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