EASTER 2010

THE LORD IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! ALLELUIA!

Easter joy to you all! As it’s Easter Sunday when Jesus himself broke a few rules, I hope I’ll be forgiven for starting with a little completely uncensored, totally unacceptable gender stereotyping! Surrounded as I have been this morning by an amazing triumvirate of powerful women [elder sister, wife and daughter!] don’t you think it’s a minor Easter miracle that I’m allowed to say anything at all?! Seriously, weren’t the male disciples a wimpish shower at the first Easter? When the going got tough they “all forsook him and fled”. It was left to the women followers to stay the course, to remain with Jesus to the end, and it was Mary who was the first to see the risen Jesus. Ludicrously weak testimony in the eyes of CELSUS, the pagan critic of Christianity who was a second century Richard Dawkins-like figure, who dismissed the Easter Day story as the rantings of hysterical women, who had no legal rights of testimony anyway. Yet it was Mary who was apostle to the male disciples, assuring them that “I have seen the Lord”.

Neither male nor female witnesses of the resurrection recognised him at first – Mary, Thomas, the disciples on the way to Emmaus, the disciples who had returned to their fishing careers. Why didn’t they recognise him? It’s fascinating to consider, but I don’t want to put them in the psychiatrist’s chair. Rather, I’m more interested as to why, after more than two millennia, we still fail to recognise Jesus?

I want to make two very simple points, simple though I hope not simplistic. I’m aware that I’m not considering the key issue of seeing Jesus in the faces of the suffering, the poor, hungry, powerless and marginalised people of the world. Nor am I addressing how we see Jesus in a society where indifference to Christianity has been replaced by an aggressive, militant attack by some atheists. They must remain trailers for a main feature to be screened later!!

My first point is that we fail to see Jesus in the unexpected, the strange, the different. Perhaps we are looking in the wrong direction. After a brief introduction, I ‘d like to share a story with you, but, before that, a health warning about the incident I describe. You may not have had similar experiences. That doesn’t matter. For each of us though there will be the chance to see Jesus where we least expect him. Now, to my experience. I’ve been privileged in my career to have have worked with and known as close friends people of many different faiths. Meeting them was a crossroads in my Christian journey. Such encounters I came to regard, not as moments of disloyalty to my own beliefs, but as God-given opportunities to share faith stories, and deepen my own faith.

Piara Singh Sambhi lived and lectured in Leeds. He was an internationally respected expert on Sikhism and wrote many of the definitive books on the Sikh religion for secondary school and university students. He was a saintly man, who, in 1992, knowing he was terminally ill, asked to be taken into St Gemma’s RC hospice, so that he could die amongst religious people. Anne and I visited him there twice. On the second visit he was very weak, too weak to put his wonderful head of white hair into a turban. We didn’t stay long, but he suddenly said “Anne and Ian, you are religious people. Please say a prayer for me”. We did so, then he sank back on his pillow, smiled his thanks and we left. The next day he died. That short prayer time together we will always treasure.

“Mary” said Jesus. “Rabboni” said Mary.

My second point is more obvious and more common. We fail to recognise Jesus in what we take for granted and are too familiar with, namely the lives of fellow Christians who radiate the presence of the risen Jesus. Geoffrey Drinkwater was such a man. Visitors new to the church should know that Geoffrey had a lifetime’s association with this church, but sadly died last October after a long illness. I’m so grateful to Jennie for letting me speak about Geoff, and something of what he meant to us. We used to queue up to book to visit Geoff at home. Why? – partly out of pastoral concern, I suppose, but mainly because, for me anyway, every time Geoff gave a master class in how to live and how to prepare to die. He spoke about his faith with an openness and candour that was inspiring. To be with Geoffrey was to show you what abundant life is all about.

“Mary” said Jesus. “Rabboni” said Mary.

I realise that I’ve spoken about Piara and Geoff when they were dying, but it’s the quality of their living that I wanted to emphasize. To use the superb Christian Aid question out of its usual context: ‘Is there life before death?’ The answer from Piara and Geoff is a resounding ‘Yes’. We rightly celebrate the Easter message that the final enemy, death, is overcome, but we have good news in the present tense, not just the future tense.

If Eileen and I remember our lines, we will shortly offer you in the Communion service bread, and say to you “the body of Christ KEEP YOU IN ETERNAL LIFE. It’s a present reality not just a future hope. It’s eternal life here and now, not pie in the sky when you die.

It depends how you see Jesus. In the first few verses of the gospel reading there are 3 different Greek words for seeing. Peter and John run to the tomb. The fitter, faster John arrives first and peers in [verb no.1] Peter arrives panting, goes into the tomb and sees in detail where the grave clothes were. [verb no.2] John follows him in, and then the penny drops. He sees and believes [verb no.3] He’d seen what he’d never seen before. May that be our experience too.

Anne and I went to a service in Melbourne, Derbyshire, Methodist Church a fortnight ago. We had the warmest of welcomes, but what I’ll never forget is the words over the doors as we left. “REMEMBER, YOU ARE THE ONLY JESUS MOST PEOPLE WILL MEET THIS WEEK.

What an Easter challenge! What Easter hope!

THE LORD IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! ALLELUIA! AMEN

Ian Wragg