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 Good Friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Good Friday. Show all posts
07 March 2010
Teaching Sermon - Easter Triduum - Good Friday
Sermon preached at 9.15am and 11am Eucharists in St Alphege Church, Solihull
Third Sunday of Lent – Year C
Teaching Eucharist – The Easter Triduum – Good Friday
This Lent we have a series of teaching Eucharists which aim to help us to grow in our appreciation of the really important liturgies (church services) of Holy Week. Fr Patrick talked about Palm Sunday, and then last week Fr Tim started to talk about the Triduum, the three big services of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Eve. He spoke about Maundy Thursday. This week I am talking about Good Friday. But it is important to remember that these three liturgies hang together, like one Triduum liturgy in three separate parts.
And through these liturgies we seek to draw close to Jesus as he walks through the extraordinary events of his passion death and resurrection. The key word here is participation. By talking part in these liturgies we try to share with Jesus in the experience of his passion, death and resurrection. We try to enter into that experience of Jesus so that it becomes part of our lives, part of our own story. And ultimately this changes everything, we are converted, everything is turned round, and we start trying to live our own lives as part of the life of Jesus, as part of the body of Christ, the Church.
Now someone might object; “But I don’t want to participate in this story, especially not on Good Friday. The crucifixion is about violence and pain and death. It is horrible and I don’t want anything to do with it!
Well I think this is a mainstream way of thinking in the society in which we live. Certainly we all feel the desire to minimise and avoid suffering, but this is not Christianity. Christianity is absolutely about the death and resurrection of Christ. We are baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection (Romans 6). At every Eucharist we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11: 26). And we do this because of the resurrection. The good news is that Christ life is stronger than death, Christ’s love overcomes hated, hope in Christ overcomes fear. So in the church we are not afraid to engage with suffering and death, because precisely these events of Holy Week that we re-enact in the Triduum. Precisely through this experience, Jesus has shown us how to make suffering and death the gateway to forgiveness, restoration and eternal life.
So through the Good Friday liturgy we are seeking to participate with Christ in his death. And it is devastating! Everything falls apart. Everything is torn away. The liturgy is stark and shocking. The church is stripped bare before it even starts. And then right at the start there is another powerful symbol of devastation. The service starts in complete silence. Let’s watch a clip of that, in silence and then discuss it.
[video clip – 40 seconds]
So what happened there? [Priests prostrate before the altar]
And what does this express? [abasement, dependence on God, shock, our fallenness, devastation]
So the Good Friday liturgy starts in this way and then we have the collect, or opening prayer. And that is the end of the Gathering rite.
And why is the gathering rite so brief and minimalist? [Continuation of yesterday]
After the Gathering Rite we have the ministry of the word. And this is dominated by the reading of the passion from John’s gospel. We always read John’s passion of Good Friday. On Palm Sunday we read one of the passion narratives of Matthew, Mark or Luke in a three year cycle.
And reading the passion narrative is a powerful reminder of the story. And to help us to enter into the story we start standing for the final part, and when we reach the moment of Jesus’ death we all bow or kneel.
In this church we have a homily and the special Good Friday intercessions. Then we come to the veneration of the cross. Now I have another video clip here of the cross arriving and the start of the veneration of the cross, so let’s watch this.
[video clip – 1 minute 20 seconds]
Now first of all I would like to talk about the music. We just heard the choir beginning the singing “The Reproaches”. Now these reproaches are a very ancient Good Friday text. They are words that Jesus could have said from the cross, “My people, my people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me?” And Jesus asks this question many times, and he intersperses it with all the good things that Jesus has done for his people, and the evil with which we have repaid him. And of course there is no answer that can be made. It is clear that we are sinners, and our sin has driven Christ to the cross, Christ who has done nothing but good for us. There is no answer that can be made, and the cumulative effect of listening to all these reproaches is, once again, devastating.
Now what about veneration of the cross? What are we doing? Well we all get the opportunity to come forward and stand before the cross. And once again the liturgy is stark and shocking. We place ourselves right in front of the image of the crucified Christ, and there is no escape. There is no proper response that can be made. Many of us choose to bow, or to kiss the cross, or even kiss the feet of the image of Christ on the cross. And why do we do this? Well, through our little carved image of Christ on the cross we seek to honour and adore Christ. And we honour and adore him precisely in the moment of his great sacrifice for us, the sacrifice that takes away our sins and restores us into fellowship with God. This is the moment when Jesus looks least lovable; his is broken and disfigured by our sins. Yet this is the moment when he wins our salvation, this is precisely the moment when we are called to love him most.
So now we come to the final part of the Good Friday liturgy when we receive Holy Communion. We don’t normally celebrate a Eucharist on Good Friday, because a Eucharist is an act of celebration, and Good Friday is the most solemn and sombre of days. However we do receive communion from the reserved sacrament which we laid to rest on the altar of repose on Maundy Thursday. And there is a very solemn ritual that we re-enact here. We take Christ, present in the consecrated bread and wine, up from the garden of repose, which represents the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went after the last supper, and we carry Him with great reverence up to the high altar, which reminds us of altar in the temple of Jerusalem; the place of sacrifice. And as we make this journey we can think of Jesus being led around after his arrest; first to Annas, then to Caiaphas, then to Pilate then to be flogged, then led out carrying his cross to be crucified at Golgotha. So let’s just watch a short video clip now of that solemn procession.
[video clip – 35 seconds]
And once we have all received communion that is more or less the end of the Good Friday liturgy. There is a brief prayer after communion and a blessing but not proper dismissal. Rather we all slip out in silence and we return for the last part of the Triduum liturgy of Easter Eve.
So that is Good Friday Liturgy. And I want to end by summarising a few of the key points:
• The Good Friday liturgy is the middle part of the Triduum. It depends on Maundy Thursday which comes before it and on Easter Eve, which comes after.
• The Good Friday liturgy is a stark and shocking liturgy. It brings us face to face with the sacrifice of Christ; the consequences of our sin. The prostration of the priests is a symbol of this.
• We read the story of the passion from John’s Gospel
• We venerate the cross, honouring Christ in the moment of his great sacrifice for us
• We receive Holy Communion, once again drawing us close to Christ in his sacrifice.
And we do all this to walk with Christ through his passion and death, knowing that this leads us on to his resurrection and renewal. And we seek to make this pattern of death and resurrection the pattern for our lives, so that everything can speak of resurrection and renewal. Amen.
Third Sunday of Lent – Year C
Teaching Eucharist – The Easter Triduum – Good Friday
This Lent we have a series of teaching Eucharists which aim to help us to grow in our appreciation of the really important liturgies (church services) of Holy Week. Fr Patrick talked about Palm Sunday, and then last week Fr Tim started to talk about the Triduum, the three big services of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Eve. He spoke about Maundy Thursday. This week I am talking about Good Friday. But it is important to remember that these three liturgies hang together, like one Triduum liturgy in three separate parts.
And through these liturgies we seek to draw close to Jesus as he walks through the extraordinary events of his passion death and resurrection. The key word here is participation. By talking part in these liturgies we try to share with Jesus in the experience of his passion, death and resurrection. We try to enter into that experience of Jesus so that it becomes part of our lives, part of our own story. And ultimately this changes everything, we are converted, everything is turned round, and we start trying to live our own lives as part of the life of Jesus, as part of the body of Christ, the Church.
Now someone might object; “But I don’t want to participate in this story, especially not on Good Friday. The crucifixion is about violence and pain and death. It is horrible and I don’t want anything to do with it!
Well I think this is a mainstream way of thinking in the society in which we live. Certainly we all feel the desire to minimise and avoid suffering, but this is not Christianity. Christianity is absolutely about the death and resurrection of Christ. We are baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection (Romans 6). At every Eucharist we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11: 26). And we do this because of the resurrection. The good news is that Christ life is stronger than death, Christ’s love overcomes hated, hope in Christ overcomes fear. So in the church we are not afraid to engage with suffering and death, because precisely these events of Holy Week that we re-enact in the Triduum. Precisely through this experience, Jesus has shown us how to make suffering and death the gateway to forgiveness, restoration and eternal life.
So through the Good Friday liturgy we are seeking to participate with Christ in his death. And it is devastating! Everything falls apart. Everything is torn away. The liturgy is stark and shocking. The church is stripped bare before it even starts. And then right at the start there is another powerful symbol of devastation. The service starts in complete silence. Let’s watch a clip of that, in silence and then discuss it.
[video clip – 40 seconds]
So what happened there? [Priests prostrate before the altar]
And what does this express? [abasement, dependence on God, shock, our fallenness, devastation]
So the Good Friday liturgy starts in this way and then we have the collect, or opening prayer. And that is the end of the Gathering rite.
And why is the gathering rite so brief and minimalist? [Continuation of yesterday]
After the Gathering Rite we have the ministry of the word. And this is dominated by the reading of the passion from John’s gospel. We always read John’s passion of Good Friday. On Palm Sunday we read one of the passion narratives of Matthew, Mark or Luke in a three year cycle.
And reading the passion narrative is a powerful reminder of the story. And to help us to enter into the story we start standing for the final part, and when we reach the moment of Jesus’ death we all bow or kneel.
In this church we have a homily and the special Good Friday intercessions. Then we come to the veneration of the cross. Now I have another video clip here of the cross arriving and the start of the veneration of the cross, so let’s watch this.
[video clip – 1 minute 20 seconds]
Now first of all I would like to talk about the music. We just heard the choir beginning the singing “The Reproaches”. Now these reproaches are a very ancient Good Friday text. They are words that Jesus could have said from the cross, “My people, my people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me?” And Jesus asks this question many times, and he intersperses it with all the good things that Jesus has done for his people, and the evil with which we have repaid him. And of course there is no answer that can be made. It is clear that we are sinners, and our sin has driven Christ to the cross, Christ who has done nothing but good for us. There is no answer that can be made, and the cumulative effect of listening to all these reproaches is, once again, devastating.
Now what about veneration of the cross? What are we doing? Well we all get the opportunity to come forward and stand before the cross. And once again the liturgy is stark and shocking. We place ourselves right in front of the image of the crucified Christ, and there is no escape. There is no proper response that can be made. Many of us choose to bow, or to kiss the cross, or even kiss the feet of the image of Christ on the cross. And why do we do this? Well, through our little carved image of Christ on the cross we seek to honour and adore Christ. And we honour and adore him precisely in the moment of his great sacrifice for us, the sacrifice that takes away our sins and restores us into fellowship with God. This is the moment when Jesus looks least lovable; his is broken and disfigured by our sins. Yet this is the moment when he wins our salvation, this is precisely the moment when we are called to love him most.
So now we come to the final part of the Good Friday liturgy when we receive Holy Communion. We don’t normally celebrate a Eucharist on Good Friday, because a Eucharist is an act of celebration, and Good Friday is the most solemn and sombre of days. However we do receive communion from the reserved sacrament which we laid to rest on the altar of repose on Maundy Thursday. And there is a very solemn ritual that we re-enact here. We take Christ, present in the consecrated bread and wine, up from the garden of repose, which represents the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went after the last supper, and we carry Him with great reverence up to the high altar, which reminds us of altar in the temple of Jerusalem; the place of sacrifice. And as we make this journey we can think of Jesus being led around after his arrest; first to Annas, then to Caiaphas, then to Pilate then to be flogged, then led out carrying his cross to be crucified at Golgotha. So let’s just watch a short video clip now of that solemn procession.
[video clip – 35 seconds]
And once we have all received communion that is more or less the end of the Good Friday liturgy. There is a brief prayer after communion and a blessing but not proper dismissal. Rather we all slip out in silence and we return for the last part of the Triduum liturgy of Easter Eve.
So that is Good Friday Liturgy. And I want to end by summarising a few of the key points:
• The Good Friday liturgy is the middle part of the Triduum. It depends on Maundy Thursday which comes before it and on Easter Eve, which comes after.
• The Good Friday liturgy is a stark and shocking liturgy. It brings us face to face with the sacrifice of Christ; the consequences of our sin. The prostration of the priests is a symbol of this.
• We read the story of the passion from John’s Gospel
• We venerate the cross, honouring Christ in the moment of his great sacrifice for us
• We receive Holy Communion, once again drawing us close to Christ in his sacrifice.
And we do all this to walk with Christ through his passion and death, knowing that this leads us on to his resurrection and renewal. And we seek to make this pattern of death and resurrection the pattern for our lives, so that everything can speak of resurrection and renewal. Amen.
10 April 2009
Sharing in the death and resurrection life of Christ
Sermon preached at the 2pm Good Friday liturgy at St. Alphege Church, Solihull.
2pm, Good Friday, 10th April 2009.
Readings: Isaiah 52:13- 53: 12 John chapters 18 and 19
Over Lent we have been thinking about God’s call in our lives. The practice of following God’s call encourages us to think of our life as a journey, a journey which we walk with God moment by moment, step by step. It is a journey that slowly transforms us and develops within us the desires and capabilities [the virtues?] that we will need to live the life of heaven. And I think this Lenten reflection has been very helpful and very renewing for all of us as individuals and as a parish.
And yet we all know that the Christian journey can be extremely hard. We can pass through periods that feel barren, and periods that are very painful. Sometimes it is very hard to accept these. In such situations it we can feel let down by God. We might say, “How can God, who is Love, allow such a thing to happen?” There is a temptation to blame God, or get angry at God or worse still, turn away from God altogether.
But on Good Friday we reflect on the passion of Jesus, on the really painful moments of his journey on this earth. Jesus is betrayal by Judas, he is denied Peter. He is accused by the chief priests and, rejected by the crowd. Roman justice does not defend him. He is scourged. He is mocked. He is crucified. In the accounts of Matthew and Mark, Jesus cries out from the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” It seems that even God has departed from him. Jesus, who is God, experiences the pain of feeling abandoned by God. Jesus, in his humanity, experiences suffering exactly as we experience it. And he experiences it in the most extreme way possible.
The crucifixion is as bad as it can get. Yet we know that this is not the end of the story. We know that Easter Day comes, we know that resurrection life is revealed and found to be eternal and more powerful than the life that Jesus had before. And, more than this, the great barrier of sin that separated God from humanity is broken. The relationship between God and humanity has been restored. We have been redeemed.
This pattern of death, leading to new life is central to Christianity. It is profoundly linked to the restoration of broken relationships that is accomplished through Jesus’ passion and death. This is absolutely what Christianity is all about; the restoration of broken relationships and the passing from death to live. And all this is all made possible because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
And we too, as individual Christians are also called to enter into this pattern of Christ, this pattern of death leading to reconciliation and new life. So how in practice do we do this?
Well one way is to walk with Christ through the Easter Triduum. These great liturgies that we act out over these three days so help us to enter into the great mysteries of Christ’s death and resurrection.
Another way is to come regularly to the Eucharist. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist we proclaim Christ’s death (c.f. 1 Cor 11: 26) and his resurrection. Participating in the Eucharist helps us to join ourselves into the Christ’s death, into Christ’s reconciliation and into the new life he wants to share with us.
But I would like to share with you today another way of doing this in our everyday lives, both inside and out of church. In Focolare spirituality we try to see every suffering that crosses our path as an opportunity to identify ourselves more closely with Jesus dying on the cross, and to love him more. And this can be done with any suffering of any kind. The suffering can be great or small, physical or psychological or spiritual, it can be our own suffering, or someone else’s. It can be caused by us, or by someone else or by no one at all. There are the small sufferings of everyday life; we spill food down our front, or cut our finger on some paper. There are the sufferings that come through our relationships; a son who is going of the rails, a neighbour who we can’t get on with, elderly parent who needs nursing, a lady who was rude to us in the supermarket car park. Then there are the sufferings that come from our own frailties, weaknesses and sins; perhaps we feel bad because we were rude to someone in the supermarket car park! Perhaps we eat or drink or gamble too much. Perhaps we get angry and hurt people who are close to us. Perhaps we are aware of some profoundly un-Christian attitudes deep within us. Then there are the big sufferings; being ill, an accident, losing a job, being bereaved, a divorce in the family.
Whatever suffering crosses our path, we can pray, “Jesus, in this suffering I am made a little like you, dying on the cross. May I love you more and sharing with you in your suffering and death, may I so also share with you in your resurrection.” I think this what Peter means when he says (in 1 Peter 4: 12), “rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” I also think it is also what Paul means when he says (in Philippians 3: 10-11), “I want to know Christ … and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
And this approach starts to give meaning to our sufferings. We start to see them as part of our relationship with God. We start to value the fact that they draw us closer to God. We experience new life, healing and reconciliation with God. We start to see how our sufferings have helped us in responding to God’s call, and walking the Christian journey. We understand that particular situations have helped us to grow in the virtues, or have helped us to become the person we are.
Chiara Lubich, foundress of the Focolare writes, “I wish to bare witness before the world, that Jesus Forsaken has filled every void, illuminated every darkness, accompanied every solitude, annulled every suffering, cancelled every sin.” [Meditations London: New City 1989 p33].
Now I can’t speak with the authority of Chiara, but I can say that my own experience to date convinces me that Chiara is right. Learning to love the forsaken Christ allows Christ to share his resurrection life, and this has immense value for each of us as individuals and for our church communities at every level.
So as we come forward today to venerate the cross, and as we see his broken figure hanging there, let’s renew our commitment to love Christ in his sufferings. Let’s then try to do this by loving Jesus forsaken in the sufferings of our daily lives. And in this way, may it please Christ to share with us his resurrection life. Amen.
2pm, Good Friday, 10th April 2009.
Readings: Isaiah 52:13- 53: 12 John chapters 18 and 19
Over Lent we have been thinking about God’s call in our lives. The practice of following God’s call encourages us to think of our life as a journey, a journey which we walk with God moment by moment, step by step. It is a journey that slowly transforms us and develops within us the desires and capabilities [the virtues?] that we will need to live the life of heaven. And I think this Lenten reflection has been very helpful and very renewing for all of us as individuals and as a parish.
And yet we all know that the Christian journey can be extremely hard. We can pass through periods that feel barren, and periods that are very painful. Sometimes it is very hard to accept these. In such situations it we can feel let down by God. We might say, “How can God, who is Love, allow such a thing to happen?” There is a temptation to blame God, or get angry at God or worse still, turn away from God altogether.
But on Good Friday we reflect on the passion of Jesus, on the really painful moments of his journey on this earth. Jesus is betrayal by Judas, he is denied Peter. He is accused by the chief priests and, rejected by the crowd. Roman justice does not defend him. He is scourged. He is mocked. He is crucified. In the accounts of Matthew and Mark, Jesus cries out from the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” It seems that even God has departed from him. Jesus, who is God, experiences the pain of feeling abandoned by God. Jesus, in his humanity, experiences suffering exactly as we experience it. And he experiences it in the most extreme way possible.
The crucifixion is as bad as it can get. Yet we know that this is not the end of the story. We know that Easter Day comes, we know that resurrection life is revealed and found to be eternal and more powerful than the life that Jesus had before. And, more than this, the great barrier of sin that separated God from humanity is broken. The relationship between God and humanity has been restored. We have been redeemed.
This pattern of death, leading to new life is central to Christianity. It is profoundly linked to the restoration of broken relationships that is accomplished through Jesus’ passion and death. This is absolutely what Christianity is all about; the restoration of broken relationships and the passing from death to live. And all this is all made possible because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
And we too, as individual Christians are also called to enter into this pattern of Christ, this pattern of death leading to reconciliation and new life. So how in practice do we do this?
Well one way is to walk with Christ through the Easter Triduum. These great liturgies that we act out over these three days so help us to enter into the great mysteries of Christ’s death and resurrection.
Another way is to come regularly to the Eucharist. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist we proclaim Christ’s death (c.f. 1 Cor 11: 26) and his resurrection. Participating in the Eucharist helps us to join ourselves into the Christ’s death, into Christ’s reconciliation and into the new life he wants to share with us.
But I would like to share with you today another way of doing this in our everyday lives, both inside and out of church. In Focolare spirituality we try to see every suffering that crosses our path as an opportunity to identify ourselves more closely with Jesus dying on the cross, and to love him more. And this can be done with any suffering of any kind. The suffering can be great or small, physical or psychological or spiritual, it can be our own suffering, or someone else’s. It can be caused by us, or by someone else or by no one at all. There are the small sufferings of everyday life; we spill food down our front, or cut our finger on some paper. There are the sufferings that come through our relationships; a son who is going of the rails, a neighbour who we can’t get on with, elderly parent who needs nursing, a lady who was rude to us in the supermarket car park. Then there are the sufferings that come from our own frailties, weaknesses and sins; perhaps we feel bad because we were rude to someone in the supermarket car park! Perhaps we eat or drink or gamble too much. Perhaps we get angry and hurt people who are close to us. Perhaps we are aware of some profoundly un-Christian attitudes deep within us. Then there are the big sufferings; being ill, an accident, losing a job, being bereaved, a divorce in the family.
Whatever suffering crosses our path, we can pray, “Jesus, in this suffering I am made a little like you, dying on the cross. May I love you more and sharing with you in your suffering and death, may I so also share with you in your resurrection.” I think this what Peter means when he says (in 1 Peter 4: 12), “rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” I also think it is also what Paul means when he says (in Philippians 3: 10-11), “I want to know Christ … and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
And this approach starts to give meaning to our sufferings. We start to see them as part of our relationship with God. We start to value the fact that they draw us closer to God. We experience new life, healing and reconciliation with God. We start to see how our sufferings have helped us in responding to God’s call, and walking the Christian journey. We understand that particular situations have helped us to grow in the virtues, or have helped us to become the person we are.
Chiara Lubich, foundress of the Focolare writes, “I wish to bare witness before the world, that Jesus Forsaken has filled every void, illuminated every darkness, accompanied every solitude, annulled every suffering, cancelled every sin.” [Meditations London: New City 1989 p33].
Now I can’t speak with the authority of Chiara, but I can say that my own experience to date convinces me that Chiara is right. Learning to love the forsaken Christ allows Christ to share his resurrection life, and this has immense value for each of us as individuals and for our church communities at every level.
So as we come forward today to venerate the cross, and as we see his broken figure hanging there, let’s renew our commitment to love Christ in his sufferings. Let’s then try to do this by loving Jesus forsaken in the sufferings of our daily lives. And in this way, may it please Christ to share with us his resurrection life. 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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