John 19:25-27

Once there were two paddleboats on the Mississippi. They left Memphis about the same time, traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. As they traveled side by side, sailors from one vessel made a few remarks about the snail's pace of the other. Words were exchanged. Challenges were made. And the race began. Competition became vicious as the two boats roared through the Deep South. One boat began falling behind. Not enough fuel. There had been plenty of coal for the trip, but not enough for a race. As the boat dropped back, an enterprising young sailor took some of the ship's cargo and tossed it into the ovens. When the sailors saw that the supplies burned as well as the coal, they fueled their boat with the material they had been assigned to transport. They ended up winning the race, but burned their cargo in the process.

It's a picture of a life which sacrifices everything in order to reach a goal, to win a pointless race, and then realises it has missed out on the most precious things it was meant to be carrying. I often hear talk nowadays of how life seems to work against you in deciding what is really important. I meant to spend time with the kids, but this happened. I meant to help my neighbour but that happened. I meant to heal my marriage, but there were deadlines to meet. Needs, needs, needs. If you are at work, your work needs you. They have downsized so they need you more. They want to increase profits-they need you more. Everyone works longer hours-they need you to work them too. Contracts are short term, jobs aren't guaranteed-so you need to show willing. And so 84 % of bosses say they suffer from stress at work and 92 % of these say that no one is aware of their plight, according to the Mail on Sunday. The founder of McDonald's, Ray Krock, was asked by a reporter what he believed in. "I believe in God, my family and McDonald's," he said. Then he added, "When I get to the office, I reverse the order."

And at home your family needs you. Your spouse needs you to listen and to support. Your children need you in practical and emotional ways. Your family needs you to be organised at Christmas, at Easter, at birthdays, at anniversaries. Your grandchildren need you. Your parents need you. Your house needs you to look after it. Your bank needs you to pay it. Your friends need you. They need you to invest time in a meaningful relationship. They need you to show hospitality, to return hospitality. They need you to be a good friend consistently. Your society and your neighbours need you. They need you to do your bit, to help out, to contribute where you can. Your culture needs you-it needs you to take in news, to stay on top. It needs you to response to advertising. It needs you to know about the latest film or song or sports result.

With all these needs clamouring for your attention, I have bad news for you. You only have twenty-four hours in the day. The needs we are asked to fulfil, or feel we ought to fulfil, will inevitably outweigh our capacity to fulfil them. So what are you going to do? How are you going to decide what matters? How will you work your way through all these needs?

And then it comes to you. Go back to mother. Not the female version who physically bore you, but your mother the church. There you will find rest. There you will find energy to fulfil all these needs the world demands of you. But mother needs you. Your church needs fundraisers, committee members, wardens, sidespeople, tidiers, polishers, cleaners, gardeners, weeders, architects, readers, prayers, flower arranges, bell ringers, booklet collaters, burial board volunteers, alms house supervisors, hall managers, painters, hall repairers, caterers.

Your church needs typists, group leaders, treasurers, stewardship advisers, servers, linen washers, brass and silver polishers, visitors, mission reps, walk organisers, weekend organisers, quiz organisers, bookstall supervisors, leaflet designers, leaflet deliverers, envelope collectors, money counters.

Your church needs Sunday school organisers and teachers, creche runners, listeners, carers, people to pray for healing, home group members, Alpha course runners, Deanery Synod members, Partnership Synod reps, Three Crowns newspaper collectors, magazine distributors, magazine article writers, health and safety officers, PCC members.

Needs, needs, needs. And somewhere along the way the cargo gets burnt up in the race. How do we find a way out of this? How do we be a church around what really matters in amongst this jungle of needs?

A new monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to help the other monks
in copying the old texts by hand. He notices, however, that they are copying
from copies, not the original manuscripts. So, the new monk goes to the
head monk to ask him about this. He points out that if there were an error
in the first copy, that error would be continued in all of the other copies.
The head monk says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries,
but you make a good point, my son." So, he goes down into the cellar with
one of the copies to check it against the original.

Hours go by and nobody sees him. So, one of the monks goes downstairs to
look for him. He hears sobbing coming from the back of the cellar, and finds
the old monk leaning over one of the original books crying. He asks the
old monk what's wrong, and in a choked voice came the reply...

"The word is "celebrate."

Mothering Sunday is a date to come back to the original copy. To find the original version. Discover what it should all really be about. It is a date to return to mother, to find the place of nurture, to return to your roots. Somewhere along the way, we may be suffering from a few copying errors. Lent is a period for re-evaluation, prioritising once again. It's a time to acknowledge, especially in our frenetic culture, that the needs are always too great. So what matters is not how many of them we are able to fulfil, but whether we are able to choose the correct ones.

The last thing one knows is what to put first, said Pascal. We can only truly evaluate the vision and we have for the whole fabric of our lives - work, family, rest, play, faith etc. on our own. But what I can at least explore is the place of God and church in all this. Because I have a nagging suspicion that like other areas church as it stands can actually bring us further away from what matters rather than towards it. The overwhelming needs found in belonging to a church like us can lead to guilt and frustration, rather than life in all its fullness.

People who write books on what makes a person truly effective say that effective people begin with the end in mind. They know the vision, the scenario of what really matters, where they want to be and they prioritise everything else around it. They are able to cut out what is superfluous, even if it seems hard, and focus on their end. If we can use lent to rediscover the vision of what it means to be loving God in his church, then we can perhaps look again at how we are spending our energies and discover what is truly worthwhile.

So what is at the heart of what it means to be part of church? What does our mother offer us? And what does our mother ask of us? Well, the imagery suggests that the core of what we are about is the call to be family to one another. Jesus told John that Mary was now his mother. Jesus told Mary that John was now her son. Family relationships rooted in Christ. Dependency. Intimacy. Hannah dedicated Samuel to the Lord in the temple. Samuel’s primary place of being was with the people of God. Now I would be the last to devalue the importance of looking after your own family, but in both these stories we see a level of family-type commitment in the way people relate to each other in God. At its heart church is about family, belonging, connection, commitment, community. We are family because we have the same father and as it turns out the same mother. Everything we do as church needs to pull us closer to this reality. If it doesn't, then it needs to be questioned and probably discarded.

But what is the nature of this vision of being a family? What type of family is it? I invite you now to look at the reading from the Colossians 3:12-17.

In amongst all the needs and demands of life and church it seems to me that this passage is a template for what we are about-it is a central vision. It speaks of a relationship within the body of Christ based broadly on two things. Firstly what is necessary in church life is that we have an opportunity to have a depth of relationship with one another. We have a chance to grow in love, in harmony, in compassion. We have a chance to be together, agenda-less, task-free, without any other purpose than being together. How are we going to fit that in? What can we clear to make that our vision? What activities create that kind of relationship?

And it assumes this. That, because our only reason for being together is Christ, the word of God will dwell richly among us. That we will be speaking to each other God's words. That God-talk will be a natural and normal part of our discourse. When was the last time you spoke to someone in a psalm, hymn, or spiritual song? I think I recall someone walking away after I had had a conversation with them muttering, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!" Or was it “Forgive our foolish ways?” But, despite the fact that God is what brings us together, talking about him, dwelling, lingering, dallying over his words doesn't come easily to us. But if there is any reason for being together, any task that needs doing, it must be to ensure that the word of God dwells richly among us. We don't find it hard to talk about sport, well, some of us, because words about sport dwell richly in our consciousness. We don't find it hard to speak to one another of TV, Hollywood gossip or the weather because these things demand our attention and dwell richly among us. But the words that it is necessary for us to linger over, to dwell upon, to lap up and to speak to one another are the words of the Bible, the love words of God.

So today come back to mother church. If you have lost her somewhere among the needs which yell at you. If she is no longer a nurturing presence, but a demanding taskmaster, look for the vision of what really matters. Reconsider, re-evaluate, reprioritise. It may mean giving up more than you take on. But however your needs respond to the church’s needs, may we be fired by the vision of family, the vision of growing relationship, the vision of being nurtured by the life-giving milk of God's word shared among us.

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