Sermon ... Dare to Share

A Sermon preached in St. Columba's Parish on Sunday 27th March 2011 at 7pm Evening Prayer Service

May my words and our hearts be now and always acceptable in thy sight O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen

The theme of our services today in St. Columba’s is, rediscover the joy of sharing ... wether that be sharing things in common or even sharing the faith we hold in common.

Sharing our faith ... This morning I was looking at the reading in St. Molua’s of the Samaritan Woman and was speaking about the fact that after her encounter with Jesus she went and told her village about what she had seen and heard. She “testified” to what she had heard and seen.

In our tradition, we are quite unfamiliar with the word “testimony” I suspect, I certainly was as I grew up in Banbridge but the word testimony is a legal term, it is used in court with witnesses who testify to what they have seen and heard. A testimony is simply a statement of experience ... what somebody saw, heard or felt.

In our reading from Joshua this evening we hear a testimony - of the Lord speaking to Joshua powerfully, he is commissioning him to lead, he is giving him a vision of what is possible, he is commanding him to keep on, keeping on.

That is Joshua’s testimony

God speaking into human lives, God equipping his people, God providing a bigger vision of what is possible.

A question this evening ... what are your passions?, what are the things you most enjoy?, what is on your heart?, if you could do something to change others circumstances what would it be?

Joshua’s longing was to get to the promised land, Jesus’ passion in the story we have just read was to rid the temple of the unjust practices of profiteers in the temple courts.

God uses our passions, our talents, our strengths and our weaknesses to do bring about the kingdom of God ...

Therefore, we are all called to do what we can for his kingdom ... each and everyone of us ... no matter our age, our bank balance, our skin colour or whatever else defines who we are.

Ahh ... but I have a good excuse! well do you?

Look at the people God used ...

Noah was a drunk;
Job went bankrupt;
Abraham was too old;
Isaac was a daydreamer;
Jacob was a liar;
Leah was ugly;
Joseph was abused;
Gideon was afraid;
Sampson was a long haired womanizer;
Rahab was a prostitute;
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young;
David had an affair and was a murderer;
Elijah was suicidal;
Jonah ran from God;
Naomi was a widow;
John the Baptist ate bugs;
Peter denied Christ;
the disciples fell asleep while praying;
Martha worried about everything;
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once;
Zaccheus was too small;
Paul was too religious;
Timothy had an ulcer...AND Lazarus was dead!

All of us are called to share in the mission and ministry of God in this place. It doesn’t matter who you are - all of us can do something ... all of us have something to bring

Imagine if Joshua had given up ... would the story have ended by the people going back to Egypt. But he didn’t he remained faithful.

All of us have been commissioned to share the good news, to make disciples, to make learners. That is not just the call of ministers or Bible study leaders, that is the call of the whole people of God, you and me.

whatever the excuse ... it can be answered. When my gran read my wee article in this new edition of The columban she said ... you are getting very serious about people excuses of not coming to church!

As a church we are indeed getting serious about engaging with those on the fringe of the parish ... each one of us has our own story ... which will undoubtably entail questions and problems about faith, church, the Bible but by being open and honest and by telling others why we come to church we might just encourage others to find answers, encourage others to come along.

All of us can share in our own way who God is and what he has done for us... the challenge is do we dare to share our faith with those whom we me this week, next week and beyond.

Let us pray ...