someone unusual turns up.  As Ann demonstrated last week, we can also look out of place with our dusty souls and dubious morals. Who are we to cast the first stone? The Parable takes that into account.  The fish are not sorted until the end of the journey. Don’t let’s push the analogy too far but the bad ones may well be put back into the lake to live another day.

Finally, the Creed says that The Church is Apostolic, sent out. In verse 4, God’s servants find even the meanest job satisfying, like sweeping a room.  Far-fetched?  Well, sweeping up is not my favourite pastime but I do enjoy polishing! However, St. Theresa suggest that we can peel a potato to the glory of God.  All things can give him glory and those who feel that vocation to follow Christ often apply themselves more rigorously because it says something about Him. Some people find going that extra mile part of their personality. And why do they do it? Because God expects it of us and that attitude is both infectious and transformative. We must remember that The Church – its people as well as the building – is there to bring people to Christ. It is not an end in itself, however beautiful the building.  So is it doing its job?  Are we? The Parable asks some challenging questions.

Real or Virtual?

One Final thought. This Parable of the Fishng Net went down well in a coastal community.  However, Jesus then called the fishermen to lay down their nets and follow him to become fishers of men.  Imagine their shock  at leaving that comfortable way of life. They would be shocked, fearful, disbelieving that anything else could be so effective in harvesting souls.

We are about to be faced with the same challenge. Zoom worship has served us well during the lockdown.  True, it’s only second-best but for some, it is the only way. The house-bound, the shielding, the very poorly: do they not have a place too in God’s church?  How can we best encourage them as the lockdown eases?  Will they be abandoned? Amen.

TRINITY 6A

JULY 19^TH 2020

The reading that we have just heard is one that was often used by fire and brimstone preachers. I was very tempted but decided to spare you that this morning. This parable is only told in Matthew’s gospel and would have been readily understood at the time. But what relevance does it have for us today? What do wheat and weeds mean to us?

It is a very uncomfortable parable and as I researched, it became even more difficult to think about! The wheat and the weeds are growing side by side in the field, the weeds having allegedly been put there by the enemy. But until the harvest is ready there is no way of distinguishing one from the other. They look the same until the ears appear when the wheat is a golden yellow and the ears of the weeds are black. If they are not destroyed then the flour will be toxic. At harvest the weeds will be separated and burnt. Hence the fire and brimstone if we accept that the weeds are the sinners.

And we all know who they are, don’t we? The murderers, the rapists, the robbers, the fraudsters etc. and we wonder why God hasn’t zapped some people already. But we go to church and we are good people. I used to know one lady who had her place in heaven booked and had no doubt that it was reserved for her! But what did Jesus teach about the fruits of the Spirit? “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23) This is how we are supposed to live if we follow Christ. It is at this point that everything becomes very tricky.

We are very quick to judge others but we need to look at ourselves and compare ourselves to Christ. The result is not easy to bear. In the Confession we state: we have sinned in thought, word and deed. It is not enough to say that glibly and then go and not even try to produce the fruits of the Spirit. It would be lovely if we could buy Indulgences as in times past but we know that it is our hearts that need to be changed and we know that Christ died for us so that we could be saved from ourselves.

But all of us are part saints and part sinners and although we would like to think that the saintly bit has the upper hand it is up to each one of us to look deeply at ourselves. I began by stating that this parable is uncomfortable! If we all honestly examined ourselves, rather than each other and all the sinners had to leave, the church would be empty.

So why is this situation allowed? Why do we all have to grow together until the end? The servants wanted to pull up the weeds before the harvest was complete, when the crop could be first recognised with the weeds growing but the Master told them to wait for the ingathering. He told them to wait!

We are not used to waiting; we want things to happen when we want them to. God’s timetable is not the same as ours; but he is in control of the harvest. If we look at the people Jesus loved they included tax collectors, a hated group, and those who were regarded as not fit society members. His disciples were lowly folk, not great intellectuals; they didn’t understand, they doubted; they ran away, they lied about knowing him. They were like us and Jesus loves us warts and all!

Many people that we would discount on first glance, change their lives. In later

stages of his life Saul lead major persecutions against Christians, he did everything

within his power to stop the growth of Christianity by destroying groups of Christians,

putting Christians in prison in Jerusalem.

 

It was when he was on the way to Damascus to persecute more Christian believers,

that Christ appeared to him, which caused him to repent and become one of

the greatest evangelists of his day. Michael Franzese was born into a life of crime in

Brooklyn, New York. In 1985 he was indicted on 14 counts of racketeering, extortion, counterfeiting and was sentenced to ten years in prison but was released from prison after serving 43 months. In December, 1991 he was sent back to prison for his involvement in tax fraud. During his time in jail, he claimed he found Jesus and he summoned up the strength to walk away from the Colombo family which is a cardinal sin in the mafia. He now spends his life keeping teenagers out of a life of crime.

 We would have pulled these people up as weeds and thought we were right to do so. But God never gives up on people and that includes us, which is very fortunate; we are given time to come close to our Saviour. But patience is needed and God shows that to us. He knows everything about us. These few verses from Psalm 139 show this and the rest is worth reading later:

Lord, you have examined me and you know me.
² You know everything I do;
    from far away you understand all my thoughts.
³ You see me, whether I am working or resting;
    you know all my actions.
⁴ Even before I speak,
    you already know what I will say.
⁵ You are all around me on every side;
    you protect me with your power.
⁶ Your knowledge of me is too deep;
    it is beyond my understanding.

  We do NOT know what is in the hearts of others and sometimes don’t know what our own hearts are like. We should be utterly thankful that God gives us all time to become more nearly the people he created us to be and we should ask to be more wheatlike than weedlike! A short poem to end by Annonymous

I dreamed of death the other night,

 And Heaven’s gate swung wide,

An Angel came with halo bright

 To usher me inside.

And there! To my astonishment

Stood folks I’d judged and labelled

 As “quite unfit”, “of little worth”

And “spiritually disabled.”

Indignant words rose to my lips,

But never were set free.

 For every face showed stunned surprise –

 Not one expected ME!

Amen.