Creator God, may we hear your word of grace and respond to your astounding generosity with gratitude and love for you and for one another.  Amen.

In today’s Gospel Jesus teaches his disciples what it means to follow God’s way of self-giving love – and they find it extremely hard to grasp – even Peter, who last week was declaring Jesus to be the Son of God, is now in danger of being a stumbling block to God’s purposes because as Jesus says to him – you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.

God’s way of going about things is downright reckless to our way of thinking – why on earth would you throw away everything and let yourself be arrested, endure suffering and be killed?

But we do know why Jesus, the disciples in their turn, and then so many of those early Christians, and many since, were prepared to throw caution to the winds and in so doing, seize hold of life!

The way of Jesus means we can let go of all the things that seem to matter to the world – and discover instead the true joy of our faith. When we let go of ourselves we find the Lord.

In the early church they discovered this and it transformed their lives!

In the letter to the Romans, Paul writes to those just starting out as Christians in Rome and gives some excellent advice – let love be genuine, love one another with mutual affection, reject evil and turn to the good, love and serve the Lord passionately, rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. When we are able to live like this, then we all flourish!

And then he says – contribute to the needs of the saints, extend hospitality to strangers.

As far as hospitality is concerned, I think its fair to say that both St Luke’s and St John’s are known to be welcoming churches – warmth and welcome, friendship and food have always been on offer. All my friends and family when they visit are always very impressed with our Sunday welcome and the refreshments afterwards – especially that we serve sherry every week!

And in recent times of course, we’ve been offering a welcome through the work of the Hub.

Notice the word ‘extend’ in the passage – we may have always been welcoming but the hospitality on offer can be extended further – like stretching wide our arms to welcome those who wouldn’t normally be welcomed, extending a hand of friendship and support, going the extra mile – going beyond our own comfort zones. We did this at St John’s at our Patronal Festival – extending hospitality to almost 100 people.

Doing this, running the Hub twice a week, is challenging, uncomfortable, its hard work and we all feel over-extended at times too! As Jesus makes clear in the Gospel, this is to be expected when we are following him. We must deny ourselves and take up our cross – it demands self-sacrifice – but both Jesus and Paul tell us that we are rewarded in doing this – often in the moment and most surely in heaven.

Although there is certainly a cost to us in doing the work of the Hub – the financial cost is covered by the funds from the Council – what we have to provide is a building which has always been a place of refuge and sanctuary for the people of Peterborough, and of course ourselves –our time and effort. How wonderful that we have such a rich resource of people willing to give themselves to support this work in so many ways – thank you to you all.

And we are all involved in the much-needed prayer that underpins this work and helps us hear God’s call to us in mission. The Prayer Adventure that we began last September as we asked God to show us what we were called to do in his name in the life of our City has already led to us becoming a Community Support Hub and to setting up our Pastoral Care and Mission Teams. The Adventure is ongoing and we will continue to pray together and hear where God is leading us.

St Paul also tells us to contribute to the needs of the saints – the saints being Paul’s description of everyone who is a Christian trying to live out the way of love following the example of Jesus. We are the saints now, the people of God, the followers of the Lord.

Contribute to the needs of the saints – well this is about the worship we offer, the ways in which we build up our faith through discipleship, it is about investing in our music as we look to find our next Director of Music to help our worship be even more glorious and involve people of all ages in praise of God, it is about maintaining our buildings as places of prayer and sanctuary, spaces for peace and healing, that tell in their very stone, glass and woods the stories of God, it is also about the ways we get to know one another, share our lives and gifts with one another, care for one another and grow together in friendship and wisdom.

Much of this depends on the wonderful generosity we show in the gift of our time and talents. But some of it depends on money and therefore on the generosity we can offer through our financial giving.

This month we are thinking about all this as part of a Stewardship Review and in the Stewardship Packs you’ll find a leaflet which contains just a snapshot of some of the ways we serve our wider community, and some information about how our finances stack up. Like many churches, we do have a shortfall in our income, which we are currently lucky enough to be able to meet from reserves. But we need to begin to address this now before it becomes a problem further down the line.

And because we want to extend hospitality and grow our church more and not retreat and shrink!

I know we always find it hard to talk about money but no one needs to feel under pressure or made to feel guilty. We give what we can, from what we have, with open and generous hearts, conscious of the extraordinary generosity of our loving God.

In this season of Creationtide throughout September we reflect on the wondrous gift of God to us in the beauty of the earth. So many of us find we meet with God in nature, in a garden, by the sea, watching a sunset or gazing at the stars, marveling at the splendour of creation.

It is a gift that is so huge that our response can only be awe-struck amazement and gratitude at the grace and generosity of God who, great as he is, also shares our human experience and gives his life for us all on the cross.

How might we respond, to so great a God and to such wondrous love?

Service: Reverend Michelle Dalliston. 3rd September 2023. (St John The Baptist Church Peterborough UK)

Readings: Matthew 16: 21 – end