Healing Division.
Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Ephesians 2.11-22
The Epistle is written in the second chapter of St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, beginning at the eleventh verse.
11Remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by those who are called ‘the circumcision’ – a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands – 12remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God.
Here endeth the Epistle.
Gospel Mark 6.30-34,53-56
The holy Gospel is written in the sixth chapter of the Gospel
according to Saint Mark, beginning at the thirtieth verse.
Glory be to thee, O Lord.
The apostles returned from their mission. 30They gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
53When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. 54When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, 55and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Praise be to thee, O Christ.
Last Tuesday night I was privileged to be at a fairly unique event – the collation of my successor as Vicar of Curdworth, Middleton and Wishaw. It’s fairly unheard of for the previous vicar to be there when a new vicar is inducted but as Area Dean it was my job to arrange the service at Curdworth and present him to the Bishop. The new vicar of Curdworth, Middleton and Wishaw is the Revd Dr Joshva Raja. He has come from Queen’s College in Birmingham where he has been a tutor but he is originally from India. And what really made the service unique was the number of guests who came from all over the world. Joshva has been teaching international students at Queen’s and there were people there from the Caribbean, Africa and the United States as well as Joshva’s homeland. There were women there in beautiful saris and the Gospel was read by a Methodist deacon from Jamaica who has dreadlocks and a rich Caribbean accent. I don’t think Curdworth has ever seen anything quite like it and it gave the whole evening a great sense of energy and excitement. Joshva’s arrival has brought a whole new dimension to life and I am sure that the churches there will be greatly enriched by his many links with the world church.
Bishop Andrew conducted the service and he spoke about the way in which people from the country took the Gospel to other parts of the world. People like his grandparents who were missionaries in China.
Now there is a sense in which the flow is happening in the opposite direction. People are coming from the Global south to invigorate churches in this country. And there’s no longer a sense of one group having the Gospel and another receiving it, we can all learn from one another. We can all strengthen each other’s faiths by sharing our different insights. Though economic differences remain we are increasingly one in Christ.
And I think it’s that oneness that Paul is referring to in his letter to the Ephesians. Originally, as Gentiles, they had had no hope and were without God in the world. But now through the blood of Christ those who were far off had been brought near. In his flesh he had made Jewish and Gentile Christians into one and had broken down the dividing wall between them.
And I saw something of that oneness when we came to share the peace on Tuesday. People who arrived looking very out of place in sleepy Curdworth became no longer strangers and aliens, but citizens with the saints there and fellow members of the household of God. Curdworth Church is nearly 850 years old and it has a wonderful sense of history and of the faithfulness of generations. But on Tuesday it felt as if a new and important stone was laid on their foundations and that the church was strengthened as a result. All of us, from our many different backgrounds, were united in our faith in Christ Jesus, the cornerstone.
We need more of these events. We need to break down more of the barriers that exits between peoples. We’ve seen that most pressingly in Syria this week where tribal loyalties are breaking a nation apart. And thank God for the Olympics that is bringing people from all over the world to our shores. To share in a unique festival of sport. Fostering understanding between nations and breaking down barriers.
With such a mammoth event it is hardly surprising that some things have not gone quite as well as anticipated. But I think there is already a huge amount for us to feel proud of and I’m really looking forward to Friday night. It is such a privilege for us to be hosting this event and I think we will all feel richer for it afterwards.
It’s not just big sporting events that help to break down barriers between people. We are all so much more mobile than we used to be. I was born in Nigeria and it took my parents three weeks to get there by boat. These days you can get on a plane and be there in a matter of hours. And you don’t even have to go there to feel a connection. I spent my gap year in Sudan and it took about three weeks for a letter to go from here to there. Nowadays you can call someone up on their mobile phone, text them, email them or skype. All of these things help to make us feel more connected and hopefully more understanding of different cultures and points of view.
Holidays abroad have obviously contributed a lot to this and some of us are probably looking forward to holidays soon. Not all of us travel abroad but we all need times out when we can rest a while. Jesus understood this and he frequently withdrew from the crowd and the busyness of his ministry to recharge his batteries.
And he encouraged his disciples to do the same. If they were going to be able to be effective in their ministry then they needed time out. And that wasn’t easy because there were obviously lots of people who needed help. People who were looking for healing. Or hope. Or meaning in their lives. The temptation just to do more is a real one but if we don’t stop occasionally we risk burning out and being no use to anyone. All of us need to step back from life sometimes to recharge our batteries.
We tend to think of these times of retreat from the normal routine as times of absence, space and emptiness. Of course they can feel like that because they are by definition less busy. But if we look at bit closer at Jesus’ retreats they are often times of encounter. Times of change. His time in the wilderness was especially important.
Sometimes it is only when we get away from it all that we can encounter God. It’s only then that we can hear his voice above the hubbub of normal life. It’s these times when we can remember again who we are and think about where our lives are going and what God might be calling us to do. It’s no accident that many clergy start looking at the jobs pages after their summer holidays.
Some of us will spend the next few weeks glued to our televisions watching the Olympics. Hopefully it will give us a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven where people of all nations will come together. Others of us may be planning to escape from it all and will hopefully rediscover the peace of God which passes all understanding. Whatever we do, we all need to be open to God and what he wants to teach us. I hope all of us in the next few weeks can be drawn more deeply into his life and love. Amen.
Rev’d. Dr. Matthew Rhodes Area Dean.