Let love draw you in and connect up your heart

Can I tell you something?  Well, there was this man Jesus from Nazareth, a prophet, he taught with powerful words that cut to the heart, and did amazing things, healing people, raising them from the dead, feeding thousands of people with a boy’s packed lunch, loving the unlovable, opening our eyes to see what God’s word really means… we hoped he would be the one to redeem Israel – no-one else like him has ever come before.  But on Thursday, he was arrested by the chief priests and handed over to Pontius Pilate, he was beaten and mocked and sent to be crucified on Friday morning.  We saw him through the crowds, falling over again and again under the weight of the cross, and heard the hammer on the nails, watched as the cross dropped into the ground.  The sign above him said ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’ – did Pilate believe it was true?  We didn’t know what to believe, and then the sky grew dark, I felt a strange kind of fear grip me, the hours passed, I felt rooted to the ground. And then Jesus cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ and the tears fell down my face, how could this be happening.  Then Jesus cried out again, I couldn’t hear what he said but it was like all sound and all reality was just sucked away, I couldn’t breathe, and time stopped…


Then like an exhale, the earth beneath me began to shake, I fell to the ground, and heard the soldiers shout out, ‘Surely he was the Son of God’.  And then I ran and ran, the ground shaking beneath me…


Later I heard that in the temple the curtain had torn in two, and Joseph, you know – the one from Arimathea, the rich one on the Jewish Council – he went straight to Pilate told him Jesus was dead and asked to take his body to be buried.  They moved quickly because sabbath was coming and were able to wrap his body in grave cloths, and seal the tomb with a rock.  All day yesterday we didn’t know what to do between the tears and the questions, should we stay here in the city, or is it all over, should we go home, what should we do?!!


Then this morning the two Marys went to the tomb and as they watched an angel appeared and rolled away the stone.  They said: ‘Do not be afraid, I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here, he is risen, just as he said.’ 


Can you imagine yourself there?  Listening to an eyewitness account, what would you make of what you had just heard, let’s press pause and take a poll… If you were in Jerusalem and you had just heard that story what would your response be to Jesus disappearing from the tomb?  Is it: whateva! – I don’t care, they must be high, someone stole his body, he wasn’t really dead, I don’t know but it’s scary, I want to find out more, Jesus is alive


All of these responses would have happened.  For many years, I had the first response – whateva! I don’t really care.  But I remember so vividly that first Easter in April 2000, a few weeks after I became a Christian, and we were in church and singing a song with the chorus ‘Jesus is alive’, and suddenly I felt a rush of fear and excitement, and a flood of realisation that what I was singing was true.  Jesus is alive!


Today, for the first time since St Catharine’s church building was finished in 1915, we are not gathered in the building to sing and to celebrate that truth.  It feels painful not to be together.  I was so looking forward to my first Easter with you.  And yet, I think we learn something at a deeper level today than we could normally.  As the women come to the tomb, they hear the angel say ‘He is not here’, ‘Jesus is not here’.  And we can imagine perhaps approaching our church building, and in the quiet, hearing that same voice saying: ‘He is not here’. 



The women hurry away from the tomb, and suddenly there is Jesus, he greets them and they fall at his feet and worship. 


They like us begin to realise that Jesus is with us in a whole new way.  Our buildings are important because they provide a place to gather together, but our church is not our building.  Our church is us, each person, each household, touched by the love of God, by the truth that Jesus is alive.  It is that love that draws us together and connects up our hearts.


Our first reading came from Acts 10.34-43 – this book which is like part 2 of Luke’s gospel – tells us about the events that followed Easter Sunday.  It mainly follows those who believed that Jesus had died and been raised again, and the whole book tells how those followers travelled about with this news, facing incredible hardship and persecution because they believed the good news they were carrying was world changing.  No other event in the history of the world has rung true with people in every generation, culture, nation and language.  No other event in the history of the world has changed the lives of the people who choose to believe, and to act like it is true.  God will never compel us to believe, that is not what love does. Love draws us in, it connects up our hearts.  


In our church services we often say the Creed together, it is a summary of our Christian faith that has been repeated by believers for hundreds of years.  Here in the reading from Acts we see a very early summary of Christian belief.  And it is extraordinary because the words are spoken by Peter, a Jew, to Cornelius and his household, Gentiles.  Peter is having a conversion, realising that the good news about Jesus is for all people, not just the Jews.  Jesus is Lord of all.  And we see how God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are together at work making this offer – the opportunity to respond to God’s love made known in Jesus Christ – God makes this offer to all.  We are not created to be alone, we are created to be with God.  At the moment you may be feeling alone, and isolated, I think we are realising perhaps as never before how we are made to be in relationship, with each other, the world and with God.  Our promise from God is that through Jesus all these relationships that have been fractured can be healed and restored.  God’s love draws us in, and connects up our hearts.

So what are we to do, on this day of all days, the high point of the Christian year, a day when we desperately want to be together to celebrate a love that overcomes even death.  We want to be with those we love, our family (both church and birth) and our friends.  And the loss of that perhaps feels more painful today.  I wonder if we don’t run from the pain of that sense of separation, but sit with it, I wonder if we will feel something of what God feels towards us.  God offers us unconditional love, there is nothing you or I can do to earn it, and when we turn our back on it, I think God feels the pain of that separation.  So would you let yourself today, wherever you are, would you let yourself be loved by God?  To say sorry for all the times you have turned away, and to turn back, God’s arms are always open, God’s forgiveness is always there.  Let love draw you in and connect up your heart.