Sermon at Farewell service SMVD 28.1.18
[May I speak in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.]
So here I am, standing before you to give my final sermon as your vicar. It’s quite a momentous occasion for me, after 12 ½ years living and serving amongst you. As I reflected on what I should say this morning, I decided that this should not be a “leaving speech”, focusing on my experiences in Datchet. There might be an opportunity for that at my farewell party on February 3. I really want to do two things now: to reaffirm my own faith in Christ (what really matters to me), and to encourage and challenge all of you to renew your trust in God and look to the future with hope.
I had the privilege of choosing the hymns and the readings for today’s service. It was very difficult, doing an extreme version of what the castaways on desert island discs have to do. You might have noticed that I have chosen no modern songs at all! That’s not because I don’t like them (some of you may think I like them too much) but because I thought today’s selection fitted this service the best. You can probably work out a fair bit about my spirituality from my choice of hymns, but in a nutshell they express two dimensions of the Christian life which are central for me. On the one hand, praise and worship – lifting our hands and our hearts up before the Lord – forgetting ourselves and our cares and coming into his holy presence. This, after all, is our ultimate destiny in heaven. This is what we were created for. And on the other hand, the experience of Jesus dwelling in our hearts by his Spirit, which is so beautifully expressed in our offertory hymn “Come down, O love divine”. I have long loved the final verse especially, whose words I find so evocative. “For none can guess its grace, till he become the place wherein the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling.” The love of Christ is something we can experience personally, not just read about or talk about or think about. God longs to set our hearts alight by the flame of his Holy Spirit, and that above anything else will make an impression on a world that may think it is finished with religion, but still longs for spiritual life.
The other piece of music in today’s service I want to mention is the Communion anthem, “Ubi Caritas”. This is an ancient hymn of the church in Latin, and the English translation is as follows:
Where charity and love are, God is there.
Christ's love has gathered us into one.
Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him.
Let us fear, and let us love the living God.
And may we love each other with a sincere heart.
I think these are beautiful words. The Christian faith is not a solitary, individualistic pursuit. The love of Christ brings us together in community. And the mutual love of the members of the Christian community for one another is the truest indication that God is really present. That will remain a guiding vision for St Mary’s.
And that links us to the first reading, from Romans chapter 12. I chose this because it is such a stirring exhortation to live out our faith, to “love in truth and action”, as St John says. I have spoken before of the two main phases of the human heartbeat as a picture of the two interdependent phases of the Christian life, in a continuous rhythm throughout our life. The resting phase, is when the heart fills with blood. That is like our resting in God’s presence and being filled with his life and love. That phase is immediately followed by the systole phase, when the blood is pumped out into the arteries. In the same way, we are sent out into the world to love and serve the Lord.
Each of us has his or her own calling, our own part to play in the movement of God’s Spirit in this wonderful but needy world we live in. We follow this calling sometimes as individuals, often as partners in the body of Christ. It is worked out in the family of the church, and outside, amongst strangers, especially the poor and neglected. It is worked out in every part of life: on the national and international stage; in business and the world of work; in our economic and social arrangements; in our local community and our families. And in all of this, our guiding motto is “overcome evil with good”. That is the way of that turns the world upside down, which Jesus supremely demonstrated in his sacrificial death on the cross.
And so finally I come to the Gospel reading. In fact, this was the one reading I didn’t choose myself, because it is the set Gospel reading for today, the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. But when I reflected on it I decided that it was very fitting for my leaving service, as it’s all about a departure and a continuation.
Simeon was a righteous and devout man who had been waiting all his life for the promised Messiah. Anna was a woman “of great age” (84 to be precise) who had spent her life worshipping in the Temple and was likewise waiting for the Redeemer. And then the promised day, hoped for against all hope, finally comes. Simeon holds the infant Jesus in his arms. His life is fulfilled, and he says “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation.” Try to imagine yourself holding the Saviour of the world in your arms. This wonderful fulfilment at the end of Simeon’s life is something for each of us to pray for. It’s not a question of simply being in the right place at the right time when we come to the end of life’s journey, but of offering our lives now to God so that he can make of them what he wills.
But of course these words of fulfilment are not the only words that Simeon utters. He also speaks words of prophecy to Mary, telling her of the sword that will pierce her soul. And so our eyes are turned from this intimate scene in the Temple, to what will happen on the Hill of Calvary thirty-three years later. Mary will watch her own son die on the Cross in the ultimate fulfilment of God’s purposes for humankind. The old dispensation ends with the death of figures like Simeon and Anna, but the new dispensation is just beginning, with the one being held in Simeon’s arms.
Today also one era ends, which is my time with you in Datchet. And two new eras begin: a new life for Patricia and me in the Congo, and a new life for this church of St Mary’s. Some things will remain the same, some things will be very different, but the unchangeable One is with us through it all. “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.”
So as I end my words today, I urge you to trust in God, in his greatness and his love, and to have confidence in the gospel of Christ. I urge you to recommit yourselves to the Lord’s service, to work wholeheartedly with one another, and to remember that you have gifts that you alone can offer. And finally, I urge you to have hope for the future, to believe that the Holy Spirit will lead this church to be a light shining out to the glory of God.
“And now unto him that is able to keep us from falling,
and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
to the only wise God our Saviour,
be glory and majesty,
dominion and power,
both now and forever. Amen.