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31st
March 2013 - Easter Sunday Morning - Ken Scott |
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Easter Sunday Morning
- 31st March 2013
Reading - John Ch.
20 vv. 1-18
Sometimes when we get into an argument one of the parties involved
will say "you really haven't got a leg to stand on you know".
Today we proclaim as Christians that Jesus Christ is alive and
those who would deny this will say "you can't prove that
and you haven't got a leg to stand on".
Well today I would like to convince you that we most surely do
have at least four legs to base our belief on and I have a table
to help me do it!
The message on the table top says "Jesus is Alive"
and at first sight you would think this table had no legs, but
we will see what is hidden underneath.
The first leg of our table
has the label EMPTY TOMB. How do we explain the fact that on
that Sunday morning there was no body in that tomb? We read how
Mary Magdalene came early that morning and found the stone that
covered the opening of the tomb was rolled away. When Peter and
John came they were brave enough to look in and all they saw
were the grave clothes neatly folded, but no body.
Either Jesus had not been put in there in the first place, which
seems impossible because we know Joseph of Arimathea placed it
there and both the Romans and the Jewish authorities definitely
wanted Jesus dead, buried and out of the way, or the body had
gone. If so how could it have been taken? Who could have moved
the great stone without the Roman guard knowing? If the Romans
had the body they could have produced it to scotch any rumours
once and for all. No, the body was gone, the tomb was empty and
that is the first leg of our argument that Jesus had to be alive.
But the table will not stand on one leg alone!
So what do we have on the second leg of our table? 500 WHO SAW
HIM ALIVE. After the events in the garden that morning when Mary
saw Jesus, he was seen by many other people including two people
on the road to Emmaus, then the 11 disciples in the Upper Room
and at the lakeside, and then we are told 500 people saw him
at one time. If all the people who are in church this morning
saw someone in Pattingham and identified them we would have no
doubt as to that person's existence. Jesus was seen, he ate,
he talked and he walked after he rose and many people could say
"I saw Him". If you wonder about the veracity of the
gospel accounts remember the earliest ones were written only
about 30 years after these events, well within living memory
of those who were alive at the time. We have no trouble accepting
the accounts of people today, about World War 2 which happened
over 60 years ago. Two legs then for our table, but it will still
not stand on its own.
The third leg is labelled CHANGED MEN. After Jesus died the disciples
were a terrified group of men. The women seemed to be a much
braver lot, but then they usually are! They were huddled in the
Upper Room, wondering what would happen next. They had all been
cowards including the big fisherman, Peter. He had denied his
master in awful circumstances and now bitterly regretted it.
They must have thought that if the authorities had killed Jesus
then they would be next to die. But an amazing change takes place.
After they meet the risen Jesus they are transformed from terrified
men to brave witnesses to their Lord. In just a few weeks they
are preaching openly in Jerusalem and telling anyone who will
listen about this person Jesus Christ. They followed that by
spreading the message throughout the known world and some of
them were prepared to become martyrs for their beliefs. They
would not have done that for a dead, disgraced Jesus. He would
have been a minor footnote in history if he had not risen. The
great thing about our faith is that the living Jesus can still
change lives today. Sometimes in small subtle ways, but sometimes
dramatically. A recent story in the press describes a young man
called Darrell Tunningley who grew up in a very poor estate in
Leeds. He got into cannabis, LSD and by 16 was using Heroin at
a cost of £250 a day. So he took to crime and after an
armed robbery got sent to prison for 5 and a half years. In prison
he was violent and continued to sell drugs, but one day another
prisoner asked him to come to the chapel. It meant an afternoon
out of the cell as well as free coffee and biscuits. There he
was met by two nuns and initially he gave them a load of abuse.
But they responded with compassion and love, so much so that
he was stopped in his tracks. He prayed that night that would
devote his life to God if He took away his demons. And it worked,
he stopped the drugs, stopped the violence, and his life was
turned around. When he left prison he got involved in a church,
eventually met a girl, got married and had a family. A changed
man; it still happens. So now we have three legs to stand on.
Not bad, but not really stable yet.
The final leg to add is labelled THE CHURCH. That might seem
a bit strange as we are living 2000 years after the events of
the first Easter. But that is the point we are here in this building
because Jesus lives. All round the world today millions of people,
and it is people who make the church, are celebrating the Resurrection.
This faith has not died out in spite of the passage of time,
persecution, intellectual challenges and maybe worst of all,
apathy. It was great to see all the children from school in church
last Monday and many parents singing "Jesus is alive, you
know, He's risen from the dead. He was crucified, but now he's
risen like he said" And they brought with them three pictures
which are on display today. One shows the empty tomb with the
stone rolled away from the entrance. So the presence of the living
Jesus is with us in a spiritual way now today in His church.
Our table is secure, standing on four solid legs. We can have
every confidence in our message that Jesus is Alive, we don't
need to apologise for it; we can tell the world and more particularly
the people of Pattingham this good news. This is the most important
message and life changing truth of our Christian faith.
Ken Scott.
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31st
March 2013 - Easter Evening - Revd. Preb Maureen Hobbs |
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Address for Easter
Evening - 2013
Isaiah 43. 1-21
John 20. 19-23
So there you have it. Easter. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.
Alleluia!
So we sum up that greatest mystery of all - resurrection. The
one event for which there are no witnesses. Resurrection is something
purely between Jesus and God. We can see the after effects. But
not the moment itself. But resurrection is nothing if not about
new beginnings, new growth, new life. And this year especially
we are desperate for a taste of spring; of some new growth and
new life. How many of you are dying to get back out into your
gardens?
So tonight I thought I might tell you a little about a special
garden that some colleagues of mine have planted and open to
the public. And if you are interested, you might even be able
to go and visit one day.... For this garden is not far away.
It is at Beaudesert near Gentleshaw and Rugeley, on the edge
of Cannock Chase. It is called Reflections, and is a garden that
reflects the Christian spiritual journey.
For such a project it is of course appropriate - maybe inevitable
- that the resurrection should figure as part of the garden,
part of that spiritual journey. But Chris and John (the couple
that run Reflections) have written that the resurrection garden
was one of the hardest to make and represented one of the biggest
challenges. They think it is because resurrection gets relatively
little time in our church life; Lent and Holy Week receive plenty
of attention, but resurrection only gets a nod on Easter Day
and then, generally is subsumed into the great fifty days of
Easter.
The first space is a Mary Magdalene garden, made enclosed yet
open by having a circle of upright posts as a boundary. These
create a curious sense of being within a space but not bound
by it. One of the experiences of resurrection in our lives is
the recognition that we are no longer bound by who we thought
we were nor by the attitudes of others - like the risen Jesus,
we can walk through walls. There is a large stone (the one rolled
away) with a tree of heaven by it. There are a few vegetables
growing, and some old tools in the garden - a spade and wheelbarrow
- as Mary mistook Jesus for the gardener when she first saw him
through her tears. On the yellow brick path is creeping thyme,
and nearby, other, sweet-smelling plants like winter flowering
honeysuckle and camomile, because Mary and the other women brought
sweet-smelling herbs to the tomb. In the centre of the garden
is an almond tree - associated with Mary Magdalene, because its
greek name, amygdalus, sounds like her name. There is also planted
a Mary Magdalene rose, with a scent like myrrh.
The next area is a space for story-telling, to encourage visitors
to tell their own resurrection stories. This is set under a hazel
tree with two benches. As part of the floor between the benches
there are two lines of tiles with an interweaving Celtic pattern
- interweaving like our life experiences, of sorrow and joy,
dark and light. The joy of Easter is not the surface easy joy
of a jolly party, but the joy that only comes through deep suffering;
the joy that comes when God's perspective makes a new pattern
of suffering. A resurrection pattern that does not deny the suffering
but alters its perspective.
Hung in the story-telling place are butterflies; some made of
recycled CDs by a youth group, and others made from glass picked
up off the streets of Bethlehem after Israeli tanks had rumbled
through - butterflies made by Palestinians as a prayer for the
resurrection of their country.
Then there are a few coppiced trees. For when you coppice a tree
for fuel, it grows again and again.
Next are 'surprise beds'. Alternately these have wheat in them
- another symbol of resurrection (did you farmers know that?)
and flowers grown from seeds given to visitors. Visitors do not
know what kind of seeds they have been given to plant and , later
in the year, get the nice surprise of the beautiful mix of flowers
and plants they find growing.
The waterfalls took an entire winter to construct. A number of
quarries were searched to find a deep yellow stone, and with
help from a project for people who have experienced mental health
problems, an upper and lower pool were cut into the bank, with
two streams running between them - streams of life-giving water.
Beside the upper pool is a hut or shelter which faces the dawn
at Easter time. The floor of the hut is made of recycled plastic
while the walls are of living willow. It is situated at the highest
point of the garden.
All through the resurrection garden are planted white or yellow
flowers at all seasons, and the beech hedge gives a warm glow
throughout the winter.
Each part of the garden has an environmental theme; in the resurrection
garden the environmental theme is woodland, particularly deciduous
woodland, so there is a small tree nursery there where any seedlings
that self-seed are potted on. When large enough they are planted
locally; some are already planted alongside a local canal. Trees
renew the air from pollution, trapping dust so it falls to the
ground and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. Resurrection
for the planet.
Symbols of resurrection are all around us if we have eyes to
see, but best of all perhaps are the stories we can tell from
our own lives, because resurrection was not just a one-off event
in history. It is for now - as well as for eternity.
Gardens are gifts for the spirit, and in tonight's reading we
hear how Jesus gives his gift of the Spirit to the huddled and
frightened disciples gathered in that upper room. Here is no
rushing wind and tongues of fire that we read of elsewhere in
Acts. Here is the gentle breath of the living and risen Jesus
standing among them. It brings an image of that other garden
- Eden, where God first breathed life into the Adama - the human
being, to make it live. It is an image as intimate as a kiss
and the evangelist, John, surely means us to see this empowerment
of the disciples as a new act of creation. Jesus is in the midst
of his disciples as their Lord and God; as their Creator and
they are therefore once more in Eden - that other garden - so
what more appropriate than that he should breathe upon them and
fill them with new energy, new life, new courage for the task
of showing the world what it means to be truly human? Resurrection
was not just a one-off event in history. It is for now - as well
as for eternity.
(oh, and anyone interested
in visiting the gardens can either go there for real, or visit
via a virtual experience at www.reflectiongardens.org.uk)
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