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SERMONS Sean Gilbert Poets’ Corner concluded for the year on Monday night, our guest presenter being Peter Willis, an ex-Jesuit priest and now lecturer at Uni SA. In keeping with our 2006 program, it was a truly memorable and inspiring evening in its very earthy way, Peter sharing out of very rich and varied life experiences indeed. Poetry, he intimated, is a window into life’s beauty and potential; its flip side being that it then makes us more aware and even disturbed by life’s crassness or ugliness. Even intolerant and frustrated with what is not beautiful, or what is not life-affirming. So much for those, who might think poetry is but a whimsical and self-indulgent waste of time. Imbued with the “vision beautiful’, as was Jesus, one gives their all to its place in this life and its continual fruition in generations to come. And so, it occurs to me that on a day when we reflect on our own Christian stewardship – our own Christian vocations – it is helpful to lift such an important theme out of the mere pragmatic and functional into the realms of our stewardship creating even more beauty in our world. Of understanding, even through the difficult lens of the parable, that “playing small and fearful” serves no-one, least of all ourselves. No, the gift of life is to be experienced authentically, just as it is to be gratefully received. And experienced with a certain audaciousness, that being in tune with the person or people we are. In that light, I find Ian Thorpe’s comments and obvious maturity earlier this week tremendously helpful. He could have gone on swimming, he said, to meet other people’s expectations and desires for national success, but deep down inside of himself, his own desires had shifted. There are other meaningful things away from the endless black line for him now to be a part of. In short, he had to be true to his own vocational leadings and not a slave to the nation’s own need of more gold. Now there is a true role model. Thomas Merton once said, give people the encouragement and permission to discover their creative path in life, and then nothing is impossible in this world. But keep them under control, in fear of failure, or subservient to someone else’s ideal, well, all that is kept is a bland, sickly status quo. And at this fragile point in its history, the Christian Church cannot afford to be a gate-keeper of its people’s yearnings and desires, even if that means losing them to the institution. The risk paying off of course, because it is the freedom and generosity of spirit which then renews the institution, something I believe we have all seen in our own midst, time and time again; The renewal of this community through folk coming alive to their own creative vocation. So what then is a day like today all about? Is it just about financial security and workability – partly it is. Is it about rosters and volunteerism – yes, partly it is. It is about ordering our common life together as a worshipping and serving community. Yes, undeniably. But our hope and vision is far greater than these. Because in the end we are seeking to be about something, to embody something vital and unique in our own particular neck of the woods. And that is to be bearers of a vision beautiful and intentional about making our given talents count toward that noble and needed end. The importance of a faith community, being that so often on our own, we fall prey to the negative and dismissive voices: you’re hopeless really, who do you think you are trying that, leave it for the experts. Bury the dream, hide the talent, no one will notice anyway. Well, a faith community worth its salt will not hear of such rubbish. Its voice, its important voice in this dog eat dog corporate society must be the very opposite. You are a person of beauty and dignity, express that gift to the full, and not only that, but why not express it here, within the safety and encouragement of your circle of friends. And who knows where it may go beyond that. Well, allow me to conclude with a small but lovely God moment for me this week. A good while ago, I was asked to write some additional lyrics for a hymn that the Concordia College Senior Choir was to sing at the School Valedictory Service. I snuck into the Town Hall on Wednesday morning to hear it sung once
during the final rehearsal and was very surprised by how impressive
it all sounded, including my own lines which I’d quite frankly
forgotten to a large degree. Let us take a few moments to gather and honour our own thoughts and prayers…
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