A sermon by Revd Emily Sharman on her licensing to the Deanery as Pioneer Minister

Revd Emily's sermon preached at St John the Baptist, Belton on the occasion of her licensing to the Deanery as a Pioneer Minister. It was Mothering Sunday and the Gospel reading was John 9.

"In this morning’s service Peter unpacked the gospel story and talked of the blind man that could now see, and explained that the whole community would have known this man, would have looked out for him his whole life, and now he could see, he became the storyteller the carrier of the story of Jesus, he said it twice in the text we heard, because his seeing led to his believing. He lived the narrative of hearing the word, encountering the word and then worshipping the word. He was a home grown evangelist.

Well I too have my own story about coming to faith but I won’t tell it now, but I will claim that I am your home grown parochial pioneer. The word parochial is carefully chosen, its often seen as a negative but the dictionary says…

1. relating to a Church parish.

"the parochial church council"

2. 2.

having a limited or narrow outlook or scope.

Well I believe that having a narrow focus means you can concentrate, you can look deeply into a place and really see it. Recognise its wounds and strengths and understand how to tell a story woven with the truth of a place and its people.

I’m an evangelist who speaks with a local accent, I love this area, I’ve spent most of my life within a ten mile radius of this place. I’ve grown up with Donnington race circuit ringing in my ears, Ratcliffe power station on the horizon and aeroplanes overhead and the delight of lambs at one end of the year and the fun of Loughborough fair at the other.

We are dwellers of the edgelands the borders, if you live around here its odd if your telephone code, postal address and bin collections are provided by the same county. We live in the between the places and we are diverse and beautiful because of it. We share the marginal lands and sometimes we can feel over looked but we occupy the places of connection, the places which stitch us all together.

So It feels entirely appropriate that I am being licenced to this deanery on Mothering Sunday, the day traditionally when people who worked in service returned to their home villages and attended their home churches, for this is my home.

This is the deanery that welcomed me when I was stranger, nurtured me, put up with me, heard me and taught me, helped me discern my callings and allowed me to belong. Where the curate of St Botolphs fed me kindness and theology, and the praise band at Hathern gave me a family and music, the Parish Church of All Saints gave me inclusion and liturgy the list goes on, but they are the large blocks in my story of faith.

But my role is as a pioneer is not here at the centre in our church buildings but rather out on the edges. Looking for where God is at work and encouraging others to join in. I’m called to our workplaces and our schools, our pubs and our community groups. I’m called to carry the gospel message wrapped in a local language with the earth of this place under my finger nails to those who won’t come to our services because they’re not sure its for them, or whose timetables are topsey turvey or love of the hillside outstrips the welcome of any church family. For the nomads and the new comers the fearful and the brave, the faithful of tomorrow need to hear the stories that we share.

Although I won’t always be in a pew near you, or preaching from the front please know that the kindness of your welcome and the anchoring of place are crucial to my ministry of pioneering in this place.

When the blind man of the gospel was recognised for his sight they drove him out and he met Jesus again on the margins. I’m willingly going to where he was sent, to the people of our villages who don’t know Jesus yet. To the slimming clubs and woodland walks, the litter picks and art class to anywhere that people gather with the story of a man who can heal the sick, welcome the stranger, who calls each one of us to be at home.