Sermon from Sunday 10 August

 

Reading(s): Luke 12:32-40. This sermon was given by Vanessa Lawrence at All Saints and St Mark.

On Friday night, I was invited to dinner with an old friend, who I first met when we were new mums at a toddler group over 20 years ago. It reminded me of how precious those friendships are, with people who have known you a long time – and what a gift, also, are our toddler groups and the work we do for young families.

Our faith and belief in God is a gift. It is a thing which we should work at, a thing we should pay attention to, a thing we should treasure. Faith feels different for each of us. In the same way that no two people are the same, neither is the experience of faith the same for any two of us. Yet we all believe in one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We believe in a God who loves us, a God who wants and indeed longs for a relationship with us, a God who knows us better than we know ourselves and also a God who is capable of far more than we can dare to imagine or could possibly understand. Faith in God if we choose to embrace that gift should underpin all that we do. When we prioritise faith and make time and space for prayer even when the world might be trying to crowd it out it can transform our lives.

I wonder how you notice God’s hand in your day-to-day life? Take a moment to think about that. How do you live your life alert and expectant to the idea that God is indeed working and moving in the world and in your community and in your life? Perhaps you notice someone persevering against the odds, or someone being kind, and brightening the day of those they meet. It might be in the wonder of the created world around you. It might be in the comfort you find in a quiet house or your ever dependable feline or canine companion. It might be that you notice God when you pray or read the Bible or worship or play music. It might just be that for someone else you are the reminder of God in their day.

We need to practice being the servants who are alert for the bridegroom to return home whatever the hour - alert to looking for the presence of God always and tuning into that presence. God is everywhere whether we notice or not whether we welcome the presence or not. God may come as comfort, as unease or as simply gently walking alongside us.

If we live as people alive to God being present in our life then we can’t help but be people who put our treasure not in things of this world but in those things which belong to God and of the kingdom yet to be revealed in all its glory. We will be people who value honesty and truth, who are kind and generous, people who include everyone and ignore no-one, people who value all of humanity equally.

We will be people who pray fervently for those many, many places and situations which we cannot control and we feel we can’t influence but which we know that God can. We will be people who do what we can for those in need around us, who make decisions that prioritise the planet rather than our convenience, and people who trust that no matter what happens to us God is with us in all things.

We are never alone, never abandoned and never ever beyond God’s redeeming love. If we can treasure that joy, that faith, that gift in our lives then it cannot help but shape and change us into the people God calls us and knows us to be. And in turn that can shape our small corner of God’s world and allow people to see the light and the joy that there is in having the treasure and gift of faith in a wonderful loving God who sees us as treasure.

Can you, today, commit to spending this week being alert to God’s presence, to notice and treasure those moments of connection? I pray that that might be your reality this week.

Vanessa speaks here about faith as a gift that we treasure. We thought about ways in which we can take notice of that gift. Here is a real treasure from Westminster Abbey, in their Ambient Abbey project, featuring plainsong of the Salve Regina and a film from the High Altar of the Abbey.