The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to John

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:19-31)

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There is a beautiful story of a husband and wife, who had a very loving, very trusting relationship.

They knew quite surely, that he would give his life for her, and she for him. Their trust and love of each other was really quite extra-ordinary.

One day a friend told the woman that she had seen the husband going into a house, in a poor part of the city, which she was sure belonged to a woman who lived alone.

She teased the wife about it. “Maybe he is keeping a mistress,” she said, laughing.” She looks older than he, but not much older.”

The wife laughed, along with her friend, and dismissed the thought. Her husband would surely tell her about it over dinner that night, and there would be a quite ordinary explanation.

That night at dinner, her husband talked of many things, but never mentioned his visit to the house in the city.  The wife thought that her friend had made a mistake and dismissed it from her mind. 

But her friend told her that she had again seen the husband at the house in the city, this time, as he was leaving. And, she said, hesitating, she had seen him embrace the lady of the house as he bade her goodbye.

Again, the wife expected her husband would make mention of it at supper, but he didn’t.

Her friend told the wife of subsequent occasions when the husband visited the same house, but the wife only smiled. Her love and trust of her husband never wavered.

Her friend was getting exasperated with her. Did she not care? Wouldn’t she come and see for herself?  Surely if she saw, she would believe.

“No,” the wife said, ” I love my husband and I trust him, and I know he loves me and would do nothing to hurt me.”

“And even if I saw, it would make no difference to the way I feel about him. I know him.”

The friend eventually stopped telling the wife anything at all. The wife tried to forget about it, and the relationship between them continued to be blessed with peace and happiness. 

Then the husband’s mother, long a widow, died, and they laid her to rest outside of town, in the graveyard of a small country church she had attended as a young girl.

They visited the graveside often, but one day, they set out, “To visit my mother,” as the husband said.  But this day, instead of driving into the country, the car headed towards the city.

Eventually, the car drew up at a house in the poor part of town.

She asked,” I thought we were going to your mother’s grave. Why are we here? “

He said  nothing.

He knocked on the door and a woman the wife had never seen opened it. He stepped forward and embraced her, then stepped back.

“Mother,” he said,” I would like you to meet my wife.”

The lady of the house, as it turned out was the mother who had at the age of sixteen, given birth to him, and had been forced to offer him as a baby for adoption.

He had somehow found out the name and address of his real mother, and although he visited her, he had kept it secret so as not to hurt his adoptive mother.  

After his adoptive mother’s death, he felt  he could now visit his real mother openly.

This was the woman he had been secretly visiting.

This story tells about a wife who had such faith in her husband that nothing could shake it.

Even, had she accepted her friend’s invitation to go and see, her faith would not have been shaken. In her heart she knew him.

Today’s Gospel story tells us about seeing and believing, and knowing the truth in one’s heart. 

Thomas said he wouldn’t believe the other disciples had seen Jesus, not until he had seen the wounds in His hands and side.

Jesus came to the upper room as Thomas met with the other disciples. It almost seems that he came especially to see Thomas.

When Jesus said, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put

out your hand, and place it in my side,” Thomas answered, “My Lord and My God.”

John doesn’t say that Thomas accepted the invitation to touch the Lord’s hand or feel His side. Rather, we see he had learnt in the mere seeing of the glorified Lord that plain seeing or touching were not, as he had thought, enough by themselves to bring

believing.

He didn’t simply believe that Jesus had been raised from the dead and could now visit His disciples again; that would be a belief in a miracle of resuscitation, or even of resurrection, but that would not be enough for him to believe in Jesus Christ as being one with the Father.

It might justify Thomas saying, “My Lord,” but it could hardly justify him saying,” My God.”

Rather, Thomas has gone from a rabbi-disciple relationship with Jesus, to one of being brought into the presence of God.

He now understands Jesus’ earlier words, “If you knew me you would know the Father also.”

That’s why he responds,” My Lord and my God.”

But he didn’t some to see  God in Jesus with his physical eye. He didn’t see it with some sense organ located in the physical body.

His belief came from a Holy Spirit-induced love of Jesus that filled his heart with the truth.

Thomas is the bridge between those who knew and saw and believed, and those of us who came after and  believe without seeing.

Jesus responded to Thomas,” Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

And isn’t that what faith is?

There have been many attempts to locate the historical Jesus.

There has been much speculation about Him, His life, His works, His relationships with those who followed Him, and so on, presumably by people who want to either see before they believe, or by those who will not believe and want to demolish His memory.

Either way, it is a futile quest. 

And we don’t worship  a rabbi, a teacher, a prophet, someone who died long ago.

Our  faith is not in a long-dead miracle-worker, someone who did remarkable things, but is long gone.

Our faith is in the living God, the living presence of God, as shown to us in Jesus the Christ.

There is a children’s story which uses binoculars to tell children about Jesus. It begins by describing what they do;  how they bring things that are far away, nearer;  how you can see birds high up in the trees; how things that cannot be seen by the naked eye can be brought into view.

And I think that likewise, Jesus can be described as God’s binoculars.  It is through Jesus that we see God.

Because He came from God.

Because God wanted to manifest Himself – show Himself  – to cut through all the stuff that people had built around His name.

He wanted to get around all the ritual, all the self-serving piety, the way the church had taken ownership of Him and obscured  Him from His people.

He wanted to show Himself as loving and forgiving, and sacrificing, in a way that could never be denied.

And He did that in Jesus of Nazareth.

And if the Spirit is in us, and if God has possessed us, and if we have given ourselves to Him,  then we understand that.

And we don’t need to see or touch his wounds to know it.

And no matter what false prophets say about Him. No matter what so called enlightened theologians say about Him. No matter what new interpreters of the Bible tell us…. of their attempts to see and touch…… we know!

The Pharisees  who examined the man who had been born blind but who had been given his sight by Jesus, saw a man who could see.

The former blind man told them, “Never has it been known since the world began that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.  If this man were not from God then he could do nothing.”

The Pharisees said,” Who are you to tell us about God. Get out of here.”

Some people have eyes but cannot see. 

The woman I told you about at the beginning of this meditation loved and trusted and didn’t need to see. 

Thomas when he saw the proof, somehow found that he didn’t really need to see either. 

And Thomas serves as a link between those who did see and believed and those of us who have not seen, but believe.

We were not there at the wedding in Cana when the first of the signs took place.

We were not there near the city of Bethsaida when the five thousand were fed.

We didn’t see the healing of the ten lepers, or the giving of sight to the blind man, or the man who had been paralyzed get up and walk.

We weren’t in the crowd when Jesus preached..

We weren’t at the crucifixion.

Nor at Pentecost.

But although those events were pivotal events in the ministry of Jesus, and the birth of the church, it does not matter that we didn’t see them.

As we now know, seeing was not always believing.

We are among those who didn’t see, and yet are called to believe.

To paraphrase the father of the boy possessed by demons, and who asked for healing by Jesus,” We believe, Lord, help our unbelief!

And so, in the words of today’s collect, we ask,  “Almighty and eternal God, the strength of those who believe and the hope of those who doubt, may we, who have not seen, have faith and receive the fullness of Christ’s blessing, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever,

Amen.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.

For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”

So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” (Matthew 28:1-10)

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Holy Week is a busy time, isn’t it? It begins with Palm Sunday, followed by  Maundy Thursday, and the stripping of the altar. That is followed by Good Friday, where we come together in quietness, ponder the journey our Lord took, staggering under that  cross through the streets of Jerusalem, as portrayed by the Stations of the Cross, and all this after six weeks of Lent, wherein we have pondered on Jesus’s journey, and our own life’s journey.

But now, now…we have the triumph of the empty tomb, the resurrection.

Traditionally, we in the Western Church have focused more on the crucifixion of Christ, as evidenced by the many crucifixes you may have seen, especially in the Roman church,  with the figure of Christ on them.

The Eastern church always focused on the resurrection, and that focus can be seen in the empty crosses that adorn their churches.  

One focuses on the crucifixion, and the terrible sacrifice Jesus made for us; the other on the triumph of his resurrection.

And you see it in our liturgies, which point to the sacrifice  that Jesus made, the price he paid for our sin, and of course, that sacrifice, is the central part of the Eucharist.

I don’t think we place as much importance on the resurrection as we do on the crucifixion.

Admittedly, without the crucifixion, there could be no resurrection. But the crucifixion alone would be just that – the magnificent act of self-sacrifice of an innocent  person. 

The crucifixion is made a whole event by the rising again, of Jesus.

Because we are not about death, we are about life, aren’t we?

A faith that promised death, that focused on death, that sanctified death, wouldn’t attract too many people. 

True we are redeemed by the death of Jesus.  True, he took the punishment for our sins upon himself, so that we might approach our God without fear and trembling. True, we are made clean by his death. Paul says that in our baptism, we were buried with him, but he also tells us that if we have died with Christ – that is if our old life has died – then we will be raised to new life with Christ.

Jesus died so that we may live for ever.

The proof of the fact of our own everlasting life in Christ is in his everlasting life, and in his rising again from the dead.

By our baptism, by the sacrifice that Jesus made on the  cross, by his resurrection, we are not only promised life everlasting,  but new life here on earth.

New life.  Here and now.

New men and women,  made new by what Jesus did on the cross.

Redeemed!

We call Jesus, our Redeemer, don’t we?

Apart from hearing the word in church, I had never heard the word redeemer in any other context.  Then one day, I was reading a novel that had a short passage that had to do with someone taking a precious item to a pawnbroker, to raise money.

They were given a ticket with which to redeem the item within a certain number of days.

The person going to get the item, and paying the price, was called the redeemer.

Sometimes we get in hock, don’t we?  In debt to God, sort of.

What would you call a person that is dependent on drugs, or sex, or booze, or has some other addiction? 

What would you call a person whose life has been such that they have used up all the goodwill they had, and had fallen into such a pit of despair, or loneliness, that they have no freedom of choice. They are trapped in the web that their life has woven around them? 

You could say they were ’in hock ‘, couldn’t you? 

They need to be redeemed.

They need to be given new life.

They need someone to take that ticket, and buy them out.

That is what Jesus did, isn’t it?

But is that the end of it?

There has got to be more than that.

What are we going to do with our new life?

I remember reading a news story about a pop star – it’s a long time ago and my memory is getting a little hazy – but he was getting a transplanted liver for the second time.

His own liver had been destroyed by the life he had led, and he had already received one new liver.  But  once he got that new liver,  he went out and did the same things again, until that new liver was destroyed, and now he was ready for a  second one.

So he was going to be on his third liver. His own, and two more.

There are many people in line for liver transplants who can’t get them. He got his because of his wealth.  

What is he doing with the new life he has been given?  Again? I will let you guess. 

What are we to do with our new life?  It’s a hard question, isn’t it? But we are not alone. We have help.

A London businessman was selling a warehouse.  The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had smashed the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash all over the place.

As he showed a prospective buyer over the property, he took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage and clean out the garbage.

The buyer said, ‘Forget about the repairs. When I buy this place I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.’

That’s how God works with us.   Compared with what God has in mind for us, our own efforts are as trivial as sweeping the floor of a warehouse slated for the wrecking ball. When we become God’s, the old life is over. 

He makes all things new. All he wants is the site and the permission to build.

All we have to do is give him the property and he will do the necessary building.

So, it’s life, and new life that we are talking about tonight, on the eve of the resurrection of Jesus.

Death has had its chance, now it is time for life.

The women were told, at the tomb,  “He has been raised from the dead and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee.”

Then Jesus himself told them, “Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me. “

It’s never been about death. It never has been. It’s about Jesus triumphing over death. It’s about our triumphing over death, with him.

Maybe it’s time we started focusing on life.

I’ll leave you with my favorite story, a true account, from the Soviet era.

It was about 1930 when the Communist leader, Bukharin journeyed from Moscow to Kiev. His mission was to address a huge assembly. His subject: atheism.

For a solid hour he aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity, hurling argument and ridicule.

At last he was finished and viewed what he thought,  to be the smoldering ashes of our faith. “Are there any questions?” he demanded.

After a few moments, a solitary man arose and asked permission to speak. He mounted the platform and moved close to the Communist. The audience was breathlessly silent as the man surveyed them, looking first to the right, and then to the left.

At last, he shouted the ancient Orthodox greeting, ‘CHRIST IS RISEN!”.

The vast assembly rose as one man and the response came crashing like the sound of an avalanche, “HE IS RISEN INDEED!”

It’s all about life.  Isn’t it? 

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You say so.” But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?” But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over.

While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.”

 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” All of them said, “Let him be crucified!” Then he asked, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”

So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” Then the people as a whole answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head.

They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; then they sat down there and kept watch over him. Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, ‘I am God’s Son.’” The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way.

From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”

Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”(Mt 27: 11-54)

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You know, this Sunday, Palm Sunday, we share the joy that people felt when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, as we joyfully sing ” Ride on Ride on, in Majesty ” –  and then later we share the sadness in his death by crucifixion.

We walk alongside a triumphant Jesus, and then we stand at the cross and see his humiliation.

What are we supposed to feel today? Happiness or sadness?

Are we supposed to feel an affinity with a Messiah, a winner, someone who will conquer those things that oppress us, or feel kinship with a man who dies on the cross, humiliated? Make a choice!

In the Eastern Church, the Orthodox Church crucifixes tend not to have the figure of Jesus on them. Here, in the Catholic tradition, we have crucifixes with the “corpus,” the body of  Christ on them

The first emphasizes the resurrection, the latter the crucifixion.

So the church is divided East and West on which reality to focus. .

But maybe we don’t have to choose one or the other as a guide to faith.

Maybe the tension is between, on the one hand, praising Jesus, as a winner, and then deserting him as a loser.  Praising him and then condemning him. Because make no mistake about it we do condemn him in some of the things we do in life. 

I remember when I was in elementary school. I was perhaps eight years old. I saw some of my friends gathered around a boy who was a year or so younger. I asked what was happening, and I was told that you only had to pull a face at this kid and he would break into tears.

So I did.  I grimaced at him and sure enough he started crying. It was funny.

It wasn’t funny for him. But we soon got tired of it and left him alone.

We all have a share in driving the nails.

A punishment for thievery, in Medieval England was to be placed in the stocks. The stocks were a wooden frame with holes for the legs, and the head, and for the hands too, and a thief would be locked into the stocks and left there for a few days. And anyone going by could throw vegetables, fruit, mud, even stones, at the poor unfortunate victim. It was expected. Considered the duty of all law-abiding citizens. 

Even people who didn’t know the miscreant or his crime, would take a shot.

In Biblical times and in now in Afghanistan where the Taliban rules.  and stoning was reintroduced, everyone  watching was expected to take up a stone and throw it,

You share the punishment. You share the blame.

But we have all thrown stones, haven’t we? 

Passing on gossip.  Condemning people without really knowing them.

We have all hurt someone at some time.

We have all taunted Jesus.

Wait a minute, how did Jesus get in there? I never taunted him!

 “What you do to the least of these my brothers or sisters, you do unto me.”

That’s how!

I wonder if we get into a certain way of doing things, that it becomes habitual, and we don’t realise we are doing it. 

Like Sunday we are good Christians, but other days we are not so good? 

Like when there is nothing at stake, we are good Christians, but if rules need to be bent, or when acting as  a Christian would make doing our job difficult, we aren’t?

I have seen commercials advertising a great deal on an automobile – so much down and a ridiculously low monthly lease amount, which looks really good at a glance, but the small print which by law has to be there, mentions that the lease is a reduced mileage lease – 10,000 kilometers a year only.

You are not going to take the reduced lease of course, but it gets you into the showroom. 

Or the store manager who marks up the prices of the furniture on the floor, by ten percent and then holds a sale featuring ten per cent off.

And he has no problem coming to church on a Sunday, never even thinking about the contradiction in his Sunday behaviour and his weekday behaviour.

It’s what he has always done.

Its normal marketing behaviour.

Nothing wrong with it.

I wonder if the marketing person who thought up that scheme is a Christian.

If he or she is, then they are doing something that is at odds with what they do on Sunday, aren’t they?  If they did this, then they probably have done other slightly misleading things too.

Because you kind of get into the habit of it.

The point I am trying to get to is that if that is the case with us, then we need to bring both sides of our lives into line with each other.

Live our Sunday life, Monday to Saturday.

Break old habits.

Habits can be dangerous.

I read about a man who was a creature of habit.

 He followed a strict and precise routine every morning. His alarm went off at 6.30 a.m. He rose briskly, shaved and showered, ate his breakfast, brushed his teeth. Picked up his briefcase, drove to the nearby ferry landing, parked his car, rode the ferry across to the downtown business area, got off the ferry, walked, hung up his coat, spread his papers out on his desk, and sat down in his chair at precisely 8.00. Not 8.01, not 7.59. Always 8.00 on the dot.

He had followed this same routine for nearly eight years.

Until one morning, his alarm did not go off, and he slept fifteen minutes late.

When he did wake, he was panic stricken. He rushed through his shower, nicked himself when he shaved, gulped down his breakfast, only halfway brushed his teeth, grabbed his briefcase, jumped into his car, drove to the ferry landing, jumped out of his car and looked for the ferry. There it was out in the water a few feet from the dock.

He said to himself,  “I think I can make it.” And he ran down the dock towards the ferry at full speed. Reaching the edge of the pier he gave an enormous leap out over the water and miraculously, landed, with a loud thud on the deck of the ferry.

The captain rushed down to make sure he was alright, and said, “Man that was a tremendous leap, but if you would have waited just another minute we would have reached the dock, and you could have walked on.”

Every year at our Palm Sunday service, we break the routine a bit don’t we? Instead of sitting squashed up in the back five or six pews, we have to meet in the hall,  then process into the church in a sort of mixed up order.

And we are scared stiff that someone will have taken our seat – the one we have occupied every Sunday for the past umpteen years.  

And we are reminded that going with the flow, doing things without thinking about them, taking the easy way, is what condemned Jesus. Not everyone in that crowd that yelled out, “Crucify him,” really wanted to have that man hung on a cross, but they went with the flow.

Some of them had even welcomed him when he rode into Jerusalem, shouting Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

If our life is like that, loving Jesus on the one hand, and then on the other hand, by our actions “condemning him,” then we need to look at our daily habits, and change them.

We need to think for ourselves.

Maybe go against the flow for once in a while.

Don’t do what everyone does.

Take a stand against racist or sexist jokes; stand up for the underdog; speak out when we know someone is lying; don’t gild the lily; tell the truth.

Write to the government when you disagree with its policies, rather than just letting it go by.

Get involved in a writing campaign for Amnesty International, adopt a Foster Child, take positive action to try and put right, things which are wrong.

Don’t be afraid of standing out in a crowd.

You know, the Jews have been blamed over the centuries for crucifying Jesus. That fact has been used to justify pogroms, persecutions and ultimately genocide.

Right now, Hindus are persecuting Moslems in India, and Moslems have persecuted Hindus, in Pakistan.

Israelis are persecuting Palestinians, and Palestinians are persecuting Israelis.

Every hour of the day someone drives a nail into his hands, or into his feet, or drives a sword into his side.

Don’t you agree that it’s time we changed out habitual way of looking at other people?  

That we changed the way we do things?

Maybe just take a look at how we live, and if there is a bad habit that needs to be thrown out, to do it.

We could start with today. Here and now.  On this kind of crazy mixed up Sunday.

Amen.

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to John

Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived.^[a] (Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil^[b] and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)^[c] So the sisters sent a message^[d] to Jesus,^[e] “Lord, look, the one you love is sick.” When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not lead to death,^[f] but to God’s glory,^[g] so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”^[h] (Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.)^[i]

So when he heard that Lazarus^[j] was sick, he remained in the place where he was for two more days. Then after this, he said to his disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”^[k] The disciples replied,^[l] “Rabbi, the Jewish leaders^[m] were just now trying^[n] to stone you to death! Are^[o] you going there again?” Jesus replied,^[p] “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If anyone walks around in the daytime, he does not stumble,^[q] because he sees the light of this world.^[r] But if anyone walks around at night,^[s] he stumbles,^[t] because the light is not in him.”

After he said this, he added,^[u] “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.^[v] But I am going there to awaken him.” Then the disciples replied,^[w] “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” (Now Jesus had been talking about^[x] his death, but they^[y] thought he had been talking about real sleep.)^[z]

Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and I am glad^[aa] for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe.^[ab] But let us go to him.” So Thomas (called Didymus^[ac])^[ad] said to his fellow disciples, “Let us go too, so that we may die with him.”^[ae]

When^[af] Jesus arrived,^[ag] he found that Lazarus^[ah] had been in the tomb four days already.^[ai] (Now Bethany was less than two miles^[aj] from Jerusalem, so many of the Jewish people of the region^[ak] had come to Martha and Mary to console them^[al] over the loss of their brother.)^[am] So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary was sitting in the house.^[an] Martha^[ao] said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will grant^[ap] you.”^[aq]

Jesus replied,^[ar] “Your brother will come back to life again.”^[as] Martha said,^[at] “I know that he will come back to life again^[au] in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live^[av] even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in me will never die.^[aw] Do you believe this?” She replied,^[ax] “Yes, Lord, I believe^[ay] that you are the Christ,^[az] the Son of God who comes into the world.”^[ba]

And when she had said this, Martha^[bb] went and called her sister Mary, saying privately,^[bc] “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.”^[bd] So when Mary^[be] heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. (Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still in the place where Martha had come out to meet him.) Then the people^[bf] who were with Mary^[bg] in the house consoling her saw her^[bh] get up quickly and go out. They followed her, because they thought she was going to the tomb to weep^[bi] there.

Now when Mary came to the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the people^[bj] who had come with her weeping, he was intensely moved^[bk] in spirit and greatly distressed.^[bl] He asked,^[bm] “Where have you laid him?”^[bn] They replied,^[bo] “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept.^[bp] Thus the people who had come to mourn^[bq] said, “Look how much he loved him!” But some of them said, “This is the man who caused the blind man to see!^[br] Couldn’t he have done something to keep Lazarus^[bs] from dying?”

Jesus, intensely moved^[bt] again, came to the tomb. (Now it was a cave, and a stone was placed across it.)^[bu] Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”^[bv] Martha, the sister of the deceased,^[bw] replied, “Lord, by this time the body will have a bad smell,^[bx] because he has been buried^[by] four days.”^[bz] Jesus responded,^[ca] “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away^[cb] the stone. Jesus looked upward^[cc] and said, “Father, I thank you that you have listened to me.^[cd] I knew that you always listen to me,^[ce] but I said this^[cf] for the sake of the crowd standing around here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When^[cg] he had said this, he shouted in a loud voice,^[ch] “Lazarus, come out!” The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth,^[ci] and a cloth wrapped around his face.^[cj] Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him^[ck] and let him go.”  (John 11:1-45)

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That is some story in the Gospel today. A man dead four days is brought back to life!  

Just imagine it. A group of men roll the large circular stone away from the opening of a cave that has been turned into a tomb. Then they stand back. Jesus calls out in a loud voice, “ Lazarus come out!” and out comes a figure, its face and hands wrapped in bandage-like cloths, and wearing the simple funeral nightgown.

Kinda scary. Kinda wonderful.

Martha and Mary are going to take Lazarus home from the tomb. He is alive, and well, and lives for some time afterward – he is mentioned again in the New Testament.

It’s bizarre, isn’t it?

Why? Why does Jesus do this?

He loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and came to help his friends. That’s what friends do, isn’t it?  They help each other.

There’s a wonderful story about two friends who served together in the First World War. One of them was wounded and left lying helpless and in pain in no-man’s land. The other, at peril to his own life, crawled out to help his friend; and when he reached him, the wounded man looked at him and said, “I knew you would come.”

Martha and Mary  knew Jesus would come.

The simple fact of human need brings Jesus to our side. 

When you need him, he is there.

It was dangerous for Jesus to go to Bethany.  The authorities were looking to kill him. His disciples warned against it.   And Jesus well knew that going there would be a first step towards the cross.

He went anyway.

But in the accounts of Jesus’ life, everything happens for a reason. We are told in Jesus’ words that God will be glorified, and so He is.

Because the great  proof of  Christianity is seeing what  God does in Jesus Christ. Words may fail to convince, but there is no argument when we see  God in action.  Simply stated,  the power of Jesus Christ has made the coward into a hero, the doubter into a person of certainty, the selfish man into a willing servant.  The power of Christ has made the bad person good throughout history.

When you think about it, that puts a tremendous responsibility on the shoulders of  today’s  Christians doesn’t it? . It’s God’s design that  every one of us should be living proof of his power. ^[1]

Glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

Through his power, we can do much more than we can ever imagine we can do.

Through his power we are able to do things we could never even think of doing before.

Are we empowered? 

How do we know if we have been empowered?

Have you ever tested it?

We used to have wooden bird houses in the trees at the front of the house. Every year sparrows moved in. They would bring in grass, and feathers, and other mysterious stuff to build nests in there. The entrance was only a small hole and there was just a small peg for them to rest on before entering.

I have wondered how the baby birds are ever going to learn to fly. How are they going to be able to get on that little peg, and how is the mother going to show them what to do.

They will sit there, feet firmly wrapped around that peg, hanging on for dear life, equipped magnificently for flying, and yet scared to take off. The mother bird will somehow have to convince them that they can actually fly. She will have to push them off, I imagine, and when they feel themselves falling, they will flap their wings and find out that indeed they aren’t going to crash to the ground (where the cat from across the road will be waiting for them)  but indeed they  will be able to fly.

To soar heavenwards.

That’s us. We are empowered Christians. We have been given our wings. We have the spirit of God within us and we are equipped to do his work. We just have to be convinced of that.  

And try using it!

And we will be rewarded.   We will live forever.

Jesus says, “I am the one who raises the dead to life. And everyone who has faith in me will live, even though they die. And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never die.”

Live  for ever! Never die!

He doesn’t mean that we will live for ever in this world. What he does mean is that we will have new life in this world, and eternal life in the next.

And one depends on the other!

The few years we are in this world, and everyone over fifty knows that the years we are here are few indeed, are our preparation for the next world.

If we live right, then we are promised eternal life, and a life that is infinitely better than this one.    It had better be hadn’t it, if it’s to last for eternity!

If we live wrongly, then we will be judged accordingly.

If that is so, then what fools we are to live this measly three-score-years-and-ten completely for ourselves, never caring about others, or indeed about God, when it’s going to directly affect how we spend eternity.

You would have to be spiritually dead, wouldn’t you, not to care? 

Tokichi Ishii was hanged in Tokyo for murder, in 1918.

He was a man with an almost unparalleled criminal record. He was way worse than Clifford Olson. He had murdered men, women and children in the most brutal way. Anyone who stood in his way was pitilessly eliminated. Now he was in prison awaiting death.

As it happened, he was visited by two Canadian women. They were allowed to talk to him only through the bars of his cell. They tried to communicate with this monster, but  he only glowered at them like a caged and savage  animal. In the end they abandoned the attempt but they gave him a Bible, hoping that it might succeed where they had failed.

Strangely enough, he began to read it, and having started, he  could not stop. He read on until he came to the story of the Crucifixion. He came to the words, ‘ Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,’ and these words broke him.

“I stopped,” he said, “I was stabbed to the heart as if pierced by a five inch nail. Shall I call it the love of Christ? Shall I call it his compassion? I do not know what to call it. I only know that I believed and the hardness of my heart was changed.”

Later when the condemned man went to the scaffold, he was no longer the hardened, surly brute he once had been, but a smiling radiant man.

Christ had brought Tokichi Ishii to life, and life to Tokichi Ishi. And this unlikely man, formerly ‘dead,’ but now ‘alive’ – ironically just when his earthly body is to be put to death – will inherit eternal life.

We are told that when he learned about his friend Lazarus, Jesus wept.

Seeing that………… we know that God too weeps for us, his children, even for those of us who have become dead to him. Even for Tokichi Ishii.

Incidentally, the Greeks, for whom John’s  Gospel was written, were astounded to hear of a God who actually cared for people. 

Note that when Lazarus received new life, it was through Jesus’ prayer to his Father. Jesus does nothing by himself.

In everything Jesus did, he acted for his Father, was obedient to his Father, and allowed his Father to work through him.

How would it be in this world if we set God in his proper place in our lives, and instead of acting for ourselves,  we acted for God?

How would it be if we took the new life he has given to us, the empowerment with which we have been gifted, and did something wonderful for God?

……….if .. like a baby bird which has never flown before, we can step out into the world, trusting that the wings he has given us will hold us up, and do something that we have been scared to do before …………

………because if we don’t use what we have been given, we will lose it.

We can stick with the bird metaphor – I hate to change metaphors mid-stream,  and I hate clichés like the plague  – A bird when flying has to keep flying.   Oh, it may find a thermal current somewhere that it can ride for a little while, but they don’t last long. If the bird doesn’t keep flapping its wings, it will fall to the ground.

Likewise, we have to keep using the power we have been given. We have to continue to grow in Christ – otherwise, we will fall back………..fall into spiritual decline….become like everyone else……….stop coming to church….. stop caring so much….become….spiritually dead.

What a shame if that came to be, after the magnificent sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf.

What a shame to have wasted our time here.

Far better,  to be alive, and vibrant  – noisy for Christ  – if you like –  and to let the world see his triumph – in the world, and in us:

       Lord, make us pure; enrich our life

      With heavenly love for evermore;

     Give us thy strength to face the strife,

     And serve thee better than before.

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[1] The Daily Study  Bible, William Barclay, G.R.Welch Co. Ltd., Burlington, Ontario. Vol 2 1975 pp86-87