Sermon: Believing Inspite of the Evidence

It was on a bright Saturday morning in April, that I first stepped into the newly opened Credit Union, at The Nook shopping centre in South Shields. I paused to inhale the smell of newly painted woodwork, I ran my hand along the freshly polished counter and I admired the smart blue notice boards that displayed leaflets advising people on how to manage their debt.

For the people who were walking by, it was just another shop offering another service, and they had no idea of the story that lay behind it, of committed Christians who for years had given of their time, money, gifts and skills to build up a customer base sufficiently large, that they could finally move away from the church halls where they had been based, and out onto the main High Street. As it happened the shop they had bought was right next door to the local pawnbrokers and Marie (who was serving behind the counter) told me that if she had a dream, it was that one day the presence of their credit union would mean that the pawnbrokers were put out of business.

It was a windy Saturday morning in May. I was in Hartlepool and the smell of sausages and bacon frying for breakfast was wafting out of the church hall door, enticing unemployed and homeless young people in, for some warmth and friendship. That simple gesture was clearly meeting a real need because there were about 20 people sitting around tables, chatting, making jokes and telling stories.

It had taken six months before the people who now regularly attended the breakfast club had felt confident enough to step over the threshold, but the church members patience and persistence had paid off, and meeting up with your mates on a Saturday was now one of the few fixed points in a week, that otherwise, lacked any sense of structure or focus.

It was a dull Saturday morning in Weardale, and the post had just arrived. The farmer bent down and picked up his letters from the floor, he looked at the envelopes with anxiety etched across his face, there was a letter from the bank and another one from DEFRA, what restrictions would the government be imposing on his livestock this week? And had the bank manager agreed to the overdraft that had been negotiated only the week before? These were the things that were keeping him awake in the early hours of the morning, but in amongst the ominous looking envelopes was another one that looked altogether friendlier, it was a card from the local parish church and it said

"We wanted to let you know that we are thinking of you at this difficult time. Please get in touch if it would help to talk. We will be setting aside an area of our church as a focus for prayers until the situation eases, and there is a place where cards and messages can be left. A candle will be lit at every service to symbolise our continuing prayer until all restrictions are lifted."

The farmer put the card on his mantelpiece and could feel the muscles in his face relaxing.

When Ian Jagger invited me to preach here this morning he asked me to give you some pictures or stories of what mission looks like in the world of Social Responsibility, here in the diocese of Durham.

It is such a vast and multi faceted world that I was spoilt for choice....would I talk to you about the logistics involved in helping asylum seekers move into their accommodation in Houghton-le-Spring, would I tell you about a survey of church halls in South Tyneside that led to a seat on our Local Strategic Partnership.

I'd love to have told you the one about carrying a 6ft banana on my back down my local High Street and the comments it provoked! and that's to say nothing of the hours I've spent carrying placards on marches in Durham, Newcastle, Edinburgh and London...but in the end I settled for the three pen portraits that I have just given you.

If there is one thing I hope my stories have conveyed, it is that mission in the world of social responsibility is all about doing something practical so that others can see the difference that our faith makes to their lives.

Or, if you would like to hear that basic instinct to help, expressed according to the Anglican Consultative Council's 5 marks of mission, it's all about:

"Responding to human need by loving service

Seeking to transform unjust structures in society

Striving to safeguard the integrity of creation; sustaining and renewing the earth"

So what is it that makes people do mission the social responsibility way?

Well if I can speak personally for a moment I do it because that is what Jesus told me to do!

From the moment Jesus appeared on the scene he was announcing a faith manifesto that was based on action.

"I‘ve come to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free" Jesus says in Luke chapter 4, and in case we think he's talking metaphorically he actually makes the blind man see in John chapter 9 - and it's that that gets people talking, not a seminar on what it means to see with the eyes of faith!

In Matthew 25 Jesus tells us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and prisoners, and speak to strangers, and Jesus in doing all of these things is following in the footsteps of people like Nehemiah who have identified what the problem is - in his case, extortionate interest, and decide to do something about it, that is, get it cancelled.

Mission in the world of social responsibility is all about action because our faith tells us that it is in responding, and not in mere thinking, or even in believing as such, that we are related to the divine.

When I was in my twenties I was as passionate about the social justice agenda as I am today, and I was often dismissed as having the naïve optimism of youth. In those days I was campaigning for an end to apartheid, for re-cycled paper to be used in the office, and I was drinking campaign coffee.

Hope (says the christian activist Jim Wallis) is believing in spite of the evidence, and then watching the evidence change. How right you are I thought, as I watched Nelson Mandela freed from prison, the building of re-cycling villages across the country, and record sales of Fairtrade products.

But doing mission the social responsibility way is also risky, and dangerous and it takes you into unchartered territory.

Doing mission the social responsibility way opens you up to the pain and the despair of the world, and makes you want to do something about it.

And doing mission the social responsibility way means that you will inevitably face conflict and anger as you challenge the power base and agenda of those who think they have all the answers.

Sometimes, because of these things, the calling to put our faith into action can seem like a curse, but more often than not it feels like a blessing which is what I want to leave you with now...

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you will live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that you will work for justice, equity and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them, and change their pain to joy.

May God bless you with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in the world, so that you will do those things which others tell you cannot be done.

AMEN