Tuesday, 20 May 2025

SERMON 216 - SUNDAY 11 MAY 2025 - EASTER 4

Sermon at St. John’s Church, West Grimstead and All Saints’ Parish Church, Farley – 4th Sunday in Easter – Sunday 11 May 2025

Acts 9:36-43; Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be those of you, Lord, and may they be a blessing to all who listen and hear them.

Last week, in John 21, we looked at Peter’s restoration at the hands of Jesus, following the Resurrection, when Jesus appeared amongst the disciples on the lakeside of Galilee whilst Peter and his fellow brethren were out on the lake fishing. 

You will recall, I have no doubt, how it was only after they had received instructions from Jesus as to where to cast the net that they caught such an enormous number of fish – 153. That part of the story reminded us that it is only really with the help of Jesus – either directly or through the Holy Spirit, that we can successfully achieve God’s purpose in and for our lives. Prior to Jesus’s arrival on the lakeside, they had been totally unsuccessful in their fishing despite being professionals.  It also reminded us that Jesus can enter into our presence at the least expected time and circumstances and we must always be ready to receive and listen to him.

However, the most important part of last week’s passage from John’s Gospel was Peter being restored to his position amongst the disciples.  Again, you will recall that Jesus asked Peter not once, but three times, whether he loved Jesus and three times Peter responded in the affirmative; and on each occasion Peter was told to feed Jesus’s sheep and be a pastor to His people. Earlier, in the gospel, we read how Jesus had called upon Peter to act as the rock upon which Jesus’s worldwide church would be built; but he had probably thought he had forever forgone that privilege when he had denied Jesus three times on the night of Jesus’s arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. Hence the reason for Jesus asking him three times if Peter really did love Christ.

I think it rather appropriate that our reading from Acts, this morning, should focus on Peter’s ministry after those events I have just described. Last Thursday we saw the election of a new Pope, Leo XIV, in Rome who is considered the direct apostolic successor to Peter who is regarded, in the Roman Catholic Church, as the first Pope or Bishop of Rome and Keeper of the Keys to Heaven.  Yet despite the pomp and ceremony and ritual, we should never lose sight of the fact that Peter was, when we first meet him in the Bible, a humble fisherman who would have worked hard and probably was what some might describe as a pretty rough diamond! I grew up in a northern fishing town as many of you know and the local “deckies” appeared to be the least likely candidates to be pastors. I pray and hope that our new pope will not forget the humility and normality of Peter at his calling.

In our reading today we see a different Peter – a mature Peter and one who, following the bestowing of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, demonstrates the power and love of God, through Jesus, by signs and wonders. In the passages immediately before our reading today, Peter has already healed a long-term bedridden man in Lydda, called Aeneas, and if we read earlier chapters, we see Peter having healed a crippled beggar.  Earlier in his ministry, Peter and other disciples had found it impossible to heal anybody until Jesus told them that they needed to acknowledge and concentrate on the power of prayer. Now, Peter’s powers are well known in that part of the world to the extent that two disciples are sent out to bring him to the house of the deceased of another follower, Tabitha or Dorcas, as she is better known, and there, after much prayer, he brings her back to life. This act, we read, led to the conversion of many in and around Joppa and Lydda.

What greater testimony could there be than the acts of Peter and the apostles in bringing people to believe in the power of God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit manifested by the acts of these early disciples.

I think that the real importance of this passage from Acts is, though, that the emphasis in all the examples of miraculous healings is the element of prayer – that these wonders being performed by Peter and the apostles, are actually the work of God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit and that the apostles are simply the conduit through which the power passes. 

I am afraid that there are many scammers these days who profess special powers of healing in themselves and, indeed, even ask for money to perform the miracles being sought. Vulnerable people are paying money to faith healers and false prophets in the hope of a miracle and when it doesn’t happen, are told their faith (often in monetary terms) is insufficient.

The real truth is that it is for God to heal or not.  As Jesus told his disciples the power to heal is tied up in the power of prayer and it is through prayer alone that a miracle can occur.

This really nicely leads on to our gospel reading – again taken from John. Unlike last week’s reading this one is, I find, somewhat more difficult to follow.

The context of this passage is that it occurs immediately after Jesus has been talking about himself as the “good shepherd”. He reminds his listeners in those earlier passages that as the good shepherd he has the full knowledge of his flock, knowing them all by name and they knowing him to be their true and loyal shepherd. He reminds his listeners that this differs from the hired hand who would easily run away as he does not have the same relationship with the sheep. The true shepherd is prepared to lay down his own life to protect his sheep from the wolf.  This is, of course, a direct reference to his own sacrifice for all those who believe. 

We now find Jesus in Jerusalem at the Festival of Dedication or Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights – a winter festival in the Jewish Year (still celebrated shortly before our Christmas) which commemorates the rededication of the Temple following is desecration by Antiochus. Then, as now, this was a very important celebration marking the restoration of the Jewish Faith’s worship at the Temple in Jerusalem.

It was, therefore, very much in the minds of the Jewish Elders that they continued to await the arrival of the Messiah who would sweep away Roman occupation and completely restore Judea to complete Jewish Rule. As in our scriptural passage in Acts which we’ve already looked at, the theme of restoration was again at the heart of the story.  Having listened to Jesus’s preaching they wanted a firm and plain response to their question “Are you really our Messiah?”  Indeed, there had been quite a number of previous candidates who had disappointed the Jewish Authorities.

Jesus’s response is not as plain as they had hoped.  He responds by saying that if they look at all he has done and said during his ministry the answer is clearly there. If they still need to seek clarity then he refers back to his previous analogy of the shepherd and his sheep.  If they truly believe they will hear and recognise his voice, but if they do not then they do not belong to his flock.

In summary, I again refer to our Diocesan strapline of “Making Jesus Known”.  In order to make Jesus known to others we need to know him ourselves – not, as I said in my sermon last week, to simply “know about Jesus” but to introduce him as a living person – to have a relationship with him.

Jesus left us with the Holy Spirit and gave us a direct conduit through which we can pray directly to God. To have a proper and meaningful relationship with him.  By reading scripture we can reflect upon how his word spread throughout the world, not simply by reading scripture but by the acts and experiences of his followers – followers just like you and me.

I am again reminded of William Holman Hunt’s painting “The Light of World” which depicts Jesus with a lantern knocking at an overgrown door without a handle on the outside.  A representation of Jesus knocking at our door of life with only us able to open it from the inside.  This reminds us of Jesus’s words in Revelation 3:20. The original painting can be seen on one of the walls of the Chapel of Keble College, Oxford.

If you haven’t let Jesus through your door yet, then I invite you to do so – to have a fulfilling relationship with him.  If you have done so, I ask you to reflect on how and when that happened and think how you might encourage others to do so.  Here is a prayer to help

"Lord Jesus, I come before you as my shepherd, seeking to know you more deeply and to lie down with your flock. I desire not just to understand your teachings, but to experience your love and power in my life. Help me to see you in everything I do and to respond to your call with a willing heart. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, that I may be empowered to live a life that reflects your grace and glory. May I walk in your light and be a witness to your love." 

Amen

 

                                                                                                   MFB/216/09052025

 

 

Tuesday, 6 May 2025

SERMON 215 - SUNDAY 4 MAY 2025 - EASTER 3

Sermon at All Saints’ Parish Church, Whiteparish – 3rd Sunday in Easter – Sunday 4 May 2025

Acts 9:1-6 [7-20]; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may these words be those of you, Lord, and may they be a blessing to all who listen and hear them.

When I saw the reading for today, I was absolutely delighted at their theme and I was equally surprised that I had not preached on these passages before because, for me, they are the fundamental cornerstone to our Christian belief and faith – that to know God our Creator we need to know Jesus and have a relationship with him.  That is why we call ourselves Christians – followers of Christ.

In each of our readings we find a situation where God reveals himself to ordinary mortals through Jesus. Our first reading from Acts describes the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus where, as a Jewish Zealot, he intended to persecute Christians; in our second reading from Revelation, John, in a vision, sees all of Heaven worshipping the Lamb (Jesus) proclaiming him as the Worthy one and finally in our Gospel reading from John, we see Jesus appearing to the remaining disciples in the ordinary course of their work as fishermen instructing them where to cast their nets, as once he did before.  The importance of this passage though is the dialogue between Jesus and Peter when three times he asks him if he loves Him – the three times being significant in absolving Peter from his three times denial on the night of Jesus’s arrest.

I want to look a little closer at the first and last readings and for us to reflect on what these passages of scripture teach us today.

First of all, Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. For me, this passage is one of the most wonderful stories in the whole of the bible.  We have previously read in the Book of Acts how Saul the Zealot had hounded the followers of Jesus believing him to be a false prophet and a blasphemer. Saul was well versed in Jewish law and all the rules and regulations which went along with abiding by the Jewish Faith.  Based upon the Pentateuch or Torah, the first five book of the Old Testament setting down basic Jewish Law handed down by Moses, the Jewish Faith system had complicated it further by adding many other rules and regulations which, on occasions, Jesus and his Followers had not adhered to.  This made Jesus and his disciples heretics and blasphemers in the eyes of Jewish lawyers such as Saul.  Saul was determined to stamp out this falsehood as he saw it – hence he was on his way to Damascus to confront Christians there.

The story of the conversion of Saul into the apostle Paul is too well known to repeat in detail here but what we can say is that for all concerned, except the Trinitarian God,  the events of that day and the following ones could never have been envisaged – the complete reversal of Saul’s philosophy and hatred into becoming one of the most ardent Christians the world has ever known – such that his letters to the various churches of western Asia have become the backbone of our own modern Christian doctrine. In my experience, most of the evangelical churches in the world today spend most of their time studying and preaching from Paul’s writings.

Our gospel reading is, for me, one of the most important pieces of scripture in that it reminds us that Jesus is still with us – that he is not just an historic figure. We read that Peter, after all the excitement of his time as a disciple of Jesus, following him around Judea and witnessing many extraordinary events, is perhaps bored.  Jesus has appeared to the disciples, post-Resurrection, on a number of sporadic occasions but they are in limbo.  Peter suggests returning to the occupation they know best and which took up most of their time before Jesus came into their lives and called them.  They go fishing.  It is whilst they are doing so and catching nothing that Jesus appears suddenly and unexpectedly on the banks of the Sea of Galilee.  He asks them if they have caught anything to which they respond “no”.  He then does something which he had done before, he asks them to cast their nets in a different place and their net is filled with 153 fish – we don’t actually know the significance of this number except that it was also my room number when I was at university in Liverpool! It is probably at this point that the realisation hits them that this is Jesus back with them.

They probably had thoughts that he was a ghost at first and he dispels this notion by sharing breakfast with them by once more symbolically breaking the bread and fish and eating a morsal himself. 

As mentioned earlier, there then proceeds the dialogue with Peter about the disciple’s love of Christ and a command to feed his sheep – to be a pastor and to be the rock upon which Jesus’s church will be built.  Although not in this passage we can also remember the great commission which Jesus gave all his disciples in the last verses of Matthew’s gospel – to go out and make disciples of all nations adding “and I shall be with you always”.

Returning to the common theme of these readings I want to just reflect on how Jesus appeared to Saul/Paul and to Peter and his companions.  At the time of Jesus’s appearance in both instances, the recipients of Jesus’s approach were carrying out what they considered their allotted roles in life – Saul the Persecutor and Peter et al the Fishermen.  Jesus did not appear to them in some special Holy Place but on the roadside and on the banks of the sea; just as he appeared to those disciples on the road to Emmaus.  On each occasion the appearance was unexpected and life changing.

The essence of each of these stories is that Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with each and every one who accepts the Christian Faith.  The Christian Faith differs from other faiths in that it believes that God is of a threefold nature – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus became a human being, lived on our planet and died on the Cross so that we might have a direct line of communication with the Father. He also left behind the Holy Spirit which is alive and present with us now and through which we can have that special relationship which he craves.

Our Diocesan strapline is “Making Jesus Known” in our communities.  It is not about “Knowing about Jesus” and we must be careful not to get the two confused. If I say to you “Let me introduce you to Jane Dunlop” that is quite different from say “Let me tell you all about Jane Dunlop”. The question which we should be asking people is “Would you like to know Jesus” not “Would you like to know all about Jesus”.  In order to do that, though, we need ourselves to know him. There is that famous painting by Holman Hunt of “Jesus the Light of the World” knocking at the door.  The door has no handle on the outside so can only be opened on the inside. Only we can open that door and let Christ into our lives – to invite him to be with us, to be like Mary, sister of Martha, and sit at his feet and listen.

If you haven’t let Jesus through your door yet, then I invite you to do so – to have a fulfilling relationship with him.  If you have done so, I ask you to reflect on how and when that happened and think how you might encourage others to do so.  Here is a prayer to help

"Lord Jesus, I come before you, seeking to know you more deeply. I desire not just to understand your teachings, but to experience your love and power in my life. Help me to see you in everything I do and to respond to your call with a willing heart. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, that I may be empowered to live a life that reflects your grace and glory. May I walk in your light and be a witness to your love. Amen." 

 

 

Amen                                                                                                        MFB/215/01052025