The Reality of the Resurrection - A Sermon for Easter Day

Preachers do all sorts of odd things on Easter Day.

I have heard of several Ministers and Local Preachers who have eaten daffodils on Easter Day.  Well, I won’t be walking over to our cross this morning and eating one of the daffodils.  For a start off I have no idea what a daffodil tastes like and for another they may be high in calories, which won’t help with the weight loss!  The point was that if the congregation went home and told people their Minister had eaten a daffodil, nobody would believe them.

I know another Minister who planned a very special Easter sermon.  As he began to preach a circus performer came tumbling down the church, interrupting his preaching.  After a brief conversation he resumed the sermon.  Then the Christmas fairy appeared, skipping down the aisle and interrupting the sermon.  Again there was a brief conversation and the sermon resumed.  Finally, just as the Minister was getting going again, I entered the church, dressed as Elvis Presley and belted out Suspicious Minds to a by now intrigued congregation.  The Minister then suggested that if people told family and friends that in church, on Sunday, the service had been interrupted by a circus acrobat, the Christmas fairy and Elvis Presley, nobody would believe them.

I tried to think of something I could do in an Easter Day service that nobody would believe; like coming in wearing a Hawaiian shirt or wearing a Superman costume, but then I decided that if people have even the vaguest knowledge of me, nothing I could do would be unbelievable.

The point of all these unbelievable acts perpetrated by Ministers and Preachers is, of course, to point out that the resurrection of Jesus is, for many, simply unbelievable and yet it happened.  I say that with absolute conviction!  I believe very firmly that in first century Judea God raised Jesus Christ physically from the dead to glorious and eternal resurrection life.

Many people do indeed doubt that Jesus physically rose from the dead.  They dismiss whole thing saying that we know dead bodies do not come back to life, it is simply impossible.  Some inside church have the same view.  They say that what the early Christians meant by resurrection wasn’t that Jesus physically came back to life, but that in the days and weeks following his death they could still feel his presence and therefore began to claim that he was still alive.  The idea that he physically rose from the dead came when later generations misunderstood what the very first Christians meant by resurrection.

 

Our gospel account this morning makes it clear we are talking about more than a spiritual experience, though it was certainly that as well.  Mary Magdalene saw somebody who she thought was the gardener, though he was, of course, Jesus.  This obviously very solid flesh and blood person asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?  Who is it that you are looking for?”

Mary replied to this unrecognised though very real physically present person, “If you took him away, sir, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”

Let’s pause and reflect here.  For Mary, at this point, there is no suggestion at all that this is anything other than an ordinary conversation between a man and a woman, not suggestion of anything spiritual going on and no suggestion that she thought anything had happened to Jesus other than his body being moved by somebody.

Why did she not recognise Jesus?  Perhaps, as I was once told in Sunday School, it was because her vision was blurred by her tears.  Maybe Jesus simply has his back to her or was partially turned away, as the film ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ suggested.  Perhaps Jesus was some distance away.  Maybe it was because Mary knew Jesus was dead and didn’t even consider the possibility that the man she was talking to could be Jesus.  Why did Mary not recognise Jesus?  I’ll return to this question later.

Jesus speaks just one word, ‘Mary’ and she realises who he is; her ‘Teacher’ risen from the dead.  He is still the same solid physically real person she has been talking to, but now the experience of encountering the person Mary now knows to be the resurrected Jesus takes on an added spiritual dimension as well.  Mary’s encounter with the risen Jesus was both a physical and a spiritual experience.

Jesus physically rose from the dead on Easter Day.  Since the earliest days of Christianity the constant claim about Jesus was that on the cross he defeated death and that by rising to life he proved death a defeated enemy.  If Jesus did not rise physically from the dead then how is death defeated?

If Jesus did not physically rise from the dead, then where did the idea come from?  In the pagan Roman world the idea of physical resurrection seemed as ridiculous as it does to many people today.  Even in Israel there was no concept of individual resurrection.  Many Jews believed that all the dead would rise when God brought in his worldwide kingdom, but not that anybody would rise before that day.

Jesus physically rose from the dead on Easter Day.  As Paul wrote, in his first letter to the Corinthians, “if Christ has not been raised from death then we have nothing to preach and you have nothing to believe.  If Christ has not been raised then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins.  It would also mean that believers in Christ who have died are lost.  If our hope in Christ is good for this life only then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world.  But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also rise.”

Jesus physically rose from the dead on Easter Day.  It was not just a spiritual experience who appeared to Mary Magdalene outside tomb but a real solid person.  It was not just a spiritual experience who walked with the two on the road to Emmaus and broke bread before them but a real living person.  It was not just a spiritual experience who cooked fish on the shore of the Sea of Galilee but a real living person.  It was not just a spiritual experience who appeared before Thomas and the other apostles but a real living person.  Only a physically resurrected Jesus could have convinced Doubting Thomas that Jesus lived again.

Jesus physically rose from the dead on Easter Day and yet Mary did not recognise him.  Why?  Why do so many people today, even in church, not recognise our risen Jesus?

I think it was because Mary was searching for a dead body rather than a living Lord.  She couldn’t find Jesus because he was alive, not dead.  Many people today make the same mistake.  The Jesus they know lived almost two thousand years ago.  The accounts of his miracles and teaching impress them.  But they have no experience of the risen Jesus who walks with us day by day.  “Christ is risen” doesn’t just mean he came back to life in first century Judea: it means that he is alive today, right here, right now!  Christ is alive!

Mary was searching for a dead Jesus, but she found a living Lord because Jesus found her and came to her.  That is usually the way it is.  Jesus parable of the Lost Sheep tells us that even before we know we are lost, Jesus is looking for us.  On the road to Damascus Paul was not looking for Jesus, yet Jesus came to him in a vision of glory and Paul found the Saviour he didn’t even know he was looking for.  If you feel that you have lost your faith or Jesus seems far away know that he is already coming towards you and is just waiting for you to recognise him once again as your Saviour and Lord.

Mary was searching for Jesus but did not recognise him when she found him.  Sadly that is true for so many people.  Jesus comes to us in the hungry, in the thirsty, in the lonely and in the persecuted.  He comes to us in the needy person and we do not recognise him.

Francis of Assisi was terrified of leprosy.  One day, whilst walking down a narrow path, he saw a leper coming towards him.  Instinctively his heart shrank back, recoiling from contamination by that horrible disease.  But then, ashamed of himself, he ran and put his arms around the leper’s neck and kissed him before passing on.  Only a moment later he looked back and the road was empty with nobody in sight.  For the rest of his life Francis was convinced that it wasn’t an ordinary leper he had met, but Jesus himself.

We should always be ready to help those in need because, if we don’t we may miss out on a meeting with our Lord Jesus himself.

Jesus physically rose from the dead on Easter Day.  Jesus Christ is risen indeed!  Our living Lord Jesus comes to us each and every day:  let us welcome him daily into our lives and into our hearts and live as people who serve a living Lord.

A Sermon for Good Friday

“But because of our sins he was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did.  We are healed by the punishment he suffered, made whole by the blows he received.  All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way.  But the Lord made the punishment fall on him, the punishment all of us deserved.”

These verses are from Isaiah 53.  They form part of what are called the suffering servant prophecies in Isaiah: prophecies that look forward to the life, and especially the death of Jesus.  These particular lines point towards why Jesus submitted to his death on the cross and what the death accomplished for each and every Christian person who has ever lived.

I remember starting my Good Friday sermon last year by saying that of all the days of the Christian year I find Good Friday the most difficult day to preach on.  I suggested last year that perhaps it was because I am overwhelmed by what God did on that Calvary Hill just under two thousand years ago, that to speak with any meaning about what God did for us that day seems next to impossible.  I still feel that way, but I think it’s also because the cross forces us to face the reality of suffering and death in our world.

It cannot be denied that there is suffering in our world.  I started writing this sermon the day after the plane crash in the French Alps when 150 people, including school children were killed.  We now know the horrific truth that the co-pilot crashed the plane deliberately.  There has been suffering throughout the whole history of the world: I only need to say the word Auschwitz and images of horrible suffering come to mind.  People suffer as a group and they suffer as individuals.  Since coming into ministry I have known several people who have endured different cancers and seen first-hand what they are going through, either because of the disease itself or because of the harsh chemotherapy treatments.

It cannot be denied that there is suffering in the gospel accounts of Good Friday.  In the early hours of the morning Jesus suffered betrayal by Judas, a man he had entrusted and loved as much as any of the other disciples. Those of us who have suffered betrayal by a close friend or relative know how Jesus must have felt.  He endured a mockery of a trial conducted by an illegally convened Jewish Council.  Not only that, but some members of that Council spat at him and hit him.  Then another of his friends denied even knowing him.  Jesus was whipped with a Roman whip that tore the flesh from his body.  Many Roman prisoners died after being whipped, such was the pain and damage inflicted.  Finally he was nailed to a cross, inflicting further pain upon a body that must have already been half dead and he slowly died of suffocation.

When we are suffering, when we hear about the suffering of others or when we have to endure the suffering of somebody we love we can get angry with God.  We can accuse God of not understanding how much we or the one we love is suffering.  The suffering in the world can even make us doubt God’s existence.  The gospel accounts of Good Friday assure us that the existence of a loving God and suffering in the world are fully compatible; because suffering is woven throughout Jesus’ last day.  In Jesus God knows what it is to suffer, he knows what it is to be rejected, he knows what it is to be betrayed and denied, he knows what it is like to be the object of scorn: he knows what it is to suffer untold agony!  In watching as Jesus endured all these things God knows what it is like to see a loved one suffer.  Our experience is God’s experience!

It cannot be denied that there is death in our world.  Sometimes there is death on a massive scale.  Cyclone Pam tore through the Pacific Islands a few days ago leaving destruction and death in its wake.  Sometimes that death is on a slightly smaller scale, such as the deaths of those who lost their lives in that French Alps plane crash.  Sometimes that death is one that only affects us and those close to us; like the death of my Dad last March.

It cannot be denied that there is death in the gospel accounts of Good Friday.  There is the death of Judas, who went and hanged himself after betraying Jesus.  There is the death of Jesus himself, suffocating in agony on a Roman cross.  A death that at the time, to those who loved him must have seemed pointless; a death that they thought dashed forever their hopes of the Kingdom of God with Jesus as king!

In our world it is so easy to focus on suffering and death and the bad news broadcast on TV and radio every day, yet it cannot be denied that there is hope in our world!  There is hope every time a baby is born, hope of all the potential that new life brings.  There is hope in the small kindnesses that are shown by people to one another every day; small acts of love and charity that go unnoticed by most but bring such pleasure to those who receive them.  There is hope in the aid that is given to those who need water, food and medical attention.  There is hope in the world’s response to natural disasters.

In the gospel accounts of Good Friday there is suffering and death, yet it cannot be denied that there is hope: indeed the account of Good Friday is an account of tremendous hope.

“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”  These words, spoken by Jesus on the cross, are words of hope!  Who was Jesus forgiving?

Was it the Roman soldiers who tortured him and nailed him to the cross?

Was it those who mocked him as he hung dying on the cross?

Was it Pontius Pilate who condemned him to death?

Was it the Jewish leaders who had demanded his death?

Was it Judas Iscariot who betrayed him?

I believe it was for all of them, but not just them.  I believe that when Jesus prayed that prayer of forgiveness it was for all the men and women across time whose sins sent him there.  When Jesus prayed that prayer it was a prayer for the world.  When Jesus prayed that prayer it was a prayer for each one of us here today, because our sins too sent him to the cross.

Jesus died on the cross so that we might receive forgiveness of our sins, forgiveness for all the wrong, selfish and God-defying things that we have thought, said and done: the things that put a barrier between ourselves and God, the things that would deny us the promise of eternal life.  Even as he hung on that cross in agony Jesus brought forgiveness to people.  The cross is all about the hope of forgiveness and reconciliation with God and each other.

There is hope in Jesus words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”  They are not a cry of desperation or an indication that Jesus lost his faith as he hung there.

One reason for the cry was that for the whole of his life on earth Jesus had known the intimate presence of God the Father.  That powerful presence that we sometimes feel when very blessed had been Jesus’ constant experience; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in continuous close and loving relationship.  On that cross the sins of the world were laid upon Jesus, every sin that ever had been committed or ever would be committed.  That sin acted as a barrier between Jesus the Son and the Father.  For the first time Jesus was truly and utterly alone.  In that moment he experienced our human sense of being God forsaken.  The cry shows that in Jesus God truly and completely understood what it is to be human.

Jesus cry from the cross can also be seen as a cry of faith, of hope, that he used to strengthen himself.   The words come at the beginning of Psalm 22, psalm that Jesus may have been meditating on as he hung on that cross, a psalm that ends:

          All nations will remember the Lord.
          From every part of the world they
                   will turn to him;
          all races will worship him.
          The Lord is King,
                   and he rules all the nations.

          All men people will bow down to him;
          all mortal men will bow down before him.
          Future generations will serve him;
          men will speak of the Lord to the
                   coming generation.
          People not yet born will be told:
          “The Lord saved his people.”

Seen in this context it was not so much a cry of dereliction but a cry of true hope, of faith that through his death people from all the nations of the earth, people from the present and the future, would be drawn to God because of what he was doing on that cross.

Since I have become a Methodist Presbyter I have known suffering and death in a way I have never experienced before; not only through members of my congregations but in my own family.  In the past three years my Grandma and Dad have died; and I’m facing the loss of my mum in the very near future.  It’s hard, it’s difficult and yet I am not without hope: the hope brought on that first Good Friday that God is with us through times of suffering and death; that God understands what we are going through because God has experienced it all in Jesus.

And, knowing how the story ends: we not only have the hope of understanding and forgiveness that Good Friday brings; we have the hope of eternal life that Easter Day brings, when we well celebrate glorious resurrection. 

Reflection for Remembrance Day 2014

Micah 4: 1-8
Matthew 5: 43-48

It surely can’t have escaped anybody’s attention that this year marks the hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the First World War.  There have been special programmes on television this year, both documentaries and dramas and special events held not just in this country but all over the world.

When I think of the First World War three things come to mind.  The first is the television comedy, Blackadder Goes Forth.  I’m specifically thinking of the end of the final episode when Blackadder and his companions are about to leave the trenches and “go over the top” and charge the German lines (you can watch it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH3-Gt7mgyM).  After nearly six episodes of comedy things turn serious.  Baldrick turns to Blackadder and admits that he is afraid.  The others, including Blackadder voice their own fear.  Then the whistle blows and they climb the ladders and charge the German lines.  In slow motion they are all killed and then the scene fades and is replaced by a Flanders field full of poppies.  Brave people are not those who feel no fear, they are those who are afraid but go ahead and do it anyway.

The second thing that comes to mind is the visit I made to Belgium with school when I was fifteen, because we were studying World War One.  I remember we went to two of the WW1 cemeteries.  It was a very sobering experience, even as a teenager, to stand among rows and rows of identical white headstones, each one of them representing a soldier who had been brave enough to give his life for something he believed in.  Even as a teenager I was stunned into a subdued silence!

The third thing that comes to mind is that the First World War was once called “the war to end all wars”.  Sadly, as all the other wars of the 20th and 21st centuries attest, it was no such thing.  The sad truth is that human beings continue to fight and kill each other over land, or ideology or religious belief.  Sometimes that fighting is in a just cause to oppose a great evil like the Nazis to defend the weak and innocent, evil it can be argued it would be a greater evil not to oppose.  At other times that fighting is motivated by selfishness, greed and hatred.

My study of the Lectionary readings for Remembrance Sunday tells me that war is contrary to the will of God, it is far from God’s best for us and God’s desire is for peace on earth.

In the reading from the book of Micah that desire of God for peace on earth is abundantly clear.  Inspired by God Micah prophesies a time when “they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”  In that future paradise war will be truly a thing of the past because we will live in harmony with each other and with all creation.  There will be nothing to fight about because we will all have enough and we will all know the truth about God.  This is the utopia promised at the end of the book of Revelation when “the home of God is among mortals.  God will dwell with them; they will be his peoples and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes.  Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.”

Our passage from Matthew’s gospel gives us guidance as to God’s will for us until the time we will spend eternity in paradise, in the very presence of the living God.  It comes from the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus has already said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”  Now Jesus says “You have heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

It is easy to hate your enemy when they are faceless, when they are not really thought of as human beings, but as the enemy.  But if we start to see our enemies as human beings, human beings with the same passions, drives as vulnerabilities as ourselves it is not so easy to hate them.  If we start to actively pray for them we start to see them as God sees them and our attitude changes.  It is very hard to fight people who are like us in so many ways; it is very hard to kill somebody you have prayed for.

During Christmas 1914 there was an unofficial and totally unplanned truce along the Western Front.  British and German soldiers began to exchange seasonal greetings and songs between their trenches; on occasion, the tension was reduced to the point that individuals would walk across to talk to their opposite numbers bearing gifts.  On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day many soldiers from both sides independently ventured into no man’s land, where they mingled, exchanging food and souvenirs. As well as joint burial ceremonies, several meetings ended in carol-singing. It is widely believed, though doubted by some, that troops from both sides were also friendly enough to play games of football with one another.

It’s hard to kill somebody you have played games with, exchanged gifts with and sung carols with.  When the truce end officers on both sides had to force the soldiers to resume the fighting.

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

If you love your enemy you cannot fight against them and you cannot kill them.  1 Corinthians chapter 13 tells us, “Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.”  To love your enemy is to be at peace with them.

War is a sometimes necessary evil; it is sometimes necessary to defend either yourself, your family or your country against an aggressor with evil intent.  Until God renews our earth when Jesus returns it is sometimes necessary to defend the innocent and defenceless by opposing evil with force.  But it must always be a last resort, when all other options have failed!

In times of conflict we should, even as we honour the bravery of those giving their lives for a cause they believe in, pray for peace, God’s ideal for the world!

I’ll finish with a couple of verses from a modern hymn:

We pray for peace,
but not the easy peace
built on complacency
and not the truth of God.  We pray for real peace,
the peace God’s love alone can seal.

We pray for peace,
and, for the sake of peace,
look to the risen Christ,
who gives the grace we need
to serve the cause of peace
and make our own self-sacrifice.

It's Not In The Bible!

Last Sunday morning I was preaching on the opening verses of Mathhew 23: 1-12.  I'm not going to reproduce the full sermon here, you'll probably be glad to know, but I am going to expand on one of the thoughts I had on Sunday morning.

I was talking about Pharisaical attitudes in the church today, about things that are expected of Christians in the average church that, as far as I can see, have no basis in scripture.

The first is that old chestnut, dress standards.  I am aware of the general principal of modesty of dress, of not dressing to inflame the desires of others and generally agree with it: but some churches go too far.  Usually nothing is ever said out loud, but a message is nevertheless communicated in more subtle ways.  There is, for example, nothing at all in the Bible about men wearing a suit, shirt and tie in church, yet men who don't like wearing them are forced to conform every Sunday.  If they don't they are looked down upon, even in 2014.  I remember the fuss that was caused the first time I went to a very middle class church in jeans, open neck shirt and a leather jacket.  I think they almost refused me entry!  Women in churches have the same pressure put on them to look smart and 'respectable'.

You know what, as long as we are't dressed provocatively, with the intention of inflaming the desires of others, I don't think God really cares what we wear: he's more interested in our hearts than our attire!

It's the same with behaviours, behaviours that are traditional rather then mandated by the Bible.  The whole standing up to sing hymns thing (or for the Holy Communion Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, or, in some churches, the gospel reading) is just tradition; yet the looks you get if you decide to stay seated in some churches, even if you cannot stand without great difficulty, would kill.

And don't get me started on the whole pew thing or organ thing!  Where in the Bible does it say Christians must sit on pews or only sing their hymns to the accompaniment of an organ?  You know what, it doesn't!

These are just a few examples of church expectations that have nothing to do with the Bible and everything to do with human tradition.  We must all think carefully about our attitude towards these and other traditions: we shouldn't want those traditions getting on the way of those who still need to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.  As soon as they do do they need to go,

Conservative Evangelical and Proud!

It's funny, but after a few years of my theology moving in a more liberal/progressive direction I have found myself in recent months moving back to what many would consider a more conservative evangelical theology.

I don"t think I could ever, in my whole life, have been described as a fundamentalist;  but for most of my teenage years, twenties and thirties I was avowedly a conservative evangelical, fed on a steady diet of books by inspired Christians like David Watson, Derek Prince, AW Tozer, RT Krndall, Michael Green and John Stott.  The Bible was the inspired word of God, it's authors inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit as they wrote, the message of God filtered through individual human personalities bit still the message of God.

It also seemed to me that the churches that were growing, that were successful, were the ones that preached this conservation evangelical faith, that took God at his word and had faith that it is true!

Then came a season of questioning, of some doubt.  I started local preacher training and was advised to read authors from a wider theological spectrum.  I was told that this reading would challenge my faith but the, ultimately, I would emerge with a more "mature faith."  This wider reading continued, of course, throughout my time of training as a Student Minister.  In retrospect I was fortunate, though, that some of our tutors were evangelicals themselves.

Since leaving college and starting my service in Circuit as first a Probstionet Presbyter and now as an ordained Presbytet in full connexion I have been wrestling with my theology, with where I stood on understanding the scriptures, what I believed about healings and miracles and the existence of the devil, what I thought about universal salvation.

I have read and read and read.  I have prayed and prayed.  I have asked God to lead me to where he wants me to be, theologically.  I've read books by progressives like Brian McLaren, books by liberals like John Robinson, John Shelby Spong, John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg.  Equally I re-read some of my books by older conservative evangelical authors and also devoured Billy Graham's autobiography and other conservative evangelical books that were new to me.

Who was right?  The conservative evangelicals?  The liberals and/or the progressives?  How could I make a choice?  All argued very persuasively and all said their position was the correct one.  The liberals and progressives sometimes mocked and ridiculed conservative evangelical theology, which disturbed me and which I felt was a deeply unloving and unchristian thing to do.  Equally I was uncomfortable by suggestion from the evangelical camp that those who disagreed with them we in league with Satan or being tricked by him.

Just a few days ago, on Facebook, I described myself as a progressive evangelical.  I would no longer do so.

At heart, deep down inside, I am convinced of the conservative evangelical position on most theological issues.  This will come as a surprise to come of my friends and maybe they will not like it, but it's where I feel God had led me.

That doesn't mean blind faith and it doesn't mean that I am ignoring everything I was taught.  It does not mean that when studying the Bible I will ignore the type of literature a particular book contains.  T does not mean that I will ignore historical context and textual context.

But it does mean that, for me, I have decided to trust God, to trust in his power and knowledge above that of human beings.  I believe the Bible to be much more than a record of human thoughts about  God.  It is divinely inspired!  I am convinced that Jesus was truly Human and divine ( and not just a human being who was really close to God as some Liberals suggest).  I am convinced that Jesus died for my sins in my place and that he physically rose from the dead.  I believe that he did all the healings and miracles attributed to him, exactly as they are recounted in the gospels and that such miracle can and do happen today.  I believe that there is a devil and demons who are absolutely opposed to God: and that they are already defeated foes, beaten by Christ's death on the cross!

I think that the church has gone too far in trying to be "relevant" and softening or even distorting Christianoty instead of being a counter-cultural voice for change.

I will be joining Methodist Evangelicals Together and linking in with the New Wine networks.

After several years I know what my theological convictions are.  I' mm ot saying I have all the answers or that I have all the answers, because those who have that attitude ate almost certainly wrong.

I am saying that I've come full circle, back to the point where I can comfortably and without concern confess to being a conservative evangelical Christian!