Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, 16th April 2023

If we had to choose from among the Apostles, one Apostle for today, one with particular relevance to today’s world, who might that be? I think it might well be the Apostle who features in our Gospel reading this morning, it might well be St Thomas, Doubting Thomas as he’s often called.

I say that because, in our Gospel reading today, we see in St Thomas the kind of attitude that’s so prevalent in today’s society. St Thomas didn’t believe what he was told, and he wouldn’t believe unless he could see with his own eyes and touch with his own hands. And isn’t this just the kind of attitude we find in so many people today? So many people today are doubters and sceptics, they want absolute proof before they’ll believe anything they’re told, and if they can’t get that proof, they’ll simply come up with their own ideas to explain what they’re being told. And we see this in quite a few different ways.

One way we see this is in the priority people today give to science over religion. Science is observable and testable. A scientific theory is one that can be tested by many people to see if they can reproduce the same results and draw the same conclusions. A theory that can’t be tested in that way, isn’t scientific. So science is concerned with the search for facts. Religion, on the other hand, is concerned with truth and faith. Religious truth and faith aren’t necessarily unreasonable, but, as the Letter to the Hebrews says,

‘…faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.’ 

We could say that the difference between science and religion is the difference between knowing and believing, and these days, it seems that people want to know before they’ll believe.

Another way we find this kind of attitude in today’s world is in the mistrust so many people have of what they might call the official version of things and of perceived wisdom. So many people today are so mistrustful of any kind of officialdom or authority that they don’t believe anything they’re told. So many people today seem to believe that any kind of official statement must be a lie because those who are making the statement, those in authority, have a vested interest in keeping things as they are and so they don’t want people to know the truth because that would threaten their authority and their grip on power. So people prefer to find out the truth from other sources.

As one person once said to me, he’d never been to university, but he was far more intelligent than anyone who had been because he knew things they don’t teach at university. At university ‘they’ brainwash you into believing what ‘they’ want you to believe. He’d found out the way things really are by teaching himself the truth about things. The things you only find out about if you know where to look for them on the internet.

And that mistrust of officialdom leads to one of the most common ways this kind of attitude is revealed in today’s world, the conspiracy theory. So many people today seem to believe that, if there’s an official version of events, it must be a lie, or at least involve some kind of conspiracy to hide the full or the real truth from people. But have you ever noticed that conspiracy theories are often so complicated and would need to involve so many people, all of whom would have to keep silent both about the truth and the conspiracy to cover up the truth, that they’re often more unbelievable than the official story? One thing I’ve also found about conspiracy theories is that they often seem to be rooted in a lack of understanding; a person doesn’t, or can’t understand how something can have happened so, therefore, they won’t believe that it can have happened and there must be another explanation which is what really happened, the real truth.

We don’t know why St Thomas wouldn’t believe that Jesus had risen from the dead, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that at least some of these ways of thinking I’ve just spoken about were at work in him. St Thomas was no doubt a rational person, he knew that when the Romans crucified someone, that person died, the Romans made sure of that and were very good at that sort of thing. He would also have known that the dead, don’t come back to life, get up, and walk out of their tombs. So his disbelief, his scepticism when he was told that is exactly what Jesus had done, is understandable.

And this is one way St Thomas is relevant to today’s world because it leads us to one of the ways in which, over the years, people have tried to explain away Jesus’ Resurrection. Some people have agreed that Jesus was seen, alive, after his crucifixion but only because he didn’t actually die on the Cross. Some people have claimed that Jesus had only passed out and was taken from the Cross unconscious, but alive. Some have claimed that when Jesus said he was thirsty, this was a pre-arranged signal for someone to administer a drug, passed to him in the sour wine, that would knock him out so the guards would think he was dead and take him down from the Cross, thus setting the scene for his apparent resurrection on the third day.

What we’re doing here, of course, is entering into conspiracy theory land. Just think about it. It’s believed that the Romans did offer drugged wine to those being crucified. But there were three men being crucified that day and Jesus died much more quickly than the others. So for the wine Jesus took to contain a more potent drug than did the wine that was offered to the other two does suggest a conspiracy, and one that the Romans themselves were probably involved in. That claim has been made and some have even gone so far as to suggest that the plan was inadvertently wrecked by the soldier who stabbed Jesus with a spear, which he did because he wasn’t in on the plot. Given that there would have only been five soldiers in the crucifixion guard, it seems very unlikely that, having gone to the trouble of planning all this, the plotters would have been so careless as to let someone wreck their plans by simply walking up and killing Jesus by stabbing him with a spear doesn’t it?

However it happened, Jesus was dead, and St Thomas wouldn’t believe that he’d risen. So perhaps he thought the women had gone to the wrong tomb, as people today still suggest. They must have been distraught on the Friday as Jesus was taken away for burial, so they could have been confused about the precise location of the tomb, though that doesn’t seem likely. We get upset at the funerals of our loved ones don’t we? But we don’t forget where they’re buried do we?  In any case, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus would have known where the tomb was so the disciples could have checked with them whether the women had gone to the right place or not. And so did the authorities because they put a guard on the tomb. And they didn’t claim that the women had gone to the wrong tomb, in fact quite the opposite. They claimed that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body which in itself is a tacit admission that, on that Sunday morning, Jesus’ tomb was empty. 

The accusation that the disciples stole Jesus’ body in order to claim that he’d risen from the dead is, of course, the original and still most popular conspiracy theory surrounding Jesus’ Resurrection. But again, there are all sorts of problems with this theory. First of all, who was involved in the conspiracy? Not St Thomas, judging by his comments to the other Apostles, if there was a conspiracy, he appears to have known nothing about it. And unless they were involved in some double bluff, not St Peter nor St John either because they ran to the tomb and were just as puzzled by what they found as the women had been. And they were two of Jesus’ inner circle, so if there was a conspiracy of any kind, we would expect them to have been in on it. Also, the tomb was guarded so how did the disciples manage to pull it off? How did they get past the guard, remove the stone from the entrance to the tomb, and take Jesus’ body away without being seen? Even if the guards had fallen asleep, is it likely the conspirators could have done all that without waking them up? The conspirators would have had to move very quickly as well as quietly to carry out their plans, so why did they bother taking the gave clothes from Jesus, folding them up and placing them back, neatly? Wouldn’t they have been far more likely to have simply picked up Jesus’ body, still wrapped in the gave clothes and making their escape as quickly as possible? In any case, if the authorities thought Jesus’ body had been stolen, why didn’t they find the disciples, or Joseph and Nicodemus, and beat a confession out of them, as they’d tried to do with Jesus? Beat them into revealing the truth about what they’d done and showing them where Jesus’ body now was? This theory that the disciples stole Jesus’ body in order to fake his resurrection is the most common theory amongst those who want to deny Jesus’ Resurrection, but it really doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

There’s no suggestion in St Thomas words that he was involved in or even suspected any kind of conspiracy, but perhaps he thought that the other disciples were just so distraught by what had happened, that they wanted so much for Jesus to be alive, they were simply seeing and believing what they wanted to see and believe. But in that case we have the problem of multiple attestation. When a haunting or possession is reported, and a priest is asked to visit a house to investigate, one of the things that’s always asked is whether the disturbances or appearances have been witnessed by more than one person. If they have, the likelihood is that there is a genuine problem of some kind. It doesn’t mean it’s supernatural in origin, but if more than one person has witnessed a disturbance, something is going on, it’s less likely to be imaginary or the cause of individual mental health issues, or substance abuse. Many people saw Jesus, alive and well, after his death so it’s very unlikely to have been a case of grief giving rise to hallucinations or wishful thinking. 

When we examine all the conspiracy theories and alternative histories that have been proposed to deny and explain away Jesus’ Resurrection, we soon find that they really don’t hold water. In any case, one of the very best arguments in support of the truth of Jesus’ Resurrection is that his disciples made that claim at all. Why would they? What, on earth, did they have to gain? They’d just seen their leader put to death, saying that he’d risen from the dead was only, ever going to land them in trouble with the authorities.  And they had nothing to gain in earthly terms: they weren’t a large group with any hopes of achieving power or wealth by saying that Jesus had risen from the dead, still less by pointing the finger of blame at the authorities, as Acts of the Apostles tells us they did. So why did they do it, unless they believed from the bottom of their hearts that it was true? Why were they prepared to die for that belief, which many of them did, unless they believed that Jesus had risen from the dead, and that they had seen him, and spoken with him after his Resurrection? 

In his novel, The Sign of Four, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle has his great detective, Sherlock Holmes say, 

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

We have to say that the alternative and conspiracy theories surrounding Jesus’ Resurrection are, strictly speaking, not impossible, but they’re not very likely either so we’re left with what remains, that Jesus died, was buried and on the third day rose again from the dead. That is a statement of faith and for many people today, as for St Thomas all those years ago, believing in such an improbable thing is difficult. Unlike St Thomas, people today can’t come to faith by seeing with their own eyes and touching with their own hands, so we have to rely on faith. Faith is not the same as knowing, it’s not the same as concrete certainty but that doesn’t mean faith is or has to be unreasonable. And when we look at the events of the first Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Day, and what happened in the wake of those things, the best explanation and the best response is to simply say, Alleluia, Christ is risen!

Amen.

Propers for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, 16th April 2023

Entrance Antiphon
Like new born children you should thirst for milk, on which your spirit can grow to strength, alleluia!

The Collect
Almighty Father,
you have given your only Son to die for our sins,
and to rise again for our justification:
grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness,
that we may always serve you
in pureness of living and truth;
through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)       
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
1 Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Acts 2:14, 22-32
Psalm 16:1-3, 10-17
1 Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31

Sermon for Easter Day, 9th April 2023

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On Ash Wednesday, I chose for my sermon text, a reading from the Book of Proverbs:

There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,
a false witness who breathes out lies,  
and one who sows discord among brothers.

I said then that way this proverb is written, six things and seven, is probably a literary device intended to draw attention to the seventh item listed, which is the worst offence of all, and one that all the others lead to, discord among brothers.

During Lent, I preached on these things that God hates, and I’ve shown how we all have these hateful qualities and characteristics, and that what we do at times clearly shows that we have them. And in addition to the six hateful things I’ve already preached about, there’s no doubt that we’ve also all had the seventh in our lives too – discord.

It’s not very hard to see why the first six hateful things lead to discord, to see why and how haughty eyes, lying tongues, hands that shed innocent blood, hearts that devise wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, and false witnesses who breathe out lies, lead to discord, to disagreements, hostility and conflicts between people. And it’s not too hard to see why this seventh thing is the worst and most hateful in God’s eyes because what does discord show other than a lack of love; a lack of love for God by showing that we’re not acting as he wants us to, and a lack of love for our neighbour because we’re treating them so badly, much worse than we’d like to be treated ourselves? So Lent has been, and of course always is, about our sinful ways and about examining our lives in the light of Christ to see where we’re going wrong and how we could be and need to be better. And all this leads to the climax of Lent on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are the climax of Lent because we see on those days just what sin, what having and doing things that are hateful to God leads to. These days are the climax of Lent because they show the result of sin, that alienation from God that’s revealed in Jesus’ cry from the Cross;

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

They’re the climax of Lent because they show the cost of sin, the pain it causes and the death it ultimately leads to, as shown in Jesus’ Passion, his agony in Gethsemane, his betrayal and abandonment, his humiliation, the spitting and beating, the scourging, the thorns and the nails, and finally, his death on the Cross. But these days are also the climax of Lent because, in the light of faith, in the light of what we now know follows these terrible things, they show us the depth of God’s love for us. They show us length to which God, and his Son, were prepared to go to, to save us from our sins and from the true price of our hatefulness.

Having said all that though, those who claim that Jesus’ death on Good Friday is the foundational event of the Christian faith, are wrong. There are those who do say that, in fact it’s something you often hear on TV programmes about Jesus and the Church, but they are wrong. In fact, they couldn’t be more wrong. Jesus’ Passion and Cross are of vital importance to Christians and to the Church but only when we see them in the light of what happened next. The events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are central to our faith, but only because of today, Easter Day, and what we celebrate today. These things are only important to us, and in fact they only make sense to us, in light of Jesus’ Resurrection.

We see Jesus’ Passion and Cross as a sacrifice for sin, a sacrifice that was necessary under the Jewish law. But the law already made provision for sacrificial sin offerings. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the Jewish year and it’s a day that, even today, is still devoted to sacrificial offerings to take away the sins of the people. These days those offerings are usually in the form of prayers and fasting but in biblical times, Yom Kippur was a day for blood sacrifices and for the driving out into the wilderness of the ‘scapegoat’ which, symbolically, carried away with it the sins of the people. But that sacrifice has to be repeated every year and if Jesus had died on the Cross and that had been the end of it, what would his sacrifice have been other than just one more in a long line of sacrificial sin offerings? What more would it have meant or signified to anyone than any other sacrifice meant, or had meant or still means?

No, the foundational event of our faith is not what happened on Good Friday, it’s what happened today, on Easter Day. Today is the day we realise just what God has done for us, just how much he and his Son were prepared to do to free us from the sin and death that our often hateful nature would condemn us to. Today is the day we realise that God didn’t simply send his Son to earth to tell us the error of our ways and show us how we need to live in order to be less hateful to God, but that he sent him to hell and back to prove to us that what his Son said was true and what he did was right. Today is the day we realise that Jesus’ sacrifice was accepted by God. We realise that because he died as a sinner, as one of us, carrying the guilt of all the hatefulness of the world, but he didn’t remain in the death that should have warranted, but was raised from death to life. And because of that, today is the day we realise that we can hear his words,

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” 

and truly believe them. So today and the Resurrection we celebrate today is the vindication of all that Jesus said and did and because of that, today is also both the foundation of our faith in Jesus, of our faith as Christians, and the vindication of our faith.

Despite all this, of course, we still have those qualities that are hateful to God, and we still show them in our words and actions. But when we realise that Jesus’ sacrifice was accepted by God and therefore, that his sacrifice did take away the sin of the world, we can also believe that our sins can be forgiven too.

The Christian faith speaks of both sin and sins, but these aren’t necessarily the singular and plural cases of the same thing. When we speak about sin, what we’re often referring to is a state of being; sin, if you like, refers to the fact that we do have those qualities and characteristics that are hateful to God and are inclined to show them in our words and actions. Sins, on the other hand, refer to the hateful things we actually do and say, the things we do and say that show these hateful qualities and characteristics. So, when we call Jesus the ‘Lamb of God’, which is a reference to the sacrifice he made on the Cross and profess our belief that he takes away the sin of the world, we don’t mean that Jesus’ sacrifice has removed these hateful qualities and characteristics from us. We must realise that because we know we still have them and show them in our lives. What we mean is that Jesus’ sacrifice has removed the consequences that result from our possession of those things.

His sacrifice does that, not by taking away the consequences we do suffer as a result of our hateful nature, which is a tendency to do and say hateful things, but by taking away the consequences we would suffer as a result of those hateful things we actually do and say.

Jesus’ sacrifice doesn’t take away our sin by taking away our sinful nature, it takes away our sin by taking away our need to pay the price of the things our sinful nature leads us to do. We don’t have to pay the price of our sin because Jesus has already paid the price for our sins. He paid the price for our sins in his own blood during his Passion. He paid the price of our sins by dying for them on the Cross. His Resurrection is the proof that God the Father accepted the offering Jesus made on our behalf as the price due, paid in full.

Of course we still have work to do. We don’t get off entirely ‘scot free’ (a medieval term for what we’d call tax evasion, not a slur against our northern neighbours who are sometimes noted for their frugality) for our hateful nature and ways, because we have to do our best to be less hateful to God in what we do. Today is the day we realise that all Jesus said and did was true, but that also means it’s a day when we have to remember that, although Jesus never condemned sinners, he did tell them to “Go, and sin no more.” But nevertheless, when we do allow our hateful nature to get the better of us and lead us into doing hateful things, we know that we can turn to Jesus in penitence and ask forgiveness knowing that the full cost of what we’ve done, the alienation from God and the death that brings, has already been paid and the payment has been accepted. So today is the day when we should realise that, even in our most hateful moments, we should never despair that we’re hopeless, a lost cause, or that we’re unforgivable, because Jesus’ Resurrection assures us of quite the opposite.

And so today, the day when we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the day when we celebrate the foundational event of our faith, the day when we celebrate the vindication of all Jesus said and did, is the day when we can say and should say, loudly and boldly,

Alleluia, Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Amen.

Propers for Easter Day, 9th April 2023

Entrance Antiphon
I have risen: I am with you once more; you placed your hand on me to keep me safe.
How great is the depth of your wisdom, alleluia!

The Collect
Lord of all life and power,
who through the mighty resurrection of your Son,
overcame the old order of sin and death to make all things new in him:
grant that we, being dead to sin,
and alive to you in Jesus Christ,
may reign with him in glory;
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be praise and honour, glory and might,
now and in all eternity.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)       
Acts 10:34, 37-43
Psalm 118:1-2,16-17, 22-23
Colossians 3:1-4
John 20:1-9

RCL (St Gabriel’s)       
Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:1-2,14-24
Colossians 3:1-4
John 20:1-18

Maundy Thursday, 6 April 2023

Propers for Maundy Thursday

Entrance Antiphon
We should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
for he is our salvation, our life and our resurrection:
through him we are saved and made free. 

The Collect
God our Father,
you have invited us to share in the supper which your Son gave to his Church,
to proclaim his death until he comes:
may he nourish us by his presence,
and unite us in his love;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)      
Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-15

RCL (St Gabriel’s)        
Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 116:1, 10-16
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-17, 31-35

Gospel of the Watch
To be read at the end of the hour’s watch
Matthew 26:36-56