To doubt or not to doubt.

Life is full of moments of excitement and anticipation. There are so many times when something so brilliant has happened that we can’t help but be excited.  Holidays, new jobs, nice meals out, seeing family and friends you haven’t seen for a while can all be moments that we look forward to. Maybe even get excited about. 

I was thinking about this when I looked at the gospel for this morning. The disciples had been through the mill. They must have had such a mix of emotions and in such a short time. They had followed Jesus, they had trusted Him, He had died but then He had risen from the dead. It was all a bit confusing to say the least. The disciples had moved from apprehension to sadness to joy to confusion and as they waited to see what would happen next they must have felt a mixture of anticipation and excitement. 

The disciples were waiting to see Jesus. It isn’t easy but try and put yourselves in the disciples shoes for a moment. How would you have felt on seeing Jesus? Maybe you would have thought immediately of questions such as ‘What is going to happen next ? Is there going to be a new start for Jesus’ ministry? Are we going to go to the Temple and overthrow the people who killed Jesus? Maybe we are going to watch Jesus take over the political power in the world and rule himself?’ 

Jesus who had been through so much with and for the very friends that he was speaking to – Jesus, who had confounded their expectations by rising up from the grave – Jesus, who was now standing amongst them confounded them again by offering the simple words… ‘peace be with you’

Incredible, no immediate ideas for the future, no action plans to discuss! Amidst all the excitement and anticipation, the wonder of what might happen next Jesus stood and said ‘peace be with you’ and the disciples could have been forgiven for thinking ‘what else do you want to say to us?’ 

After all the emotional turmoil, and now full of excitement the disciples may have felt a bit let down to be honest. 

But then Jesus said something more, He told the disciples that they had work to do. He did this by saying,‘ As the Father has sent me, so I send you’.

Jesus, through His victory over death, and the gift of the Holy Spirit that would come to all his followers at Pentecost was handing over the earthly ministry to those followers – as they received the peace of Christ, so they were to share it with others. They were to do as Jesus did. In the same way that He had been sent so He was sending them out to make a difference to the lives of others. To help people to find their way to a relationship with God. To know healing, to know the way that lives can be changed. Jesus was giving them a job to do that was, that they were to go out and they were to proclaim peace. 

As we begin to put Easter behind us, as we finish off the easter eggs and chocolate it’s time to get back to some sort of normality – no more Lent disciplines for this year, no drama of Holy Week services in Church – but what there is remains a reminder of the celebration of the risen Lord Jesus. Because of that first Easter Day we are different, our lives have been transformed, and each Easter Day is a wonderful reminder of that fact, but it is also a commissioning to live transformed lives, to go out from here and share the peace of Christ with others…. ‘As the Father sends me, so I send you…’ we are in on the action plan !

In our gospel reading we also heard of Thomas. Poor Thomas, I often feel sorry for Thomas, who will forever be known as doubting Thomas. But put yourself in his shoes, maybe you wouldn’t have been swept away with all the excitement and anticipation of the others, maybe you would have wanted to step back for a moment and be sure.  Maybe, that would seem to be the most natural thing to do. We are all different and maybe we would have wanted to calm everyone down and be sure, maybe we would want convincing because we had been hurt once and we didn’t want that to happen again.

I remember being in a service once when the preacher decided to preach a long sermon about Thomas. It was a historical type of sermon, and at the end of the service a little boy who was 4 went up to the preacher looked at him very seriously and said, “Thomas is a train not a man.” 

Back to the disciple Thomas, and not the tank engine.  Maybe Thomas with his doubts is perhaps one of the most comforting disciples. After all, the reaction of Jesus to Thomas and his doubts reminds us that in times of doubt, times of questioning, times when things don’t seem to make perfect sense, Jesus is there waiting for us to approach him, and we can know from Thomas and Jesus that whatever we may have done to Jesus, or not done to him or for him, he waits with open arms to welcome us back.

Thomas is the inspiration that reminds us that the peace of Christ is a peace that passes all understanding, and a peace that is always available to us.

Just as those early disciples must have stood before the risen Jesus and wondered what comes next, so we can stand, firm in our faith, wondering what comes next, but knowing that God is with us, and assuring us of his peace.

We can remember that in all things and at all times we have been redeemed by a Saviour who offers to each one of us in all circumstances the simple words, ‘Peace be with you’. We can also remember that as often as we remember that Jesus died for us so we  can remember that Jesus rose again for us so that we can know His peace, and this is so that we can go out and share that peace and the difference that God makes in our lives with others. May we share the peace of God in all that we think and do and say. AMEN

Jesus is Alive.

 If I was to describe today it would be a celebration. We have journeyed with Jesus to the cross and now we arrive at the most joyous moment. The moment when we celebrate that Jesus is alive. Death has been conquered. We are now able to live forever when we go to our home in heaven.

Jesus is alive and because He is alive we know that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Every Easter I have to apologise, because I get very excited about the day. I always feel that out of kindness to everyone I know, I should be muffled ! My favourite day of the year, the day when we celebrate that God loved and loves us so much that He not only died for us but He showed that He is almighty as He rose from the dead.

Jesus is alive and so we can celebrate. There is a problem with lots of rejoicing and that is that people don’t always feel like rejoicing, because life continues for us and the pains that we had on Good Friday, the hurts that we hold are still here today. 

The difference is that because we know Jesus is alive, we know that He loves us and understands when we don’t feel completely like celebrating. It doesn’t mean that the resurrection of Jesus means any less to us. 

In our gospel reading today (John 20:1-18) we heard of Mary seeing Jesus resurrected. To be honest, when I was a child I never understood how she didn’t recognise Jesus. Except now I get it, because when you see someone in a different place to normal you take longer than you normally would to recognise them. For Mary she had seen Jesus die, she was going to the tomb to do all that she could now do for Jesus by looking after His body. She would hardly have expected to see Him alive. 

Mary recognised Jesus eventually, when she heard Him calling her name. There can be something so amazing when someone calls your name. It can be a really special moment. 

When I was a teenager I was at an international Anglican youth conference. We had been taken to a reception with the then Archbishop of Canterbury, I had met him and had a quick chat, then I had gone and got a piece of chocolate cake. There I was happily enjoying my chocolate cake when I heard a voice say, “Helen, is Welsh. Helen please come and join in a photograph with other people from Wales.” The voice was the Archbishop, it was a pretty brilliant feeling. I did finish my chocolate cake quickly first.

If that is how I felt, imagine this rather beautiful moment for Mary. She was in despair and doing the best that she could do for Jesus when all of a sudden she realised that she was talking to Him. Not only that but she realised it was Him when He called her name.

Jesus is alive and He calls our name. He looks at each one of us with love and He knows our name. He knows how we are feeling, He knows that we love Him and He looks at us and sees someone He loves.

Back to Mary, rather understandably she didn’t want to let Jesus go. Jesus almost pushed her away, but it was only so that she could go and tell the others this amazing news. This news that changed not only her life but the life for all the other followers of Jesus. The news that changes us and our lives. 

We all have times when Jesus seems so close  to us that we went to tell everyone about Him. We have seen the Lord. Mary went and shouted to the others, I have seen the Lord. Can you imagine how excited she must have been and what a great feeling ? A feeling of complete joy and happiness. A huge moment of celebration. 

Before Mary saw Jesus she had been in shock and distress believing that someone had taken Jesus’ body away. She went and got Peter and another disciple and they followed her in distress running to see what had happened. There was no joy for them, just the pain and indignity that not only had their Lord, the one who was to save the world, been crucified, now His body had been stolen. 

They rushed off to see what to do next. Mary stayed and ended up being the first person to see Jesus alive. I wonder if afterwards Peter and the other disciple were thinking, “that’s not fair, we didn’t wait and we missed out.”

This happens to us too, we can see other people having a great time and wonder why we are missing out. Today is a day of celebration and it is a day when we can celebrate not only that God loves us and knows us by name but also that we don’t miss out. We don’t miss out because God is always with us, life can be tough but God never leaves us. 

Jesus is alive and we can be changed. Changed into more and more the person God would have us be. That is more and more like Him. God loves you, just because you are you and He wants you to know that He will be with you always. He will help you to be transformed constantly into His likeness. 

You see, God loves us and He understands that we love Him but sometimes we don’t feel like celebrating. God loves us and He understands that sometimes, like Mary, at first we don’t see what He has done for us and that He calls us His own. God loves us and He understands that sometimes we feel like we have missed out and that everyone else is better than us and more worthy. God loves us and He understands when we want to shout how good He is and what He has done for us. 

Most of all God loves you because you are His child. A child for whom He suffered death and was raised to life so that death would no longer be the end. We can rejoice, loudly or quietly, because God has set us free, free to be in a relationship with Him, a relationship with our creator. The best place for us to be. AMEN

Waving and weeping

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday.  On this day we remember the crowds praising Jesus and following him into Jerusalem whilst He was riding on a donkey. Things took a dramatic downturn though. As next week goes on we will remember all the pain Jesus suffered.

I remember a lady who told me that she was always really sad during holy week. The reason for this, she said, was that she couldn’t understand how anyone could be so horrible to Jesus. 

Certainly Holy Week does take us through lots of emotions and challenges as we remember all that Jesus both has done and keeps doing for us.

There are a couple of readings from the gospel according to Matthew on Sunday. The first (Matthew 21:1-11) of these describes how Jesus sent his disciples to find a donkey, which they did.  I think the disciples could have wondered what on earth they were doing. They had been sent on a very mysterious errand. Jesus told them to go to a particular place and ask for a donkey. Jesus used this donkey to ride into Jerusalem.

As He did this, He was greeted by people who were full of joy, praising Him.  I wonder if the people were caught up in the moment and were happy to join in the celebration. Did they know what they were celebrating? Or maybe they knew the prophecy (Zechariah 9:9) about the chosen one, the one who would save them, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. This would have been an obvious reason to rejoice. 

I can imagine word spreading quickly of the incredible scenes of celebration. However, as I picture people cheering I also wonder about the religious leaders of the time. They had promised Rome, who were their occupying force, that there would not be any disturbance or attempts to overthrow Roman rule. A group of people surrounding a teacher with as big a following as Jesus had, would have been a concern. In addition to this the leaders didn't agree with all that Jesus was teaching.

Something needed to be done as far as they were concerned, Jesus needed to be stopped. This happened with the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus. 

Back to Sunday. As I remember the triumphal entry into Jerusalem I am left with a question which challenges me. This is because, I often think of the people who were cheering for Jesus on Palm Sunday and  wonder if they also formed part of the crowd who were crying for Jesus to be crucified in the other gospel reading (Matthew 27:11-54) for this Sunday.

I am sure that I would not have wanted to be part of the crowd looking for Jesus to be crucified. The challenge is though, do I really make sure that I always show my love for Jesus and my desire to follow Him as fully as I can? It is one of those thoughts that pulls me up. Am I giving the best I can to Jesus ? Am I living as someone who follows Him above everything else ?  

On Sunday we will be entering Holy Week, but as we journey through the week, as we think of the events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday there is a challenge. This is, are we ready to make sure that we think of all that Jesus both has done, and continues to do for us, and to living our lives as a response to this ? 

Passionately living

This Sunday is Passion Sunday.  The Sunday when our gears shift slightly. Lent is continuing but we remember that we are getting closer to holy week and the marking of Good Friday. I remember that in the Church where I grew up all the crosses would be covered on this Sunday. This was done to remind us that we were entering into the final weeks of lent which are called Passiontide. 

In Passiontide we focus on the suffering of Jesus. This suffering involves humiliation, torture and death but it also takes us into the hope and promise of new life. It reminds us that we are forgiven. This is great news but before joy there is pain.

The gospel reading for Sunday is John 11:1-45. This passage is about Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. This happened in Bethany.  

The first time I went to the holy land was with a number of other Church leaders. When we arrived in Bethany there was an opportunity to go into the tomb of Lazarus. When we went down to the tomb there was plenty of room and we had time to spend there. When it was time to leave peoples names were called out. This was followed by the words ‘come out’. This of course, was very much like the words that Jesus used when he called Lazarus. 

Thinking about it now though, I can see that in the same way Jesus called Lazarus back to life, He calls us as well. 

We can all put ourselves into a place where we want to despair or be left alone. We can all want to try and hide from Jesus, or just refuse to hear Him calling us. We are not physically dead, but I think that we can put up barriers to protect ourselves from hurt, or doing something that we fear. 

Maybe we just need to imagine Jesus calling our name, making us leave the barriers that we may have put up. 

Lazarus was called to life and we all are as well. Jesus wants us all to enjoy a relationship with Him.

The next two weeks will lead us to remember Jesus dying for us and rising again so that we can enjoy life by following Him. 

I rather like putting a spin on words and I feel this about Passiontide. I want to see the life Jesus calls me to as a life which I will live ‘passionately’, or maybe put another way, ‘completely’. We are all called to live for Jesus and to do this wholeheartedly. As we do so we remember that it is because of His Passion that we can live forever in eternity.

Let's be passionate about living our lives for Jesus. 

Middle of a chain reaction

 As I thought about this coming Sunday, Mothering Sunday, I remembered all that I was taught about the day as a child. There was a lot of saying thank you and giving thanks. This is still true, and I am pleased about the way I was taught about this special day.

It is the day when we remember and give thanks for the love of our mothers and those who have loved us as a mother. We are also to remember our mother Church which is the Cathedral of our Diocese,  I also like to give thanks for the Church which nurtured me as I grew up. Then of course, there is the need to give thanks for Mary, the mother of Jesus and her willingness to accept the role of motherhood. So many reasons to give thanks.

The epistle reading (2 Cor. 1:3-7) for Sunday made me think not only of God’s love for us but also how we are to love and support one another.

In verse 4 we are reminded that when we suffer, God, through his love for us, offers consolation. This love, is meant to be passed on by us so that  we too can console others. It is like a chain reaction. 

If you are singing the Diana Ross song about being a chain reaction in your mind, don’t worry, I am as well. This could make you laugh and feel happy, or even bemused, but it is the constant reaction to something good.

In the song there are words about being in the middle of a chain reaction. It makes me think of the joy of being in the middle of a chain reaction, of sharing God’s love and consolation.

In one Church where I was, there was a little girl who showed a chain reaction of love by the way she treated other children. She acted like a Mum to them. It was lovely to see because as you watched the little girl you could see that she was copying her own Mum.  She even used the same phrases as her Mum did. She copied the love and care she received by offering the same to other children. 

She was in the middle of a chain reaction of love from her Mum and was continuing that chain by loving others.

In the epistle reading we read that we are consoled so that we can console others. It is a strange word, not one we would naturally use. However it really is an incredible thing. This is because consolation isn’t just a pat on the back. It we truly want to console someone then we need to get alongside them, to be there for them, it is about showing true love and care. 

It is about us putting ourselves where Jesus would be and offering more than just a kind word. It is about going the extra mile. 

As we give thanks for all those we both love and are loved by, so we give thanks that God loves us. We remember that we are invited into a chain reaction of love and care. To go the extra mile, to be like Jesus to others by the way that we live- our actions and the words that we say.

What a wonderful chain to be part of, let's keep the chain reaction going

Lost in love and grace

I love a good story which has a nice ending. One of the things I really enjoy is a good book. The kind where you are desperate to know what is going to happen but the book is so enjoyable you also don't want it to end. One of my favourite authors is Jane Austen. A while ago there was a short TV series called, ‘Lost in Austen.’ In this series a fan of the novels accidentally ended up in the world of Jane Austen, meeting the characters from her books.

As I looked at the gospel reading for this Sunday  (John 4:5-42) I thought that this could be a story that could be entered into. 

In the reading there are moments of suspense and excitement. In the reading, Jesus enters into enemy territory by going to a Samaritan city.  Samaritans and Jews were basically the same, but they thought differently on some aspects of their faith. This made them seriously doubt and dislike one another. 

With this in mind, Jesus’ actions of talking to a Samaritan woman, asking for water and having a debate could be seen as a suspense filled encounter.

In the discussion Jesus was able to point out that the woman should have asked Him for water.  The water Jesus was talking of was metaphorical, it was a water which would save the woman and give her life for ever. It was the gift caused by turning to Him. It was the gift of salvation, the gift of eternal life. 

Entering into the story we could almost be sat on the edge of our seats as we think about the wonder of salvation. Except there was more to come. Jesus asked the woman to get her husband. The woman replied that she did not have a husband. Jesus was then able to point out that He knew she had been married 5 times and was now with someone who she wasn't married to! 

The woman ended up having a deep theological conversation with Jesus about the difference between Jews and Samaritans over where they should worship. Jesus took a different route to the one she expected by saying that it would not matter where they worshipped. 

The woman took almost a last ditch attempt at conversation as she said that she knew the Messiah (the chosen One) was coming. However, Jesus responded in a way perhaps greater than all the other parts as He said that He was the Messiah.

This is wonderful news for us as well. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, by dying for us, we can also enjoy this peace and grace. We can enter the reading knowing that we can be lost in the grace and forgiveness of God as we enjoy a relationship with Him. 

It is more incredible than any story teller could create and yet it is completely real. We are invited into relationship with God. Frankly, I can't think of anything better than being lost in God’s love and grace. 

Confused or not ?

 As I thought about the gospel for this Sunday (John 3:1-17) I thought about being confused.  In the gospel reading Nicodemus, a teacher of the law went to Jesus. We don’t really know what Nicodemus wanted from Jesus, except he wanted some answers. He went to see Jesus at night, away from lots of people. 

Maybe he was trying to avoid the crowds, maybe he was hoping not to be seen by others who may have doubted Jesus. We can not be sure but as we read in the gospel Nicodemus had questions for Jesus and he wanted to find out more.  It was perfectly normal for one teacher of the law to ask another one questions. They learned through debating with each other and maybe Nicodemus was seeking such a debate. Of course, this debate didn't go quite as expected. 

This is why I thought about being confused.  Nicodemus asked Jesus about how to get to heaven. This was a reasonable question, the kind you would have expected two teachers to discuss. Of course, Nicodemus was confused, as Jesus told him that you needed to be born from above. To be born again. Nicodemus knew that physically you cannot be born all over again. However, in a moment of completely missing the point, a moment of being completely lost, Jesus needed to explain to Nicodemus that he was looking at things in the wrong way. 

Jesus showed Nicodemus that he needed  to admit his need for God, to humble himself and to realise that all he needed to do was accept God. Not just this but to allow God to transform him.  This was what Jesus meant by being born again. To be born again means to admit our need for God, to follow Him, and let our lives be transformed. 

Nicodemus thought he knew all that there was to know about God and yet Jesus explained to him that the most important thing is to become as new, to accept that actually we do not have all the answers, only God does. We need to have a relationship with Him where we realise that we must become a new person, a new creation, someone who believes that God can and does make a difference. 

This is amazing, but it can be hard when there are people in pain. It is hard  to always understand how pain happens and yet part of being born again is learning to trust God more.

The Psalm for Sunday (121) helps me with this. It is as if the Psalmist is looking to the mountains for help from the one who created them. There is  nothing better than going right to the source. The creator who protects and never leaves us. It is an amazing thought that the writer of the Psalm looked up and as they praised God they remembered that that even if they fell, God wouldn't leave them.

Things are not confusing at all. God loves us, and it is so much that, as verse 16 of the gospel reading reminds me, He sent His son to die so that we could have eternal life.

 

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