Sermon

Lent 3 27th Fenruary 2005 at St Peter & St Paul, Godalming by the Rector, John Ashe
Romans 5: 1 - 11 and John 4: 5 - 42

Today, in the Church’s calendar, we remember a 17th Century priest, George Herbert. He wrote many poems – among them one which begins,
“Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin . . .”

By the end of the poem, despite the great sense of failure and unworthiness expressed by the author, Love wins: the writer is drawn in, almost against his wishes, and made to feel welcome.

The poem is an example of the truth expressed by St Paul in our first reading:-
“God demonstrates his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

I guess you have all been following the plight of the Anglican Church in the news during these past two weeks. I found myself wondering what someone like George Herbert would have made of it?
For the church is in danger of giving a confused message . . .saying,
"Yes – God loves you – and bids you welcome - however guilty of dust and sin you may feel. BUT, if your behaviour doesn’t match our version of how Christians ought to behave – then you are not quite as welcome as you might have thought!
And so the Americans and Canadians have been made to feel anything but welcome in the worldwide Anglican Communion of Churches – they have been asked (politely) to leave – until they can match up to certain standards of behaviour. And in the confusion of that message, countless people all around the world are also feeling that they have been made unwelcome.

The issue that has divided us – is Homosexuality. Some say it’s wrong – against the will of God – and so you can’t join us. Others say it’s part of the diversity of humanity, part of the way God makes people, and that all people, irrespective of human differences, are welcome.

I place myself in this second category – and valued a comment made by our new bishop of Guildford in his sermon at his enthronement. He was referring to Jesus’ image of the church as a net full of fish – and drew attention to the ridiculous idea of one fish telling another fish to leave the net.

Whether we read into the Bible a condemnation of homosexuality, or whether we can place those Bible passages into the wider context of the Bible which declares God’s unconditional love - whichever side of that fence we come down on - the truth is that we are all sinners, caught in the net of God’s unconditional love. We have to find space for each other – just as God finds space for us.

Christians have disagreed about many things – and will I am sure continue to disagree about issues for as long as we have minds with which to debate and reason and reflect. But the truth is that we are all sharing this one planet together – and the greatest challenge of our day is whether we can share our planet so that we give life rather than destroy it.

Lest you think that we only talked about sex at General Synod – we debated many other issues – but the thread which tied them all together was that of declaring God’s love with equal justice for all. How do we share our energy when we now realise that it must be limited if we are not to destroy our environment? How do we organise the structures of the church if both men and women are to be given equal opportunities to use their gifts in God’s service. As we debate these things, people will have different responses. What I hope lifts us a little higher in the maturity and spirituality stakes, is that we can disagree and yet still remain united; still able to go on talking to one another; still able to gather round our Lord’s table and share bread and wine together; refusing to break ties simply because we disagree.

The eyes of the world have been upon us, and we haven’t done very well: my hope is that in Godalming, we will be able to go on declaring the unconditional love of God - yes, challenging each other when that doesn’t seem to be the case, but always holding together, whatever our differences.

Today's gospel reading is an example of Jesus pushing the boundaries of religious practice. He and his disciples had stopped by a well and Jesus waited there while the others went to find food. A woman came to the well, and Jesus started talking to her. We think nothing of that, but in that culture of Jesus' day it simply wasn’t done. There are still parts of our world where that is still the case – men don’t talk to women in public! That is why, later in the Chapter, when the disciples returned, we read that they were surprised to find him talking with a woman.

Jesus was pushing the boundaries in order to make it clear that God loves all people - beyond the conventions and cultures of his time and beyond the conventions and cultures of today’s religious structures. As, over the centuries since, Christians have reflected on the way Jesus pushed those boundaries, so they have been inspired to go on pushing boundaries, reflecting on what it means to show God’s love to any group who is excluded or on the margins.

One of the most powerful things which will continually bring us back to the point of asking ourselves whether our love for each other matches up to God’s love for us is the very thing we are about to do together - to gather around Christ’s table, to share bread and wine, not with a select group of specially invited people, but with anyone who walks through the door of this church believing it to be a “House of Prayer for ALL People”