The Sermon given by Margaret Evan-Hughes on 23 May, 2004.

 "Openness and Vulnerability"

As you will see I have decided not to use the pulpit this morning. I am never very sure about the pulpit. If I had been a Lay Reader in this Church many years ago I would not have been allowed in the pulpit, although we are told that as Lay Readers we should preach and teach. The pulpit is quite a safe place, we look down on you from on high, and if you should wish to throw things at us, our being in the pulpit would make it much more difficult. So here I am with you, among you. I'll tell you something else, whilst I am here I do not have my sermon notes, I feel very vulnerable.

Openness and Vulnerability is the theme for our second Kairos Sermon.

First of all I would like to ask Paul and Jennifer to change seats. This is one I have prepared earlier. So now we have Paul on the seat at the organ ...perhaps we should remind him to look for Pauline's finger for when to start to play, and Jennifer .... who is looking at all those people, and that book in front of her, to make sure she takes up at the right place the next part of the Service of the Word. Actually when I spoke to Jennifer she confided that at this stage she would be feeling really vulnerable!

And what about the rest of us? Relax, I am not going to make you play musical chairs. What if your talents with flowers consist of taking the bought or picked bunch of flowers and filling the vase with water and putting them in-just like that? Nature is, of course, beautiful, we tell ourselves. Then suddenly, all the usual team are unavailable, and you are told that it has been decided that you are in charge of the Church flowers for the coming Sunday? Or you turn up at the P.C.C. Meeting, many including the Secretary cannot come, everybody seems to have that tummy bug. But we have a Quorum, so one of us has to take the Minutes. I bet you no one will be meeting the Chairman's eye, and a whole lot of people will be feeling vulnerable! HELP!!!!!!!

Only recently I heard about, yes, even now, of a lady coming into an Anglican Church on Hayling Island and being asked to move for she was sitting in someone's "usual seat." How hurt and vulnerable she must have felt.

Those were examples of when we might feel vulnerable, some light hearted perhaps, but some serious too. Paul and Jennifer how about giving back to each other your seats?

You and I will have all kinds of times when we have felt vulnerable.

Last Thursday we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven. It was both an end and a beginning. It was the end of the physical presence of Jesus with his apostles, and it was the beginning of the presence of Jesus with them and with us in a different way. Jesus had told them what His mission on earth had been. By his death and resurrection He had come to give us all salvation. He had told not only them, but us, in the Great Commission, that they and we were to proclaim the good news of salvation to all the world They and we were to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ, our only Saviour.

How are we all to do it? Not just Popes, Anglican Archbishops, Orthodox Archbishops, Bishops. Deans, Archdeacons, Rectors, Canons, Vicars, Stipendiary Priests, Non Stipendiary Priests, Lay Readers, ALL OF US!

What did Jesus Christ ask of the Apostles and of us? He asked for openness and vulnerability.

Every Sunday when, yes, I sit in my usual seat, I look at the most beautiful window, and quite often during the morning Eucharist the sun shines through it. The Book of Ruth. At a time of great famine Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, "Go, return each to your mother's house: the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me. The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband." Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept. And so on.... we come to verse 16. In spite of all the entreaties of Naomi we read "And Ruth said `Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, l will go: and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."' Sometime sit and look and ponder on this window and ask yourselves .. what does it say to you?

Now you will have noticed that the Psalm appointed for this morning has been changed, and in fact, so has the last hymn. Thank you to Pauline and the choir for this. The last hymn is now "Tell out my soul." Number 422. If you want to have a look at it as I am speaking ...No 422. It is, of course, The Magnificat. Mary's response to being told that she was to be the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. If ever there was Openness and Vulnerability, here it is personified. She opened herself to the greatness of the might of God, accepted what was being asked of her, whilst also remembering His mercy, that is sure for all. She also in the words of Timothy Dudley-Smith says "Make known His might, His mercy sure." She lays herself, and all that she was, open to God, she lays herself completely open to His will, completely vulnerable.

This is, of course, is exactly what Jesus Christ did for us. Have you thought of Christ as vulnerable and open? Jesus was vulnerable, but He was not weak. Jesus wept, but weeping is not necessarily a sign of weakness, Jesus wept in his compassion for the sorrow of others. Close your eyes and think of a Crucifix, think of all those pictures, like that by Salvador Dali of Christ on the Cross ...His head bowed, His hands open, vulnerable to the will of God and open in love for us.

Do we open our hands to God? Or are we sitting with our hands folded or even clenched in prayer. Do we open our hands, our ears and our hearts to God? Are we telling God that we love Him and that we are listening? Or are we just asking of Him and telling Him? Are we listening to what God is asking of us? Where do we look for help? Take home with you the copy of the psalm, psalm 121. "A Song of Degrees whereby the godly profess their confidence in God."

Where it asks, where do we look for help? The psalm tells us our help comes from the Lord. However, if we sit there with clenched fists and clenched minds, how does the Lord reach us? The psalm tells us that the Lord is ever on watch, we may sleep, but He never does. He is there for us always and at all times. BUT.... we have to be able to listen, to clear our minds, our ears and our hearts and just listen. He is there always.

I would like to take you to our Gospel Reading. Jesus had warned those with Him that his hour was coming. He looked up to Heaven and prayed. If you have a sheet please will you look at it. Jesus did not pray for Himself, He prayed for those with Him whom he would send forth, but He also prayed for us. "Holy Father, I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me."

Jesus prays that we will all be one. That we will be in God, in the Spirit, so that we will believe that God the Father sent Him. Jesus prays that the love of God the Father for Him may be in us, and that we may see His glory, the glory given to Him by God the Father. Jesus wants for us complete unity so that we can convey His message to the world.

I feel that in this prayer Jesus is reaching out. He is calling us to reach out.... not to those who are sitting next to us Sunday after Sunday, but to those who do not even come near the Church or those to whom we never talk about our faith and all our doubts, who do not know what our faith means to us and what it might mean to them.

Our faith draws us together. We share our faith. When we come to Church do we always look for the same people? When we come to Church do we always talk to the same people? When we come to Church do we always sit beside the same people?

Well if you are like some of us like Paul and Jennifer or the Choir, at the moment, you have no option!

What about the rest of us?

When we go over to the hall for Coffee, do we mingle? Or do we sit with those with whom we are most comfortable? What about our openness and the vulnerability of others?

It is our Unity with God - that is what Jesus was praying about. Not the unity where we agree on our thinking and doing the same thing. It is so easy to get into little groups, then to resent the other little groups, so step by step begin to destroy what is being done. Remember the unity of purpose, the unity of God. Of course, it is fun being with like-minded people, it is a problem with getting involved with those who have a different approach. BUT if you put these two sorts of people together, then things can really happen. The trouble is that our first instinct is to scratch each others eyes out, it is really difficult to get on with people that are different from you and even might challenge you. They may even have thoughts different from yours. They may have strengths different from yours. SO, the temptation is to get rid of them! ! We have to remember that some of us are good at some things and others have different strengths ....... all working to the unity with God, not making life easy.

We all need to acknowledge our own Vulnerability, especially to ourselves and to God. This is part of our openness to ourselves and to God. I have to add that, when you go away and discuss this in your groups, do not feel obliged to be open and vulnerable unless you feel safe within the company you are in. If the discussion leaves you feeling vulnerable, talk to your Group Leader or a member of the Ministerial Team.

In this Church Family we have a Unity. Let us use that Unity to go out from here today. Let us not just seek the company of each other, let us go forth and give our energies to the challenge of Kairos, reflecting the Great Commission of Jesus Christ, so that we may make a Church that is broader, deeper and leaner, so that we may tell out and share the Good News to the World, where it is now and where it will be.

Now I have looked for a prayer with which to finish that which I have said. I prayed and looked for inspiration.

Then, of course, what I wanted came to me when I wasn't specifically looking, but I was at the time vulnerable and open. Just as the Psalmist says in Psalm 121, the Lord is ever on watch; we may sleep, but He never does. He is there for us always and at all times. What I needed came to me - it was part of the Post Communion Prayer at the Eucharist for Ascension Day.

Let us pray:

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