Title: Easter Sermon (Rev John Wilkinson)
Content :1 to 18
V17 “Do not hold on to me because I have not yet ascended to the father”
We human beings hate letting go of good things for some reason we like to hold on to things well after their usefulness has gone.
We hoard things, saying to ourselves ‘It may come in handy one day” knowing full well that the likelihood of it ever being needed again is very remote.
We put monetary value on antiques that look different or quaint but have no useful value anymore.
We even go so far as to say they are priceless antiques.
When they are of no earthly use any more they are rubbish. Interesting but rubbish.
They do nothing to improve the life of this planet.
We spend a good deal of energy in visiting places that have outlived their usefulness and have become tourist attractions.
The disciples wanted to do this with Jesus.
They wanted to keep him with them just as he was.
They didn’t want anything to change even though he had been crucified and resurrected.
They wanted him back the way he was before.
And strange though it may seem there are still people attempting to bring him back exactly as he was today.
The latest Mel Gibson film, ‘The Passion of Christ’ is an attempting to bring back the ‘crucified’ Christ.
The ‘crucified’ Christ … … . Not the ‘risen’ Christ.
I suppose the film does act as a useful reminder of just how horrific and brutal was society before Christianity.
Which helps us to appreciate that the world is a better place than it was before Christ came to save us.
But that does not excuse the yearning to another Christ, somebody to come along and save everybody from the mess we have got ourselves into this time.
Before Christianity the Roman world was terrible by today’s standards.
The populaces were controlled by oppressive dictatorships.
The Caesar had power of life or death over his subjects.
Caesar was God and usually acted like a vengeful god.
But do we really need to be reminded of how horrible human beings can be?
Brutality breeds brutality.
Violence breeds more violence.
So it is not surprising that the world is in a gradually increasing downward spiral toward anarchy and mayhem.
Jesus is saying its time to put a stop to that way of living, start loving one another and let love be the driving force instead hatred.
Jesus is saying here “let go, the time has come for you to grow up and take responsibility for yourselves, Move on.”
Let me move on, so that you can move on.
Go to your brothers and say to them that I am moving on.
I am going to my father
And he reminds them that we are all children of God.
I am going to my father
Who is also your father,
My God who wants to be your God.
In the reformed tradition we strive to move forward.
We attempt to move the world on, closer to Christ’s vision of a world founded on justice and mercy and under girded by those two basic tenets of the faith,
To Love God and to love your neighbor as yourself.
In John 8:32 Jesus said ‘know the truth and the truth will set you free.’
Getting to the truth is difficult.
We are wrapped up in myths and legends.
We like to make a tale sound more interesting by telling half truths which in their get repeated as the subjects matter.
The bible stories we tell in churches are often stories of the triumph of Good over evil but when you analyse them you find that the good was not as good as it should have been and the bad was not as bad as it was made out to be .
How about Moses who started his career by murdering an Egyptian
Or take the stories of David, he was certainly no angel.
He killed Goliath by subterfuge and had Uriah the Hittite murdered by devious methods because he wanted Bathsheba for himself.
What terrible role models?
And yet David is the role model for all the Jews probably 80% of the Christian population of the world and Moses is a role model for all Christians Jews and Muslims!
We have come today to worship God and to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.
The beginning of a new age of love and sharing for the Body of Christ.
The whole family of God.
Amen.
Christ is Risen.
He is risen indeed.