Sep 19, 2020
For over 170 years, you, the people of Ipswich Central Mission
and now Ipswich City Uniting church have faithfully lived out your
faith in the Ipswich area. You have not always got it right but you
kept going day after day, year after year. In the mean time other
churches some with leaders which came from this church have grown
while this church has not prospered in recent times as it did in
times past. It may seem unfair.
The future of this congregation is not certain. What is certain is
that God became one of us when Jesus was born. He taught and healed
and was the guest of sinners and saints just like you. He even
died. The Word of God who created the Universe with the Spirit and
the Father died for you. He was raised for you and now he prays at
God’s right hand for You. This is true for you and for all the
Christians churches in Ipswich and around the world. It is true for
every human being who comes to faith even if it is very late in
life. It is a true for a convicted criminal even a murderer who
converts late in life and for a faithful person who like many of
you has lived out their faith from their childhood and youth. We
may not know the future of this congregation, but we know the
future of the church and of the universe and of every Christian.
You have eternal life and the whole creation will be made new.
There is a future. In this life and the next the best is yet to
come. That should be enough. You have God’s undeserved love and you
have the responsibility to share that love with all. If you read
Matthew 20:1-16 I think that maybe you and I are the first
labourers in the vineyard. Like them we should look at what we
have, (God’s love) and not at what others have. Even the last place
in heaven and the new creation is greater than all the riches of
the world. You are loved. There is a future. The best is yet to
come because of the love of God which none of us deserve.