Carnival Service, Pinchbeck

Sermon for Trinity 1 — 10 June 2007

1 Sam 3.1-9 The call of Samuel.

Galatians 1.11-end Paul begins to tell his story of meeting with Jesus

Theme for day (as in pew sheet): Paul shows us the importance of focusing on the future and on the benefit of others.

I have a story to tell

What’s the best story you have ever come across? Did you read it, or did someone tell it to you? Was it so good you can only remember that someone told you this wonderful story, or you can remember every bit of it? I know frequently that I can read or hear what at the time seems to me to be an excellent story, but then a few days or weeks later I can only remember that it was an excellent story, but that I have forgotten the key part of it, or some other essential detail. I find it usually much easier to remember bits of a story from something I have studied, normally to do with history, that I find it to remember that other story.

However, there are yet other stories that never leave one. I remember hearing a story from a young man—I was only young then—young then!! This must have been at the beginning of the 1970s, and I was at a weekend preparing for a summer camp—this was working with the Pathfinder organisation (nothing to do with the Pathfinder squadrons of World War II, but a Church of England Sunday School organisation for children between the ages of about 8 and 14) - well we were at this weekend, and as is usual, there was opportunity for the team members to say something about themselves, and one young man told the story of how he came to have a limp. He had been riding his motorbike—too fast I wonder—when he found that there was not room for his bike and the articulated lorry carrying steel girders coming the other way—You can guess what happened—there was a huge crash and he came to several days later in hospital finding that he could not feel his feet or legs. There were surgeons, consultants, doctors, nurses and all the normal things surrounding such a situation. He was told by the consultant that the experts did not dare to operate at all because they feared that if they did anything there was far too great a likelihood that they would leave him paralysed from the head down rather than the waist. His parents asked with his support if it would be in order for their pastor to come in and pray for his healing. Of course the consultant did not mind. What he had not reckoned with was that three to four weeks later this young man would walk out of the hospital with his slight limp, which he considered to be God’s reminder of his healing.

That was as dramatic story, a personal encounter with the living God and his healing love and power at work in one person’s life. Can you now remember that reading that we heard from Galatians? Paul tells his readers / listeners “I’m sure that you’ve heard the story of my earlier life when I lived in the Jewish way. In those days I went all out in persecuting God’s church. I was systematically destroying it. I was so enthusiastic about the traditions of my ancestors that I advanced head and shoulders about my peers in my career. Even then God had designs on me.” And so he goes on to tell the story of his meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus, and of becoming a Christian. For Paul there was no doubt about why God had done this—it was “so that I might joyfully tell non-Jews about Jesus”. This was a remarkable story, and the fact that it is recounted several times in the New Testament should leave us in no doubt that Paul must have frequently used it in conversation with both people his knew like these Christians in Galatia, or with those he was meeting for the first time. I’ll bet that he also had plenty of other stories to tell as well.

The common feature of both of these stories that we have here is that they are both told by the individuals about themselves. What better way is there really to help other people know and grow in their walk with Jesus that to share from one’s own personal experience. Please think about this. The number of times when you are doing anything, or showing anyone how to do anything that you actually say something like this—”I find that this is the best way to do this”, “I do it this way”, Have you tried doing the task this way—I find it the easiest way of doing it” - you know what I mean. Well it just like that in our Christian lives. Battery—torch; tap—water… There are many images, and you can probable think of many others. They all express ways people have thought of to express the work and coming of the Holy Spirit. Does the reading from the Acts catch your imagination; scare you; worry you; excite you; challenge you?

What is your story? We have already heard a little of …… ‘s story this morning. We all have one or many to tell about the way in which God has worked in our lives, and is working in our lives. Part of the problem is that all too often we do not think to either remember the occasions because we end up taking the outcome for granted, or think that it is of no great importance. Like the story of the young man I told at the beginning, we often only think about the overly dramatic. Each day on the way into work, I try to pray briefly for colleagues and students that I will see during the day. There are plenty of occasions when I have been worried about a particular situation or group at the start of the day, and in the end the situation has all worked out very well. I hope that I then thank God for looking after me—but really we should share these daily answers to prayer with one another to encourage us to continue on our pilgrimage through this life.

So

Þ be ready when you meet with others to share your own story of what God has been doing in your life;

Þ be ready to hear other people’s story

Þ Be ready to encourage those who do not follow Jesus to be open to Him and see God at work in their own lives so they too will have their own story to tell of God at work in their lives

Þ Be ready to give thanks to our God and Father for the wonderful way in which He cares for each one of us

I am going to say a short prayer now—so let us pray

Lord Jesus Christ we come to you now; we thank you for all that you have shown us in the life of your servant Paul; give us the strength of mind and character to share with others our own stories of your work in our lives. This we ask for your praise and glory. Amen