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Sermon - Fourth Sunday of Easter - Series A - 13th April 2008
St Alban's Epping
Readings: Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 2:1-10; John 10:1-10
“I came that they may have life.” It’s a simple summary of Jesus whole mission. “I came that they may have life.” At first sight the statement can seem redundant. Whoever Jesus is speaking about already has life. So Jesus must mean more than just living. He means more than mere existence. “He came, that they may have life.” I looked up my dictionary and discovered that John uses the word “life” almost a hundred times throughout his gospel.
Life is a major topic in John’s gospel. Life is mentioned in almost every chapter except for 3. Almost half the time “life” it is accompanied by the word “eternal”. Probably most of the time when the word appears, what is really meant is eternal life. Its at the heart of the message of the gospel. Its at the heart of Jesus’ message. “I came that they may have life.” Its in stark contrast to what we read in Genesis three.
There we have Adam and Eve eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The consequence is that they are cast out of the garden. One reason for sending them out of the garden is to block their access from the tree of life. Because if they could access that tree we are told they might live forever.
So in Genesis 3, the possibility of living for ever is strictly forbidden but now in John’s gospel the idea is everywhere. What has made the difference? Why is it forbidden in the Old Testament but comes in abundance in the New Testament? Why the change? Its because “Jesus came that they may have life.” The life that is being described is a life lived in fellowship. Not only is Jesus the giver of life, it is life lived with Jesus. This is reflected in our other two readings. Both are describing the beginnings of this new life.
In Acts 2, we have the first description of the Christian Church. “All who believed had all things in common." They had a shared purse. Its a reflection of how the disciples lived. They had a common purse. It was held by Judas Iscariot. But the disciples lived in this fellowship and the early church was a mirror of that fellowship. The passage is not encouraging us to have a common purse.
The principle is that a common fellowship ought to be a feature of the Church. You may remember a time when people came to church, attended the services and then went home immediately. Very little contact was made among church members. That was still church, but it was a shadow of what Jesus is offering. The first church worked together with glad and generous hearts. They praised God and had the goodwill of all people. I assume that means people inside and outside that community. What they were doing was expressing their new life in fellowship together. They broke bread and ate together. We assume that that means they shared a eucharistic meal. But they probably ate other meals together as well.
In the New Testament the eating together is a symbol both fellowship and heaven. Heaven is described as a great banquet of celebration. So how they lived reflected their fellowship as well as their new life together, the life they will take with them into eternity. Our reading from 1 Peter also describes this new life from Christ, this new life in Christ. Fellowship is an important feature. But here it is expressed in the negative. In order for this community to function they must rid themselves of malice, guile, insincerity, envy and all slander. Such behaviour tears a community apart. Rather Peter describes the Christian community as being like a Temple, a new Temple constructed to praise and honour God.
We are the building blocks of that Temple. Peter calls us “living stones”. Jesus is the corner stone. Peter recalls the Old Testament quote that "the stone the builders rejected has become the corner stone." This is a picture of Jesus' sacrificial death. Yet this act of obedience to the Father becomes the foundation stone of this new structure.
But what is the purpose of a Temple? It is a place where God and his people meet. So the Temple itself is a symbol of our fellowship with God. Its another way of expressing our membership in the community of God. This is why Peter can move immediately from discussing Temples and describing the church as living stones to using other Old Testament images to define the church. So he says “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people."
This is all the language used to describe Israel. And what has God done for his people? He has brought us out of darkness into his marvellous light. Again this is a reference to God bringing Israel out of Egypt through the Exodus and placing them into his promised land. But people get confused at this point. Because the church is described like this some people believe that Jerusalem still retains some spiritual significance out of all proportion to what it deserves. Certainly trips to the Holy Land can encourage our faith. Certainly it has some historical interest. But in the purposes of God it should have no significance beyond that. This is why, when the Roman armies surrounded Jerusalem in 70 AD the Christians were prepared to abandon it to its destruction. How could they do that?
They could do it because they no longer needed the Temple in Jerusalem. They were the living stones. They were the Temple. Wherever they went, the Temple went with them. They were the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the holy nation. They were no longer limited to a particular city in a particular place. Wherever the church went, they were the people of God in that place. Christianity always produces a strong sense of community. I was particularly aware of the deep pull it can have on us several years ago. I was very unhappy in the Anglican church I was attending. That unhappiness had a variety of causes. I had looked around at other Anglican churches and I didn't think they would address my concerns.
So I contemplated not going to church at all. But when I though about it I realised that wasn’t an option. So I decided I had to think a little more creatively. And that's when I came here to church. God has drawn us into a new life, into a new community. We are not called to live as isolated Christians. An isolated existence is not what is being described in John 10.
But notice what Jesus is teaching us. On the one hand he is describing a community and on the other hand he describes himself as the giver of life. Its as if life and community are the two sides of the one coin. Here the church is described as God’s flock and his role is to exercise pastoral care over that flock. He is there to protect the flock from the thief and the bandit. Shepherds in Jesus day usually slept in the fields with their sheep. When the sheep were in danger, he would protect them with his own body. He would rescue them with his own body. Because he would protect them we can see why Jesus sees his role as the giver of life to his flock. And so the community of God’s people, live the life that has been given to them. The church is the community of both life and care. And that is why we should expect to see pastoral care expressed in the church.
I was surprised, reading our current Southern Cross, that the Deaconess Institution has sold off Hope Healthcare. For the last 100 years Hope Healthcare has provided nursing care to the dying. But now they sold it. And the reason they give is that care for the dying is not their core mission. Well, it was for 100 years. And it is expected of us in the New Testament. As God’s people we need to keep asking what sort of community does God expect us to be? So Jesus’ words bring both good news and responsibility to us. “I came that they may have life.” The good news is the gift of life. But our responsibility is to reflect on how that life is lived. As a royal priesthood, a holy nation, how will we live? As living stones how will we build the temple to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God?