Thought for the Week

17 February 2008 – 2nd Sunday of Lent

Collect:	Almighty God, You show to those who are in error the light of your truth, that they may return to the way of righteousness: grant to all those who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s religion, that they may reject those things that are contrary to their profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who is alive and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Readings	Genesis 12, 1 – 4a
	Psalm 121
	Romans 4, 1 – 5 & 13 - 17
	John 3, 1 - 17

Today is the first service in the new Church for our Toulouse Congregation. We are richly blessed here in France, because where we have no Church buildings of our own, the Roman Catholic Church kindly allows us to borrow theirs. We are most grateful to our Roman Catholic hosts for their generosity, and for this very practical expression of the true meaning of oecumenism.

This leaves us free to concentrate on ministry in our wide-spread Chaplaincies in France. Here in Midi-Pyrénées & Aude, our total regular congregation of some 240 people is spread over an area twice the size of Wales. We could not even begin to tackle our mission to the English-speaking people of the Midi-Pyrénées region and the Département of the Aude if we were trying to support just one Church building – 240 people could not possibly support the six buildings which we currently use, let alone the nine or so that we will need over the next three to five years, as our mission and ministry develop.

As we think today about God’s call to Abram, perhaps it is timely to consider our own calling. Abram was plucked out of his “comfort zone” (though I rather doubt that he would have called it that), the land of his fathers, where he lived with his family. This search for a place in the sun seems to have been in the genes, because Terah, Abram’s father, had left his ancestral city of Ur of the Chaldees, which is part of Iraq today, to head for Canaan. But Terah only got as far as Haran, and the whole family settled there for some years. When Terah died, Abram obeyed God’s call, and set off again. Even then, the journey was by no means straight forward, and to escape a famine, Abram and his people spent some time in Egypt. As Moses, and Jesus both would later on, so Abram came out of Egypt to Canaan, to the Holy Land.

The congregation in Toulouse has also been plucked out of its comfort zone, and sent to a new place. However, unlike for Abram, Moses and Jesus, we do not have to go via Egypt, nor are we required to wander for long in the wilderness – just four kilometres round the Rocade! Nevertheless, we had got used to Sainte Marguerite’s, and we are most grateful to the congregation there for being such kind and forebearing hosts for so many years.

Will Notre Dame de l’Assomption be a land flowing with milk and honey? I don’t know. Certainly the existing people of the land, père Jean-Christophe Cabanis and the people of Minimes Parish, could not have been more welcoming. Certainly, the new Church building seems to offer advantages even over S. Mag’s. Certainly it is in a better location from the point of view of access via public transport (it is very close to Barrière de Paris Metro station on ligne ‘B’) and for those who have cars, the parking is just as good as at S. Mag’s.

Originally the promise to Abram did not include anything about a promised Land. In our reading today, God tells Abram “go to the land which I will show you”. It is only three chapters* later that God’s covenant with Abram includes the gift of the Promised Land, not to Abram himself, but to his descendants. Originally, the promise is just that God will make of Abram a great nation. Indeed the very name Abram means “Great Father”.

What kind of a nation did God have in mind? Well, many of the peoples of the Middle East, including the Jews, the Samaritans and the Arabs, all understand themselves to be descended from Abram. But perhaps there is more to it than this. All Jews, Christians and Muslims regard Abram as our spiritual ancestor, and together we of these three Abrahamic faiths make up 55% of the population of the world. The people who are actually physically descended from Abram, on the other hand, even at the most generous definition, make up less than one percent of the population of the world.

The point is that our inheritance is spiritual, not physical. Nicodemus in our Gospel reading today gets all confused about this. We must not be too hard on him, because his whole training and reason for being were about interpreting the Law of Moses in the most exact way possible. Quite literally, Nicodemus could not see the wood for the trees. As the Duke of Wellington said, “get the big maps out”. Look up Nicodemus, look around you, and see this whole beautiful creation which God has given us all, and in which our salvation takes place.

Christians are not only creatures of the flesh, but also, and more importantly, creatures of the spirit too. We do not have an abiding home here on earth – we only get 70 or 80 years here, or a little longer if we are healthy. No, our abiding home is in heaven, where we will be with the Lord for ever. Like Abram, and Moses and Jesus, we are on a journey. We are not static, nor have we arrived. Our journey continues from here right into the Kingdom of Heaven. Yes, there may well be pleasant resting places on the route, but not for nothing were Christians first called “the people of the way”. We are creatures of the Spirit, and people on a journey.

So can get there on our own? No more than can the Jews achieve salvation by obeying the Law of Moses. Of course it is possible to pray on your own. It is possible to read God’s word on your own (though you will certainly need help to study it). It is possible to give alms, and to serve God’s other children on your own. It is even possible to spread the Gospel on your own – though you need someone to spread it to! We Christians are creatures of the Spirit, people of the way, we are pray-ers, we are readers of God’s word, we are alms-givers, and servants, and preachers.

In all these things it is possible to work alone, though perhaps not very efficient. All these things of course are good, and important parts of the Christian life. But there is one other thing we need to do, and that is to worship, for Christians are perhaps above all worshippers.

And the one thing we cannot do on our own is to worship God. To do that, we need one another. We must gather together, and that is when we become God’s Church in the place He has called us to.

So what makes us a Church is not a building, but the people whom God calls week by week to gather together and worship Him. Of course we are genuinely grateful to our Roman Catholic hosts for letting us use their buildings, and without their generosity our mission and ministry would be severely limited. But our Father in heaven knows that we have need of these things, and just as He has called us to his service, so He will give us the resources to fulfil that calling.

God bless you, as like Abram, you set out from your comfort zone, to seek and serve God wherever He may be found.

Amen.

*Genesis 15, 18

Father Charles Howard: Anglican Chaplaincy of Midi-Pyrénées & Aude

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