Wednesday in Eastertide 14.4.21

 

This morning we continue with the Acts of the Apostles, capturing the remarkable dynamic lent to the church in the wake of the resurrection. The apostles are imprisoned ‘but during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, "Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life”. Christ is risen and puts into gear this life - the eternal life he promised Nicodemus in today’s Gospel: ‘for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life’ (John 3:16). As believers we possess that life, sealed by baptism and confirmation, divine life gifted from out of the tomb, revealed over forty days and from Pentecost sent deep into the hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit.

‘The message about this life’ is rooted in the event we celebrated ten days ago. Christianity takes us beyond this world but it does so from the axis of time, from history, that of Christ and that of our own. In sharing ‘the message about this life’ we begin with the events arguing for their historicity. In weighing up the New Testament accounts one problem is that the references to the tomb are in the Gospel accounts written at least 20 years after the first letters of Paul which give little reference to the tomb save reference to Christ’s burial. Paul’s witness to the resurrection builds from his later encounter with the risen Lord Jesus which he associates with those of the apostles at Easter. So central is the resurrection to Paul’s thought that Acts 17:18 relates ‘he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection’. Just like the angel bidding the apostles in today’s reading Paul hands on a message of divine life. Opponents of Christianity see this preaching as built on Paul’s subjective visionary experiences and not on the history of Jesus. The Christian defence is to point to Paul’s many repeated references to Christ’s dying and rising as the objective side of the personal relationship believers enter into. This is linked to our subjective dying again and again to sin and rising again and again to new life in the Spirit. Death and resurrection is the pattern of Christian experience because it was the experience of Jesus. 

On Easter Sunday we renewed our baptism vows with this in mind, turning afresh to Christ as Saviour and inviting the Holy Spirit into our lives afresh. ‘The message about this life’ which is Christianity is inseparable from the ongoing drowning of our old sinful nature and our ongoing receipt of the new nature given by the Holy Spirit. As we prayed in the Collect, ‘grant us so to put away… malice and wickedness that we may always serve God in pure ness of living and truth’. So be it! More at https://elucidatingcontroversy.blogspot.com/

St Wilfrid & Presentation, Haywards Heath Easter Sunday 4.4.21

 

‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ (Mark 16:3)

The question of the women chimes deep into lockdown experience. When will we get out of this trial? It's a weight upon us with so many dimensions: physical, emotional, spiritual and social. The economic consequences have been dreadful through loss of employment and income. The loss of close friends through COVID and a wave of depression deadening those we love has been harsh. Though I rejoice to stand with you in St Wilfrid’s for the first time in months to celebrate Easter my joy is qualified.

‘Who will roll away the stone for us?’

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome came to complete the burial rite for Our Lord.  Sabbath restrictions had ended so they were free to do so. The stone was lifted for them - not only the stone but the legalism of Sabbath and the Sabbath itself. Within a short time this gave way to gatherings like this ‘early on the first day of the week when the sun had risen’. The Lord’s people now gather on the Lord’s day - Sunday - on account of what those women experienced. The Lord’s people gather on the Lord’s day around the Lord’s table and, yes, today, most joyfully in the Lord’s house. Well done all who worked hard with Arthur, Derek and this morning, Fr Mike, to get us back in style! ‘This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it… this is the day Jesus Christ vanquished hell, broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave’.

‘Who will roll away the stone for us?’

For those with a weight of intellectual questioning we can offer no proof of Christ’s resurrection, only strong evidence. That is the case for any past event. Belief in the resurrection of Jesus stems from the faith of the church and an accumulation of evidence. Christianity stands or falls on the event which has a documented history captured by the impressive list in our second reading: ‘I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles’ (1 Corinthians 15:3-7).

‘Who will roll away the stone for us?’

The women approached the tomb with a question expressing outwardly the weight inside of them, upon their hearts, through the loss of the one they loved. 

In lockdown we share aspects of bereavement with them this morning, asking where is God in all of this. Our annual Holy Week celebration is grand reminder that God expects nothing of us that he is not prepared to go through himself. Christianity is inseparable from suffering and, this morning, the supernatural working through it.

On Easter Sunday we are gathered to One uniquely qualified to lift hearts from despair. ‘A Christian is a sad man saved from despair by the Cross of Christ’ wrote Charles Peguy. The pandemic is a tremendous weight. We and many in our circle are in bereavement, frustration, depression, loneliness, anxiety and confusion. By allowing the Cross into this darkness, by welcoming afresh the mystery of Christ’s love at Easter, there can be transformation. Burdens lifted. Intercession gaining a spring in its step. Discernment coming afresh. Grace to accept things we cannot change. Courage to make changes we ought to make. All is grace - this is made clear to us on Easter Sunday - all is grace! The gracious God and Father of Jesus does what we could never do or earn or even imagine. God brings all that is out of nothing, Jesus from a Virgin womb and life out of death!

‘Who will roll away the stone for us?’

One weight I feel upon my own heart is the fact this feast of feasts is being celebrated around seven altars or tables in Haywards Heath this morning. Yet I have suggested to me an image of uplift in this scenario. The three women approaching the tomb represent three church sisters, Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal. On Wednesday morning fifty faces were on zoom convened by St Wilfrid’s to an ecumenical stations of the Cross offered for Haywards Heath. They came from our two Churches, our fellow Churches of The Ascension and St Richard’s and from the Baptist, Methodist, Roman Catholic and Ruwach Pentecostal Churches. We went around the fourteen stations of the Cross hearing thoughts and prayers in turn from the three great traditions, Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal. The Holy Spirit seemed to be upon us as seven Haywards Heath churches came to kneel at the foot of the Cross. This morning we stand up again recognising afresh that we live best as Churches knowing our individual need of mercy. Whether we are Catholic, Anglican, Protestant or Pentecostal we stand in the same place when it comes to Holy Week.

‘Who will roll away the stone for us?’

It is you, Jesus, you who have done this, are doing it and will do it for us as individuals and churches! There is no knock down proof of a past event but that of Christ’s resurrection invites three questions. Is the evidence for it trustworthy or is it not? Is Jesus the Son of God or is he not? Are you and I destined for eternal splendour or not? As Alexander Schmemann affirms: ‘The only meaningful thing in life is what conquers death, and not “what” but “who” - Christ. There is undoubtedly only one joy: to know him and share him with each other’. May such joy, qualified by the pain we share, lift us so lockdown eases in both its inward and outward aspects.  ‘This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Alleluia!