Potential can be defined as capable of being or becoming
Over the course of the past few days I have been looking over the first parable in the set which we read ...The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
The seed is planted with potential .. it is capable of being a bush, or becoming a bush... it has potential.
All seed have the potential. Teachers look at young people in Primary School and say that they have great potential. We look at the world today and see that it has great potential ... it is capable of being or becoming something fantastic.
There is also negative potential ... the human being has also the potential of doing great harm. Yesterday as I was at home I switched on to BBC News Channel as it was covering the events which happened in Oslo. One human being causing so much harm to so many people, as I watched that then news started breaking about a train crash in China, and further news about Singer and Song Writer Amy Winehouse, and then more news about the nurse who is alleged to have tampered with medical products.
Potential ... each and everyone has great potential ... but our God given best potential is to live as citizens of the Kingdom of heaven. To use our gifts and skills, our talents in the way God intended us to, to make an impact for good on the world around us. But he will never force us to make these decisions.
God has always been a God of freedom,
God always has been God of Transformation,
God has always been a God of potential,
When we look down through the pages of History God has used ordinary people to transform this world... and the truth is he still does it today.
Down through the years Christians have been at the forefront of some of the major things we now take for granted ... In Modern Society we could point to Christians
Men and Women who saw thing were not right, that humanity was not living to its full potential and who decided to do something about it.
• Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children - first laws to protect children from abuse (Rev B Waugh)
• Barnardo's - world's largest orphange system (T.J. Barnardo)
• Richard Oastler campaigned to protect children through the Factory Reform Bill and Anti-Poor movement.
• Almshouses birthed and were the first to offer formal care for the elderly and disabled in society.
• Prison Reform pioneered by the Quakers.
• Braille system for the blind developed by Louis Braille.
• Pioneers of free health care for the terminally ill (Douglas Macmillan)
• Advocates of International Fair Trade (Tearfund)
• International Housing for the poor - Habitat for Humanity (Millard Fuller).
- Leprosy Mission - caring for those no-one else wants (Dr. P.Wilson)
- Abolition of Slave Trade (W.Wilberforce and wider Church)
• Pioneers of Microfinance for poor countries (D.Bussau)
• Pioneers of education for the deaf (Rev. Gallaudet)
• Fathers of modern Foster Care (Charles L. Brace)
Simple Ideas which we now take for granted ... but which came from Christians living out their faith in their own fields of influence.
All of us are called as part of our Christian faith to be involved in the mission of God where we are ... of doing the small things which we can ... even though we think that they are so small and insignificant ... of remaining faithful to the small things and seeing them grow into something which is of great significance, of living lives which mean something ...
situated under the covers of each of the pews ... you will find that there are some seeds really small seed ... but seed which have the potential to grow ...
Sunday by Sunday we come to church ... we read readings, we hear sermons, we receive communion we commit ourselves to be living sacrifices ... and we go out. .... the past few weeks we have heard loads of things about Good soil, about producing a good crop .... there is a real challenge I believe.
As a church we are called to grow ... we are called to develop ... we are called to find out more about God ... we all have potential to do great things for God.
Perhaps we are not called to start a new organisation as some of those people were
Prehaps we are called to find out more about God’s will is for our lives
Perhaps we are called to get involved in something new here
Perhaps there is some particular need / injustice that we are concerned about
Perhaps we would like to get involved in a particular role in church life
The potential is great ... the seed that you have in your hand has the pontential to produce a vegetable, a tree, a flower ... each something different.
The only way we can know what we have got is to plant it and see what happens.
None of us know really what the future will hold, nor what our faith will look like in days weeks or months ahead but we do need to take care of it.
If you are up for a challenge, take the seed, and plant it, give it some water, and see what is produced!
If you are up for a challenge, take the faith which you already have, add a wee bit of Word and Christian Fellowship and see what could be produced
God always has been God of Transformation,
God has always been a God of freedom,
God has always been a God of potential,
It has always been up to us ... either we plant the seed and allow it to fulfill its full potential or we keep it in our pockets and don’t let it grow.
As a church we get the variety and the nourishment when everyone finds their full kingdom potential.
I Look forward to hearing in the next months as to what has been produced!
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