Rethinking Church: Where are you? [Genesis 3:9] Location, location, location. I wonder if you’re familiar with this Channel 4 programme that seeks to help people find their perfect house? The name of the programme emphasising that apparently the key to finding the perfect house is all about place. Location, location, location could also be a phrase that points us to one key theme that runs throughout the Biblical story of God’s engagement with God’s people. A theme that is crucial for us to grasp as we reimagine Church and seek to understand God’s mission. In the very first line of Genesis we read “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth”. God is God of all the heavens, of everywhere, and yet is specifically identified as the God of earth. One place in all of the heavens is singled out. From the very start we are told God has a particular relationship with one particular place; earth. And God is similarly known in one particular way; as Creator. We see this pattern continuing through the work of creation. As the earth is shaped and formed, one particular part of creation is chosen to bear God’s image; humanity. Chosen to relate to the rest of creation in a particular way; to partner with God in creating, in caring, in continuing to bring forth and enable life [Genesis 1: 26-28]. And just like with God’s relationship with the whole universe takes particular shape in one place – earth – so too does humanity’s relationship with creation. For though we are to care for all the earth, this takes expression and starts in one particular place. God creates a garden in Eden, God places humanity within it, to tend and keep it [Genesis 2: 4-8 & 15]. This particular place is where humanity is to learn initially what it is to be in relationship with God, and to share in God’s mission, by tending and keeping a garden in one part of the whole of creation. And we see this pattern continuing throughout the Biblical story. I wonder if you have ever noticed just how many place names are mentioned in the Bible? Throughout the various books of the Bible we are consistently told where something happened, where someone was from, where they were going, why a place had a certain name. This is more than simply a consequence of telling stories; place matters. This repeated inclusion of place names makes clear to us that God doesn’t deal with us in the abstract, but in the particular. God isn’t just some vague idea, some aloof person, but is known by particular people, in particular places, at particular times, in particular ways. And we see this ultimately embodied in Jesus. God loves the whole world. God needs to act to save, and so God becomes human, and lives out God’s mission, God’s life, God’s love, in one particular place, at one particular time, in one particular way. Jesus’ death and resurrection may be universal and once for all, but Jesus also shows us that the coming of God’s Kingdom is particular. Look how Jesus announces his mission in Luke 4:18-21. For some it is experienced as a welcome message of invitation, that you are no longer shut-out (good news to the poor); for some it is experienced in being set free from all that has long bound them (release to the captives); for others it comes as healing or a new way of seeing the world or themselves (sight to the blind); to still others it is known in the lifting of burdens and the shattering of barriers (the oppressed going free). Throughout Jesus’ ministry he announces that God’s Kingdom is here, but it is always embodied in specific acts in particular places. Where he is, who he is with, matters. So too for us. The Methodist Church can summarise our understanding of what we believe it is to be Church in Our Calling. That we are to worship, to learn and to care, to serve, and to share the good news of God’s love with others. This is what we shall be exploring over the coming weeks. But if we are created in God’s image, and God works specifically in particular places, then so too must we. We need to ask what is the good news of God’s love for the specific people and the particular places we find ourselves in (either as a scattered church in our daily lives, or as a gathered church)? What does God’s Kingdom look here in this place? What does it mean to worship and serve where we are? Back to creation. When God comes looking for Adam and Eve after they have eaten the fruit that was forbidden and hidden [Genesis 3: 1-8], God calls out to them, “Where are you?” [Genesis 3:9]. This is far more than the cry of someone seeking one who is lost. It’s a question that invites them to consider where they are. To look around, to see how God has been at work, to remember what they are called to, and who they are to be, in one particular part of God’s creation. Where are you? This was the first question that God asked to humanity, perhaps it is the first question we should be asking now? Do we know the places in which we find ourselves? Do we need to learn more about our communities so that God’s Spirit can help us see what God’s Kingdom looks like there? Do we need to get to know better the people where we live or work, so that God can reveal to us what shape God’s love needs to take for them? Have we, like Adam and Eve, taken to hiding, perhaps in our buildings, perhaps in the way we have always done things, that we have ceased working with God to bring life in this particular place? Is God is asking us now; Where are you? If we want to be serious about sharing in God’s mission, in knowing what it is to be Church, then we need to take seriously the places we are. We need to hear again God’s first question Where are you?