A sermon given by the Revd Jan Kearton
"Homecomings and Challenges"
It’s been quite a week! As you’ll know from the Vicar’s dairy on the pew sheet I’ve been spending chunks of time with 3Med regiment and their families. We’ve been praying in our churches each week for the regiment - those in theatre, for the Rear Party and for the families and I’m very glad to tell you this morning that, as of yesterday afternoon, all those who deployed from 3Med are now safely home.
Homecoming is a profound experience. I’ve found it an immense privilege to be part of the deep joy that’s sprung up from the soldiers, their families and colleagues. It didn’t matter how cold and damp the afternoon was, or how dark and bitterly cold the wind was at three o’clock in the morning, each time an immense warmth of joy and celebration filled the space where we’d gathered to wait. Then came the great moment when the buses and coaches came into sight. Doors opened and families ran to meet their loved ones, soldiers ran to hug their children and colleagues hung back, anxious not to crowd the families, their faces wreathed in smiles. The overwhelming emotion was one of thanksgiving. Over and over again the words tumbled out ‘thank God’. It’s heady stuff as many in this congregation will have cause to remember. Today’s psalm reflects another outpouring of joy and blessing.
Army life challenges soldiers and their families many times to face their deepest fears and to overcome them. Whilst it’s true that the strain of that can sometimes break soldiers and families most people experience personal growth, discover of new strength and balance and increased confidence, and many discover the truly amazing power of common sense! Regrettably, there’s nothing new about suffering, fear and death - they’ve been constant features of our human existence in all times and places. Each of us will have had or might expect to have times when life is so challenging and fear so great that we don’t know if we will be able to cope. I want to think this morning about how we can endure challenge and suffering and live successfully with our human knowledge that someday we will die.
In his own time, the prophet Joel stares at the destruction that repeated plagues of locusts and invading armies from neighbouring countries have caused and sees he his society on the verge of collapse. Panic and fear have set in and the people have lost sight of God. In the midst the threat and chaos Joel draws deeply on his faith, on what he knows about God and expects from God. And he sees cause for hope. He dares to declare the Day of the Lord – a day when God will deliver his people. God for Joel is the one who underpins and guarantees existence and he experiences God as the one who works ceaselessly to renew and restore and to protect. He knows that God’s desire is always to bless abundantly. Joel’s able to endure because he trusts God and can draw on God’s strength. He believes God’s promises and they lift him from fear and free him to hope for new and good things.
Paul is in prison, facing his own imminent death, so for him the challenge is ultimate. He looks back on his life of faith and sees it as a journey, a call from God to be deeply involved in God’s work in the world. In everything that he’s endured – and there’s been plenty of stress and physical threat in Paul’s life - he’s been conscious of God’s presence with him, strengthening him, equipping him to continue.
It doesn’t occur to Paul to blame God either for his suffering or because his life is ending, and he doesn’t think that God should have protected him from them. He’s not angry in the face of death or threatened by it. Instead, he finds meaning in his suffering. He knew that it isn’t easy to do God’s work – Jesus’ life showed him that – but he holds onto hope and joy, expecting that his journey will bring him safely home to God. Paul’s endurance and his confidence come from a life lived closely with God in the pattern of Jesus. Paul’s wasn’t a perfect life free from mistakes, but it was a faithful life of listening, learning and following that kept him on the path to God. Paul’s life should inspire us to meet challenge and suffering without blaming God for them, and to meet our own death in trust and faith that we are God’s children, forgiven and loved without limit and freed by God of the fear of condemnation.
Some people are afraid of ultimate questions and some are overconfident in the face of them. Jesus told a story about a religious leader who was overconfident. This Pharisee compared himself with others whom he despised and, blind to his own faults, had the temerity to direct God to find him blameless. In sharp contrast, the tax collector knew his own shortcomings and threw himself on God’s mercy. Jesus warns us to be humble before God, self-aware, more concerned about our own shortcomings than those of others. Each of us responds differently to the things that life throws at us and we all need forgiveness. There will be times when, like the tax collector, we feel that we haven’t met challenges well, could have done better and feel pretty wretched. God encourages us to deal with our feelings, confess them to him and then to be ready and willing to receive his mercy, the salve of his forgiveness.
So Joel showed us how important it is in hard times to remember God’s faithfulness and to let that remembering change and shape our expectations so that we dare to hope again. Paul showed us that because of our human condition and our calling to share God’s work there will inevitably be challenge, suffering and perhaps even death. From Paul we learn to hold onto the help, support, comfort and guidance that God gives and to face death secure in the promise of eternal life. Jesus showed us that if we are right with God in humility, we’re ready to come home to God at any time in life or in death.
3Med made careful preparations for their homecomings and, because of that, families could be thankful, glad and joyful. God encourages all of us to make preparation for our homecoming to him, following the pattern that we find in Jesus. May he richly bless all who serve in our Garrison and their families, and may he bless us too as we journey on towards our home with him. AMEN.