Easter Day– 23 March 2008

Today we have been given an amazing gift; the gift of hope. In some respects hope seems commonplace and familiar, easy to forget it is a gift at all. Until we think what our lives, and what our society might be like lived without it. Peter highlights it in the speech he makes in our first reading: ‘They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all people but to us who were chosen by God as a witnesses…’

Each of us has different reasons for coming here this morning. But the amazing fact is that God has drawn us here as one of his witnesses. Chosen, not to be members of some privileged club from which others are excluded, but chosen because we have listened, watched, experienced and believed. We have been given the gift of faith. Not I suspect for many an easy, certain, confident belief that asks no questions. More likely a questioning, doubting, sometimes uneasy belief that somehow Jesus died and rose again. And that in this extraordinary story of God’s intervention in the world there lies hidden a meaning and a hope that is intended for us.

Gifts of course are often a two edged sword. They are not always welcome – my wife nearly hit me when I gave her a washing machine for Christmas one year. Rather too often they are unwanted. We have a cupboard full of strange cheese dishes, once played board games and unread books. Most will be familiar with the hugely expensive gift for children. Played with frantically for a week and then apparently boring. Then there is the gift that comes with an obligation to do something. The three months membership of the gym. The bag of golf clubs for the non-golfer. Or the art set complete with brushes, watercolours and paper.

The gift of faith brings with it the invitation, the imperative even, to be loved by God. And, as with all relationships of love, being loved by God involves a response. The seventh century Greek Maximus wrote the love of God leads to participation in the justice and generosity of God towards others; the love of God is revealed in responsibility for others.

Pope Benedict recently published an encyclical, Spe Salvi (in hope we were saved). He writes that the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known – it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing… The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life. Through this gift of faith we have received we are already living differently. For us this weekend is not just another long bank holiday; it is a time when God renews our faith. A time when we are reminded once more of the extent of God’s love for us as we move from the sorrow of Good Friday to the resurrection joy of this Easter Day.

The gift of faith brings with it the gift of hope. In the bible the words hope and faith are almost interchangeable. In the First Letter of Peter Christians are encouraged to defend and explain ‘the hope that is in them’. So with faith comes real hope for the future. A hope that is so strong that the disciples’ sorrow and despair at the arrest and crucifixion of Christ was transformed. Through the risen Christ it became a faith that shaped and guided their lives. Even Thomas, the most doubting of them all, meeting the risen Christ, moved from disbelief to confessing his faith ‘my Lord and my God’.

Today in this service of Holy Communion we meet the risen Christ. We meet him in the bread and wine of our Holy Communion. We meet him in the faith we share as part of the family of the church. We, inadequate as we are, are truly the body of Christ, his hope in the world. We say for ourselves ‘my Lord and my God’. Our hope is renewed, because God is its foundation.

The recent turbulent weeks in the financial markets are a good reminder not to limit our hope to the secular world and our own endeavours. We are living at the moment with the most turbulent world financial markets that most of us have ever seen. Northern Rock effectively went bust. The fifth largest investment bank in the US, Bear Stearns has collapsed. Closer to home last week market manipulators tried to bring down Halifax Bank of Scotland, one of Britain’s biggest banks, by spreading false rumours. These extraordinary events have shaken our trust in banks. We are simply not used to worrying about our money when it is sitting in a high street bank.

We can use the current state of the financial markets as a metaphor for the reality of our lives. Most of us start out our adult lives expecting everything to go swimmingly. Successful secure careers, permanent marital bliss. 2.4 children. As our lives move on, our hopes change but we become aware that they are never completely satisfied. However close we come to meeting our ambitions we realise that we need a hope that goes further. We yearn for a perfect world. We despair at the way people destroy each other’s lives. We are knocked back by unforeseen events causing turmoil in our lives. Our hope is dimmed by the draining task of dealing with conflict. We know that the perfect world we dream of is never going to be a reality in our lifetime.

The disciples’ journey from the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to the desolation of Good Friday reminds us how hopes can be completely crushed. They needed the resurrection to show them that hope placed simply in the world would never be fulfilled. But that when faith was placed in God nothing, not even the death of God’s own son, could destroy hope. Meeting the risen Christ, the disciples realised that whatever happened in their personal lives, whatever happened in their unpredictable and uncontrollable world, there was a future and a purpose for them with God.

We are the disciples of the present age. We have witnessed those events for ourselves and been given the gift of faith. This gift, like the gym pass, the golf clubs or the art set, does bring an obligation for us to do something for it to have meaningful value. But if we want fulfilled lives, lives that have purpose and meaning, lives that allow us to love completely. Lives which can properly cope with and overcome disappointment and adversity, then the obligation is worth responding to. Easter is a time for renewal. We renew our hope as we repeat our baptismal vows. We renew our hope as we commit ourselves to living responsibly for others. We renew our hope as we meet Christ in the bread and wine of our communion. We renew our hope as members of the Church proclaiming to the world Alleluia! Christ is Risen! We have been given the greatest gift of all, the gift of faith, a gift of hope. We leave today renewed ready to accept again

Christ’s life changing invitation – Follow me.

© Robert Jenkins March 2008