{"id":2983,"date":"2019-04-21T20:26:45","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T20:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/?page_id=2983"},"modified":"2019-04-21T20:26:45","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T20:26:45","slug":"sermon-21st-april-2019-evening","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/information\/sermons\/sermon-21st-april-2019-evening\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon – 21st April 2019 – evening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Easter Day – evening<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Sunday 21st April 2019 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Easter Day – evening
\nIsa 43.1-21
\n1 Cor 15.1-11<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

I want to remind you of lines from our first reading this evening.
\u201cBring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears!
Let all the nations gather together, and let the peoples assemble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder if any of you have\nbeen following the latest edition of the programme, Pilgrimage, on the TV?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year they followed a\ngroup of celebrities on the road to Santiago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year it was another\ngroup, following the Franciscan path to Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group included people of\nfaith and people of no faith, and \u2013 at the risk of sounding like the beginning\nof a rather dodgy joke, A Muslim, a Jew and a Jehovah\u2019s Witness \u2013 although\nthese two last were somewhat lapsed. The programmes followed the group from\ntheir beginning on the Swiss side of the Alps, through the St Bernard pass \u2013\n(an excuse to see some very cute dogs!), through Tuscany by way of many\nblisters, exhaustion, getting lost, walking as a group and alone, but with a\ngrowing sense of overarching fellowship, until they arrived, sixteen days after\nsetting out, in the Eternal City, the city of S. Peter and of course the place\nwhere S Paul too ended his days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group was very diverse\nand included several nationalities as well as religions and as far as I could\ntell only the singer Dana could be described as a practising Catholic. For her\n\u2013 understandably \u2013 the whole trip from the beginning had deep spiritual\nsignificance. For the others less so, at least at the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The culmination of the trip\nwas their entry to St Peter\u2019s Square and Basilica in the Vatican and then a\nprivate audience with the Pope himself. Not quite sure how they managed to\nwangle that one, but it made for interesting viewing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always with these sorts of\ndocumentaries \u2013 the recent group climbing Kilimanjaro for charity is another\nexample \u2013 as the programme proceeds and the individuals become more weary and\nvulnerable through their exertions, and as they bond as a group – fascinating\nback-stories emerge. Old hurts and new questions surface and may or may not\nfind some resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One had the impression that\nhere truly were some people who had eyes, and yet were blind to the promise and\nattraction of faith, because they could only focus on the negatives of\nreligion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But by the end \u2013 in their\naudience with Pope Francis \u2013 they each of them fell visibly under the spell of\na man who \u2013 while wielding great power \u2013 also came across to them as humble and\nvulnerable himself, and were able to voice some of their doubts and questions.\nIn particular, Stephen K Amos, a black, gay comedian asked the Pope why he\nalways felt the Church rejected people like him, because of the way they were\nmade and the lifestyle they followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing a little of the\nPope\u2019s nature and his previous statements, I wasn\u2019t that surprised that he\ndealt with this deftly and with great compassion. Emphasising that it is our\nhumanity that gives us dignity in God\u2019s eyes, and not the many adjectives and\nlabels we attach to ourselves and each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The programme ended with both\na declared atheist \u2013the dancer, Brendan Coles, and a Jewish Actress, Lesley\nJoseph, respectively blessing the Pope \u2013 which must have been something of a\nfirst for him!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the whole experience \u2013\nthe journey they shared \u2013 had undoubtedly had a profound effect on all of them\n\u2013 not to turn them all into Catholics or even Christians, but to make them more\naware of their own humanity and even their divinity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An encounter with holiness\ndoes that to people. It changes them, transforms them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stories of the\nresurrection of Christ, can at best only help to persuade unbelievers that it\u2019s\nworth investigating the evidence. But it\u2019s the existing company of believers,\nthe Church, that is the most compelling evidence that Jesus lives, risen and\nglorified, for ever in the Father\u2019s presence. Christianity is narrowly based on\none single claim \u2013 that Jesus, who died, was raised by God. We are a\nResurrection People, or we are nothing. And our vocation, one shared by every\none of us,  is to be the evidence that\nthe risen Jesus lives by his Spirit, in the broken body of believers who gather\nin his name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if \u2013 as St Paul tells us\n\u2013 we have been raised with Christ and experience the power of his Spirit, how\ncan we not believe that we too will enter the fullness of his promise of\neternal life? \u201cChrist in you,\u201d says St Paul, \u201cthe hope of glory.\u201d Praise be to\nGod!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n


\n
\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Easter Day – evening Sunday 21st April 2019 Easter Day – evening Isa 43.1-21 1 Cor 15.1-11 Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs I want to remind you of lines from our first reading this evening.\u201cBring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears!Let all the nations gather together, and … <\/p>\n

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