Monday, May 6, 2019

With Thanksgiving, Confidence and Prayer: A Farewell Sermon at St Peter's (Philippians 1;3-11, Psalm 121)



Strangely enough when I came to write todays Message, my last full sermon here at St Peter’s,  I had cause to think about peoples famous last words…

Beatle George Harrison’s were” Love one another”… and I could Just finish there…they are not original… they echoes Christ’s command to us… but some of the others ones seemed to be rather relevant…

Elvis Presley’s last recorded words in public were at the end of a press conference. He had turned away from the microphone to leave then stopped and turned back to the gathered press and said “ I hope I didn’t bore you folks”. 

Andrew Bradford, was an early American book publisher, his American magazine was the first ever such publication in America, coming just three weeks before Benjamín Franklin published the General Magazine and his last words were…“ O Lord, forgive the misprints”… 

On a more serious note… Sir Arthur Colin Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Homes, passed away after he had just tuned to his wife and said “ You are wonderful”.

 French operatic Composer Jean-Philippe Rameau objected to a song sung at his bedside. He said, “What the devil do you mean to sing to me, priest? You are out of tune.”….

Last week we finished our trip through the Easter story with Matthew’s record of Jesus last words to his followers….”All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth, therefore Go and make disciples of every nation, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all I have commanded you… and lo I am with you to the end of the age.” Which we saw is at the heart of who we are as a church…at the heart of our mission statement.. and it was great to connect with that passage and that mission by having some adult baptisms here last week...and that would have been a fitting place, and a  fitting challenge to finish things off with…

But this is not an end point, it is a fork in the road, so I want to look at Paul’s words, Pauls prayer for the Church of Philippi, a Church involved in that same on going journey of being disciples and making disciples that we are on.  A group of believers that Paul had ministered to and with, taught, encouraged, worked alongside, enjoyed good times with and faced hard times with and who had become very dear to him….

Now Paul writes a prayer at the beginning of all the letters he writes to churches and individuals. It’s part of the formal structure of letters in Paul’s day. We have the address, a greeting and a prayer. While it is a formal part of a letter it isn’t anything like a form letter, he does not simply cut and paste something he has used somewhere else it is a prayer that comes from his deep knowledge and deep love for the people he is addressing….

It’s a prayer that starts with thanksgiving. In the case of the book of Philippians, Paul gives thanks for the way that the church in Philippi has responded to his ministry, how they partner with him in the gospel; later we find out they have sent him a gift when he is in prison, but mainly they have also stood up for the gospel. They have kept on in the face of trouble and strife to proclaim Jesus, crucified and resurrected, is Lord.

It is a prayer that centres round Paul’s confidence that despite facing difficult times, that he who has started a good work in them would bring it to completion at the day of the Christ Jesus. Paul could have this confidence because he knew the very character and heart of God shown in Jesus Christ. He knew   they had experienced the same grace in Jesus Christ that he had. He could see the evidence of that in their on going commitment to the gospel together. He experienced that in their on going love and commitment to him. Our Old Testament reading of Psalm 121 is an affirmation of God’s ability to lead and to guide, provide for and protect us all along the pilgrims journey.

It finishes in Prayer. Now Paul knows the difficulties that the Church is facing, he himself suffered a beating, imprisonment and injustice in Philippi, you can read about that in Acts chapter 17, so he knows it’s hard for the believers. One of the reasons he is writing to the church is that there is some strife between some of the leaders. But his prayer goes beyond those issues to what is of paramount importance, and ultimately the solution in those issues. That they would grow in their knowing of God’s love and gospel grace. That their love may grow out of that, and manifest itself in their decision making, that they would act in a just and righteous way that reflected Christ himself. That they would be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, that godly character, and in all they are and do they may bring glory and praise to God.

And I want to leave here with those three things as well… with thanksgiving… confidence… and prayer.

Thanksgiving, because I can look back at seven years of partnering together in the Gospel. When we first came here, I had been in the difficult situation of the church plant I had been working on for three years at Auckland University having lost its funding, but you welcomed us in and allowed us to work alongside you. We’ve had some good time together, and we have faced some tough times together. We have said farewell to many of the stalwarts of this Church, men and women who have meant so much to so many, and we have welcomed in new people that have bought freshness and vitality.  We have changed some of the things we’ve done and we’ve been willing to look at new and different ways of connecting with our community. 
I could list many highlights from that time… Glow in the park, and watching over a five year period going from, it being something I went to and did something at, to being a community outreach that so many of you are involved in, a couple of small churches getting together and having a huge impact.. the alpha marriage course… the prayer course… praying with many of you and experiencing the presence and the power of he Holy Spirit… the great honour of taking Ralph and Dulcie Blair’s funeral, Ralph and Dulcie, a couple from this church who had had such a massive influence on thousands of young people through the camping movement… I’m sure as I have more time to look back I’ll treasure and give thanks for so many other things as well… But also thanksgiving for the way in which God has used you and this place to help me grow in my faith and my ministry, thank God and thank you.

With Confidence, for the same reason as Paul had confidence. Because the one who has started a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus. God is at work, Christ can be trusted to lead you and guide you, you are filled with the Holy Spirit, to enable and empower, to lead and to guide… It was strange when we came here, it was with the understanding that there was just enough funding for four or five years if nothing changed, then we were facing the real threat of closure. But people were making a step of faith. Well its not as if the future is so bright that you’ve just got to wear shades… But there is a sense that its no longer just about survival, that it is about where do we go from here? It’s no longer simply wanting to keep this place going, but where are we going to, and what is God’s continued call on us.

. I have confidence in Christ’s love and call for this Church.  God is calling you to face the challenge of ministering to an area of the city that over the next twenty to thirty years is going to have another quarter of a million people. The challenge of an emerging metropolitan centre at Sylvia park… How will you go from a small community church up a side street to being able to at the centre of that? I have confidence that God will bring people to walk with you and lead with you in that challenge.

That segues quite nicely into prayer. With prayer…

My prayer for you is the same as the prayer that Paul has for the church at Philippi… That your love may grow and abound more and amore in knowledge and insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God.

That you may grow in your knowledge and your knowing of God, of Christ’s great love for you. I like the New Zealand band Supergroove, and in their funk, reggae urban hip hop type fusion number 'can't get enough' they sing the words of that old spiritual that we’ve somehow made a children’s song… so high I can’t get over it, so low can't under it, wide can get round it,  O rock my soul”… which is about God’s love for us… as Paul says in Ephesians 3:18 “that you may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” You are God’s beloved, Christ came and lived died and rose again for you, he has poured out his Holy Spirit upon you, to dwell in you. May you know that love in all its dimensions more and more.

And may that love overflow in the decisions you make how you act and react, the love you have for one another, and the compassion and love you have for the people and community round you. That you may grow numerically as people hear of and experience the love of Christ in and through you.

When I looked for an image for todays service, I took my camera out and about, I was going to take a photo of the cross on top of the steeple or some such thing, but as I went round the side of the church I saw the citrus trees in our garden…planted since I’d come here… they are laden with fruit… it is green at the moment so it fits in with leaves around them… unless you go looking for it you won’t find it...but what caught my eye was just the beginning of the glimpse of that wonderful lemony yellow colour or grapefruit-y colour. AS I took the photo the sun coming through the leaves streaked across the lens.  I thought what a great image to go with Paul’s prayer that God would develop fruit of righteousness , ripening, so it can feed other people and duplicate the tree its on as the seeds are spread… The same prayer I have for you…  In Ezekiel 37 there is the picture of the river flowing out from the temple and bringing life to the whole land. The river is the presence of God, in Christ and by the Holy Spirit, and along the bank grow trees which bear fruit all year round and have healing in their leaves. My prayer is that you may be those trees producing that fruit… the  fruit of the holy spirit Paul talks of in Galatians might grow and ripen within you individually and as a church… Love, Joy, Peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control…that you might become more and more Christ like and that would feed and heal those around you… To the glory and praise of God.
Well...

“hope I didn’t bore you folk”

“O Lord, forgive the misprints”

“you are wonderful”

“Sorry that I am oft out of tune”

“love one another”

And… Well… maybe It’s best to stop there and to heed the famous last words of Karl Marx… “Last words last words are for fools who haven’t said enough already.”   Enough said really.

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