"If these walls could speak..."

Here's my sermon for Broughton's Civic Service this year:

I think that I can say without fear of contradiction that this year has been a very interesting one politically! Whatever your opinion might be of the referendum, the party political leadership elections, the US Presidential race; whatever your opinion might be of these, they've certainly got people thinking and talking about politics in a way we haven't for many years. And this is no bad thing. But one of the consequences of this is that it has caused, or at least highlighted many divisions in our society and even between family and friends. So we gather today aware of our differences and perhaps wondering whether we do share much in common with our neighbour at all.

But what better place to gather at this turbulent time than here in St Mary's?  This year, as many of you are aware, we are celebrating our 950th Anniversary, although as Dr Kevin Leahy reminded us in his lecture here last night the church is certainly older than that.  Just think about the history that this church has been around for, as the old saying goes “If these walls could speak...”

The Norman Conquest, the Magna Carta, the Reformation, the Civil War, the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, two world wars, one world cup... the list goes on.  Loads of times of turbulence, loads of eras of uncertainty, loads of periods where communities and families were divided.  Yet this place has been a constant.

It's been a constant reminder that there is something bigger than us, something more stable and reliable.  Sometimes when the school children come in to look around this church we think about how big it is and how much bigger it would have seemed when it was first built and people lived in small single storey houses, perhaps made of wood.  We think about how extravagant and unnecessarily high it is and we think about two reasons for that. Firstly it was big enough to hold everyone in the village, everyone could find a place here.  But secondly, and most importantly, it reminds us of how big, strong and secure God is.

This year we've been able to help people rediscover their place here.  Last academic year the school children  and some of the staff each made a square or a leaf that have been put together to form the two banners either side of me.  They now have a very visible place within the fabric of the church, that will hopefully be there for many generations to come.  This weekend we had the parish registers out so people could find themselves and their family in the history books – part of the life of this church.  This is their church, this is our church and we all have a place in it.

When the children are thinking of words to describe this building they say things like 'welcoming', 'like home','peaceful', like another world', 'safe'.  This is partly because for almost a thousand years people have been worshipping and praying here and the presence of God can be felt here.  God, who is the true firm foundation for our lives; God, who loves us even if we think we're unlovable; God, who believes in us even if we don't believe in him.

In these uncertain times, we need places like St Mary's to remind us that although there have always been difficult times, both in our national and international life and in our community and families, even though there have been difficult times, these times pass.  We need places like St Mary's to remind us that despite our differences we can come together as a community because we are all welcome here.

But also it reminds us that especially in our darkest times we need Jesus the light of the world; in a time of confusion in leadership we need Jesus who is the truly wise King of kings; in our broken world we need Jesus who reconciles us to each other and to God; in our divided world we Jesus who is the only Prince of Peace and ultimately the only answer to humanity's problems.