Easter IV – 20th April 2008

Collect for Easter IV
Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life:
raise us, who trust in him,
from the death of sin to the life of righteousness,
that we may seek those things which are above,
where he reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

PROPERS:

In lieu of Old Testament lesson:	Acts 7, Vv 55-60
Epistle:	1 Peter 2, Vv 2-10
Holy Gospel:	St John 14, Vv 1 - 14

A few years ago, the RSPCA ran a successful Christmas Campaign about pets the key line of which I remember was that a dog is not just for Christmas, it is for the rest of its life. I would like to add another, perhaps we ought to say, Easter is not a certain Sunday it’s the rest of your life. Because Christianity is nothing if it is not about the miracle of Easter. Up until Good Friday all other world religions support the memory of the man borne to history , and known as Jesus of Nazareth. The Sikhs, Hindus, Jews and Muslims all agree that Jesus was a good and important prophet who lived and died in Palestine sometime about 33 AD. But to Christians of course that IS NOT ENOUGH, for a Christian, Good Friday is not the end it is the beginning. Easter is the point when this Tomb of an ordinary human known to history as Jesus of Nazareth becomes the womb of Christ. The Tomb of Jesus becomes the womb of Christ. Because Easter renews and changes everything. It is about getting out of the rut and starting again.

   All other religions are about coming to terms with the correct way to die. Now that is a gross simplification I know, but that is the essence of their principle. Christianity is about preparing to live in the spirit of Christ. Easter is where Christ bursts from the tomb of Jesus or as the Children see it, escapes from an exploding Chocolate egg. Easter sets death at nought and makes Life about what we do with it, rather than preparing to die. But to return to our Gospel. Picture a group of sheep. They are safe in their pen, which they know well, and they are keeping an eye on the only way in and out - the gate. A variety of people have been coming to that gate over the years and the sheep are all a little wary. They like it best when the shepherd comes. They know the shepherd, and he knows each one of them. He takes them out to places where they can get good pasture and feed safely. But when other people come to the gate, the sheep are in a quandary. Their instinct is to go out when the gate is open, because that is what they have always done. But they remember times when someone who wasn't the shepherd came and led them out, and they couldn't find the pasture, and didn't recognize his whistle, and some of them got lost. Some of the sheep are recommending that they don't go out of the gate at all. That way, they know that they will be safe. But the other sheep point out that they will also starve to death if they don't go out to pasture. Poor bewildered sheep.

   A closed gate functions to keep the sheep safely shut in, but the open gate is what we are primarily interested in. It is the open gate that allows the shepherd to come in and it is the open gate that leads to the life-giving pastures. The strangers who confuse the sheep and the thieves who come to kill and rob all help to point to the one sure end. Sheep like us are always at risk, and we or they have to learn to value something more than safety. That something is what Jesus is offering them and us. The climax of the story is not security but abundant life. We seem to desire to see God as a kind of safety device, despite all the evidence to the contrary. We long to see God as the gate that keeps all danger out, instead of the gate that we go through into lush and exciting pasture. So to 'return to the shepherd and guardian of your souls' is to step through the gateway of Christ's cross into an entirely new world, where we are no longer sheep, easily satisfied with small securities, but children of God, free to come and go in God's world. With that freedom comes responsibility, and a willingness to abandon our day-to-day security, as Jesus did, in order to gain the total security of being and doing what we are made for. For the whole essence of the Easter message is what God has done for us in Christ: first, he shares our life; then he changes it. The Tomb of Jesus becomes the womb of Christ.

   And this is the pattern of our Eucharistic worship which mirrors our future life. In the Episcopalian tradition the community gathers together to be shaped, challenged, offered and transformed. So the Eucharist begins with a Greeting and welcome. Thence we have confession and hymns to express our sorrow, regret and our joys and thanksgiving, which are gathered together in the prayer of the Collect. Then the celebration of the Word made flesh, coming among us to engage with us. In the Old Testament and St Paul we rehearse the encounter with God's story as shown in the Prophets and the (new) Law.

   We read the balanced story the Lectionary sets before us; we do not choose the bits we want to hear, or that support our views. The readings challenge us over a complete year by setting the whole of God's story alongside the story of our own world. Then as Advent leads to Christmas, so we greet the living Word, Jesus himself, in the Gospel. That is why it is often carried into the middle of the assembly for the Gospel to be read 'among' the people, not 'at' them. This is God speaking to us face to face in Jesus: 'The Word was made flesh, and pitched his tent among us. The way Jesus engages with his disciples then and now is totally different from the distant God of the Old Testament. Jesus as God is with us and among us. Then the Sermon is to bring together the story of what God in Christ who we are. The sermon leads naturally into prayer for those, whose needs we bring with us so that they too may be woven into God's story.

   THEN WHAM , EASTER

   In the celebration of the Sacrament, God changes us. The living presence of Christ is discovered in our midst, when we do this in obedience to his command. We take bread and wine and prepare them on the table. In that bread and wine we lay ourselves before God to be blessed, broken and used in his service. In the Eucharistic Prayer we give thanks to the Father through the Son in the power of the Spirit. The bread is broken as a sign of Christ's death. We receive the body and blood of Christ, and so are transformed from being broken individuals, isolated from each other and God by sin, into being members together in the risen Christ. We are now, one body, Minister and people united with the whole Church everywhere and throughout the ages.

   FINALLY The Dismissal. Pentecost, when the scattered disciples finally realized that God had given them all they needed to engage in their mission; and for us the end of worship involves us in a commitment, strengthened by God's blessing, to go and put into practice what we have become - a new community, fired by God's Spirit to do his will and help his kingdom come. WE are ready to go out through the gate, from the safety of the pasture to take on the world in the power of the spirit. We are to be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. Christ hands over to us, his Church to us the responsibility of continuing his ministry. The Tomb of Jesus has become the womb of the living Christ. AND the most important thing about this womb, this church , is that it is not a bunch of people in Dog Collars, that is not the church, and never should be. The Tomb of Jesus now the womb of Christ is all Christians. In the same way, the ministry of the deacon is the foundation of all ordained ministry. As an Episcopal clergyman you are a deacon first, a servant and even if later you become a bishop, you never cease to be a deacon. That is why Clergy must be part of the Communities they serve and that one of the greatest problems of serving a huge area. The deacon focuses this sense of God sharing our life and engaging with us directly by making God's incarnation, his becoming rooted in human life, central in the Church. Priests and bishops who forget that they are deacons too often try to use their position to get their own way, forgetting that Jesus taught us differently - that authority and kingship are rooted in service, not in the use of power. Clergy are not there to minister instead of the whole people but should be a model of what every Christian is called to be, which is why daily confession is vital for me.

   Finally Christianity is the priesthood of all believers, for we are the body of Christ, by one spirit we were all baptised into one body. That is our faith, and that is why we are here. Denominations may worship differently, but never lose sight of the idea that we are all one community, united in Christ. It is our duty to help and support all our brothers and sisters in Christ, in their calling. I think of those particularly in lonely callings to the poor and down trodden here and abroad; the lonely Sally Ann worker; the mission team in a Zimbawbian village; Mothers Union refuges across the world; the worker in an Aids clinic; the church in Possil Park, in Russia and in the slums of Brazil. They need our help, love and support. For Easter has changed us; We are longer sheep but God’s people. Christianity is not just for Sundays, it is for the rest of our earthly and Spiritual lives.

   Thank you for your love, support, and friendship., I shall miss you all. AMEN.