Family Service Sunday 20th July – led by Mike Findley
Mike’s theme was about faith – “being sure of what we hoped for, and certain of what we did not see”. But first we had the weather and the first hymn to contend with. Mike had thought “Will your anchor hold in the storms of life” fitted the day, but he opted for “Fill your hearts with joy and gladness” – something we could sing in all weathers.
When he’d started preaching 38 years ago, an old wise person had said to him, “They’ll remember the talk to the children, but they’ll never remember the sermon”. So he asked us to think about a wildflower. It didn’t choose to be where it was. The seed had been blown there by the wind or dropped by a bird, but the job of the wildflower was to bloom where the seed landed and brighten things up there. A reading he’d found said, “ You are blown by the Spirit of God”. The Hebrew the word Spirit meant a wind. It blew through the world, and we’d been blown by the Spirit of God to where we were now. And our job was to bloom where we were – not somewhere else, not wishing we were somewhere else, or that something else had happened to us. We shouldn’t complain about where we were, our loss in life, or whatever. We should say, “This is where God’s wind has blown me. My job is to bloom where I am, brighten the world and spread good news to the people around me”.
If we looked up the meaning of faith, we’d come up with answers like “belief in the doctrines of a religion based on spiritual conviction rather than proof, or belief in the absence of proof”. And that could give us the impression that faith was something that went on in our heads, something not moving. But for Mike it was not the real definition of faith. God was not static, and didn’t call us to be static.
The day’s first reading was the parable of the mustard scene, and of the yeast. The mustard seed was tiny, but it grew and became useful. And our faith should be like that, something that grew and became useful. The yeast spread throughout the dough, and it made the dough rise: our faith should lead to action, growth.
Mike thought there ought to be a parable saying that the Kingdom of God was not like a bonsai, kept small and neat and tidy. Some people wanted to keep their faith small, neat and tidy, pigeonholed for a Sunday or other special events. God said, “No, you’re not to be like that. You need to grow like the mustard seed. You need to be like the yeast, lifting everything around you, bringing new hope, new life to all those around you.
The story from Hebrews was about Abraham, who obeyed his faith in God. He didn’t know where he was going, but he went. He didn’t look back, he went on. His faith drove him to do new things, to eventually become the father of many nations and religions. Movement, action. That was what came from Abraham’s faith. And if we thought about our lives, about the people who’d influenced our Christian journey, were we influenced by their thoughts or more by what they did in their lives, and how they conducted their lives?
And then we had a letter from James, who said we were measured by what we did rather than what we believed. A lot of people in religions in general, identified with the material culture of the religion – the buildings, the services, the physical things that went on. But did they have any sort of relationship with whatever they might think of as being God. Or did they merely adhere to the customs and the norms of that religion and its set of beliefs? (Going to church on a Sunday doesn’t necessarily make you a Christian any more than keeping your car in the garage makes you a motor mechanic). It was being in that personal relationship of sharing your life with God that was reflected in your life and kept you on the straight and narrow.
Faith was being a seed to be blown where God wanted us, and being willing to be blown and blossom where we were. Faith was a journey into the heart of God. It was an exciting journey, challenging and fulfilling.
And Mike finished with part of a poem from a wonderful Australian book which had a chapter about the journey of faith.
“I am part of all that I have met; yet all experience is an arch where through gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades forever and forever when I move. How dull it is to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnished, not to shine in use”.
Mike’s philosophy in life was to keep traveling onto an untraveled world. The journey of faith was not static. Faith was not a Bonsai. Faith was a journey travelled with the Lord, every step of the way.
Potters Bar United Reformed Church 