People of peace and good news...

The first two Scottish missionaries sent to the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific were killed and eaten by cannibals on the day they arrived. After that it proved strangely difficult to find missionary volunteers ! 

Eventually a man called John G. Paton agreed to go but well-meaning people in his church tried to dissuade him. One elderly man warned that he would be eaten by cannibals and Paton replied, “I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.” After fifteen years of fruitful ministry, almost everyone on the island of Aniwa where Paton ministered was converted.

Serving God is not a guarantee of an easy life. But we are called to a life of service, even if it means giving up everything and as we continue to celebrate Easter we get a very real sense of this in our readings this morning. 

In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles (5:27-32) Peter and the Apostles were back before the council accused again of preaching what the council saw as this damaging message about Jesus and you get the real sense from Peter and the others that there is nothing else they can do but share the good news of Jesus regardless of what it was going to cost them… 

Then there is the psalm (150) which is all about praise. Going through the psalms we get all kinds of different emotions – there is pain and sadness, anger and grief, despair, joy and praise – every kind of emotion is found there in some way and yet in this psalm, the last of them, it’s all about praise… 

In the reading from Revelation (1:4-8) we’re reminded that we are given freedom by the blood of Jesus who died and rose again.. We can be confident in God who is and who was and who is to come. He is God of our past, our present and our future – God of all strength and power, God of immeasurable and endless love.

And in the gospel (John 20:19-31) we heard of the disciples locked away living with their grief and fear, seemingly without hope and with uncertain futures and into this situation Jesus came and simply said, ‘Peace be with you’… Lives in that very moment must have been transformed forever. We saw how that faith changed in the behaviour of the early church powerfully and courageously proclaiming a message that had seen Jesus condemned to death… 

Of course Thomas missed that first meeting and didn’t believe until a week later when Jesus came back and he saw for himself and he got the chance to touch the wounds for himself and Jesus didn’t tell him off – but offered the words ‘do not doubt, but believe’, and the gospel of John tells us that Jesus did many other things when he was with the disciples after the resurrection but these are some of them which are told to help us believe… 

And we believe through the words of the bible and the accounts that we’re offered, we believe because of the evidence of Jesus being raised from the dead, we believe because of the lives which were changed forever, not by some cult that promised all good things, but by the one who promised life and revealed love… 

And each of these readings leave us with huge challenges as well as considerable encouragement… 

When we think of that reading from Acts, what are the things that are getting in the way of us being those people who simply can’t resist sharing good news… We have a Saviour who has changed the world, a Saviour who has changed us, but yet we sometimes keep him quiet, politely and reverently worshipping in a safe building where people will expect us to worship… 

But the early church was out in the streets, challenging what was wrong in society, not with words of condemnation or judgement, but with good news – they were doing things and being people which represented good news for those who lived in a climate which was often oppressive and judgemental… 

The church today needs to be good news in words and actions, good news for all people and the church means you and me, not some institution… We are called to be good news and offer good news… 

And when we think of the reading from the Psalms and from Revelation, we’re reminded that at the end praise wins because God wins… In the midst of life with all of its ups and downs God wins. On that first Good Friday many thought Jesus was finished, even his own followers thought that death and darkness had won but the story hadn’t ended and life and light would conquer those things forever. 

The days leading up to Easter are powerful in church life. We observe on Maundy Thursday, the last supper. We think of Jesus, the Saviour of the world washing the feet of his disciples in an incredible act of humility and servanthood. We consider the betrayal of Jesus by a friend whose last action as he hands him over to the authorities is to kiss him… We’re called to think of how we betray Jesus today, offering our lives, our love, but letting him down so often… 

And then on Good Friday we thought of the power of that betrayal, death on a cross, hung as a criminal to die and left by so many of his followers, some of whom had of course had pledged to follow him anywhere and through anything. 

On Holy Saturday we wait quietly in expectation, reflecting on the tomb, but with the benefit of the knowledge of the resurrection – unlike the first followers who were just left without hope, we are never without hope when we trust Jesus. Unlike those first followers, we know there was more of the story to come and that the grave would never hold Jesus down. 

In the Psalms as I said, there are all kinds of emotions displayed, but it’s right that the last psalm should be one of praise, because through all of our lives, the good bits, the not so good bits and even the terrible bits, Jesus remains with us, as a strength and as a comfort and as the source of the Peace that he promised to his people… 

In Revelation as we recognise God who was and is and is to come, we’re reminded that his love is unending, that his power to forgive is just the same as it was on the cross as he forgave those who put him there, and his power to love is the same as the power that saw him go to that cross for all people, whatever they thought of him, and that his power to offer and bring new life is just the same as it was as he came out of that tomb on the first Easter… 

He is our beginning and our ending, our Alpha and Omega… Or at least that is his offer… 

In the gospel I’m sure we can all understand and sympathise with the fears – they’d seen their friend die, they’d seen the man in whom they’d placed a massive amount of trust and time and love put in a tomb with a great big rock over the entrance and yet Jesus appeared again… 

The resurrection changed everything – the resurrection is the reason we’re here today – the resurrection is the event in history that says that all the struggles and the pain that life may sometimes bring will never be the end of the story when we walk with Jesus… 

So as we continue our Easter celebrations, and long after this particular Easter celebration is forgotten, let’s celebrate and proclaim the resurrection and claim for ourselves the Peace that Jesus came to bring, the Peace that will transform us and the Peace which allows us and strengthens us to go out and be people of good news for everyone. AMEN