Peter has introduced himself, his authority and the triune God who is at work in his people towards the cause of his purpose. That wonderful reminder of the work of God the Father in choosing us long ago, and how the Spirit works in us to make us holy, so that we might live out the example of Christ and his call as we are being cleansed by his Blood. It was a few short verses at the beginning of a letter that carry much in terms of the truth they teach, and what they call us to. That we are a people whom God has covenanted with (sprinkled with his blood), and that God is at work in and through to advance his Kingdom and bring glory to his name. In our exile moment and waiting, we are not idle or powerless; rather, we are those who are empowered by the Spirit and sent in Grace and peace to make known the name of God in our time, in our city, as we await the fullness of his coming. It was that reminder that although our context is radically different that those whom Peter wrote to in the early church, and even still how different out context is to the time when this church opened its doors all those years ago – how much has changed, nothing has change – our call remains constant, to go deeper into the hope that we have Christ, and to make that Hope know in our time and place. To live out that hope in the Ordinary of our moment, as we love one another, as we serve our communities, much has changed. Still, as we are sent in Gace and Peace we are sent into the turmoil of our world to make known that Grace and peace in our moment, no matter how difficult it may feel, no matter how Hopeless it appears because we know that the God who has done it once will do it again if we are faithful to his calls. Thus, we live out that call of faithful presence and fruitful living in our time and place; we go into the community that is easier to avoid; we choose to remain present when others would withdraw; and we prioritise mission when our institutions are moving into maintenance to manage decline. Why? Because we know from scripture and our own lives that our only hope as individuals, a church, and into the future is the Gospel of Christ. We are those who have been grasped by what God has done, and grasped that Christian Hope begins with Salvation.

1. Blessed Be God: Hope Begins with Salvation (1 Peter 1:3)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. -1 Peter 1:3 CSB

Do you notice what Peter begins this section of his pastoral letter to a church living in exile? How does he continue what he has already begun as he seeks to encourage weary people to remain faithful amid the frustrations of their ordinary, and their moment? Is it instruction? Rebuke perhaps? Expressed frustration at how much this church moans because life is hard? No, to those who have grasped the gospel but have been wearied by the world, Peter continues in the truth that has flowed in every verse we looked at in the last section. Thus, this section begins with a particular outworking of the letter’s introduction: praise. Isn’t it so interesting that Peter does not begin with instruction, warning, or schemes that they should employ? We read scripture, and it seems so natural for these moments to point to God, and we can forget that this is a real church leader writing to a real group of people, and yet he avoids the most natural of human instincts – do better! He begins with worship, not as something to be forced, nor as some weird religious moralism of betterment. No, Peter begins with Praise because that is the natural outworking of the fruitful and faithful Christian life, no matter the reality we are in. In fact, it is the best thing for us, no matter the challenges we face, because our Hope begins in Salvation and is sustained by it. Thus Peter cried in praise: “ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” because it will be worship that sustains our witness as we contend for hope.

1.1 The Power of Praise

We have talked about CS Lewis many times before, and as I was thinking through this section of 1 Peter 1, I was drawn to something I remembered he had written as he reflected on the Psalms, particularly the weight of praise there. You see Psalms like 148, 149, and 150, in which the Psalmist praises God, and that God seems to demand and delight in it rattled Lewis; he thought it vain of God to demand that people praise him! That was until he realised that praise of God was the best thing for any person in any situation. It may have taken him a while, but Lewis grasped the simple truth that sustained Christian hope amid our exile and fruitful living in this world is sustained not by effort, but praise. Thus, in Lewis’s reflections on the psalm, he sought to show that worship was not an added religious duty but the natural overflow of Joy when we have grasped the wonder of the Gospel and our hope because of it. Peter begins with this doxology, not because he is forcing people to worship despite their weariness in suffering; no, it is to remind them of the wonder of salvation, in spite of their circumstances. I love how Lewis put it as he wrote about praise in the Psalms:

“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.”

Praise then is not simply a part of the Christian life; it is our foundation, our cornerstone, our essence, and the best thing for us. We praise God because he is worthy of it, and because of what he has given us in Christ. That mercy from that Cross that interrupted death, and allowed us to experience the fullness of what we were made for! Something so new, so unlike anything in this world that the only imagery that is appropriate is birth.

1.2 New Birth

Think about that moment when Nicodemus approached Jesus in the dead of night and asked about Salvation, what did Jesus say?

“You must be born again?”

This was such a new concept that Nichodemus reacted as any of us would! How can a man enter back into his mother’s stomach? Yet, the shockingness of this image is the beauty of it, and that is what Peter is pointing at here. God is to be praised despite our weariness in the world because he has given us a new birth into a living hope – Jesus Christ our Lord. Salvation is not simply something that saves us from death, it gives us new life – the fullness of life because that life is within Christ: thus our new birth is one that redefined identity. This is why praise comes first! It in and of itself is not to be a denial of our exile or reality, rather in the fact of this world’s darkness it is an act of defiance in the fair of despair; a refusal to let suffering have the final word, because as a people of the Cross we remember the Cross and that God is always able and willing to act. Thus, our praise is part of the collective response of the church, saying that before the perils of our world: “what God has done in Christ is more decisive than what the world can do to us, or offer us!”

1.3 The Hope of New Birth

And notice the language Peter uses further still, not only is our birth new, but the very hope we are born into is alive! It’s not static or fragile: no, it is living and life-giving because this hope is from the fountain of life – Christ. It is a hope that was forged and proven in the fires of the Cross! Thus, we know it can withstand the pressures of our moment, that it can endure the pains of our city, and that it can help us do the same! Why? Because it is anchored not in you or me, my strength or yours – it is rooted in the resurrection and ascension of Christ. Our hope does not rest on whether the church is well-resourced, culturally affirmed, or institutionally secure. Our hope does not rest in an institution that seems to have lost sight of the Gospel, and lacks confidence that God will build His Kingdom and Church, that simply seeks to survive as long as it can manage the decline. No! Our hope rests on the empty tomb. Simply put – Jesus lives eternally, so our Hope lives eternally; And because hope lives, the church is never finished, and never without confidence, no matter the state of our city, streets, or the institutions we mission as a part of – as long as Christ lives, our hope lives. We have a mission to get on with! Through the orientation of our praise, our Endurance in exile becomes possible and fruitful, and our courage becomes normal as the Spirit works through us. Our movement forward in mission becomes a non-negotiable because we know God will do what he said we will do, as our Joy in Christ strengthens our work for Christ.

This is where we must begin as well! Never with the challenges we face, but on the strength of what God has done in Christ, our new birth into a living hope. But with what God has done. A church that forgets this will always drift toward maintenance and anxiety. A church that remembers this will always move outward in confidence and hope. Christian hope does not ignore exile. It outlives it. And that is why Peter starts with praise, because only a living hope can sustain a faithful people in a complex world.

2. An Inheritance That Holds Us Steady (1 Peter 1:4–5)

” and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”

New birth is a strange image to still get our heads around, even if we have grown up in church; it means wrestling with both the truth of it and the vulnerability of that truth. To be born is to be dependent, and to be born again as Christians means that we become like infants – dependent on our Heavenly Father for the new life we have been born into. Yet, this vulnerability is not a weakness of our new existence; it is a strength! We are weak, but in our weakness God is made Strong, and in our weakness the Spirit of God is most at work for the cause of God. Thus, it is because of the kingdom-truth that our dependence on new birth becomes our strength that Peter moves from the image of new birth to the reality of our future certainty.

2.1 Vulnerability is our Strength

The interesting thing about any birth is that time isn’t it? I remember the moment my nephew and niece were born; they were so innocent and vulnerable, yet as time passed, they changed and transformed as they grew older. We never notice the change because it happens slowly day by day, and often it is not until you look back at old photos and see how different they become even after a few months. Time moves us from new birth to maturity, and then one day closer to death. Yet, it was not always meant to be that way – the effects of time on each of us are as much the decay of sin. Our understanding of birth and life in our world today, amid our exile, this new birth that comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is distinctly different from anything we can comprehend. It is not something that changes; we move into it. Time cannot affect what it affords us through Grace and by mercy; this living hope is an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. In this birth, the sad reality of the beauty of birth is that it will one day lead to death. We know that at some level of all new life that is what awaits us; our funeral liturgy reminds us of our frailty – “when the wind goes over it, its place shall know it no more. Yet, this hope that we have in Christ, this hope that sustains us in the difficulties of missional living in our exile moment, amid changing cultures and decaying institutions, is unlike anything in this world! That is why Peter describes it as “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading”: its essence is beyond the confines of our language; no words can fully describe our future in Christ, a future that knows no decay or decline.

2.1 Our Inheritance

Now, amid our moment and all the difficulties we face to live out the Kingdom in our time, to do the work that God has called us to. Peter is doing something real and grounded. This reminder is both of what we are to do – praise, and why: because the new birth is not about escapism. Peter is not telling a weary church to lift its eyes above the horizon of its moment and ignore the world it lives in, to batten down the hatches and wait out the storm, because in Christ we have our all. This is not about the great escape, or some strange form of Christian escapism, because this world is bad, broken and beyond repair – this is about security. Gospel Security is something that secures us in this moment, not just in the future. To worship is not to ignore the world we are in by focusing our minds on some future reality to come, until it comes. Rather than worship, now is the time to root ourselves more deeply in our new birth and living hope because of Christ, which strengthens our foundation and allows us to move out further in mission. Worship conforms us not only to his image, but to our call to know him and make him known.

Think about it for a moment, this inheritance that by faith in Christ is our right is not something stored in the volatility of history or culture or earthly places, but guarded by God’s power and stored in eternity! The same power that guards what is for us to come is at work in us now through faith, not just to scantily us, but to protect us as we move through the world with Christ, and for him. This is something that, when grasped, matters deeply for how we live now, in our moment and place, amid a world hostile to the Gospel and the Kingdom, yet desperately in need of it – our future hope shapes our current living. Why? Because we grasp the essence of our future security, we have confidence in God now, and that confidence leads to courage in the present moment. We move from trying to survive in the shadows to living boldly in the public square in our obedience to Christ. And we remember what we are as the body of Christ, and what we are not. We are not simply an institution trying to preserve itself for another 100 years or until the world decides we are relevant; we are not a building in one place. We are part of the church of Christ, which exists for one thing: to proclaim salvation! Thus, the application of this truth is simple for us today in our moment, and our city – A community secure in the Gospel and that knows where it is going is freed to live faithfully where it is today.

2.3 A Consistent Witness from Scripture

I wonder when you read a passage like this, what your mind goes to? I think about the faithfulness and witness of Daniel and his friends in Babylon. They were living far from home, stripped of the structures that once shaped their faith. Ultimately, it was expected that they assimilate quietly and survive politely. Yet what sustained Daniel in that moment was not influence or position; no, it was worship. Think about the boldness of his choices and actions to be intentional and public: that three times a day he opened his windows and prayed, it was not a choice of safety nor of religious pride. It was simply a choice of confidence, because he knew God was good and in control, despite the moment he found himself in! Daniel did not withdraw from the city or public life, but neither did he belong to it, nor allow himself to be shaped by it. His confidence was rooted elsewhere, and that security freed him to live faithfully right where God had placed him for the good of that place, and the Glory of God! That is the same logic Peter is pressing into the hearts of this weary church: If our inheritance is kept in heaven and cannot be taken from us, then we can live boldly like Christ and for Christ in our now because we know, and our joy from beyond this moment. Worship becomes an act of resistance in exile and a declaration that God’s purposes are greater than the pressures of our moment. When God’s people know what is kept for them, they stop living in fear and start living fruitfully in a way that shines the light of Christ into the darkness of our moment. Our hope in Christ is not simply future-oriented; it holds us steady now as praise and worship sustain our witness. Like the call to the exiles in Jeremiah 29, we have confidence in where we are because God has us there. Thus, in our time, we:

“Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you, and pray to the Lord for it.”

The call to Worship is never one to be absent from the world; instead, our future security gives us courage to be more deeply rooted now within our context. We live out the Jeremiah mandate in our time and place because Prayer fuels our presence, praise strengthens our faithfulness, and hope frees us to love places that are hard, complicated, and which some people might tell us to abandon. We do not sing the Lord’s song because exile is easy, but because God is still God amid exile, regardless of our moment. This is what it looks like to live out the Gospel in our moment and place – to remain present when withdrawal would be simpler, to pray when despair would feel justified, to serve when fruit feels slow; and above all to trust that God who has done it before will do it again in us and through us. This is our call in this city, and this time, and for all time until the Lord comes again – to love a place that carries wounds and weight; not because it is easy or comfortable, but because God has loved us and then in love moved us outwards towards this place, to make known his love.

3. Joy That Endures Pressure (1 Peter 1:6–7)

“You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials, so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Peter does not try to dismiss suffering or diminish what the people are going through, nor does he even rush past it because he is not sure what to do with it. No Pete names it as part of the reality of this world, and thus the reality of our witness in this world: “You rejoice,” he encourages, perhaps even commands – yet, he also acknowledges their current reality as “though now for a little while you suffer grief” not as something rare in the Christian experience, but as something that is to be expected. You see these two things sit side by side in our walk with God in this world. There is something beautiful in how Peter refuses to separate them from one another, to let us think that Joy can be absent from pain – or that it should be. Peter simply tells the church that Joy is honest, and grief is real and that they can go hand in hand. Their Hope is living and real, even though they find themselves under pressure.
Furthermore, the trials he speaks of are not abstract ideas or internal struggles alone. No, they are part of the challenge that comes from living faithfully in places that are resistant to the truth of God, in institutions that are drifting from the mission of God. Maybe this is something that feels close to our moment, the place that God has us. We know the community we live in, the daily challenges many face to survive, and the resources needed to make a difference. Perhaps we have even experienced the challenges in our circles that often remain unseen: isolation, addiction, fractured trust, and exhaustion carried by so many unseen and every day.

3.1 Joy that Endures in the Ordinary

Those are not the only challenges we can face, add to that the quieter pressure that comes in our service as we seek to be bold and courageous in the gospel when caution has become the norm, and where shrinkage is almost assumed and accepted in our city, where more energy and vision seems to be spent managing decline rather than investing in future vision that is dependent on God. It is tiring when caution becomes the norm and courage almost seems discouraged. Peter does not deny any of the challenges that the church faces, nor would he dismiss our current situation: yet, he also refuses to let difficulty become the lens through which we interpret our movement and discipleship! Rather, he reminds the church, and us, about a simple truth: trials are “for a little while,” in light of our eternal hope and new life in Christ, and they are not meaningless; nor are they signs of failure or abandonment. It is something far more beautiful, far more tangible, and far more hopeful – those moments of difficulty are in fact the context in which God is at work.

How do we know? Because of the imagery that Peter employed, that of fire! Specifically refining fire – and image deployed to both encourage us in our moment, and teach us something about our moment. In some contexts, fire destroys, but when that context is gold, fire is not something negative; it is something beautiful – it cannot destroy gold, nor even lessen the value of gold, instead it reveals the fullness of God as it burns away that which does not belong to leave that which is genuine and good. I think if we are honest, this is something that can be hard to hear, and harder to understand – but in the context of our lives and living our lives, it is also something that should give us hope because at its essence what Peter is saying is that God is at work in our moment, amid our difficulty, and in our normal. Peter is telling us that amid our exile, rather than God being absent from our suffering, he uses the difficulties we face to refine us, and to reveal in us that which is beautiful and authentic – all that is from the work of God in our lives! You see, here is the simple truth: difficult/pressure/hardship will ultimately expose what we have truly built our lives upon. So either it will show the beauty of Christ in us or expose the falseness of our foundations; that we are genuinely in reputation, resources, titles, positions or possessions rather than in God through faith in Christ and the Holy Spirit. What do we do amid the difficulties we face? We hold fast to the hope of our new birth and the call in his Kingdom; at times, seasons like this can begin to strip things back in terms of how we understand our faith, and desire to move forward in faith.

3.2 When God Refines

We begin to think that difficulty is a sign of something going wrong, so the temptation to retreat sets in, to reduce the vision to something manageable – to play it safe and do what is manageable, that might not be a bad thing. Yet, we need to understand that survival is not faithfulness; these words from 1 Peter should challenge that thought! Faith refined by fire becomes stronger, not weaker, as our dependence on Christ deepens. In that place, our prayer becomes more urgent, and worship becomes a necessity of the moment rather than a luxury.

What is the fire of this moment refining in our lives? Tradition? Pride? Arrogance? What is being purified in our church, and in ourselves, so that what remains serves the gospel and the call of the Kingdom. Let’s be clear: in our moment and in this city, the decline we see in the church is not defeat, and the difficulty we face is not a signal to shut up shop and withdraw; no, it is the moment when God wants us to be. Yet our choice as we look back in thanks over 175 years is that we will trust that God might be beginning to clear space for something new, for something that we cannot do without him – for renewal and growth in this church and in our city.

3.3 We Endure Because God is At Work

Thus, Peter insists that everything God is involved in leads to something! In our moment, refined faith will result in praise, glory, and honour as Jesus Christ is revealed in us and through us. If we learn to depend more on God, and to become a church that is shaped by hope and confident in Christ, then in God’s timing, we will see God, perhaps in this year of celebration and looking forward. Have you seen in the news that across the UK, people can no longer deny that God is doing something, as there are daily signs of a renewal of faith? The Guardian of all papers had an article about the significant increases in Bible sales over the last year among people who did not grow up with the church or any Christian faith! That does not mean revival is inevitable, nor does it mean that amid it we will not face challenges. Still, perhaps it is a sign that should give us confidence in the very tasks God is calling us to as he shows us he is not finished with this nation, with our city, and with this Church! The gospel still carries power in places that feel resistant, and Peter’s words should move us from a posture of fear to a position of courage as we take up our Cross and move forward together in the power of the Spirit into the Darkness that surrounds us. Today, there is joy, not because the road is easy, but because Christ is alive, his purposes are advancing, and faith shaped by fire is being prepared to shine the light of the Gospel into our streets today, and for the glory of the Father!

4. Loving Christ in the Waiting (1 Peter 1:8–9)

“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

There is something honest in the way Peter names what a normal experience of the Christian life looks like. There is nothing dramatic about it; it is just normal, ordinary, consistent life in the Spirit. There are no suggestions that faith must always feel strong, be emotionally charged, or be this bold and vibrant public display! What does Peter do? He speaks to ordinary believers living in ordinary places, under the extraordinary pressure of their moment and declares to them the truth of the gospel and God’s consistent presence: “you have not seen him, and yet you love him and our loved by him!” That matters deeply in a place like ours, in our ordinary: where faith is often lived quietly, without spectacle amid constant challenge and difficulty. Add to that the challenge of what faith has become for some people in our land – the keeping of religious habits without an affection for Christ, our heart that even knows him. Peter is not rebuking that reality, but he is gently reorienting it to what it should be as we live out the Kingdom in our place: that our Love for Christ begins with trust in the waiting: even when certainty feels thin. Answers are slow, even when it might seem that God is absent. It is in the tension of those moments when faith is refined, and fruit grows, by the work of the Spirit in us and through us because of the love of God for us. It is all from God and for his cause, and that is so important for each of us to hear because there is grace in our living, in every season of our lives: when pressure increases, when we feel tired from our ordinary, when the weight of worry feels heavier than the day before, when we wonder if our faith and sharing of it is having any impact in the darkness around us: it is so easy to slip into doubt, apathy or idleness, because we have been measuring our faith through the lens of success, output, and doing: Or we judge the churches we belong to as if they where a buisness: income, numerical figures, and growth metric’s – then we decide if its useful or sustainable.

4.1 Well Done Good Servant

Yet, what is it that Jesus will say to his servants when they come? “How many people did you lead to faith?” Or “How much money, time, or effort did you give to my Kingdom?” No, he will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” Because what matters alone in Christ is not output but where we have rooted our lives – in what we have faith. Why? Because those who the Gospel has humbled are those who delight in the truth that it is not our strength of faith but his strength. Peter is reminding us that the Gospel life is primarily about Jesus, and when we root ourselves in him and delight in him, our fruitfulness flows from him. Yet, there is tension in this not yet moment because although we know God is at work we cannot see clearly what he is doing; so we live in the tension of the now and the not yet where God’s rule is still to be fully realised we must always rest in the assurance that nothing us wasted amid our ordinary – in it God is doing somethign extraordinary for his cause and Glory. More beautifully still: in the ordinary of our waiting, our knowledge of him grows, and our trust in him deepens, because that is where the Spirit works.

Peter then pushes that truth further as he shows us that even in the uncertain seasons of our life with Christ, we can know him because we receive from him, that this is not just something about the future to be realised: in every hour we walk with Jesus, by the Holy Spirit in us we are receiving from Christ, to the Glory of God. That is the beauty and tension of life in the Kingdom, the Kingdom we are a part of in Belfast, and advancing each day in Belfast as we live faithfully, serve in Love, and follow the Spirit into the ordinary as we remember that the fullness of our salvation can be experienced now with Christ, even though we delight in knowing there will be more to come. That is what God wants to do in each of us in the normal of our day – to show us more of Christ, and show more of Christ through us. It is in our ordinary, this moment right now, where the already and the not yet meet.

4.2 Our Life Together

Furthermore, this is why our life together matters: We are not called to endure alone, nor to generate confidence from within ourselves for the cause of God by our own effort! No, we are the body of Christ, so in the Spirit together we move forward together, we grow together by means of Grace: the Word, prayer, praise. and via the sacraments. In each place, we remind one another about what Christ has done and encourage one another along the road that Christ has called us to walk. The gathering of God’s people is not a pause from mission or the life of faith, nor is it the pinnacle of it: rather, it is the place where our loves are reordered and our confidence is renewed as the Spirit gathers us to then scatter us back out into the world. We dwell in Christ before we move for Christ! Why? because a mission without abiding becomes exhaustion, and service without love becomes dutiful obligation. Peter’s words reassure us that the Christian life does not advance through strain and stress; it advances through Grace and by abiding in His mercy. In the tension of knowing that we are called to the cause of his Kingdom, but first we are held in the love of his embrace. Yet, more beautiful still – because we are held eternally by him, we are released and strengthened for his cause – amid our ordinary. In the waiting, in the uncertainty, in the ordinary rhythms of faithfulness, Christ is forming a people who love him, and who by the Spirit make his love known in word and deed in the places he has rooted us – in our ordinary.

5. Contending for Hope with Confidence (Conclusion)

5.1 Contending In The City

As we stand at the beginning of this year, and as this church stands at the beginning of its 175th year of worship and witness, Peter’s words do not allow us to retreat into nostalgia about the days when church was full, when we did not have to worry about mission because everyone just came to church! Nor, does he allow us to feel some sense of anxiety about our future or the places God might be calling us to reach; places like: Tiger’s Bay, The New Lodge, Duncairn, York Street, and the Shore Road and the centres of community and life in them (The Times, The Mount, Midlands ABC, Harry D’s Lounge, The Hole in the Wall, The Grove, Cityside, and Duncairn Community Centre) No we are to be free from Nostalgia or anxiety because our call remains the same every hour of every day – to love him, abide in him, and live faithfully for him in our ordinary. It is in the place, and from that Gospel posture that we will see the fruit of the Spirit. Our hope does not rest on whether our plans succeed, whether institutions are growing or vibrant. Our mission does not depend on the permission of those above us or their vision. No, God has placed us in this city, and given us a heart for this city and calls us to serve this city – often despite the institutions that we are a part of as they drift from a firm foundation into maintenance and survival. We get on with the work because our hope rests on a risen Lord, on an inheritance that cannot fade, and on a salvation that is already at work among us, even as it awaits its fullness! Why? Because we know that the hope of Christ is the light this city needs and the only thing that will bring true renewal.

5.2 Contending In the Ordinary

No one is denying the difficulty of the city that God has called us to serve, how weary it can feel to move out into the streets around us, as we encounter stories shaped by loss and waiting, and people who have felt let down by the Church, even abandoned. Yet, when we look around, we can see how we are also standing in a place of renewal. New train stations across the road, a brand new university within a stone’s throw and 19,000 people studying in it, and 3000 people living in the accommodation blocks we can see. Even in the last week, the news was full of plans for homes that will be built within walking distance of this church building, businesses that will open to serve those new communities – all of it is new lives that will be formed in these streets and around us. Renewal is coming to our area whether we want it or not, houses will be built as York Street begins a new chapter, as new life is breathed into sailors’ town, and all the empty spaces we can see from here – they will not be empty much longer. Yet, the question that now lingers before us is, amid renewal, are we willing to adapt our means of mission and being to make known our hope – the true renewal? Is God moving us not just to be present amid the urban renewal, but also to move out in mission and bring true renewal through the presence of Christ? That as we root ourselves in the gospel and our ordinary for him, we might become a community that is deeply rooted, prayerfully present, and joyfully committed to this place, even as others might seek to abandon.

5.3 Contending Today

Perhaps 175 years ago, God placed us right where we are to be at the centre of a period of urban renewal, being a place where the Gospel is preached, sinners come to faith, lives are transformed as people are freed from sin, addiction, and slavery to earthly things because they have met the mercy of God in us or through us! To be a place that, as the city grows, people cannot stop talking about because they are not Sure what to do with us? Or perhaps we are simply content to manage decline and preserve what is familiar because its just easier?, What if we trust the truth of the God’s Salvation soverginity that he has placed us here for such a time as this: not as witnesses to renewal but as those from whom the true renewal of the gospel is made in word and deed as we live out the Kingdom amid our ordinary?

Today! Why? because we are already held, already loved, already secure in Christ. Faithful presence, costly love, and patient witness are not signs of institutional survival; they are signs of resurrection life at work in us and through us by the Spirit. Furthermore, if you are here today unsure of faith, unsure of God, unsure of what you believe, hear this clearly: He has you here to hear that the hope we speak of is not an idea or a tradition, but a living Savoiur who still calls, still restores, and still gives life for all who trust in him by faith The Challenge before each of us is clear this morning: Will we dwell deeply in Christ, and then in the Holy Spirit move outward in love? Will we contend for hope here, together, trusting that the God who has sustained his people through generations is not finished yet? Why? Because where Christ is loved and proclaimed, and the Holy Spirit is at work in his people, the future is never ordinary, and there is hope that God is doing something that will be extraordinary and for his glory.