Parish of St Britius, Brize Norton & St John 
the Evangelist, Carterton

The Communities of Brize Norton and Carterton

Readings and Sermons

• themes for June & July 2003

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Living a Christian Life Style

The following is based on Andrew Tweedy's sermon on Sunday, 15 June 2003

Introduction

Andrew Tweedy explained that the normal liturgy was being replaced by the series of sermons based a series of  themes related to the Christian Life Style.  Roger Billings and Andrew Tweedy wish to explore  practical Christianity. They have been asking themselves "how well do our Sunday services equip our congregations for the other 6 days of the week?"  

What relevance does what you hear and say and do on a Sunday morning have when it gets to 11am on a Monday and you are in the midst of the muck and bullets of farm or factory, college or clinic, office or kitchen?  Is your Christian faith informing your decisions in the boardroom and the bedroom, at the ballot box and as you complete your tax return?  In a recent survey of members of all church denominations, 47% said that the teaching and preaching they receive in church is irrelevant to their daily lives and it was least relevant where people spend most of their time - at home and at work.

Our gospel reading, Matthew 7.24-29, reminds us that it is those who hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice who are like a wise man who built his house on a rock.  The people who are like the foolish man whose house had no foundations are NOT those who never come to church, never hear the words of Jesus - the foolish are those who hear the words of Jesus and do not put them into practice. 

As licensed leaders and teachers we are responsible for putting the message across in a way that helps you to put it into practice.  We will be failing you and our communities badly if our teaching is merely theoretical and remote from daily life. In a sense we are the most poorly equipped people for the task, as we spend more time than most of you in the slightly surreal and cosseted world of Anglicanism and correspondingly less time than most of you in the real world, meeting people in twenty-first century rather than sixteenth century clothing and with 21st century concerns and interests.  You will have more opportunities than we will to encounter and serve and challenge those of other faiths or none - we must use our Bible study and our prayer time to ensure we do our best to equip you to use those contacts well, for there sake and for yours.

Pergamum’s Problems

Andrew explained the background to the reading from Revelations, part of a letter dictated to St John by the risen Jesus while the Apostle was in exile on the island of Patmos to the church at Pergamum and we need to interpret it in its own context before drawing lessons for today.

Jesus introduces himself as the one who has a two edged sword, i.e. he is emphasising his role as judge in the words he has to say to this particular church.  First he commends them for not denying their faith even when one of their number, Antipas, was martyred.  It certainly required courage to keep the faith in these circumstances and Jesus commended the church in Pergamum for this courage.  Nevertheless he had a few complaints concerning their tolerance of certain false teachers relating to  idolatry and immorality.  Paul saw the dangers of compromise with worldly values and emphasised that christians must not conform but be transformed. This same problem of compromise seems to be the trap which the Pergamese church was in danger of falling into. Jesus therefore called them to repent - to make a complete change of direction and, with God’s help to conquer the temptations of the world.

Let us try to bring these observations into practical Christianity; at one level we only need to be aware of the clear similarities between the environment and challenges facing the church in Pergamum and those faced by the church in England today. Worship of the emperor has been replaced by the idols of materialism which subtly but insistently seduce us to believe that we can worship them and belong to God. But Jesus said we cannot serve two masters. 

The way we fall into the trap is very much like what seems to have happened in Pergamum. That is to divide our lives into two compartments, the religious and the secular. The religious duty can be confined to an hour or so on a Sunday, behind closed doors.  Outside of that hour and those doors, having done our duty we can simply blend in with everyone else, our faith stored away so as not to be inconvenient, until it comes out again next Sunday. The pressures to conform in this way are very great and should not be underestimated.

Repentance

Jesus calls us to repent, as he called the church in Pergamum to repent.  Repentance is the first and most important step in living a holistic Christian lifestyle, a life with the potential to please God and touch others, a life which is not divided into separate religious and secular portions.

Help us to help you live a Christian lifestyle.  We need to help you become “living signposts” and “good companions”.