Easter 2

Glory to you, O Christ,

by your death you have destroyed death

and by your resurrection 

you have brought life and immortality to light

Jesus appears to Simon Peter 

The one who needed to be forgiven 

Risen Lord, though we have denied you, you know that we love you. 

Show us how to feed the needy ones of your flock.

Alleluia. Christ is risen

He is risen indeed. Alleluia

1 Do you love me, more than these?

Do you love me, more than these?

Will you love me, when your heart is low,

When you do not know what’s ahead?

Will you love me, when your life seems slow

Though the future now you may dread?

2 Lord, you must know that I love you,

Yes, you must know I love you.

Though I left your side and your love denied

Though I said that I never knew!

Knew that you alone could change my poor heart

By the love of God found in you.

3 Feed my sheep friend with my bread,

Feed my lambs friend, in my stead.

Through my love in you, share my word that’s true

For this word I give now to you.

Through my love in you, share my word that’s true

Share this Bread of Life, I give you.

Artwork and Verse by Rev'd Paul Collings 

Resurrection Strength

So, what strength can we draw from meeting the risen Christ. Paul, writing to the Corinthians said , “Our firm decision is to work from this focused centre: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.” 1 Corinthians 5:15 (The Message) 

The psalmist talks about raising our heads, - Psalms 3:3 NLT, “But you, O LORD, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.”

Take time to ponder this Easter Litany

Hold your head high, Christ has risen

Rejoice and shout

Christ has come calling us home

Home to the heart of God

Home to God’s living presence

Home to God’s banquet feast

Hold your head high, Christ has risen

Death has been conquered

Christ has come calling us home

He has renewed and restored us

All that was broken has been made whole

All that was dislocated has been set right

Hold your head high, Christ has risen

Carry forward God’s healing

Christ has come calling us home

To a world where truth and justice triumph

To a place where abundance flourishes

To a community where generosity flourishes

Hold your head high, Christ has risen

Christ has come calling us home

Your redemption is complete

God’s eternal world has begun

Love reigns over all

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Christ has risen indeed.

Prayer

Almighty God,

through your only Son you overcame death

and opened to us the light of eternity.

Enlighten our minds and kindle our hearts

with the presence of your Spirit,

that we may hear your words of comfort and challenge

in the reading of the scriptures,

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Resurrection Strength

In a cemetery in Hanover, Germany, there is a grave on which were placed huge slabs of granite and marble cemented together and fastened with heavy steel clasps. It belongs to a woman who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Yet strangely, she directed in her will that her grave be made so secure that if there were a resurrection, it could not reach her. 

On the marker are inscribed these words: "This burial place must never be opened." In time, a seed, beneath the stones, began to grow. Slowly it pushed its way through the soil and out from beneath them. As the trunk enlarged, the great slabs were gradually shifted so that the steel clasps were wrenched from their sockets. A tiny seed had become a tree that had pushed aside the stones.

The dynamic life force contained in that little seed is a faint reflection of the tremendous power of God’s creative resurrected Word. Unbelief cannot deter the resurrection. But faith in the risen Christ opens the door to blessings that His resurrection guarantees.

In Revelation 1:17-18: We find the words of Jesus, ”Don’t be afraid! I am the First and Last. I am the living one. I died, but look–I am alive forever and ever!”

This Easter Season, there is perhaps only one question? “Do we see the real Jesus?”  Do we see Him as He truly is or have we created a Jesus in our mind that is as real as the Easter Bunny?  May we take some time this Easter to make sure that we are seeing Him clearly. We need to make  sure we are building on the right foundation; the foundation that will stand through any storm and lead us to life eternal. Our challenge today is to see past all the images of Jesus created by the world (whether good or bad).  Our images and concepts of God cannot save us.  Only the Resurrected and Living Jesus can do that.

May we, our God,

in the wake of Easter,

ride a wave of irrepressible hope—

rising from the deep

following the trajectory of love

over the turbulences of our living

and through the currents.

So within joy,

may we sense Your presence

hovering ever with us—

ever speaking

new creation—

ever calling us into possibility.

Amen.

Resurrection Strength

In Luke’s gospel we find another two reluctant resurrection encounters. “That same day two of them were walking to the village Emmaus, about seven miles out of Jerusalem. They were deep in conversation, going over all these things that had happened. In the middle of their talk and questions, Jesus came up and walked along with them. But they were not able to recognise who he was.” Luke 24:13-16

This story of shattered hopes and lost dreams is familiar to us. Jesus’ gentle accompaniment and listening presence enables two downcast disciples to express their story. Only then does he offer them a more life-giving interpretation of recent events. As recognition dawns, their hearts are ablaze.

As a young man, D. L. Moody was suddenly called upon to preach a funeral sermon. He hunted all through the Four Gospels trying to find one of Christ’s funeral sermons, but searched in vain. He found that Christ broke up every funeral He ever attended. Death could not exist where He was. When the dead heard His voice, they sprang to life. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life” 

Josh McDowell an apologist and author writes, “It is one thing to hear these words of Jesus, another to believe and live by them. Josh McDowell continues, “No matter how devastating our struggles, disappointments, and troubles are, they are only temporary. No matter what happens to you, no matter the depth of tragedy or pain you face, no matter how death stalks you and your loved ones, the Resurrection promises you a future of immeasurable good.”

Jesus, in times of disillusionment and faded dreams you stand at the door of my life waiting for me to invite you in. May the experience of your risen presence bring about a transformation in my daily engagement with others. Teach me how to listen well, both to my own story and theirs. Amen

Resurrection Strength

A story is told of an African who became a Christian. His friends asked, “Why have you become a Christian?”

He answered, “Well, it’s like this. Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions, and you didn’t know which way to go. There at the fork were two men, one dead and one alive—who would you ask which way to go?”

Clearly, the disciples were in a state of shock, of loss without direction until they saw and indeed believed in the presence of the Risen Christ. In Luke 24:24 we read that, “Some of our friends went off to the tomb to check and found it empty just as the women said, but they didn’t see Jesus.” All too often we go looking for Jesus but fail to see that his presence is with us and consequently fail to receive  the life and strength the has in store for us.

It was the Rev’d John Stott who said, “The resurrection of Jesus changes the face of death for all His people. Death is no longer a prison, but a passage into God’s presence. Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won’t stay there. You can nail it to a cross, wrap it in winding sheets and shut it up in a tomb, but it will rise!”

O God, week after week you arise,

gathering your people,

proclaiming your word of life,

feeding us with food that is eternal,

sharing your Spirit,

and renewing the face of the earth.

O God, transform us by this resurrection,

that we may embrace all that you have made

and live toward the justice that you intend

through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

Resurrection Strength

Finding strength from the presence of the risen Lord.

In face of all this, what is there left to say? If God is for us, who can be against us? He that did not hesitate to spare his own Son but gave him up for us all—can we not trust such a God to give us, with him, everything else that we can need? (Romans 8:31) 

This encouraging word of Saint Paul vividly expresses the full extent of the love of God the Father and His eternal pledge of always being with us by our side. However, in this post Easter setting in Jerusalem, the disciples were yet to fully appreciate this wonderful resurrection truth. We find strength and courage in the promise of the One who destroyed death forever, “I am with you until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) This new light scatters the darkness of fear and uncertainty. Moved by the power of hope and the knowledge of God’s profound love revealed in Christ Jesus, we remain ever determined to build a Culture of Life.

On one occasion Michelangelo, the great artist, turned on his fellow artists in a spirit of indignation. He said: “Why do you keep filling gallery after gallery with endless pictures on the one theme of Christ in weakness, Christ on the Cross, and most of all, Christ hanging dead? Why do you concentrate on the passing episode as if it were the last work, as if the curtain dropped on Him with disaster and defeat? That dreadful scene lasted…a few hours. But to the unending eternity, Christ is alive; the stone has been rolled away and He rules and reigns and triumphs!”

The Easter message — He is Risen! — fills every generation with a sense of astonishment and joy. It is God who gives life and receives it back again. It is God who declares that all life is precious and good. It is God who reveals the real nobility of man and woman. It is God who states poignantly in Jesus, the Risen Lord, His desire “that all might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

God we are blind, but you open our eyes,

To see your glory revealed through your son Jesus Christ,

Who died and rose again to lead us into life.

God we are deaf, but you unstop our ears,

To hear the power of your resurrection story,

Once we were dead but now in Christ we are alive.

God we are dumb, but you set free our tongues,

To rejoice and sing with all the hosts of heaven,

Holy, holy, holy is the one

who transfigures our world with the Spirit of life,

Holy, holy holy is the one

who redeems and makes whole all who respond,

Holy, holy holy is the one

in whose light we see that all creation will be made new.  Amen

Resurrection Strength

As we move on through the Easter Season we are going to look at the anchors that strengthen us as Resurrection People. We start with words from Hebrews 6:19-20 “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf.”

For the disciples, the immediate after-effects of the horrific death of Jesus were all to vivid and cast a haunting shadow over their present circumstances. Their anchor had gone and they were adrift on the sea of despair. 

Today, I want us to concentrate on the expression, "an anchor for the soul." The anchor was an important symbol to the first Christians. If ever you have the chance to visit the catacombs in Rome, those tunnels under the ancient city where many of the early Christians were buried, you can see the symbols of faith on their tombs. Three common symbols appear: the dove, the fish, and the anchor.

The dove symbolises the Holy Spirit. The letters of the Greek word for "fish," ichthus, stand for the words Jesus Christ, God's Son, Saviour. The anchor came from the idea that, as Christians were going through difficult, insecure times, their hope anchored their souls.

Hope is called the anchor of the soul because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a ‘wish’ - I wish that such-and-such would take place - rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of realising the resurrection presence of Jesus.

You call us,

Wanderer of seashores and sidewalks,

inviting us to sail out of our smug harbour's

into the uncharted waters of faith

to wander off from our predictable paths to follow You

into the unpredictable footsteps of the kingdom;

to leave the comfort of our homes and accompany

You into the uncomfortable neighbourhood's we usually avoid.

As we wait,

in our simple, sometimes crazy,

constantly uncertain lives,

speak to us, Spirit of Grace:

of that hope which is our anchor;

of that peace which is our rock;

of that grace which is our refuge. Amen