Sermon St Anne’s
Brown Edge Second Sunday of Easter 2018
Around Easter 2017 an article from the
Guardian was being pushed around the social media. The article was outlining the case for the
historicity of Jesus. It was the concluding sentence that attracted me.
It said something like this, ‘it is beyond
question that Jesus lived and died, the real question however is whether he
died and lived.’
Interestingly recent research has shown
that just under half of English adults believe in the resurrection of Jesus
from the dead.
See - http://talkingjesus.org/
Yet whether Jesus died and lived remains
the most important question to ask and to answer. Far more important than Hawking’s search for
black holes, a lot more significant that whether Russia was complicit in the
nerve agent attack.
If you answer yes to that question then
everything changes, the world, the universe, everything.
And as someone who believes it to be true I
would argue that whether you believe it or not the world, the universe and
everything has changed for ever anyway.
How might that be, what has changed, who
has changed?
One thing that can change is ourselves as
new life is offered out to us both individually and corporately as the People
of God, as a Faith Community as a Church.
A part of my Lent reading was 40 Stories of
Hope.
Forty stories of lives transformed from all
kinds of mess and violence and brutality by the love and transforming grace of
God offered through Jesus’ sacrifice.
Jesus
performed many other 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 Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you
may have life in his name.
Perhaps we might couple this with John
10.10 where Jesus has been talking about his being the Good Shepherd, something
we can relate to very well at this time of year.
The
thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have
life, and have it to the full.
As God’s people we live in the now and not
yet of God’s Kingdom come upon earth, such as we pray for regularly in the
Lord’s Prayer.
We also as God’s people have been raised to
new life…
And
God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in
Christ Jesus, Ephesians
2.6
Like many Christians and Faith Communities
you may well have embarked upon some Lenten study.
However doesn’t it strike you as odd that
we seek to undertake such reflection and study during Lent and then when we
come to the critical point in the story, the resurrection and the celebration
of Easter, we stop?
Surely our hearts cry should be, now in the
light of this new reality, that Jesus is raised from death, how should we live?
As we heard from our reading in Acts the
infant Church began to live in a very different way, and do remember that
society was marked by class and cultural barriers that could never be crossed.
Now the whole group of
those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private
ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in
common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There
was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold
them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the
apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
So is that the answer, are we seek to
emulate the early church in Jerusalem?
Not too many people think this passage sets
a blue print for the life of the people of God in every age.
However, very helpfully for today Andrew
Roberts, a Methodist Minister has written about the emerging Faith Community
exploring the familiar passage of Acts 2.42-47 that also talks about the
selling of goods and holding everything in common, picked up again in the
passage we heard today from Acts 4.32-35.
Andrew notes to what he refers to as Ten
Holy Habits for both individuals and as a Community of Faith.
The ten habits are: biblical teaching,
fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer, giving, service, eating together,
gladness and generosity, worship and the making of more disciples.
Andrew has further developed his book into
a Training Course where these Holy Habits can be explored in more depth.
Our Lenten study and discipline may be over
but ought we not to continue with our studies, especially as we seek to learn
and understand more of Jesus, just who was and is this man?
Jesus
performed many other 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 Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you
may have life in his name.
We need to read, heed and take to heart our
Scriptures as a daily discipline.
I heard it said recently that in the Old
Testament the New Testament is contained and in the New Testament the Old
Testament is explained.
This is the meta-narrative, the Big Story
of God’s redeeming the whole of the cosmos and you and I as God’s people who
have responded to His invitation of grace are called to be co-workers with God
in this great enterprise.
Michael
Quoist in his book ‘The Christian Response’ put it like this…
‘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.’
Maybe what Andrew offers is a good place to
begin such a study of how we should now live as the People of God in Brown Edge
in the light of the resurrection of Jesus.
How do you think you measure up here as the
People of God at St Anne’s, Brown Edge?
Biblical
teaching
Fellowship
Breaking
of bread
Prayer
Giving
Service
Eating
together
Gladness
and generosity
Worship
Making
more disciples
A
good litmus test is to be found Acts 2.47
They broke bread
together in their homes all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of
all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were
being saved.
Do
you have the good will of the people of Brown Edge?
Do
you share meals with each other?
Are
you known as those who ‘all the while praise God?’
Is
the Lord adding to your number those who are being saved?
On encountering the Risen Christ Thomas’
life was transformed, ‘but blessed,’ said Jesus, ‘are those who have not seen
and yet believe.
That
my brothers and sisters includes both you and me – believing and blessed that
we might bless others that they in turn may believe.
Then
they in turn having come to believe are blessed and then bless others who then
come to believe - and thus the Church grows and God’s Kingdom is established on
earth as in heaven.
Thus
the reality of Jesus’ resurrection changes the world as people have their lives
transformed and then begin to transform their communities as they live out the
new life as a Resurrected Community of Faith.
Jesus
performed many other 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 Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you
may have life in his name.
Brown Edge needs you to live out an
authentic resurrected life so that the thief who comes only to steal and kill
and destroy may know he is defeated and that now in Jesus people may have life,
and have it to the full.
Let us pray…
Risen
Christ,
for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred:
open the doors of our hearts,
that we may seek the good of others
and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace,
to the praise of God the Father.
for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred:
open the doors of our hearts,
that we may seek the good of others
and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace,
to the praise of God the Father.
