Sermon for Sunday 20th April 2008

When we visited the Holy Land some years ago, the title of the trip and purpose was to meet the ‘Living Stones.’ A phrase used in the New Testament reading set for today from the 1st Letter of Peter, where we are encouraged to come to Jesus, a Living Stone and become ourselves ‘Living Stones’ so that we can be built into a spiritual house.

There are within the Christian Church many who have a Christian faith, but who seek to exercise their faith in isolation. Some of those are to be found within the very important monastic traditions, where those who take the vows of ‘poverty, chastity and obedience’ accept a life, which is centred on the saying of the various daily offices.

There are however many individuals whom we meet in our pastoral ministry, who while not churchgoers, will affirm a faith in Jesus Christ.

We as Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, have chosen to work out our faith in the company of others and to build ourselves into, and as part of, a ‘spiritual house.’

In deed we are called to be ‘Temples of the Holy Spirit’ by St. Paul.

Having celebrated Easter Day, we now move ever closer to celebrating the Ascension of our Lord and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, in a few weeks time.

And we perhaps need to remember, that we are in today’s world, as God’s ‘chosen people.’ No longer is that title accorded solely to the Jewish race.

With Jesus’ imminent departure from this world, Jesus in our Gospel seeks to reassure his followers that they should take heart, for it is through his death, resurrection and ascension that he, Jesus, will go ahead of us to prepare a place for us.

A reading which is often chosen and used by me at funerals, today’s Gospel reading seems to give an assurance that whoever or whatever we happen to be in this life, there will be a place for each one of us in the eternal city.

As one of the songs from the musical West Side Story and included in a recent funeral service taken by me says – ‘There’s a place for us, somewhere a place for us, peace and quiet with time to spare.’ That place we call heaven.

Knowing how to access that future life however causes Thomas, some concern.

‘Lord we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?’

As Robert mentioned at the APCM we are planning a new style of evening service in the Autumn, for there are many in our community today, whom we seek to draw into the fellowship of Jesus Christ, and it is our responsibility as Christians, to show them the way, to teach them the truth, in order that they can get a life, not only in the future but in the here and now. To show them that to be a follower of Jesus, is a life changing experience for the better.

Having accepted the invitation offered by the St. |John Ambulance, Jenny and I attended the ‘Free breath of life first aid training’ held in the village hall last weekend.

But like those dry bones of Ezekiel 37, we here at St. Andrew’s want to breathe new life into the people of Cobham – to offer them the opportunity to come alive and know that God loves them and desires them to return to him.

What those who accepted the invitation by the St. John Ambulance offered to others following their training was the breath of life so that they might have the possibility of a continuing life here on earth.

But the breath of life which we seek to fill people’s lives with, is eternal life.

Jesus, using one of his many ‘I am’ sayings tells Thomas and the other disciples, as he tells us through this Gospel this morning that he is – ‘the way, the truth, and the life.’

The ‘way’ was used in the early days to indicate that the early disciples were followers of Jesus. For it was not until we read in Acts 11 v 26, that the title ‘Christian’ appears, and we read in that verse that – ‘it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.’

Today we are also ‘followers of the way.’ And it is in the way that our lives are presented to others, that it is likely we shall encourage them to also become followers of the way.

Accepting the ‘truth’ of the Gospel is not always easy. There are those within the liberal wing of the church today, for whom certain issues on which the church has pronounced, which they will claim are not proven.

Some will say that because Jesus himself did not speak on some matters that they are not relevant. And yet as Jesus walked to Emmaus with the two disciples, it was only the ‘Old Testament’ scriptures to which he referred concerning himself and other issues.

So in our own lives, it is by our adherence to the Bible teachings, and the truths contained within it that we will obtain salvation – that is the promise of the New Testament.

And it is as we walk the way that Jesus has laid out before us, as we witness to ourselves being ‘living stones’ in today’s world, and as we through our lives reflect the truth, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that our life will, as the last verse of our Gospel reading for last week made clear, enable us to have abundant life.

W. H. Auden – ‘For the Time Being’ offers the following words

He is the Way.

Follow Him through the Land of Unlikeness;

You will see rare beasts, and have unique adventures.

He is the Truth.

Seek Him in the Kingdom of Anxiety;

You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.

He is life.

Love Him in the world of the Flesh;

And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.

For in paraphrasing Jesus, who said that he was the ‘way the truth and the life’ – we will be following the only one who is, the true and living way.

Amen

© Revd Peter Vickers April 2008