It seems perverse to post sermons in advance of preaching them, but here for your feedback is what I plan to say on Sunday.  Last time I did this I met a whole family who had been brought along because a church member read the sermon I was going to give and decided that they needed to hear it!  Maybe you'll do the same.  But please - don't look at it and decide you don't need to come to church!!  In any case, it's only Tuesday and I never keep to the script of my sermons, so by the time it's preached it might be different.

Too good to be true?              Acts 12.1-17

I want to say three things this morning.  First:  following Jesus will ruin your life.  Second: this story is so good it seems too good to be true.  And third: we have a mobile religion.

OK, here goes.

1.  Following Jesus will ruin your life. 

Peter’s done everything right. As we saw two weeks ago he’s been making himself available as Jesus did.  As we saw last week, he was given the keys of who’s in and who’s out of God’s people and he’s used them well to open the door to those of every ethnic group and culture.  He’s been preaching bravely about Jesus and encouraging the church.  If anyone deserved life to go well, it would be Peter.  And yet in this passage he gets thrown into gaol.  His mate James has just been killed.  The very next morning he’s going to be brought out and given a show trial, and it doesn’t look good for Peter.

I think we all instinctively feel that life shouldn’t work like that.  People should get what they deserve.  Good guys shouldn’t die young.  We accept there’s likely to be suffering for us, but we feel like because we’ve led a good Christian life we’ll get less suffering than we would have got if we hadn’t been leading a good Christian life.  But I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that.  It’s following Jesus that ruined Peter’s life.  Ever since he heard Jesus say “come, follow me” his nice respectable life with a fishing business has been torn apart.

Do you know the story of the Princess and the Goblin?  It was written in the mid-19th century by Gearge MacDonald.  It tells the story of Irene, who’s eight years old.  Her fairy grandmother gives her a ring with a thread tied to it, but the thread is so fine that it can only be felt – not seen.  “Now listen,” says the grandmother, “if you ever find yourself in any danger, take off the ring and lay your forefinger upon the thread, and follow the thread wherever it leads you.”

“O, how delightful!  It will lead me to you, grandmother, I know!”

“Yes, but it may seem to lead you a very roundabout way indeed.”

A few days later goblins get into the house.  Well, it’s a fairy tale, isn’t it?  Irene hears them snarling on the landing, but she follows the thread and it takes her out of her window towards the goblins’ cave.  Inside the cave, the thread leads her up to a great heap of stones – a dead end.  The thought struck her – she could follow the thread backwards and out of the cave, but as soon as she tried to feel it backwards, it vanished from her touch.  Irene burst into tears, but realised that the only way to follow the thread was to break down the wall of stones.  She begins tearing it down, stone by stone, and soon her fingers are bleeding.  They made children’s stories tough in the nineteenth century.

Suddenly, she hears a voice.  It’s her friend Curdie, who’s been trapped in the goblins’ cave!  “What brings you here?” he asks.  “My grandmother sent me” says Irene, “and I’m beginning to see why.” 

Curdie starts to climb out of the cave, but Irene is still moving away from the cave mouth, into the cave.  Curdie objects “that’s not the way out”.  “I know,” says Irene, “but this is the way my thread goes, and I must follow it.”  And of course the thread does prove trustworthy, because her grandmother is trustworthy.

Jesus says “come, follow me.  I’m going to take you on a journey, and some of that journey will be to places you don’t want to go.  Just trust me and keep following, not turning back, not giving up, keeping going whatever injustices or disappointments happen to you.  I’m going to take you places that will make you say ’Why in the world are you taking me THERE?’  and even there, I want you to trust me.”

I have decided to follow Jesus – no turning back, no turning back.

Jesus wasn’t asking Peter to do anything he hadn’t done himself.  When he called Peter to follow, he had already given up his heavenly throne and trusted his Father as he came down to earth.  And he followed the thread all the way to the garden where he sweat blood in his anguish and all the way to the cross where it looked like a dead end and all the way to death under the judgement of God for sin.  Don’t turn back.  Jesus followed his thread all the way to the cross so you can follow your thread all the way to his arms.

2.  This story is so good it seems too good to be true.

God sends an angel to set Peter free.  There he is in the window behind me.  But the angel has a tough job.  Opening the doors is easy, getting Peter mobilised is difficult.  First of all he has to strike him, verse 7 – the word used implies considerable force, it’s not just a quick touch.  And then the angel has to remind him to put his clothes on, verse 8.  And then Peter still doesn’t believe it’s real, verse 9!  It’s just too good to be true.

And the rest of the church aren’t ready to believe it either.  They’re all praying for his release when he knocks on the door.  Rhoda comes to the door, sees it’s Peter, but doesn’t let him in!  The other disciples think either she’s crazy or it’s Peter’s ghost, which is poor theology but understandable because the truth was too good to be true!  They only finally open the door when they get fed up of the knocking!

And we’re pretty suspicious of Happy Endings too.  In a book called King’s Cross - to which I'm indebted for an awful lot of the content of this sermon, by the way - Tim Keller points out that Stephen Spielberg was refused an Oscar until he’s make a film that didn’t have a happy ending – and yet it’s the ones with happy endings that are most popular in the box office.  “Escapist”, say the critics.  But what if we have a longing for a story that’s a real escape?

JRR Tolkien puts it like this: “The joy of a happy ending... is not essentially “escapist”... It does not deny the existence ... of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat... giving a glimpse of joy, joy beyond the wall of the world.”

It’s not easy to believe all this, is it?  It sounds like a free lunch!  In the Princess and the Goblin, Curdie thanks Irene for rescuing him but says he doesn’t believe in her invisible thread or her invisible grandmother.  This bothers Irene, and she says so to her grandmother when she next appears.  “People must believe what they can,” says the grandmother, “and those who can believe more must not be too hard on those that are able to believe less”.   Show him enough grace, and maybe he’ll gradually come to believe in it.  

Here’s the good news: for those who, like Jesus, follow the thread all the way to the cross, the tomb is empty and there’s the unbelievably happy ending of resurrection.  For those who, like Peter, follow the thread all the way to a prison cell, there’s the unbelievably happy ending of release.  For those who, like the early church, kept on and on praying for Peter when prayer was hopeless and Herod’s penalty was sure, there’s the unbelievably happy ending of answered prayer.  Now, I know that sometimes – as for James in this passage – we have to die before we see the unbelievably happy ending.  I realise that.  But that doesn’t mean it’s not good news, even for James on the other side of death.  This is the pattern of the Christian life: cross then resurrection, obedience then joy.  Follow that thread.  And for some people here today, it might be that today is the day you choose to put your finger on that thread and start following - through taking up your cross, all the way to resurrection and life with God for ever and ever.  There'll be two people up under the Peter window after the sermon, and they'd love to pray with you.

3.  We have a mobile religion.

It’s easy to read the end of verse 17 as if it’s an unimportant detail.  “Peter went to another place”.   But this is massive.  It means that Christianity is no longer going to be centred on Jerusalem.

Have you ever thought that all the other great world religions are still headquartered where they began?  Islam is centred on Arabia, Hinduism is centred on India, Mormonism is centred on Utah, and so on.  But Christianity’s centre is always moving.  Jerusalem then Rome- then North Africa when Rome fell – then the barbarians overran the Christian world and the torch passed to the Celts in the north and what we call Turkey in the east – then Rome again, and Wittenberg and Geneva and London, and North America in the twentieth century, and now the centre of the Christian world has moved south to Africa, Latin America and Asia.  Why is this?  It’s because being on the move is part of Christianity, it never rests on past shrines it always seeks for the next step on the journey.  It’s not a safe religion with a safe, static God.  It’s always following the thread.  No turning back, no turning back.

May God bless your journey this week.  Next week, Fiona Selden – our Reader in training – is going to tell us about faith.  I’ll see you then.

We're enormously proud of Hiranya.  I remember baptising her five years ago; for a year she led our children's work; she's an accomplished poet; she was a big formative influence on many of our young people; and we always knew, when she was working as an accountant, that she'd end up doing something more adventurous.  Well, after a degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies, she is indeed doing something more adventurous - she's working as an accountant!  But she's doing it in Kabul in Afghanistan. as finance director for Skateistan, Kabul's premier (and only) skate-park.

Click here for a link to a you-tube video.  And click here for a report from espn. 

Hiranya writes:  "As we had landed, I had an incredible emotional reaction to the beauty of Afghanistan, the rugged, sparse mountains.  My heart was in my mouth.  I have never had a similar reaction, except for Sri Lanka (for obvious reasons).  And I felt, in my heart, that this is where I’m meant to be.  Maybe this sounds like wishy-washy hippy speak to some of you, but I can only speak from my own experience.  As we drove through the streets of Kabul, my excitement mounted...  Something in my heart is at peace, despite the external chaos of things...

"The next day, we went to the Skate Park and I was shown around.  ... I found a place to meditate in the girl’s locker room, so it was good to begin my practice as I mean to go on.  Then, in the afternoon, I skateboarded for the first time.  It is like flying, and I loved it, loved persevering and practising the basics over and over.  I can’t wait to keep going at it.  The climbing wall is a bit lacking in holds (as most of these are held up in customs somewhere) but should be good in due course. ...

"This morning, I was woken to the sound of bombings.  I thought to myself, ok, well this is Kabul; what do you expect, and was determined to sleep at least until 6am.  I was really irritated at the planes flying overhead keeping me awake.  And resolutely, went back to sleep.  At 7am I got up.  We have a Nepali journalist living with us, so he informed us that it was the British Council and (at that time) there were 3 civilian causalities.  ... I’m in Kabul; I wasn't expecting Disneyland.  But still, it is probably a great teacher as far as living in the present moment goes.

"One of my German colleagues had a great quote: “Suicide bombings: the best alarm clock in Kabul.”

"Sitting on the porch, watching the army planes fly by – very lowly I might add – I also watched the butterflies, the kites and the birds.  It occurred to me that all these things fly, yet some are silent, and other more ugly things, have to make a big noise. 

"So, that’s where it is so far.  I feel very at home.  Afghanistan is like a seductive lover: she lures me in.  And I know she will break my heart, but I am falling in love, and imagine I will keep coming back to her, despite knowing she will hurt me again.  There’s something about this place that gets you; je ne sais quoi!"

And this week the Vice-President of Afghanistan visted the Skatepark today. Hiranya says "There was lots of security; searched twice on my way into work."   Personally, I think that's pretty cool.  I asked for permission to write about it on the church blog because there can't be many churches in Essex with members working on projects visited by Vice-presidents.

Launching Pastoral Communities

 

Chelmsford South Deanery: An Integrated Deanery Vision and Plan for Deployment of Ministry, July 2011

 

A Deanery Vision Group met from mid-2009 to mid-2010, looking at the context of decreased numbers of stipendiary clergy, the tasks delegated to the deanery, the biblical basis for collaborative ministry, and the way various other deaneries and dioceses are facing the present moment[1].  The deanery standing committee affirmed the convictions of the Vision Group, and sent them out to all PCCs for discussion; at the deanery synod held on 7 October 2010 they were affirmed by an overwhelming majority.  Each PCC produced a “mini-profile” about their churches, and on the basis of this decided in early 2011 which other parishes to ally with[2]; we “launched” our pastoral communities at a further synod in June 2011.   Finally, the deanery standing/pastoral committee unanimously accepted this vision on July 18 2011.

In order to become a reality, this document

- needs the agreement of Widford PCC, Great Baddow PCC, and the Chelmer Crouch Group and all its constituent PCCs

- needs the cooperation of patrons and bishops wherever decisions need to be taken with regard to appointments – we are very aware that they will act with a wider perspective, and we have no desire to tie their hands

- needs the approval, at each point where pastoral reorganisation is suggested, of area and diocesan mission and pastoral committees

- needs the free cooperation of the clergy.  We are very clear that, even if it is embraced by the bodies listed above, no clergyperson can be compelled to follow this proposed scheme – nor would we wish it to be entered into reluctantly.

It should therefore not be seen as “the final plan”, but as our contribution to the process of planning deployment.  

 

1.  A Vision for Every Member

It is clear to us that Chelmsford South deanery is going to lose 1.5 stipendiary (paid) priests in the next 5 years, (in addition to the 1.5 stipendiaries lost since mid-2009), leaving a total of 10.5 stipendiaries in 2016, and a further 2.5 stipendiaries by 2020, leaving 8.  We believe this “loss” is actually a great opportunity to help us to develop the leaders (lay and ordained) that God desires for us: leaders working together and looking to God for power to equip every member to serve South Chelmsford and to tell of God’s love.  

We believe that God gives his people the gifts they need.  Our eyes and hearts have particularly been drawn to Ephesians 4; we believe that God will provide the ministry gifts of

- Visionary Leaders,

- Prophets to speak truth to power,

- Evangelists to spread the good news,

- Pastors to care and include all, and

- Teachers to make sure young and old alike develop into the likeness of Christ. 

Our synod in spring 2010 showed what a range of gifted individuals we already value within the deanery, including readers, pastoral assistants and evangelists, but also those recognised by our local churches and commissioned to minister under supervision.  Our “deanery roadshow” is rolling out across the deanery with the aim of encouraging vocation in the broadest sense possible.

Every member needs to be empowered to live in his or her community, family, social groups and workplace as a full-time Christian, serving his or her community and telling of God’s love.    

Every member also needs to be part of an intimate Christian group, whether a formal group or a set of friends.  Smaller parish churches already constitute this intimate group.

 

2.  A Vision for Pastoral Communities

From now on, every member will also be part of a larger group in which the fullness of the ministry gifts listed above are put into practice.   We call this larger group a pastoral community. 

A pastoral community is a dynamic grouping of smaller communities; it is served by a collaborative team of ministers, paid and voluntary, clergy and lay, licensed and unlicensed, whose focus is to equip every member to serve South Chelmsford and tell of God’s love.  Its legal status is not the overriding factor, but its fitness for purpose.   It is the effective unit for mission and ministry[3].    We are very supportive of pastoral communities working closely with ecumenical partners.    Between now and 2020, several of the pastoral communities may have more stipendiaries than this section envisages; but the aim is to reduce to this level gradually by 2020.  In a pastoral community consisting of more than one parish, no one church and no one incumbent, be they stipendiary or self-supporting, is preeminent (though presumably a chairperson for pastoral community meetings will be appointed); all incumbents – paid or unpaid –have the same status and rights.

A)  The Chelmer Crouch Group presently comprises the following seven parishes: Bicknacre with Woodham Ferrers, Boreham, Danbury, East Hanningfield, Little Baddow, Sandon, and South Woodham Ferrers.  It was established as a Group Ministry in the 1990s and has a constitution (“the green book”); clergy licensed to the parishes in the group have a specified role in all the other parishes of the group, and appointments are made with reference to the whole group.  The mini-profiles make it clear that all the features of a viable pastoral community identified in this document are present.

The group covers 34,201 people; the active membership is 570 approx[4].

At present, there are 3.5 stipendiary clergy, 1 house-for-duty clergyperson (an incumbent), 2 SSM clergy (of whom one is an incumbent and one an associate), 2 readers, a team of authorised preachers and a part-time professional children’s worker in the pastoral community.  (Note that Curates and retired ministers are not included in these figures). 

In 2016, this pastoral community would be served by 3 stipendiary clergy.  Of these, two would have a pastoral and eucharistic role, one to cover the north and one, working more closely than at present with ecumenical partners, to cover the south (South Woodham Ferrers, Woodham Ferrers and Bicknacre).  It is important that the southern stipendiary be a suitable training incumbent.  East Hanningfield would have a self-supporting minister as at present.  There would be a house-for-duty post in the north and, in time, we envisage a title curate living at Bicknacre.

The third stipendiary would be a group missioner, paid by the whole group, based in South Woodham Ferrers and with the task of building a team that will plant a new congregation there, but also with group-wide missional responsibilities.  This person would also be ordained.  This would be a medium-term post, ceasing before 2020, by which time one or more new congregations would be embedded.  The terms of reference of the missioner are of great importance, and we would seek the guidance of experts in this field.

B)  The Reservoir Pastoral Community comprises the following five parishes: Downham, Ramsden Bellhouse, South Hanningfield, Stock, and West Hanningfield.  It was established as a “pastoral unit” in the late 1980s, with Ramsden Bellhouse a late entry for complicated legal reasons, and the parishes have not wished to change groupings in the present process.  There is some joint activity in schools work, but the two incumbents and five PCCs will need to find their own way of making this pastoral community work.   The mini-profiles make it clear that all the features of a viable pastoral community identified in this document are present.

The pastoral community covers 7,362 people; the active membership is 290 approx.

At present, there are 1.5 stipendiary clergy, 1 SSM clergy and 1 reader in this pastoral community.  (Note that Curates and retired ministers are not included in these figures). 

We recommend that the diocese “budgets” for 1.5 stipendiaries in this pastoral community in 2016; this number would reduce to 1 by 2020.

 C)  We would love a Moulsham, Galleywood and Widford Pastoral Community to be formed.    This would be a new creation, and would definitely need a catchier name!   It would comprise the following four parishes: Galleywood, Moulsham St Luke, Moulsham St John, Widford.

At the moment, Widford PCC is exploring several options; this is one of them.  The other three parishes are already committed to this project.
This enlarged pastoral community would cover 33,200 people; the active membership would be 550 approx.

At present, there are four stipendiary clergy, 2 readers, 1 pastoral assistant, 1 evangelist, 1 part-time professional youthworker and 1 professional administrator serving this potential pastoral community.  (Note that Curates and retired ministers are not included in these figures).  

 We would recommend that the diocese “budgets” for 3 stipendiaries in this pastoral community in 2016; this number could stay at 3 or be reduced to 2 by 2020.

 

D)  The Great Baddow Team comprises St Mary’s, St Paul’s and Meadgate churches.  It is a full team ministry, with a formal constitution which is due for review by the next Area Bishop.   All the features of a viable pastoral community identified in this document are already present.

The pastoral community covers 18,000 people; the active membership is 520 approx.[5]

At present there are three stipendiary clergy, one SSM priest, two readers, 1 professional youthworker, 2 professional administrators and a team of authorized preachers; two priests on diocesan staff are licensed to the team nominally for 5% of their time but are not part of the stipendiary establishment. 

We would recommend that the diocese “budgets” for 3 stipendiaries in this pastoral community in 2016; this number could reamin, or be reduced to 2 by 2020.  In addition, it is crucial that this pastoral community takes an active role (including but not confined to substantial stipendiary person hours) in working with and supporting other nearby parish(es) – conversations are ongoing about the exact way this should be done.

 

The following table shows the number of stipendiaries at a glance:

 

pastoral community                         summer 2009             summer 2011                   2016                      2020

 

A): Chelmer-Crouch                      3.5 + 1 house for duty   3.5 + 1 hfd                              3 + 1 hfd             2 + 1 hfd

34,201 people; active membership 570

 

B): Reservoir                                   2                                         1.5                                          1.5                          1

7,362 people; active membership 290

 

C): Moulsham/W’ford/G’wood      5                                          4                                           3                              3 or 2

33,200 people; active membership 550

 

D): Great Baddow                           3                                          3                                    3 supporting others    3 or 2

18,000 people; active membership 520

 

Total                                          13.5 + 1 house for duty        12+ 1 house for duty         10.5+ 1 hfd             8 + 1 hfd

 

However, we feel strongly that this table does not summarise the most important parts of this vision, which concern such matters as gifts, collaboration, purpose and the need for a “parson” in each church.

 

3.  A Vision for Sovereign Parishes

When it comes to determining the borders of the pastoral communities, we did not believe that the standing committee should be leaning over a map with a ruler, in the manner of the Great Powers partitioning Africa.  Pastoral communities are not a replacement for parishes, they are simply a tool to help parishes help each other.  So we have ensured that every parish (PCC) has made its own decision about which parishes to be grouped with.  It is for PCCs to decide what councils and mechanisms are formed to coordinate decision making within each pastoral community.

In pastoral communities, parishes are retained as at present, and agree to cooperate and share ministry as appropriate.  In many cases, no formal reorganisation or change in parish share is necessary.   Some congregations/parishes will not have “their own priest”; they will each need their own “parson”.  This person need not necessarily be paid, or even ordained, but will be the public “face” of the church to the locality and the focus of ministry, under the supervision of their incumbent(s). 

We would ask that deanery clergy freely choose to include responsibilities to the pastoral community in their role descriptions.  Where possible, we would hope that Readers and other accredited ministers would work in a flexible way to meet needs.

 

4.  A Vision for the Deanery Itself

In the context of God’s desire to shower us with blessing; in the context of full-time Christians, pastoral communities and sovereign parishes; and in the context of God’s love for a world that he calls us to serve and tell of his love, we are clear about the function of the deanery itself.  We express it in twenty words:

“We look to God for power

to equip every member

to serve South Chelmsford

and to tell of God’s love.”

We are only too glad for our synods, roadshows and subgroups to be scrutinised with this vision in mind to see if we are living up to God’s call.

Andy Griffiths, Rural Dean

Christine Horton, Lay Chair

[1] The work done by the diocese of Exeter particularly informed our theological thinking on pastoral communities (called mission communities in Exeter) – see the multiple reports, leaflets and documents about “moving on in mission and ministry” (MOIMM) at www.exeter.anglican.org.

[2] Widford is in an exceptional position in this respect, and is the only parish not to have committed itself to a pastoral community as yet.

[3] Exeter diocese identifies the following features of a viable pastoral community:

·                regular public worship

·                leadership and envisioning

·                collaborative ministry

·                teaching, preaching, training, nurture, growth, and lifelong learning for Jesus’ adult disciples

·                teaching, training, nurture and growth for children and young people who are disciples of Jesus

·                evangelism in the community as a clear priority

·                involvement in and service to the local community, with a particular care expressed for the poor, after the example of Jesus Christ

·                effective pastoral care available to all in the community who need it

·                being partners in mission with other groups / churches inside & outside the Diocese

·                the provision of appropriate and realistically sustainable buildings

·                the necessary administration to support this work

Along with the list of ministry gifts mentioned in section 1 above, these form a useful “check-list” to see if a parish or group of parishes is already working as a viable pastoral community, or whether it needs additional support from other parishes.

[4] This includes a midweek fresh expression of church

[5] (with a larger proportion of under-16s than the other pastoral communities in the deanery).

On Sunday we spoke about God's lack of ethnic favouritism, and it was clear from a number of conversations afterwards that racism in mid-Essex is something that concerns you, the congregation.  If there are ways we can actually do something positive in this area, do leave a comment below.