By Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
One
pet food company sponsors an annual competition entitled ‘I look like my dog.’
And hundreds of people, who really ought to know better, send in photos of
themselves and their doggy companion. When it comes to humans, researchers have
found that the longer couples stay together, the more they look like each
other. It seems that this is due to shared experiences built up over many years
together. So as time goes on, we are influenced with whom and what we have
decided to share our lives.
There is a debate in some church circles, namely is the church the place, the building, or is it the people? Perhaps we would prefer to think that the church is the people, those who meet together for worship and fellowship. Perhaps part of our struggle with the unchurched, those people who only come to us for weddings and baptisms, is that they seem to see the church as nothing more than a building. They are not interested in the church as people, people who are trying to be a community together.
Being a good Anglican (sometimes), I would like to take a middle option. I think a church is both people and place. Both are important as part of our ongoing efforts to worship God and to follow his will.
Let’s consider our own church here, St Martin’s of Tours. Our lovely building has been here for over 750 years. And who knows before that? Churches are often built upon places which have been holy for centuries.
I feel that a place takes on a special ambience when it has been a centre for worship and prayer for many years. Those years add to the holiness of a place. For example, have you ever tried to redecorate an old house? You find layer after layer of paint on the walls, each coat added to one another over the years. I think prayer coats the walls of a holy place in the same way. Over the years, our prayers add to those who have gone before us, layer upon layer upon layer. It is this holiness created by prayer that people often feel when they enter a church. God’s Spirit hovers in the air, part of the atmosphere which we breathe as we move around walls and between pews.
When I think of how that Spirit is passed on, I sometimes compare the church to a football team. Now, I will admit, I’m not a sports fan, and so it took me ages to understand why anyone would support the same team for year after year. After all, the players change, the manager gets sacked, and so the team is never the same from year to year. Then I realised that not all the changes happen at once. People come, people go, but the team spirit is passed on. The people may change, but the spirit remains the same.
Same in any church. The people do change. The person sitting in the pew in front of you may not be the same one as when you first came to Welton. Anyone here can name people whose funerals they have attended. Anyone here can also name people who have started coming since their own first appearance in this church.
And that’s why I think the place in which we worship is also important. The people may change, but the building remains. The church building gives us permanence amidst change. We are reminded of those with whom we used to pray, and our own prayers will remain behind when we too move on. The prayers which the Holy Spirit has inspired are held and preserved in these walls, layer upon layer upon layer.
The church is both people and place. The orthodox view of Jesus is that he is both fully human and fully divine. I think the church reflects this idea. In the incarnation we have God as one of us, a ‘God with skin on.’ And we all need that, we need each other to remind us that Christ is Emmanuel, God with us. God is closer to us than our breathing, and Christ is to be seen in the face of each person we greet. The church is the Spirit of God present in his people.
But people change, and the place in which we worship reminds us that God is also beyond us. God, as the hymn states, is ‘Immortal, invisible, God only wise.’ And we are reminded,
‘To all, life Thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life Thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish—but naught changeth Thee.’
I also think that the saint to which a church is dedicated can, and should, have an influence upon the people in that church. St Martin, whom we celebrate today, is well worth our admiration, particularly in today’s troubled world.
Martin was born in 316 AD, in France. When he was ten years old he started going to church, and started preparations for baptism. This was actually courageous thing to do, because at the time Christianity was still a minority religion and people were still killed for being Christians.
At the age of 15 he was required to join the Roman cavalry. It was during this time that he had his famous experience, the one for which he is most remembered. Whilst riding one day he came across a beggar. The man had very little to wear against the cold, so Martin took his sword and cut his own cloak in half. He gave half to the beggar and rode on.
That night Martin had a vision. He saw Jesus speaking to the angels, saying, ‘This is Martin, a Roman soldier, who gave me something to wear.’ By helping the beggar, Martin had helped Jesus himself.
Martin was baptised. He later left the army, because he began to feel that being a Christian was inconsistent with being a soldier. He became a priest and, later, was made bishop of Tours. As bishop he led an early part of the monastic movement. St Martin is perhaps better known in his native France, and is one of the patron saints of France, as well as being a patron saint of soldiers and horses and, interestingly enough, wine makers.
In what ways can St Martin inspire us, the people who worship in the church which bears his name? I think his story reminds us that we can remain faithful to our calling as Christians in a country which often seems uninterested in our faith, a country in which we can feel like a minority. Like St Martin, we are still called to serve others—those who are poor in spirit, those who are poor in material goods. And by helping others, we are indeed serving our Lord, Jesus himself. Amen.