Dedication Festival –Holy Trinity Watermoor 2008

We are gathered for a particular and identifiable purpose, namely a thanksgiving to God, quite rightly, for the anniversary of dedication of this particular church.

It is a luxury to be able to do this, because such precise dating is impossible for most of our mediaeval churches. Back in January I attended with Lynne the 50th Anniversary of the Dedication of the Church of the Holy Spirit Southsea. This is in fact my wife’s home church, and the one in which we were married 25 years ago in September. It’s a post war church so its history is relatively short.

That anniversary of dedication back in January, and this anniversary at HT Watermoor are connected, strangely enough. A former curate who looked after this church was for many years Vicar of Holy Spirit, Southsea, namely Fr. Peter Keightley. It is a small world.

So we are here for the sake of the dedication of a building. Buildings dominate the life of the church to the extent that the very word church to most people means a building. This is a fine building and we are glad that we have it. It was wonderful for my own Collation as Vicar of this Parish was held here. There are many fine features in the building, but no feature is as fine as the people who are the real church.

We gather in buildings, we pile money into buildings – don’t we know it in Cirencester – and we think of mission in terms of what our buildings contribute to it. But I have to remind you brothers and sisters, that the mission is about Jesus; the gospel is about Jesus; faith is about Jesus; YOUR salvation is about Jesus.

It is an imperative from Jesus that we break bread in memory of him, and we go out and baptize because he commands it. It is an imperative – not a preferred option. Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, he is the Son of God, and the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. How can it be therefore that we would allow anything to stand in our way of living and proclaiming this truth? It is so easy to be distracted by our buildings.

I know from bitter experience that many a PCC becomes more animated about who will clean the leaves in the church gutters that discuss ways and means of sharing faith with others. I pray it will not be so with us.

With our obsessions with church buildings – I belong to such and such a church – how can we grasp the essentials that we belong to Christ. It is so important that our three Anglican congregations respect the differences between the church fellowships, and praise what is good. Together, respecting one another, we will be a more effective witness in this town. We will enhance this if we remember that we are only three expressions of many who are in fellowship with Christ, but who express being part of the body in different ways. It is Christ who unites us in himself, not uniform practice in church buildings that unites us.

If Jesus is supreme over all things, and to him must be given the pre-eminence in all things, we must ask what he says by way of references to buildings. Well, we will be hard pressed to find anything that is helpful.

The NT has some imagery about buildings, stating clearly that Christ is the cornerstone, but about buildings Jesus says nothing positive to help us. The most significant building in the time of Jesus, was of course the Temple. But Jesus has little positive contribution to make to the temple – indeed one of the scandals was that he said he would pull it down and build it up again in three days, indicating clearly that Jesus saw himself, as did his early followers, as the new temple; not a building, but the very person of Jesus himself.

So Jesus cannot be looked to for references to justify the dominance of buildings in our church life. What does he say?

Among the many things Jesus Christ says of himself, one has a special significance in this building. Surely this must be the purpose of a building such as HT Watermoor – that within them there are ways for finding the truth of Jesus Christ in its midst. What words of Jesus am I thinking of? ‘Ego sum vitis – vos palmites’. Iam the vine, you are the branches. These are the words of Jesus from scripture, Latinized of course, on the reredos of the altar in St. Luke’s chapel. ‘I am the vine – you are the branches.’ This is what Jesus thought of as ‘church’ – not a construct of stone or bricks, but a living vine in which he is the life of the vine, and from part of that vine you and I sprout as branches – as much part of the plant as Christ is its life. St. Paul would go yet further and refer to the gifts of the  Spirit as ‘fruits’. So the vine is Christ, the branches are us, and if we are truly part of the vine then we will bear fruits, fruits that will last.

The church therefore needs to understand itself and form its life around this truth about Christ. And if we are to be truly branches of the vine, we must be people of the cross. There can be no authentic Christian life without a full acknowledgement that we are cross shaped people, formed into a cross shaped church, because we have a cross shaped Christ and saviour. No fellowship can truly claim to be Christ’s if it’s characteristics are comfort and self congratulation. This is not the way of Christ,and it is not our way.

A hint as to this truth about Christian discipleship is to be found in the figures depicted on that same reredos in this church. Look at it carefully – some of you may never have studied it; some may be so familiar with it that the real understanding of Jesus’s words are lost on them. ‘I am the vine – you are the branches’. So who are the branches – George, Stephen, Mary, John the Evangelist, Augustine. Lawrence, Nicholas, Cecilia, Peter, John the Baptist, Elizabeth of Hungary, Chad of Lichfield. A real mixture of people, men and women, from different ages, who have shown the light of Christ in the world, many through death, many through hardship, many through hard work and striving for the gospel, and Mary, who despite the joy of the birth of her child is told by Simeon, ‘a sword will pierce your own heart.’ Following the way of the cross is the way to follow Jesus Christ, and the way to find our salvation in his resurrection. There can be no Easter froth without the blood of Good Friday.

So whenever we gather in a church building we will be wise to recall that we are first and foremost Christ’s people, bearing the marks of his suffering and rejoicing in his new life in us and in our fellowship. Of course we can rejoice in this building, and we do, for it is the place where such a group can meet and fellowship with one another – hearing the word, breaking the bread, sharing the tears, rejoicing in the gifts, creating community.
But remember the words always ‘I am the vine, you are branches’ and keep looking at those saints on that reredos to remind us of the type of saints we have to be here and now.