{"id":2723,"date":"2019-03-04T15:34:58","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T15:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/?page_id=2723"},"modified":"2019-03-04T15:34:58","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T15:34:58","slug":"sermon-3rd-march-2019","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/information\/sermons\/sermon-3rd-march-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon – 3rd March 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sermons index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday next before Lent – evening <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Sunday 3rd March 2019 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1 before Lent – evening
\nExodus 3. 1-6
\nJohn 12.27-36a<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Maureen<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

How\nmany of you can remember playing hide and seek?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s\nan age old game that still is played today in countless families. We\ncan still remember favourite hiding places and recall of the thrill\nof hide and seek from our childhood. Someone once said it is a joy to\nbe hidden and a disaster not to be found . The dynamics of hide and\nseek are more than a game. They represent a strategy that we adults\nresort to at challenging times in our lives, hiding from ourselves,\nhiding from other people, and hiding from God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nread that Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.\nThe appearance of an angel in a flame of fire out of a blazing bush\nled him to step unwittingly on holy ground. When he heard the voice\nof God, he knew he had to hide his face if he was not to be consumed\nby the blinding radiance of God. So also Elijah hid his face in the\nmouth of the Cave when he met God. Hiding from God is the human\nresponse of fear and shame. \u201cWhere are you?\u201d God asks Adam and\nEve as they try to hide from him in the Garden of Eden. And people\nwith any sense of the divine have been trying to hide from God, out\nof fear or shame, down the centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Religion\ncan provide a good hiding place from the excesses of God as it tries\nto domesticate, make routine and protect us from the wild demands\nthat we might face. People have always tried to avoid the growing\nsense of calling and vocation. \u201cWe are,\u201d said Martin Luther,\n\u201cGods enemies before we are his friends,\u201d and our fear of falling\ninto the hands of God, can make us fugitives on the run, from the\npursuit of the one who will not give up on us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nis a famous poem called the Hound of Heaven, written by Francis\nThompson in the 19th<\/sup>\ncentury. In the poem, the hound following the hare, never ceasing in\nits running, resembles God pursuing the fleeing person. For many\nChristians that is the way, and sometimes the poem itself has been\nthe means by which they have felt cornered by God. Traditionally\npriests were dragged to their ordination protesting their\nunwillingness to submit until the will of the people prevailed.\nSomeone else has said \u201cyou sometimes think you want to disappear,\nbut all you really want is to be found.\u201d Yes, it is a disaster not\nto be found. And there is anguish when, like the Psalmist\u2019s\ncomplaint, we feel it is God who is hiding from us. The consolation\nmust be that \u2018you could not seek me if you had not already found\nme\u2019. Our seeking God, is part of what it means to find him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are hidden in the waters of baptism to represent being found in God. As John puts it, we abide in Christ, and Paul says we are to be found in Christ. Being found by God, we find ourselves; being his captive, we discover our full freedom as the poet R S Thomas puts it:
I am the bush burning<\/em>
At the centre of<\/em>
Your existence; you must put<\/em>
Your knowledge off and come<\/em>
To me with your mind<\/em>
Bare.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nYes,\nwe like to hide; from God, from ourselves, but we can never get over\nthe joy and thrill of being found, and to discover we have a special\nchannel of communication with God himself. A gift the world knows not\nof, to have their life hid with Christ in God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nwith what or with whom are you playing hide and seek today? What (or\nwho) are you trying to avoid? We all have something we would rather\nnot face if we are honest…. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nmay be a difficult relationship; a tricky conversation that we have\nto have at work; for some it will be an unwelcome health diagnosis \u2013\nfor ourselves or for a loved one. In this month\u2019s magazine I wrote\nabout the difficulties many have today in discussing the issues\naround living with Dementia in one of its many forms. And I said it\nhad largely replaced cancer \u2013 the Big C \u2013 as that illness that\nno-one would speak openly of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes\nwe behave as though if we hide something away, it is not real. But\nthe truth is that such issues do not disappear and we may well miss\nthe opportunity of accessing the very help we need to get us through\nsuch difficult times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\nin church should be the one place where we feel able not to hide. To\nbe totally honest with God and each other. For here should be a place\nof loving compassion and support \u2013 not judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nhere is where God will never hide from us. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sermons index Sunday next before Lent – evening Sunday 3rd March 2019 1 before Lent – evening Exodus 3. 1-6 John 12.27-36a Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs How many of you can remember playing hide and seek? It\u2019s an age old game that still is played today in countless families. We can still remember favourite hiding … <\/p>\n

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