Here is the text of my sermon, which will be given tomorrow to St Margaret’s Whitnash, at 8am, 10am and 6.30pm. I am happier with this one than my last, but please do let me know your thoughts (preferably before 6pm) and please do use the comment box! I somehow have to shorten it for the 8am service – no idea how I’m going to do that.
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The Resurrection and the Life
Good morning,
As our theme for today we are continuing to look at the “I am” sayings of Jesus, this morning looking at when he said “I am the Resurrection and the life”.
Now, Jesus didn't just say this while waiting in a queue at his local supermarket, he said this at a very specific and important event. As we heard in our reading, Jesus good friend Lazarus had died, and Jesus is here talking to Lazarus's sister, Martha. Martha and her sister Mary had asked for Jesus help when Lazarus was sick, because they knew that Jesus was a healer. Imagine their shock when not only did Jesus not come immediately, as it was only a few minutes drive away, but he didn't even make it to the funeral – in fact he only turned up 4 days after Lazarus had died. Why was this?
Death is an interesting word. It is almost always seen as an overwhelmingly negative thing, but in fact it is usually part of a very positive change; a caterpillar must die in order to become a butterfly, a tree must die in order to plant many more, the sun has to set before it can rise. The Hadleys have recently killed a part of their lawn in order to build a patio, sometimes bad habits have to die so that we can be healthy. As most of you will know I have been working at the Cathedral for the past year, and it is very heavily emphasised that without the destruction of the old cathedral there wouldn't be a new one, nor would its international ministry of reconciliation be doing the amazing work it continues to do today.
If I were to ask for a show of hands here for any in the congregation who have died recently, I can imagine we wouldn't have a very large number, although perhaps I would get a different result in the graveyard – but if I were to ask who here had been baptised – how many? Baptism, as well as being a sign of initiation and new life, is also a sign of death, which is about dieing to sin, and dieing to ourselves. When people are baptised by full immersion, when they go into a pool or river and literally plunged underneath the level of the water this symbolises even more powerfully the death that Christians have to undergo in order to receive new life.
I love the story of a baptism in China, where religious persecution is rife and Christianity isn't known about in many areas. The first new Christian to be baptised was looking very nervous and asked just before being dunked “How long will you hold me underwater?”. It seemed he had got his theology rather confused and actually believed he was going to die in the water, and be raised to life soon after. To him it wasn't just going to be a symbol, he thought it was the real thing!
When Jesus is pestered by his disciples to go and see Lazarus, he replies “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.”
Pretty morbid stuff! I wouldn't be too happy if my doctor cut off my hand to prove he could put it back on! But Jesus has shown the disciples he can heal all illnesses, he is now taking their faith one step further on. And as we heard in the passage, he goes to Lazarus – commands him to come out of the tomb, and Lazarus walks, lives, and breathes again. This event is heavily tied up in his own death and resurrection, and he needed to convince the disciples that he could do this so that they would believe him about his own.
Jesus resurrection is the most important event that has ever happened, and probably the most widely debated as well. Many of you will remember that in 2002 a survey was taken of 2000 clergy across 4000 churches about their beliefs, and it was found that a third doubted or disbelieved in the actual bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. This was clearly quite a shock, and I don't think the figure would be the same today – I am happy to report that it is actually a prerequisite for selection these days that one does, but even so it does show how easy it is to water down or ignore this amazing truth. And it isn't a truth without evidence – I quote Irwin H Linton, an American supreme court lawyer “it has been said again and again by great lawyers that the claims of the Christian faith cannot but be regarded as proved under the strictest rules of evidence used in the American and English courts”. I won't go into the proofs here, but if you would like to look further then the Alpha course is a great place to look at the evidence – or buying the book “Who moved the stone” by Frank Morison, himself a lawyer.
One thing I saw while watching “Plant Idol” on This morning the other day – it just happened to be on, honest, was a plant called Selagainella lepidophylla – Resurrection fern
The resurrection fern can come back from the dead. This plant is a dry curled up husk which can survive months of drought and then when dropped into water within a matter of hours turns into a lush green fern. It survives in arid climates where it adapts to the floods of a monsoon and dry conditions.
When news that Jesus was coming reached Martha and Mary, Martha, who is known in the gospels for her practical nature, ran out to meet him. What I find remarkable is that she doesn't get furious, or angry with him. She simply asserts her faith in him “I know that had you been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask”. Perhaps there is a slight moan in there that Jesus was not quicker in his response – but there is such a sense of trust there. Jesus is quick to comfort “Your brother will rise again”. Martha, being a keen theologian herself, says that she knows he will rise again on the last day, and Jesus responds to this by saying “I am the resurrection and the life”. He is confirming what she has said, but accrediting it to himself. He is the reason this will happen – nothing else will give resurrection – not being good, not praying enough, not having lots of money or giving it away. And then, almost in order to prove that he can do this – he does it then and there in a spectacular way. Lazarus in fact stays alive for one more chapter only, because the chief priests of the temple plan a cover up to stop people following Jesus because of this amazing event – and now remains in the same state as all Christians who are resting, awaiting the last day.
It is very rare these days for people to pray for others to rise from death, but it does happen – I have a good friend from university who was declared dead in the back of a Kenyan ambulance, only to breath again while her colleagues prayed for her. Ian Mcormack is an international preacher who became a Christian as a result of a diving trip gone wrong. He was stung multiple times by a box jellyfish, declared dead at the hospital and came back to life 20 minutes later, after quite a dramatic series of visions.
Obviously the cynic in all of us will look for possible explanations, ways round the possibility that this was divine intervention, but if we really believe that Jesus could heal Lazarus after 4 days dead, how much easier after 20 minutes.
But Jesus doesn't just give us resurrection, he gives us resurrection life. Well what's the big deal with that, aren't we living now?
On coke adverts and the like, with slogans like “live life to the full”, or “this is really living” what are the people usually doing, besides drinking pop. They are usually doing something exciting, something a bit radical or extreme, probably surfing. We often have this idea that working a 9 to 5 is merely a half life – real life is waiting round the corner, perhaps having a child or getting a better job, maybe falling in love or becoming a model.
I believe that what we are actually looking for is spiritual life – which is what Jesus gives us when we accept him into our hearts. We already have physical life, but what many of us don't have is any sense of a higher purpose, any idea of how our life fits in with what is going on in the world. Jesus said that he has come so that we can have life, and have it to the fullest. I would testify to this – my life isn't all excitement and surfing, but I can tell the difference between before I became a Christian and afterwards – before I was a very bored person, bored with my lot, and discontent – I lived my life through characters in films or books, and had little to look forward to. If I were to write book on my life from then till now I know it would bore anyone else to tears – but for me it would be a very good read – because it would show how God put me into his plan for his world, albeit in a very small way.
This is possibly the last Sunday I will be preaching in St Margaret's for a while, as Amy and I are off to Cambridge at the end of July to start three years of training for ordained ministry, or vicar factory as some call it. St Margaret's has been such a wonderful place to seek out our calling as well as spend our first year of married life together and we are so grateful to everyone in the Church for their prayers, fellowship and practical support, but we won't be strangers – as our sending Church you will be receiving regular updates and information and we will endeavour to visit whenever we can.
Please join me in prayer;
Lord Jesus, we well know that living in the power of your death and resurrection is not always easy, and often we lose sight of you and what you have done for us on the cross. Through your resurrection please help us to live the life you have given to us, in our work, our play and our relationships, so that we might glorify you with our lives. You give us life, and in the same way we offer our lives up to you, to do with what you will.
Amen
I’m a jolly interesting chap.
