Called by God

It has been a great week - a week full of visiting architects and discussing hopes and dreams. That has meant lots of good chat, and not a lot of time for writing blogs.



I am aware that some people dont like podcasts, and also how last Sunday's sermon differed from what I had written. So I hope that for this week, you will allow me to just provide the text of what I had written for the sermon, rather than what was preached.



See if it opens up any new avenues of thought.



God Bless,



Ian







There is something therapeutic about clay

In one way, what I want to say is very straight forward

Unless we are willing to be molded by God, like the clay that Jeremiah observed the Potter using, then we cannot be put to all the uses that God has for us

It’s a simple message – and one that we can all nod at if we so choose

But it is when we look at the second half of the reading that we see that this is a great deal less to do with small things and a great deal more to do with big things that define who we are

A friend of mine, called Mark, told me a story

He had been for an interview in a pub, and since this was in the Sybase world, he dropped in my name
as someone he knew. The guy said “Ah yes, he found God didn’t he”.

The subtext to the story is that this IT manager at least, seemed to think that once you have a particular understanding of God, you can’t live in the real world anymore

It’s a negative comment – but in some ways it is also a true comment





You can’t take on board the presence of God and carry on doing what you did before

Certain things have to give

So if we have all “found God” – we should expect to not only be changed by this, but we should expect to continue being changed by this – and the things in our lives which worked before, may not fit any more

And this will seriously impact upon our lives

I wonder if part of Peter’s reticence at following Jesus was that he realised just how much responding to God’s call upon his life was going to change him

Many commentators naturally draw links between this and the almost identical story in John 21. In that case Peter would have a very natural reason for his response – he had denied Jesus and run away, how could he be in Jesus’ presence any more

But here we are in a very different context

Throughout his ministry, Jesus has many stories that he tells that point to how following him results in change and division



You only have to think of the parable of the guests who refuse to attend the wedding but there are many more

Likewise, Jesus is pretty uncompromising on how we need to reject all those things that hold us back

In the English translation we read that you cannot love him with hating your father and mother

Always a fun passage to preach on, until you explain to folk that the problem here is translation

since the word we translate as “hate” – the Greek “misei” is a Semitic expression. It actually means to “turn away from” or to “detach oneself from”.

When we see it in this way, we realise that he is telling us that the cost of being a disciple is that you will need to turn away from your family, detaching yourself from everything that can hold you back

Think of the story that Philip told us the other evening:
How when he came to faith his mother said “my son is dead”. To Philip’s parents – to be in their family was to be a Hindu

Therefore, if Philip was not a Hindu, he wasn’t in the family – full stop




And so it is that I wonder of Peter is going
"I can’t do this, I’ll stick to what I know that I can do"

The issue here is that Jesus’ response to Peter is to tell him that he has plans for him, and once that happened then Peter has to make a choice

He either denies Jesus, and refuses to be changed, or responds to the call, and sets out on a journey, where, like the potter’s clay, he will be moulded again and again

As we set out on the next part of our journey, we too, need to be willing to be constantly being remolded

Now I probably need to stress here something very key – before anyone thinks I am attacking anything to do with past life of the church

Father Ian a priest who used to be at St. Mary's in Willesdon explained to me once, about how, if the Spirit is at work we only belong in one place for a short period of time. For if we are changing and the place is changing, there will be a time when we are the same shape, but then, we end up being a square peg in a round hole. He told the story regarding being a priest or a minister – but I think that it is true of all of us.

There is a point at which you fit. If you are growing and willing to be changed, and the thing that you are called to is also alive and growing and changing and there will come a point where you are the wrong shape for it

So there is nothing in this that says you should not have done something – but we are acknowledging that now we should be doing something else

I wonder how often the work of the kingdom is frustrated by the church that insists on doing what it was called to do 20 years ago

It may well be that the role has changed, circumstances have changed, the people that you are serving may have changed – but if you haven’t, how can you serve them

Story I was told last week, by someone who had visited a building – walked through the door, you knew that it had been modernised in 1957. Story then told – when we did the redevelopment – lots of young people came, now, they don’t come any more. The suggestion being that is was the young people’s fault. In fact, the problem is that the young people that they are equipped to serve, don’t exist anymore, and the young people that are there, they are not now the right shape to meet their needs

And because we constantly try to hold our shape, to change once you have reached this point is painful, because it has to be a major piece of work, rather than a progression

Once you start holding onto things, then you stop changing, and being open to change

Hence why Jesus says that to follow him, you must be open to constant change

You must always be clay in the Potter’s hand

Willing to be moulded, not rigid and refusing to change

Last week we met with all four sets of architects who are bidding for the job of being our architect

Beyond saying that on the basis of last week, we cannot make a bad choice, I will leave it there

But in so much of the conversation that we had – there was a great deal about how the project that we are engaging in is NOT about bricks and mortar and buildings

Hence why we are looking for someone who will engage in the process of journeying and exploring with us, much more than someone who can draw plans

There is no way that we can do what we are doing in isolation

We need to be exploring how we grow and change the worshipping life of the church

We need to see the mission opportunities that we are being called to engage with, both here at home and overseas

We need to think much more about how we grow the spiritual life of all the people who are part of our family here – not just the few who choose to come to house groups, but how we can help everyone

There are so many areas of work that we need to engage with – and now is the time to start that engagement

Now is the time for each and everyone of us to put ourselves in the place of Peter on that boat and ask – OK God, what are you calling me to do going forward

And it may be a very different role that the one that we have had historically

I am not aware of any church members who are fishermen – but if we had, then I suspect that they would agree that fishermen to evangelist and apostle is a fair old jump

In going into this process we need to willing to be clay in the hands of the potter

We need to be willing to be moulded by God to meet the calling that he is laying upon us

And it will require all of us to be willing to change and let go of those things that could hold us back, and make us rigid and unchanging

Jeremiah understood that if a nation, or a group of people, sought to deny the will of God and God purposes upon their lives, then they were “evil”

If we tried to resist change and implementation of the vision that God has given us, then I would argue that we would be in the same place

Will you join with me, over the next four weeks, leading up to harvest, to see what God is calling you to do in the weeks and months ahead and we work for his glory in this place

Will you be willing to be changed, just like Jeremiah’s potter’s clay – being moulded into something new

Will you be willing to listen to the Call of God upon your life, and see what part you are going to play in transforming Harwood Methodist Church

Will you be prepared to come to worship on the morning of the 3rd of October ready to respond to the call of the man from galilee upon your life – even if you are being called from the familiar to the unknown

I realise that these are scary concepts – hey, even Peter, when confronted by Jesus in person, in his boat, responded by telling him to “Go away from me”

But in the same way that Jesus reasssured Peter, so he reassures each one of us that we will not fulfill our calling alone

This is the challenge that this Methodist year ahead brings to us

May we embrace it – and may we always seek to be clay in the hands of Potter who is love, and whose love for us is inexhaustable

Amen