GIVE THANKS FOR "HEATING SYSTEM SUNDAY"

Given the gospel reading this morning it might sound slightly peculiar to think that we’re having a service of thanksgiving this morning for all the recent physical blessings and accoutrements of worship with which God has blessed us...! (“The days are coming when not one stone will be left upon another, all will be thrown down” ! Except that Jesus also reminds us of the importance of perseverance - “endurance” - and we’ve had to have a bit of that over the last few years and days...)

However St John’s could NOT let an opportunity to party go by - nor - just as importantly - an occasion to say thank you to God and to those involved in helping us.

It never rains but it pours... It’s funny how these things go: for the last 5 years there’s not been much change to the fabric (apart from on going repairs), and now all these blessings at once! I think the most important thing I’d like to glean from this is about the sacramental nature of these blessings - about what they teach us about God...

Today we’re giving thanks to God - and to those involved in providing us with a new heating system; a rejuvenated floor; new chairs; a new piano and a new holy water stoop.

And that’s our first lesson: about how we work in partnership with God. God may make the seed grow and germinate, but the farmer still has to sow that seed and tend it and harvest it. God has provided us with physical things, but people had to give their time, their money, their expertise and their gifts to make them a reality for us today. We may well pray, but we may also be the answer to other people’s prayers. Prayer is not a giant slot machine that automatically churns out whatever we want: we must listen to God and work alongside him in bring the kingdom to birth in our lives, in our community and in our world.

CHAIRS

From the legacy of Joan Foster. Obviously to sit on. They will stack in a v small space, they will last for a long time; they will give more flexibility to how we can use the building. They will not get woodworm!
The chairs lend a much lighter aspect to St John’s - they are lighter in colour, but also kind of floaty... and it is good that this lightness not only raises our spirits, but draws us up towards God. Jesus talked of himself as the light of the world, and anything which serves to remind us of that is a Good Thing! Of course they are very comfortable too, which means that sermons can go on for much much longer... The chairs I suggest point beyond themselves to God because of their colour and clever light design. I hope you’ll find them more comfortable and that they will enhance our worship for many years to come. They make this church more inviting and welcoming.

STOOP

In memory of Hazel Freedman, made by David Spice. Hazel Freedman left a legacy to St John’s that we are unable to touch: the money has been invested and we get the annual interest on it which helps to keep St John’s afloat. The stoop is a truly beautiful and unique piece of furniture/art. We should rejoice in it’s beauty and congratulate David on his skill.

As human beings we are made in the image of God the Creator - so when we are creative we are mirroring what God does... And Creativity is shown in many different ways: Whether that creativity is expressed in the things we do - like art, or sculpture, or music, or design. Or an appreciation of creativity in a well chosen greetings card or work of art, or picture or a thousand other ways. Or a literal working with God in creating a new life - having children, or in gardening or tending plants or looking after animals. These are all aspects of creativity in which we are doing the sort of thing that God does.

A stoop lives by the church door and it holds holy water - that’s ordinary water which has been set aside and blessed - and as we enter a physical church building we are invited to make the sign of the cross on our bodies with the water to remind us of our baptism - by which we became Christians: entered the Church of Christ.

So the stoop stands not just as a beautiful work of art for us to rejoice in, but it practically reminds us of our baptism, of our salvation and of God’s incredible love to us.

FLOOR

From the legacy of Joan Foster. Joan worshipped at St John’s for many years, she was very heavily involved with this church and she wanted to carry on supporting the work of St John’s after she changed branches of the church - I’m sure she continues to pray for us on the other side of the divide of death.

The floor was beginning to get rather slippery and a little dangerous, and just a little shabby, so we thought that now was as good a time as any to grind it down and re seal it. The finish is the same finish as they use in Sports Halls, so we should have no slippage, and things should be a bit safer, as well as looking so much better.

The floor has been rejuvenated - we haven’t thrown it away and started again, we’ve polished and scrubbed and waxed. One of the ways in which God deals with us is that he doesn’t throw us away and start form scratch. God doesn’t look at us and think: “Well that’s beyond hope!” and move on to something or someone more promising. God takes us as we are, and he seeks to rejuvenate us - to dust us down, to polish and sand off the layers of ingrained crud... those stubborn habits and failings, those habitual sins and shortcomings, those things that even we don’t like about ourselves... and gently, over a period of a life time, he begins the process of polishing us, of getting the tarnish off, so that we too shine (like our new floor), and the light of Christ is more and more evident in our lives.

So the newly polished floor reminds us that God doesn’t - and won’t - give up on us - he wants to repair and restore and rejuvenate us so that we shine with his life and love.

PIANO

An anonymous donation to replace the previous one with a cracked frame. The replacement is a Samick - which is based on the Beckstein but made not by elves in Zurich, but by machines, lazers and computers in the Far East and so is less expensive but still of a very high quality.

And amongst other things it represents God’s incredible gift of music to us. We sometimes have an over developed sense of the intellectual and it’s good to remind ourselves that we communicate through other senses too, and God communicates to us in various and different ways: we smell the incense; we taste the bread and wine; we touch each other and many different textures; we see the rich pageantry of the liturgy; and we hear the uplifting sounds of the music we’re so proud of at St John’s. And this new piano is a mighty impressive beast, and we very much hope will be used more in our corporate worship.

So the piano reminds us that God doesn’t just communicate with us through clever words or impressive sermons, or the written scriptures - but through lives and love set to music - that touches us so deeply within that words cannot adequately express what’s going on... You remember the old advert for Heineken beer? It “reaches the parts other beers cannot reach” ... well music is like that: it reaches the parts other communications cannot reach...

HEATING SYSTEM

Made possible by grants from: the Veolia Environmental Trust through the Landfill Communities Fund; The Isabel Blackman Foundation & - again - the legacy of Joan Foster. Our architect Peter Pritchett oversaw the management of the project and altogether we had 7 sub contractors - and two of the important of those were Barry Butcher whose company did the electrical wiring; and Mike Peach, whose company Headley Visick actually did the installation of the boiler.

The heating system keeps us toasty warm - it should also be better for the building to be kept at a constant temperature. But you can’t see any difference... you can’t see where the money’s gone... until you go down to the boiler room!

So what does the heating system tell us about God? It reminds us how God provides for us in extraordinary ways (the way the money was provided); the comfort of the warmth that envelopes us is a pale reflection of the way God’s love envelopes us; and - I’d like to suggest - the hidden workings reminds us that St John’s relies on a host of people to keep the show on the road.

Most of these people work hard behind the scenes, and we who join together on “performance day” (ie Sunday!) very often take for granted the unseen helpers who make St John’s what it is: flower team; those who clean and maintain the church; the house group leaders who help ensure that the scriptures are studied, that prayer support is given, that fellowship is maintained during the week; the choir and organist who rehearse and give of their best; the church wardens who ensure that a thousand jobs are done and that the Rector is kept in order...; and a million other jobs done by a hundred other people. There are a huge host of people who work “behind the scenes” at St John’s to make us the community we are - often unsung and unthanked.

Paul talked in his letter to the Thessalonians about not being idle, and here I’m very conscious that a great number of people are very very active in service of the kingdom of God in this place, so thank you to all of you who work and pray so hard for St John’s - God sees what you do.

On the heating front you may not think there’s much to show for almost £100,000 - until you pop into the boiler room! Equally you may be surprised to know what goes on Monday to Saturday in the name of St John’s - or (if you’re involved yourself) you may not.

Of all that help and involvement we do find ourselves in need of a couple of extra people - since Norman retired we are in need of a new organist. We’re very grateful to Peter for stepping in - he’s like a priest helping out during an vacancy... we’re incredibly lucky to have him, but we also look forward to a new Director of Music... I have to tell you that there are already people champing at the bit to take over and our job might be to chose the very best from a most impressive field.... so do pray for us as we discern who would best lead St John’s music forward...

And also we need a new Treasurer. You know that Clive has given the job his all over the last three years and we need somebody, starting in December to shadow him for a month until he steps back in January... if you think that might be you, or somebody you know, please don’t be shy. At the moment there is nobody who has made themselves know to me, so if you’re sitting there thinking it might be you, please do come and have a chat...

So how about that - the heating system reminds us that we need a new Treasurer....!

So we’ve got a whole lot of physical stuff all at once to say thank you for, and I think there’s something in here to teach us a bit about prayer... because in one sense these physical items represent answers to prayer. They are sacramental in that they point beyond themselves to God. We have so much to give thanks for!

Fr Andrew Perry

Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea