Capturing The Rhythm

John 15:1-8

I used to regularly go for daytrips to Littlehampton with my Grandma. In my view  there was no finer seaside in the whole world. For we lived in Worthing, and Worthing, down on the beach,  was nothing but seaweed and stones.  I loved Littlehampton.  The colourful amusement arcade at one end of the prom and the little steam train which ran from the other. The crazy golf and the doughnut stand,  and in between the wide open expanse of the sea. The sand, the shingle, the tide and the roar of the waves.  There was a wonderful rhythm about it all.

One day, when I wouldn’t come away to catch the bus,  my grandma handed me a shell which she had picked from the beach and she told me that if I took it home with me I could keep a little bit of Littlehampton with me forever. And it was true, whenever I put my ear to the shell I could hear the waves and catch the rhythm of the tide like I was really there.

Here is a shell I was given many years ago. If you put this one up to your ear you will not hear the sea – but it is a shell which is  in touch with a greater rhythm. The rhythm of God’s love for the world. Into this shell I have scooped up the water from many a cold dark font and poured it over the faces of unsuspecting children. Hundreds of them I should think, into whose ranks we shall, God willing,  add Vincent and Santino this very morning.

Our bible reading this morning was about us getting caught up in something greater than ourselves .Jesus doesn’t talk about a seaside though, he talks about a vine and us being branches of it. He is saying that if you allow your life to get caught up with God’s life, then heaven knows what you may be capable of doing or of being.

There was a rhythm to Jesus’ life which his friends couldn’t fail to cotton on to for they had been in his company constantly for three years. It was the way he walked alongside of them and then ahead of them. The way he reached out and touched people that were crying out with pain. The way he took bread in his hands and broke it. The way he scanned the faces in the crowd to see who it was that was standing on the edge. Simple things really, but they spoke of the way of God.

So after Easter, when for a while his friends did not quite know what was going on, it was the rhythm of the mans’ life that convinced them this was Jesus not dead but risen.

Coming to church is about feeling that this same rhythm is alive and well in our day – in spite of everything. A church service should be like raising a shell to your ears and hearing the truth of it for yourself. There are things about our Sunday service that are the same every single week. The same words and the same actions. It’s not because we’re dull. It’s because we’re holding a rhythm here and that never changes. The church is the shell of God’s love, we hold the sound and share it.

 And every single church member who has ever been baptised is saying the same thing – or should be,  let it echo through me too, this rhythm of God’s love, let people find out that it is true, even in someone as ordinary as me.

Just as the Father has loved me – says Jesus, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. You see, Grandma told me that shell had lain on Littlehampton beach for so long that it had become shot through with the sound of the sea. Imagine living your life so close to God that you were shot through with his love. Even without realising it.

It’s the same calling no matter who you are this morning. To these two in their baptisms, to those visiting us for the first time in support of them. To those preparing for baptism and confirmation in a month or so’s time. To those who have worshipped  far and near for most of their lives.

Become as a shell from the seashore. Take the rhythms you find in a place like this and people like these – and dare to hold up such grace into the ears of the world.

RH 10.5.09