The Anglican Parish of Banyule

Sermon for Celebration of New Parish of Banyule
By Don Bellamy 1st April, 2003

Readings: Isaiah 43.18-25, 1 Corinthians 1.18-25

You people are amazing! You really are amazing. Do you know what you have done? You have taken the risk of something new… for the sake of the Gospel.

The decision you have made, and overwhelmingly approved, is one of those decisions that we are called on to make only a couple of times in our lives. A decision of the order of getting married, or buying your first house. A decision like deciding to follow Jesus, and to take the adventure of faith. A decision that you know is right and good, but you can't know what it will be like, except that your life will never be the same. Perhaps none of us know yet full what it is that we have done. But we are not going to be the same.

It is not easy to do new things, especially as we get older. I was recently reading a little piece by Douglas Adams, the author of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. He was something of a technophile, he could not wait to get his hands on the latest piece of technology, especially if it had to do with computers, and as long as it worked. He formulated a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:

1. Anything that is in the world when you are born is just normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you are fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you are thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

I suspect his rules hold for far more than our reactions to technologies.

It is not easy to take the risk of something new… even for the sake of the Gospel.

I believe our God is God of the new.

Of course God is God of all ages. Our God stands at the beginning and the end and all points in between, all time and space, all the myriad dimensions of the universe are held within God's embrace. Our God is the God of the new.

As some of you know, I came to faith when I was a student of Biological Sciences and University. The idea of God as creator was the first little crack in my rationalist armour. You see, the stuff I was dealing with in my studies was just so amazing. I came to know God first because of a sense of wonder at the diversity of life, and the sense of pure creativity it exuded. Now, when I think of creation, I do not just think of God creating a long time ago, way back, 'in the beginning'. I think of God who continues to create. Indeed, I believe that the universe only exists because, moment by moment, God creates and brings forth new moments.

But God is not only active in the natural world. God is active in the world of people. Have a look at the broad sweep of God's dealings with the people of his promise, that we read of in the Old Testament. Doesn't God, out of love for the people, keep trying new ways to bring them to where they were created to be. Again and again God says, "I am doing a new thing. For the love of my people I am doing a new thing."

God's gift of Jesus for the world is a new thing. A thing so amazing that we measure our ages from that moment.

And Jesus promises, new life, abundant life, life in all of its fullness, eternal life.

And the Spirit is given to lead the people called by name of Jesus into new ways to face new challenges in new ages.

Our God is the God of the new, and God has called us to this new venture.

If we have done this for expediency sake… If we have done this as a way of coping with ageing congregations, diminishing numbers, or lack of resources… If we have done this as a way of maintaining a priestly ministry, or keeping our church building open, then it deserves to fail. If that is the case, then my prayer is that it fail quickly!

No, the only reason for doing this new thing is because we believe that this is what God has called us to do. This is the way that we can be most effective in ministry to the world.

Some time ago I was accosted after church and told that this thing must not happen. That church buildings should not be closed or Sunday morning worship suspended. "If we had only set up some prayer groups," I was told, "If only we had people praying every day, then God would act, and this thing could be averted." My only response was to say that this new thing is not happening because of a failure of prayer, but indeed because we have been praying. This new parish is not happening because we have not prayed long enough or hard enough or well enough, it is happening because we have been open to where God may lead us, for the sake of the Gospel.

Our prayer, in Yallambie Parish, and I am sure at St John's and St Andrew's as well, has been made because of the mission to which we have been called by Jesus, a mission to make God's love known. And our prayer has been modelled on Jesus' own prayer, 'Thy will be done.'

And we have made our response the response of Samuel, 'Speak, Lord. For your servant is listening.' We have made our response the response of Isaiah, 'Here I am. Send me.' We have made our response the response of Mary, 'Here I am, the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your word.' We have made our response the response of so many who have said 'Yes' to God.

We knew that we had a choice, in my old parish, a choice that perhaps the rest of you have faced as well. We knew that we could hang on. We could keep doing that things that we had always done. We could have lamented the way of the world in this modern age, complained about young people and their lack of commitment, their rejection of ideas like loyalty and duty, their rejection of institutions like the church. We could have longed for a return to the days when our churches were full, and Sunday Schools overcrowded and the church was respected. We could rationalised our own lack of vision and action, found excuses outside of ourselves, and have kept going as we were… but somehow we knew that would be a living death for us.

Instead we have chosen a dying life.

Not an easy life, certainly, a life which involves us in letting go of comfortable ideas, the security of well-worn patterns, and the things with which we surround ourselves in order to insulate ourselves from the claim that God has on us. We do this willingly, because that is what God has called us to do. We have accepted the challenge, to take up our cross and follow Jesus.

The second reading this evening was chosen because of the references to foolishness, on this Fool's day. It speaks of the 'foolishness' of the cross. The 'foolishness' of Jesus giving up his life, so that we, and all people, indeed, the whole world, may live.

Today the cross stands at the centre of what we do.

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