To God be the glory and dominion.

I remember hearing a Christian speaker talking about the time when his son burst into a meeting he was having with some very important Christian leaders. His son burst in and said, “I know that Jesus is amazing.” The speaker was very pleased about this, and glad his son had burst in on the meeting. One of the leaders said, “do you believe Jesus is the greatest then?” The boy waited a moment before saying, “Nah, Spider-Man is better because he can spin webs.”

I was thinking about this when I looked at the reading from Revelation (1:4-8) which we have heard this morning. In this reading the writer made the point that Jesus was greater than any other ruler. This also meant that Jesus was greater than the ruler of the whole Roman Empire. 

In the reading we heard that Jesus rescued people from sin and all that held them back from enjoying the good news of God’s love. Not just this but he had made His followers a kingdom. When we read the New Testament, we come across words like King and Kingdom a lot. We hear about God’s kingdom, and our place within it. The writer of revelation could see that there was a new and better Kingdom than had ever been. Jesus, God the Son, was the ruler of this kingdom and to Him there was to be all glory and dominion. I love the way that when Jesus is pictured as coming again, even those who had pierced His side, as He was taken from the cross would see Him come again. He is described as the alpha and Omega which are the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet, meaning that He is everything.

I like to be honest with you all, and I have a confession to make. This is that when I read the gospels I used to get really cross with the disciples. I would think why can’t they just see what’s happening? Why can’t they understand every parable? Why aren’t they braver? The why questions would come easily to me. However, when I put myself in the shoes of the disciples then the questions had to stop.

This is certainly the case in the gospel reading (John 20:19-31) we have heard this morning. Before this sounds like I am going to get us all to feel sorry for the disciples today, I want to ask how would we have reacted if we were them ? I expect locking ourselves away may not have seemed a bad idea. After all we might have been attacked and killed the same way that Jesus had been. Jesus who they followed, Jesus their leader had been killed and He had risen again. The impossible and happened and as they saw Jesus they were filled with joy. 

However, for some reason Thomas had not seen Jesus. I often feel sorry for Thomas, his name has been changed from Thomas the twin to doubting Thomas. I may have told you this story before, but I remember hearing a long and scholarly sermon about Thomas. It was very detailed, at the end a four year old boy went up to the preacher to tell him something important about his sermon. It was, “Thomas is an engine.”

Back to Thomas not the man, he had walked with Jesus, he had followed Him, he had worshipped him, he had trusted Him, he had seen Him die. Maybe he was a little unsure as to whether he wanted to believe again. Maybe he was worried he would get hurt, maybe he felt left out, maybe he wanted his own experience of the risen Jesus. 

Would we have been filled with joy on hearing the news ? Would we have been scared to trust again, just in case it all went wrong? Notice I have changed the questions from why did they to would we ? I have done this to make us think about our own lives as followers of Jesus. Do we always see Jesus working amongst us and in our world ? 

At times it is hard to see the works of God, we can be oblivious sometimes to all that God does. I am not saying that we don’t believe, but how often might we have missed what God was doing? When people make claims about God, I don’t know about you but I like to be sure before I agree with them. I think this may make me a bit like Thomas. Now, if I wanted to make this sound good, I may say that I wanted to be a little more circumspect. I am not sure that this is quite good enough though.

Poor Thomas, he had been through a lot and he just wanted some reassurance. He asks to put his hands in Jesus’ side, but he doesn’t actually do this, he just sees Jesus and believes. This in my books makes the doubting seem a lot less. On seeing the risen Jesus he knew who he was and he proclaimed, ‘My Lord and my God.’. 

In the rest of the gospel reading this morning we heard the reason the gospel according to John had been written. It was so that people would come to believe. Back to the reading from Revelation, we worship the greatest God ever. The almighty God, who has patience with us. So that even when we are doubting, or are just a little unsure He shows Himself to us, just like He did for Thomas. 

All we need to do is to believe. To believe that even in the best of moments God is with us just us much as He is in the worst of moments. He loves us, and never lets us down. He loves the world, and even when things don’t seem to make sense we can trust Him, after all He will always be there for us, it’s just sometimes we don’t listen to Him. Sometimes we can get cross with the people who just don’t seem to be able to bring peace, even when they promise to try.

However, we like the writer of Revelation believe in God who is greater than anything. In times when we may want to ask God why, then we can remember that He is greater and all we can do is to keep trusting and following Him, and all so that we can truly say, ‘To God be glory and dominion for ever and ever.’ AMEN

 

Happy Easter and happy Peter !!

 Well Alleluia ! The only way to start any sermon at Easter is with that amazing word, Alleluia.  Lent has finished and a new day has dawned. Someone I know once described lent as the time when we haven’t said Alleluia, or sung it, because it is as if we have taken a deep breath so we can shout out Alleluia on Easter day. I am not going to suggest shouting, but today is a day for celebration. 

I am not sure how you found lent and Holy Week. It is a very important time in the Church. I know that on Maundy Thursday I always hope that in the reading where the disciple Peter denies Jesus three times that he won’t do it. I know that he did deny Jesus - it is in the four gospels. But every time I read that passage or hear it read I feel so sorry for Peter.

He is my favourite disciple because he reacted to everything that happened in a rash, perhaps impassioned way. When he saw Jesus transfigured he wanted to hold on to the moment by building booths. When Jesus asked who the disciples thought He was, Peter said that He was the Christ. When Jesus said that He was going to suffer Peter refused to believe it but then when Jesus was arrested Peter denied knowing Him.

Later in the gospel according to John we read that after His resurrection, Jesus showed Peter that He was forgiven. Later on in the book of Acts we read that Peter experienced the Holy Spirit at the Jewish festival of Pentecost. Peter had followed certain laws about who he could and could not eat with, as well as the food that he could eat. Just before going to see Cornelius, Peter had changed as he saw in a vision that the food he ate, and where he ate it, was not important. It had been a big part of Peter’s faith, but God showed Him that the most important thing was knowing Him and telling others about Him.

I am talking so much about Peter because I think that we can all be a bit like Peter in our faith. We can want to hold on to occasions when we have felt close to God and not move on back into normal life. We can all, like Peter want to please God but get it wrong when we think more about what we want rather than what God wants. 

Today in the reading from the book of Acts we heard of Peter doing and saying something amazing. In the reading we heard of Peter preaching. At this time Peter was in the house of Cornelius who had been told by God to contact Peter. This was so that Peter could tell Cornelius and his family even more about God.

As Peter spoke he told Cornelius and his household all about Jesus and all that He had done. Not just this but he told them that Jesus was alive. He was also able to tell them that God forgives. On Maundy Thursday we left Peter after he had denied Jesus at His arrest.

In the reading today we heard Peter saying that God has no partiality. Everyone matters. We heard of Peter explaining the message of Jesus, then the crucifixion and then the resurrection.

Happy Peter, and Well done Peter. He had been changed, changed by the love of God for him, and changed by the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus had not risen He would have been just another person who people had hoped in but had been proven wrong. Jesus rising from the dead, proved that He was and is God. God is with us always, and He is alive. God is not dead – God is alive and alleluia, our lives are changed by the joy of knowing that even when times are tough God is with us, and He will never leave us.

Peter was convinced, and this conviction made him want to tell everyone about Jesus. Do we have the same conviction ? We know Jesus is with us. We know He is alive but are we happy to tell others about Him and the change He has made in our lives.

We will not all preach to lots of people, we won’t necessarily be people who are told to go off and preach about Jesus on the TV. We are people who are called to be more like Jesus so that by our lives we can show in the way we live that Jesus is Lord. He is alive and He loves us. 

Jesus is alive and we have the best news ever.  Today is an important day, it is a day to celebrate yes, but it is also a day when we can change.

Today is about new beginnings. It isn’t a day to look back at things that we may have done wrong, it isn’t a day to feel guilty. It is a day to give thanks that God is not dead. He is with us, God loves us and we know that He offers us all new life and new hope.

The best bit of all is that we are forgiven and we can truly know that like Peter, even when we have messed up God still has a job for us to do. It is a really great job, it is about telling people all about God and His love.

It is about us being more like Him, it is about us living everyday knowing that we can rely on God for strength. For strength to follow Him,  to be more like Him, and to face difficult times.

Poor Peter, became happy Peter – used by God. All because of the new life that Jesus brings. By His death and resurrection we know that we can be changed. Every day, as many times as we want we can turn to God knowing that He loves us.

D William Sangster, a Methodist who had been working on a renewal movement in this country following the 2^nd world war contracted a disease which progressively paralysed his body, and even his vocal chords. But on the last Easter Day that he was alive, he painfully printed a note to his daughter saying, ‘How terrible it is to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice to shout “He is Risen!” But it is far worse to wake up with a voice and not want to shout…’ 

May we always want to rejoice because Alleluia, Jesus is alive ! AMEN 

Realisation …

 In this last week I have had a realisation. This is that my age is 46 and I am actually genuinely in my mid-late 40s. This all happened after I went to the hairdresser. I really liked my hair cut, but when I got home I thought to myself that I look like I am in my 40s. Well, clearly this is correct, but for some strange reason it surprised me. 

I was watching TV and an advert came on for a kettle. I was fascinated by this kettle, again I am my age, but it was called a calm kettle. I have never heard of a stressed kettle but this kettle boils very quietly and has a soothing light that comes on when it is boiled. I liked the look of this, it looked nice and comforting.

When I looked at the gospel reading for today (John 12:1-8) I thought of comfort. Jesus was at the home of his friends. I always really like to think of the relationship of Jesus with Mary, Martha and Lazarus as the comfort of being with your closest friends. The type of people you can sit and talk with, laugh with, cry with. In the reading today Jesus had an unusual experience but it was one of comfort. Mary anointed him for his burial. 

This may sound like an odd thing for a friend to do, but in this beautiful and intimate moment, Mary prepared Jesus for what would come next. She had heard Jesus talk and she knew what was going to happen to Him at some stage. 

By wiping his feet with her hair she was showing true intimacy. It is a beautiful moment of friendship and love for her Lord. Mary, the friend of Jesus who had sat at His feet listening to Him, now had the chance to do something for Him as she anointed Him and wiped His feet. Rather than telling Jesus that there was no way that He was going to die, she did something wonderful. Mary had a realisation which was that she could help Jesus in a new way as she helped Him on to the next stage of His life.

Judas had another realisation and that was how much the ointment that she used cost. John the writer of the gospel makes it clear for us that he has background information. This was that Judas was a thief and not necessarily a person to be trusted with the money the disciples had. Of course we can see forward in time and we know that Judas was a definite baddie who was going to betray Jesus for money. 

Back to today. It is passion Sunday and there are a number of realisations that we may be arriving at. Firstly, it is only one week to holy week. Secondly, that means our lenten disciplines are nearly at an end. I am thinking that a really good realisation would be like the one that Mary had when she anointed the feet of Jesus. This is that we have a week to prepare for holy week and what might God ask of us in this week ?

Perhaps to prepare ourselves for the continuing journey of lent and as we come towards the end, to start thinking of what have we learnt in this time about God and our relationship with Him and others.

Through my lenten discipline I have realised that I have wasted hours looking at YouTube reels on the internet when I could have been reading. I want to keep reading more after Easter.  

Maybe in the last weeks of lent we could think of something that we might have liked to have done and do it. I used to give up certain behaviour patterns in lent, this went well and I have stuck to the changes. Would it matter if I hadn’t though?

Yes, it would. This is because lent can be a time of transformation. In the reading from the letter to the Philippians (3:4b-14) we heard about the changes that had happened for the apostle Paul. He had been a Jew, and in the letter he was explaining how much he had changed. Not just this, but through this how he had come to the realisation that all the things he had gained and learned were nothing compared to knowing Jesus. 

This is brilliant, Paul knew that he had begun a journey of faith with Jesus and he had not come to the end of it yet. This meant that for him the end goal was heaven and to be with Jesus. However, whilst he was waiting for this, nothing was going to stop him from trying to be more like Jesus.

I am not going to suggest that we live our lives always looking forward to being with Jesus in heaven. However, imagine if the most important thing in our lives was to be more and more like Jesus. This is a challenge that we can all try day by day and it is what we are doing.

The realisation for us must be that as we have been taking time to get closer to God through lent, this is not something that should end. We can continually look to God to change us. 

I know that I am still 46, and I know that one day I may have a calming kettle. I want to know even more that I am trying to be more and more like Jesus every day. If we all did this just imagine how prepared we would be for holy week, Easter and always. 

In the reading from the prophet Isaiah (43:16-21) we heard that God was doing a new thing. I have admitted that I like things to be comfortable, however I do not want to miss out on God doing a new thing in my life and in the world around us. Mary could have just treated Jesus as normal and missed out on the new thing that was going to happen which was that He was going to be executed but then come back to life. Paul could have stayed as he was and missed out on all that God was offering.

I have the realisation that not only is lent not over yet, but that we need to be alert and awake to see what God wants of us, and if He is doing a new thing. May we always be alert to God. AMEN