Sand filled Sandwiches We owe a lot, in British culture, to John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792), who was the inventor of the great British classic, the humble sandwich. In recent weeks, we have seen Marks and Spencers launch there summer special, a Strawberries and Cream Sandwich, which rather amusingly led to an argument over VAT, most sandwiches are zero rated for VAT, but sweetened or confectionary items are liable for the standard 20% VAT. Whether it was a savoury or a sweet treat, is arguable, but one fact remains, more than 200 years after his death, sandwiches remain a very popular choice at lunch time. As I child, I thought I knew exactly why sandwiches were called sandwiches, and it had nothing to do with the 4th Earl of Sandwich, it was simply because having eaten sandwiches on a day trip to the seaside, the sandwich ended up fully seasoned with gritty sand. I assumed they had been named after one such similar outing. It was years later that I would discover that Sandwich is actually a place in Kent, and who ‘invented’ the sandwich. Over the coming month, many of us, will hopefully have the opportunity to go to the beach and maybe even eat our sand filled sandwiches. Not only does the sand go in our food when we are at the beach, but it has the amazing ability of getting just about everywhere, falling out of shoes and socks for days after, a lasting memory of a trip to the seaside. It would of course be impossible for us to count the grains of sand in a single handful when we go to the beach, let alone consider how many grains of sand there might be on the beach or on all the beaches in the world. But God promised Abraham in the book of Genesis that his descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told. (Gen 22:17) So when you are next at the beach, why not take a closer look at the sand, and as it runs through your fingers, think about that promise God made to Abraham, and remember that we are those descendants, each one of us, even though numerous, precious and beloved by God. May God bless you, Heather
Luke 12:32-40Genesis 15: 1-6Hebrews 11: 1-3; 8-16May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. AmenThe readings for today focus on 3 main themes: faithfulness, preparedness and vocation. How steadfast and committed are we in our faith? How prepared are we to act when God calls us and how do our responses to these questions lead to our vocation and our actions towards others?Hebrews 11 states that ‘Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see’. As Christians, we are expected to believe in and worship God, to follow His commands and to be devoted and obedient to His word. Many people, when contemplating whether to pursue a religion, talk about taking a leap of faith: believing in or accepting something not on the basis of reason. It involves trusting or committing to something based on belief rather than relying solely on logic or proof. I wonder if I could ask you to reflect on your own faith journey for a moment. When did faith become an important part of your life? Maybe you were raised within a Christian family and church attendance and prayer were a part of your day to day life. Maybe your faith came to you later on, in adulthood, when you were perhaps seeking greater meaning and depth to your life. Maybe God came to you in a moment of crisis, when you desperately needed His assuring love and mercy. Maybe you are still at the beginning of your journey of faith, have questions and are still searching. Wherever we find ourselves, today’s readings should be of great comfort and assurance to us all. Our old testament reading depicts Abram’s vision and the moment when God promises him great reward for his continued faith. Abram was one of the few who truly followed God; most people at the time worshipping multiple gods. Abram was the exception to this, being faithful to the one true God. God had already instructed Abram to leave his native country, and his relatives, and to go to a land that he would be shown. Abram faithfully departs his native country, not knowing where he is going but trusting in God’s provision. In our reading today, God comes to Abram in a vision, promising His protection and reward. Despite his faith, Abram does not understand how God could reward him, given that he has no heir to inherit any material reward. God assures him that he will have an heir and that his descendants will be numerous. God’s reward to Abraham was greater than he could ever have imagined. Despite he and his wife Sarah being old, God promises him a son and that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars. Although this must have seemed highly improbable, we read that ‘Abram believed the Lord’ and that ‘the Lord counted Him as righteous because of his faith’. Abram did not know the exact outcome of his decision, but trusted that God had called him to make the right choice. He had taken a leap of faith. God’s promise to Abram goes on to describe events that will happen beyond Abram’s lifetime and that would play out in the establishment of the nation of Israel and the subsequent exodus from and return to the promised land.So what does this mean for us? How can we live a faithful life and what is God’s promise to us?Our gospel reading today starts with the comforting reassurance that we should not be afraid. Like Abram, Christ has told us that we should not worry, that He will provide for us and that we need not concern ourselves with worldly or material worries. We are told that it gives the Father great happiness to give us the kingdom. This is a reminder to us that God wants to reward us, as he rewarded Abram. We have been abundantly gifted with God’s love: we have been bestowed the gifts of baptism and eucharist, allowing us to enter into and maintain a relationship with God, and through Christ’s death, have been gifted the promise of eternal life. However, in order to access the kingdom, we need to be faithful, trusting in God’s provision. In other words, we need to be prepared to take a leap of faith, just as Abram did. This means rescinding earthly ambitions, that we achieve through our own will, and faithfully trusting in God’s provision to us. We are told that it is impossible to please God without faith and that those who sincerely seek him will be rewarded. In practice this is not so easy to do. We can be preoccupied by worldly matters and diversions and the pressures of modern day life render it difficult to focus on worship, our relationship with God and what He is calling us to do when so many other immediate issues seem to require our attention. In addition, God’s will may not align with our own or may be outside of our comfort zone. It can be unsettling to move away from a comfortable position to a potentially uncomfortable one. However, we need to focus on the instruction to us to remain faithful and to make our faith and relationship with God our priority. By doing this, we are assured that we will be rewarded and we will receive God’s peace.Our second theme, Preparedness looks at the kind of lives we should be living as faithful Christians and our readiness to serve. Luke talks about building heavenly and not earthly treasure. We are told to sell our possessions and give to those in need and that the heavenly treasure we build will endure. I don’t believe that this is a literal instruction to us to sell everything that we have and to be imprudent with our finances. However, what the reading warns us against is storing up earthly possessions and making material matters and accumulation of wealth a focus of our day to day lives. We live in a society of abundance and constant distraction. The more possessions we have, the more our attention is focused on them. Luke is not telling us that we need to strip our lives of every material possession but he is warning us that material abundance and a focus on money can be a distraction from our Christian purpose.Instead, we are instructed to live a faith-filled life, focused on serving God first and foremost and on loving one another. We are told that we should apply a strategic appropriation of our finances. How does our money free us to help others? How much of our money do we use for God’s purposes? How much of our time do we give to serving others? We can apply these questions to both ourselves as individuals and to the organization of our finances as a church. Key to our preparedness is to look at where our priorities lie. Luke gives us the example of the servant who serves well and is rewarded versus the servant who serves badly and is subsequently banished. He also warns us that anyone who knows what the master wants but who isn’t prepared to carry out these instructions will be severely punished. This is a clear instruction to us to prioritise what we know is righteous and good in our lives before it is too late. We are told to be prepared for Christ’s return at any time, particularly when we least expect it.I don’t think we need to be alarmed at the warning in Luke’s gospel but it is a clear message that we should be alert to Christ’s return and to prioritise what we consider to be important in terms of how we live as Christians. What are our individual values, what are our individual gifts and how do we use them? How can we store up heavenly treasures? Although it isn’t always easy to determine these issues for ourselves, we need to trust that God will show us His will for our lives.Our third theme, vocation, examines our role as Christians, in the context of faithfulness and preparedness, and our individual path.We each have a role as Christians to spread the gospel and to be God’s servant and disciple. We each have a duty to serve each other, to be compassionate and merciful to others, to help those in need and to consider issues of community, peace and justice that might be important to us. Individually, we need to ask ourselves: how can I contribute to the building of God’s kingdom? What is God calling me to do and am I doing it? How have I been individually gifted to enable me to contribute? What issue has God placed in my heart that He is calling me to act upon? Luke is calling on us to consistently focus (or re-focus) our lives on God so that we remain prepared for Christ’s coming. Only through prayerful contemplation will we be able to discern God’s direction for us and what our vocation should be. Only through a relationship with God will we be able to truly understand our gifts and how God wants us to use them to further His kingdom. I would encourage you therefore to prioritise your time of worship and prayer; to make space each day to spend time with Him; to study His word and continue on your journey of faith, wherever you are on the road. Only then can we align our will with God’s for our lives and be truly prepared for Christ’s return.If nothing else today then we should take away God’s reassurances: that God’s pleasure for us is peace, that we should not be afraid, that we have been promised the kingdom through faithfulness and that God’s treasures are greater than we could possibly imagine. Amen
