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. 

How to embarrass yourself the Christian way

(c) William Hole - Zacchaeus in the Sycamore Tree

I wonder if you have ever done or been accused of doing something embarrassing? If you are a parent, you will almost certainly have been accused of being embarrassing by your child at some point! Fortunately I am not prone to being easily embarrassed which was helpful earlier this year during the baptisms we held at the Cheltenham Lido.  After I had baptised Charles and Sarah, I got out of the pool and tied my towel around my waist. And then continued with leading the prayers.  I was holding the microphone with one hand and suddenly realised that my towel was unwrapping and rapidly descending, not easy to catch and keep yourself decent with one hand.  Anyway, I survived and most people were gracious enough not to mention it afterwards!

In Luke 19.1-10 Zacchaeus puts himself in an embarrassing position. He has a very responsible, if despised job as the chief tax collector in Jericho.  It would have been a very privileged position because it was a town close to Jerusalem on a major trade route. And so he would have been a very wealthy man.  Wealthy people are used to having places of honour which makes this story interesting.  It might be normal when important people came to town for Zacchaeus to be invited to dine with them.  But as we begin this story, not only is Zacchaeus not invited to meet Jesus, but with such a big crowd gathering to see Jesus, Zacchaeus can't even see over the crowds and capture a glimpse of Jesus because he is too short.  But why does Zacchaeus even want to see Jesus?  He is clearly desperate to see Jesus, because he decides it doesn’t matter what people think, he will awkwardly clamber up a tree to try and get a chance of seeing this man.

Can you imagine it?  Zacchaeus wouldn’t be wearing trousers or shorts, he would’ve been in a flowing robe, so he may even have had to hitch his robes right up into his belt and show everyone his pants as he scrambled from branch to branch.  How ungainly, and how people probably pointed and laughed at him making a fool of himself.  “Ha! Look up there! It’s the tax collector, what on earth does he think he looks like, silly man!”

Perhaps his cheeks are red, and he hopes people will stop noticing him, but no! Suddenly there’s Jesus, and perhaps he sees people pointing and looking, and so he looks up too. But he doesn’t make fun of Zacchaeus.  Far from it.  Jesus is the one who looks on the heart, who knows our motivations. And he sees something in Zacchaeus that others have missed. And he says, probably with a smile: “Zacchaeus, hurry up and come down from there, I want to hang out with you at your house today.” I bet Zacchaeus swung down quickly, embarrassment forgotten, and with a broad smile on his face.  Everyone else though was grumbling: “Jesus has gone to be the guest of a sinner, and a rich one at that, just think about all the money Zacchaeus has cheated us out of, why does someone like Jesus want to eat with him, eat food brought with dirty money. Maybe Jesus isn’t who we thought he was…”

But the effect on Zacchaeus is totally the opposite.  As Jesus sits down at his table, Zacchaeus discovers who he really is.  You see, the name Zacchaeus means righteous one, or pure one. That is his true identity. And he suddenly realises that, and realises that he can change from who he has become.  The encounter with Jesus has opened the door to repentance.  And he says, "Lord I will give away half my money and repay those I have cheated by giving them back four times what I took." And Jesus tells him, truly you are a child of God, and are saved, considered righteous by God.

In Psalm 11 we read that God is righteous and God’s eyes scan the earth as God tests our hearts to see whether we are choosing wickedness or righteousness. To everyone who saw him, Zacchaeus was wicked, but Zacchaeus was willing to humble himself, to embarrass himself, by climbing a tree to find Jesus and to be restored to the man he knew he was born to be.

Jesus was passing through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem, where He would also humble Himself and be nailed to a tree and be lifted up for all to mock. Zacchaeus has shown us what it is like to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, and as he did it he found Jesus willing to accept his repentance and to offer him forgiveness. And as a result he rediscovered who he truly was.    

May we today be prepared to die to ourselves, even to look foolish in the eyes of others, because we want to follow our Saviour, and become all that we were made to be.  Amen.

One day God planted a stake in the ground

God spoke
        Darkness came
                        God was there

God spoke
        Light came
                        God was there

God spoke
        Creation overflowed
                        God was there

One day God planted a stake in the ground

"Everything I have is yours
    - share it with me or use it for yourselves"

They ate
         A different light came
         They were hidden from each other
                          But God was there

"Everything I have is mine"
    - but still a voice within whispers of a different way

One day God planted a stake in the ground

"This is my body given for you"
    - a gate or a stumbling block

Take, eat
          Their eyes were opened
                           And God was there

"Lord, it's hard to give my body to serve you"
    - but the Spirit comes and brings strength within

Still....

Sometimes when we speak
           Darkness comes
                           God be there

Sometimes when we speak
            Light comes
                            God is there

Lord help us speak
            "Your kingdom come"
                             God is here

Meditating on control (or: God is not pants)

Sales of control pants over the last few years have rocketed in the UK both for men and women.  Is this a sign of our desire to control things that are not quite the way we want them to be?  Control pants (made famous by Bridget Jones) do the job of hiding the evidence of excess without you having to make the effort to change your diet or to exercise.  They give the quick fix that our culture always seems to be looking for.

So, this got me thinking about the nature of control.

Rowan Williams talks about us all chasing an illusion which is that we are in control of our lives.  He says that the act of baptism addresses this because it is the immersion of ourselves back into the chaos of the waters from which only God can bring order. God is the one enthroned over the flood (Ps 29:10), who hovers over the chaos (Gen 1:2) and brings it under control (see the rest of Gen 1).



I just re-read Romans 6.  Paul is pretty explicit that baptism is joining Jesus in His death so that sin has no control over us any longer.

Jesus at the moment of His death was the least in control He could possibly be.  Crucified, immobile, subject to the control of so many human desires imposed upon him; we should not be surprised that the light went out in the cosmos and that chaos and darkness reigned until the moment Jesus said: It is finished. Control is broken. Light returns. A new creation is made.

We become our most free - most in control perhaps? - when we give up all control to God (Jesus said whoever loses his life for my sake will find it - Matt 10:39).  It is an extraordinary thing that as we say 'not my will but yours be done', as we turn to Jesus and at the cross give him all our sin and lies, pretense and self-justification; we find forgiveness and truth, reality and newness of life. The expanse of his mercy knows no bounds; thinking about this kind of makes me want to kneel in humility and dance with praise at the same time!

So this is my prayer at the moment, for the illusion of control to be destroyed in my life and to become a new creation again and again trusting in God above all things.