Parish of Godalming – Final Sermon by John Ashe, 22^nd March 2009

This has not been an easy sermon to write. Although Jo Wetherall sent me a cutting which she thought might be helpful – from a church notice sheet which read . . .

The Rector will preach a farewell sermon – after which the choir will sing “ Break forth into Joy”!

I’m not sure that we’ll run with that one – but there are a number of things I would like to say.

The first is “THANK YOU”. Thank you for the privilege of sharing with you during nearly 16 years of the ongoing life of this Christian community. Godalming is a lovely place – and yes, that is partly because it is such a beautiful part of the country – but it is you who really make it beautiful. Shelagh and I could not have asked for a more lovely group of people in which to live and work and bring up our family. We have achieved much, but only because we, as the Parish family, have done it together. I will continue to pray for you (and for your new Rector) as you move on to ever more exciting chapters and the story of God’s love continues to unfold in Godalming.

The next thing I want to do - is to talk about one of the less beautiful features of this church! Some years ago, we discovered that the East window – the one behind the altar – was falling out. I must confess that I never really liked that window. It did little to inspire me and part of me hoped that it would fall out before we had a chance to repair it!

But I’m glad that we did repair it; stained glass windows are put into churches to tell a story. It may be a Bible story, as some of our other windows do and the centre piece of the East window reminds us that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who loves us – even to the point of dying for us.

But the rest of the seemingly uninspiring design also tells a story. If you come here early in the morning, just when the sun is shining on the window, you will see something infinitely more beautiful than the window itself; magnificent patterns & colours made by the sun shining through the window onto the wall next to it. Bright reds and blues and mauves; they are quite stunning, so that the effect of the light shining through the window onto the wall is so much more beautiful than the window itself.

And in that is a great lesson for us. However dull and uninspiring we may feel ourselves to be, when we let the light of God’s love shine through us, then we will leave something beautiful for others to enjoy. I was talking to someone about this a couple of days ago and he replied that that is SO much easier to say than to do – and he is, of course, absolutely right.

But then I asked myself: what does the window do to leave beautiful patterns on the wall?

The answer is - NOTHING!

The only important thing is for the window to be in the sunlight. That is the really important lesson. Not that we should try and leave something of beauty and value for others to enjoy . . . but that we should place ourselves where the light can shine on us.

For five years, I worked in the diocese of Cape Town during the turbulent years of apartheid. While I was there, Desmond Tutu was appointed as my boss, the Archbishop. We all expected him to arrive and start telling us how we must all work hard to end apartheid and make South Africa beautiful.

But he didn’t.

What he did do was to write to all the clergy in the diocese and ask them to reply personally to him describing their own pattern of prayer. For, he said, if we are staying close to God, if we are (to go back to the analogy of the window) in the light, then something of God’s beauty will land on the walls around us.

God is the one who is love itself – we make a very poor show of loving much of the time. And so the secret of it all is not trying harder to love. It is simply basking in the eternal truth of God’s love. For if we are in the light, then there is just the chance that something of God’s love will shine through us and leave a beautiful pattern upon the world.

Prayer lies at the heart of this – not prayer which is asking God to do things or trying to get God interested in our own agendas – but prayer which turns our hearts and minds towards the source of love itself. That itself is not easy, for God is a mystery and often leaves us full of confusion when we try to make sense of our world. But hanging on to the real possibility of love is what brings hope to our hurting world.

This sacrament of bread and wine is prayer which continually faces us with the mystery of that divine hope. It allows us to be drawn into the light, leaving all our own agendas behind, and simply basking in that eternal truth – God loves each one of us. And I hope that all here today, whether you think of yourself as part of the church or not, will feel welcome to receive these symbols of the mystery of God’s love, bread and wine.

Over the years, I have often spoken of God's love for us. I have said it again and again, even to the point of becoming boring. God loves us. God started loving us before we were born - and God will go on loving us - always, always, - whatever happens to us. You will hear many sermons through your lives and most of them you will forget; within an hour if the preacher is lucky; as soon as he or she leaves the pulpit if they are not on form!

But there is one thing I hope you will never forget - and that is that God loves you. Whether you feel that God loves you or not makes no difference, for at the heart of the Christian message is a statement about all of humanity: that each person has infinite worth. And every small thing which helps us to realise that, allows something of the divine light to shine through so that the place you have been is more beautiful because you were there, and the people to whom you have spoken are more beautiful because of your words.

And this parish of Godalming, here at St Peter & St Paul and at St Mark’s, is full of the most amazing resources to serve the community. Those resources of love are you and I can only say again how good it has been to work with you for so many years and to thank you for making so much possible.

You have given your time, you have given your considerable skills, you have given your money – and let’s face it, money is part of being able to offer this resource to the community. I hope that you will not let up on all this effort as you wait for a new Rector to arrive – but go on giving yourselves, your time and talents and money, so that this place is humming and loving - and the Churchwardens, Jamie and Helen, and the Acting Team Rector, Pennie, who will have more than enough to do anyway, will know that they have all the backup they need from you all.

And if my encouragement to continue all your efforts seems like a contradiction to all I have been saying about letting God’s love shine through you, then it’s not meant to be. The effort which is required is to place yourself in the light of God’s love, to struggle to keep your eyes on Jesus, even when all the evidence suggests that God is not with us – and God will do the rest.

Thank you again. We shall miss you all – it has been fun.

May God bless you and give you grace and love to serve this community.