READING Mark 10 v 13-16

People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

SERMON

Every day but especially on a Sunday, like many of the rest of the world’s Christians we celebrate Jesus and what he did for us, for all of us.

We celebrate what Jesus did and what by the power of Holy Spirit he still does, we celebrate the Jesus who considered family unity to be important, we celebrate the Jesus that welcomed little children into his arms and we celebrate the Jesus that took time to bless everyone, no matter who they were and no matter what others thought of them.

Jesus our saviour and our Lord, Jesus the promised one of God, Jesus, the son of God – and yet a man: a man like us…. a man who struggled to be faithful to God, a man who was called to love his neighbours as himself, a man who was tempted like we are tempted, a man who suffered as we suffer.

Pauls letter to the Hebrews, speaks of Jesus in exalted terms – calling him “the radiance of God’s glory” and “the exact representation of God’s being”, “superior to the angels”.

And this is true – our whole faith speaks of it, But the letter to the Hebrews also reminds us of something else that our whole faith speaks of – it reminds us that here, on this earth, Jesus was made like us, that he was made like us a little lower than the angels, that Jesus was one with us, born of a woman, born as our brother to walk as we walk through this life.

Jesus was one with us, able to sympathize with us, able to identify with us, able to rejoice with us, able to suffer with us, and, because of what he suffered and suffered in faithfulness, he is able to intercede for us before God his Father, God our Father.

Jesus, one with us, Jesus our Saviour. Jesus our Brother.

The signs before us today, the bread and the wine, they remind us of how he came to be our Saviour, they remind us of what his love and his faithfulness cost him.

On the night of his betrayal Jesus took bread and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “This is my body, given for you;” and he took the cup and gave it to his disciples, saying, “This is my blood, which is poured out for you”.

The next day, out of love for the world, Jesus died.

The scriptures tell us that when Jesus died he assumed the burden of our sin – that he took upon himself the penalty for sin – doing so that we might live and be one with him and one another before God our Maker, before God – our higher power.

If you are a fan of Superman you recall how in one of the superman movies, the evil Lex Luther launches a missile which explodes near one of the California fault zones. The resulting earthquakes create turmoil over a wide expanse of territory.

As Superman flies over the area, making a visual inspection of the damage, he sees an accident about to happen. The earthquakes have caused a five-foot section of a railroad track to be twisted out of shape and a packed passenger train is roaring down towards the destroyed section of track. There is no time for the train to stop – even if the driver sees the ruined track.

Superman, however, has just has enough time to fly down and stretch his body out to form the missing section of rail, and he thus saves the lives of the several hundred passengers on the train.

Jesus performed a similar act of salvation. He too stretched out his body to save us. He stretched it out on the cross.

The difference between Jesus and Superman is that Jesus is not some human-like alien from another planet who performs heroic deeds.

NO – Jesus is one of us, and one with us and he lived and breathed, and laughed and cried in a real place and at a real time.

And when he was stretched out on the cross and then raised up to hang beside two other men he suffered – and he died – just as we suffer – and we die.

Today – we do what Jesus did the night he was betrayed, in his memory we break bread and share a cup, the bread he called his body broken for us, the cup he called his blood shed for us.

In the breaking of the bread and the lifting of the cup, we recall how God loved us so much, that he came among us and became one with us, and then suffered and died for us, so that sin and death might no longer reign over us.

As he shared in our death – so we share in his resurrection, the resurrection granted to him because of his love and faithfulness.

So often we talk about how WE need to believe in this God of love; but what we celebrate today reminds us of a different fact, it reminds us that even when we don’t believe in God, God believes in us.

I am sure most of you have seen some really nice cut Crystal. It is beautiful to look at. The only problem is when you drop it, it shatters into a thousand pieces and no matter how hard you try to glue the broken pieces back together it never looks as beautiful as before it was dropped.

Sometimes we get the idea that as human beings we are like leaded crystal. We are lovely until we make a mistake – and we all make them. Then life shatters into a thousand pieces and can never be put back together just right – never put back the way God meant it to be.

But if we are to compare human life to any object around us, we are better compared to the children’s toy Putty than to leaded Crystal. Like Putty, we can be pulled apart, rolled into little balls, flung against the wall, or smashed flat. But like Putty we can always be scraped back together again, forgiven, reworked, remoulded, and reshaped into someone that is even more beautiful than before.

God believes in us, God believes that we are not beyond help God loves us, and God, in Christ, has come, and still comes today, to forgive us, to scrape us back together again, and mould us into something even better than that which we were before.

It is this coming unto us that we celebrate today, and it is the fact that we can be what God wants us to be, that we give thanks for.

God has made us his family, a family that stretches around the world, a family that is called to love as we have been love, to forgive as we have been forgiven, to give as we have been given too.

As we share today in our family meal; give thanks to God that we are not alone, that we have both each other and the Spirit of Christ amongst us, the Spirit of him who was, who is, and who shall ever be one with us, and one over us, and one under us, one who truly loves us. Amen

PRAYERS

Gracious God
In October we take delight in the rich colours of autumn that startle the senses with their bold extravagance. May we never cease to marvel at nature’s palette and be dazzled by every burning bush that speaks of your glory.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

In October we enjoy the last fruits of the earth’s generosity this year. May we in turn be generous in our care for this good earth and make it our concern that every species of bird, animal, tree and plant survives and flourishes in its own way. We pray for all the organisations and individuals committed to conservation and care of the environment. May we also be among those committed to the environment and demonstrate our determination not to harm the world as we journey through it.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

In October, with summer gone, we turn our minds to the hard realities that never went away, those of politics, finance, global security and international peace. We pray for all those who are called to high and heavy responsibility in national life

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

In October holidays seem long ago and Christmas far away. We pray for the life of the Church through these weeks, that we may each contribute to the church’s life in the beat way we can, and that our life together may be attractive and Christ centred, enabling us to live fully in your world, in your way and with your help

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

For some in October hearts are heavy and heads hang down. Encourage those who are facing hard times, difficult decisions, problematic relationships or uncertain health. Touch their lives with hope and assure them that nothing can separate them from your love.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

God of October, Lord of the year, lead us through this month with faith, hope and love.

Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

And so we bind our prayers together in the words that Jesus taught his disciples when we pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen

Revd Kevin.
Associate Priest at St.Wilfrid and St.Thomas