All Saints College Benefactors Service – Sermon by Michael Deasey Thursday 18th September 2014 Readings: Psalm 16; Romans 8. 28-39

When the cameras finally showed us the devastation of Malaysian airlines Flight 17 that was shot down over the Ukraine countryside in July, side by side with all the debris of bits of aircraft, twisted seats, broken and spilled luggage, children’s toys, and broken bodies, was the sight of sunflowers in full bloom, some of them breaking through the actual wreckage. It was a combination of beauty and horror all mixed up together. And it seemed to me to be a snapshot of the world we live in. Good and evil exist together; beauty and ugliness share the same space. That’s the kind of world we inhabit. But the sight of those sunflowers reminded me of words we’ve just heard read; ‘nothing can separate us from the love of God’. God’s love is there despite all the mess that’s going on around it. Those sunflowers still bloomed in their beauty although surrounded by the wreckage and ruin of machine and human lives. When I was flying back from England a couple of weeks ago I would sometimes follow the flight path on the screen in front of me, and every now and then it would give a satellite view of the earth. And it’s then you’re reminded the world is always a mixture of light and darkness. Day and night always exist side by side. If you are leaving school, you are about to confront head on, more than ever before, a world that contains both joy and sadness, good and evil, beauty and ugliness. Along the way you will meet all kinds of different people too. If you are a follower of Christ you will come across those who will try to unsettle you – it’s probably already happened. In this country you might only get ridiculed – other countries you can get killed. But what difference does it make anyway to identify with Christ? A short time ago the entertainment world was shocked by the sudden death of the actor and comedian Robin Williams. Those who saw his movie ‘Dead Poets Society’ will never forget the scene when he, as the English teacher jumped on his classroom desk, soon to have his example followed by all the students. And his point was that by standing on a desk, you see the rest of the room from a different perspective. What you see depends on where you are standing. Christians are people who are not better than anyone else but because they seek to have a relationship with their Creator, they see things from a different perspective. They know that we don’t live in a cosmic orphanage but are loved by a God with the kind of love that will eventually triumph through the very worst that evil can dish up. The kind of God who, if we let him will show us the true path of life and in whose presence there is fullness of joy - words that have just been read to us from Psalm 16. . I finish with this one important question. How can you, how can I show God’s love in a world, that has so much beauty, and yet so much anguish and hate? If you are being farewelled today you will be given a candle. You might not know why. Some people scoff at candles, even some Christians (Christians can be great scoffers too) particularly if you tell them a candle is a powerful reminder of the light of Christ. What a pathetically weak reminder they might say. But they don’t get it. You see, the thing about a candle is that if you light the smallest candle and put it in the darkest room it will make a difference. Christians are called not to be bulldozers or bible bashers, they’re not called to judge others, not called to declare who’s in and who’s out, but are called to make a difference – to bring a little light in the darkness. No matter what university you go to if any, no matter what career path you might follow, the most important thing you can ever do is make a difference. Rather than being wrapped up in yourself (because people wrapped up in themselves make a very small package) remember the candle you were given today and set out to make a difference, however small, maybe to someone else’s life each day; to be something like those sunflowers in that Ukrainian field of death - to show that ultimately nothing can separate us from the love of God.