Revd Vanda Hawkes sermon on 23rd May, 2004

The Sermon given by Revd. Vanda Hawkes on 23 May, 2004.

"Openness and Vulnerability"

Kairos is about change, not for change’s sake, but in order to be instruments that God can use in a changing world.

So what needs changing? The whole Church? Our Church? Me?

Someone has described a lift as a place into which you are crammed with people you've never met. You try hard not to touch them. Nobody talks, except for an occasional "Excuse me, please." You don't look at anyone; in fact, you don't look anywhere except at the ceiling or you watch the floor numbers change one by one. It's almost as if there's an official sign that reads: NO TALKING, NO SMILING, NO TOUCHING AND NO EYE CONTACT ALLOWED!

Isn’t that "lift atmosphere" rather like much of society today where people are feeling increasingly isolated, lonely and unloved? Dare I say too, that it could also describe some of our churches!

Surely this awful situation presents Christians with a powerful challenge to put our faith into action. Believers can make a difference. God can use us to "reconnect" people, if we are willing to pay the price. Remember that Jesus left the comfort zone of heaven, to come here to save us.

who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God, as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, ...he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death...even death on a cross.

No one has made them self so completely open or vulnerable as Jesus did. If we are Christ’s disciples and filled with his Spirit, shouldn’t we

have the same mind and the same love and be of one accord

So then, aren’t we obligated to move out of our comfort zones, to get out of our comfortable churches, if for no other reason than because our Lord commanded us to

go and make disciples

Every believer wherever they live and work can be a missionary and an instrument and channel for God’s love. If we have God’s spirit living in us and we are listening for his voice and are obedient then we will take the warmth of Christ's love to our offices, neighbourhoods and classrooms and melt the ‘lift mentality’ so often present.

For Christians, loving others as Jesus loves us is also a command, and not an option. Paul urges us:

Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

Looking out for the interests of others means:

paying special attention to those everyone else overlooks.
relating to those for whom we have no natural affinity, yet who are asking. "Does anyone care about me, my wounds, my fears and my needs?"
it means acting like a ‘whole’ human being and recognising God planned us to live in community and not in self-centered isolated units.

Jesus instructed his followers to care for everyone no matter who they are, where they come from, what they believe, or how they live. This is our mission and if we do it, we can make a difference!

How do we do it? How do we break with our preoccupation with self, so that we can be used by God to ‘reconnect’ people?

Paul tells us this:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

To break with our addiction to putting ‘me first’ it will mean change. We must first become a person in whom the spirit of Jesus lives. No one can love as Jesus loves in his or her own strength. It's only the miracle of the Spirit of Jesus living in us that enables us to share his kind of passion to reach out to people who do not know him. There is tremendous cost involved in loving. That's why many people don't do it!

Some people are not easy to love. Some annoy us and others frustrate us. Add to this difficulty, all the common relational problems, envy, pride, competition, power struggles, and diversity.
Some people have insatiable needs and it's just easier to turn away from them.
Then there is the cost of time, inconvenience, pain, money and worry.

The point is Jesus didn’t say it would be easy but only that we are to do it! It will involve real openness and vulnerability as it did for Jesus and Christians are called to be "imitators of Christ" (Ephesians 5:1 NRSV).

The record of the ministry of Jesus is not always a story of crowds, but of individuals, people he touched and who’s lives changed as a consequence. They in their turn went out filled with his love, to change their part of the world. When the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the fact that everything we are and possess is a gift of God, surely there can be no other response than to reach out and share what we know with others.

We can start right now, if we aren’t doing it already, and I want you to be honest with yourself and God about this. Then ask him to identify just one person who needs his love to be shown to them through you. If Kairos is to become a reality in our church it probably won’t start with a massive evangelical program. It will happen as Jesus did it, loving one person at a time!

Just a little story to get us thinking more about this:

A frail elderly lady was standing in a very long queue at the Post Office. The lady in front turned to her and seeing that the old lady just wanted to get some cash, she suggested that if she didn’t want to waste time in the queue she could use one of the machines. The elderly lady replied "But the machine won’t ask me about my arthritis!"

Being church and coming to church should be about reminding us of God's love for each person. It should remind us, that we need to be connected and responsible for each other. It's the loss of connectedness between people and the loss of community, that is one of the great tragedies of our time and we in the church, have locked ourselves away and buried our heads in the sand like ostriches. We have not engaged with the changing and needy world around us.

Kairos is about what God is doing now and we mustn’t dwell or live in the past. God has work for each one of us to do out there now! No Christian is excluded from his commands. What on earth has the church been waiting for?

So when you hear that final commission at the end of our service (go in peace to love and serve the Lord), will you take it seriously? What happens when we leave the church, do we forget all about our mission?

If every person in our congregation begins to take time to love at least one more person. Watch out! The whole community will feel the impact. Think of the potential if we unleash Christ's kind of love all over Hayling Island. We can make a difference. It isn't too late to change. Every moment is a precious Kairos moment, so be alert.

Loving as Jesus loves, WORKS!