When Pepsi-Cola was launched in China, its marketing managers
wondered why its famous slogan, 'Come alive with Pepsi ' was not
achieving the impact that it had achieved elsewhere in the world. It was
discovered that the translator had rendered it: 'Pepsi brings your
relatives back from the dead.'
This is the shocking
claim of this morning’s Gospel - that our brother, Jesus of Nazareth,
has come back from the dead. All of us like a happy ending. The girl
gets the guy. The guy gets the girl. The bad guys get got and everyone
walks off into the sunset to live happily ever after. Yet the
implications of the resurrection of Jesus are shocking... For the man
who was once dead now lives - he eats fish and understand the will and
purposes of God! But the Easter message is not just one of
resuscitation, of a dead man to life again, because then nothing would
have changed - only the corpse. Instead, this morning we hear and
experience the power of the Resurrection - what God is up to in a world
already changed by the Incarnation.
I have been priest
in charge in the parish for some 285 days or so. In that time I have
have seen some very clear signs of what God is up to in this part of His
world, already being changed by His presence here among us.
Over
the last year there have been 28 baptisms, 10 weddings and 28 funerals,
8 of which were in the churches of the parish. These are some of the
most significant ways through which the Risen Christ is present in the
lives of many within the wider community and I expect these numbers to
rise as together we engage more with the wider community. We have
already held a service of Thanksgiving for Marriage, which sits
alongside the In Touch service and a soon to be launched Thanksgiving
for Holy Baptism service, and these are crucial as ways to welcome back
and to continue to support many within the parish.
These
last months have been very much about me learning the lie of the land
if you will, getting to know you and beginning to settle into a pattern
of working and worshipping life together. You will remember that in the
early days of my time in the parish I met around 90 of you in your homes
in small groups. This was an opportunity for God to set the agenda of
the next few years of ministry here. Out of those meetings three broad
brush stroke themes - to renew and review our worship, to provide
opportunities for study and spiritual growth, to communicate more
effectively. In response to the desire to grow and learn we have run a
Lent and Advent study course, both of which have been well attended and
well received. The communications work is a work in progress, but some
of the fruit of that is a new parish website which for now is available here.
These 3 themes have become the basis of our Mission Action Plan - a
version of which will be available to you in a few weeks - helping us to
prioritize the work of God that we are doing together with Him.
These
last months haven’t been about us standing still though either. Growing
out of the God-given priorities you set in the parish profile, with
others, I have been fostering our ecumenical links and have met the
local Christian leaders. We worked together with MEB at their Light
Party in October and they supported our very successful Good Friday
Workshop. I am hoping to be preaching at MEB later on in the Summer,
and together we are working on the opening of a Community café and Food
Bank based at the Community Centre here in Mill End.
Another
key priority from the parish profile was to continue the growth of work
with children, young people, their schools and organisations. We
welcomed 4 Baptized Children to receive Holy Communion earlier this
year. I have been leading worship at Maple Cross and St Peter’s schools
on a weekly basis for much of the last months, resourcing lessons at
Maple X school and welcoming children to worship in our learn about the
faith through visiting our church buildings. Behind the scenes my work
continues as a governor and proving support and for especially the Heads
of both schools. I am now part of Diocesan team providing support to
schools in this Archdeaconary working with schools that need help with
bereavement and collective worship. These school relationships matter
as we seek to engage with the wider communities in which we are set.
And in Maple Cross especially those links are key as we begin talking
with both the Church Urban Fund and the ASCEND Project based in South
Oxhey about partnerships that will engage with the community in very
practical ways and see St Thomas’ building used to the benefit of all.
Worship
is the heart of what God’s church is called to. A little new liturgy
has been introduced to help mark some of the seasons. I am delighted
that Richard Hickson has taken up responsibility as Organist and we are
working closely together. I am also delighted, as I am sure you are, at
the growing skill and confidence of all who make music in the parish.
As you all know, we are in the process of discussing prayerfully our
pattern of worship, following a parish-wide consultation. Some good
progress has been made latterly and the PCC will discuss this again in
May. I was especially pleased that we took part in Back to Church
Sunday this last year and will do so again. We have introduced a weekly
Wednesday Eucharist at St Peter’s
The growing
importance of pastoral care highlighted again this year and the church
is indebted to ongoing and invaluable work of the In Touch group and the
LMT especially in their ministry to the care and residential homes but
also in supporting and caring for particular individuals.
These
are only the headlines, for ahead of us with God lies so much more -
growing churches, the setting up of a dedicated pastoral care team, new
opportunities to deepen our faith through 2 specific things - This Is
Our Faith and a Mission Weekend in the late Autumn, the opportunity to
receive the ministry of healing for you and others, the launching of new
church based toddler groups, a trainee Lay Reader, a new Curate. I
could go on. But, all of this is all only possible with your continued
prayer and support and some of these things will only happen if we do
them together - I need, the church needs, Christ needs you to give a
little of your time and your talent.
The Risen Jesus
appeared to those frightened disciples. They knew it was Him as he ate
with them and as He opened the scriptures to them to reveal the plans
and purposes of God finding fulfillment in Him.
Jesus
calls us sometimes frightened disciples to continue bear witness to Him.
We know that the Risen Jesus is with us as we see God’s plans and
purposes unfolding around us and as we together meet to eat with Him at
the Eucharist. But to be a witness is not just to experience an event,
to hear good things in church, but to willingly tell others about it.
Our call friends together is to continue to proclaim the Resurrection,
to make known what God is up to in our communities, to help people
within them to answer God’s call and to see their lives transformed by
Him. Amen
Bringing Christ to the community and the community to Christ
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