The Reverend Catriona Cumming

Sunday 6 May 2018 – 11.30am Matins

John 15. 9-17

I would like us to pause for a few minutes this morning, and consider what it is we are doing here.

The writer of psalm 42 puts it rather beautifully:

These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.

Ps. 42. 4 NRSV

These words make sense in a building like this, gathered together with a congregation of this size.

The scale and grandeur of this place hopefully leave a mark on those who visit for whatever reason.

Celebrating the great festivals of the church’s year in this place feels significant.

The beauty of the music, the occasional profundity from the pulpit, and the sense that one is participating in something greater than one’s self, hopefully sustains those who visit, helps them encounter God’s love, and sends them out again with hope.

But it is important to remember that this service, this morning, is one of countless services all over the world.

Not many will be in such places as this.

Some will be furtive – in people’s homes, with door closed and blinds drawn.

Others will be outside, under a tree to shelter from the sun.

Some people here this morning will have been coming to the Minster for most, if not all their lives.

But not all –  in fact, they will be in the minority.

For most of us, this place represents a pausing point, for however long.

For those of us for whom this is ‘home’ for a longer period of time, it is important that we remember – this is only one experience of going to church.
For some here, this may be the first time you’ve ever come into a church, or a church service.
“What on earth are they doing?!” you may think at various points.
To tell the truth, it’s something that those of us who go to church quite a bit more often think as well:
“What on Earth is she doing?”

So, what are we doing?
Well, partly, we are meeting together as a Christian community, to worship God together, but also to build relationships with each other.
It is something that we have in common with Christians across the world, though it is worth remembering that gathering together for some Christians is dangerous, or impossible.

The liberty and opportunity to congregate is not something we should take for granted.

Regardless of how often we meet, Christians are called to love one another – as Christ loved his friends.
This means seeking one another out – it means forming community.
That doesn’t mean organising committees, and subcommittees, and action groups.
It means getting to know people as they truly are, including all the REALLY annoying bits, allowing them to get to know us; loving them, and allowing them to love us in return.
Doesn’t sound very British, does it?

What we are doing today is not about meeting up with like-minded people and being nice to one another, although that’s a start.

Besides, anyone who has spent five minutes talking about anything substantive with a group of Christians, knows that under the veneer of politeness, there are huge disagreements waiting to burst out, and we all have the capacity to be anything but nice to one another.

Building community in a place like this, where so many people are passing through – on holiday, or wanting something different from their local church for just one weekend – can be hard.

Because building community takes time and patience.

But all baptized Christians, wherever they are from, are called to be part of the same family.

We are all baptized into one body – and so the stranger in our midst – that person sitting behind you who you may or may not have seen here before – is part of that community.

We work hard here to welcome visitors, wherever they are from, whatever their faith, and not just on a Sunday, but throughout the week: it’s good customer service.

But it’s about much more than getting good review on TripAdvisor. It is the mission of every Christian.

In our Gospel Jesus tells his disciples that he has appointed them to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.

For that fruit to last, what we are doing here has to be about more than a ‘nice’, or even ‘moving’ experience.

Fruit that will last is fruit that will grow and thrive in trying, hazardous conditions, through drought or flood.

Jesus appointed his disciples. He chose them.

All of this stems from that choice.

God chooses you.

God chooses me.

God chooses us.

“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

We are here because God is. And God is love.

Love by its nature is relational.

It is dynamic, and transformative.

It is God’s love at work in us which enables to build community.

When we place aside our ego, our grand plans, and abide in God’s love, that is when we see growth.

Bonhoeffer, writing about life together, commented that:

“Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate. The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our fellowship is in Jesus Christ alone, the more serenely shall we think of our fellowship and pray and hope for it.”

Bonhoeffer, D. 1953 ‘Life Together’, p. 18. SCM publishing.

I can’t quite get through a whole sermon on this passage without mentioning the icon which hung on the wall of the chapel of my theological college: Westcott House in Cambridge.

It is an icon of Jesus, and the scripture it contains is from this passage: ‘you did not choose me, but I chose you’.

Such a choice, when one is under strain from deadlines, and finding other members of the community challenging, can feel like a huge cosmic joke.

But at its heart is God’s desire for us.

It is that desire which draws us here today, and which shapes us, if we allow it.

At the beginning and end of each day here, we pray.

We pray in the middle of the day too.

We gather to give thanks, to plead, to rejoice or lament.

But essentially what we are doing is taking time to be with God: to abide in God’s love.

Worship has taken many forms through the Church’s history, as Christianity has crossed borders, and been brought into conversation with different cultures.

It can be grand and solemn, silent or raucous.

Today we gather round a table – seeking to spend time to abide with God, Jesus abides, is present with us, in bread and wine, as he is present wherever two or three are gathered together in his name.

As bread and wine are transformed, so we as a community and as individuals, are transformed.

Only through relationship, through the love of God, are we then able to offer love to one another – despite our differences and disagreements – however well we know one another.
And more than that, we are then able to show the love of God to those who have no idea what on earth we’re doing here.
And so we are appointed to bear fruit, fruit that will last.

Thanks be to God. Amen.