Good Shepherd Sunday (25 April 2021)

Revd Canon David Russell

Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:4-5 - The Cornerstone

Recently there was a show called the Raspberry Awards which gives awards to productions and individuals it considers to be below par or failures. Recently it gave an award to the year 2020, naming it as the worst year ever. And they are not the first to call out last year in that way.

I don’t know though, I think it is a bit rough blaming a calendar year for a rogue virus and its awful effect on humanity which is continuing as we know, regardless of the annual numbering of our seasonal cycle having moved on into a new set of 12 months.

But there it is. Labelling years with significant events, be they joyful or horrendous, is part of how our humanity plots its way onward and takes a look backwards, thus creating its history and, we sincerely hope, informing its future. Although we are still continually attempting to get the hang of the latter.

And there are year numbers that mean a lot to us and stay with us. The years either side of the two world wars are familiar to us. The dates of royal weddings, coronations and royal deaths aren’t far from our grasp. Significant world cup finals or famous battles near seaside towns all have familiar Anno Domini numberings. And then there will be all your personal anniversaries and significant events. So I guess 2020 is going to be stuck with its received reputation as well.

But there is a numbered year coming towards us which is most significant for us here in Kingswood.

At one time the Christian congregation in Kingswood had their services in the Lady Chapel of the Cistercian Abbey of Kingswood. And they did so despite the dissolution of the monasteries at the hands of Henry VIII. Another year date that trips off the tongue. 1539.

But in 1719 the Abbey Chapel had become ruinous and was unsafe. And so to maintain the thread of Christian worship in this community a new church was built. And the year 2023 will mark its Tercentenary. And many of us think we ought to do something significant about that. Your Parochial Church Council have been discussing and wondering how we might mark that staging post and we would like some more minds to help us achieve that. If you want to be part of that conversation at whatever level, have a chat with one of our PCC members or the wardens or myself or Rick.

But a beginning to those considerations needs to be informed by what it is we are celebrating and therefore how we want to express all that in 2023. And it seems that there are almost as many answers to that demand as there are folk thinking about it.

But let’s take ourselves back to those years between the dissolution and the completion of this building; a period of some 200 years. We have to apply a lot of supposition and assumption to this period for Kingswood but there are some simple facts that anchor our thoughts.

First. There was an abbey and therefore a religious community. And when that is dispersed there appears to be a faithful congregation that continues on with their worship and prayers and commitment to their faith. And they do so amongst the old stones of a ruin.

We can only assume that their faith was powered by something beyond that ruin. Something that enabled them to bring about the miracle of building a new place of worship; a new church.

In this morning’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles we are given another early glimpse of life in, what we call, the early church. From our standpoint down the years that term, early church, could give us the wrong impression about what was going on. The early Apostles, not long after Jesus’ death and resurrection, were moving around in groups, not large communities. And our excerpt has Peter and John jailed by the Sadducees for preaching about Jesus’ resurrection in the Temple. They had also caused the healing of a crippled man and the authorities could see that jailing them was not popular. So they called Peter and John before the rulers and elders.

Peter then starts speaking using the terms of a builder to explain their spirit filled faith.

"This Jesus is", he says, “the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.”

This way of describing the effect of Jesus on these early Christian communities was common currency of the time and must have provoked tremendous understanding amongst his followers and those new to the faith.

In the first Letter of Peter we hear him say.

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Corner stones, living stones, foundation stones; the language of building was at work as Christian communities were being founded, and in the case we see this morning, persecuted as well.

Our gospel takes us to another analogy; that of the shepherd and the sheepfold. Jesus the good shepherd, the flocking together of the sheep or the faithful, and because of that flocking there is a need for a sheepfold, somewhere safe, because there is always danger and persecution abroad in the form of a wolf.

Three scenarios each experiencing the same four things:

Peter & Apostles

The focus for faith	Christ the cornerstone
The fellowship	The Apostles & followers
The location	Out and about
The danger	The Temple Authorities

 

Jesus in John’s gospel

The focus for faith	Jesus the Good Shepherd
The fellowship	The flock
The location	The Fold
The danger	The Wolf

 

The People of Kingswood in 15th & 16th Centuries

The focus for faith	Christ centred Christianity inherited from the Abbey
The fellowship	Originally the Abbey then the villagers
The location	Originally the run-down chapel then the new church
The danger	The dissolution & ?

 

The people of Kingswood in 2023

The focus for faith	Christ centred Christianity
The fellowship	The congregation and community
The location	St Mary’s, zoom, phone, community
The danger	More illusive. Apathy, lack of knowledge of our faith, time pressure on would be supporters, lack of resources to go out and reach out. Competition for attention. And so on.

 

So the first thing to say about 2023 is that we are in good company.

We have that cornerstone and good shepherd at the heart of what we believe in, at the heart of our faith.

We have a fellowship, a fold, a gathered community, many looking for answers to life’s questions and looking for that self same support.

We have a location, courtesy of that previous community, and expressing not only their faithfulness but the faithfulness of countless others who have cared for it and beautified it over the 300 years, and not least within our own living memory.

So we have some pretty good starting points for our tercentenary year.

There is one more thing to say; one more element to bring into the equation; one more energy to bring to bear.

In the Acts of the Apostles we hear of a Peter who is filled with the spirit. And it is God’s spirit that energises what he says and does, and changes people’s hearts.

In the analogy of the Good Shepherd, Jesus speaks of how all he does and is, has its roots in God the Father. My Father God knows me, my Father God commands me, my Father God loves me.

It is the stirring energy of the Spirit of God, the Love of God, the Will of God and above all the knowledge that God knows us; it is that stirring energy that must be at the heart of all we do.

We can only assume it was that stirring energy that enabled that early Kingswood community to survive as a worshipping community over those 200 years.

We can only assume it was that stirring energy that inspired them to create this wonderful space in which prayers have been said and thought, praises have been said and sung to that God of love who wills so much for us and knows us well.

We must therefore seek and refresh that stirring energy in us as we come out of lockdown and restriction as a church in all aspects of that word.

The caring and support that has been evident in past month in this community is, in a great part, witness to that spirit.

The way we have maintained worship in different ways, kept contact with those in need and supported each other is also witness to that spirit.

Where we have failed, the redemption in our faith gives us a way forward.

Where we have fallen short, the potential possibility of church in all its forms, is always there, in us and around us, to motivate us and carry us forward.

Where we have lost faith, the faith at the heart of the traditions of this community, the beauty of this space and inherent in the lives of those we know and have known, is there to carry us through our doubts and challenges.

If our aim is to preserve church then we must with all our heart. That means ensuring that future communities have this place of worship at their disposal, and it also means that our current community benefits from our care, our prayer and our concern.

Let me pray now using words from today’s post communion prayer.

Merciful Father, you gave your Son Jesus Christ to be the good shepherd,
and in his love for us to lay down his life and rise again:
keep us always under his protection,
and give us grace to follow in his steps;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen