The Gift of Joy – “Come and see”

Sermon, Bath Abbey 15-3-20
Readings: Romans 5: 1-11 and John 4: 1-42

Text:  Today we talk about the gift of joy. Guy, on the vision evening, give this invitation; “come and see”. There is so much joy, through generations.   Imagine the men at the end of the gospel reading, saying “we believe because we have heard for ourselves”.

Last Friday, I took communion here at 8.30am. This is a good service, in the working week, alongside those working here. Three things happened:

1. I included the workmen in my prayers. We could sense times of quiet in their work. Was God moving? It’s a good mystery!
2. During communion there was a man kneeling at the back of the Abbey. I saved some bread for him. I looked up but he had gone. We prayed for him.
3. During the find blessing, at 4 minutes past 9. The first tourist / visitors arrived. I included them, and many of them crossed themselves.

So last Friday we had a good experience of Christian joy.

Today I want to look at:

• The experience of joy
• The passage in Romans
• Our application. How do we respond? We can’t help but respond!

Our experience of joy

First, all of us will have some type of daily routine of prayer. However brief, it will become important, as part of our day. I do Morning Prayer (Common Worship). In the Lent service it says: ‘As we rejoice in the gift of your saving help, sustain us with your bountiful spirit’. ‘Blessed be God forever’, we respond.

Second, we all have those moments when we get the ‘tingle factor’. For example the moment in a special place, often a church, when we sense the presence of God. These occur through the Holy Spirit. Then there’s other times when somebody, even a stranger, says a comment which becomes part of our train of thought. Those people are overflowing with the Holy Spirit. This happened to me 10 days ago during Stephen Girling’s Lent course. I had arrived with an issue on my mind that could have threatened to dominate my emotions over the next few days. Stephen told a story about advice given to him by his spiritual mentor on something he was thinking about. The advice was ‘Let it go’. Those three words spoke directly and powerfully to me and gave me peace of mind about my issue. Stephen did not know, He was ‘overflowing with hope by the Holy Spirit’.

Third, there is the testimony of others: powerful, life-changing stories giving such joy. It’s so good. Like Peter and John in the early part of Acts, saying to the Sanhedrin, that “we can’t help but tell” (Acts 4-29). They were overflowing with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The passage in Romans

This is a start of a great section in the book of Romans. Chapters 5-8 talk about the hope that we have through faith. Chapter 8 ends with the great statement; “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus name” (Romans 8:39). This opening section in chapter 5 is all about hope. It starts with Paul’s great word ‘therefore’. Look at key words in the first five verses: peace, grace, rejoice, hope and sufferings. And then the train of thought: that sufferings produce endurance, and endurance character, and character, hope. And this hope does not disappoint. Tom Wright, New Testament theologian, describes it as the reconciliation to end all reconciliations. Recall a time when you made up with a friend, perhaps after a disagreement or hurt.  Something had been on your mind and it festers, distracting you until you make up. When you reunite after a falling out, there is a warm glow of joy, a sigh of relief and the development of new understanding. What Paul is describing here is so, so much more. Because here, we have peace with God. That is true joy.

One of the phrases that I use in pastoral care - ‘the certainty of hope in the mystery of God’ - is a deep and profound thing. Working alongside dying patients in the hospice, I found that there were very few convinced atheists when the chips were down. We talk about the mystery of God. Mystery?  Yes, certainly. Our faith is described in the ‘certainty of hope’. It is an extraordinary thing that the creator of the world, creator of our universe, a God outside time, does still love us personally.

Our Application

As we have heard, like Peter and John, we ‘can’t help but tell’. We are enlisted for His service; we overflow with hope. We have the right to approach God’s grace. Which is his presence and power.  It is as if we can breathe it in - this is mind blowing and glorious. We see that God sent his Son. He didn’t say to us ‘I can see you’re in trouble, I will send someone else’! This is amazing grace.

So, here are some thoughts.

Read Romans 15:13. ‘May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.’ We can make this our personal prayer.

The vision of Bath Abbey is ‘living and telling the good news of Jesus with the City of Bath and its visitors’. City of Bath? Yes, the Abbey is the Parish Church. Visitors? Yes, the Abbey is the Christian landmark at the heart of this heritage city.

And the Abbey will do this through:

1. Thanksgiving-prayer
2. Telling - tours
3. Teaching – lectures, theology for all age groups
4. Tending – care
5. Transforming – city mission
6. Treasuring – finance

This is all outlined in the mission action plan, which you should have seen.

So how we can we respond? I would like to leave you with three thoughts:

1. Offer your talents. Offering talents will include the gift of time; beware thinking of the clergy as ‘lone ranger priests. The belief that the priest can do it all is old fashioned: we can’t. We will blow up. You have all got many talents. Offer them. We become a team. We become channels of the Holy Spirit and this brings joy to others.
2. A joyful generosity includes financial support. The title of this talk is the Gift of Joy; this can become the joy of giving. We have a joyful generosity when God pours his love into our hearts.
3. This gift also involves time and is crucially important. Prayer makes things happen, we become close to God and we can plan purposefully. Just as others overflow with hope and the Holy Spirit touches our hearts (often without that person knowing), so we too can overflow with hope enabling the spirit to reach others (often without us knowing). That gives joy.

Has God been speaking to you? Please offer your talents.

Nigel Rawlinson

University Chaplain

17-03-20