This is the sermon for the Morning worship on the 14th of August 2022.
The ninth Sunday after Trinity and Revd Wendy's final service before her 3-month sabbatical.

The readings she is reflecting on are:

Hebrews 11 v 29 - 12 v 2

Luke 12 v 49-56

A transcript of the recording:

May I speak in the name of The One,
who is Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.
Amen

I was going to preach from down there and then I realised that there are so many of you spread all across the church. I thought actually this is probably the easiest place to see everyone. 

So if you're back right behind the pillar, well, that might be where you want to be so that I can’t see you. 
Maybe that was deliberate. 
But I figured out, I might be more accessible to you from up here. [The pulpit]

Right! 

Run the race that is set before you! Who likes running? 
Where's the couch25K graduates?

I brought with me this morning, my trainers.
Actually... well no, they do smell. 

I wouldn't sniff them. 

Some of you do know I always said I would never ever take up running. 
We used to have a wonderful server here; Philippa Taylor - now the Reverend Philippa Taylor, she was ordained in the summer- who used to run marathons. 

She'd be here serving just like these guys today in her white Alb and she'd have her trainers on underneath because she'd be going off training and I always said ‘Philippa, I am never ever taking up running, I am never doing that.’ 

And then Lockdown happened and I did couch25K, and I'm still never ever running a marathon! However, I don't mind the odd gentle jog of about 5Km. 

So, who's feeling active this morning? Most of us are going like this [shakes head sleepily]. The little ones are still like this! [Bounces up and down excitedly]

I want you to have this in your mind this morning. I want you to have trainers in your mind. Some of you might be wearing your trainers.

I want you to have running in your mind as I speak because there's a really powerful image in that first reading that we heard that Roger read for us from the Epistle to the Hebrews. There's a lot of gore in the Hebrew reading this morning. It’s fairly graphic, as actually is the gospel reading and I'm going to touch on that as well in a moment. But right at the end, there is this picture, this image, of what faith is and it's described as a race. 

So I'm just going to read that verse twelve:

‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a crowd of witnesses, let us also lay aside every wave in the sin that clings so closely and lets us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.’

For those who do run, does it ever get a little tricky? 
Is there ever a moment when you think I can't keep going anymore?
Is there ever a moment when you think, no, I'm going to pack it in? 
If running isn't your thing, then maybe it's a different sport that you do 
or maybe there's a task that you do where actually there's a moment when, it's really hard to keep going, Even if it's something that you really like. 

The words used in this little excerpt in Hebrews that describes this business of running a race capture far more than just running. So I want you to lay down the idea of a gentle amble.

I want you to think of those… Oh we've just had the Commonwealth game, haven't we? Think of those sports people who you can see in them, the sheer struggle and the pure human will to do what they've done.

The words that are used by the writer to the Hebrews have a sort of a connotation of a struggle or a fight. The context of that little verse is in the midst of this passage, where there's warfare, violence, suffering and martyrdom.

And therefore endurance is required to complete the task. This isn't an easy jog, but this is a struggle, a run that will demand all of their efforts. A run that will require suffering and may lead to the loss of life.

But they can find encouragement because of the witness of those who have gone before.

So this is the context of that little phrase about what it means to have faith. The writer of the Hebrews wants to make it very clear that faith is active and faith is demanding. We've kind of got a little excerpt this week. We had a bit more last week and the bit that comes just before this, you'll notice, starts with the people passing through the Red Sea, well, that whole journey begins with Moses.

You might remember the story of Moses. And if you think about the story of Moses, his life, his faith is dynamic and active, but it was also subversive and costly.

So Moses was the one who ends up in a bush, in the river. You might remember that story. It was costly for Moses' parents to disobey the edicts of Pharaoh and keep their son hidden.

Moses' faith, when he comes of age, even when he was brought up as an Egyptian prince, causes him to share in the ill-treatment of the people of God. The people of God are enslaved at this point.

Moses' faith compels him to consider his abuse as part of being faithful to God. Like his parents before him, he disregards the orders and anger of the king by leading the people out of Egypt.

You may remember that phrase. You may have seen the film of Moses saying: 'Let my people go!'

The writers of Hebrews frames, to the listeners of the letter, our faith, in that context of struggle. In that context of faith being challenging. And we see that in the gospel reading.

Now, the gospel reading, too is really hard.

It's like: 'Well, seriously, is that what Jesus has come to do, to split up families? I'm not entirely sure that's the right method, maybe Wendy, you want to be preaching!'

But I think, if you recall -Debo actually put it really well last week in his sermon when he reminded us that Jesus when he speaks, uses metaphors, he uses hyperbole, he uses those expressions and language to get people to really understand.

So this is Jesus being passionate about what he has come to preach and to teach and indeed to bring in, nothing less than the kingdom of God.

Inevitably, if you are choosing the kingdom of God, those are values in the way of life that can bring you into conflict with others. It's not that Jesus comes to divide people and oh my goodness at this time, in the life of our nation and indeed the world we need to draw back from things that polarise. And that actually if we are going to seek the kingdom of God.

If we are going to have a faith that is dynamic, that is lived, that is real, it will bring us into conflict. It will bring us into conflict with those who abuse their power. It will bring us into conflict with those who pay no regard to the weak and the vulnerable.

It may bring you into conflict with people you know well, with friends and family as values butt up against one another.

If you want any clue as to how... what's the right word?

...How much the Bible and the story of God's people have the potential to bring people into conflict with authority, then just be reminded that the Magnificat, which is just a word for Mary's song that you'll find in Luke's gospel. (We know that really well at this church because we keep the tradition of Evensong. Come to an evensong, hear the quietly beautifully Mary's song of praise.)

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour

(that's all the lovely bit)

but he has come to bring down the mighty and to lift up the weak.
He has come to send the rich empty away.

That is the Magnificat and the Magnificat was banned in Argentina because the mothers of The Disappeared were using those words from the Bible to call people for nonviolent resistance to the ruling military power.

They knew that Mary'a son, God's son, was their son.
They knew that they needed to stand up and be in resistance to the powers, the powers of abuse.

Similarly, the Magnificat was banned in Guatemala in the 1980s.

Don't be under any illusion that the Bible and the story of faith is anything fluffy or nice and comforting. It can be all of those things at different times in our lives but the scriptures, the stories that we read of the Bible are about liberation and liberation is needed when we are in slavery.

Again, think about the stories that the writer of Hebrews is alluding to, the stories of, as we call it, the Old Testament but that we perhaps more properly should name as the Hebrew scriptures.

The people of God were enslaved. The people of God were under military occupation. The people of God were at risk of being attacked. The entirety of the Bible is almost all written in that context.

Again, perhaps we might need a reminder. Let me draw to mind the great stain that we carry within the Western world. The great stain on our conscience of the transatlantic slave train.

I suspect many of you will be familiar, but part of that involves taking the Christian faith to the African slaves. And indeed, slave owners gave their slaves Bibles. But did you know they gave them edited versions?

The Slave Bible - literally, its what it was called- was titled 'parts of the Holy Bible selected for the Use of the Negro Slave in the British West India Island , 1807'. And in that Bible, they took out the bits about liberation.

Nothing about Moses' story about freedom or the Promised Land. Nothing about the bits in the Bible that talk about liberation for all people. Leaving in some of the cultural bits of the New Testament that told slaves to respect their masters.

And yes, as I hope we do also all know, in the hands of those African slaves, the true story of God, the true story of God's people was discovered. And as they read that story, they owned that for themselves. Reclaiming a Christian story of liberation.

Some of the spirituals that have made their way into the global church are songs and stories of liberation.
That is the context of running the race.

Now, I'm aware for many of us, myself included, we don't really have a concept of that, do we?
For many of us, choosing to be Christian, choosing to align our values with Christ, for a lot of the time, just rubs along really nicely with the country that we've been born in and the world that we inhabit.

Yes, we all know we're a bit odd. You are, you're in church on a Sunday morning. So social-wise, we're now a bit odd to a lot of our friends and family. But that's not really what this is talking about, is it?

For most of us, I would suggest, we have no idea how costly faith can truly be.

Well, I want to share with you today publicly from the pulpit, that we are blessed at All Saints to have in our church community, six men seeking asylum in this country, who know for themselves, directly and personally how costly faith in Jesus can be.
I think most of them are here today: Mehrdad, Mohsen, Mahmood, Daryoush and Adel. 
And forgive me if the pronunciation is not quite right.

All of these folks who've been worshipping with us for about the last six months have all chosen to follow Jesus. That journey, started back in Iran at great personal cost. Enduring things that I cannot even begin to imagine or properly understand. That is a faith that runs away.

That is a faith that is not a jog in the park. That is a faith that is tied up, boot laces, hard graft.

Now, in this church family, we are running with you and we are going to be celebrating, God willing, your baptism on the 30th of October, All Saints Sunday. Put the date in your diary now!

For those of us, who have never had to choose between our culture, our family or indeed our safety to be Christian, have so much to learn from those who have. So I want to say publicly, So I want to say publicly, and I hope as well that Mehrdad might translate for me if some of it doesn't quite land, but I want to say thank you to Mehrdad, Mohsen, Mahmood, Daryoush and Adel. You are a gift to this church community because you are part of the great crowd of witnesses and teach us how to run the race.

So maybe you're thinking, 'Well, okay, Wendy, my life hasn't been that extreme. But actually, I do find faith quite a struggle. Personal tragedy in your own life and the lives of those you love. Some of us are those who are living with life-limiting illness and conditions. Some of us are those who live with addictions. Some of us are those who have been damaged by the very church that is supposed to love us.

Some of us have been on the receiving end of racism or homophobia from the place that is in actual fact God's house. And you too find it hard to run the race.

So today I want to encourage you, I want to encourage us! To put on our running shoes and run the race.

Now, if you do take up running and if you do couch25K - which I thoroughly recommend - you get advice and you get encouragement. So I want to offer you a little bit of encouragement today, because I think sometimes when we struggle with our faith, we're trying to piece something together which isn't quite supposed to be understood in the way we think.

So, Anglican faith - and if you didn't know, this is an Anglican church, right? Anglican faith has in its roots the phrase: scripture, tradition and reason.

It means that we shape our faith, we wrestle with our faith. We seek to understand our faith through those three pillars. Or, when Richard Hooker wrote it, like three prongs of a stool. Imagine a little three-pronged stool. Scripture, tradition and reason.

We listen to the Bible. We listen to the stories of the ancient people and we listen too to the traditions of the church, the things that have been passed on and we understand. And we listen too to our collective reason, intellect, scientific developments, the things of the world that we begin to learn around us. And it is the tension of those three that help shape the Christian faith.

I want to encourage you, encourage us, as a church community over the coming three years. And yes, I have a three year plan - I'm not sharing it all from here you'll be very grateful to know - but over the coming three years, I want us to lean into each of those little pillars, those little legs of the stool.

And next year we're going to begin by really leaning into scripture, the Bible. We're going to mark Bible Sunday in October. I want us to begin to really grapple and understand the ancient stories of the people of God.
I want us to really begin to get our heads around how can we make sense of these ancient texts?
How can the liberation of God's people make sense in our lives today?

Because if you're going to run a race, you need fuel for the journey. You need to stretch.
As I learnt very painfully last year, at one point. You need to limber up.
And the tools to do that are within this church community, the Bible, conversation with others, the life of prayer.

And of course, where I started today, talking about not ever running a marathon. In actual fact, when you think about faith as a race, it's not particularly a gentle job and at times it's really hard. It is much more akin to a marathon. Not just because it's really long, but think about what a marathon looks like. Has anyone run one in here? Or a half mountain?

Oh, yes. Janine is being very modest. Have you run more than one? She has.

Okay, you go to the top of the class.

So on a marathon, huge crowds at the side, aren't there? The London Marathon, think about crowds at the side cheering you on.

Those who run Marathons, tell me. Part of the joy, the euphoria is you do it with all sorts of other people, people who help one another across the line, who travel with you. That is the image of the race of faith that I am asking you to run. I'm not asking you to run this on your own. I am asking you to join the great cloud of witnesses and help carry each other across the line.

Faith is costly. In the time we are living in, I think people of faith are going to need to dig really deep and learn what it means to have a costly faith.

Whether it's about making costly decisions, about how we tackle the climate emergency.
Whether it's about speaking truth to power,
about how the most vulnerable are looked after as people choose between heating and eating.
Whether it's about running next to those who may be deported back to a place where they will be abused.

Running the race is costly.

So we need sabbath time and we need rest. And I'm going on one of those. With your blessing and your support. I'm going to be doing different things on my sabbatical. I am going to go for some walks. I might even fit in some running.

I'm hoping I might go to the Holy Land and do some study at a college in Jerusalem.

I am going to be refuelling myself for the journey.
I am hoping to spend some time sitting at the feet of Jesus.
But I'm coming back.

And I'm bringing my running shoes with me.

Amen