The church today must respond to God’s call and must be hospitable. Acts 16, 9-15

Acts is an important book for us – even though many of us don’t know as much about it as we tend to know about the gospels... It is an important book for us, because it confirms that the power of the spirit which transformed the disciples’ lives while Jesus was still with them, could transform their lives after his death, too. The power of the Holy Spirit has been changing people’s lives ever since... Remember, when in Acts 3 Peter discovers his ability to heal... when in Acts 9 he raises Tabitha from the dead, or in chapter 11 he is challenged by this vision that eventually sends him out not only to the Jews but to all people and show them God’s ways that lead to life?! Several churches had already been started. Homes had been opened as meeting places for those who followed the new movement. There was a church in Tabitha’s home town Joppa. Mary and Rhoda had invited people to prayer meetings at their house in Jerusalem. The first Jewish-Gentile church had been started in Antioch. With amazing care they provided material and spiritual support to the new believers who’d been scattered all over the place by the persecution of the young Christian church earlier on. Saul had become Paul. He’d stopped persecuting the Christians and started spreading the good news of Jesus himself.

And here he is, on a journey, in a foreign country, and God tells him to do something that he doesn’t understand. Something that he has no idea about how it will work out.

1. Respond to God’s call
2. Respect others as equals before God
3. Reach out in love to strangers

And he goes. That’s the first thing I want to say today. God speaks to Paul and he listens and responds.

How do we respond when God tells us to do something unusual? How much are you prepared to change in your life if God calls you to? Would you give up TV for God? Or facebook? Would you move away from your loved ones? Would you give up your job? Would you change churches? Would you go hungry? Would you go to jail? Or to the stake? It’s good to spend time thinking about this. We aren’t all called to be saints and martyrs…are we? At our baptism Fight valiantly as a disciple of Christ against sin, the world and the devil, and remain faithful to Christ to the end of your life. What are you prepared to fight for God’s sake? How will you remain faithful?

And the remaining two things I want to say today relate to this remarkable woman, Lydia. Firstly, note that Paul here treats her with respect, as an equal at a time when women had a very low status. I believe that here we are a given a clue as to how God would have us order His church, and He recognises and encourages the expression of spiritual gifts from all of his people, not just the ones who stay standing up in the smallest room or who have perceived status. In our all-age services we have just as much to learn from the children as we have to teach them.

And finally, Look at how Lydia responds to the activity of God through Paul…with hospitality.

We can read in Hebrews 13, 2: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”  She reaches out with love.

Hospitality to strangers, among both Jews and Gentiles in the ancient world, was considered a religious must, a God-given task, a virtue.

Jesus, as an observant Jew, Jesus embodies the virtue of hospitality, particularly in the way he shares food and table fellowship. Jesus as gracious host feeds over 5000 people on a hillside, and later explains to the crowd that he is the bread of life, living bread from heaven – all they need. He offers “living water”, and is both: host and meal. Just think of the last supper... the famous gesture of hospitality in the meal that we continue to celebrate as the foretaste of God’s most gracious hospitality...

Lydia responded with hospitality, and in the same way we are expected to be a community that remains open towards strangers.

Something that – let’s be honest – hasn’t always happened throughout the history of the Christian church.

The Greek word used in the New Testament for hospitality does not only suggest acceptance, openness and care --- it literally speaks of love --- love for the stranger. And this in a time when Christians lived in constant danger of discrimination and persecution...

Our risk in offering hospitality, a space where change can take place, is much lower than it was in Lydia’s time. But do we do it often enough: stretch our hands out, open our arms, let the stranger enter and become a friend?

An open door, a warm welcome, food and drink on the table, shelter, and a blessing... and all these to witness Jesus – nothing more and nothing less? Do we do it home? Do we do it here? What more can we do?

So three things…

1.      Respond to God’s call

2.      Respect others as equals before God

3.      Reach out in love to strangers

And look. Here we are…part of the same church that Acts is all about. We are the 29^th chapter of the book…the continuation of the story.

Faith and Politics don't mix?

The global economic downturn, double- or triple-dip it matters not to me, is bringing into focus what the various nations of the world truly value. When budgets need to be cut we find out what, or who, is important. And in Britain today a theme seems to be emerging. Soon-to-be implemented changes to housing benefit, the Welfare Benefit Up-Rating Bill, the fact that 22 of the 29 members of our present cabinet are millionaires, and the unwillingness to increase the tax-burden on the richest in this nation make it clear that we are led by a coalition government which favours the rich over the poor. I must add at this point as someone who has never voted for either of the coalition parties that this comes as no surprise to me, but as minister in the church I find myself in a challenging situation.
The Tory 'big-society' vision is becoming reality, whereby essential services for the poorest people lose their funding and the voluntary sector pick up the slack. Interestingly, this vision of society doesn't seem to include the richest in our society making any sort of contribution or sacrifice in order to become reality. It is a vison of the poorest being able to get by without disturbing the comfortable lives of the wealthy. Coventry now has one of the busiest foodbanks in the country, providing necessary support to those whom the welfare system has failed, and it is clear that they can only get busier as the poorest people in our city have their household budgets cut.
So here is my dilemma. I oppose cuts which target the poor and favour the rich. I do so because I know that God feels the same, that actually God has favourites and it certainly isn't the rich. But if all I do is support the poor then I'm unwittingly supporting the system that makes them poor. Despite having voted against them, I'm buying in to the Tory lies that we as a nation do not have to take responsibility for caring for the weakest and most vulnerable in our society and so can delegate their support out to some sandal-wearing leftie do-gooders or well-meaning god-botherers who will do the job for us. And I don't want to buy in to that lie.
Which is why I am so pleased that 43 of our Bishops have signed a letter opposing current proposals which will push more and more people in to poverty. Yes, we support the poorest in our society, but we also need to make our voices heard. We need to speak out against a market-driven economy which only values what is saleable. We need to speak out against the ever widening gap between rich and poor, between well-fed and under-nourished. And we need to use our votes wisely whenever we have the opportunity! Faith and politics don't mix? They do, and rightly so.

Epiphany

Three definitions of the word "Epiphany"
1. a Christian festival held on Jan. 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the Magi
2. the appearance to man, in visible form, of a god or other supernatural being.
3. A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something

We are used to thinking of the call of the church as being to reach out to the local community. Partly I guess this is because we have become used to seeing empty chairs during our services. Partly it’s because we are increasingly aware of the deep spiritual hunger of many who have not been brought up to go to church and do not see it as a viable answer to their need. We know we need to reach out. So there is almost a dream-like quality to the image of crowds and crowds of people from all nations, all walks of life actively seeking us out in order to find God and spiritual fulfilment.
It’s as much a dream now as it was in Isaiah’s day, as it was in Jesus’ day. Picture it. Wouldn’t it be amazing? Imagine this whole neighbourhood having an epiphany, a sudden manifestation of the meaning of life, and pitching up here on a Sunday morning.
How would we cope if people suddenly started flooding in?
Would we be able to help them with their search?
Would we understand their questions?
Would we know the answers to any of them?
Would we be overjoyed to see them pouring through the doors, or would they pose a threat to the way we normally do things here?
What if they don’t behave like we do?
What if they make a noise, or interrupt, or bring their emotional baggage with them?

When Simeon finally met Jesus in the temple after a lifetime of waiting he described him in Luke’s gospel as a light to lighten gentiles. We need to recognise that being a light to lighten the gentiles can actually be quite disturbing. If we do, we can start to understand something of the hesitation that the Jewish people will have had about welcoming the early Christians in the early days of the church, many of them totally ‘unsynagogued’. It becomes clearer why Peter and Paul needed to work out their disagreements. Reaching out is scary. It can feel threatening. But we can also feel the excitement of a church moving in a new direction, of a church filled with hope as well as challenge. A church that is alive, that grows, that changes, that becomes more as God wants it, that is active in the world.

Epiphany is the time we remember the Messiah being shown to the gentile world, and it is of particular significance to us here at St Anne and All Saints. The light of the world is for everyone; all groups, all nations, all cultures, all ages…not just those who we are familiar with, or approve of, or who know how to behave in our church. Since most of us here are not Jewish, that is we are gentiles, we often tend to underestimate the significance of Christ being shown to the gentile outsiders. Surely it just means to people like us?

No. The reading said “all assemble and come from afar”. We need to ask ourselves who the nations and kings drawn to the light might be in this area, who the wise men might represent today, who the outsiders are in this time and place.
To enter into the spirit of Epiphany we need to alter our perception until we understand that to God there are no outsiders, no person or group excluded from receiving his mercy.
We need to alter our mindset so as to be welcoming to those who we don’t know.
When we come to worship all of us, not just those on duty to hand out booklets, need to be actively thinking about welcome, about putting people at ease if they don’t know what our usual routine is or if they don’t seem to be behaving like we do.
What do people experience as they enter? Try imagining it is your first time here next time you come in. Really notice what you see, what you hear, what you experience. I know it’s good to see each other here as we gather as a family, but the gospel demands of us that we look beyond fellowship to inclusion.

It was God’s delight to reveal his baby son to some searching pagan foreigners in order to fulfil his plan that the good news would be for everyone, as predicted by Isaiah 600 years before his birth. Just imagine if today someone arrived here seeking God and they ended up leaving baffled because no-one took the time to show them where to sit or what to do or took an interest in their journey here or spoke to them after the service. Imagine if they left having not met Jesus in any of us here.

Each of us, not just whoever is at the front, each of us, is responsible for bringing about the appearance of God in visible form, of bringing an epiphany to those who we meet.
Who does he want us to reveal Jesus to here and now?
As we have sung about these outsiders, travelling many miles over difficult terrain in order to find the for themselves the world’s enlightenment, we would do well to bear in mind all those in our own times, in our own neighbourhood, who are spiritually awake and searching, many travelling over difficult terrain, and to ask what we can do to ensure that the lamps are lit, ready to welcome them.
What can we each do to show Christ to someone who seeks Him?
Not just here on a Sunday, but during the 167 hours a week when we aren’t here.
And then we need to resolve to do it.

Alongside

Two people are out running. One seems very fit, the other less so. The fitter one turns to the other and says "You know, I find it really helpful running with you. I run much better, I am able to go faster, you really push me in a way that I just don't when I run alone".
Less fit runner has been struggling, secretly contemplating dropping back a little and then diving into a bush to hide. The pace has been right at the very limit. The thought had occurred that this fit friend must be feeling hampered, slowed down. It has just felt all wrong until this moment.
So what's going on? Often in life we may feel like we're holding our friends, family or colleagues back in some way, particularly at times of stress or great personal difficulty. We may feel like we are a burden, and assume that they would be better off without having us around so much. Yet we may have failed to consider that even in our times of weakness and struggle we can be positively influencing those around us. It says really early on in the Bible that 'it is not good to be alone'. This principle seems to be at play here-the lone runner does not perform as well as the one with company, even though the company is apparently struggling.
Don't isolate yourself when you struggle and don't be afraid to ask for help. You just don't know how you may be helping.