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Sermon - Easter Day - 8th April 2007
Saint Alban's Epping 10:00am
Readings: Isaiah 65:17-25, Psalm 118:1-2, 14-20, Acts 10:34-43 Luke 24:1-12
Once upon a time, there was a chief Rabbi in the land who was so skilled that he could prevent any disaster from destroying his people. Once, when a war threatened them, they came to the Rabbi and begged him to call upon God to save them. The wise old man left his house and went to a secret place in the forest that only he knew. Once there, he built a special fire that only he knew how to build and when the fire was burning, he lifted up his hands and told God the whole story about the plight of his people. And God spared the people.
Well, as we all must, the old Rabbi died and his most capable student was chosen to succeed him as chief Rabbi. His successor was a wise and holy man, like himself, and the people had great trust in him. One day, however, a plague broke out and it looked as if the people would perish. So they came to the new Rabbi and begged him to call upon God to save them.
The Rabbi went to the sacred place in the forest, but when he got there he could only pound his fist on the ground because he had never learnt how to build the special fire. However, he lifted up his hands and told God the whole story anyway; and God spared his people.
Well, this Rabbi also died and his most capable student was just as wise and holy as all his predecessors, so the people had great trust in him, too.
But one year there was a great drought and there was great danger that the people would perish. They went in distress to the new Rabbi and begged him to call upon God to save them.
Well, this chief Rabbi not only did not know how to build the special fire, he had never even learnt where the secret place in the forest was! All he could do was lean back in his chair, throw up his hands and tell God the whole story. God spared the people from the drought, anyway, because, as you well know, the reason God created the human race was because ... God loves stories.
“Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place. With the Lord on my side I do not fear. What can mortals do to me? The Lord is on my side to help me; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. … All nations surrounded me; in the name of the Lord I cut them off! They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side; in the name of the Lord I cut them off! They surrounded me like bees; they blazed* like a fire of thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off! I was pushed hard,* so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.”
“Then Peter began to speak to them: We are witnesses to all that (Jesus) did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us whom did God choose as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is “
“Then they remembered his words, (that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again) and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.”
All of these stories speak of Easter. Easter is about transformation and conversion. Out of death and meaninglessness come new life, meaning and direction. God’s work in us brings transformation and conversion. A change from what we were into what God is making us, people formed in his own image. It is only in community with other members of the body of Christ that we discover the resurrected Son of God. The Messiah is amongst us.
In and through each other God brings us the grace of Easter and the mission of the Church is undertaken. We each have a gift or talent to offer which will contribute to the expansion of God’s domain. Easter makes us all the body of Christ. Strange as it may seem, it is you and I, here today who are the means by which God’s presence is made manifest in the world. Our stories reveal God’s presence in the world.
Jesus is risen in us, and lives amongst us. The more we understand that truth and believe it, the more others will be drawn into God’s kingdom. Women and men will be pressing into the community of the Church. Lives will be changed and heaven will come on earth.
As time went by, the people of St Alban’s began to treat one another with very deep reverence. There was a gentle, wholehearted, human quality about them, which was hard to describe but very easy to notice. They associated with one another as women and men who had finally found something. They prayed the scriptures together as men and women who were always looking for something more. Visitors found themselves deeply moved by the life of the community of St Alban’s Epping
Before long, people were coming from far and wide to be nourished by the prayer life of St Alban’s community, seeking to become a member of the community.
Let us tell the story. Christ is risen and lives amongst us!