Launch of the Crossroads Mission
Welcome to the Archbishop, to all of our visiting bishops and their teams on behalf of the whole Diocese of Sheffield.
We are delighted you are here. We look forward so much to working with you and to your encouragement and friendship in God’s mission across this Diocese.
I want to invite all of the home team to express the warmth and appreciation we feel to those who have come to join us.
This Crossroads mission was born in prayer as the bishops met on Holy Island and prayed together for the north of England. God willing it is the first of many, a symbolic new evangelization of the north.
Our hope for these four days is that we will together sow the good seed of the gospel, the word of God, in many different ways and many different places. Through what we say, through listening, through the love we show, through being there. In the scriptures we offer, through the text messages we will send.
We want to sow that living word with compassion, with gentleness, with courage, with imagination to many thousands of people across this Diocese.
This world God loves is indeed standing at the crossroads and so are many hundreds of thousands of people across this region. Our task is to point them to the ancient paths, the forgotten wisdom of the Christian faith which lies deep in the rock and soil and history of this land. Our task is to uncover the good way again and encourage people to walk in it and find rest for their souls.
We do well to remember as we go that the word of God which we sow is living and active. God created the heavens and the earth through his word. The promise of scripture is that God’s word moves heaven and earth still, especially when that word is proclaimed in the public square.
This seed we bear holds immense potential for life. It will seem a small thing to hand someone a beermat, or offer them a gospel, or speak to them after an assembly or listen at the Show. But that one text or conversation may be the turning point for the whole of their life and the life of their family.
As Jesus says, “the kingdom of God is like mustard seed, the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all the shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade”. Who can know what will happen because of our work together over these next few days.
All of us, the home team and the away team, are bearers of the gospel. Paul writes these words to the Church in Rome and to the Church down all the ages. Let his words echo round this cathedral today as we go out in faith:
“I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith”.
In this mission we are saying together, Amen. We are not ashamed of the gospel we bear. We will carry this message to all whom we meet. It is the message that the word of God, God’s very self, took flesh and became a man, Jesus Christ. It is a message of his life and ministry, a message of love. It is the message of his death on the cross for our sins. It is the message of resurrection and new life and Easter joy. It is the message of the gift of the Spirit, the transformation of human lives and the birth of God’s new people, the Church of Jesus Christ.
Thus says the Lord:
“Stand at the crossroads and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls”.
May God bless each of us as we go and carry this good seed, the gospel of God, to many, many different places. May God bless these communities which we love and serve. May God by his Spirit cause this seed to grow in many different lives in the months and years to come.
Amen.
+ Steven
