Here's a sermon I preached in 2005.
Well, now you know who the new Vicar will be - it's me. Which gives me great joy, because it means I can stay in Galleywood for a while. I plan to lose most of my hair here.
And my agenda? Having already been Galleywood's Associate Vicar for a year, I'd have no excuse for not being able to map out a general vision - though to flesh it out will require input from the whole community including you. It just so happens that our Bible passage this morning is Luke 16.19-31 - the story of a rich man (who goes to hell) and a poor man (who is caught up into Abraham's company). This story suggests the three planks of my vision for Galleywood.
Life Beyond Death
Firstly, the Vision for Galleywood is about life beyond death. We don't learn a great deal about heaven and hell from this parable (after all, it's a story, and I can't believe Jesus wanted us to believe people in hell literally have conversations with the People of God). My own hope is for a new world in which we roam free with resurrection bodies, not being eternally cuddled by Abraham. But the story does make it clear that there is life after death, and that the choices we make in this life will make a difference to what will happen in the next. And Abraham says at the end of the story that we have been given in the Bible all the information we need to be able to make those choices rightly.
So (to quote the mission statement) part of my vision for the church in Galleywood is that we should challenge Galleywood with God's Word, in all sorts of creative and unexpected ways. Galleywood may love it or hate it (mostly I hope it'll love it!), but it will notice we're here. For nearly a year now, I've been praying daily what I call the 350 prayer - that by the time I leave 350 Galleywood people will be worshipping God with us. That doesn't necessarily mean they'll be in church every Sunday - in fact, some of the expressions of church we may need might not happen on Sunday at all, and in my experience even our present members aren't here every week, and I'm extremely comfortable with that! But it's 350 people who know that they BELONG in some active way. 350 is only 5% of the population, but it's enough to ensure that the rest of the village hears the story and has a chance to be a part of the People of God who will live forever in God's new world. Whatever changes need to happen in order to make us effective in this way, I for one will not shrink from making them.
Life Before Death
But secondly, the Vision for Galleywood is about life before death. Jesus' purpose in telling the parable is clear - not to get us speculating about heaven and hell, but to get the rich to do something for the poor; and better still, to get the rich to treat the poor as people with value who deserve respect. Well, we're all richer than someone and poorer than someone else, so we all have a part to play in that story; we all have someone that treats us like dirt and won't even throw us their leftovers, as it were, and we may well have someone that we treat with disrespect and indifference. This has to change. In the words of our mission statement, we are called to demonstrate Christ's love for the world by who we are and what we do.
God so loved Galleywood that he gave it the parish church of St Michael and All Angels. I would hope that, in practical ways, Galleywood will be a better place because we're here.
Walls come tumbling down
And thirdly, the Vision for Galleywood is about divisions being broken down. In the story of the rich man and the poor man, 'division' comes up twice. Once it is a gate which the rich man puts up to separate himself from the poor man; and once it is a chasm by which God separates the two men after death. The point is clear - God hates it when we divide ourselves from one another. God hates it when the church keeps aloof from the village, when the old are divided from the young, when people who love to worship with guitars are divided from people who prefer organs, when the (relative) rich and the (relative) poor don't mix. And, in the words of the third part of our mission statement, he calls us to live as God's family.
We live in a world where there are more and more divisions - so the church is probably the only place where the unity God longs for can be displayed. What does this mean? Well, something more radical than the occasional joint service! It will take a whole change of attitude, for all of us. It will take humility. And it will take the power of God.
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