Cheadle
& Freehay 12th April 2015
2nd Sunday of Easter
Acts 4.32-35 1 John
1.1-2.2 John 20.19-31
‘Jesus did many other
miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in
this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’
From the 1st
Letter of John…
‘That which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have
looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of
Life. ‘
Jesus’ words to Thomas,
struggling to accept that Jesus had been raised to life (and who can blame him!)
‘Because you have seen me,
you have believed, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’
I take that to mean you
and me and all those over the centuries who have put their faith in Jesus. The countless millions who
have declared along with Thomas, ‘My Lord and My God.’ Or perhaps in modern
parlance…OMG!
Those who have found the
truth of Jesus’ words ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the
full.’ John 10.10
Jesus was an epiphany of
what it means to be a true human being, walking in perfect obedience and love
of God. Someone who had mastery over the natural order and could commend
sickness, demons and death to depart.
He drew back the curtain
in much the same way as Elijah prayed his servants eyes would be opened when
surrounded by his enemies. (2 Kings 6.17)
I stood in the place of
Thomas on the 1st January 1975 when at the age of 24 I said, ‘my
Lord and my God’ and became a Christian.
Once having made such a
declaration the question then is; how shall I now live? One of the most
important aspects of growing as a disciple of Jesus is to meet regularly with
others disciples.
Proverbs 27.17 declares,
‘As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.’
This is what is happening
to the infant Jesus Community as outlined in our reading from Acts.
Not too many people today would
argue that this is a blue print for how a Christian Community should live.
Although there have been some brave attempts over the years to do just that,
the Anabaptist in particular. Of course to some degree Monastic Communities do
operate in this way.
And it is from Monastic
Communities that valuable lesson are being learned, or perhaps we ought to say,
re-learned as to how we can be the People of God in this 21st
century.
There is a whole new movement
being called New Monasticism which is influencing many churches. The argument being that we
need to shift from being Church Congregations to become Faith Communities.
Faith Communities that are
committed at the core and open at the edges. Faith Communities that are both
evangelized and naturally evangelizing. Faith Communities that hold a Common
Rule of Life and a Pattern of Prayer. (Which is made so much easier today with
electronic communication.)
By far and away most
people are brought to a Thomas like confession through a friend. What better
place to draw them into the heart and love of God than a Faith Community of
which you are an active member.
Just as Jesus pulled back
the curtain and let us see a glimpse of what it means to live as an authentic
human being, so the Church is meant to show how authentic human beings can live
together and bring a blessing to the world.
‘The gate of heaven is
everywhere - our role is to help open the door... to roll away the stone and
unleash the energy and wonder of the risen Christ’.
Thomas Merton
The Church is the means by
which God brings a blessing to the world; ‘the Church of God doesn't have a
mission in the world, but the God of mission has a Church in the world.’
So what is God’s mission –
nothing less than to bring about the redemption of the whole cosmos?
And we are invited to
participate in this noble venture – you are invited and I am invited because as
Michelle Quoist puts it…
‘You are a unique and irreplaceable actor in the
drama of human history, and Jesus Christ has need of you to make known his
salvific work in this particular place and at this particular moment in
history.’
Without God we cannot,
without us God will not.
Jesus’s death and
resurrection wasn't a tragedy, or part of God’s plan when everything went
horrible wrong. In a way that is beyond
our comprehension, in the deep mystery of divine economy Jesus was always part
of God’s plan.
"The Son of Man must
suffer many terrible things," he (Jesus) said. "He will be rejected by the
elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He will be
killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead." Luke 9.22
‘Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’
So, let me ask you this…
Are you able to declare as
did Thomas, ‘My Lord and My God?’
Perhaps you are on the
journey towards that belief and that is absolutely fine.
Because if you thought
making a decision about choosing a life partner or a house or a car or anything
else you care to name was important – they all fade into insignificance when
compared with making a decision to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of
God.
Embracing such a belief is
a game changer like no other. Or it ought to be if we take it seriously enough.
There are plenty of
accounts in the Gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles about people whose lives
were turned around because they declared their belief in Jesus. And that is still happening today across the
world, maybe not so much in our own country, but certainly across Africa and
China and many other places.
In some ways we have lost
the dynamic, lost the passion, lost the drive. We have lost the expectation
that people will come among us and in so doing will encounter the living God,
an encounter that offers them life, and life in all its fullness.
Let me ask you this simple
question as I draw to a close…
Where are you this morning
in your relationship with God?
Augustine of Hippo wrote...
‘Jesus Christ will be Lord
of all or he will not be Lord at all.’
How true is that in your
personal life and how true is that in the life of this church?
As you ponder on that let me close with some beautiful word from His Holiness Pope Emeritus Benedict XV1
And only where God is
seen does life truly begin.
Only when we meet the
living God in Christ do we know what life is.
We are not some casual
and meaningless product of evolution.
Each of us is the
result of a thought of God.
Each of us is willed,
Each of us is loved,
Each of us is
necessary.
There is nothing more
beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel,
By the encounter with
Christ.
There is nothing more
beautiful than to know him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.
