Fifth Sunday of Easter 2017

Acts 7:55-60 and 1 Peter 2:2-10 and John 14:1-14

Six centuries before Jesus’ birth, Jerusalem had been swallowed-up by the Babylonian Empire [centred on modern-day Iraq] and the population eventually taken off into exile. In time, Babylon was swallowed-up by the Persian Empire [centred on modern-day Iran] and the Jews began to return home, in a succession of waves. The Persian Empire was in turn swallowed-up by the Greek Empire of Alexander the Great, which was divided in two upon his death. Under Grecian rule, many Jewish families dispersed around the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Some went south, to Egypt. Others spread north, through what today is Turkey. By the time of Jesus’ birth, the Greeks had been swallowed-up by the Roman Empire.

Within thirty years of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the good news had spread far and wide. Churches had been established across the Roman provinces that made up what we know as Turkey. Many of the new Christians were of a Jewish background, part of the Jewish Diaspora or dispersal (those carrying the message of good news always went to the Jewish communities first). Others were of Gentile background, from the peoples among whom they had found a new home. At some point in the AD60s, not long before being executed in Rome, Peter wrote a letter that circulated among these ‘exiles of the Dispersion,’ those living as ‘aliens and exiles’. To people far removed from the temple and priests in Jerusalem, he wrote that they were called to be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.

Within a few years – time enough for the letter to become well-established within these communities – the population of Jerusalem had rebelled against Rome, and the Roman army had destroyed the temple [AD70] – just as Jesus had predicted would happen. Now there was no temple in Jerusalem. And that must have changed the context in which this letter was understood. There could be no going back to how things were in the past. Now they really were the house of prayer for all nations.

Two thousand years later, we still read Peter’s words. We do so as a community that includes those who are living in a foreign land as aliens and exiles. But in another sense, this is our common identity. These are not just words on a page. This is the story of our family. This is our story.

And God is still committed to building us into a spiritual house. What might that look like for us, for the church at Sunderland Minster? How might we submit ourselves, enter-into the process? Because if we won’t do that, we may find ourselves like the religiously-motivated crowd who used their stones to bring life to an end.

‘While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed…’ Acts 7:59

‘like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood…’ 1 Peter 2:5

“I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” Jesus, John 14:13, 14

It seems to me that the mechanism by which God will build us, and by which we will allow ourselves to be built, is in our coming together to pray. And we are not good at that. Yes, many of us pray; but as individual stones, lying around here and there. It could not be said of us that we are a spiritual house whose floors and walls and ceilings are constructed of prayer, and continually maintained by prayer.

God has sent us a great many Iranians. Can we imagine coming together to pray for Iran, on a regular basis? To pray, until our brothers and sisters are free to return home without fear, and some of us get to go with them, to visit their homes and meet their loved ones?

As a church community, we have ongoing financial needs. Can we imagine coming together on a regular basis to ask God to provide what is needed?

There are many families who come to us asking that their children be christened. Can we imagine coming together on a regular basis to pray for those families, those children? Can we imagine there being an opportunity of gathered prayer going on in the Minster at the same time as the toddler group, perhaps drawing-in some of the parents or grandparents or at least gathering prayer requests?

Can we imagine a spiritual house being built within the shelter of this physical building, where the city of Sunderland is held in prayer morning by morning, or the needs of the world are held in prayer evening by evening?

Can we imagine a vision of being built into a holy priesthood – not just the few with collars who have been set aside as servants, but all of us who have been called out from the people and set apart to proclaim the mighty things that God has done?

Can we imagine our being changed as we pray? Our being built into something that could be truly described as a spiritual heart, or heartbeat, for the city? Can we imagine our meeting together to pray, our learning together how to pray, our belonging to a household of prayer, our getting to celebrate answers to our prayer? That would make us a spiritual house of meeting, learning, belonging, and celebrating – four words that we chose to describe the Minster – and not just a place of social or cultural meeting, learning, belonging, and celebrating (good though those things might be).

This is not something that I can make happen. It isn’t even something that we can make happen. It is something that only God can do, and that we might join-in with. And it would probably mean stopping certain things and starting others. It could mean stopping Morning Prayer at 9am, and starting an earlier time some could get to on their way to work in the city centre; and a later time because, let’s face it, why would you come into the city centre for 9am if you aren’t working there? It might mean discerning a pattern of prayer that we could join-in with even if we couldn’t get to the physical building.

But it begins with coming to Jesus, seeking to know the blueprint he is working to, what space he wants to give form to. With Thomas, we might ask, ‘How can we know the way?’ And Jesus reminds us that he is the way, and the truth, and the life. What is the way-revealing, truth-revealing, life-revealing word that he is speaking to us – and how will we respond?