What we believe in

"What We Believe in"

Let us Pray - Creator and maker of us all - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - grow thou in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth. Amen

We celebrate today the resurrection of Christ Jesus our Lord.

Think of it - what a day this day is!

Jesus whom his friends, his family, and indeed all of Jerusalem, thought dead, was raised to life on this day some 2000 and 8 years ago.

Not only was he raised to life - but he appeared to people.

He presented himself to Peter who denied him;
to Thomas who doubted him;
to Mary who wept for him;
He visited with his friends,
He took food with his disciples,
He talked with his followers.

The first Easter was an incredible day, one that started with disbelief, with fear and trembling and bewilderment beside the empty tomb, and ended with astonishment, excitement and thanksgiving.

You know what strikes me about the resurrection day?

It is that despite all the disciples had seen Jesus do, from healing the sick to calming the storms, and despite all the disciples had heard Jesus say about how he would be killed and on the third day be raised, not one of them expected - after the cross was raised, not one of them hoped - after he was laid in the grave, to ever see Jesus again.

No one stood watch near the tomb, No one waited to see if he would rise.

When Jesus died their hopes died, their convictions died with him, indeed their faith died with him, and they huddled in the upper room where they had celebrated the Passover hiding there in fear that the authorities would treat them just as they had treated Jesus.

What is striking about the first Easter day is that the resurrection is first discovered - not by Peter upon whose faith the church is founded, but by two women - and that these women do not go the tomb to see if their Lord is risen, but rather they go to finish the job of burying him.

No one expected the resurrection. Despite what they had seen. Despite what they had heard. Despite what they had experienced.

But, Praise God -- it did happen!
It happened because God made it happen.

And, praise God too, because not only did God make it happen, God went on and raised the faith of the disciples, he brought to life again their dead convictions and restored the hopes that they had lost.

It is because of the resurrection that we are here today.

If it had not happened the disciples would never have gone on, they would never have had the courage, the audacity, the nerve, or the temerity to say another word about Jesus in public, let alone to claim that He rose and is Lord of the living and the dead.

Hear again this morning the words of Paul - the words of one who experienced the presence of the risen Christ even as he travelled to Damascus to persecute and kill his followers.

What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and
that he was raised on the third day - also according to the
Scriptures.

This is what we preach and this is what you believed!

My dear brother and Sisters in Christ - The resurrection is the most important thing that we believe in as Christians.

The resurrection is the centre of our faith, it is the foundation of our Christian experience, and it is the goal towards which our lives move.

The resurrection is of first importance to us, not because it is a nice ending to the story of Jesus, but because it is the beginning of our story, a story in which our faith can triumph over death just as did the faith of Jesus.

As Christians we are urged over and over again to trust in and accept the reality of the resurrection and to make it a part of our lives through faith in the one who rose from the dead.

We are a people who are called to believe in the power and the love that it shows - to believe in the power and love of God to bring goodness out of evil; life out of death; and hope out of despair.

And as Christians we are promised that when we trust and believe in this way, that when we believe in the power and the love of God, a power and love that can raise the dead to life,
that our lives will be blest, and that we will be a blessing to others.

We are promised that what we believe will make a difference to us - And indeed it does....

Let me tell you a true story:

In Russia some years ago a railway worker accidentally locked himself in a refrigerator car. Unable to escape or to attract attention, he resigned himself to his fate. As he felt his body becoming numb he took a pencil out of his pocket and recorded the story of his approaching death. He scribbled on the walls of the car:

" I am becoming colder... still colder... I am slowly freezing... half asleep - these may be my last words.

When the car was opened the man was found dead, but the temperature of the car was only about 56 degrees. Officials found that the freezing mechanism was out of order and that there was plenty of fresh air available. Although there was no physical reason that they could find for the man had died. It was concluded that he had died because he had believed that he would die.

My friends, what you believe to be true affects you to the core of your being, it shapes you and makes you what you are, - it either blesses you because it opens you up to the power of God, - or it afflicts you because it blinds you to what you could be and what God is trying to do for you.

Another story, this time a children’s story, that goes like this:

Once upon a time a man found the egg of an eagle. It had been abandoned for some reason by its mother, but as it was still warm the man took it and put it in the nest of one of his backyard chickens along with the other eggs that were there being brooded upon.

After a period of time the eaglet was hatched, and along with the other chicks from his nest began to go about the backyard doing what the other chicks did. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He looked for the corn that the man would throw into the yard. He clucked and cackled as best as he could, and as he grew, he would, just like the other chickens, thrash his wings and fly a few feet in the air.

Years passed in this way and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky. It glided majestically among the powerful wind currents, soaring and swooping, scarcely beating its long golden wings.

The old eagle looked at it in awe and asked "what is that"

"That is the eagle, the king of the birds", said one of his neighbours. "He belongs to the sky and to the high places. We belong to the earth, we are chickens."

The old eagle knew this was true, and so it was he lived and died as a chicken, for that is what he believed he was.

Think my friends of what happened to the disciples after the first Easter morning, after they finally accepted and believed in the resurrection that Christ had told them about.

They came out of the upper room where they had huddled in fear, and they went to the ends of the earth, and they created a mighty church despite the efforts of Emperors and Princes to stamp it and them out of existence.

They went from being people afraid of dying, to being people who offered their very lives to help others come to the faith, and hope, and joy that they had.

Like Paul - and others who have since believed - they were transformed and changed because of the resurrection and their conviction that it was for them that it occurred.

The disciples were changed by their faith in the resurrection and in the God who brought it about:
they were given power to heal and to help others;
power to conquer their own fear and despair;
and power to defeat the fear and despair that afflicts others.

This is what the resurrection is about, what our faith is about.

God can bring back to life that which has died, God can bring good out of evil, love out of hate, and hope out of despair.

This is what we believe; and what we believe makes a difference.

Praise be to God our Father who raises the dead to life. Praise be to Jesus the Son who shares his life with the faithful, and Praise be to the Spirit who makes one with him. Amen