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A spirited place

 Helen Jacobi reflects on the then new mission statement for St Matthew’s 
Rev Cate Thorn

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A spirited place

Transcript
Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. The people have come looking for signs and miracles, they've heard that Jesus had just that day. Or the day before, fed 5,000 people, they want to see that happen again or even better a miracle. Like the one from the time of The Exodus, the Mana that fed, the people in the desert they want signs. They want evidence and they too want to perform the works of God. They want to get in on the game. But Jesus says well this is the work of God, believe in the one that God has sent. I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. I guess you could see this line from John as a mission statement for Jesus. Certainly a mission statement for the Joe and I in Jesus and probably for the other gospel writers as well. But John is the one who gets to write the real. Tree and like all John's writing at operates at lots of levels. John is first of all, talking about actual bread and actual water Jesus has just fed 5,000 people in the desert. And Jesus speaks about the needs of the poor and the hungry. And then it's got a symbolic level food for the heart water, for the soul, Jesus feeds. Our souls. And then there's the combination of real food and soul food that we discover and Eucharist and in baptism the bread of life in our communion service, the Water of Life and the baptism service. And then there's another layer. There's history there to, the people of God being fed in the Wilderness at the time of The Exodus and passing through the waters of the Red Sea to Freedom. So there's layer upon layer of meaning from John. I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me, will never be hungry. Whoever believes in me, will never be thirsty. real food, soul food, sacramental food food from Faith history, Writers of mission statements and vision statements today, never get to quite nail it like the gospel writer. John was trying to think of statements that can stick in our minds, from our modern world like Nikes. Let's do it. It's pretty good but not quite like the gospel writer, John, but in our own humble way, we've been working on our vision statement here at Saint Matthews, We've been wanting to take stock to reflect and to think. And to answer the question, why are we here? Why does our church Community exists? What is the vision that we want to Aspire to? 30 portion has gathered at our visioning day at the beginning of June and since then our small group have been working quite hard, I must say to formulate some words that we can look to and that can guide us like John's gospel. They've got layers of meaning and we hope that you will find a place for yourself within them. If you look at the very back page of your order of service today, you will find them written there. We started with a descriptive statement sit, Matthew in the city, a spirited place, where people stand connect and to seek common ground. Sit Matthew in the city are very name defines who we are. It's not just that Matthews, it's in the city, our location, our connections with our city and all its vibrancy and all its challenges. With a name like that we can never be tempted to be cut off or in our own little religious Hideaway. We're always in the city. And then we want to lay claim to being a spirited place. This place is key to who we are the stone pillars, the windows, the light, the organ when it's working. Many churches might say that whether people first and the building doesn't matter the buildings and material. But for us here, the building does matter. The church building is a key character in our story, And it's a spirited Place. Spiritual Spirit-filled energetic, fiery moving, not static the stone pillars, might stand still but as a place we are spirited and moving like the breath or the wind or the spirit of God that moved over create over the Waters of creation at the beginning of time. Like that, we allow the spirit capital S to move in this place and in our lives. So, we lay claim to it being a spirited place and it's a place where people stand because of course we are also about people a place, where people, gather and stand a to run away. Why people stand here to worship? God stand next to each other. Rich and poor housed and homeless tourists and locals. And we stand together on issues of concern. At times, we've marched together on the hikoi of Hope against the Springbok tour for peace for justice. We take stands, We Stand Together. And it's a place where we connect where we build relationships where we look out for one another, the regulars, get to connect and get to know each other and then we connect with visitors with other groups with other churches with communities, with businesses. And we're also a place where people can come and find connections. And we connect now internationally on the web. We've got many followers across aotearoa and across the world who are interested and what we have to say and how we choose to worship. And finally, we're a place where we seek common ground. Ground is about the actual ground, our land, our space, outside our land, which we hold in common together, a bit. Like the old English idea of the commons in common ground is also about coming together to find a safe place for dialogue and debate for Learning and for growth. Common ground is about finding things in common with people of other faiths and cultures. Common ground is not about thinking the same thing. Common ground is about Gathering and finding space to meet and work together. Some Matthew and the city a spirited place, where people stand connect and seek common ground. And then underneath that, we've got some sentences, which flesh out who we are and how we operate together, you could call them values or descriptions of who we aspire to be. We know that we don't live up to them all the time, but we do aspire to them and hope that we might live up to them most of the time. What kind of group them with titles, sociology, encouraging critical thinking and Progressive, theological exploration, you don't check your brain at the door. When you come here, we like to think and to challenge and to learn We don't feel it all constrained by the inherited doctrines and the traditions of our church. We love nothing better than to be challenging them. Spirituality worshiping an Anglican tradition with creative liturgy and inspiring music. We're an Anglican church and so we worship and that tradition using the best that we can find in creative writing and music reworking. Our liturgy for our context, which is indeed a very Anglican thing. We've got no problem with chanting an ancient chant alongside a brand new composition. We find what speaks to our souls. Hospitality welcoming welcoming all people, no exceptions to the table. Some people said, well we don't need to say, the no exceptions, we welcome all people, that's all people, but we wanted to be really clear about the no exceptions part because there are some churches that do exclude some people all are welcome here. People of different faiths and no faiths people have any background, any sexuality and their welcome at the communion table. The morning tea table the discussion table. There's lots of tables around which Gather. And then we wanted to say something about our community, what kind of community do we want to be a place that Fosters respect compassion, understanding, and generosity and a spirit of menarche Tanger Menarche Tango means hospitality and care and we want to be a community who lives and breathes menarche tongue. And then what is Our intention? Why is it that we come here and what do we intend to do when we leave? Our intention is that we might support each other to live out the radical way of Jesus of Nazareth in the world. Why do we come? What is the point of all of those? That's more than our Sunday Gathering, Our intention and being here is to be able to live better in our world to attempt to follow the Jesus, way to live, the Jesus way on our world, not just in the hour and a quarter hour and a half. We're here on a Sunday morning. It's about what goes on out there and if we wanted to somehow, do an assessment of, are we doing our job as a church Community? One of the many one of the really important ways of assessing? That would be, do you feel supported and your life in the world? Does what we do here on a Sunday? Send you out to follow the Jesus way? And then we wanted to say something about Justice engaging and just and radical action for the Dignity of all and the sustainability of the Earth. We Care Here. We Care here about the needs and rights of others and about the Earth, our fragile home, we care and want to act in ways that sustain our Earth. This is going to be a particular Focus for us in the year a couple of years to come. We're going to be talking about the Earth, our patch of land outside and we're going to be talking about the Earth capital E God's creation which so much needs our care. and then the last one, our heritage valuing our church as a beautiful Towner and the Heart of Auckland City where celebrations and events, take place and people find Refuge We have to look after our heritage this building. We have to look after it's fabric on behalf of all who wish to gather here for the homeless who take refuge here. For the businesses who hold events here from the celebrations to the funerals, all, who come here? Look to us. To be caring for these stones and to be passing them on to the next generation. So those are our words. Lots of words. Lots of aspirations. I hope you can find yourself amongst them. I'm sure immediately on reading them, you'll have ideas where you think that should have been added in or something that should have been adjusted. Or something that doesn't belong, the small group that wrote this on your behalf debated. Every word I can assure you and we hope that the words are layered enough that everyone can find in them a place to stand and room to move. They're not set in stone for forever. We're going to review them every year or so, and I'm sure and three or four years time will write a whole new bunch. But for now we're going to sit with them and have them guide us in our church community life together. And the words are great, but of course they're no use. If we don't leave them out. And so, what we're going to be doing now, is our Vestry and other Church groups are pastoral care group, our different committees. Our task groups are going to look at these words and they're going to say to each other and to us well what are we going to do about them? How are we going to put Flesh on them? What is it? We're already doing about that match were firm and what new things can we do? So that's going to be our conversation for the next wee while I certainly feel very privileged to be working on this and to be feeling like I stand with the clergy who have gone before, me and who have passed this Heritage on. Because these are all things that we haven't invented in the last couple of months. These are all things that come from our heritage and our past And you will stand with the hundreds and thousands of parishioners who have passed the Heritage on to you. And you won't turn will pass it on to a new generation. Sir, Matthew in the city, a spirited place where people stand connect and seek common ground.