Being an apprentice of Christ

Teaching for a special "Going for Growth" vision service at St Alphege, 9.15am 07/10/07

Reading John 13:12-17

Teaching slot of 20 minutes, including some testamony and reflection.

Sermon delivered without notes, so text is approximate.

A similar sermon, in a shorter and more traditional style was preached at the 8am service.




[Image 1 – Going for growth cycle]
As you probably know, in this church we have identified three priorities areas for us to focus on to help us make progress around the “Going for Growth” cycle. The three priorities areas are, “Welcome”, “Relevance” and “Participation”.
[Image – Welcome, Relevance, Participation]
Fr Tim has already lead us in a Teaching Mass about wecome. Today we are thinking about Relevance and on 4th November we shall have a special service about Participation.
So today we are thinking about the theme of Relevance.
[Image saying "Relevance"]
And what do we mean by relevance? We mean the relevance of what we do in church to the rest of our lives. Why does going to church make a difference? How does going to church change my life?
And the thing that makes a difference is following in the way of Christ. It is practicing to become more Christ like. It is allowing Christ to grow within us and share his resurrection life with us. It is like we are apprentices in the art of life we have the opportunity of learning and becoming like Jesus, who is the expert teacher on living. This takes time, but over time we can learn.
Now I don’t know what you think of when you hear the word apprentice? Perhaps you think of Alan Sugar and the TV show?
[Image of Alan Sugar]
Well let me assure you that we are not thinking about Alan Sugar! We are not worrying about being fired; we are learning to accept that we are forgiven. No we are not thinking about Alan Sugar. We are thinking about Jesus.
[Picture of Jesus in worshop]
Now here is a picture of Jesus working in his father’s carpentry shop. There is a sense in which Jesus himself was an apprentice. Jesus’ father Joseph was a carpenter and Jesus would have learned the family trade as he grew up. And this would have taken time. Joseph would have taught Jesus. Jesus would have practiced and over time he would have become a good carpenter.
So in the carpenters shop Jesus was an apprentice and Joseph was his teacher. But in our day to day lives it is we who are apprentices and Jesus who is our teacher. As we heard in our gospel reading today, Jesus is our Teacher and Lord. Jesus sets us an example of how to live life, and blessed are we if we follow that example.
[Image - Icon style picture of Jesus]
So how do we go about following the example of Jesus? How does what we do in church help us with this? Well first, like any apprentice we must watch the expert craftsman at work. In church we do this especially when we read the stories about Jesus in the gospel. We have a gospel procession and we sign the Alleluias in order to emphasise the importance of the gospel reading. From the gospel readings we learn how Jesus lived his life. We learn about his attitudes; the love he shows for God and for the people around him, his particular care for the poor and weak. We hear about his complete obedience to the Father’s will, his desire to help others.
Secondly, just as the apprentice must listen to the teachings of the expert, so we must listen to Jesus the teacher. Again, as we read the gospel in church we constantly hear Jesus teaching, telling us what to do. We saw some of these teachings on the projector screens as we came into church. We need to hear these teachings and to learn how to put them into practice in our everyday lives.
Thirdly, the apprentice learns by talking to the expert. We too can talk to Jesus through prayer. Just as an apprentice might ask the expert when he or she is unsure what to do, so we should ask God in prayer when we don’t know what to do in our lives. This is true for very small things, “Shall I go out tonight?” and in very big things, “Shall I ask my girlfriend to marry me?” And when we ask God something in prayer, let’s remember to leave some moments of silence so that we can listen to anything he might want to tell us from deep within our heart. Coming to the Eucharist is a particularly good way of talking to God in prayer. As the gifts of bread and wine are offered at the altar, so we can offer our questions and prayers up to God. When we receive communion we received Jesus into our bodies, and can we try to still our mind and to listen to the wisdom that we are receiving into our hearts.
But the most important thing that an apprentice does to learn a trade is to practice. To become skilled at living life we have to put into practice the things we have learnt from Jesus. We have to live out in our day to day lives the things which we have heard about in church. Living out the commands of Jesus can feel very awkward and difficult at first. “Forgive as you have been forgiven”, “Do not worry”, “treat others as you would like them to treat you”. These things are not easy. It is like learning to use a new tool of the trade. It takes practice. When we first start it’s difficult and the results of your efforts may not be very good…but with time we become skilful.
And our everyday lives give us plenty of opportunities for practice and training in living a more Christ like life. Every person we meet in our day to day lives is someone we can love, trying to see them as Jesus sees them, believing in God’s love for them and wanting their good. And this can be very challenging, especially if the person is someone whom we do not instinctively like. But as we practice we become more Christ like and we get better at loving even the most difficult people.
And ever situation we find ourselves in is an opportunity to try and live better the life of Jesus. Being stuck in a traffic jam is an opportunity to learn patience. The joyful moment is an opportunity to give thanks to God. The anxious situation is an opportunity to learn to trust in God and not worry. The laborious task is a way of loving the person for whom the task is done. Every moment of our day is an opportunity to follow in the path of Jesus and attaining his skill of doing his father’s will. And this then starts to give meaning to all of our lives, even to the laborious bits, even to the moments of suffering.
So now we would like to share with you some examples from our own lives.



[Personal testamony 1, Personal testamony 2, Personal testamonies video from the youth Friday prayer group]



So hopefully these practical examples have got us all thinking about how our church life is relevant to our everyday lives and in particular how we can try to live out the phrases of the gospels in our everyday lives. I would like to invite you so form into groups of two or three and discuss the question, “How can I become a better apprentice of Jesus”.
[New slide - “How can I become a better apprentice of Jesus?”]
We will give you three minutes for this, plus a couple of minutes to note down your insights on the cards that have been distributed. We are not going to collect these cards in, they are for you to make a few notes to help remind yourself of ways of applying what we learn in church to our everyday lives.
[3 minutes]
So that is three minutes so please be finishing off you conversations now and start making a few notes for yourself on the card. Remember the card is for you to take away with you, and to remind you of things from church and from the gospels that you can put into practice day by day.
[2 minutes]
Right – thank you for that, so please could you be finishing off and putting your pens down and put your cards in you’re your pocket or bag where you will remember to take it with you. And let’s summarise where we have got to.
[Screens return to the icon picture of Jesus]
I said at the beginning that Jesus is the expert in living life, and we as apprentices have the opportunity to learn to live like him. But to say that Jesus is the expert on life is rather understating the point. Jesus is in fact the source of life itself. (e.g. John 1:4, 4:13, 5:21, chapter 6, 14:6, 20:31). Jesus came that we might have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10). And this is why it is so desirable to follow Jesus and to copy him in his way of living. If we do this, then over time we become more Christ like. Christ like qualities start to form within us. (2 Cor 3:18, Col 3:10) This is very reassuring because we start to find that our life in Christ has an enduring quality that survives all manner of disasters and disappointments.
But the benefits of becoming more Christ like extend beyond our own lives. We start to have a positive influence on our families and the people around us. Our relationships start to work properly because everything begins to find its right place under God. Problems start to disappear.

So I commend to you living as an apprentice of Jesus as a way of making our church life relevant to our day to day lives.