If any one told me, three years ago, that I would be standing here in the pulpit of All Saints today, I simply would not have believed them! In fact, since ordination, it feels as if my feet haven’t touched the ground and I sometimes have to stop and pinch myself so I am convinced that it is all real!
Less than a month ago I was still finishing my ministerial training and struggling with essay deadlines, and only three weeks ago I was being ordained deacon in St Paul’s. And today, here I am standing in front of you, preaching my first sermon.
The first thing I want to say is a big thank you. Thank you to everyone for being so welcoming and for being so warm and friendly. As me and my family come to join this community it means an awful lot that we are greeted with so much love. So thank you.
And for me it is a real delight to be here……
…. to begin to be part of such a lively and active church and to be here, beginning to be part of this community in Poplar.
And as always, with God, it has been a rather strange, unsettling and wonderful journey.
How did I get here!??
Well nearly 15 years ago I wondered if God was calling me to ordained ministry, but to be honest, I didn’t want to know and I walked away in the opposite direction. I was living in Manchester at the time, but shortly after, I moved to London and made myself very busy working hard; hard at work and hard at not thinking about ordained ministry!
I worked in social housing, and in fact did that kind of work for over 20 years before I started my theological training….. and I realise now that it was precisely that work and precisely where I ultimately did that work, that was one of the factors that allowed me to respond to God.
As some of you will know, the last place I worked before I gave up my job in housing to do my training was Poplar! And it was on the streets of Poplar; in Chrisp Street market, visiting people in Balfron Tower, walking around the Aberfeldy, getting to know the Lansbury and Teviot estates-that I begun to work out my own sense of calling. I think it was something about the privilege of being able to visit people in their own homes and begin to learn a little of their lives and stories that finally drew me to ordained ministry…I found myself imagining knocking on peoples doors to bring them home communion or to tell them about what was happening at church.
So working in Poplar, getting to know a little of its people and its places helped me respond to God’s call.
Of course at that time I did not imagine, even in my wildest dreams, that it would be Poplar where I would do my curacy!
But I am beginning to learn that God really is a God of surprises, and that in following him we really cannot predict where he will lead us. And the more we try and control the situation, the more God is likely to surprise us!
The other thing that enabled me to acknowledge God’s call was having my second son.
I had both my children relatively late in life…well I was over 35 …and having always wanted children and being blessed with two healthy boys, somehow opened me up to really acknowledge God’s goodness and to begin to say a tentative ‘yes’ to the sense I had of being called to ordained ministry…and to realise that the timing was, after all, God’s timing…
And this relates very much to the prayer we said as our collect today
‘Merciful God you have prepared for those who love you such good things that pass our understanding’
As I look back, I can see how God has been at work, and how God, in his goodness has brought me to this place…
And I am sure that this is true for very many of us…. situations which may have seemed unpromising or hard, or just confusing, can turn out to be points of great blessing and of our being able to acknowledge God’s abundance and God’s love.
And Paul, in the passage we heard from his letter to the Ephesians today has something pretty amazing to say about how God, in his goodness, works through Christ. I think sometimes we can miss the enormity of what is being said in our Bible readings, and I know I had to read it a few times before what Paul is saying really began to sink in. Paul writes these amazing words:
‘You are no longer strangers and aliens, but citizens with the saintsand also members of the household of God, built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets with Christ himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple for the Lord; in whom you are also built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God’
Through Christ we are no longer strangers. Our knowledge of Jesus binds us together. That does not mean that we do not need to take time to get to know each other, but through Christ we are part of God’s household, we are no longer strangers to God or to each other. And when we acknowledge that then we can also acknowledge the equally wonderful fact that we are the dwelling place of God.
And that is a great privilege and also a great responsibility.
Paul did not write to individuals but to a community, to the church in Ephesus. Jesus did not call one apostle or one disciple but a group of apostles a group of disciples, a community of apostles and disciples who built community with him.
And that is precisely what God is doing here in Poplar. God calls us out from ourselves, away from what is comfortable, out from our inward looking, individual lives - to build community. We are called to be Christ’s body. We are called to be the dwelling place of God.
And we do not chose who we build community with. That is one of the wonderful and also challenging things about being church. This is not a closed shop. All are welcome. We cannot just choose people who are like us…in fact we cannot chose at all.
We have all been given to each other. We have been given one another to love and to reflect the glory of God ……together.
And that includes the people who we do not always like very much, the people who we find hard, or who push our buttons. By being community with those that we might not choose we rub alongside each other, and hopefully smooth the rough edges a little so more and more we can be seen as the dwelling place of God.
And I am very aware that you did not choose me! I have been given to you, and you have been given to me!
None of us had much choice in the matter and now we are on a journey together.
I have journeyed here with my family and I am joining you on your journey…and by travelling together we will change each other.
We are all on a pilgrimage as we grow in Christ. For some of us that will involve a physical move, as it does for us as we move over here this week, or it may involve staying in the same place but journeying with God and each other spiritually. But whichever way we journey it will involve taking risks and it does promise great rewards.
So as I stand here, I am asking for your forbearance as we settle into our new home, and for your patience as I try to remember people’s names and undoubtedly make a whole catalogue of mistakes…
But most importantly I ask for your prayers, for me and my family, as we learn to build community with you and to be the body of Christ with you.
And I can promise you the assurance of my prayers for all of you too.
So it seems fitting that I end with a prayer.
God of our pilgrimage
You have led us to the living water:
Refresh and sustain us
As we go forward on our journey,
In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord
