Monday, November 05, 2012

Dedication

This sermon was preached at the United Service of the Carrigrohane Union of Parishes - on Sunday 4th November 2012 11am

The theme of the service was dedication ... and "blessed to be a blessing"

 At the beginning of my sermon I mentioned a video clip of Archbishop Albert Chama (Primate of Central Africa) ... a man dedicated to God ... who was sharing his faith ... clearly in his life

This video appears on anglican communion in Canada website http://missionmoments.anglican.ca/index.php/marks/videodetail/99 



Today is a day of new beginnings, It is a great privilege for me as associate minster to be beginning a new chapter of ministry here in the Carrigrohane Union.

It is great to see so many new faces, and to re aquiant myself with old friends and people who I have met on a few previous visits to the parish.

It is also a real encouragement to see so many people who have traveled so far ... family & friends from Banbridge and from Belfast. Thank you all for coming so far. And to John Auchmuty - Rector of St. Columba’s Thank you once again for alll your support & wisdom over the past 3 1/4 years.

Last Sunday ... in St. Columba’s I had the opportunity to look back ... over the past few years ... This morning is a morning to be looking forward ... looking into the future ... looking at what God is doing here and how we can invest for the future in this place.

There is an illustration which may be familiar to some of you ... A Professor in a university produced on the first day of his first year class ... a lesson which the year group never forgot...

He turned up with a Jar ... a Bag full on tennis balls, a Bag full of pebbles, A bag full of sand and a jug of water.

He first stuck tennis balls into the jar and asked the class if it was full ... the class replied yes ... no more tennis balls would go in

but he the produced ... bag full of pebbles ... with a gentle shake ... the pebbles filled the jar ... and again ... he asked the class was it full ... the class replied ... yes ... sure enough no tennis balls nor pebbles would go in ...

but then again ... he produced ... his sand ... 


What he was illustrating was the importance of priorities ... if the students put the important things in place then there would be plenty of room to put the others in ... BUT if he had focused on the unimportant, on the small things and forgot about the main things then some of them would have to be left out.

On this day of dedication ... we are focusing on the important things in the parish ... focusing on focusing on our faith, our vision for the future, focusing on our finances.

In our reading this morning - Jacob gets a Glimpse of the future and is reminded of the promise of Abraham ... of God’s blessing to him and his offspring

Three big areas and getting these right so that in the months and years to come all the other things - important as we as a parish reach out into the communities to which we belong... we can see that these have been included.


Focus on faith

Each of us here this morning have a story to tell, how you have come to this particular point, a story of how God has been working, guiding, directing, calling, teaching or whatever way we would like to describe our encounter with God.

Throughout the centuries of the church ... there always has been people with stories of faith - people who have dedicated their lives to God ... ordinary people with extrordinary stories to tell ... lives devoted to God’s service. At this service as we think about the theme of dedication we do so simply because God uses dedicated people living lives worthy of the calling to which God has given to them.

I look forward to hearing and witnessing what God has been and is doing in this place and sharing stories of what God has been doing in Belfast, in Zambia as well as my own journey of faith to this point.

Focus on the future

I’m excited to be here at this time ... I’m excited to be part of the team who under God will be able to see new things happen, strengthen what is already happening. I do believe that greater things than have happened in the past will happen in the future. But they will only happen when we work together, when we as the Body of Christ in this place share our skills and our talents, when we take time to pray, to study and to seek God’s direction.

Vision & Strategy group forming 

Focus on finances

Again this is one of the important things ... On this day of dedication ... it is taking what we have been blessed with and blessing others through that blessing.

We can choose to look on this negatively or positively ... time after time in Scripture we see the Israelites being commanded by God to give back to God a thank offering for all that he had given to him.

Dedication is choosing positive to give back to God a bit of what he has given to us. It is saying that we are in this all together ... we are investing in the vision this parish has for the future, we are investing in the faith stories of our friends and family members.

The day of dedication ... this is an extremely important day for this parish ... but I am also aware that there are many people who are here from other parishes from Seapatrick and from St. Columba’s - these things still hold true for ... wherever you come from...

Faith stories don’t just happen ... they need people to invest in “making disciples” ... that means time spent with people ... they need people to teach, they need people to chat, they need preachers, they need youth leaders, MU leaders, opportunities to put faith into action, they need people to reach out, to chat at work & people to challenge appropriately

Future vision ...Churches are called to grow, they are called to have vision ... in proverbs ... without vision people perish ... if churches don't know where they are going, or what they are about then they flounder... are you prepared to get behind the vision for the parish you are involved with ... whether that be the vision of this parish which you have read about???

or if you are from seapatrick ... it simply and succinctly is Growing in God’s Love and sharing it with others

or if you are in St. Columba’s the vision is expressed in the prayer for the parish ... making the door of the church wide enough to welcome all who need


finances ... We all know that finances are tight at the moment, and things are not good in the economy north or south ... are we prepared enough to invest in the priorities of the vision which our parishes are working towards to invest over the next year in seeing what God can do with the resources we have been given.

The challenge has been set out to people here in this union of parishes ... but it is a question wherever we regularly worship .... are we prepared to invest sacrificially and dedicate our resources of time, talents, ourselves to God and to the work to which he has called us to.

If we are ... are we prepared to lay down a marker, to remind ourselves of God’s provision, of his Goodness and loving Kindness to us?  

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