Sermon - "Defeatism" July 11th 2004
@ Fortwilliam Park Presbyterian Church

Reading: Romans 12:9-21

Last week Lesley discussed with us about giants, we all have many personal giants and our congregation is no exception. Since my arrival there have been several reoccurring jokes in the church one being my choice of children's song each week which some would say is a giant and another one concerning whether we will be here in the future or not. The joke on its own is fine mainly because it is quite humorous for example when I return from the caravan will we be able to get into the church on Sunday, but there is truth in the statement about our future. But why? Yes, our congregational numbers have gotten smaller, our building has developed it own issues. Our parish/community is changing; it isn't as easy as it was to be Fortwilliam Park anymore. Also we are currently as you all know under review by presbytery to discern our "viability" of staying within this community, our community and this is constantly hung over our heads.

This has created an overlying feeling of defeatism, which according to the dictionary,"is the acceptance or expectation of defeat" and for us that means closure and in my year here I have felt this feeling from a lot of people. Is it our fault that we feel this way? Presbytery has put us in the horrible state of limbo, which leaves us always doubting and wondering about the uncertainty of our future, and they seem to have neglected the notion of or forgotten what that can do to the morale and the faith of a congregation and the work of the church as a whole. If presbytery were to give us an answer would that change anything? Maybe.

Some of the problem is that we focus upon the negatives more than necessary. It doesn't do anything for us to constantly come back to being pessimistic, what it does do is take away our time and energy from doing other things, like enjoying the fellowship we have here, our working within the community or supporting the work of our minister. In focusing upon the negative I think we begin to rely less upon our faith and more upon worrying about things.

When I mention faith I don’t mean faith in God's existence and in his love but faith in his will.

From the reading earlier in Romans, Paul is telling the reader of this letter about what they as a church should be doing. When reading the remarks think about the things that Paul says that people should do as part of the church. Among them you will not find focus on the fear of the future. These churches were facing imminent closure through the persecution of the Romans. Their closure process was far shorter with fewer committees it was execution or slavery. So what did they do? They continued with what they had and all they could do was trust that God would look out for them. Faith is the key; we have to trust just as they did. Fortwilliam Park's future isn't exclusively tied down to what we try to do and what we are not able to do. God uses us in many ways. If it is his will then we shall continue to be in this community doing what he will have us to do. What we mustn't forget is that for us to accomplish his will we must continue to work within the community and strive to reach out and share his message. How we share that message should be our focus not how can we stay open or are we going to stay open.

What we should do to pull ourselves out of the defeatist ideology is to focus upon faith, faith and hope. Fortwilliam has many things for which to draw its hope of a future from. One is the youth of the church; we have again a group of your children and grandchildren who are growing up in the Christian faith here at Fortwilliam. Sometimes it is hard to see this, I have the luxury of working with your youth each week and have watched in only a year what amazing youth you do have. They will be the future of this congregation, and not in 60 years but far sooner than that. Another is Fortwilliam's growing involvement in the community. One way is the Partnership in Community Transformation which is making a large impact within this area in many ways. Also we are home to an Alcohol Anonymous group which we don't interact with often and which God is using to reach out to troubled people in the area, then there is the Home-Start which uses our rooms for its programs which also aide members of our community. Fortwilliam Park can also draw upon its assets such as having a young minister and also for hopefully moving past some of the more burdensome problems with our beloved building.

We must concentrate our faith upon the work of the church. We have to trust that God will continue to use us here to do his work and will. At times this has been and will be difficult but that is what makes what we have to do rely on faith.

One more dose of hope for those whose hearts are not yet filled with enough hope to forget our situation. You as a congregation have made great strides into reviving what it means to be a church in a community. It isn't in the traditional sense as we would think. Yes, most of our neighbours would be linked to a different tradition than ours but that shouldn't separate us from the message that Christ showed us. With that in mind you are moving towards a newer approach of an older idea.

Lastly, to emphasise a bit differently than before. What we have to do is forget about the review as if it is worth of all of our time and efforts and focus on the future. I know that there has been talk about what to do to fix up the premises here and the pros and cons of attempting something like that. I say move forward, if we are doing it because it needs or should be done to better serve the wider Christian community then I cannot see God stopping us. Yes it is bold, think positive. Yes, we want to be here, we want to share God's message, we want to help God’s people regardless of who they are.

I leave you with one last thought, the energy that we and our world use to focus on the negative and the continual defeatism were to be channelled for humanitarian work and world mission how much could we accomplish.


BENEDICTION:
Be with us as we leave today not to think about our future with fear but to one that we share with all people of faith and hope. Amen