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
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?
No comments:
Post a Comment