Sermon preached at 11am Eucharist on 4th April 2010 at St Alphege Church, Solihull. A shorter version of this sermon was also preached at the 8am Eucharist.
Easter Day – Year C
Readings: Acts 10: 34-43 1 Corinthians 15: 19-26] Luke 24: 1-12
I was born into a clergy family in Yorkshire. And it was not just my Dad who was a clergyman; my Grandad, Great-grandad and many other family members were also clergy. Perhaps because of this older people in my Dad’s congregation would ask me, “And are you going to follow in your father’s footsteps?” As a little boy I found this a very strange question and I always said “No!”. As I got older I became clearer about this “No”. It seemed to me that our family was so deeply involved in the life of the church that it had lost it perspective on what the church looked liked from the outside. It no longer understood quite why the church was relevant or what it offered to wider society. A more detached perspective was required. I thought my uncle had a good model. He was not ordained and worked in a bank. He was involved in his local parish church and was PCC treasurer. This pattern of involvement in church life as a lay-man seemed good to me. As I married Elaine, and as children came along this was the model we lived to very happily for many years.
Then, although I did not understand it at the time, things started to change in the second half of 1999. The first thing was a new curate at St James in Shirley, where we worshipped. I was very impressed by Peter Babington (now incumbent in Bournville) who was young, in touch, spiritual and had much that was very useful to say to the church. Later however, as I got to know him better, I discovered that he was from an extraordinary clergy family. He was something like the 13 generation in an unbroken line of clergy stretching back to Elizabethan times. I realised that it was possible to come from a strong clergy family and has something relevant to say to the church!
The next thing was a Remembrance Sunday service that both Elaine and I were involved in. After that Elaine asked me when I would be ordained, but I just laughed it off because I felt no sense of called, and without a calling the idea was ridiculous.
The, just before Christmas 1999 I had a dream, which suddenly, for me, was a clear sense of calling. Suddenly it was clear that this was what God wanted from me. The route to heaven that God wanted me to walk, was the route of ordained ministry. This was quite a surprise, but I welcomed it and felt very securely at peace, despite certain negative feelings that I had, for example about the financial implications.
Anyway that sense of call lead to something of a change of direction. It led to a period of discernment with the Church or England which seemed to say “Yes” and then “No” and then “Yes” again. It led to training, to ordination and then to this curacy, for which I am so grateful.
But the reason for telling you this story is to illustrate the point that God’s purposes are worked out of time, and very often we do not see or understand quite what God is doing or why. It takes time for us to understand and take on board what God is up to. The full implications of the work of God take even longer to work out. And I think that this is particularly true of the great and extraordinary work of God that we remember today; the resurrection of Jesus.
I am always struck by the great contrast between the joyful and confident celebration of Easter, which we proclaim in our church liturgies on Easter Morning and the far more delicate and unresolved emotions that we read about in our gospel accounts of the resurrection of Christ. We start our Easter services by saying, “Christ is risen – he is risen indeed! Alleluia.” But in the gospel account that we read from St Luke this morning the women who encountered the empty tomb were described as “perplexed”, “terrified” and “bowed to the ground”. The women’s story was considered an “idle tale” by the apostles. The nearest the women get to a positive affirmation of the resurrection is remembering the words of Jesus, that he would rise again on the third day. The closest that the apostles get is Peter’s amazement at what has happened when he sees the tomb.
In Luke’s account we have to read on to the evening of the first day of the week before there is any clear communal understanding that Jesus is risen. And it is not until Jesus has appeared in the midst of them all and has scolded them for their unbelief, that we arrive at the feeling of joy which is the great mark of Easter. It is clear that our Easter liturgies in church skip rapidly over, what was for the women and for the apostles a rather a difficult day of confusion, realisation and acceptance, before finally developing into a moment of profound joy when they met the risen Christ.
And it seems that it took a long time for the church to work out all the full implications of Jesus’ resurrection. Our reading from Acts shows another great moment of realisation. Peter realises that the salvation that comes from the resurrection of Jesus is not just for the Jews, but for all people who fear God and who do what is right. And even today we might think of the church as continuing to discover, and live out further the full implications of the resurrection of Jesus.
But this process of working out the implications of the resurrection is not just for the whole church. It is also for smaller Christian communities, for parishes, for families and for individual Christians. We, each of us, are engaged on a journey of discovery in which we slowly grow in our understanding and knowledge of God. Gradually we understand the resurrection more, and gradually we base our lives more and more securely upon it.
So what can we do to help ourselves with this process? How can we better understand the implications of the resurrection and come to live them out better in our day to day lives? Well, two thoughts come to mind.
Firstly it seems to me that to properly live out the implications of the resurrection we first need to live well our Good Friday moments. And we get an opportunity to do this in each of the many sufferings, small and large, which cross our path in our day to day life? Every time something hurts us, or disappoints us or leaves us feeling let down. These events give us the opportunity to share sufferings with Christ; to see in our sufferings a connection with the great suffering of Christ of on the cross. And like Christ on the cross we try to continuing to love and forgive through the suffering, and to continue to trust in God. It is by sharing sufferings with Christ that we also come to share in his resurrection life. And this is a journey of discovery does take time and has it confusing and perplexing moments. But the journey leads to the risen Christ, and with him everything becomes clear and real joy is shared.
Then the second thought is that it is presence of the risen Christ that makes the difference. The disciples may have been told that Jesus was risen, but really it only started to make sense once they had met the risen Christ. And we can think of an apostle like Thomas, for who that encounter was delayed, and belief was delayed. So it is crucial that we put ourselves into environments where we encounter the risen Jesus. It is important to gather in church, in the name of Christ, so that Christ will be present among us. It is important to encounter Christ in the word proclaimed, in the scriptures. We need to meet with Christ present in the Eucharist and be nourished by him. In all these ways we encounter Christ and it is Christ who helps us to understand and work out for ourselves the implications of his resurrection.
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
12 April 2009
Encountering the risen Christ
Sermon preached at St Catherine’s, Catherine-de-Barnes, Solihull at 11am Eucharist.
Easter Sunday, 12th April 2009.
A shortened version of the sermon was preached at that 8am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull
Readings: [Acts 10: 34-43] 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11 Mark 16: 1-8
Biblical scholars seem to be convinced that the words we have just heard from Mark’s gospels are the last words in the gospel that can be properly attributed to Mark. Most present day bibles include two additional endings to Mark’s gospel, but apparently, for stylistic reasons, scholars seen sure that these come from a different source. The scholars debate whether Mark’s original ending has been lost, or was never written or whether it was really Mark’s intention to end the gospel with the passage that we heard today.
If we do take what we heard today to be the end of the gospel then it is a very strange end in deed. Although the young man dressed in a white robe tells the women that Jesus has been raised, there is no record of anyone actually seeing the risen Christ. Also the joy of the resurrection has not filtered through at all. We are told that women fled from the tomb because terror and amazement had seized them and they said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.
If these are to be thought of as the last words of Mark’s gospel, then they are in complete contrast to what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15. First of all Paul does not talk about “terror and amazement” but rather he confidently describes the Christ’s death and resurrection as good news.
There is a secondly contrast because the women in Mark’s resurrection account said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid, but what Paul writes is completely focused on the proclamation of the gospel. He talks about the way the gospel was proclaimed to him, and the way that he and others have proclaimed it to the Corinthians.
A third contrast, and this it seems to me is crucial, is that in the words we heard from Mark today, nobody actually sees the risen Lord. In Paul’s account he produces a list of people who saw the risen Lord, including a crowd of 500 people, and himself, who by some miracle on the road to Damascus, saw the risen Lord in heaven.
So what is it that changes the fear, amazement and silence of the women we read about in Mark’s account into the confident and joyful proclamation of the good news that we read about from Paul?
Well in part it is the passage of time. The resurrection of Christ was a very big and surprising event, and it takes time for it to sink in, and for us to realise all the wonderful implications it has. But it seems to me than it this passage of time the thing that makes the big, big difference was encounters with the risen Christ.
Let’s think about the resurrection accounts in John’s gospel. In John’s gospel we read of Mary Magdalene going to the tomb, and the story is fairly similar to Mark’s version, with the stone rolled away, and the body gone and the angel. But in John’s gospel, while Mary is weeping he sees Jesus, who she initially thought was the gardener. Seeing Jesus made all the difference.
Or we might think of the disciples in John’s account who gather together, very much afraid and behind locked doors. But when Jesus appears in the midst of them we are told that the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Or we might think of Thomas who was absent on that occasion, but who was completed turned around when he later encountered the living Christ.
It is encountering the risen Christ which turns the resurrection for being about a rather bewildering and frightening empty tomb into a piece of joyful news which people want to proclaim to others.
And in many ways this is still true for us today. It is the encounter with Christ which turns our faith from something rather strange and uncomfortable into to something wonderful that we want to express and share. So how can we encounter the risen Lord. Well, since the ascension, we have not been able to meet Jesus in his physical body on earth, but there are still places where we can meet him.
First of all we can meet him in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist he gives us himself, his life, his very body and blood, and certainly we can meet him here.
Secondly we can meet him in his word proclaimed. We think of Jesus as the Word of God and when the scriptures are read Jesus the word is present to us.
But thirdly, and importantly for a gathered Christian community like this one, Jesus is present when we meet in his name. “Where two or more gather in my name there am I in the midst of them” (Matt 18: 20) Jesus said. So when we meet as a Christian community we have the possibility of having Jesus present in our midst. To do this we must meet in Jesus’ name, which means in the essence of Jesus. This means meeting in mutual love, and in obedience to God’s will, but when we meet like this, Jesus is present. When Jesus is present in this way we feel our hearts burn within us, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
So as we gather let’s try to gather in the name of Jesus. Let’s gather in mutual love and in accordance with God’s will and if we do this Jesus will be present in our midst. We will have the encounter with the risen Christ, the encounter that makes all the difference! Amen.
Easter Sunday, 12th April 2009.
A shortened version of the sermon was preached at that 8am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull
Readings: [Acts 10: 34-43] 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11 Mark 16: 1-8
Biblical scholars seem to be convinced that the words we have just heard from Mark’s gospels are the last words in the gospel that can be properly attributed to Mark. Most present day bibles include two additional endings to Mark’s gospel, but apparently, for stylistic reasons, scholars seen sure that these come from a different source. The scholars debate whether Mark’s original ending has been lost, or was never written or whether it was really Mark’s intention to end the gospel with the passage that we heard today.
If we do take what we heard today to be the end of the gospel then it is a very strange end in deed. Although the young man dressed in a white robe tells the women that Jesus has been raised, there is no record of anyone actually seeing the risen Christ. Also the joy of the resurrection has not filtered through at all. We are told that women fled from the tomb because terror and amazement had seized them and they said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.
If these are to be thought of as the last words of Mark’s gospel, then they are in complete contrast to what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15. First of all Paul does not talk about “terror and amazement” but rather he confidently describes the Christ’s death and resurrection as good news.
There is a secondly contrast because the women in Mark’s resurrection account said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid, but what Paul writes is completely focused on the proclamation of the gospel. He talks about the way the gospel was proclaimed to him, and the way that he and others have proclaimed it to the Corinthians.
A third contrast, and this it seems to me is crucial, is that in the words we heard from Mark today, nobody actually sees the risen Lord. In Paul’s account he produces a list of people who saw the risen Lord, including a crowd of 500 people, and himself, who by some miracle on the road to Damascus, saw the risen Lord in heaven.
So what is it that changes the fear, amazement and silence of the women we read about in Mark’s account into the confident and joyful proclamation of the good news that we read about from Paul?
Well in part it is the passage of time. The resurrection of Christ was a very big and surprising event, and it takes time for it to sink in, and for us to realise all the wonderful implications it has. But it seems to me than it this passage of time the thing that makes the big, big difference was encounters with the risen Christ.
Let’s think about the resurrection accounts in John’s gospel. In John’s gospel we read of Mary Magdalene going to the tomb, and the story is fairly similar to Mark’s version, with the stone rolled away, and the body gone and the angel. But in John’s gospel, while Mary is weeping he sees Jesus, who she initially thought was the gardener. Seeing Jesus made all the difference.
Or we might think of the disciples in John’s account who gather together, very much afraid and behind locked doors. But when Jesus appears in the midst of them we are told that the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Or we might think of Thomas who was absent on that occasion, but who was completed turned around when he later encountered the living Christ.
It is encountering the risen Christ which turns the resurrection for being about a rather bewildering and frightening empty tomb into a piece of joyful news which people want to proclaim to others.
And in many ways this is still true for us today. It is the encounter with Christ which turns our faith from something rather strange and uncomfortable into to something wonderful that we want to express and share. So how can we encounter the risen Lord. Well, since the ascension, we have not been able to meet Jesus in his physical body on earth, but there are still places where we can meet him.
First of all we can meet him in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist he gives us himself, his life, his very body and blood, and certainly we can meet him here.
Secondly we can meet him in his word proclaimed. We think of Jesus as the Word of God and when the scriptures are read Jesus the word is present to us.
But thirdly, and importantly for a gathered Christian community like this one, Jesus is present when we meet in his name. “Where two or more gather in my name there am I in the midst of them” (Matt 18: 20) Jesus said. So when we meet as a Christian community we have the possibility of having Jesus present in our midst. To do this we must meet in Jesus’ name, which means in the essence of Jesus. This means meeting in mutual love, and in obedience to God’s will, but when we meet like this, Jesus is present. When Jesus is present in this way we feel our hearts burn within us, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
So as we gather let’s try to gather in the name of Jesus. Let’s gather in mutual love and in accordance with God’s will and if we do this Jesus will be present in our midst. We will have the encounter with the risen Christ, the encounter that makes all the difference! Amen.
23 March 2008
Seeking the things that are above
Preached at St Catherine’s Church, Catherine-de-Barnes, Solihull
On Easter Day (Year A), 23/03/08 at 11am Eucharist.
Repeated at 6.30pm evensong in St Alphege Church
Readings: Acts 10:34-43 Romans Col 3:1-4 Matthew 28: 1-10
When I was a little boy, my brother had a pet guinea pig called Ginger. There was a very exciting time when Ginger was pregnant and expected, at any moment, to give birth to one or more baby guinea pigs. One morning my brother went out to feed Ginger and came back upset. I went out with him and looked in Ginger’s cage. Ginger seemed fine, much thinner than she had been. However lying in the middle of her cubby hole was an obviously dead baby guinea pig. We went and called Dad. Dad confirmed that Ginger’s baby was dead. He took the baby guinea pig out and buried it in the garden. My brother made a special little cross of wood to mark the spot. It was a very sad moment.
Later my brother was told to clean out the cage, because it was messy from the dead baby guinea pig. My brother started to clean out the cubby hole where the dead baby had been. He lifted up one of the supporting bricks, and to his great astonishment a baby guinea pig scurried out searching for somewhere to hide. Suddenly our sorrow was turned to joy as we realised that we did indeed have a live and healthy baby guinea pig. Then, when my brother lifted out the second supporting brick, exactly the same thing happened again. In fact we had two live and healthy baby guinea pigs, as well as the dead one.
It felt like a resurrection moment. Our focus on disappointment and death, suddenly changed to a focus on new life. It was wonderful. But it was surprising what a long time it had taken for us to realise what had happened and to grasp its full implications.
And I suspect it was a bit like this for the first followers of Jesus when they first discovered the empty tomb. To start with it was as very strange and disturbing discovery. What did it mean? Who had rolled away the stone? Why had it been done? What did all this mean? Had Jesus’ body been stolen? Then the angles appeared and explained things to them, and this amazed them, gave them great joy, but also filled them with fear. And then suddenly Mary Magdalene saw Jesus and spoke with him and held his feet and worshipped him. Later other disciples had encounters with the risen Lord. Then there was concern that they might have been seeing a ghost. Then there were more and more encounters, and more and more disciples start to believe in the resurrection. But this process took time. In fact the account at the end of Mark’s gospel, Jesus gets cross with the disciples because they are so slow to believe.
So it took the first followers of Jesus time to understand that the resurrection had happened, and what that really meant. It took them even longer to work out all the implications. In Luke’s account of the resurrection one of the main things that the risen Christ does is explain to the disciples all that is written about Jesus in the law, the prophets and psalms so that they could start to understand the extraordinary death and resurrection of the Messiah.
And actually I believe that this is true for us as well. It takes us time to really understand the implications of the resurrection. We have a big advantage over the first disciples, in that we live with the benefit of 2000 years of church experience. From when we are very young we are taught that the resurrection shows us new life in Christ, shows us that love is stronger than death, that sin has been defeated. We are taught that the resurrection means that we can have hope. But despite all this wise teaching there is a sense in which we each have to discover these things for ourselves and to work out their practical implications for our lives.
So how do we do this? Well, St Paul has some good advice for us in our reading from Colossians this morning. He says, “Set your mind on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Setting our mind on the things that are above, means putting love for God and neighbour in the first place in our lives, and not allowing earthly things (jobs, houses, families, food, health, schools, cars, holidays and all that) to get in the way. In fact we can use these earthly things in order to love our neighbours.
And the resurrection really helps us to do this. Sometimes our earthly life gets hard. Sometimes we get ill. Sometimes we have disappointments. Sometimes we have to let go of things that are good and precious. Sometimes we have to deny ourselves in order to love the people around us, sometimes our friends die. And we know that one day we ourselves will die. So undeniably our earthly life can be hard. But if, as Paul suggests, we are seeking the things that are above, then we start to discover the things that our above, our love for God and our love for our neighbours, and we start to find their value. And especially when earthly things let us down or pass away, we discover the enduring quality of the things which are above. As Paul puts it, we have died, and our life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ’s resurrection life is revealed, the true value of the things we have above with also be revealed with him in Glory.
So let’s have the courage to seek the things that are above. Let’s seek always to grow in love for God and love for our neighbours, because we know that if we do this, though we might pass through terrible earthly trials and even through death itself, the resurrection of Christ assures us that the life we have in Christ will be revealed in glory. Amen.
On Easter Day (Year A), 23/03/08 at 11am Eucharist.
Repeated at 6.30pm evensong in St Alphege Church
Readings: Acts 10:34-43 Romans Col 3:1-4 Matthew 28: 1-10
When I was a little boy, my brother had a pet guinea pig called Ginger. There was a very exciting time when Ginger was pregnant and expected, at any moment, to give birth to one or more baby guinea pigs. One morning my brother went out to feed Ginger and came back upset. I went out with him and looked in Ginger’s cage. Ginger seemed fine, much thinner than she had been. However lying in the middle of her cubby hole was an obviously dead baby guinea pig. We went and called Dad. Dad confirmed that Ginger’s baby was dead. He took the baby guinea pig out and buried it in the garden. My brother made a special little cross of wood to mark the spot. It was a very sad moment.
Later my brother was told to clean out the cage, because it was messy from the dead baby guinea pig. My brother started to clean out the cubby hole where the dead baby had been. He lifted up one of the supporting bricks, and to his great astonishment a baby guinea pig scurried out searching for somewhere to hide. Suddenly our sorrow was turned to joy as we realised that we did indeed have a live and healthy baby guinea pig. Then, when my brother lifted out the second supporting brick, exactly the same thing happened again. In fact we had two live and healthy baby guinea pigs, as well as the dead one.
It felt like a resurrection moment. Our focus on disappointment and death, suddenly changed to a focus on new life. It was wonderful. But it was surprising what a long time it had taken for us to realise what had happened and to grasp its full implications.
And I suspect it was a bit like this for the first followers of Jesus when they first discovered the empty tomb. To start with it was as very strange and disturbing discovery. What did it mean? Who had rolled away the stone? Why had it been done? What did all this mean? Had Jesus’ body been stolen? Then the angles appeared and explained things to them, and this amazed them, gave them great joy, but also filled them with fear. And then suddenly Mary Magdalene saw Jesus and spoke with him and held his feet and worshipped him. Later other disciples had encounters with the risen Lord. Then there was concern that they might have been seeing a ghost. Then there were more and more encounters, and more and more disciples start to believe in the resurrection. But this process took time. In fact the account at the end of Mark’s gospel, Jesus gets cross with the disciples because they are so slow to believe.
So it took the first followers of Jesus time to understand that the resurrection had happened, and what that really meant. It took them even longer to work out all the implications. In Luke’s account of the resurrection one of the main things that the risen Christ does is explain to the disciples all that is written about Jesus in the law, the prophets and psalms so that they could start to understand the extraordinary death and resurrection of the Messiah.
And actually I believe that this is true for us as well. It takes us time to really understand the implications of the resurrection. We have a big advantage over the first disciples, in that we live with the benefit of 2000 years of church experience. From when we are very young we are taught that the resurrection shows us new life in Christ, shows us that love is stronger than death, that sin has been defeated. We are taught that the resurrection means that we can have hope. But despite all this wise teaching there is a sense in which we each have to discover these things for ourselves and to work out their practical implications for our lives.
So how do we do this? Well, St Paul has some good advice for us in our reading from Colossians this morning. He says, “Set your mind on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Setting our mind on the things that are above, means putting love for God and neighbour in the first place in our lives, and not allowing earthly things (jobs, houses, families, food, health, schools, cars, holidays and all that) to get in the way. In fact we can use these earthly things in order to love our neighbours.
And the resurrection really helps us to do this. Sometimes our earthly life gets hard. Sometimes we get ill. Sometimes we have disappointments. Sometimes we have to let go of things that are good and precious. Sometimes we have to deny ourselves in order to love the people around us, sometimes our friends die. And we know that one day we ourselves will die. So undeniably our earthly life can be hard. But if, as Paul suggests, we are seeking the things that are above, then we start to discover the things that our above, our love for God and our love for our neighbours, and we start to find their value. And especially when earthly things let us down or pass away, we discover the enduring quality of the things which are above. As Paul puts it, we have died, and our life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ’s resurrection life is revealed, the true value of the things we have above with also be revealed with him in Glory.
So let’s have the courage to seek the things that are above. Let’s seek always to grow in love for God and love for our neighbours, because we know that if we do this, though we might pass through terrible earthly trials and even through death itself, the resurrection of Christ assures us that the life we have in Christ will be revealed in glory. Amen.
08 April 2007
Transformation of life
Sermon – Easter Sunday - 08 04 07 – Evensong
Preached at St Alphege, Solihull 6.30pm on Easter Sunday 8th April 2007
Readings: Jeremiah 31:1-6 Acts 10: 34-43
I don’t know if your heard John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, speaking on the Today Programme yesterday morning. He made several very good points about contemporary culture, the desire for self-fulfilment and the problem of what he calls “secular illiberalism”. However the point he made that really caught my attention was this. He said,
The church has not been very good at clearly spelling out what the message of Jesus is about … God in Jesus has come in a human form, has died, rose again and his presence, in terms of the spirit, actually transforms lives.
What caught my attention was the outstanding one sentence summary of Christianity, “God in Jesus has come in a human form, has died, rose again and his presence, in terms of the spirit, actually transforms lives.” I thought this was brilliant.
Our second reading today also includes a very brief summary of Christianity. Peter, as recorded by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, sums up Christianity in seven sentences. At the heart of it Peter says, “and they killed him by hanging him on a tree yet on the third day God raised him to life and allowed him to be seen.” Peter does not talk about the transformation of lives, but he does talk about the forgiveness of sins.
Yet, as I reflect on what John Sentamu said, and as I examine my conscience about the Church’s failure to get its message across, the bit that stands out to me is the bit about the transformation of lives. I think, on the whole, most people know what the church teaches about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Of course there some people just don’t believe it, but I think that the much bigger problem is that an awful lot of people don’t see why the death and resurrection of Jesus is relevant. Perhaps Jesus did die and rise again, but so what? Why does that make such a big difference? Why is it worth my while spending time on that question?
Well many evangelists make the point that the death and resurrection of Jesus are relevant and important because if you do not believe in them and call upon the forgiveness that they reveal, then you will rot for all eternity in the fires of hell. Well that certainly makes Christianity relevant! I have heard evangelists say that if you can persuade someone to believe in hell, then you can persuade them to accept Christ.
Now I don’t want to knock this tradition of fearing hell. It is a profound part of our Christian heritage. St Peter himself in his seven sentence summary reminds us that God has appointed Jesus as judge of us all.
However, it does seem to me much, much more important to proclaim our Christianity because of our hope of heaven, rather than because of our fear of hell. As John Sentamu suggests, it is the transformation of lives that makes all the difference, that creates a positive reason to engage with Christianity.
So what about this transformation of life? It may well be that we feel that we have done our best to be good Christians for many years, and in some ways we feel we succeed, but in other ways really don’t feel very “transformed” at all. In fact we feel very ordinary, mundane even. I think this is a very common situation in our churches today. Certain I, personally, have spent many years feeling like this. So how do we move on from this? How do we come to experience God’s transformation in our lives? What do we need to do to make it work?
Well based on my personal experience I would like to offer a couple of top tips!
First top tip! Seek always to grow in love for God and love for neighbour. As John puts it, “My dear friends, let us love one another because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). To love other people means to want their good, to seek to help them and support them in practical ways. We are called to love everyone, but to make that real and concrete the most important people to love are those who are right beside us, right now; our own family, our work colleagues, the people we meet on the street. And notice that this growth in love needs to be a mutual thing. “Love one another” is something we can’t do on our own. We need to seek out other Christian people who will try to love us, as we try to love them. We also need to love ourselves, forgive ourselves, be generous to ourselves and to be prepared to risk pain and difficulty in order to be true to ourselves.
My second top tip is to learn to believe in and trust ever more fully in God’s love for us. To trust that Jesus took on human flesh out of love for us. To trust that he died on the cross out of love for us. To trust that God raised him from the dead out of love for him but also out of love for all of us. And this is what we celebrate today – on Easter day. That God brings new life, new hope into even the most desperate and hopeless of all situations.
As we try to grow in love we encounter all kinds of difficulties and sorrows. We encounter people who we do not instinctively like. We encounter ambitions, or greeds or hurts or insecurities within ourselves or within others that can cause us to lash out at one another. We encounter people in situations that are sad or lonely or debilitating, and we find that we can’t solve these problems. These are our Good Friday moments. We need to learn to accept these sufferings, as Jesus accepted his sufferings on the cross. We need to learn to carry on loving through these sufferings, as Jesus carried on loving whilst on the cross. We need to continue to trust in God, even when we do not understand, just as Jesus commended his soul to God, even as he cried out “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
And if we live our Good Friday moments well, then God will act. Unexpectedly we shall have our Easter moments. Moments of new life, new hope and new possibilities. Just as Christ conquered death, never to die again so will find that our own new life in Christ has an eternal quality, a quality that will survive death. This is what we celebrate today; Easter Day. This is what it means to be baptised into the death and resurrection of Christ. This is the pattern that we re-enact and mould ourselves into through our liturgies of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. This is how God transforms lives. So let’s seek this transformation of life. By loving others, let’s help other too to be transformed. If we do this then the Church will properly get its message across, as John Sentamu has suggested. But more than that we will also make our contribution to the renewal of society and contemporary culture that is so badly needed.
Preached at St Alphege, Solihull 6.30pm on Easter Sunday 8th April 2007
Readings: Jeremiah 31:1-6 Acts 10: 34-43
I don’t know if your heard John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, speaking on the Today Programme yesterday morning. He made several very good points about contemporary culture, the desire for self-fulfilment and the problem of what he calls “secular illiberalism”. However the point he made that really caught my attention was this. He said,
The church has not been very good at clearly spelling out what the message of Jesus is about … God in Jesus has come in a human form, has died, rose again and his presence, in terms of the spirit, actually transforms lives.
What caught my attention was the outstanding one sentence summary of Christianity, “God in Jesus has come in a human form, has died, rose again and his presence, in terms of the spirit, actually transforms lives.” I thought this was brilliant.
Our second reading today also includes a very brief summary of Christianity. Peter, as recorded by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, sums up Christianity in seven sentences. At the heart of it Peter says, “and they killed him by hanging him on a tree yet on the third day God raised him to life and allowed him to be seen.” Peter does not talk about the transformation of lives, but he does talk about the forgiveness of sins.
Yet, as I reflect on what John Sentamu said, and as I examine my conscience about the Church’s failure to get its message across, the bit that stands out to me is the bit about the transformation of lives. I think, on the whole, most people know what the church teaches about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Of course there some people just don’t believe it, but I think that the much bigger problem is that an awful lot of people don’t see why the death and resurrection of Jesus is relevant. Perhaps Jesus did die and rise again, but so what? Why does that make such a big difference? Why is it worth my while spending time on that question?
Well many evangelists make the point that the death and resurrection of Jesus are relevant and important because if you do not believe in them and call upon the forgiveness that they reveal, then you will rot for all eternity in the fires of hell. Well that certainly makes Christianity relevant! I have heard evangelists say that if you can persuade someone to believe in hell, then you can persuade them to accept Christ.
Now I don’t want to knock this tradition of fearing hell. It is a profound part of our Christian heritage. St Peter himself in his seven sentence summary reminds us that God has appointed Jesus as judge of us all.
However, it does seem to me much, much more important to proclaim our Christianity because of our hope of heaven, rather than because of our fear of hell. As John Sentamu suggests, it is the transformation of lives that makes all the difference, that creates a positive reason to engage with Christianity.
So what about this transformation of life? It may well be that we feel that we have done our best to be good Christians for many years, and in some ways we feel we succeed, but in other ways really don’t feel very “transformed” at all. In fact we feel very ordinary, mundane even. I think this is a very common situation in our churches today. Certain I, personally, have spent many years feeling like this. So how do we move on from this? How do we come to experience God’s transformation in our lives? What do we need to do to make it work?
Well based on my personal experience I would like to offer a couple of top tips!
First top tip! Seek always to grow in love for God and love for neighbour. As John puts it, “My dear friends, let us love one another because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). To love other people means to want their good, to seek to help them and support them in practical ways. We are called to love everyone, but to make that real and concrete the most important people to love are those who are right beside us, right now; our own family, our work colleagues, the people we meet on the street. And notice that this growth in love needs to be a mutual thing. “Love one another” is something we can’t do on our own. We need to seek out other Christian people who will try to love us, as we try to love them. We also need to love ourselves, forgive ourselves, be generous to ourselves and to be prepared to risk pain and difficulty in order to be true to ourselves.
My second top tip is to learn to believe in and trust ever more fully in God’s love for us. To trust that Jesus took on human flesh out of love for us. To trust that he died on the cross out of love for us. To trust that God raised him from the dead out of love for him but also out of love for all of us. And this is what we celebrate today – on Easter day. That God brings new life, new hope into even the most desperate and hopeless of all situations.
As we try to grow in love we encounter all kinds of difficulties and sorrows. We encounter people who we do not instinctively like. We encounter ambitions, or greeds or hurts or insecurities within ourselves or within others that can cause us to lash out at one another. We encounter people in situations that are sad or lonely or debilitating, and we find that we can’t solve these problems. These are our Good Friday moments. We need to learn to accept these sufferings, as Jesus accepted his sufferings on the cross. We need to learn to carry on loving through these sufferings, as Jesus carried on loving whilst on the cross. We need to continue to trust in God, even when we do not understand, just as Jesus commended his soul to God, even as he cried out “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
And if we live our Good Friday moments well, then God will act. Unexpectedly we shall have our Easter moments. Moments of new life, new hope and new possibilities. Just as Christ conquered death, never to die again so will find that our own new life in Christ has an eternal quality, a quality that will survive death. This is what we celebrate today; Easter Day. This is what it means to be baptised into the death and resurrection of Christ. This is the pattern that we re-enact and mould ourselves into through our liturgies of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. This is how God transforms lives. So let’s seek this transformation of life. By loving others, let’s help other too to be transformed. If we do this then the Church will properly get its message across, as John Sentamu has suggested. But more than that we will also make our contribution to the renewal of society and contemporary culture that is so badly needed.
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