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Easter Day
Sermon John 20:1-10
The Rose and
Wyoming! -
Easter is
about Reconciliation
“John
outran Peter to the tomb.”
The
bishop ate a rose in the pulpit Easter morning. Why? In order to
demonstrate that the incredible can happen. This is certainly one
aspect of the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
It
points to the question why? What is really at stake in this claimed
unique event that we Christians say is so important?
We have
just heard that John and Peter run to the tomb on hearing from Mary
Magdalene of the news of a possible interference at the grave of
Jesus. Why is it that John outstrips Peter like an African runner at
the Commonwealth Games? Why does Peter lag? (Here we have a hint of
what is at stake in the miracle of the resurrection.)
Is it that
Peter’s heart is heavy after the denial of his friend and
leader on the Friday? That scene of early morning shadows when the
servant girl by the glow of the outside fire remarks,
“Aren’t
you one of the them? You’ve got a north country accent like
he
has.” Peter instantly denies it and flees. Denials can carry
with it enormous guilt. He is afraid for his life at this point. What
would we have done? … What would we be prepared to risk our
lives for? Many say their family, or maybe our country? Would we be
prepared to risk facing death for our faith, for Christ? - like
others in the worlds today. Peter suffers great loss.
Running as
fast as you can requires a light heart. Maybe this is why there are
psychologist for world athletes. John speedily arrives at the tomb,
looks in and as the text says, “he believes”. The
text
does not mention that Peter believes, but says of the disciples
generally that they do not yet believe.
It seems
that it takes the occasion of the Jesus’ appearance a week
later for Peter to believe. The three fold question “Do you
love me?” turns Peter around to a renewed and deeper bond
with
Jesus. He is then commissioned with purpose to lead the emerging
little flock of the new Way. Belief is bound up with relationship;
Peter is reconciled to the Lord – and so the resurrection is
not some miracle ‘out there’, unrelated to the
inquirer,
doubter or believer, but it is about entering a new life with the one
who has overcome life’s negatives. There actually can no such
thing as unattached belief; it is always relational. Peter re-enters
this relationship at depth through the call and receiving of
Jesus’
(now) eternal love – a three fold melody of spiritual
affection
truly to restore the fisherman.
We too are
therefore to be present to Easter - as the movement of reconciling
love that embraces us in the resurrection of Jesus: his love song to
us in our erring, a song of restoration and renewal, a refrain of
loving us and asking us of our love.
This
therefore is a time, a festive time, to widen the blinkers of what we
think is possible for reconciliation, in our hearts, in family life,
at work, in the Church and community. Believe in the surprises that
the risen life brings as the Lord is risen from the dead, to the
instant delight of John on the first morning and as Peter is
ministering to. Easter is about reconciliation.
__________________________
There is a
second connected theme here. St Paul pondered hard on the mystery of
the resurrection and soon said it was no less than a second
creation. Like God’s first act of creation God
raises Jesus
his Son and servant as the launch of a new creation, he the first
fruits and we who follow.
The vision
is wider too since he offers this thought:
“The whole creation has been
groaning in travail till now
waiting for the adoption of the children of
God”
(Romans 8).
Somehow
Paul proclaims all of nature of affected by the resurrection; it is
geared for “the making of all things new”
(Revelation).
Nature
certainly groans today in terms of human degradation of the planet.
Paul sees in the resurrection the vision freshly given of hope for
the planet’s restoration for us to entertain fully and be
energised by. How can we do what I heard recently the people of
Wyoming do with their washing!… that is, they never hang
their washing our in back yards since the sight is unseemly to
neighbours – in a place of the world of good warm
climate…
And we ourselves have our equivalents of environmental misuse.
Jesus in
his resurrection embraces us for the delight and the work of
reconciliation, understood to as entering the New Creation, a vision
for a world made whole.
Alleluia!
Ron Browning
Locum Vicar
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