Homily Notes: Ordinary 14 Year B Mark 6:1-6 – “I am getting old”
- I am definitely getting old.
- Although last weekend marked the 13th anniversary of my Priesting, I have now spent so long in ministry that I am starting to reap the rewards of that length of ministry:
- I now find myself marrying off former members of my Youth Group
- I find myself being asked to baptise their children
- In my personal life:
- I regularly now enjoying going to the Pub with the young man now taller than me, whose nappies (terry nappies, of course!) I used to change
- Only this week I celebrated with my middle daughter her 21st Birthday with a dinner out with her and her fiancé, for she too has graduated and is now engaged.
- And yes, it makes me feel old.
- Perhaps it seems a little strange to you, to be ministered to by a man who is, in many cases for you, the same age as your children (and I’m firmly in my mid-forties, slightly amused by constantly being referred to as a young clergyman)
- I remember inviting a friend to come and house sit for us at our last Vicarage whilst we went to the Greenbelt festival, and I was anxious that Katrina would be alright in the house. She was after all, someone who I had known from youth club: gangly, self-conscious, but with a deep and profound faith. It was Lou who reminded me that
- a) she was now 24
- b) married (and I married them)
- c) bringing her baby to stay
- Maybe she would be alright after all!
- But I couldn’t let go! I couldn’t forget the teenager, and allow the adult to show.
- How often are the young, or the new to faith, or those who have experienced challenge in their lives disempowered by a simple phrase:
- “I remember you when…”
- In God’s grace, people grow, learn, develop, shape
- God forgives (for if he didn’t, where would any of us be?)
- So should we.
- One of the most telling things a young person said to me was “the problem with being a young person is that no-one takes my faith seriously. They assume that I don’t have a relationship with God. They patronise me”.
- That man is now a Baptist Minister leading a Church in Yeovil.
- Forget the past (for God surely does)
- Look to the future.
- We should ask NOT “what was this church like in the past” and rest on the laurels of that, for the past in the Church was always somuch better wasn’t it?
- Instead we should be asking
- “what will this church look like?”
- “what can we do when the Holy Spirit works within us?”
- NOT “what did we used to do? (and seemingly don’t do anymore)”
- BUT “what will we do now, where and to whom does God call us to minister?”
- The text of Mark goes on further to describe the sending out of the disciples on their first mission, a mission that we share in.
- They ventured out to minister empowered by the hope of the future, for there was no past, only a message of forgiveness, healing and grace and a call to respond seriously to that.
- They were not custodians or guardians of a heritage, but bearers of a gift.
- Just as you are.
- The twelve sent out today do not represent the Clergy, or the Churchwardens or even the choir; but all of us
- Each and every one.
- We are all sent as missionaries, fed at this altar for the road, and later today or tomorrow you will encounter someone who needs God
- Will you shake the dust off your feet before them and ignore their cry?
- Or will you be a blessing to them?
- By your presence
- By your kindness
- By your prayer
- The gift which is within each and everyone gathered here today is the most powerful gift in the world
- A gift to change our community
- A gift to change the world
- It does not matter whether some will want to hold you back, remind you of your past, your exuberant youth, your occasional (or in my case) frequent mistakes
- The Gospel message has no need of the past
- The Good News takes us into the future with hope.
Amen
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