My Redeemer lives - response?

2022 has been another traumatic year - the recovery from COVID has been happening, but much more slowly than hoped, the Ukrainian war has caused misery not just in Ukraine but with countless issues elsewhere as well. Added to those things we have had chaos in government in Westminster, and a cost of living crisis which is having a real effect on everyone… 

And for the Church in Wales, things have also been pretty tough - again, the return to any sort of normality from COVID has been slow - whilst there are different pictures coming from different places, overall there is a thought that attendances in our churches are still about 30% down on pre-COVID attendances…. 

And as a diocese we have recently launched a new vision and from the vision we have drawn up an expectation of growth. That expectation has to happen if we are to prevent the Church in Wales disappearing but more importantly that expectation is based on the reality of trusting in God for our future, and on the reality of God being capable of transformation in our hearts, in our homes, in our churches, in our communities and in the world. 

We can be confident, we can be ambitious, and we must be if we are honouring God who offers good news for all people everywhere. 

So what have any of these things got to do with any of the readings we’ve heard today ? To answer that I want to think of the reading from the Book of Job (19:23-27a), with the famous words, ‘I know that my redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth…’ 

Let’s just think of Job for a moment… Life was pretty bad. He had lost his property, his business, his children were killed and he became really ill. His wife told him to curse God and die… his friends came to visit and started to think of the reasons why Job was suffering so much – what on earth had he done wrong ?

But Job stuck with God and in spite of all his pain and suffering said these incredible words, ‘I know that my redeemer lives…’ and whatever base we have in our lives, whatever foundation, we can know nothing better than that – the presence of God with us every single moment of every single day… Every good moment and every difficult moment… 

And when we think of attendance figures in our churches, we shouldn’t be depressed or anxious because if God is in control then things will be fine but if we’re trying to be in control, then we may have some problems, because God doesn’t work and think like us – God is beyond our understanding and that’s why we can look at him with awe and wonder and recognise the God of miracles who can do all things… 

The attendance figures must be a wake-up call to us all, to help us recognise that what’s been happening isn’t working well because the Christian faith is a faith founded on mission, a faith founded by  God who wants a relationship with his people, and that is all his people everywhere. And Jesus left us that command to go and tell people about Him, go and offer them good news… 

The church does face challenges but also huge opportunities - and we are all faced with the question of how we respond to those challenges and opportunities, because they are for all of us… 

We will all have preferred ways of worship, of fellowship, of how we meet together, of how we socialise together, of how we look after our buildings and all kinds of things like that. But we must ask honestly if they are God’s ways or our ways… are they about sharing the good news of Jesus or are they about keeping us happy and comfortable ?

We are called to simply live in the knowledge of those words of Job, ‘I know that my redeemer lives’…. We live with the knowledge of the promise that God is with us always… And that changes us as it changed Job when we truly live recognising that fact…. 

And just as we are faced with the challenges or opportunities in the church and we’re asked ‘How will we respond?’ We’re also faced with that same question ‘How will we respond?’ to the words of Job - ‘I know that my Redeemer lives’, because if we say those words and mean them then our lives are changed….

God’s promises are huge, his power is immense, his love is unlimited and unbreakable, and he invites us to join him in his work to make the world better, beginning with our little bit of it… 

It’s clear that God’s welcome and invitation is bigger than we so often make it, it’s clear that God wants a real relationship with us as part of his family… Remember we are created in his image, we are beautiful in his sight, regardless of what we’ve done or failed to do… It is good news, and good news needs to be shared…. 

We live in an exciting time in the Church in Wales I think… It contains its challenges certainly and it will be inevitably a time of change, and change is never easy, but we must grow as a church and to even begin to do that we need to be recognised as a blessing to our communities, as a place where people actually do come and feel welcome and feel warm and loved and receive good news… but not just a place where people come, but where we reach out to people outside of our buildings… 

Paul in his 2nd letter to the Thessalonians (2:17) that we heard earlier wrote, ‘Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and deed’… 

God never wants us to act alone, he doesn’t want us to rely on our minds and thoughts, he wants to support us as a loving parent who treasures his children and is desperate to be proud of them…. 

‘I know that my redeemer lives’ is our foundation in life. It can be the cornerstone of our lives, it is the very reason for our lives, and it’s good news that needs to be shared….

The Sadducees in our gospel reading (Luke 20:27-38) didn’t believe in resurrection (that’s why they were sad-you-see !!) and they asked Jesus a question primarily to try and trip him up and he addressed their question but he also shared news about God being good news – good news of eternal life… 

We can dwell on statistics that say the Church in Wales will be gone in not too many years time if we want, but God’s church won’t be, and we are called to be God’s church, part of one family, united in Jesus, and ready to serve him as we serve others… 

We have good news to share and we need to share it… Good news that says, ’I know that my redeemer lives’, that speaks of ‘God of the living not of the dead’ and good news of God who loves us and comforts us and strengthens us in every good work and word… 

Advent, which begins at the end of this month, is the start of the Christian year. It’s another chance to review and renew our faith; another chance to consider what our response is to the words, ‘I know that my Redeemer lives’… Perhaps one response might be to start afresh as we make our own promises to God to receive his love and to share his love indiscriminately…. And as we pray and work every day for growth in our churches…

‘I know that my redeemer lives’ – believing those words will change us forever and our transformed lives will help to lead others to be transformed as well.… 

So, faced with challenges and opportunities in the church, how will we respond ? And faced with the words, ‘I know that my Redeemer lives’, what do we say and what do we do ? AMEN