Anyway, that’s coming up in a later instalment. For now, John is languishing in prison. His disciples … A word on disciples: some people seem to think that disciples are a special thing that Jesus had. Well, no everyone had disciples. All the itinerant rabbis of the day had disciples; teachers in our schools and universities have disciples, for all disciple means is ‘follower’. So Jesus’ followers were Jesus’ disciples, John’s followers were John’s disciples. We are all followers of many things.

So John’s disciples come to John and say, ‘We think we may have found the Messiah.’ Now if this is true, then this is the fulfilment of the whole of John’s life, the whole of his purpose, his existence, his teaching. Everything would be wrapped up in that one moment of knowing the Messiah had arrived. Not surprising, John is quite keen for a little bit more confirmation of this. So he sends his disciples back out into the fray. They head back to the crowds where Jesus is. They make their way to the front and they ask, ‘Are you the One, or are we to wait for another?’

Then Jesus does what Jesus does best. He doesn’t dictate; he doesn’t tell; he doesn’t instruct. He leaves it up to those who question him to make up their own mind. Jesus wants them and us to come to our own conclusions about matters of faith. So there is no answer given. Instead he says, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see.’ Then he continues (in a different translation), ‘The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the wretched of the earth learn that God is on their on their side, and those who take no offence at me are truly blessed.’

It is as if Jesus is saying to these disciples, these followers, ‘It is time for the worm to turn. It’s up to you now to convince your master of what’s going on. The time has come for the disciple to teach the master. For now you have more knowledge, more insight and more understanding than him. And now you have that, you bear the responsibility of sharing that greater knowledge, that deeper insight, that firmer understanding. It’s not up to me, it’s up to you.’

So they leave and they make their way back to John. I sometimes wonder what their report to John was. Did they rise to the challenge? Did they, to use the 21st Century jargon, own their faith and proclaim it to John? Did they say, ‘We believe he is the Messiah and this is our evidence.’ Or did they say, ‘He didn’t say! He didn’t answer the question. Tell us John, tell us what to think!’

But back to the crowds left with Jesus and the questions he had for them about why they went out to see John. The questions he asked transcend time. Those questions remain relevant to us today. Questions we could hear about why people come to church, particularly for us about why people come to this church.
 

     What did you go to look at?

     What did you go to see?

     What did you hope to find?

I just want to encourage us to make that link between the questions that Jesus asked that crowd about John and about us as a church, because of Bishop John’s visit to the Reading Deanery on Wednesday of this week. John Pritchard, as you know, is the new Bishop of Oxford and he is visiting all 29 Deaneries in his Diocese, and the Reading Deanery was number 22 on his list. He came here on Wednesday, spending the whole day in the area, spending time with the clergy of the Deanery, visiting parishes and project across the whole area and then coming to Deanery Synod which was held here on Wednesday evening.

His talk to the members of Deanery Synod was enlightening. He said that he didn’t want to suggest where he wanted to take the Diocese because he hadn’t been in the job long enough. He said he didn’t want to talk about his vision for the future because he was spending much more time listening and learning than saying what the future holds. But none the less he offered some very provocative thoughts about church life, about the kind of questions people might give to those three answers if they visited one of the churches in his Diocese.

And in the end he was clear what he hopes for the churches in his Diocese. He hoped they would be places of gracious hospitality, He hoped they would be places of radical engagement with the community in which the church is set. And he hoped they would be filled with people who are passionate about their faith:
 

     radical engagement, gracious hospitality, passionate faith.

As I pondered those three couplets, I began to realise just how close they are to our own purpose statement that I spoke about last week? When we have gracious hospitality, we have openness to one another. When we have radical engagement with the community we have openness to the community. When we have passionate faith we have openness to God. I think we think we’re quite good at all those three aspects of what it is to be church. I certainly think we are definitely in the right ball park, but imagine yourself as a visitor or newcomer to this church and ask yourself those three questions.
 

     What did you go to look at?

     What did you go to see?

     What did you hope to find?

And I can’t help wondering how we score on those three elements of being church, against those questions when asked by strangers and pilgrims. In my wondering, I began to consider that the best way of finding might be by not coming to church. Well not coming to this church at least.

Many of us will be going away over the next few weeks to spend time with family and friends over Christmas and New Year. If you are away for a weekend, I invite you to take those questions, those characteristics of what is to be church, to take them with you to church, wherever you are.

It might be an Anglican church, it might be a Baptist church, it might be a Roman Catholic church, any church. Look around. Gauge the feeling of the place. Talk to people. Weigh up that church according to those three criteria of gracious hospitality, radical engagement and passionate faith. And ask yourself the question, how do I know? What’s the evidence? Then bring that back and look with fresh eyes at our own church, and ask yourself the same questions about this church. Again focus on what is the evidence?

If in your musings and reflections something pops up that you think, ‘Oh wow! We’re rather good at that. We should be justly proud of that,’ let everyone know. If you find something that another church is doing particularly well and you come back and look with fresh eyes at St Nicolas and you think ‘Oh crumbs! Room for improvement there,’ let us know!

That way we can seek to be evermore open to one another, evermore open to the community and evermore open to God.