Gathering Stones

Sermon by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
Readings: Malachi 4:1-2a, 2Thessalonians 3:6-13, Luke 21:5-19

Recently, there have been some appealing coincidences. This week marks a year since I began here at St Margaret’s. By coincidence, tomorrow the PCC will vote on whether to upgrade me from priest-in-charge to vicar, or whether to advertise for someone new. Please speak to a churchwarden if you have strong opinions. In another coincidence, our Old Testament lesson today is the basis for the collect of the Parachute Regiment, where I served shortly before arriving here. It’s one of those odd army/church connections that every regiment has a collect, a prayer, and it just so happens that the PARAs, who love all references to ‘wings’, chose that line: that the ‘sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings’ to build their prayer around.

And this week gone I was making preparations for a talk at the Wandsworth deanery meeting this Tuesday on the theology of mission. I wanted to use some quotations from my phd thesis only to find I’d lost it. I’ve lent all 3 hard copies to people and not had any of them back –I can’t remember who either – And with various computer shenanigans no longer have it electronically. Fortunately, I had an old hard drive from 2007; and here is a salutary lesson. Like many people I have a box of wires. Kept in the roof. I don’t know what they connect to, But they have been carefully accrued throughout the years. One member of our family is very keen that they be gotten rid of. It’s not Zz. But by the grace of God I still have them and was able to connect this antique hard drive to my computer and recover my thesis. So be careful when throwing out wires. But at the same time I found lots of old files including the first sermon I ever gave in 2005 in Exeter University chapel.

I know what you’re thinking. That’s 14 years ago. He must have been a mere slip of a boy, listening to S Club 7 and playing football in the street in short trousers – what was he doing giving a sermon? But God does call some very young. Just think of the prophet Samuel and Daniel Radcliffe.

 And again, in an odd coincidence, that first sermon was written for this Sunday, the 2nd before Advent. I remember feeling overwhelmed with nerves at the thought of expounding the Word of God for the first time. Taking up the apocalyptic theme, I talked about the Millennium and Twin Towers – Still in the early noughties a turning-point for reflection. On an aside, it’s shocking to me that someone celebrating their 18th birthday today was born after that event which had such a far-reaching impact on the world. I suppose that today’s children will feel about it the way my generation felt when people talked about ‘where were you when John Lennon or JFK was shot?’ But at the time it still came immediately to mind at a Gospel like today’s: ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’

 Jesus is referring here to the Temple, newly finished, the pride of the Jewish people. Forty years later it would be thrown down and all that was left is the Western Wall, sometimes called the ‘Wailing Wall’. He is speaking also of all the works of our hands. And, as with any reference to the Temple, he is speaking of his own body. But the over-riding theme, prevalent throughout Jesus’ teaching, is that a time of destruction is at hand. A hard-rain is coming. The zombie-apocalypse is nearly upon us.

 Now, I had several reasons for leaving the army, the most insistent having the same voice as the one trying to throw out my boxes of wires. But vocationally I had an increasing sense of a call to build something.

 In chaplaincy you’re always doing patch work. 18 month postings. Your work is all personal with the men and women who cross your path, trying to help them on their way morally, spiritually and pastorally. Trying to curb the enthusiasm of soldiers a little. Sometimes I had to address the system or culture, where I found racism, neglect or over-efficiency. But moving so quickly, and with long periods away, there was no chance to build, to see a congregation develop, to gather a community. 

But here, we are building something. Churches measure time not in years but in decades and centuries. I’m not about to take down the board at the back on the left and pretend I’m the first incumbent. But I think in this last year we’ve begun an exciting new moment in the life of St Margaret’s.It certainly is for me and Oberon. It’s more than the building – though that has been consuming a lot of time and money; and it’s more than the gardens which now demand our attention. But the community, the events, the shelter and hospitality we offer, the music, children’s activities, getting more people passing through church and more people in church. 

We are not, as individuals, as families, as a community, just coming together each week. We are building something. Some of it may not seem immediately relevant to faith, to church. But it is. Because what we are building is the kingdom of God. And its borders are wider than at present we know.

There’s a lot of change at the moment. There has been in Putney, in the churches here. There is in the nation. This is a time to build.

 Our Gospel today, though, is concerned with the throwing down of stones. As Ecclesiastes says: There is a time to gather stones together; and a time to throw away stones. This should be a reminder of our limitations; our finitude; this mortal coil we have not yet shuffled off.

To begin with we must acknowledge that when we come together as a church, when we put things on, when we work together to get things done we are engaging in mission. But it’s not our mission. It’s not the church’s mission. It’s God’s mission. We come together as a church to participate in God’s mission. Mission comes from the word Missa – meaning ‘sent’. The church is sent by God. We will accomplish nothing if it’s not a participation in God.

And for all our power, our efforts of persuasion, our wealth, our energy; eventually we will be left with not one stone upon another. Yes now, our friends may be saying ‘what beautiful stones, and gifts dedicated to God’ But we will all face our own apocalypse. We will not know the time. And it will not be just.  In the end we will have to let go of the work of building, and see again the stones scattered. 

This may seem quite a dark message for today. But it’s also liberating. There are always hot-headed people who talk about crises and revivals. ‘Do not go after them’. The kingdom of God flows on like the ebb and flow of the sea. It will outlast us. But it’s our joy and pleasure to have this moment of participation. When the kingdom of God is at hand and we can be part of it. And when our day arrives burning like an oven and we are left with neither root nor branch, we will remember this work and our part in it, and see the sun of righteousness rise with healing in its wings. 

This week finishes with a chance for us on Saturday to look forward to the next phase in the life of St Margaret’s. It marks the end of my first year with you; last night’s Messiah, for those who came, was quite an inspirational moment. And tonight’s opening of our doors to guests for food and shelter creates a new opportunity of Christian service and connection with the wider community. And it has been overwhelming the generosity and compassion we have seen step forward for this project, from the church and the wider community. It is a time to gather stones together; a time to build. It’s a time to be excited about what we can achieve here together; as a Christian presence in Putney.

And while the future is full of uncertainty, and doubtless the prophets of doom will be haranguing us for some time about the various apocalypse that await our every decision; It’s a time to have faith; to gather stones, to see the arrogant and evil turn to stubble; and to believe that we will see the sun rise with healing in its wings. Amen.