“NEW LIFE” –
AN EASTER SUNDAY SERMON
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This sermon was preached Reading: John
20:1-18 |
1. Resurrection Life -
Future Hope?
Let me ask
you one of those huge life, the universe and everything questions –
What do
you think about the future of this world?
Do you think it has one??
When you look at how the human race is going, are you hopeful,
or do you despair of what will become of us all?
·
When
you look at the apparently endless cycles of evil and retribution, of
selfishness and suffering in the world, do you despair about the human race
ever rising out of the mire of self seeking?
·
When
you look at this week’s predictions of global warming spiralling out of control
and threats of nuclear proliferation, do you despair about the very continued
existence of our human race and planet earth?
·
When
you face (as we all must ultimately face) your own physical death, do you see
that as a final defeat in the struggle against extinction?
Mary
despaired. Her world had come to an
end.
It seemed
that the cycle of evil and retribution had indeed triumphed and the grave had
triumphed.
But then
Mary hears the Gospel - Christ is Risen
Life is
stronger than death - Light overcomes darkness
Love will
conquer evil and hatred.
The
resurrection isn’t just about one man 2000 years ago in Palestine –
it is about the whole way the Universe works –
The
resurrection says:
·
There
is more to life than this world -
Which means that even if we manage by global warming or nuclear lunacy to
destroy our very planet and everything on it, still we have hope!
·
There
is more to life than this world –
Which means that when we approach our own death (as one day every one of us
will) we will find that the way of death is not a road to oblivion but a road
to new life.
Vera Brittain in her
autobiography “Testament of Youth” tells the horrors of WW1. She describes her own blackness and devastation
as one after another those dear to her were killed in the war. In 1916 her fiance
Roland Leighton was killed in France.
Vera Brittain describes the Easter Sunday morning
following his death. She says she went
to Church and sat beneath a painting on the wall.
It showed the tragic figure of Hagar from the book of
Genesis, exiled in anguish in the wilderness.
And the title of the painting was “Watchman will the night pass?”
And Vera Brittain, describing
the darkness of that Easter Morning, clearly identified with Hagar in her
anguish, and says that for her too the day was still dark and she just hung on
hoping that indeed the night would pass.
Our lives
& indeed our whole world can sometimes seem very dark- and God does not
promise us that we will not sometimes struggle in the long night watches –
But he does promise us the dawn.
Watchman
will the night pass? –
Yes the night passes, for the light of Christ conquers death and evil.
So if you
are struggling with bereavement
or if you are facing the death of a loved one
or your own imminent death –
well hear the Easter message –
What may
seem hopelessly dark from a human perspective
is but a new beginning –
the darkness before the dawn.
2. Resurrection Life - Here and Now?
But let
me say one other thing.
Some
people make the mistake of thinking that is the resurrection is only about the
future -
But Jesus
did not say “I will be the
Resurrection and the Life”
He said
“I am the Resurrection and the Life”
As Christians
we need to grasp the wonderful fact that we can know glimpses of heaven,
glimmerings of the glory of life in all its fullness here in this world.
When you
are in tune with God, that is heaven –
when you are out of tune with God, that is hell –
(Heaven and hell are not spatial destinations, they are ways of being)
I guess
most of us know at least something of
“hell on earth” and “heaven on earth”.
John Robinson once said that life has a grain running
through it, and the grain goes in the direction of God’s love.
To try to live your life with or against the grain of
God’s love
is like trying to plane a piece of wood with or against the grain.
According to how you live,
you will know something of heaven and hell on earth.
I remember having a great debate with an earnest Christian
lady about universal salvation. I said
that I so believed in the overwhelming and unlimited and eternal love of God in
Christ that I hoped that every member of the human race (including those who
had rejected Christ in this life) would ultimately – in the next world if not
in this world - be drawn by the leading bands of love into God’s loving
embrace.
The lady I was talking to was horrified.
But, she said, if we are all going to be saved after we die anyway, what is the
point of being a Christian now?!
What is
the point??!? Being a Christian isn’t
just a slightly unpleasant duty we have to get through in order to earn our air
miles to heaven!!
No – we
follow Jesus because in so doing
we
begin to feel the chains of our captivity loosening,
we
see the light beginning to seep over the horizon
we
are vouchsafed a foretaste of the heavenly banquet
Resurrection
life, life in all its fullness, is starting right now.
The party
is already beginning -
why on earth would we want to wait until we die before joining in??
Today we have baptized Jee In –
I understand the Korean name can be taken as “One who knows God”
To be at one with God is to live life in its fullness.
In baptism we place water on the child’s head
as a symbol of plunging the child into the waters of death,
to die to her old life and rise out of the water
to begin her new life in Christ.
New life which for Jee In begins
not at the end of her earthly journey but right here and now.
Our prayer for Jee In is indeed
that in God’s power
she may come to live life in all its fullness
in this world and in God’s good time in the world to come.
And as each of us remembers our own baptism,
we rejoice that we are too are given
a part of God’s new life in Christ.
So let us hurry with Mary to the
empty tomb.
There the Risen Christ is awaiting
us
Let us bring with us our sins and
sorrows,
our fears and our heartaches
Then shall the miracle begin –
as the darkness and despair of our life
is brought into the glorious light of his presence
Then as the sun rises in our life,
let us cry aloud – Christ is risen Alleluia!
Now is the time to live!