Share Our Faith

1st March – Mission March. 1st in the month. We’ve had Jesus January, followed by Faith February. And now we can safely enter into March with a new energy for Mission.

I think many of us have our thoughts on mission but the dictionary definition is: the vocation or calling of a religious organization, especially a Christian one, to go out into the world and spread its faith.

Or a bit more James Bond like: an important assignment given to a person or group of people, typically involving travel abroad.

It’s really a bit of both. When we think to Jesus calling the fisherman in the bible, He told them to be fishers of men – instead of catching fish, they were going to go and catch people and tell them the Good news. That’s both spreading faith and a pretty important assignment which may or may not involve travel.

What Good news is that I hear you say?  We have many good news stories – we only have to look at the front of the church to the families here to celebrate the good news that these wonderful children have been born and that we’re here together to say thank you to God for them. Or there’s the good news that we get a new job…..maybe in Cornwall…….maybe as a Bishop!!! OR there’s the good news that we’re going on holiday, or that we’ve passed our exams, or that you’ve got into the university you really want to go to, or that you’ve had the all clear from cancer, or there’s a new addition to the family.

Q Have you had some good news in your lives recently? Share. These good news stories are really easy to share – in fact, as Christians, it’s really good practice to be thankful every day for the good things and the blessings that happen to us.

So why is it that so many Christians find it a bit hard to share our faith which REALLY IS good news, with other people. Jesus Christ died for us so we really should step out!!! Do we join in with the first disciples to go out and proclaim the Good news that God loves us…..? People need to hear the truth and we want to hear their stories.

Q:  Well let’s share for a mo – what do you think this good news is? What’s at the heart of why we go to church? Why we get baptised and get our children baptised? Ifyou’re able to talk about him IN the church, then you cantalk about him OUTSIDE the church. People make a decision about the church based on us! Church is a part of bringing people in – our websites, notice boards, social media – we’re representing the living Lord and what its like to livelife in all its fulness. This is important. When people meet you, they meet Jesus Christ who lives in you. We should be modelling Christ. This is incarnational ministry. WE may be the only bible people read – what type of life are they reading?

We all have skills, gifts, opportunities and relationships. If we pray, something inside us will speak according to our gifting. Be yourself, don’t try to be something you’re not.

I came to faith when I was small – through going to the Baptist church over the road as lots of other children did in the 70’s so my parents could have the morning to themselves. I encountered Jesus when I was 7 – I thank my parents for their wisdom in sending me over the road. The impact followed me through my teenage years, to the time when I was 15 and made that decision to follow Jesus for my whole life (not just the bits I picked and chose) to the time when my parents themselves became Christians in our late teens… Honestly, it’s a great testimony.  My parents chose to have me and my sisters baptised because…… whilst she wasn’t a Christian, she had a strong sense that she was giving her child back to God. In her words ‘It was Strong in my mind – I was brought up to go to church. I wanted to get married in church. It was also the custom then – most people had their children baptised A woman had to be churched and her baby had to be baptised as quickly as possible – within a week or two – going back a generation.  I didn’t do it just for that. I wanted to say thank you for your lives.’

Our society isn’t like this anymore so it falls even more squarely with the parents, the godparents, the grandparents, the friends and church family to teach these children about the love that Jesus has for them. No one else is going to do this for you anymore. We all have a responsibility to raise these children in faith in Christ.

It’s not just about you or us – God is at work. We are all part of a process. We don’t have to do all the work – God’s doing it already, we just need to get on and catch up with Him.

We need to learn to be good news people – ordinary people doing good things – relationship is at the heart of missionboth in our families and outside of them. And that’s why Alpha has been so good for the church for many years as it gives us all the chance to build relationships with others outside the church and invite them in to something where they can deepen their relationship and friendship with us even further, and hopefully with Jesus himself.

Our reading from Acts is one of many examples where the early Christians were speaking about the Good News. Peter had been sent for by Cornelius the centurion who was a God-fearing man’ so Acts tells us, after he’d had a vision of an angel of God….at 3 in the afternoon. Love the timing!

Peter, who wouldn’t normally mix with gentiles, had a visitation by the angel at noon the next day telling him that no one was to be called impure or unclean any longer, so when he is sent for by Cornelius, he goes as the Lord has asked. I imagine he could have been a little hesitant – such a big ask to do something that was not part of his culture and tradition. Ordination process is long for a reason. Gives you time to grapple with the doubts and the hesitancy so you can be sure of God’s call.

Here we see 2 men who are both God fearing, both whom pray and both whom hear God’s voice and both act upon that and do what God has told them. And what are the results?they’re astounding. Peter, through this Godly manipulation of time and space, has the chance to share everything he has experienced about Christ. He talks about Jesus being the Lord of all, bringing peace, being anointed with power doing good and healing all those who were oppressed, being put to death and being raised on the third day. Peter shares his own experience of being with Jesus after the resurrection and eating with him and drinking with him. What are the experiences we’re sharing? And this small testimony hit those gentiles who were listening right between the eyes, the Holy spirit fell, they spoke in tongues, they believed and then….. they were baptised.  Just the smallest amount of faith……

What can we learn from this ourselves? We need to be prepared – pray!!! If it’s not all about us, then let’s do this thing WITH God. Goodness, the number of things we do wrong and the number of blind alleys we go down when we go marching off ahead of God, or in the wrong direction, or we don’t even go at all.

Did anyone notice the last verse in the Gospel reading?Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness. After his baptism, he spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness, preparing for the work he had to do. He spent that time preparing his heart, being tempted by the devil and with God and the Holy Spirit, overcoming these temptations and building up the inner strength to face his mission. PRAYER COMES FIRST in mission.

We’re in this period of lent now and my question for you is:

How are you preparing your hearts for the mission you have in your lives?

God didn’t open up a window from heaven and shout down ‘I love you’ He didn’t send a messenger or a colleague, He came himself in Jesus. God’s love is shown through God himself dying a horrific death on a cross. Someone had to receive justice for our sin; God himself chose to be that someone. Actions speak louder than words.  This was an act of perfect love. Jesus opened a way up for us to be reconciled to God – to be able to communicate freely with our creator. To be loved in abundance by our creator so that we can live in freedom.  And it’s because of this profound love that we can go and love others just as Jesus did. If you found this out, why wouldn’t you want to share it? How could you keep this to yourself???

We’re here to celebrate the baptism.  Baptism is about thankfulness for life – it’s about loving our children and wanting the best for them. It’s about belonging to a family and maybe even something bigger than a family. It’s about our values and morals, it’s about wanting light rather than darkness, it’s about life and hope, it’s all about Jesus and connection with the good news he came to share and it involves the whole church family to share with these children, and care for them and their family, and to share our experience and knowledge of God’s love with them.

Baptism is at the heart of our life as a church – It’s the sacrament that begins our life in Christ, signifying all that Christ has done for us in his life, death and resurrection. In baptism, God joins us to Christ and to his church, we are washed clean, given the life of the spirit and clothed in Christ.

Baptism demands our careful thought and prayer, our preparation and involvement in the new life that Christ has called us to for the rest of our lives.

Model Christ; prepare through prayer; know the good news that JC is for all; Enjoy sharing this with others.

Let us pray.