Scripture Readings: Zechariah 9:9–12 | Psalm 145:8–14 | Romans 7:15–25a | Matthew 11:16–19, 25–30

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29).
 
For the past five years now, we as a Parish have set aside one Sunday in early Summer to gather outside in the Churchyard of St. Luke’s to worship the Living God, surrounded by the beautiful works of His hands in creation, and the graves of our brothers and sisters in the faith… remembering with gratitude all those who have laboured long in the service of our Lord here in Gondola Point, and who have now been entrusted into His loving arms to receive His blessed rest.   
 
This service reminds us that we are but one chapter of a much, much longer story… that we are never alone, but in Christ Jesus we remain connected to… we remain in communion with all those who are His. And we are reminded that although we still have our own labours and work to do for the Kingdom of God here in Gondola Point… one day we too can look forward to sharing in the blessed rest of the faithful.  
But what about before we receive that blessed, eternal rest?
 
As we look around at the world, and the times, that God has placed us in, a world growing more and more divided… and times that seem ever more troubled and uncertain… it seems like there’s no shortage of good work to do, and it can be really easy for us to feel overwhelmed. To struggle to stay motivated… worrying about if all this effort and work is worth it… feeling the weight of all that needs to be done, and wondering if we are up to the challenge.
 
If we feel this way today, we’re in good company. And thankfully, our Heavenly Father knows full well that we His children are not superhumans, or machines. God knows the burdens we carry. He knows our constant need for encouragement, and His sustaining grace. He knows we need more than the promise of an eternal rest in the future someday, as wonderful as that gift is. We also need to receive real rest right here and now… in the midst of our work in this world.

​Thankfully, our Scripture readings today from the letter to the Romans and the Gospel of Matthew remind us where to turn to find the rest that we all really need. 

In our reading from the Letter to the Romans, we heard St. Paul give voice to some of the tensions and turmoil at work inside us… the fight between our desire to do God’s good will… to walk in His holy ways, and serve His Good Kingdom well on the one hand… and on the other hand all our old selfish and sinful desires that pull us away from His side, and lead us into spiritual darkness.   
 
Romans 7:22-24, “For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
 
St. Paul well understood that the Christian life is not a cake walk. It’s a struggle at times to stay faithful. It takes sincere effort and hard work to stay true to the ways of God, and to say no to all that might come naturally to us, but which keeps us from loving God and all of our neighbours. And this work might even feel fruitless and futile at times… like it’s a battle that we can’t hope to win… an unending conflict without any chance of relief.
 
But right when St. Paul brings us near to the point of despair… he points us straight to the source of our greatest hope. “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25).
 
The truth is though we cannot rescue ourselves from this internal conflict… that’s what Jesus Christ has come to do! To save us from our sin, and self-destructive ways… to set us free from our pasts… to be forgiven, and begin to live God’s way today… to lay to rest our old selves with Him at the cross, and raise us up again with Him forever.
 
Yes, we are still called to co-operate with His grace… to put in the effort to actively choose to trust in and follow our Lord in the face of many temptations. But the Good News is when it comes to our salvation, Jesus Himself has done all the heavy lifting! He truly is our Saviour, bearing our burdens and bringing us New Life. Dying for us at the cross. Rising again for us. Reigning now for us at the Father’s right hand in glory, and returning one day for us and our world… reconciling all things by His blood, and saving love. 
 
If we go about trying to find our own spiritual relief apart from His saving grace, we’re bound to feel burdened. But if we place our trust in Jesus, and in what He’s done for us and our world… we can start to breathe easy. We can lay down the weight of our mistakes… of our fears, and our need for control… and trust Him with our fate. Believing the Good News that God really loves us, and His grace really will carry us home. 
 
And turning now to our Gospel passage this morning, we hear Jesus Himself beckoning all who are feeling weary and heavy laden to come to Him and find rest. Yes, the ultimate rest, of eternity one day… as our brothers and sisters surrounding us this morning now enjoy… but also rest for today… rest in the midst of our labours and struggles in this life.
 
Notice though the way that Jesus says we will receive this blessed rest: not through sitting idle, and doing nothing, but through actively following Him. Matthew 11:29-30, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

A yoke is an instrument of labour: a piece of wood placed upon a team of oxen to pull a heavy cart or a plow. But Christ says that taking on His yoke is actually easy, and that the burden He asks us to bear is actually light. That is, in comparison to the labours and the burdens that our world has to offer.
 
For the yoke that He offers us is the life of faith… of learning to trust in His guidance and redeeming grace… to bear the burden of believing that the path He calls us to walk, and the works of love that He places on our shoulders actually sets us free from the dreadful weights that we otherwise bear on our own when we walk apart from Him.
 
And when we look around at our world, and our troubled times, Jesus reminds us that, the fate of our world ultimately rests in our Heavenly Father’s hands, not ours! That God Himself is hard at work bringing about His Good Kingdom… and as dark and heavy as things may seem at times, He will not rest until all is set right again.
 
In the meantime, we are all called to draw near to Jesus our Saviour. To place our trust in Him day to day. To learn from Him how to live God’s way… who leads us with gentleness and humbly meets us where we are. To let Him handle all our burdens and everything that’s weighing us down in body, mind, and soul… inviting His Holy Spirit to be at work in us… sustaining us, comforting us, and empowering us to do far more than we can ask or imagine.
 
With Jesus’s help, we can carry on the work of God, here in Gondola Point, knowing that all our efforts for the Kingdom will not be in vain. We can work, knowing that He is calling us to walk the path that leads to life and peace, and joy, not futility. We can work, knowing that we will one day share in the rest and reward of all the faithful. And we can find rest while we work, by trusting in the One who died, and rose again for us… and who alone makes all things new. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 28:5–9 | Psalm 89:1-18 | Romans 6:12–23 | ​Matthew 10:40–42

“For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.” (Romans 6:19).
 
What kind of things come to mind when you hear the phrase: “Too good to be true?”
 
Right now, our world is facing a whole lot of complicated and serious challenges: struggling economies, political systems and international relationships under deep tensions and strain… climate change and severe weather events… technological revolutions like the rise of A.I., that threaten to upend and destabilize our societies even further… not to mention all the age old issues we humans have struggled with like greed, prejudice, inequality, and war.   
 
And whenever we’re faced with complex and serious challenges, there often seems to be a whole lot of people ready to step in and offer us some sort of optimistic and simple solutions… over-promising spectacular results, but ultimately failing to deliver. They might say the things that we want to hear… but their words are too good to be true.

But what we need isn’t simple and easy answers… what we need is the truth, even when it’s hard. Even when it asks a lot of us. Hard truths are much better than easy but empty lies.
 
This was the kind of conflict at work in our first reading today, from the Book of Jeremiah, when the faithful prophet of God confronts a literal fake-news false-promise prophet named Hananiah, whose message of peace and an easy recovery for God’s people turned out to be too good to be true.
 
At the time, Judah had just been dealt a terrible blow: they had suffered their first defeat at the hands of Babylon… with the king of Judah, the sacred Temple vessels, and many of their leaders carried off into Exile, leaving behind a large portion of God’s people, struggling to make sense of their painful situation. Had God abandoned them? Was this the end of their nation? Was there any hope for them now?
 
And in this dark and confusing time, Hananiah stepped up to try and offer some good news… some hope that their enemies would soon be overturned… saying God would step in to intervene and fix things very soon. That this whole situation was only a minor setback, soon to be resolved.
 
In Jeremiah 28:1-4, Hananiah proclaimed “in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. I will also bring back to this place King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, says the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”
 
Sounds like good news to me. Yes, things were rough right now, but according to Hananiah, God said that real peace was just around the corner. The problem was, of course, that God had said no such thing! Hananiah’s words were truly too good to be true. And as unpopular as it would be to challenge this hopeful message, it fell to Jeremiah to stand up and speak the truth, and call out this empty promise.

Hear again Jeremiah’s response to the false hope offered by Hananiah: “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord fulfill the words that you have prophesied, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. But listen now to this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.” (Jeremiah 28:5-9). In other words, Jeremiah says to him: “Peace sounds great, but we’ll believe it when we see it!”
 
Jeremiah knew that the hard truth was this first defeat was just the beginning. Soon Babylon’s armies would return and completely destroy the Temple, and torch the whole Holy City, shattering their entire world. Soon the rest of God’s people would be killed, taken off into Exile, or scattered among the nations. Instead of returning soon to the status quo, the people of Judah would spend generations in a land not their own… strangers in a strange land… serving at the mercy of new masters… apparently abandoned by God, and cut off from their future as God’s holy people.

I say apparently because as hard as this truth about Judah’s future was, their Exile was not actually evidence that God had abandoned them… but rather that God was committed to correcting them. Disciplining them, as a loving parent does with their wayward child… not out of spite or cruelty, but out of the deepest devotion and compassion.
 
In the centuries leading up to this point, God’s people had steered so far off course from their covenant partnership with the LORD, and had adopted all sorts of unjust, and oppressive, and evil practices, that God allowed them to face the dire consequences of their choices… the death of their whole way of life. Their society, their sacred traditions, their sense of identity… all of it was shaken to the core… in order for God to restore His people, and begin to turn their hearts and lives back to Himself.

And this work of spiritual restoration would take more than a moment… more than a few years even. It was going to be a slow but essential process if God’s people were going to learn to trust and follow Him again. To learn that, even when everything else is lost, that they could depend on the Living God, and that walking in His holy ways really does lead us into life.  

In our own moments of devastation, or times of great difficulty, it can be really tempting to turn to those like Hananiah who offer us easy answers and the hope of rapid results. But the danger of easy answers is that they usually end up being too good to be true. Not only leaving us disappointed and disillusioned… but also distracting us from the necessary truths that we need to engage with. The truths that might be hard, but that offer actual hope, and that can help us to get through the tough times before us… helping us to find a better way forward, even if it’s not the easiest path. After all, what’s best for us is rarely what’s easiest.

And the truth is, the Good News is far better than any false hope that we could dream up or imagine! The Good News that the Living, Triune God truly loves us, and our world… and wants us to share in the blessed life of His Good Kingdom through Jesus Christ the Risen Lord… graciously forgiving our sins, and drawing us into a new fellowship of faith. This new life is not always easy, and it invites us into a life-long journey of learning and growing… but even so, it is so worth it. It is so good… and thanks be to God… it is also true. 

But there is also the real danger of taking something wonderful and true, like the Good News of God’s great love for us all… and trying to reduce it into another easy answer… distorting what is meant to bring us real help and hope by twisting it a bit into something else entirely… into an excuse for selfishness, and sin… a cover for our misbehaviour.
 
This is the kind of confusion that St. Paul tackled head on in our second reading today from the letter to the Romans… shining a light on a potential misunderstanding of the Good News that goes something like this: if God really loves us, and will keep on forgiving us, we can just do whatever we want, right? If we’re saved by His grace, as a gift… and not by our obedience to the Torah, to the Laws of Moses… then we can just live however we want… right? “Should we sin” St. Paul asks rhetorically “because we are not under law but under grace?”
 
As Christians today, does this describe our own attitudes at times? Are we concerned about how all the choices we make in our daily lives line up with how our Lord Jesus Christ has taught us to live? Are we seriously trying to walk in His good ways, or are we just doing our own thing… not bothered much about turning our lives around, content to take the easiest paths forward, even if it means letting our selfishness and sins take the lead more often than not?
 
For St. Paul, that would be a ridiculous choice, and he goes on to use the image of a slave being set free from a deadly master in order to serve one that brings life instead.  

He understands that the Good News of Jesus Christ is meant to set us free from sin itself… not just the punishment from sin, but our actual slavery to it. So, if we’ve been set free from its power, why should we turn back to it again? It only leads us into trouble, and ultimately death… and we have a much better alternative!
 
Romans 6:20-23, “When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Once, like the Exiles of Judah, serving their new masters in Babylon, we too were held captive by sin… driven by forces inside and beyond us that trapped us in habits of self-destruction. But now, in Jesus Christ, God’s grace has been given to us to set us free from sin, to follow a new Master… the One who loves us, and laid down His life at the cross to purchase our freedom and cleanse us from sin.
 
And now, with the help of His Holy Spirit, our Master Jesus Christ calls us to live each day as those serving Him, the Risen Lord of Love and Life… leaving behind all those things that drag us back down into selfishness and sin. And putting all His ways into practice. 
 
A good word for this process of putting sin to death in our daily lives, and learning to live God’s way is sanctification: a word St. Paul uses, that basically means being made holy. Being set apart for a sacred, special purpose… and being made pure… refined like silver and gold in a furnace.
 
Sanctification is itself a gift to us. The results of the work already begun in us by Jesus Christ our Saviour, and the ongoing work of God’s Holy Spirit. It’s not about trying to fix ourselves up first in order to be good enough for God, trying to earn His approval. It’s what happens when we simply obey His voice, and follow His lead… placing our faith in Him, and then cooperate with His work in our lives… with the gracious gift of New Life He alone can give… saying yes to His offer to cleanse our hearts… to keep healing our old instincts… and to redirect our actions in ways that bind us closer to Him, and to one another. 
 
Sanctification… holiness is a gift to us in Jesus Christ. A gift that unfolds and deepens over time, and one that invites our intentional efforts… our daily choice to walk in God’s own holy ways, and not to just appreciate them from afar. It’s not always the easiest path in life. But it is a path that is both good and true… ultimately leading us away from false hopes, and leading us towards the fullness of life… to experience life the way our loving Creator always intended us to: not preoccupied with our own self-righteousness, or status… but driven by mercy, integrity, and grace… set apart to reflect the holy love of the Living God in our daily lives, and all our relationships. 
 
As Christians, we’re not being offered a bunch of easy answers or instantaneous results when we give our lives to, and place our faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. Instead, we are called into the new life of holiness… of growing more and more like our Lord, and choosing again and again to walk in His ways. Not so we can play pretend, and act like we’re somehow better than others… or have all the answers.
 
The goal is not to become ‘too good to be true’… but by God’s grace, to truly become good. To share in God’s own goodness… so that through our lives… our words, and actions, and choices that reflect His own holiness, God can bring His healing and hope to our hurting world… working through the lives of His holy people to share the Good News of Christ Jesus… the Good News of His saving love, especially as we face all these complex and serious challenges before us.  
 
So may God’s Holy Spirit continue His good work in us, sanctifying us… making us more like Him… and working through all we say and do to share God’s holy love with our world. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 20:7–13 | Psalm 69:7-18 | Romans 6:1–11 | Matthew 10:24–39

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:37-39).
 
Now I don’t know if you were looking forward to a nice, straightforward, family-focused Father’s Day sermon today… but our Gospel passage this morning has sure set us up for a much more difficult time of reflection… inviting us to wrestle with some very challenging, and frankly confusing words spoken by Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
For many folks, the bonds between family members are the most sacred… the most essential relationships that can be imagined. Our attachments and responsibilities towards parents and children… to those we have shared our lives with at the most intimate levels… and who depend on us… these are not things to be trifled with. What is Jesus actually asking of us here? How does this fit with what else we know about Him, and His calling to take part in the work of His good Kingdom?
 
Well, whenever we find ourselves confronted with something in the Scriptures that catches us off guard, and confuses us, it really does help to step back a bit and recall what has already been made known about God’s character and intentions… especially through Jesus Christ His Son.
 
And what do we know? Well, we know that the Living God loves us all… including our family members... our fathers, and mothers, our children, and siblings, and spouses. More than we do, in fact. And we know that God has called us to love everyone… including our family members. So then, whatever Christ is calling us to do in our Gospel passage today, it’s not coming from a desire to undermine our deep connections to those we love and share our lives with… but to establish them on a firmer foundation… and to keep us from asking more of them than they can possibly offer.
 
In these words, Jesus is using an extreme example to highlight a dangerous and difficult choice that lies before us all, a choice about where we’ll place our deepest devotion. He’s challenging us with the question:
Do our hearts and lives really belong to the Lord, or to someone else? 
 
Turning now to our Gospel passage itself from Matthew Chapter 10, we need to locate these words in their context, and work through the logic of the message as a whole. Today’s reading is a continuation of a much larger section in which our Lord is preparing His disciples to be sent out to the various villages of Israel, and share with God’s people the Good News that God’s Kingdom has come near. He sends them out to preach, and to heal, to bring God’s help and hope to those who have long lived in despair. But He’s also preparing them to face the real friction and inevitable rejection that they will also encounter.
 
He says to them: “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master.” (Matthew 10:24-25). And so, if some of God’s people have already slandered and accused Jesus of being in the wrong, they can expect to face the same treatment. But even so, Jesus reassures them, and tells them not to be afraid of what mere mortals can do.

Matthew 10:28-31, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” [In other words, be much more concerned with staying true to God our Creator. Jesus then goes on:] “ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
 
Notice that Jesus doesn’t promise that they would somehow avoid difficult times, persecution, and even death. Actually, He says the opposite. Christ says that they need to be prepared to face real suffering if they are to serve as His disciples, and share in the work of God’s Kingdom. Just like Jesus already had, and soon would once and for all at the cross. And sure enough, these same disciples would all one day face fierce persecution, and martyrdom for the sake of the Good News.
 
And yet, Jesus does offer them real hope to hold onto: the hope that comes from knowing that God their Father would always be mercifully watching over them... intimately aware and invested in every detail of their lives… even when they felt alone. Lovingly counting the hairs on their heads… even when they felt abandoned and insignificant. As Christ sends out His followers into a dangerous world, He assures them of the Father’s devotion to them… His steadfast love and faithfulness… inviting them to trust that even if like a little sparrow they end up falling, the Father will not forget them, but will one day vindicate and raise up His faithful ones again. 
 
This is the same sort of hope we heard today in our second reading from Romans Chapter 6:4-5, where St. Paul says to His fellow believers: “Therefore we have been buried with him [that is, Jesus] by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Now St. Paul’s context and argument is not exactly the same here. In this passage He’s speaking about the big implications of being a Christian, of sharing completely in Christ’s story… being joined to Christ in baptism… dying to our old self, and being raise with Christ to share in a whole new way of life that Jesus Himself now makes possible.

But the same hope that empowered the disciples to share the Good News of God’s Kingdom… the hope of the Father’s saving love empowers us to live as Christ’s own faithful disciples today… giving us assurance that no matter what obstacles we might face, our ultimate future is secure in our Father’s hands… and challenging us in the present to not give up, but to walk in the ways Christ Himself has taught us… considering ourselves already “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11), no longer bound by our old ways and distorted desires and devotions, but forgiven and set free to live God’s way even now.
 
Paul’s point here can be summed up like this: Do our hearts and lives really belong to the Lord? If so, let’s actually live like it! Let’s cling to Jesus our Saviour, and learn from Him how to walk in God’s good ways. And let’s let go of anything that pulls our hearts and our lives away from His side.
 
Just like Jesus in our Gospel passage, St. Paul is calling his fellow Christians to be clear about their commitments: to not mess around with old habits and sinful practices that undermined the new life that the Living God had shared with them… but to reaffirm their wholehearted devotion to the One who raised Jesus Christ from the dead… loving Him more than anything and anyone that tries to pry us away from His side. 
 
Remember: love is not a zero-sum game… the more we love God, the more we can love all those around us. But the order here really does matter. And Jesus Christ pushes all His followers, those living back in the days of His earthly ministry, and those of us who seek to follow Him today… He wants us all to be clear about our commitment to Him: Are we His people or not? Will we pick up our own crosses and follow Him, or forsake Him? Will we seek the new life that He offers us, even if it comes with a cost, or look for what we need elsewhere?
 
These are the questions Christ confronts us all with… not because He’s cruel, or doesn’t care about our close family bonds, and the communities that mean so much to us… quite the opposite! After all, our gracious Creator has made us for human connection and community.

But Christ also knows that when we devote ourselves to anything or anyone above Him, we end up upending and distorting these good gifts, and lead each other away from the love of God that we are all made for. He knows we need to have our hope built upon something even more stable than the bonds of family. We need a foundation even more solid than any human community can offer. Jesus confronts us with these questions about our devotion to Him because He knows that it is only the Living God who can be trusted to never falter. It is God alone whose saving love will never fail. 
 
In Matthew 10:34-36, Jesus makes this striking claim:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth;
I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to set a man against his father,
and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.”
 
What is this all about?
Well Jesus is quoting the Prophet Micah Chapter 7, a passage where the Prophet is despairing because of the unfaithfulness of God’s people. In Micah’s day, it seemed like no one could be trusted to be true. Everyone, even those you’d expect to be reliable were ready instead to lie and cheat and kill. God’s people had let their devotion to the Lord grow cold, and so they replaced love with wickedness. Micah 7:2-6,
 
The faithful have disappeared from the land,
and there is no one left who is upright;
they all lie in wait for blood,
and they hunt each other with nets.
 
Their hands are skilled to do evil;
the official and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the powerful dictate what they desire;
thus they pervert justice.
 
The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of their sentinels, of their punishment, has come;
now their confusion is at hand.
 
Put no trust in a friend,
have no confidence in a loved one;
guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your embrace;
for the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
your enemies are members of your own household.”
 
This all sounds pretty bleak. And unfortunately, some things have not changed that much between then and now. All around us, and maybe in our own lives and relationships, we can see signs of distrust and disunion… of sin and selfishness shaping and distorting our society. So many have no one they can trust, and are cut off from those who should be closest to them.
 
And so, when Jesus quotes this passage from Micah, He’s warning His followers that the world around them… the world He’s sending them into is not a rose-garden. It’s often a mess. And they may even end up at odds with those they have known their whole life… their own flesh and blood might very well turn on them.
 
But even so, Christ sends them out. Because the Good News of God’s Kingdom is worth rocking the boat for. The Good News of God’s saving love… the message of redemption and the forgiveness of sins, and God’s new life is more precious than any peace built on lies, and distrust, and deception.
 
And even though this Good News might not be always well received… and even though our loved ones might even reject us because of Christ… we have Someone we can trust… Someone who’s love we can rely on… Someone to turn to with wholehearted devotion and who will never let us down.
 
As Christ quotes Micah to warn us of the untrustworthiness of the world, the Prophet then goes on to offer a better source of hope: inviting us to place our trust in the LORD.  Micah 7:7,   
“But as for me, I will look to the Lord,
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.”
 
By quoting this passage, Jesus is calling us His disciples to trust in Him as the LORD. To love Him more than any other, because as the Son of God in the flesh, He really is the answer to our prayers: the Saviour we’ve all been waiting for, sent by our merciful Father to set us free to share His new life with all those around us… including those closest to us. []
 
So then, if Jesus calls us to love Him and remain devoted to Him more than anyone else… what does He actually call us to do with our families? He calls us to love them!

​He calls us to share God’s kind of love with them. To share the grace, and the patience, and the forgiveness that Christ offers us with them too. To do our best to care for and encourage them. To pray for them.
 
That doesn’t mean it will always be easy. We might still encounter a lot of friction, and even face rejection from our family members. As we all know, all families can be messy. We can’t make others respond the way that we’d like them to. But Jesus Christ our Lord call us to love them anyway. To learn how to share with them our Heavenly Father’s love. The love we have come to know in Jesus Christ. The love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit for us to share with everyone. Amen. 

Scripture Readings: Exodus 19:2–8 | Psalm 100 | Romans 5:1–8 | Matthew 9:35–10:23

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6).
 
Well, as most soccer fans know, the World Cup is now underway… with teams from countries around the world competing to prove that they are the best of the best. And truth be told, the World Cup does give us a chance to see some incredibly talented athletes and teams who have trained and prepared and fought hard to get to this level, a pursuit that requires an impressive level of grit and commitment.  
 
Along with Mexico, and the United States, Canada is co-hosting the World Cup this year, which is pretty cool. And even though it’s pretty unlikely that we will end up winning the whole tournament, so far this time we’ve done better than ever before… ending our first game with a draw. Compared to many other countries where soccer, or football is almost a way of life, Canada is definitely an underdog. But that doesn’t mean that we should just give up and not even try to do the best we can.
 
This reminds me of my own incredibly brief experience with playing soccer in High School. I like soccer. It’s pretty much the only sport that I enjoyed playing growing up.  Back in Middle School, we used to play it all the time during recess. And while I started out pretty terrible, over those years I improved a lot by just playing with my friends. That said, compared to the kids who played on teams where they ran drills, and actually worked hard on their skills, I couldn’t really compete.
 
In Grade 9, a friend and I attended the try-outs for our High School soccer team, and let’s just say, my performance was pretty weak. It became clear very quickly that I was trying to take part in something completely outside of my capabilities. Now I may have been able to get there… to get to that level if I had put in the effort and hard work… and pushed myself to improve… but instead, I just gave up after that one tryout. As much as I loved playing soccer, I didn’t want to risk being so vulnerable, and face rejection… or endure all the hard training that making the team would require. I gave up because I believed I was not good enough… which in that case was probably true. 

Do you ever remember feeling not good enough? Like the goal ahead is just too far out of reach? Like we don’t have the right skills, or strengths, or insights, or resources to accomplish what needs to be done? Like we are too weak to overcome the challenges before us? I know many of us have felt this way from time to time.
 
But thankfully, our Scripture readings this morning bring us a message of hope… hope offered especially when we are all too aware of our own weakness and unworthiness… and are asked to endure great difficulties, and suffer for the sake of something of ultimate value.
 
A word of hope, not about how to avoid these harsh realities… but how to endure them faithfully. How not to give up, but to press on towards the goal of the good Kingdom of God. 
 
In our first reading today from the book of Exodus, we heard the Living God’s invitation offered to Israel at Mt. Sinai… an invitation to enter into a sacred covenant relationship with Him… to be transformed into a new people set apart for God… a royal priesthood, a holy nation… not because they were the biggest and best… the most powerful or pious… but chosen as an act of sheer grace… as an extension of God’s love offered long ago to their ancestors Abraham and Sarah… inviting them into His plan to set the whole world right again… living as His people, guided by His commandments, and walking in His holy ways so that the rest of the world may come to know God’s goodness and saving love for themselves.
 
And we heard that at Sinai, all the people eagerly said yes to this arrangement… to do everything that the Lord says. But throughout the story of the Old Testament, God’s people proved to be just as ungodly as the nations around them… turning their back on their Lord again and again, and losing their way, like sheep wandering with no shepherd. Yet even so, God never gives up on His wayward people, but sends them messengers… Prophets who warned and challenged them to turn around and repent… and who also beckoned and encouraged them not to give up… to return to their Lord and place their hope and faith in His great compassion and faithfulness.
 
After many centuries of this pattern playing out… Jesus Christ, God’s Son comes onto the scene, and He sees all this… He sees the ways Israel’s leadership had once again lost the plot, and were pursuing their own concerns. He sees how the people themselves were struggling and suffering, “harassed and helpless”, just like lost sheep in the wilderness without a shepherd. Jesus sees all this with the eyes of God’s great compassion for His wandering people. 
 
And in response to this great need, Christ says to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38). And then He summons twelve of His disciples and sends them out as His ambassadors… His messengers, announcing the Good News of God’s Kingdom through their words and miraculous deeds. Jesus sends them out to the people of Israel only… at least for now… as the fulfillment of God’s promises of love and faithfulness to His covenant people, spoken long ago through the Prophets… announcing to these communities of God’s people struggling on the margins that their Saviour has come at last. 

But notice, Christ sends His disciples out into Israel’s villages, not as professional experts… as the best of the best… but as vulnerable ambassadors… as sheep among wolves… completely dependent on the hospitality of strangers and on the sustaining grace of God. And they were asked to do the seemingly impossible: as they share the Good News of God’s Kingdom, they were to “[c]ure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.” (Matthew 10:8), deeds only possible through God’s power and Christ’s own authority at work in and through them.
 
The disciples weren’t superheroes… they were just ordinary people that Jesus summoned and set apart to share in His story… and to share His story with those around them.
 
And God tends to call us to do what we cannot do without Him. He calls us to do things that require us to trust Him… to place our faith and our hope in His grace and faithfulness. In a profound way, that’s what it’s always meant to be His people, and to walk in His ways: not being led by our own sense of what can be done, but by what God Himself has called us to do. 

But as Christ warned His disciples in the rest of our Gospel reading, this way of life will not be easy. Following Jesus and sharing in the work of His good Kingdom is not a guarantee of a painless path forward. Far from it. Staying true to Jesus in a world wandering far off course often involves times of great trouble for God’s people… and we too may have to face painful rejections, and suffering as a result.
 
But just as God calls us to do what we cannot do without Him, God doesn’t ask us to do more than He is willing to do first on our behalf. After all, Christ Himself endured great suffering at the cross… and the rejection of the leaders of His own people… dying for them, and rising again to save them while they were still acting like His enemies. 
 
At the cross, God shows us His great love for us “while we still were sinners” (Romans 5:8)… suffering to set us free from our sins while we were at our weakest… reconciling us to God, and to one another. 
 
After the resurrection, at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, the Risen Christ sends out these same disciples to announce the Good News not only to Israel, but now to all nations! Messengers announcing that the Saviour of Israel and the Saviour of the world has come at last! 
 
The Risen Christ sends out the twelve into a world full of sheep without a shepherd… into all the brokenness, and divisiveness and suffering we humans keep bringing into existence. And instead of looking down on the nations around them in condemnation… Christ sends them out driven by God’s great compassion… God’s clear commitment to lift up this world He loves, and set it free to be more than it could ever be on its own... reconciling all the peoples of the earth through what Jesus Christ God’s Son has done for us all. 
 
Of course, this has never been an easy mission, bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world. And even the disciples had to take it one step at a time… starting with those close at hand in Jerusalem, and then, following God’s Spirit, stepping out from there to spread the Good News all throughout the earth.

And those of us who are Christians, Christ’s disciples today are all a part of this same story… this same mission to make known the Good News of the Risen Saviour of the world through our own words and deeds.
 
And we can easily feel ill-equipped for this mission… like we don’t have what we need… the skills, or insights, or resources. We might feel too frightened… too vulnerable... too weak to be of any use to God in this way.
 
Maybe like High School Rob a that soccer tryout, we’re all too aware of our own inabilities, especially compared to others… and we’re ready to give up even before we really began to try. 
 
These are all understandable fears and feelings. I mean, no one wants to feel foolish, or inadequate, or weak. Yet, it is precisely in situations where we’re asked by God to do things that seem far beyond us that our faith can be put to work and flourish! That is when we can experience God’s grace at work even in our weakness… when we can see His great strength, and wisdom, and compassion at work in and through us in ways we could not imagine before… and when we might actually find that He’s placed us exactly where we needed to be…  and find our friends and our neighbours surprisingly open… not to being manipulated or guilted, or frightened into the doors of the Church… but open to the Good News of God’s great love for them… offered to us all in Jesus Christ at the cross, while we were all still weak, ungodly sinners.
 
If you and I are to take part in this story today, where do we start? The Twelve Apostles went first to their own people… to those who already knew of the Living God, and His good ways. And maybe we Christians need to start by helping each other rediscover what the Good News of Jesus the Risen Lord is really about!
 
That it is not about gaining power and status for ourselves. That it’s not about health and wealth and prosperity in this life. That it’s not about ticking the right theological boxes, and shunning those who don’t… or competing to be the most pious… or arguing over whose service, or music, or food is the best. It’s not about desperately holding onto the things that bring us comfort, while cutting ourselves off from our neighbours. 

It’s about believing the Good News that Jesus Christ our world’s Saviour King has come. That He has died. That He is Risen. That He will come again to sort out our messed up world, and make all things new… including you and me. 
 
It’s the Good News that God so loved this world… you and me included… even while we were at our very worst… and that God sent His Son Jesus, so that all those who believe in Him will have everlasting life. 
 
And maybe before we turn to one another to share this Good News, we need to start first with ourselves!!! Maybe today we are the ones who need to be reminded… or even believe for the very first time that God really loves us… and that in His great compassion God sent Jesus His Son to save us, and to offers us His Holy Spirit to make us new even now, and to share with us His eternal life of love. 
 
When we face times when we feel that we’re not good enough… may we trust that our weaknesses are not a problem for the God we have come to know in Jesus Christ.

May we believe the Good News that God loves us all… and that He wants us all to share in the life of His Kingdom… that in unimaginable compassion and grace God is reaching out to rescue His people… as weak, and helpless, and ungodly as we are at times… to rescue us from ourselves, and our sins… and then to send us out into the world to share this same Good News of God’s love in Jesus Christ with those around us.
 
And when we face setbacks and challenges, let us not give up, but rather remember that Jesus Christ our Saviour King shares in all of the sufferings we face… and through His Spirit at work in us, He strengthens us and our faith as we follow Him… using these moments to build up our endurance, and form our character, and nurture a holy hope in our hearts that will not disappoint.
 
I’ll end now by returning to our second reading this morning from Romans 5:1-8.

“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
 
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” Amen.
 

Scripture Readings: Genesis 1:1–2:4 | Psalm 8 | 2 Corinthians 13:11–13 | Matthew 28:16–20

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
(2 Corinthians 13:13).
 
What kind of God do we Christians believe in?
 
This is not an abstract, theoretical question… it’s one that lies at the very heart of our faith, and that lays the foundation for our whole understanding of ourselves, and the world around us. How we see God shapes everything else, whether we recognize it or not. And when we forget, or misunderstand the kind of God that the Church believes in, we can end up creating all sorts of confusion, and make quite a big mess of things… missing the very heart of the Good News we have been invited and called to share.
 
And so today, Trinity Sunday, we Christians take time to contemplate the God we have come to know, and to place our faith in: the Living God, who is always One, and who eternally exists as Three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
 
There is much mystery here. Not mystery in the sense of a puzzle to solve, but as in a profound reality that exists far beyond our capacity to mentally master… calling us to bow our hearts in humble awe and wonder, even as we seek understanding. The doctrine of the Trinity is not an explanation, or a definition… it is an invitation to worship… and a framework… boundaries for speaking truthfully about how the Living God has made Himself known. A framework for faithfully telling the story… the Good News of God.  
 
And right here, we find that the Trinity sets us Christians apart from all other faiths. How we understand the Divine is unique, creating real distance between ourselves and members of similar religious traditions… such as our Jewish forebears, and Muslim neighbours… despite the great deal that we otherwise have in common. And while it might at times be tempting to downplay the things that divide us, the claims of the Trinity are indispensable if we are to remain true to the Christian story. 
 
As an old example of what I mean, we can briefly look at an ancient argument that took place within Church in its early centuries: the argument about the nature of Jesus, and whether or not He is God.
 
From the first days of the Church, Jesus had been worshipped alongside the Father… but there was some debate about how this fits alongside their claims that the Living God is One… the claims of monotheism… the belief that there are not all sorts of competing gods running around in the universe, like the Greeks and Romans assumed, but only One supreme, all powerful, eternal being to be worshipped and adored.
 
And for some Christians, influenced by ideas floating around in Greek culture that argued that the physical world was all bad, they thought that a good God must be well removed from the messiness of the world… but that God might then create other spiritual beings to work in the world on His behalf. These Christians argued that Jesus was some kind of created being… God’s supreme but ultimately subordinate agent, similar to how we might create a robot… even a fantastically realistic robot that looks and acts just like us, but which, under the surface is essentially something entirely different.  

For these Christians, called Arians, (with an I, not a Y), after one of the most vocal leaders of this movement, it was clear that Jesus may be impressive, but He was not the same as God… He was not equally divine, equally eternal, or equally deserving of worship.  
 
But the Church eventually came to a very different conclusion… one that was officially expressed in the Nicene Creed, which we recite together each Sunday. The Church came to be convinced that the truth about Jesus was that He was not just like God on the surface, but all the way through… that He was “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God…” Identical in their divinity.

And the Church claimed that Jesus was not created at some point in the distant past, but that He was “eternally begotten of the Father… begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.” The Father and Son were in some way distinct from one another, but their existence… their relationship as God the Father and God the Son has always been, and always will be. They were One together. For the Church, rejecting Arianism, Jesus is more than just another created being. Jesus is the One God Himself, in eternal union with God the Father.

And soon, the Church would come to the same conclusions regarding the Holy Spirit: that the Spirit was likewise equally divine, equally eternal, and equally worthy of worship… that the Spirit, the Father, and the Son have always equally shared in what it means to be the One Living God. That everything God has ever done, and ever will do, is done through the mutual efforts of these Three in One, and One in Three. From first to last, the Living God exists in this eternal fellowship of love.
 
And it is in the image of this Triune God that all of humanity has been made. We heard in our first reading today from Genesis 1, where in clear contrast to those philosophies that were popular in the Greek world, the Living God creates everything good… without worrying about the messiness of the physical world, God brings the cosmos into being… orders it, and fills the Earth with an abundance of life, all of which He calls good.
 
And in Genesis 1:26-27, we hear God say to Himself: 
“Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.”
 
From the start, God raises up a part of His good world to represent Him… to share His divine goodness and love with His creation… ordering, tending, and caring for one another and all of God’s creation side by side. 
 
In his recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, Pope Leo XIV delves into this amazing claim: “At the heart of the Christian understanding of the human person lies the great biblical affirmation that men and women are created in the image and likeness of the Triune God. Created for relationship, every human person is planned and willed by God to enter into communion with him, with others and with creation. Human dignity does not depend on a person’s abilities, wealth or position in life, nor on the right or wrong choices made; instead, it is a gift that precedes and transcends each person, endowed by God as an expression of his unfailing love.”[1]
 
Humanity is graciously created as God’s image in the world. And although this beautiful, profound reality has never been revoked, sadly the story of Genesis goes on to tell how that image becomes distorted and disordered… how instead of loving God, loving one another, and loving creation, humanity instead tries to seize Godlikeness on their own terms… and end up spreading violence and exploitation everywhere holy love was meant to reign.
 
And yet, Genesis also tells us that the Living God does not give up on His good world, or on His images, despite their destructive rebellion. No, God promises that one day one human would come and finally set things right… bringing to an end the evil one’s work, and restoring humanity’s role as God’s good representatives… turning their hearts back to their Creator, and walking in His ways always. 

Over the centuries, and even today, many have tried to lay claim to this kind of absolute mandate and supreme authority… presenting themselves, if not in word then in practice, as the ultimate saviour and chosen leader who will finally set things right, bringing peace and prosperity at last. Sometimes they have even done so in God’s name, claiming to be God’s special agents, and representatives in the world. But what does their reign turn out to involve?
 
All too often, it turns out to look like the elevation of a select few, and the oppression and devastation of so many others. It looks like violence and bloodshed enacted to the extreme in the name of justice and peace…  and the pursuit of prestige, wealth, and power… selfishness run rampant. When this is all done in God’s name, what can be done? Who can challenge them and their claims that this is actually what God’s Kingdom looks like… that this is what God Himself wants for His world?
 
Well, as it turns out… God Himself can.

God come in the flesh. God dwelling here among us. God humbly embracing human existence, and in the process revealing exactly what it means to live as God’s image.

Against all other claims of divine authority exercised here on Earth, the Christian story is that Jesus is God Himself… and that in taking on our human existence, Jesus became humanity as it was always meant to be! Perfectly embodying and reflecting God’s goodness and likeness out into creation, so that when we see Jesus, we actually see the face of our Creator, the Living God Himself. 
 
And through Christ’s life, and death, and resurrection, He has truly come to set things right again, once and for all: breaking the power of sin and death… defeating and freeing us from the grip of the evil one… reconciling us rebellious humans to the Living God, to one another, and to our world… and restoring the image of God in us… the image we all still bear, whether we can see it or not… so that we can truly reflect the goodness and likeness of the Living, Triune God as well.
 
And it is the Holy Spirit’s work that makes this possible… the Spirit of God Himself, now dwelling in us… binding us in faith to Jesus Christ the Eternal Son… and remaking us in Christ’s image… not by erasing our identities, but by raising them… by filling us up with the fullness of God’s own life, and holy love… so that we too can truly begin to love God, and to love everyone created in His image… making His Good Kingdom known throughout the world, and inviting everyone to share in it. 
 
At the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel, which we heard today, Jesus the Risen Lord lays claim to not only the authority over the Earth, which God entrusted to humanity back in Genesis 1… Jesus also claims that: “All authority in heaven and on earth” has been given to Him. (Matthew 28:18). And with this ultimate authority, Jesus tells His disciples, some of whom were still struggling with doubt, to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20).
 
Go make disciples… invite others everywhere to join in this same journey… to take part in this same story… to believe the Good News that Jesus is the Risen Lord… baptized to share in Christ’s death and resurrection life, in the name of the Triune God… Father, Son, and Spirit… and taught to obey everything that Jesus has commanded.
 
And what has Jesus commanded us? To trust in Him… and to love. Not as the world thinks of love… selfishly pursuing our own desires and interests. But love as Jesus Himself has shown us: love for the outcasts and strangers. Love for the lowly and vulnerable. Love for those who can never pay us back. Love for those who have wronged us, and need our forgiveness. Love for those who still make such a mess of things, and still need correction along with compassion. Love that sees past all of our mistakes and failures, and longs for everyone to be set free. The same love that spoke our universe into existence… and raised up Jesus Christ from the dead… the same love that is at work in us, even now remaking us so we can love like God loves. 
 
What kind of God do we believe in? We believe in the Holy Trinity… the God we have encountered in Jesus Christ, who shows us the Father, and shares with us the Holy Spirit… the God who created us all in His image, and restores that image through His Son Jesus Christ, and calls us now to reflect and share His holy love with one another and with our world.
 
I’ll end now with the words of St. Paul, inviting us into the blessed life of the Trinity: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” (2 Corinthians 13:13). Amen.


[1] Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, (2026). Paragraph 50.
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html

Scripture Readings: Acts 2:1–21 | Psalm 104:24–35 | 1 Corinthians 12:3–13 | John 20:19–23

​“Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ ” (John 20:21-22).
 
There’s something wonderfully welcoming about gathering around a fire. When I was a young person, back in Northern Ontario, I remember spending many an evening in Summer and Fall hanging around a fire with my friends. Sometimes we’d be roasting hot dogs or marshmallows. Sometimes we’d be burning a huge bonfire of brushwood, and other times we’d sit close to a few dry logs, poking the coals with sticks to stir up the flames. Those are good memories… times I look back on warmly… moments when the main agenda was just spending time together. Sharing unspoken fellowship as we watch the flames dance, and feel the comfort of their heat.
 
This morning, we gather here together as God’s people, welcomed and warmed, and comforted together not by any old fire, but by the presence of the Holy Spirit of God. Today is the feast of Pentecost, fifty days after the Passover, when our Saviour Jesus Christ gave His life at the cross, and was raised again from the dead.

At Pentecost, the Church was born… God’s Holy Spirit arrived like a mighty wind, breathing God’s life into the Apostles, and filling them with His heavenly fire: uniting them to one another, and empowering them to proclaim the Good News of the Risen Lord Jesus, so that the whole world might draw near to Him and receive God’s new life as well.
 
Our Scripture readings today invite us into the story of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit… calling to mind not only events from the first days of the Christian Church, but also the essential purpose and source of divine power for all God’s people today. 
 
Our Gospel reading this morning from John Chapter 20, gives us St. John’s account of the Holy Spirit’s gifting to the Apostles… not at Pentecost, as we might expect, but at Easter, at their first meeting after His resurrection.
 
That first Easter evening, St. John tells us that the disciples… just a handful of believers, still wrapping their heads around the message of the resurrection that they heard from Mary and the other women who went to the tomb... St. John says these disciples were gathered together behind locked doors… huddled together in fear of their fellow Israelites, the Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem… whose leaders, just a few days ago had put Jesus to death at the cross.
 
But then, Jesus the Risen Lord Himself arrives, despite all their locked doors and fears, and He says to them: “Peace be with you.” (John 20:21). Then after showing them His wounds… proving to them that He wasn’t a ghost or a vision… He says to them again: “‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:21-23)
 
So much is packed into this first meeting! The Risen Lord comes to them pronouncing peace… and commissions them to go out into the world and share in His own ministry… but not before Christ bestows on them the Holy Spirit, God’s own Personal presence and power… who once filled the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and the Temple in Jerusalem with God’s divine glory… and which now filled Christ’s faithful people themselves… turning them together into a living Temple… the ‘place’ on Earth where the Living God is to be made known and encountered.  
 
And along with the Holy Spirit, Jesus entrusts them with the ministry of forgiveness… remaking them into Christ’s royal priesthood and holy nation, as St. Peter would later refer to all Christians… a community set apart to offer others the opportunity to receive the forgiveness of God… and charged with making known God’s Good News and glory… so that the rest of the world can draw near in faith and be reconciled to its Lord as well.
 
One moment, they were a handful of confused and frightened disciples… the next, they were signs and ambassadors of Christ’s Kingdom… transformed from one to the other by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and sent out into the world to share the grace and the gifts they had received from the Risen Lord with God’s wider world.
 
But how would this story unfold? How would the Church grow from that small group gathered together in one room in Jerusalem all those years ago into a truly worldwide family?  
 
Well, for that part of the story, we need to turn to Acts Chapter 2.
 
There we find St. Luke’s account of the Holy Spirit’s arrival on the day of Pentecost… when Jerusalem was filled to the brim with pilgrims from all over the ancient world. But there’s an important detail we need to remember about these pilgrims: St. Luke tells us they were devout Jews, who were gathered to celebrate one of the important Jewish festivals in the Temple, the Feast of Weeks.  
 
By this point in history, there were many communities of Jews living outside the lands of Judea and Jerusalem… with some of these communities reaching back to the days of the Exile, several centuries earlier. And yet, even as they lived as small minorities in the lands of the nations that did not know the LORD their God, many Jews still remained faithful to God’s ways, and made the effort to attend the major feasts as the Torah required.

And so when God’s Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost upon Christ’s disciples, empowering them to speak in all sorts of languages and tongues they had not known before, they had as a ready audience God’s faithful people who were already gathered in obedience to the Lord from all around the ancient world… unaware that this Pentecost, God had a great surprise in store: the Good News of the death and resurrection of their Messiah, and the invitation to repent and believe in Him.
 
So the very first step of the Church… the first way in which it grows beyond the handful of those first disciples, involves the restoration and gathering together of God’s own scattered and divided people. God’s power poured out at Pentecost was first put to work overcoming the barriers between God’s own children! Reconciling them to one another by the clear and miraculous communication of the Good News of Jesus the Risen Lord, drawing these diverse brothers and sisters into one family… not just in abstract ideals or theory, but in actual practice, as many of these pilgrims end up staying in Jerusalem and creating the first multi-cultural Church community.  
 
Now there’s so much going on here in Acts Chapter 2, that we can’t really get into this morning… like how what happened with the speaking in tongues is the undoing of the divisions that took place at the Tower of Babylon in Genesis 11. Or how this gathering together of God’s people who had been scattered among the nations brings to mind many of the words of the prophets, like Ezekiel… who pointed forward in hope to God’s plan to restore His children, not only to their land, but also to one another, healing their shattered relationships so they might all share in His blessed life together.
 
Through a small handful of Apostles, not long ago spending their time hiding from their Jewish neighbours, God’s Spirit reached out to devout Jews from all over, and invited them to respond to the Good News of their crucified and risen Messiah. The power of Pentecost was first put to work uniting God’s people around the Good News of Jesus. 
 
And where does the story of the Church go from there? Well, everywhere!
 
The Book of Acts goes on to tell of the expansion of the Church throughout the whole region… from Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and beyond towards the farthest ends of the Earth. And all through Acts, we hear how the early Christians responded to the Spirit of God constantly pushing them and expanding their horizons, and transforming their expectations of what was possible… and where the LORD was leading them.
 
In Acts, we hear St. Paul’s story, who goes from being one of the most devout persecutors of the Church… to one of the most devoted proclaimers of the Good News of Jesus among the Gentiles… the nations who had not known the Living God, or followed His holy ways. Rather than ignoring all these ungodly strangers, the Holy Spirit of God sent folks like St. Paul to share the Good News with them too, inviting everyone, everywhere to draw near to Jesus Christ the Risen Lord in faith… encountering God’s forgiveness and glory up close, and welcoming them into this new Christian community as well.
 
As we know, many of the best things in life aren’t easy, and that was true as the Church continued to spread, and as more and more people from diverse backgrounds and cultures were trying to grow together as God’s people. One of the major areas of tension and controversy in the first decades of the Church revolved around how to handle the diversity of God’s growing family… a challenge each generation of the Church has had to wrestle with in our own ways.
 
And sadly, after two thousand years, a lot of us are still quite scattered and divided… looking around at our fellow Christians and asking ourselves: how are we ever going to get along with those kinds of people? We speak different languages, sing different songs, eat different foods… wear different clothes… and so on.
 
Wouldn’t it be better if we just do our own thing over here, while they do theirs over there?
 
Well, no. What’s better is that we begin to understand that the unity of Christ’s Church is not optional! It’s not a nice add on, it’s the point! We are called to be ground zero of God’s reconciling love at work in the world… beginning with those who already know the Good News of Jesus the Risen Lord… practicing the implications of this Good News together, seeking to be a people of peace… and hope… and love… and forgiveness… so that the rest of the world may come to know and draw near in faith to their Lord and Saviour.
 
Faced with the challenges of trying to help a diverse and fragmented Church learn to come together, St. Paul wrote some powerful words in his letters to the Corinthians.
 
And in our second Scripture reading today from 1 Corinthians 12, we hear the Apostle to the Gentiles offer a profound way of understanding the complex but complimentary reality of the Church, which finds its source of life, unity, and shared identity in the Living and Triune God: 1 Corinthians 12:4-, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.”
 
He goes on to list a number of different ways that God’s Spirit empowers God’s people to share in God’s work and for the good of all: through words of wisdom, or insight, faith, and healing, miracles, prophesy, discernment, speaking in tongues, and interpreting them… all these Spirit powered activities aren’t meant to stand alone, but to serve as one note in the harmony of God’s symphony, and compliment the contributions of others.
 
He then moves on to make explicit that even though the Church is comprised of all sorts of diverse people with different backgrounds, and cultures, and ways to contribute, we are all united by the same Spirit at work in us all:
 
1 Corinthians 12:12-13, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
 
Whatever our natural differences may be… differences of ethnicity, culture, or class… God’s Spirit at work in us makes us one. And the wide variety of gifts within the Church are not grounds for greater division, but for our coming together as we all work together for the common good. 

The story of Pentecost, of the arrival and work of the Holy Spirit through the Church is our story. It’s the beginning of the story of how the Good News spread from that room in Jerusalem where a handful of disciples had gathered, and how this Good News made its way across the centuries and the globe all the way here to meet us in this place today in Gondola Point.
 
And it is also our story in the sense that, if the same Spirit who has done all this is at work in us… then we too are being drawn into the same movement of God, and the ministry of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord in the world.
 
Beginning here in this room… with this handful of disciples as we seek to wrap our heads around the Good News of Jesus the Risen Lord, and learning to walk together in His holy ways. Right here and now God’s own Spirit is drawing us nearer to Jesus in faith, to receive God’s peace from His hands… along with our shared calling to be His own royal priesthood, and holy people… a community set apart to help one another, and those around us experience God’s forgiveness, glory, and grace.
 
And then, moving beyond this room, God’s own Spirit is drawing us nearer to the rest of God’s people… to our Christian brothers and sisters… be they down the street, throughout New Brunswick, or around the world. Of course, we may have some pretty big differences, but we still have the same Lord, and God, and Spirit at work in and through us, who is able to overcome all the obstacles we keep erecting withing the body of Christ… and to reunite us, God’s often scattered and fragmented people through Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
In more concrete terms, how can we work towards closer co-operation and fellowship with our fellow Anglican sisters and brothers here in the Valley? And how can we also honour, and pray for, and support, and extend our sincere love to our Roman Catholic, and Wesleyans, and United, and Baptists, and Pentecostal brothers and sisters as well? How can we see ourselves not as rivals, or as distant acquaintances, but as different members of the same body, each with our own gifts to share, and ways to contribute to the work of Christ’s Kingdom, and the good of all?
 
And like He did with folks like St. Paul, God’s own Spirit can work through us to make the Good News of Jesus the Risen Lord known to those all around us. Not by following some formula, or impersonal technique… but by being attentive to the actual person God places in our path, and to God’s Spirit… a closeness to Him nurtured through times of worship and prayer… and strengthened by our acts of obedience, and our knowledge of God’s good ways made known to us in the Scriptures… trusting that the Spirit of God can give us the right words and the right time. 
 
So as we celebrate the gift of God’s Holy Spirit this Pentecost, may we be open to all of the ways that He wants to work in and through us as Christ’s people today. May we experience the warmth of God’s welcome, forgiveness, and grace as we draw near to Christ’s table in faith. May we receive the comfort that comes from trusting in the Good News of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord. And may we be empowered to share all that we have received from God… for the good of all. Come Holy Spirit, and fill us with Your heavenly fire. Amen.  

Scripture Readings: Acts 1:1–11 | Psalm 47 | Ephesians 1:15–23 | ​Luke 24:44–53

​“While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.” (Luke 24:51-53).
 
Today starts off the final week of the season of Easter, when we celebrate Ascension Sunday… the enthronement of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord at the right hand of the Father. As we heard in our readings today, forty days after His resurrection, Jesus was taken up into Heaven… not to leave us to fend for ourselves, but to take up His rightful place as the glorious King of all creation. At its heart, the feast of the Ascension is a day of hope: celebrating the wonderful truth that our Saviour King Jesus is the One in charge, and the One on the throne.
 
But many in our world today see very few reasons to celebrate, and find hope harder and harder to hold onto.
Looking around, lots of things seem to be on the rocks: our societies are fractured, and keep clashing over all sorts of issues that show no signs of resolution. So many don’t seem to have what they need, while others exploit the system, and end up with far more than anyone can use.

Our planet is facing a time of unprecedented, and unpredictably shifting climate, and we don’t really know the best ways to repair the damage done, or prepare for an uncertain future.
 
And on top of all this, the Church (at least here in Canada) is in decline. More and more pews sit empty each week, and after centuries of playing an active role in our country, more and more we’re just watching from the sidelines… or worse, when we get swept up into political movements that bear no resemblance at all to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
 
Yet it is precisely now… in times just like these that we are given the hope that we need. Not a hope for a return to the glory days gone by, but a real hope for today, and for every tomorrow: the hope of Christ’s good Kingdom, which our Scriptures this morning help us to explore.
 
In our second reading this morning, from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we hear some of the apostle’s opening words to this community of Christians in what is now Western Türkiye. This church family was facing its own challenges. Like many of the Christian communities that St. Paul founded, the Ephesian Church was a mixture of Jews and Gentiles… people with very different histories and ways of life, now learning how to follow Jesus together, and to live as brothers and sisters in God’s family… while being surrounded by a world that saw them as out of sync with what really mattered… and with neighbours preoccupied with things like status, honour, prosperity... and staying in the gods’, and the Emperor’s good books.    
 
Being a Christian back then, like today, wasn’t easy. But the Ephesian Christians seemed to have been on the right track, as St. Paul commends both their faith in the Lord Jesus, and their love for the saints… their fellow believers. But in one area, the apostle senses that they needed some help: they seem to have been struggling when it came to holding onto a Christian hope.
 
Ephesians 1: 15-18, “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you…”
 
Notice that St. Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians was not that God change their circumstances… taking away the challenging situations they were facing. No, St. Paul prays for a change of their own hearts, and minds to help them receive the hope that was already available, and would be regardless of any difficulties they might experience. A change within was needed for them to recognize and respond rightly to the hope Christ gives to us… which St. Paul refers to as the hope of “the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and… the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. (Ephesians 1:18-19).
 
The hope of a shared inheritance as one of God’s holy and chosen children, experiencing even now the greatness of God’s power. Sounds pretty good to me.
 
The inheritance part seems pretty clear: we’ve been adopted into God’s blessed and eternal family. No longer cut off from God and neighbour, but united to one another forever.

But what kind of power are we talking about here? The power that Emperors back then and today use? The power exercised through violence, coercion, and amassing wealth?
 
Far from it. When it comes to the greatness of God’s power that is the source of our hope, Paul points us to the cross, and to the empty tomb. That is, to the resurrection and the royal ascension of Jesus Christ.
 
Ephesians 1:20-21, “God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.”
 
At the cross, Christ Jesus was crushed by his foes and those in power… apparently put in His place, and proved to be a complete failure. But His Father in Heaven raised Jesus up, and completely vindicated His faithful Son, lifting Him up not only from the grave, but to His own right hand... to rule on high above every other contender… completely without rival as the King of all God’s creation.

And His good Kingdom will not only extend into the age to come… Christ’s unending reign has already begun! It’s fulness is yet to be seen, but our Saviour King already reigns as the risen Lord of Lords.
 
The hope that St. Paul prays for the Ephesians to experience, along with all of God’s people, back then and today, is that there is no stopping Christ’s Kingdom! There are no rivals who are able to threaten or end His reign, and there is no waiting necessary: Christ’s good Kingdom has already begun. 
 
Now St. Paul knew full well that most of the world didn’t see things that way… yet. The Apostle spent his days trying to share the Good News that Jesus is Lord with those who still lived under Caesar’s thumb, and he continually faced opposition, hardships, and persecution… and was eventually put to death by those who refused to recognize the claims of Christ’s Kingdom. But despite all of this, St. Paul, and all those like him, who served the true King even under incredible pressures, helped so many others to come to know and be transformed by the same hope, serving as signs of Christ’s Kingdom at work here on earth.

And the Church, despite all our challenging circumstances and host of struggles is to be a living sign of Christ’s Kingdom today. We are His witnesses, pointing our world to the One that’s really in charge. And even though we may face our own hardships, and opposition… surrounded by  those who don’t yet understand the hope we have at work in us, we are those who already share in Christ’s reign right now… co-members of His One body, a communion uniting Earth and Heaven in Him. 
 
This kind of Christ-centred hope transforms us into a new kind of people, reshaping our imaginations and priorities, as our Saviour King is pursuing a very different agenda from what the world around us is used to.
 
He’s not preoccupied with the economy… but with setting us free from greed, and filling us with the Father’s generous love to care for our neighbours in need.
 
And He’s not preoccupied with politics… but with setting us free from pride and fearmongering, and filling us with Christ’s own humility, and courageous service.
 
And He’s not preoccupied with waging war, or erecting borders… but with freeing us from all our hatred and prejudice… and filling us with the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, forging us into one world-wide family… one body, made up of diverse yet interdependent members, and with Him alone as our head.
 
Because Christ Jesus has risen, and ascended to the Father’s right hand to reign forever… we know the ultimate fate of our world rests in His hands. And this hope sets us free from all these other power trips, and pitfalls, and distorted ways of seeing and treating those around us. Because Christ Jesus reigns, we don’t need to despair when things don’t go our way… or desperately scramble to seek other sources of security and control when we get scared.
 
Instead, we can turn our minds and our hearts to Him in prayer, knowing that whatever hardships or trials we may face, today or tomorrow… He will not abandon us, but will give us the help we all need to remain faithful to the end… and raise us up with Him to share in the blessings of His good Kingdom… the only Kingdom with no end. []
 
As Jesus told His eager disciples who longed to see Christ’s Kingdom arrive all at once in their own time and place, the timing for the Kingdom’s full arrival is in the Father’s hands, not ours. We can certainly anticipate and pray for Christ’s Kingdom to come in its fulness, but in the meantime our Saviour King’s got work for us to do... the work of being His witnesses. Of showing others the truth of the Gospel in our words and our actions… and in all times and places, including right here in Gondola Point.

Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
 
There truly is a universal scope of the Kingdom of Christ. It’s not just a destiny for certain countries and nations to pursue… especially on their own terms. No, we are to be Christ’s witnesses, living signs of His good Kingdom which knows no borders. And which can only be accomplished by the power of God’s Holy Spirit… whose fruit in our lives looks like: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23). This is the power at work in Christ’s Kingdom. Without this Spirit at work in us, were just playing games. 

And as we heard in our Gospel reading, the path of Christ’s Kingdom is not an obviously successful one, but rather the path of suffering. The Risen Lord Jesus tells His disciples that the cross had always been a part of God’s plan to rescue the world… that the whole Old Testament, the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, had all pointed in this same cruciform direction.
 
Luke 24:45-48, “Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
 
The Messiah must first suffer… crucified… definitely defeated in the world’s eyes… before rising from the dead… not to seek revenge on His enemies, or to rallying an army to overthrow the other Empires of this world. But to send out His apostles, His royal ambassadors, His witnesses with the message of repentance and forgiveness… the summons to turn around and leave behind the ways of life that lead us and those around us to death… and in their place to receive God’s forgiveness… God’s mercy and grace… His saving love offered to us all in Jesus’ name. 
 
Our Saviour King ascended to God’s right hand after first descending to the depths of the grave. The path to God’s glory first of all called for faithfulness in the face of great suffering… and this is a path that Jesus Christ calls us all to follow Him on, taking up our own crosses along with Him as well… trusting in His victory over all the powers of sin, and death, and the evil one… and leaning on His forgiveness and grace, and His Holy Spirit to see us through.
 
The ascension of Jesus, the crucified and Risen Lord reminds us that our hope is not founded on how things look from where we stand, but on the One who is seated at God’s right hand.
 
So even when we face real challenges, and hardships, and times of discouragement, may we always remember who’s really in charge. With the Holy Spirit’s help and power at work in us, may we face today and all tomorrows as Christ’s faithful witnesses… pointing those around us towards His Good Kingdom.

And may we be transformed inside and out by the hope that our Saviour King has given us… refocusing our lives on His Kingdom’s priorities, and empowering us to share the Good News of repentance and forgiveness for all in His holy name. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Acts 17:22–31 | Psalm 66:8–20 | 1 Peter 3:13–22 | John 14:15–21 

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
(John 14:15).
 
Have you ever wondered why certain rules exist?
I mean, the rationale for some rules seem pretty self-evident. Like don’t use your hands in soccer. Or be sure to drive on the right side of the road… unless you’re in England, of course.
 
But sometimes the reasons behind rules can be a bit less obvious… making them seem kind of arbitrary, and maybe even irrelevant for our day to day lives. When that happens, it can become easy for us to just ignore them… or if we do obey them, to do so merely out of a sense of obligation, or out of fear of getting into trouble.
 
But today in our Gospel reading, Jesus our Saviour offers us a different insight: He draws a clear line for His disciples between loving Him, and keeping His commandments. Now I know lots of things come to my mind when I hear the word love… but obeying commandments isn’t exactly that high on my list. But if we sit with this connection for a moment, I think it starts to make more and more sense.

I mean, for starters, when we really love someone, we develop a sense of devotion… a commitment to them that opens us up to serving their interests, and seeking to do what we can to make them happy. Love also invites us to trust the other person… to believe that deep down, they have our best interests at heart as well. And so, if someone we love tells us to do something, it becomes a whole lot easier to oblige them… even if what we’re being asked to do ends up being far from easy itself.
 
In our Gospel passage today, Jesus wants us to see that there is an essential relationship between loving Him and obeying His commands. To recognize that His words to us are not arbitrary rules, given for no real reason, even if we don’t always understand them. And He’s also not setting up some sort of spiritual fitness test, designed to weed out all those who are unworthy… and promote those who love Him ‘enough’… based on how well they perform.  
 
No, He’s doing something much more important. He’s teaching us… He’s training us how to love. Showing us what it looks like, and what it takes to have our lives reshaped and realigned by God’s holy love.

Jesus said: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15). Keeping Christ’s commandments is how we love Him. He’s spelling out for us that loving Him and living His way must go hand in hand.
 
And what has Christ commanded us to do? All sorts of things! Far more than we can cover this morning. The four Gospels are full of His teachings, and directions for His disciples to follow, back then and today. A great place to start looking would be the famous Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew Chapters 5-7… but as Christians, we are called to make ourselves well acquainted with our Lord’s whole story, and all that He teaches us to do.
 
On top of the Gospels, there’s also the writings of the Apostles… the New Testament letters, which are full of the wisdom, and guidance, and yes commands that have arisen from the Good News of Jesus Christ the Risen Lord. And these in turn have also been shaped by the whole story of the Bible, beginning way back in Genesis… and all the way through the Living God’s dealings with Israel, and their calling to be faithful to the covenant the LORD made with them.

In other words, all of Jesus’ commands come to us in the context of the Holy Scriptures… the grand narrative of God’s rescue mission for His creation, unfolding through the centuries, and reaching its climax in Christ Himself. And while the Bible is not primarily a rule book, despite how some of us might have been taught to read it… the Scriptures do paint a pretty consistent picture for us of the character of life God wants for us. And so, we can, and often do, sum up that way of life… that commandment with the word love. 
 
We love Jesus Christ our Lord, by obeying His commandments… which in turn are about training us to love. And who are we being commanded to love?
 
Well, when our Lord was asked what the greatest commandment in the Torah and Prophets… the Old Testament was, He replied: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38).
 
Christ’s commandments first of all train us to love God. To offer our trust and devotion to our Creator… to our Father in Heaven.
 
And we really need this training! We humans have always tended to struggle pretty hard when it comes to loving the Living God. And one of the big reasons for this is our general human tendency towards idolatry… to worshipping and giving ourselves over to things that are categorically not God… devoting ourselves to gods of our own invention and imaginations… or even trying to reduce God Himself, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, into something concrete we can manage, contain, and manipulate, instead of giving Him the honour and glory as the Almighty and untamable One.
 
And when we worship things that are not God, these idols distort and reshape us in their image… messing around with our hearts, and our minds, and our relationships with those around us. For instance: when we worship money, making it the most important thing in our lives, we become self-centred, and find it much harder to spend our resources to care for those who cannot repay us. Not to mention the fact that all the money in the world can’t save us. In the end, we can’t take one cent with us.
 
I could go on with lots of examples of idols we people worship: pleasure, power, security… not all bad things in and of themselves, but totally destructive when we give ourselves over to their command.
 
Thankfully, Jesus offers the world an alternative to idolatry, as He is the Living God Himself in the flesh… revealing the character, and heart of the Father to us, once and for all… so we can truly come to know our Creator, to turn our hearts and lives to Him. 
 
In our first reading today, from the book of Acts, we heard the words of St. Paul, speaking to a crowd of Greek Gentiles in Athens… and inviting them to respond to the Good News of Jesus. Paul notes that they appear to be a deeply religious community… worshipping all kinds of gods… and even putting up a shrine to an “unknown god”, to make sure that they didn’t offend any spiritual beings they hadn’t heard of yet. Many people in those days lived in perpetual fear of offending the gods… who often were thought to act in unpredictable, and often vengeful ways… so it was normal to hedge your bets and offer sacrifices to them all… giving gifts at every altar to keep in everyone’s good books. But like paying mobsters for protection… you’re never quite sure if they’re really on your side.
 
In complete contrast to this vision of the divine, St. Paul invites his listeners to worship the God they had not yet known: “The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, [who] does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.” (Acts 17:24-25).

Unlike the fickle gods and idols that they were familiar with, this God was not looking for a bribe… but for them. Graciously providing for and sustaining them… already up close and at work in their lives… even before they knew of Him… and eager for them to find Him… to set aside their empty idols, and instead look for the true Lord of life, and come to experience His love.
  
And Paul goes on to say that “While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, [to turn around] because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31).
 
Paul’s basic message was for the Athenians to leave behind their old ways of life that lead only to death, and instead to place their faith in the one who will judge all rightly, the risen Saviour and Lord of all.
 
And hearing his words today, we are reminded that loving God as Christ commanded us isn’t about trying to appease or bribe our Heavenly Father… but about expressing our faith in Him, and putting our devotion to Him into practice… and our gifts are offerings of thankfulness and praise to the Living God, who has already given us everything. In Jesus Christ, God is no longer unknown, and we have come to know what He wants from us… and that is love. But not just directed towards Him, but also to all those around us as well.
 
Back in Matthew Chapter 22, right after Jesus says that the first and greatest commandment is to love God, He says that a second commandment is just like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:39-40).
 
The heart of the Christian ethic… our whole way of life is to share God’s holy love with everyone. To treat all our neighbours the way that we would want to be treated… with compassion, patience, and grace. To recognize in every single human being a beloved child, created in God’s own image. And to even extend this love to our enemies… to those that don’t have our best interest at heart… not enabling evil, but refusing to be caught up in it… resisting the urge to demonize, those we disagree with, and doing everything we can to work for the good of all.
 
But alongside this general commandment to love all our neighbours, Christ Jesus gives us a very specific commandment in John Chapter 15 to love our fellow Christians, making this a central part of the Church’s life.

John 15:12-14, Jesus said: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

It can’t get much clearer than this: if we’re Christians, we’re called to love one another… as Christ has loved us… beyond the normal neighbourly limits of love… but as beloved brothers and sisters… as true friends, willing to lay down our lives for one another… to suffer alongside and for one another. Bearing with one another, especially when it isn’t easy.
 
After all, love isn’t easy. It’s good, and it’s a great blessing… and it’s something that all of us need, and long for… but it also comes with all sorts of risks and challenges, and moments when it hurts deeply. In other words, love often involves suffering. But it is also the best reason we can suffer.
 
After all, as we heard in our second reading today, from 1 Peter Chapter 3, Jesus our Saviour Himself suffered at the cross to save the world that He loves… and as His disciples if we suffer like Him, it’s no shame at all.
 
1 Peter 3:17-18, “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God…” (1 Peter 3:17-18).

Christ Jesus our Lord suffered and died at the cross to save us… but that suffering was not a tragic loss. It is the way that God’s love wins, breaking the power of sin with unexpected mercy. Breaking the power of fear with forgiveness. Breaking the power of selfishness with generous grace. Breaking the power of hatred and pride with compassion and incredible humility.
 
And Christ’s commandments to love others, even when it’s hard draws us into this great victory of God… involving us in the risks of sharing God’s saving love with God’s beloved world… knowing that, even if it isn’t easy, it’s what’s best for us all… bringing us all that much closer to our loving Creator. 
 
Which leads us to our final point: the conviction that keeping Christ’s commandments is not just what’s best for our neighbours, or even fellow Christians… it’s actually what’s best for us too! It’s in our best interests to obey the voice of our Saviour. Christ gives us commandments precisely because He loves us… and He knows they are exactly what we need too! He knows we need to be guided away from our old ways… to have the power of our sins and fears and selfishness and hatreds and pride, and all the rest put to death, through practicing His holy love… and sharing in His way of life.  
 
We keep His commandments because we love Him… and because we’re learning to believe… to trust that He really loves us! That everything we receive from His hand, even when it’s hard, is a gift intended to bring us deeper into His own blessed life.
 
And even though we will struggle and fail at times to keep His commands… the Good News is that our Saviour’s still on our side! He knows we can’t do this all on our own. He knows we need His help, and thank God He is there for us in our great need!
 
Immediately after Christ makes the connection between loving Him, and keeping His commandments, Jesus promises to send an Advocate, the Holy Spirit of God, to abide with and in us, forever. He then promises to return… coming back to bring us into complete communion with our Father in Heaven forever.

John 14:18-21, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
 
The reason behind Christ’s commandments is for you and I and all who will keep them, to be graciously invited into the eternal love of the Living God… united to the blessed Trinity in and through our Saviour Jesus Christ. Without Jesus, and all He’s done for us, there’s no way. But He Himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life… reconciling us to our Heavenly Father, and to one another. Trusting and following Jesus Christ is how we begin to share in God’s love even now. And through the Holy Spirit’s help, we really can turn around, and turn away from our old ways… and have our lives reshaped and realigned by God’s holy love… even when it’s hard… trusting that this really is how God is at work in the world: bringing the Good News of His Son to all the earth through people like us, so that everyone might find the freedom, the forgiveness, and the new life that Jesus our Saviour alone can give.
 
I’ll bring this time to a close with a prayer written by the Lutheran pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, while he was in prison during World War II… suffering for striving against the Nazi regime, and eventually losing his life… devoted to the end to Jesus Christ, our world’s only Saviour and the Lord of all Lords... and to the world Jesus gave His own life to save. Let us pray.

“O God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray
And to concentrate my thoughts on you;
I cannot do this alone.
 
In me there is darkness, but with you there is light.
I am lonely, but you do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;
I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me.
 
O heavenly Father,
I praise and thank you for the peace of the night;
I praise and thank you for this new day;
I praise and thank you for all your goodness
And faithfulness throughout my life.
 
You have granted me many blessings;
Now let me also accept what is hard from your hand.
You will lay on me no more than I can bear.
You make all things work together for good for your children.”[1]
Amen.


[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters & Papers from Prison, pg. 139.

Scripture Readings: Acts 7:55–60 | Psalm 31 | 1 Peter 2:2–10 | ​John 14:1–14

​“Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
(1 Peter 2:4-5).
 
As you may know, two weeks ago our Diocese held a special synod in Fredericton to discuss together, and to advise Archbishop David of our hopes and concerns regarding the future of Christ Church Cathedral, in light of the significant, multi-million dollar repairs that this  historic building requires.
 
In my opinion, it was a really good meeting, in which Anglicans, clergy and lay people from across the province, shared their wisdom, and their hearts with one another… even though we had been gathered to face a pretty daunting reality. Over the past years and months leading up to this meeting, our Diocese has been forced to recognize that we have a lot more work to do than we imagined. Problems had been quietly developing that had escaped our notice, but have clearly become a big concern.

Now there are all sorts of reasons why we’re in this situation now. Some resting within our Church’s control, and some that were always out of our hands. This is not about pointing fingers and placing blame, but about finding a better, effective, and faithful way forward together.
 
And thankfully, at this last synod we saw that as a diocese we really do desire to come together and all do our part to preserve this sacred building.[1] And much more than that, we see this as a faithful way for us to come together as brothers and sisters in service of the Gospel… building up our shared community and bonds of Christian love across New Brunswick, as visible signs of the Spirit’s work and God’s New Creation unfolding here and now through the lives of His people. 
 
That kind of hopeful vision can be easy to lose sight of at times in a world so full of problems. Everywhere we look, it seems like there are signs of things falling apart: of old challenges not being looked after, as well as new and unforeseen issues suddenly coming to light… threatening all that we have known and held dear. At times, this can all feel pretty overwhelming, and frightening… leaving us uncertain about how best to keep moving forward… and maybe even wondering if there will still be any place for us in the years to come?
 
Thankfully, we’re not the first people to feel this way, and to receive assurance and hope from the Lord. And our Scripture readings this morning remind us that even in uncertain times, God has given us both the way forward, and visible signs intended to keep us on track… faithfully pointing us towards the bright future and New Creation that God Himself has in store. 
 
On the night before His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was speaking to His disciples… that is, His students… His apprentices… those seeking, not just to walk around learning from Him… but who sought to become like Him. To practice His teachings, and embody His whole way of life. To set aside their own plans to share in His work, and His story… building their lives on the foundation that He was setting into place.
 
That fateful night, Jesus tried to prepare them for His coming departure… His immanent arrest, rejection, and death on the cross… not wanting His beloved followers to lose heart. He knew this was all a part of God’s plan, and that there would be far more to the story then they could yet imagine… but Jesus also knew that it would all still be really hard for them to understand. That soon it would seem like everything was lost, and that there was absolutely no way forward. So Jesus encourages them to stay faithful… to trust that God was not done yet! To trust in Him, and trust that He was not abandoning them, but was leading them into God’s new life.
 
John 14:1-4, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.”
 
Knowing just how hard the next few days were going to be, Jesus assures His disciples that, no matter what lay ahead, their ultimate fate was to rest safely in God’s house… a place not built by human hands, but prepared for them, and for us by Jesus Himself.
 
That sounds great, of course. But how do we get there from here? As we face uncertain and unsafe days ahead, how can we be sure that we’re on the right path?
 
John 14:5-7, “Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
 
Jesus Christ is the way, and the truth, and the life. The heart of the Gospel… the Good News of God is Jesus Himself. Not our buildings, not our ministries, not our traditions… there’s no other substitute… no other foundation for our faith, or sure path leading towards God’s future. All our buildings, and ministries, and traditions are intended to help us faithfully tell Jesus’ story… and to help us as His disciples to take our own part in it, and to invite those around us to do the same. Jesus Himself is the source of our life and our connection to our Heavenly Father.

John 14:8-10, “Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”
 
If we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father! There is no other God behind the back of Jesus for us to fear, as the theologian T.F. Torrance once put it.[2] Jesus Christ is God in the flesh… God among us… God Himself who chose to suffer the rejection and hatred of His human children… and even be put to death at their hands… only to rise up again to be their Saviour, and the Saviour of the world. Forgiving even those who killed Him, and making the way for all to return to His loving arms.
 
If we have seen Jesus, we have seen God. This is the incredible, world-changing Good News of the Gospel. But how in the world do people see Jesus today? Where are we to look to catch a glimpse of God in the flesh? To see His mercy, and holiness, and saving love at work here and now?
 
Well… they’re supposed to be able to see Jesus by looking at us… at the Church… at Christians like you and me.
 
That’s because, as His disciples, we’re also on a journey not just to learn from Jesus, but to become like Him. Not just moved to adopt a few of His teachings, or to be a bit nicer now and then… but to be filled with His own Spirit to share in His ongoing work in the world… to be a people set apart to both carry on His story, and to help anyone who will believe to draw closer to the One who alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
 
As Christians… as Christ’s ones… God is actively and graciously reshaping and molding us for a clear purpose: so that together we may become the place on earth where God’s New Life in Jesus is made known and experienced.

To make this point, in our second reading today, St. Peter speaks of Christians and the Church community in terms of construction materials… stones arranged in their proper place to create a sacred structure, and sharing in the work of our Saviour.  
 
1 Peter 2:4-5, “Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
 
Now I know St. Peter ends up mixing his metaphors a bit… but he paints a pretty powerful picture for us nonetheless! Christians are to be like living stones in the great Temple of God that is Jesus Christ Himself. You and I are being built into the meeting place for heaven and earth… distinct but united parts of Christ’s body… individual but carefully shaped and assembled stones in His Temple… not just to look nice, but so that all creation can be reconnected with their great Creator, Saviour, and King… drawing near to Jesus in faith, and receiving from Him the gift of God’s New Life.

Like living stones, we are being chiseled and shaped to become like the great stone… our Saviour Jesus Christ. So that, bound together by and with Him, the world around us can also come to know and receive His salvation.
 
But being made like Jesus means that we might also face times of serious challenges. Like our Master, we might well face rejection… we too may be misunderstood, and slandered… and be accused of all sorts of evil… and even face our own persecution or death, like so many of our brothers and sisters around the world. 
 
In our first reading today from the book of Acts, we heard one such story: the death of St. Stephen… the first Christian martyr… murdered for testifying truthfully about the Risen Lord. But while this truly was an act of injustice and terror, it is not a story of Stephen’s failure! Far from it! No, this is St. Stephen’s victory! Remaining faithful to the Good News even to the very end… becoming like His Saviour in His sufferings, and entrusting His fate completely to the One who raised Christ from the dead.
 
Just like Jesus Himself was rejected, but was later vindicated by God, so too those of us who remain faithful to our Saviour, even if we suffer, will be vindicated with Him: His victory and glory will one day be ours as well.
 
And so, in our own contexts, when we face serious challenges of all sorts… when we face times of great uncertainty, and we don’t fell like we have what we need… when we feel pressured to compromise our commitments to Jesus Christ, and the calling He has placed on us to live as His chosen people… when we feel threatened by our surroundings, and concerned about our future… we are also being given our own opportunities to choose to be faithful, to remain true… or to fall away to try to save ourselves.
 
In those moments, may we remember Christ’s words to His disciples… before Good Friday, and to us all today, when He said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6). Will we believe this?
 
Our whole existence as the Church is intended to be about helping one another and our world to believe and to live this Good News… drawing our eyes, and our hearts, and our minds to Christ, and living each day as His disciples… becoming like Him… a people set apart to share His holy love with the world… so they can see God’s Spirit at work in us, and join us as living stones in the New Creation that God is building.
 
1 Peter 2:9-10, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
 
That is our purpose. But are we actually doing this? Are we as Christians, as a Parish family, as a Diocese, and as a Church consistently pointing people to Jesus, or are we sending mixed signals… or worse yet, getting in their way?
 
Looking around at our communities, our world… and even at ourselves… maybe we have more work to do on this than we had imagined. Maybe we’re seeing some real problems that have been left unattended… the absence of the fruit of God’s Spirit, like kindness, faithfulness, patience, and love… or the presence of dangerous things like indifference, arrogance, prejudice, greed… sins that have become a big concern. And maybe we’re just disheartened by how many seem not to care about the Good News we’ve come to cherish… looking around at pews that were once full, and wondering why that’s no longer the case.
 
Now there are all sorts of reasons why we’re in this situation today. Some resting within our control, and some that were always out of our hands. This is not about pointing fingers and placing blame, but about finding a better, effective, and faithful way forward.
 
The good news is that today we’re all being given a chance to rediscover and reaffirm our faith in our Saviour King Jesus, and in what He can do in and through His people, when we trust and follow Him. Today, we can come together as brothers and sisters to do the hard work of discipleship… of seeking to become more and more like Jesus, through the power of God’s Spirit at work in us.

Today, we can recommit to our mission… which is more than simply preserving our buildings, and ministries, and traditions… not less, mind you… but more… much more… which is to use all that we have, and are, and do to point everyone in our world to Jesus Christ the Risen Lord… the One who alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
 
I’ll close now with a poem called Not One Stone, inspired by the recent Cathedral Synod, and inviting us to remember our place in the story of Christ our Saviour.

Not one stone / upon another
Thus You spoke Lord / long ago
That we serve not / what must falter
But Your Kingdom’s / glory know
 
Long we laboured / in days gone by
Trusting in Your / gracious hand
Gathered from / quarry and quarters
Stones and servants / of this land
 
Every stone an / act of worship
Placed atop the / one below
Drawing eye, mind, / and heart upward
Signs of paradise / to show
 
Bound by something / more than mortar
And aligned by / wisdom true
So that those who / come long after
May come face / to face with You
 
In these stones we / found Your shelter
Voices lifted / up in prayer
Sinners gathered / at Your Table
Grace and love You / give to share
 
Rainbow light shines / down upon us
Scripture stories / all around
Windows into / sweet communion
With Your saints warm / welcome found
 
Here were countless / humble hands laid
To the trowel and / to ordain
Workers for Your / harvest ready
Sent to labour / not in vain
 
Stone on stone has / caused the stranger
To ask questions / or admire
Amid all life’s / many worries
For what purpose / we aspire?
 
Not one stone / upon another
Will endure / forevermore
Yet as Living / Stones we gather
In hope for what / lies in store
 
And so Father, / keep us faithful
Jesus Saviour / bound to Thee
Spirit breathe new / life into us
Built together / to be free
 
Not one stone / upon another
Thus You spoke Lord / long ago
That we serve not / what must falter
But Your Kingdom’s / glory know
 
And ‘til New / Creation coming
Keep us steadfast / in Your way
That as Stones we / point all to You
Built for Love’s / eternal day

Amen.


[1] For a great summary of the events of Synod, I encourage you to read this article by Gisele McKnight: https://nb.anglican.ca/news/synod-resolves-to-work-together-to-safeguard-cathedral-building

[2] “During those years what imprinted itself upon my mind above all was the discovery of the deepest cry of the human heart: Is God really like Jesus? This came home to me very sharply one day on a battle field in Italy, when a fearfully wounded young lad, who was only nineteen and had but half an hour to live, said to me, ‘Padre, is God really like Jesus?’ I assured him as he lay upon the ground with his life ebbing away that God is indeed really like Jesus, and that there is no unknown God behind the back of Jesus for us to fear, to see the Lord Jesus is to see the very face of God.” T.F. Torrance, Preaching Christ Today.

Scripture Readings: Acts 2:42–47 | Psalm 23 | 1 Peter 2:19–25 | ​John 10:1–10

“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:21).
 
This morning, the fourth Sunday of the Season of Easter is sometimes called Good Shepherd Sunday, as our Scripture readings, especially the Gospel reading, highlight this well-beloved biblical theme… inviting us to contemplate how Jesus Christ the crucified and Risen Lord continues to lead us His people into God’s New Life today. 
 
Our Psalm today, Psalm 23, is probably one of the most well known parts of the Bible where the Living God’s steadfast love and care for His people is likened to the care of a shepherd for their sheep. As King David composed this Psalm, we can imagine him drawing upon his own experience as a young shepherd, in charge of providing for and protecting his father Jesse’s flock: spending his nights and days by their side… guiding them towards the nourishment they needed, and away from harm… and even putting his own life in danger in order to rescue them from wild predators.
 
And years later, David prayerfully imagines the LORD God at work in the same ways: providing for and protecting His people… constantly with them, day and night… and faithfully leading them towards abundant life. And even though at times God would lead them through pretty dark times… through the very shadow of death… David calls us all to place our faith… our trust in God our Good Shepherd, who walks ahead of us, and with us every step of the way… confident that, no matter what may come, God really does care for us, and has our best interests at heart. 
 
Many centuries after King David penned Psalm 23… in the Gospel of John Chapter 10 Jesus of Nazareth speaks about Himself in ways that draw upon this very same imagery… identifying Himself with the Living God, and His ministry with God’s care for His people.
 
In the verse after our reading today, Jesus explicitly says: “I am the Good Shepherd.” (John 10:11). But before that, in our reading today, He uses shepherding imagery to highlight the difference between the Good Shepherd, and the thieves and strangers who are only concerned about themselves.

John 10:1-5, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
 
Now the meaning of this passage was kind of confusing even to those who first heard it, but it might help us a bit to remember the context of Christ’s words here. Where they take place in the story. Jesus is saying all this right after He had healed a man who had been blind from birth… offering this man a great gift of mercy and grace, and new life… only to have the religious leaders in Jerusalem interrogate, insult, and eventually excommunicate the man… all because they refused to believe that God’s good work had been done through Jesus. They had witnessed the miracle, but refused to believe it. They claimed to be shepherds and guides of God’s people, and yet they accused and turned on the ones God had placed within their care.

In other words, Jesus was contrasting Himself with those leaders who claimed to be God’s faithful servants and shepherds, but who were actively opposing Him, and revealing their own suspect motives. 
 
And there are, of course, many today who are following in their unfaithful footsteps… who want us to trust and follow their lead, but who will not and cannot lead us into life. Think especially of those who claim to be Christian leaders and teachers, but who would have us completely ignore so much of Christ’s own words and ways, and offer us their own agendas instead. There are a lot of folks these days teaching some truly messed up stuff in Christ’s name, which is why it’s so important for us to actually know what Jesus our Lord has actually said… to seek to listen to His voice, and understand His character, and heart… and to do so in the context of the wider story of Scripture… the story of God’s great rescue mission.
 
If we don’t want to be misled… or worse yet, if we don’t want to become thieves and strangers ourselves… those opposing Christ’s good work in the world… we really do need to draw near to Jesus again and again, and become intimately familiar with Him, and know how to discern  His voice, and how to spurn all who would lead us away from Him. 
 
After Jesus first draws this distinction between the Good Shepherd, who knows the sheep, and whom the sheep trust and follow… and all the other strangers and thieves… He then changes the metaphor and calls Himself the Gate… the entryway to gain access to life, and the true safe harbour for the sheep. John 10:9-10, “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
 
This marks a turn from a warning, to an invitation: calling us all to listen to His voice! To come to Him, and find Him to be the source of God’s gracious provision and protection. To come to Him, and hear His teachings, and put them into practice, trusting that Jesus is the One leading us into God’s new, abundant life. Sounds like Good News to me.  
 
But here’s where we run into a serious challenge as Christians… because, as we know, going through the gate is not always easy… and the path of the Good Shepherd can often be a whole lot harder than we want it to be. Not hard in terms of who’s welcome and who’s not… no, all are invited to draw near to God’s Good Shepherd. The problem is that at times the path to abundant life can be painful. 
 
I mean, what comes to your mind when you hear the words “abundant life”? Success and status? Peace and security? Prosperity? Friendship and full bellies? That’s what a lot of folks spend their lives pursuing, and for good reason! Without these things, life can be quite painful. We can all name several places in our world today where these kinds of things are in short supply, or absent entirely… where suffering seems to be growing stronger day by day, and the shadow of death seems almost unstoppable.
 
Maybe you feel like you’re in one of those dark places today, and words like ‘abundant life’ seem more like a distant memory, or a fantasy than an anchor and promise to hold onto. If you are, know that you’re not alone, and that there’s Good News for you today too. 

On top of all the pain and the grief that it can cause, suffering is often also seen as a sign that we’re off course somehow… a sign that we must have made some big mistakes somewhere along the way. If ‘abundant life’ is the goal, many of us pursue it by avoiding as much suffering as possible. And lots of would-be leaders gather followers by promising to help them do just that.
 
And yet, the Good News of Jesus Christ consistently offers us a very different understanding of suffering.
Far from being a sign of our faults or failures… suffering is acknowledged as a common reality of life for all of us at one time or another outside of Paradise. Yes, when we humans make foolish or selfish decisions, we can certainly bring about all kinds of unnecessary suffering… but even those who consistently do what is right can often find themselves facing incredibly painful situations too.
 
As the story of the man born blind in John Chapter 9 reminds us, there’s no simple line of cause and effect between our choices and our current circumstances. In fact, doing the right thing and making the right choice can also lead us into a great deal of difficulty.

After all, Christ Jesus Himself suffered precisely because He was faithful! The agony of cross was not His fault… He was the sinless One! Yet, staying true to God’s good ways in a world turned upside down can make things much harder than they should be. No, Jesus suffered faithfully, laying down His own life to save us… and showing us in the process where and how God’s Good Shepherd is leading us.

In our second reading today from the first letter of St. Peter Chapter 2, we hear the words of the Apostle writing to Christian communities scattered around the Roman Empire… pockets of believers, frequently surrounded by hostile, or at least estranged neighbours and under threat of state sanctioned persecution. These early Christians were not exactly having an easy go of it. Many were struggling daily… especially those from the lower social classes, including many slaves who often faced harsh treatment and abuse from their masters.
 
But rather than promise his fellow believers an easy path to avoid all their pain and problems… St. Peter reminds them and us, that although we may not be able to avoid suffering… what we are suffering for, and how we choose to face that suffering is a vital part of our story.
 
Speaking directly to Christian slaves… to those without freedom, or civil rights, and who were frequently mistreated and looked down upon… St. Peter first of all warns them against suffering for bad reasons. But then he goes on to say that if they do what is right and still suffer because of it, there is no shame in that at all. In fact, when that unjust suffering occurs, they’re actually sharing in the very experience of Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd… who was Himself unjustly abused, and executed as a slave, without honour or mercy.
 
And yet, despite all that was done to Him to dehumanize and destroy Him, the Living God raised Christ Jesus from the dead… honouring Him above all others, and bringing Him through the very shadow of death and into God’s blessed eternal life. The cross is the amazing story of God turning Christ’s unjust suffering into, not only His ultimate glory, but also into the means by which God’s mercy and saving love were made known to the world…
reaching out to save the lost, and to lead them into life.

St. Peter isn’t saying that we should seek out or glorify suffering in itself… or that we should simply allow others to endure injustice and oppression when it is within our power to do something about it. Far from it. What he is saying is that, when we find ourselves in those dark places… feeling powerless and alone… we can trust that our Good Shepherd has not abandoned us in our time of need. No, He has walked this dark path Himself already… and He walks it with us still… faithfully leading us through the valley of the shadow of death, and inviting us to faithfully follow His own example… to follow, not just His words, but His way of life… including His faithfulness in the face of suffering.
 
1 Peter 2:21-25, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.
“He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”
 
Jesus suffered faithfully once and for all at the cross to save us, not from all pain and suffering, but from sin! From all the evil and self-centeredness at work in us, and in our world that leads us all astray in so many ways… that leads us to turn against one another… to oppress, and abuse, and exploit our fellow humans, made in God’s image… to ignore those in need all around us… and to place our own status and agendas above the commandment to love our neighbours as ourselves.
 
This is what Christ came to save us from. And He saved us for a new and truly abundant life… one marked by compassion, integrity, generosity, humility, and sincere fellowship with one another. A life where we look out for one another… and take care of each other when we’re struggling… where we look for ways to lift up, and encourage, and support one another… so that everyone has what they need… becoming more and more like our Good Shepherd as we listen closely to His voice, and follow His example of long-suffering love.  
 
We get a glimpse of this abundant life that our Good Shepherd is leading us into in our first reading today from the Book of Acts Chapter 2, in the early days after Pentecost.  God’s people, empowered by His Holy Spirit, were truly living like Jesus, their Good Shepherd: caring for one another. Supporting one another. Even giving up their own goods to meet the needs of those who were struggling. Providing for and protecting one another by embodying God’s holy, self-giving, and long-suffering love… by listening to the voice of Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord, and following closely where and how He leads.
 
And so, may we who have gathered here today in Gondola Point, listen closely to the voice of our Good Shepherd, and follow Him always. May we be willing to face our own times of suffering faithfully… for the sake of God’s people and God’s world… growing in love for the Living God, and for one another, even when it’s hard… searching for ways to provide for and protect others… just like Jesus our Good Shepherd has first loved us… trusting Him to lead us through it all into His blessed and unending abundant life. Amen.
 

Scripture Readings: Acts 2:14a, 36–41 | Psalm 116 | 1 Peter 1:17–23 | ​Luke 24:13–35

“Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” (Luke 24:26-27).
 
What kind of story do we think we are living in?
 
Our lives are, of course, a lot more complicated than all the novels and movies we create, and which tend to fit into neat little categories. In reality, each of our stories are a unique combination of experiences… and moments of tragedy, and romance, and laughter, and adventure… and horror… and boredom… and hope.
 
Even so, I think it is helpful at times to remember that whatever season of life we may be facing right now… that this season is not the whole story… it’s only one part… one chapter in our much wider story… a story that’s actually much bigger than our own. After all, we are a part of the story of God’s people, living in God’s world. The great divine drama into which we are all being graciously invited to play our own part as it continues to grow and unfold.
 
As Christians, we seek to understand our own lives, as complicated as they are, within the context of God’s story: how the Living God has made Himself known, and what He is up to in our world. Only then can we really discern what He wants from us… what it means to faithfully follow Him. 
 
But as it turns out, God’s story isn’t that simple either. It comes to us, not as a straightforward, simplistic narrative, or as a random collection of moral fables… but as an intense, and nuanced, and puzzling, and piercing account of our great Creator seeking to set His wayward creation aright, even as we humans keep getting in the way. And if we don’t take this challenge seriously… if we don’t take time to humbly try to understand the big picture of God’s story, and where it is all leading, then we can end up in all sorts of strange and dangerous places. 
 
As a quick but timely example: there have been some vocal and powerful political voices recently claiming that the story of God is largely about their country dominating the world, and crushing their enemies… brazenly making use of passages of the Bible to justify and promote their vision of violence and aggression, all the while arguing that the Living God is clearly on their side.
 
And while we may not all be making the same vicious claims, or wielding the same kind of destructive power, this same tendency can be a danger for us all. The tendency to pick out one or two sentences or paragraphs or chapters, and try to make them into the whole story.
 
But the Bible is not a grab-bag of random sayings, or inspiring words to be picked through and re-arranged as we see fit. It is the story of God… the sacred narrative God uses to make Himself and His intentions known to His creation.
 
And so what we need is not a handful of texts that we can use to support our own opinions or positions… what we need is a stronger sense of where His whole story is headed… what the heart of its message is… and how we too can take part in it. And this is exactly what two of Christ’s disciples received on the road to Emmaus. 
 
In our Gospel reading today, St. Luke tells us that on Easter Sunday, two of Christ Jesus’ disciples were leaving Jerusalem… heavy hearted and confused. They had placed their faith in Jesus… hoping that He would be the long-awaited Messiah… the saviour sent to redeem Israel from the power of their enemies.  It seems that, like many Israelites in those days, these two disciples were expecting a military Messiah… one who would summon the faithful to fight against ungodly, and bring about God’s victory through violence. But just two days before, Jesus had been arrested, and publicly executed by those very foes they were hoping He would overthrow… the Romans… the Gentile military superpower occupying their land. And so, despite reports of the resurrection they could not fit neatly into their story of God’s Messiah, these two disciples leave Jerusalem, the Holy City behind, and make there way to Emmaus… a village with an interesting and bloody story of its own.
 
In the first book of Maccabees, one of the books of the Apocrypha, widely read by God’s people in Jesus’ day, even though it wasn’t included in the Hebrew Old Testament… it turns out that Emmaus was the location of a remarkable battle, where the underdog Judean forces fought and defeated a powerful Greek army.

And right before the battle, fought over a hundred years before Christ was born, in 1 Maccabees Chapter 4:8-11, the Judean general, Judas Maccabeus says this to his soldiers: “Do not fear their numbers or be afraid when they charge. Remember how our ancestors were saved at the Red Sea, when Pharaoh with his forces pursued them. And now, let us cry to Heaven, to see whether he will favor us and remember his covenant with our ancestors and crush this army before us today. Then all the Gentiles will know that there is one who redeems and saves Israel.”
 
Judas and his men placed their hope in victory through armed conflict, aided by God. And Judas saw the violent defeat of his enemies as the way to show all the Gentiles “there is one who redeems and saves Israel.” That was their story. Over a hundred years later, the site of this battle was where Christ’s two despondent disciples were headed… having their hopes just dashed that Jesus Himself was “the one to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:21).
 
Do we have dashed hopes and expectations of God today? Maybe our life hasn’t gone quite the way we planned. Maybe we were hit by an unexpected setback or loss… a season of grief, or tragedy. Or maybe we’re just left feeling lost and confused… uncertain about what lies ahead.  
 
If so, we’re in good company. Many of us have walked that hard road before… and found that Jesus was walking it right there with us. Not always recognizable… but right there gently inviting us to open our hearts to Him… perceptively challenging us to reconsider our assumptions… our stories… and drawing us deeper into the much wider story of God, and His redemption. His way of salvation.
 
Jesus meets us all on the road. On the way. He’s not sitting back waiting for us to figure it all out first. He’s walking with us, even if we don’t see Him right there with us. Even when we can’t see anything but tragedy, and loss, and hopelessness… Jesus our Saviour is with us… urging us to trust Him, and seek to understand the story we share in.
 
St. Luke tells us that the Risen Jesus came near to these two disciples, and walked with them in their confusion and grief… but He took issue with their assessment that Christ had failed at the cross. No, He says to them. That’s the real victory!

Luke 24:25-27, “Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.”
 
‘All the Scriptures’… meaning the Hebrew Old Testament at this point. After all, the New Testament wasn’t written yet! A lot of the time, we might be tempted to see the Old Testament as a completely different story from the New Testament. Many of us are certainly less familiar with it... apart from the odd story we might remember from Sunday School.
 
But the Old Testament is in fact where Jesus Himself calls His followers to look to understand His own story. They are the roots from which the branches of the Gospel have sprung, and continue to be nourished. And yes, the Old Testament is a complicated part of the story. It takes twists and turns that catch us off guard at times. It covers ground we may find confusing, or even deeply disturbing… but together these sacred writings point us faithfully to our Messiah… to the One who has indeed come to redeem Israel, as well as the Gentiles! Not through waging war, or through violence directed against the ungodly, like so many expect… but by giving His life at the cross to redeem and reconcile us all… even those acting as His enemies. Giving His own body to be broken… and giving His own blood to be shed to set us all free from our sins and wickedness… to set us free to share God’s holy love forever.
 
And contrary to Judas Maccabeus’ grand vision of glory through military might, Jesus shows us that the Messiah Himself must first suffer… and only then be glorified. And as His disciples today, He calls us to follow Him on the same road… to embrace God’s way of holy love, and to reject the path of vengeance and hate. To open our hearts to the whole story of God’s great rescue plan for all nations… drawing us together into one family through the death and resurrection of His Son.
 
As the disciples listened to Jesus on the road, opening the Scriptures to them, their hearts burned… but it was when they were seated at the table with Him that their eyes were finally opened to the truth. As the Risen Jesus took the bread, blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them… the whole story came together. They knew it was Him! And seeing Him alive again changed everything for good.
 
 We see Jesus as we gather at His table too… inviting us sinners to His table… inviting us to receive again the gift of His own life. Despite all our failings, finding not wrath but welcome… not condemnation, but blessed forgiveness… not fear or hatred, but holy love… all because Christ Jesus died and rose again… offering Himself at the cross to redeemed God’s broken but beloved world.
 
This is where the whole story of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, is leading us… to draw near in faith to the crucified and Risen Jesus to receive from Him God’s gift of New Life. The heart of this message is God’s self-giving love revealed in Jesus. And rather than pulling out passages here or there that we think we can make use of for our own purposes, we’re called to respond to this Good News and gift of life and love by walking together the road of life that Christ Himself leads us down.
 
By obeying His commands… of which love… of God and neighbour is the greatest of all. By being willing to suffer for the sake of His Kingdom, rather than imposing our version of it by force. And by turning around… repenting when we find we have taken a wrong turn… trusting that, even when we feel lost, and alone, and confused, Jesus Himself is with us, and longs for us to return to His side… where, by grace we now belong.
 
Once they recognize Christ at the table, Jesus vanished right before there eyes. And even though the hour was late, and they’d been walking all day, these two disciples turn around and immediately head back to Jerusalem to join the other disciples… encouraging one another, sharing their own experiences of the Good News, and finding themselves drawn even deeper into the world-changing adventure of God’s story.
 
May we, like them, have our stories transformed by the Good News of Jesus found in God’s whole story… through the Scriptures… through drawing near in faith to Christ’s Table… through walking in the ways the Risen Lord has taught us… and through our love for God and one another. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Acts 2:14a, 22–32 | Psalm 16 | 1 Peter 1:3–9 | ​John 20:19–31

“Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’  Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’” (John 20:28-29).
 
Yesterday marked the successful conclusion of NASA’s Artemis II lunar mission, as four brave astronauts, three Americans and one Canadian, safely returned to Earth after travelling farther into space than anyone has before… circling the Moon for the first time since 1972, running all sorts of experiments, and reminding a lot of us here at home the kinds of amazing things that are possible when we humans actually work together. At a time when so much in the news seems to be about wars, and scandals, and serious problems on the horizon, it was certainly refreshing and encouraging to hear about this journey to the Moon… and to consider what the next stages of space travel might entail.
 
Now, I’m too young to remember the first time that humans set foot on the Moon. But that moment really did mark an amazing milestone… a new and unparalleled achievement in the human story… proving that all the hard work and science that went on behind the scenes was trustworthy, vindicating the folks at NASA, and firmly disproving the doubters. It also opened the door for further discoveries… for actively contemplating what comes next… as well as inspiring future generations of would-be astronauts to join in this adventure too. 
 
But as important, and exciting, and inspiring as our human expeditions into space have been, last Sunday we celebrated an even greater moment in the human story: the miracle of Easter… the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The birth of our salvation… and the beginning of God’s New Creation.
 
Easter changes everything. Because Jesus rose from the dead, everything we humans have assumed about the world and its destiny has to be reorganized around this new and amazing event… as the Living God turned tragedy into hope… darkness into light… and even death into life.
 
And so, this morning, we’re going to spend some time reflecting on what the resurrection of Jesus means… the implications of this wonderful reality, and how we might begin to respond to it.

First of all, the resurrection is a vindication of Jesus Christ… proving once and for all that He really was God’s Son, and the Saviour of the world. During his ministry before the cross, Jesus said and did a lot of amazing and challenging things… and even though many were compelled to place their faith in Him, plenty of others had serious doubts about what He was up to.
 
And then when Jesus was arrested and crucified, it seemed like all the nay-sayers were right. I mean, if He was God’s Son, sent to save the world… then why would God let something that horrible happen to Him? No, in their minds, Jesus must have been wrong… or worse, a fraud. Another failed would-be leader who could not even save Himself.
 
But then when Easter morning arrives, and the Risen Jesus meets His friends again, more alive than ever… they could see for themselves that His suffering and death at the cross was not proof of His failure, but of God’s amazing victory over the power of suffering and death itself! What had at first seemed like absolute proof that Jesus could not have been the promised Saviour was transformed into the most convincing sign of God’s power at work in Him.
 
In our first reading today from the Book of Acts Chapter 2, we heard St. Peter say as much to a confused crowd in Jerusalem about the Good News of the resurrection of Jesus.
 
Acts 2:22-24, “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.” (Acts 2:22-24).
 
For St. Peter and the other Apostles, the resurrection vindicated Jesus… proving that He was indeed God’s chosen Messiah, sent to save the world… but in the most surprising way. Not by slaying evildoers, as many expected… but by suffering and dying in their place and for their sake! By laying down His life as a gift of love to turn all our hearts back to God, and to one another… to offer us all forgiveness of our sins, and the promise of New Life.
 
This leads us to our second point: the resurrection of Jesus is an initiation… the beginning of something completely new. What happened at Easter was not just a reversal of death, but the conquering of death. Going through it… experiencing its full force and power… and coming out the other side of death more alive than before.
 
This is a key difference between what happened to Jesus, and the experiences of people like Lazarus, or others who have been resuscitated by miraculous or medical means: they all had to return to the same kind of life they had before… and one day in the future, they would all have to face death again. But Jesus’ resurrection was of a completely different sort.
 
After His resurrection, Jesus was truly alive, not just present as a spirit or ghost with no physical body. But His body has been transformed and filled with God’s New Life in such a way that death has no hold on Him anymore. He’s broken free of its power, and He will never die again.

And the Good News is that what happened to Jesus on Easter morning… His victory over death was only the first step… the first instance of God’s New Creation… a pivotal moment, paving the way for others to follow and share in this new reality one day as well.
 
In our second reading today from St. Peter’s first letter, the apostle wrote to his fellow Christians, speaking of the resurrection of Jesus as the source of new life and hope for those who believe in Him, as we look forward to sharing in God’s New Creation.
 
1 Peter 1:3-5, “By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
 
The resurrection of Jesus initiated… it kicked off God’s New Creation… giving us a glimpse of the future that God intends for His beloved but broken world: not its destruction, and abandonment, but its ultimate redemption! Its complete restoration… more filled with God’s blessed life than ever before, and set free from the fear of death forever! And even though for the time being, we know that life remains full of ups and downs… and times of deep suffering… because of Easter, we can hold onto this hope of an imperishable inheritance… this future existence that cannot be shaken, and which rests in the strong hands of our Risen Saviour… encouraging us not to give up, but to stay true to the way of Jesus no matter what comes.
 
And this leads us to our third point: that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is an invitation… an invitation to believe this Good News, and to respond to it.
 
Now as exciting as it was to follow the progress of NASA’s Artemis II mission this last week… and as amazing and inspiring as it is to consider that we humans have actually walked on the Moon… there really are very limited ways that these events actually influence or impact our day to day lives. Sure, some people have been inspired to become astronauts, or scientists as a result of these missions. And yes, as technology gets more advanced, there will likely be more ways to get involved with the grand human space projects. But the way most humans make choices, and live out our lives has precious little to do with visiting the Moon.
 
But the Good News of the resurrection of Jesus… the Good News of Easter morning invites us not just to observe from a distance, but to be drawn into the story and to have our whole lives reshaped by it. It invites us to make daily choices, and to live our lives in ways that line up with what we claim we believe… and to take on our small part in the great mission of God that Jesus the Risen Lord calls us to share in.
 
In our Gospel reading today, we heard the story told by St. John of Easter Sunday when the Risen Lord first met with His stunned disciples. And in that precious, world-changing moment, Jesus puts them to work:
 
John 20:21-23, “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’”

Jesus offers them peace, and empowers them with God’s Holy Spirit… and sends them out into the world… as His ambassadors, and agents of God’s forgiveness… sharing the Good News that He is Risen with the world all around them.
 
But to truly take part in this Easter story… to let the resurrection of Jesus shape the course of our lives, and the choices we make each day… we really do need to believe it. Not necessarily to understand it. Or to be able to explain it all inside and out. No one can. No, the resurrection of Jesus is not a mystery to be solved, but a mystery to be embraced… to say ‘yes’ to, again and again, even when we have our doubts… and deep questions… to say yes, not by checking our brains at the door, but by answering the invitation to explore all the new and exciting horizons and possibilities that it opens up for us and our world. To begin by believing even while we seek to understand. 
 
One week after Easter, John tells us one of the disciples, St. Thomas, still had his doubts. Thomas had missed out on the Easter meeting, and had not yet seen the Risen Lord. And to his credit, Thomas did not want to believe a fantasy or a lie. At one point He had believed that Jesus was the true Messiah, God’s chosen Son and Saviour King… but when he came face to face with the horror of seeing his beloved Rabbi crucified, all that had changed.  And so, he tells the other disciples that he will not believe in the resurrection unless he sees Jesus alive again for himself, just like they did.
 
And yet, even in the midst of all his doubts the Risen Jesus comes and visits Thomas too… inviting him, and all of us to believe… to give our hearts and our lives to our Risen Lord, and spend our days taking part in the good work of His good Kingdom.
 
John 20:27-31, “Then [Jesus] said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’  Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’  Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’  [And as St. John goes on to say:]
 
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” 
 
What kind of life are you and I invited to live today in response to the Good News of the resurrection of Jesus? What does it look like when we really believe that Jesus Christ is risen indeed?
 
There is so much that can be said at this point. Here at St. Luke’s, I’d like to point us to our Parish Vision Statement as a good place to start: Living Faith, Growing Love, Sharing Hope. 
 
Living Faith looks like learning to trust that the Risen Jesus really is with us, even when things in our world seem darkest… trusting that He will not abandon us, or the world He made and loves enough to die for. And that faith calls us not to give up, but to press on in the way that Jesus has taught us to go.
 
Growing Love looks like choosing to resist and let go of things like hatred, prejudice, and pride. And setting aside our self-centredness and sins, so we can start to live the way that God always intended us to… loving God, and one another, and everyone around us.  
 
And Sharing Hope looks like not keeping all this Good News to ourselves, but trying to help those around us experience the reality of the resurrection at work in our lives. To look for ways God is calling us to shine light in the darkness, and to help those suffering in body, mind, or spirit. 
 
The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. And this world-changing event calls us all to respond to it with our whole lives… to believe it, and to live it too. And so today, this first Sunday after Easter, and in the days to come… may we place our faith in the Risen Lord Jesus… and celebrate God’s New Creation already begun in Him… and answer His call to take part in His mission… and to share in His unending life. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Exodus 12:1–14 | Psalm 116:1–2, 12–19 | 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 | ​John 13:1–17, 31b–35

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35).
 
Amid all the craziness and chaos at work in our world these days… all the uncertainty, and greed… all the suspicion… and deception… and the violence and bloodshed apparently tearing humanity apart… amid all this, Jesus Christ, God’s Son invites us all to draw near in faith and dine with Him. He calls us to join Him and one another at His Table… to receive together the nourishment we need… a place already prepared for us… a sincere welcome extended… and God’s gracious gifts and blessings beyond compare. 
 
Tonight, on the night that Jesus Himself was betrayed… the night which saw the first birth-pains of His passion… before He was abandoned by all, and crucified in our place… our Lord Jesus chose to share a meal with His disciples… a sacred meal, pointing back to the Exodus… God’s saving love offered to Israel at Passover in ages past… and pointing now towards God’s saving love offered to all in His own body and blood. 

That night, He also chose to rise from the table, and to take on the role of a servant… stooping down to wash the filthy feet of His apprentices… not shying away from this lowly task, but tenderly caring for those who so often only seemed to care about themselves. He did this to show us the way… to show us what God’s love looks like in practice… not serving ourselves, but humbly… graciously… mercifully tending to one another’s needs.
 
“Do you know what I have done to you?” Christ says, “You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” (John 13:13-17). 
 
In a world apparently hell-bent on abandoning God’s good ways, Jesus our Lord calls us to join Him at His Table… and to join Him in putting God’s good ways into practice. This high calling is not just a suggestion. Just an optional extra add-on.

No, as Jesus invites us to dine with Him, and to be cleansed by Him… to draw near in faith and share in the gifts of His heavenly Table… He also gives us the gift of a commandment… a mandate… our ‘marching orders’ as Christians, so to speak: John 13:34, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another...” 
 
What kind of gift is this? A commandment to love each other? Wouldn’t being commanded to love make it insincere? Forced? Fake? The kind of make-believe sentiment that falls apart as soon as things start to get difficult?
 
Well, if love was just a feeling… an impulse or desire, then yes, this commandment might seem kind of futile. Sort of like commanding someone to appreciate country music… or to enjoy eating dulse… or to cheer for the Maple Leafs. Yes, some of us would find those things pretty easy… while others might be repulsed by the mere thought. Our culture tends to see love along these same lines… as little more than our personal desires and tastes. ‘We love what we love.’ ‘To each their own.’ ‘The heart wants what it wants’… or so the old sayings go.   
 
But love is far more than an inclination or feeling. Love is an act of the will. It’s a choice to act upon. A gift that can be deliberately offered and received… yes, when it’s easy, but even when it’s extremely hard… and even when it’s not at all deserved. We can choose to love… to practice love… to embody it in our day to day lives… or not. In this light, suddenly, Christ’s commandment to love one another doesn’t seem all that foolish anymore.
 
Christ Jesus gives us this commandment, this mandate to love one another because it’s so easy to make the opposite choice… to refuse to love one another… to misuse, or abuse… or to simply ignore each other, and leave those around us to fend for themselves… or to demand that others do our will… and serve our interests… and lower themselves to clean up our filthy feet. Time and again, we humans… even those in the Church… tend to choose not to love one another.
 
And yet, amid all of our failures to get things right, and the messes we’ve made of ourselves, and of God’s good world… Jesus comes to us, and humbly shows us what God’s good ways… what God’s love looks like up close.

He does not just command us to figure out for ourselves how to love one another. He shows us how. He lives out God’s love for the whole world to see, and calls all who believe in Him to do the same. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34).
 
And how has Christ loved us?

Humbly… generously… mercifully cleansing the feet of His followers… stooping down to wipe away all their filth. Not preoccupied with His own status, or comfort, or with some other agenda at work… but choosing to care for us in sincerity and truth… even when we least deserved it. 

Jesus loved us by setting us free from our slavery to sin… setting us free to become God’s faithful family… to share God’s good ways with us, and set us on the path to God’s blessings and peace. Jesus loved us by giving His body to be broken for us… by giving His blood to be shed for our forgiveness… choosing to go to the cross… to suffer and die, crucified… offering Himself in our place. That’s how He loved us. He laid down His life for us. He loved us to the end, with His saving love that will never end.

And the Good News is God’s saving love has proved to be even stronger than death, and Jesus Christ our Lord was raised again for us, to share His New Life with the world. 
 
Amid all the craziness and chaos of our time on this earth, as Christians this is our mandate: to love one another with Christ’s kind of love… a love that seeks to cleanse, to forgive, to uphold, to strengthen… to save. Christ’s love, not just offered when it’s easy, but when it really challenges us. The kind of love St. Paul describes, when he says that “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a).
 
And Christ does not just give us this commandment to love one another as He has loved us… He also gives us the power to fulfill this commandment… pouring this same love into our hearts by the gift of God’s Holy Spirit… strengthening us, and guiding us, and challenging us to love God’s way… far beyond our own capabilities. 

And finally, this commandment to love one another is not only given to us for our own sake. It is given to us as a sign of God’s saving love offered to the rest of our world too! “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35).
 
Sharing God’s love with one another is how the world will know we really are Christ’s disciples. It’s not our eloquence… or influence… not the grandeur of our buildings, or the engaging nature of our services. It’s our love… Christ’s love at work in us… love offered with conviction, and intention. Love offered in humility, and in down-to-earth ways… love practiced in ways that reflect and reveal God’s own self-giving love offered to us all at the cross… bearing with one another… even suffering with and for one another… so that everyone around us might come to see God’s love at work, and draw near in faith to receive this love as well. 
 
In a moment, I will invite anyone who is willing to come forward to have their feet symbolically washed, remembering the humble, gracious, and merciful love that God has shared with us in Jesus Christ, and that He now calls us to share with one another. But whether we come forward, or remain seated tonight, may we all choose to take our Lord’s commandment to heart.
 
May we choose to believe… to draw near in faith and receive God’s saving love offered in Jesus Christ… and let Christ cleanse us from all that would keep us from walking in God’s good an holy ways.
 
May we take and eat Christ’s body broken and His blood shed to set us free. And may we choose to follow our Christian mandate: to share Christ’s love with one another… to humble ourselves, welcome one another, forgive one another… and care for one another… putting the love of Christ into practice in everything that we do. And with the Holy Spirit’s help, may our words and our actions inspire and invite our crazy, chaotic world to turn around and join us in God’s blessed life of love. Amen.

Scripture Readings: Ezekiel 37:1–14 | Psalm 130 | Romans 8:6–11 | ​John 11:1–45

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11). 
 
The last Sunday of Lent is upon us, and Holy Week is just around the corner. Throughout this sacred season, Lent has invited us to journey with Jesus to the cross… to fix our eyes firmly on our Saviour… to follow Him in faithfulness… and to set aside all the things that distract us or derail us from walking in His holy ways. 
 
And this final week as Lent draws to an end, the Scriptures invite us to reflect on where all this is heading… to consider ‘the end’ that we’re moving towards. But first, they call us to face the end of death. 
 
Death is often seen as ‘the end’. That dreaded barrier beyond which the living cannot see. The outer wall of our existence, that sooner or later confronts us all, whether we’re ready to face it or not. Understandably, a great deal of our human story has been about the constant struggle to try and fend death off, at least for a time… living each day in its shadow… unsettled by the mystery of what lies beyond. Death confronts us with our own helplessness. It brings into sharp focus our fears of surrendering control over our lives and our stories… while at the same time amplifying the pain of saying goodbye to those we cherish but whom we are powerless to protect forever… no matter how hard we may try.
 
For many of us here today, death is already all too familiar. We have already had to say goodbye to family members and friends… to those we love and long to be with again. And some of us have had our own seasons when we had come face to face with our own mortality as well. And yes, thankfully, our Christian faith offers us hope of a future beyond death. A hope of a final reunion… and restoration… and reconciliation. A hope that does not make death easy to face per se… but at least it offers us something firm to hold on to when everything else is being shaken.  
 
And yet, even this hope can at times feel far off… far removed from our day to day existence under death’s shadow. Which is why it’s good that our Gospel reading today invites us to go a bit deeper. To not rest content with a true but vague and distant sense of hope, and instead to receive the hope that comes not from denying death’s power… but from trusting the good news that the Living God has already face death and defeated it… for us.  
 
Our Gospel reading today tells a story of the Son of God, Jesus our Lord, facing death with those very dear to Him: with His disciples, and with His friends Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. It’s a familiar story to many of us. A story of illness, of hopes being crushed and rekindled. Of doubts and devotion… of deep sorrow, and faith even in the midst of it. It’s a story of death, and the signs of God’s New Life… the signs of the ending of death. 
 
And we can’t hope to reduce or sum up this profound story in just one morning together. This story is meant to be heard and reheard over a whole lifetime, though it still has much to say to us today. But even though much must be left unsaid this morning, I’d still like to draw our attention to a few parts of this story of how Jesus faced death along with His friends that offers the kind of enduring, and trustworthy hope that you and I and our world really needs. 

This story begins with Jesus and His disciples… His followers receiving word that one of Jesus’ friends, Lazarus, was seriously ill, and was requesting His help. But instead of rushing to the bedside of His beloved friend… Jesus says to His followers: “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:4).
 
And yet… soon afterwards Lazarus does indeed die. And so, we’re faced with a bit of a crisis to work through: I mean, was Jesus just wrong? Or was there much more to the story that still needed to be played out? With hindsight, we now can see that the end result of Lazarus’ illness was not in fact death, but a sign… a revelation of God’s glory. For Lazarus, death was just going to be a temporary stop, not the final destination his illness was leading to.
 
The disciples don’t know all this yet. But when Jesus suddenly tells them that it’s time to visit Lazarus, one thing they do know is that Jesus seems to be planning to lead them straight into serious danger. They had literally just escaped from Jerusalem, where Jesus was almost executed by an angry mob. Heading back to Judea at this moment would mean quite likely having to facing death. Which is why Thomas, moved by true devotion if not hope, says: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:16).
 
Sometimes it’s hard to reconcile our faith in the Living God with what seems to be happening around us… and even with the direction that God seems to be leading us. In those times, when we don’t yet understand, or know how our story will play out… will we stick close to Jesus, and trust Him, even if the way forward seems hopeless? Even if, like Thomas, we assume that there’s no way to get through what lies ahead? 
 
When they arrive in Bethany, Jesus has a moment with both Martha and Mary. They bring Him their griefs and doubts, their anger, and their faith in Him all wrapped up at once. They come to Him having faced the death of their brother… and Jesus meets them both just as they are.
 
Because God doesn’t hide from how hard death is for us… or offer us simple answers or explanations. He knows all the pain and the weight of our sorrows. But what He does do is ask us to trust Him in the midst of it all. To hold onto Him, especially when we are hurting the most.
 
When Martha comes to Him, she cannot hide her great frustrations and pain that are intertwined with her faith in Him. She says to Him: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” (John 11:21-22). When Jesus responds by telling her that Lazarus will rise again, she affirms the truth of that distant, vague hope in a future reunion… the ultimate resurrection of the dead at the end of the ages… the faith of her people that one day all this pain of parting will end forever. But that day feels so far off! It doesn’t seem to be much of an anchor for her in the here and now. And so, Jesus offers her the Anchor she needs.
 
John 11:24-27, “Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” 

I am the resurrection and the life… He says to Martha, and to us all. The Living Anchor for the Christian faith is not a remote vision of an afterlife… it is our Saviour Himself… the One who faced death and defeated it for us once and for all… and who alone is able to see us through death. To carry us through our times of grief and loss… to hold us close, even with all of our anger and doubts and terror… telling us we can trust Him, even when we have no answers, or words to express our pain. He is the One who will weep with us even when He knows that He will soon turn our sorrows into joy.
 
After He meets with Martha, her sister Mary confronts Jesus, repeating Martha’s words of frustration and grief, but without her sister’s sense of hope. John 11:32, “When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” That’s all she can bring herself to say.
 
And instead of offering her answers, or even words of comfort, Jesus weeps with her. He shares in her pain, and takes on her suffering… deeply moved by her sorrow. 

And even though God is the great Creator of all… the source of all that is, seen and unseen… God shows us He is not unmoved by our griefs and pain. His compassion and love for us His children knows no limits. And yet, He is also not overwhelmed by our sorrows… standing back powerless while forces greater than him run amok. No, God weeps with us, even as He works to bring all our tears to an end.
 
And so Jesus comes to the tomb of Lazarus… to the resting place of the beloved friend He still allowed to die. This reminds us that death is not a sign that we are unloved… that God has somehow turned His back on us, or abandoned us. Death is the reality for us all, living as we do outside Paradise. God’s great love does not prevent us from suffering or dying… but He does offer us the sure hope that our stories won’t end in death. Like everyone, we will have to face it, but our loving Saviour will see us through it! 

Jesus calls Lazarus up from the grave, and brought his beloved friend back to life… a sign of God’s power to break death’s apparently unstoppable power. And yet as amazing as it was, this sign was only a foretaste… a glimpse of the glory that was soon to come… when Jesus would face death Himself… enduring the agony of the cross, and entering the grave… not to reverse death, as He had done with Lazarus… but to go through it and defeat death once and for all!
 
When the time had come to take up His cross, our Lord Jesus knowingly walked towards the danger. He confronted those who sought to destroy Him, and brought the fight between the forces of darkness and God’s light to its ultimate showdown… faithfully following the will of His Father in Heaven, and trusting in His unending, unshakable love.
 
And yet… Jesus endured all the agony of sorrow and grief too. He experienced first hand the full terror of the cross, and all that it would require of Him: betrayal, abandonment, humiliation, torture, and public execution.
 
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus earnestly pleaded with His Father: asking that if there was any other way… to please take this cup away from Him! But Christ’s prayer in the end was a prayer of faith. Of trust. Not My will, He says to His Father… Not My will, but Yours be done. 

Jesus faced His own death at the cross through faith. Faith in His Father’s unending love, a love that did not keep Him from suffering… but which saw Him through death and out the other side into God’s glorious new and unending life. 
 
Through His cross, and grave, and resurrection on Easter morning, Jesus broke death’s vice-grip over God’s world, shattering that terrible barrier that had always claimed to be the final end, and He revealed the power of God to make all things new. 
 
Jesus shows us in the midst of life that the grave is not in fact final, but that death itself will come to an end… giving way already to the glorious New Life of God revealed first of all in Jesus Christ the crucified and Risen Lord, and offered to us all in His name, by the power of His Holy Spirit. 
 
This is after all what the Church means when we say that in the Creeds that we believe in the ‘resurrection of the dead’… not just that Jesus was raised to new life, but that in Him, all of His people will be raised as well. As St. Paul said in our second reading today: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11). The same glorious fate as Christ Jesus experienced on Easter Sunday awaits all those of us who are in Christ, and who share in the life of His Spirit.
 
Until that day, we have this anchor of hope in our own encounters with death… the hope that Jesus Christ is with us, that He loves us, and died for us… and He will see us through whatever death throws at us. 
 
And as we prepare for Holy Week, stepping once gain into the story of Christ’s passion… His suffering, and death, and resurrection… let us draw near with faith, trusting in God’s saving love for us and our broken world. Let us bring all that we are to Him… bring all our doubts and devotion, our confusion, and fear… our anger and questions and sorrows with us to the foot of the cross… trusting that though the grave might have its day… in the end our Saviour is leading us into His unending life. Amen.