Sunday, April 28, 2013

Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148; John 13:31-35

Loving God, as you opened the tomb and raised Jesus to new life, so open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit that as your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today, and in confidence go forth to live what you show us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Today we speak in the name of Christ Jesus about love - about Christ-like love - about the kind of love mothers - and fathers - and indeed each one of us - are called to have - and by the grace of God - do have - should we in fact be following in his steps through faith.

We know the commandments concerning love - about who we should love and how we should love them.

What is the greatest commandment Jesus is asked. And he replies: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and the second is like it - love your neighbour as yourself.

A certain rabbi writing about the second of these laws, as it is found in Leviticus 19:18, tells a story that goes likes this:

A Russian peasant farmer who never left the small and parochial surroundings of his town had occasion to come the big city of Moscow. He arrived at the elegant hotel with mud on his boots and overalls looking completely inappropriate. The man at the desk assigned him to a room on the top floor and treated him as any other paying customer.

With key in hand and a few possessions he started the long climb to the hotel room. On the first landing there was a full-length mirror. The man who had never seen himself before was suddenly startled and frightened by the imposing image before him. He growled and barked to scare the him away - only to find that the image in the mirror was willing to threaten and shout the same.

He ran to the next floor and confronted the fearsome giant again exchanging harsh looks and almost coming to blows. On the third floor they stood nose to nose and exchanged simultaneous insults as a deepening war-like attitude was taking root in both of the them.

Realizing that there was no where to escape this ugly beast-like fellow who was aggressively stalking him in the hotel he ran quickly back to the lobby and to the front desk to file a complaint. After having given a detailed description of the perpetrator the man at the desk understood that the he had met the enemy and it was the man in the mirror. So as to save the face of his guest and to disengage the hostility he offered simple advice.

He said, "The fellow who you confronted is here to protect people. He is really quite harmless. Trust me. If you will show him a harsh and angry countenance he will do the same. However if when you see him you just smile pleasantly and continue on your way he will nod and smile at you as well. Enjoy the rest of your stay."

That's what he did and remarkably that's what happened...

King Solomon is reported to have once said: "Like the reflection of a face in water so is the heart of one person to another."

To love another is a difficult thing - especially when our experience of love is flawed, especially when we are unaware of how much we are loved, and most especially when the reflection in the water is full of anger or bitterness or resentment - as so many are.

To really love another we often need a standard or guide to follow and within that standard or guide - we need help - help to not only know what love is - but to know that the love we need is within us; that it is embracing us and has the power to embrace others through us, especially to embrace those others towards who we do not feel love.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself.

These commands, Jesus said - and all the Rabbi's agreed - summarize the Law and The Prophets, that law which Jesus says will not pass away until all is accomplished.

To that law - that law which can be most difficult for us to keep - Jesus added one commandment, and one commandment only, during the three years of his ministry - the commandment heard in our Gospel reading this morning - the one given by Jesus as Judas departs from the Last Supper to betray him to his death.

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

As I have loved you, so you must love another.

And how is it that Jesus loves us? Is it not by giving himself away for us? By blessing us even when he knows that we are not following - and perhaps will not follow him? By being pro-active in love - rather than simply reactive?

Look at the cross. Look at this table where the Lord's body and blood are lifted up so that we might remember.

This is the love that seeks to embrace us.

This is the love that is more than simply our guide and our model.

It is the love that when received - is more than able to pour itself out upon others, no matter how we might "feel" about them.

It is the love of the one who gave himself for us while we were yet enemies of God; the freely given love of the one whose faithfulness destroys our death and whose resurrection restores our life.

A story is told about a teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put his boots on.

He asked for help and she could see why. With her pulling and him pushing, the boots still didn't want to go on. When the second boot was on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost whimpered when the little boy said, "Teacher, they're on the wrong feet." She looked and sure enough, they were.

It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off then it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on - this time on the right feet. He then announced, "These aren't my boots." She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, "Why didn't you say so?" like she wanted to.

Once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off. He then said,"They're my brother's boots. My Mom made me wear them."

She didn't know if she should laugh or cry. She mustered up the grace to wrestle the boots on his feet again. She said, "Now, where are your mittens?" He said, "I stuffed them in the toes of my boots..."

Ever have one of those days???

I think all of us do. The question is - will we bite our tongues - and do that good thing we desire to do? Will we face the countless little crosses that appear before us each day? Will we willingly taking on the burdens that should not be ours to take - despite a lack of appreciation and understanding among those whom we are helping?

This is what love does - it accepts the little crosses, knowing that the large cross has already been taken for us, knowing that because Jesus has accepted us, so we can accept others in his love - that we can trust them into his care, his judgement, his mercy, and his righteousness.

And never more so than with those towards whom love is hardest to show, the self that fears the evil within - that stranger that we see in the mirror - and the other strangers, those who are not in the mirror, but who stand before us in person screaming words like "crucify him" and holding in their hands the nails of execution.

Love one another as I have loved you.

This means be open to the new and to that which was previously impossible for us to be open to, to be open - as Peter, in today's reading from the Book of The Acts of The Apostles, was open - open in his imperfect - human - but inspired way - to those he considered unacceptable, to those that all the apostles had previously thought to be outside of the loving embrace of God, open to the gentiles - the foreigners - to those viewed by all as unclean - as unholy - as undesirable.

For us that may mean be to be open to those that our wisdom and our feelings tell us to be unclean, unholy, unacceptable, and undesirable.

For some that may be someone in their own family who has hurt them beyond words. For others it may be the nameless beggers from Mainland China who beg in our streets. Or the sinners who enter into our homes to steal not only physical treasures, but to rob the entire human family of its joy and hope. For still others it may be an employer, a debtor, or some group of persons that have done us or our world an injury.

God will judge all people. Not us. Blessed be God for that!

Blessed be the one whose love does not fail - and who wills to give us that love, and who vows to take care of all who follow him, to nurture them and help them to grow and to usher them into the blessedness of his eternal kingdom.

God will judge all people. Not us. Love one another as I have loved you!

God asks a question of his people through the prophet Isaiah, in the 49th Chapter of the Book of that Prophet. He asks of his people who are in exile for their sins: Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?

And he answers: Even these may forget. Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

Christ has inscribed us on the palm of our hands. He does not forgot us.

And so the answer to question of the love of God for us is also answered with a promise - a promise that came to pass for Israel, and even now is coming to pass among those of us who are willing to see: Your builders outdo your destroyers, and those who laid you waste go away from you. Lift up your eyes all around and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you shall put all of them on like an ornament, and like a bride you shall bind them on. Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land - surely now you will be too crowded for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

Love one another as I have loved you.

God loves us most powerfully. And gives us the power to love others.

Would you love someone today that you find it hard to love? Then know that God loves you - that God loves you without condition and will make your life full and abundant as you turn to love others with his love.

Another story for today: An elderly woman and her little grandson, whose face was sprinkled with bright freckles, spent the day at the zoo. Lots of children were waiting in line to get their cheeks painted by a local artist who was decorating them with tiger paws.

"You've got so many freckles, there's no place to paint!" a girl in the line said to the little fella. Embarrassed, the little boy dropped his head.

His grandmother knelt down next to him. "I love your freckles. When I was a little girl I always wanted freckles," she said, while tracing her finger across the child's cheek. "Freckles are beautiful!"

The boy looked up, "Really?"

"Of course," said the grandmother. "Why just name me one thing that's more beautiful than freckles." The little boy thought for a moment, peered intensely into his grandma's face, and softly whispered, "Wrinkles."

May all our friends - and all those who would be our enemies if we let them be, have beautiful freckles and gorgeous wrinkles. Let go and let God, and love one another as Christ loves you - with a love that saves and redeems his people - both Jew and Gentile alike. Blessed be God's name, day by day. Amen.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Revelation 7:9-17; Psalm 23; John 10:22-30

Loving God, as you opened the tomb and raised Jesus to new life, so open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit that as your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us, and in confidence go forth to live what you show us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

The 23rd Psalm is probably the best known, most loved, most quoted portion of Scripture. It is so familiar that people who seldom if ever read a Bible or go to church can often still quote a portion of this Psalm.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for you are with me.
Your rod and thy staff they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies,
You anoint my head with oil,
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

One problem, though, is since this Psalm is so often requested at death-beds and funerals, we too often associate the 23rd Psalm with death and dying. But the Psalm is really for the living. It speaks to the living - those who are fully alive in the true sense of the word.

Roy Campanella, a baseball player, was in an bad accident many years ago that left him as a semi-invalid. In his autobiography he talks about the many nights he cried himself to sleep, about the pain that racked his body and his sinking into deep depression.

He writes:

All my life whenever I was in trouble, I had turned to God for help. I remembered my Bible and asked the nurse to the get the one from the drawer in the night table. I opened it to the 23rd Psalm: `Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me.'

"From that moment on", he wrote, "I was on my way back. I knew I was going to make it!"

There are hundreds and thousands of testimonies like this - of how persons have found in this simple Psalm the comfort, strength, and the assurance that they are going to make it!

I'm sure many of you can tell your own stories about what this psalm has meant to you.

Psalm 23 not only gives comfort to the dying, it also gives courage, strength, and hope to those who are alive.

One of the things we realize, though, is that the 23rd Psalm is steeped in the language and customs of shepherding and sheep in Palestine back in Biblical times. If we don't know anything about the customs of shepherds and the unique relationship between the good shepherd and the sheep, then much of what this Psalm has to say simply passes us by.

What I am going to do this morning is focus on just one small part of the Psalm - verse 4:

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Tradition tells us that the Valley of the Shadow of Death is a real place in Israel.

It is a valley, or a mountain pass, that got its name from shepherds because of it's steep sides and sheer rock walls. But is was a pass that enabled the shepherds to lead their sheep from one mountain pasture to another. However it was a terrifying place for skittish, defenceless, fearful sheep: for in the steep cliffs on both sides of the valley there were numerous caves and rocks and crevices that were perfect hiding place for animals of prey - and for people who meant harm to passing travellers. Sounds would echo and amplify in the valley, making it a terrifying place for sheep.

We look at the Psalm and hear:

The Lord is my shepherd.... He makes me lie down in green pastures.... He leads me by still water.... He leads me in paths of righteousness.

But now the sheep are in the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Question: How did they get there? We have to assume that the Good Shepherd has led the sheep into the valley.

Now, the images in this Psalm are clear. The shepherd is the Lord. Indeed, from our Gospel reading, we hear that Jesus identifies himself as the Good Shepherd. The shepherd is the Lord. And, of course, we are the sheep.

And what is the Valley of the Shadow of Death?

It is those terrifying, dark, lonely, frightening times in life - times of sickness, tragedy, emotional stress, tension, economic disaster, loneliness, when God may seem far away.

But we see here that it is the Good Shepherd who leads the sheep into the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

But we must remember that the shepherd has a purpose: The shepherd takes the sheep from pastures that are now eaten up and barren, where food is scarce and the land is parched, to new lush, green meadows. But to get there, the shepherd and the sheep have to pass through the valley.

The sheep don't understand this. The sheep cannot comprehend the purposes of the shepherd. All that the sheep experience are the frightening, terrifying surroundings.

But the shepherd knows. The shepherd has a reason, a purpose. And the sheep have learned to trust the shepherd.

As Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand."

Yes, the sheep have grown to trust the shepherd. The shepherd has proven trustworthy and so the sheep follow the shepherd even through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, "fearing no evil."

And so it is the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, who leads us through troubled and difficult times of life. But he has a reason, a purpose - to lead us to greener pastures, to deeper faith. He calls us to trust in him, to put our faith in him, even when we cannot always see his plan or purpose.

But we trust the Good Shepherd, because we know the shepherd is trustworthy.

Another thing we need to realize is that there is a world of difference between death and the shadow of death. The shadow may be frightening, dark, and cold, but they are just shadows, not the real thing.

What is death?

Death - real death - is separation from the awareness of God's love and grace. Death is being afraid of God.

It doesn't matter how strong or healthy and safe or secure you may think you are, if you live outside of the love of God, if God is someone you do not know or have come to fear, then you are among the living dead. You are living in death.

But St. Paul tells us that Christ has taken up our death into life! Into the resurrection life prepared for all who trust in him.

Do you remember when Jesus came to the tomb of his good friend, Lazarus, and he met his sisters, Mary and Martha, how Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, yet shall they live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die."

The promise that we Christians have every day of our lives is that we will never die. We will never be separated from the love of God that we have through Jesus Christ.

But there will be those times when we experience the valley of the shadow of death. There will be those times when we might feel forsaken, abandoned, alone, rejected, those troubled times when we may wonder where God is.

The valley of the shadow of death are those times when we feel forsaken, but by faith we know that we are not, because we have both God's promise, and the experience of God's grace and love for us throughout the past.

When we are in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, we may feel as if God is far away, but deep down inside we can know that God is very near. God promises us life - life in this world, and life in the world to come. Christians don't die. God simply calls us from one life to another.

But as long as we live in this world of sin and suffering, we will experience the shadow of death.

And that can be a terrifying experience for us. At that time it is good to recall how the Good Shepherd is leading us to green pastures where he will restore our souls. To remember that he is preparing a table for me - a table that contains the bread of heaven and the wine of everlasting and abundant joy..

Listen to the voice of the shepherd when you are in the valley of the shadow of death. Listen and know that he is leading to a better place.

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you, O Lord, are with me. Your rod and your staff comfort me.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Blessed be the name of our God - now and forevermore. Amen

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Acts 9:1-20; Psalm 30; John 21:1-19

Loving God, as you opened the tomb and raised Jesus to new life, so open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit that as your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today, and in confidence go forth to live what you show us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

As a teenager I engaged in what most teenagers engage in. I tried to figure out whether or not what I was thinking and feeling was normal or if in fact I was as different from everybody else as I suspected I might be.

You ever done that?

And again, when I became a Christian - I tried to figure out what was a normal way to experience the faith. I only did that however - after I noticed that my pattern of belief - my pattern of conversion - was not shared as widely as I had first thought.

What I went through was nothing quite as dramatic as what Paul experienced; but it did share some elements of what countless numbers of people have undergone.

I began with nothing but a wish - a dream - a hope - that maybe there was something more to life than what I could see, touch, and taste. Something more than "might makes right". Something more than "survival of the fittest".

I grew up in a home where God was almost never talked about, and where the holy things of our faith were unknown.

So for me there was a time of longing - of seeking - of struggling - for what I did not know;a time which finally cumulated in encountering a group of Christians who engaged me in a conversation: a conversation over several months, about God and about Jesus, and about how in Jesus God shows his unconditional love and his redeeming purpose for all people - even for one such as I.

And the love that this group of Christians showed me, and the willingness they had to examine their own faith and their own assumptions about what it taught, touched me - and permitted me as I was reading the Gospel According to Luke one night in my little room, to move from unbelief to faith; from a life where the Tarot Cards and Astrology were being used to give direction, to a life where the law and the prophets provided guidance and the inner voice of the Spirit was at last heard.

In short there was a day and a time when I gave my life over to God - a day and a time when I prayed what is known in some places as the sinner's prayer, the prayer that goes something like this:

Lord Jesus Christ, I repent of my sins. I believe in you. I want you to be Lord of my life, to cleanse my soul and open the gates of heaven to me. Come into my heart. Help me to follow you each day. Rule in my life. Amen

And so it was. And so it continues - day by day.

But - in my innocence - in my lack of knowledge - and in face of the number of people throughout history who have gone through something like what I went through - I made an assumption back then, a common assumption: the assumption that all "true believers" (you notice how I said that don't you?) that all "true believers" must go through a time when they repent of their past and consciously invite Jesus to be Lord of their lives.

And indeed there are many who tell us that this pattern of experience is the normal pattern, indeed the only pattern, that ensures one's salvation; that the pattern seen in St. Paul - who - though a believer in God - persecuted the church - and then - hrough an encounter with the Risen Christ and through the testimony of others - turns his life around and is made into a disciple and apostle of the good news. Is the pattern that should be seen in us all.

John Newton - the composer of the hymn "Amazing Grace" which is so well loved by the church around the world had the same kind of saving experience as Paul.

Brought up in a rough circumstances, Newton became the captain of slave trading ship. He drank hard, he worked hard, and he hated with a passion all things Christian, all things he saw as weak, all things that would bridle his behaviour...and then - after years of self-loathing and of hating others, he heard the gospel with fresh ears - the Spirit worked in his heart - and he gave control of his life over to Christ Jesus, ending his days as a beloved Pastor in a church in London, ending his days as the author of the words we love so well:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

Such profound and beautiful words.

But what about those who have never been lost?
What about those who have never been blind?

What about those who have believed from their mothers knee and heard the gospel from the lips of their fathers or their grandfathers?

What about those who have ever worshipped God as revealed through Christ Jesus those baptised as a child and confirmed as a young teen?

What about their experience?
What about their faith?

You know - we can so easily - even with the best and most loving motives - make other people feel unimportant, unvalued, somehow second class.

We - with our seeking to define for ourselves what is normal so that we can assure ourselves that we are normal end up imposing upon others our definitions; we end up judging others by the "one right way" we ourselves have subscribed to.

And yet there are many ways that lead us into a whole relationship with God and many people who have a whole relationship with God from their infancy: a relationship that may have it moments of confession and profession - it's times of wandering and returning - but whose essential strands are never broken and whose certainties are never in doubt.

After all my years as a follower of Christ, I remain convinced of the truth of what Kathryn Kulman, a great evangelists said when she wrote these words:

"God has no grandchildren"

I understood some years ago that to mean that no one can inherit their faith, that each person must confess and profess for themselves.

That is most surely true.

But that does not mean that those whose confession and profession has happened countless times since they were but babes coming to worship and repeating the creeds as we repeat them during this Easter Season are not as equally loved by God and saved by God as those who have at one great moment of their lives done it for the very first time in their basement bedroom - or on a highway - or beside the seashore.

Nor does it mean that those who have said the Lord's Prayer and who have called upon God over their meals and gone to Sunday School with their parents or grandparents are any less devoted followers of Christ than those who like Paul did not turn to Christ until later in their lives.

What it does mean is that everyone is called to have a personal relationship with God through Christ Jesus - and that relationship is one in which God accepts us as one of his much loved children - and we accept God as a much loved - and supremely good - parent: a parent who calls us to a holy obedience and an everlasting joy, an obedience and a joy that are based not on compulsion, but upon love.

What it also means is that each of us, from the youngest to the oldest, is loved intensely and personally - as only a mother or father can love their first born child.

What's normal?

In today's world as in the world of the past there are many people - perhaps more than anytime since the Emperor Constantine made the faith legal who will go through the pattern of call and conversion that Paul went through, that John Newton went through: - an experience that leads them from being lost to being found, and from being blind to seeing - from believing in nothing to believing in the God who does everything good.

And there are many who have always had the freedom, the sense of belonging, the vision, that people like these have only come to latter in life, people like many of you here have had since your grandmothers sang hymns over your cradle or your father took you to be baptised and your brothers and sisters accompanied you to Sunday School.

What unites us is not how we arrive at faith, nor is it even how we worship or where we worship or when we worship.

What unites us is the God who calls us all together, and who names us as Christ's brother and sister and who calls us to continue in faith - to love one another - to watch over one another to know Christ as both crucified and risen and to trust in him.

There is one right way - but there are many roads that lead us to it, there is one God - one Christ - one Spirit - but many believers, many experiences of coming to faith and staying in faith.

St. Paul - whose conversion - or call - name it what you will - is featured in today's readings once said this:

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

As the scripture says, 'anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame', for there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him."

I no longer know what is normal.
And I no longer care.

It is enough for me that God has called me to give my life over to him, and that God will never let me be put to shame as long as I trust in him and follow him.

And it is great joy when others - the cradle born believers or the newly re-born - sing God's praise and give testimony to God's goodness and strive to do what Peter - the rock upon which our church is built - was called to do: when they feed Christ's sheep and tend to the Lord's lambs.

I love the Lord and I love how in the way that is appropriate to each of us individually he calls us, how he knows our names and remembers who we are and makes us his own.

Peter or Paul, Mary or Martha, Richard or Robert, Denise or Shelley each of us are called in a different way.

We are called and equipped by God, we are named and blessed by Christ - so that we might not only be blessed, but bless others.

Let no-one, not even your own selves, say your faith is less important or meaningful than someone else's, rather give thanks and glory to God for the faith you have received and love Christ and feed his sheep, his lambs, even as he has called you to do through Peter the Rock upon which the church of God is built in this world. Amen

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Acts 5:17-32, Psalm 150; John 20:19-31

O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.

Today's gospel lesson from John tells us about the first appearances of Jesus to his disciples after his death and resurrection, about how Jesus appeared in their midst on the first evening of that first Sunday when they were huddled together in fear and greeted them with words of peace - and then showed to them the wounds in his hands and his side so that they might believe what their eyes and their ears were telling them.

At that time, that first resurrection night, Jesus gave his disciples his Spirit and the authority to go and forgive the sins of people around them, the authority to remove from them the weights that prevent them from living a whole and fruitful life.

The disciple Thomas was not there that first night, but the Scripture records that the other 10 told him about how Jesus had come to them and how they had seen him and heard him.

The scriptures too record his reaction to this news:

"Unless I see the scars of the nails in his hands and put my finger on those scars and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

A normal reaction for a normal kind of person. Give me proof - give me something I can touch and see - and I will believe.

And the Scripture goes on to record that Thomas' demand for proof was satisfied - that Jesus appeared again, a week later, to the disciples in the upper room - and Thomas was there, and Jesus after greeting them all with words of peace called to Thomas and told him to look at him and touch him and to believe - and Thomas did so - he believed what he saw and said to Jesus when he believed - "My Lord and my God"

Sometimes I think that the disciples had it easier than we did. How easy it is to believe when you can see and touch - as did they all in one way or the other.

What an advantage that is!

But then I think - about Jesus's words to those disciples and to Thomas in particular:

"Do you believe because you see me? Blessed are those who believe without seeing me."

Blessed are those who believe without seeing me....Why is that?

Why is it blessed to believe without seeing? Without touching? Without hearing first, from the Messiah's mouth as it were, for ourselves?

I think that the answer lies in the nature of seeing and in the nature of faith.

Many people say that seeing is believing, but that is far from true, in fact the opposite is more often the case - believing is seeing - believing something opens up to us the possibility of experiencing it - of seeing it come to pass in our lives - and of having that which we believe produce in us many kinds of blessings.

If you wait to see something before you will believe in it - then you may never see what you want to see come to pass.

I remember some years ago reading about a most interesting person who had an interview on TV - the PBS network carried an interview with H. Ross Perot.

Mr. Perot, for those who may not remember, was a wealthy Texan who has emerged out of nowhere to become a candidate for the Presidency of the United States of America.

He was a candidate without a party and without any party support, and if he was to be elected, people in every state of the Union would literally have to write his name in on the ballot sheet.

That, I read, hasn't happened in over 100 years in the United States - but what was so fascinating about Mr. Perot was that he believed that it could be done, that he, with the support of the American people could not only get elected without any support whatsoever from any political party machine, but that he could successfully pull the United States back from the brink of ruin, by stressing personal responsibility, ethical behaviour, kindness to one's fellow man, and love for those whom you work with and whom you serve.

Apparently his belief in these things turned the American election into something worth watching that year - I understand that every day, as Mr. Perot talked, he gained more and more support for what - if it was not for his belief - would be a totally impossible dream.

His belief brought into being something that no one alive had ever seen before - and, for quite the longest time, it seemed that it might lead to a new kind of presidency and a new kind of America.

Mr Perot's belief, his conviction about things neither he or anyone else had seen, produced a new political situation in the United States at that time, it made it possible for him, and for many others, to see as possible, what was before thought to be impossible, namely a truly independent Presidential candidate whose only debt would be to the American people rather than to special interest groups, lobbies, and back room boys.

I do envy the disciples their experience of being able to see Jesus after the resurrection, of being able to touch his wounds and put their hands in his side, and hear him say "Peace be with you".

What an incredible experience to have.

But while I envy them that particular experience, I do not require that experience, and neither do any of you require that experience, to have faith in Christ and his resurrection, and to receive from him the blessings of the power that God has given him.

All we require is a decision to believe the reports that we have heard, and to commit our lives to Jesus as our Lord and our God, and all the rest will come out of that..

Paul writes: "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your hearts that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.".

He also writes: "Whoever believe in Him will not be disappointed"

Think of all the people who have believed in Jesus, without ever having seen him as the disciples saw him, and who, after a number of years of believing have claimed that many have been the times since they first believed that they have - felt Christ's presence in their lives - seen their prayers and the prayers of others answered - and been helped through hard times because of their faith in God's promises.

It was once said - and not so long ago- that no one could build a ship out of iron and have it float, because iron is heavier than water - but someone believed that it could work, without ever having seen it work, and now iron and steel ships abound.

What is true for ships is doubly true for aeroplanes, and even more true for those, who without having seen, have had faith in the risen Lord.

Happy are those who believe without seeing. Happy are those who have made a decision to assert that life is stronger than death, that goodness is stronger than evil, and that love is stronger than hate, despite all that they have seen that might suggest the opposite.

They are happy because when they have come to believe in the Lord of life, the Lord of goodness, and the Lord of love - they see and experience all that they believe in and they are saved - they experience goodness from God, a goodness that always conquers the evils that they may face in their daily lives.

Paul says that: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

And faith my friends has moved many a mountain, healed many a sick person and overcome many an obstacle.

As the book of the Acts of The Apostles shows, when the disciples finally believed in Jesus, when they were convinced that he truly rose from the dead, they went from being people who hid in fear, fear of the authorities who had crucified their teacher, to being people who like that teacher not only healed the sick and did many mighty works, but who actually, despite being imprisoned by the authorities, were able to stand up before them and proclaim the name of Jesus.

Their faith gave them courage and peace - the peace that Jesus kept praying upon them. It gave them power to help people who were lost in their own sin and despair. And it gave them invulnerability to the criticism and negativity of the world around them.

As Peter says to the authorities in today's reading from Acts, it gave them the Spirit of God - the Spirit which is given to all who believe in and do God's word.

I have sat down with many a sceptic and have then got up and gone away feeling that I have been drained of life of hope, and of joy. But I have never sat down with a person who truly believes in God and then got up with any other feeling than one of hope, and renewed courage and faith.

The gospel message is very simple - Belief comes first and sight then follows - that when you believe - you become, and you live.

This is how it works in the world of science and invention, and this is how it works in the realm of the Spirit and the law, the realm of Christ and of God our Father and our Creator. AMEN