{"id":3335,"date":"2019-09-20T11:41:27","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T11:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/?page_id=3335"},"modified":"2019-09-20T11:41:27","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T11:41:27","slug":"sermon-15th-september-2019-evening","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/information\/sermons\/sermon-15th-september-2019-evening\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon – 15th September 2019 – evening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity \u2013 evening<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Sunday 15th September 2019 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Trininty 13 – Proper 19 \u2013 evening
\nIsa. 60
\nJohn 6. 51-69<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

\nThere is something quite beautiful about the image of peoples and\nnations being gathered together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nOne of the most distressing outcomes of all the political uncertainty\nthat we are living through is that many individuals who have been\nsettled in and contributing to this country for many years, have\nsuddenly begun to question their place among us. Those born in\nanother land, who nevertheless have made their home here with us \u2013\noften because they saw Britain as a land of freedom and acceptance,\nhave begun to feel that they are \u2018other\u2019; they are no longer\nwelcome. Old certainties are being questioned and it is an upsetting\nfeeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd it doesn\u2019t help when we try to make it better \u2013 well of\ncourse, we didn\u2019t mean you! But that is not what it feels like for\nthem \u2013 especially when the wheels of bureaucracy grind slowly and\nwithout a shred of compassion \u2013 or even, sometimes, common sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSo the whole idea of \u2018gathering\u2019 that we hear in the passage from\nIsaiah this evening is one that can bring comfort in a world where\npeople are more and more dispersed and atomized. More of us are\nliving alone \u2013 probably than at any time in history. Families are\nscattered across the globe in many cases, community is fractured,\nnations fragment. Is it possible then to build a new kind of\ncommunity, a new peaceable kingdom in which people are bound together\nand gathered together? Does the Church have anything to contribute to\nthis idea?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThese days significant places of human gathering might include\nfootball stadium, concert venues or protest marches, but the church\nis still a place where communities gather \u2013 particularly in times\nof joy and of sorrow, day by day and week by week to worship almighty\nGod. The universal Church \u2013 at it\u2019s best \u2013 is still a place\nthat gathers together people of all nations, people of all\nbackgrounds, high and low, rich and poor, one with another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe prophet Isaiah gives us a vision of the ingathering of the\ndispersed. People and nations shall come from far away; they will be\ndrawn together by the light of the people of Israel (a light \u2018to\nillumine the gentiles\u2019 as we have just sung), and they will find\ntheir home in a new and generous city. We can hear echoes of Advent\nand Epiphany as sons and daughters come from afar, and kings bear\ngifts of gold and frankincense to lay at the feet of the Holy One of\nIsrael.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWe are presented with a vision \u2013 post Brexit if you will! \u2013 of\nhuman flourishing in a gathered community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIn the Gospel of John, Jesus reminds us that the most natural way for\npeople to come together is over a shared meal. To eat together with\nothers is a fundamental way of gathering, of becoming one body. We\nshare food together to celebrate, to commiserate, to build community,\nto show affection and share love. It is no surprise therefore that\nthe Church\u2019s life is centred on a shared meal, in which bread is\ntaken, blessed, broken and shared. Christ himself enters into this\nmeal. He says, \u2018I am the living bread\u2019. Christ becomes the food\nthat gathers all people together from the ends of the earth. And he\ncommands his disciples to share a meal in remembrance of him and in\nanticipation of a new kind of kingdom, a new community, a new common\n\u2013 wealth. Through the simple act of eating and drinking, this meal\nhas the power to draw all things together \u2013 to reconcile those of\nopposing views, to find a way to move forward as one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThere is an ancient prayer that puts this rather nicely \u2013 one I\nsometimes use on a Sunday morning,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the grain once scattered in the fields <\/em>
and the grapes once dispersed on the hillside <\/em>
are now reunited on this table in bread and wine, <\/em>
so, Lord, may your whole Church soon be gathered together <\/em>
from the corners of the earth, <\/em>
into your kingdom.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThat is the vision we are all hoping and longing for \u2013 Leavers and\nRemainers and those thoroughly sick and tired of the whole unending\nchaos! The ingathering of the dispersed into a generous and loving\ncommunity where all are welcome, all are valued, all are loved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity \u2013 evening Sunday 15th September 2019 Trininty 13 – Proper 19 \u2013 evening Isa. 60 John 6. 51-69 Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs There is something quite beautiful about the image of peoples and nations being gathered together. One of the most distressing outcomes of all the political uncertainty that we are … <\/p>\n

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