EASTER SUNDAY

Jesus is a pretty remarkable character when you think about it.

We really know very little about him considering his impact on human history, we do not really know when he was born or where, he may not have been learned and it wold not appear he wrote much anyway if he did. It does appear he could read and he appears to have been able to tell stories.

We do not know when he was born though notionally “Dennis the Short” Dionysius to his friends suggested the year 0, but he got this wrong! And now we think it was 4 or 6 BC which always feels odd when you say it.

He seems to have lived mostly in obscurity, he may have been a carpenter, he may have been poor, but we know he had a brief public existence that could have lasted as little as three months or as much as three years, and he never travelled more than a couple of hundred miles from his place of birth.

We know he was crucified when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea.

And we certainly know that the world is different because of his influence in one way or another.

Indeed we are here today to celebrate the fact that somehow Jesus Matters to each of us, and that without his presence our lives would be utterly unrecognisable.

Furthermore somehow we say that this presence of Jesus with us today and the reason he still matters in the present tense and not the past tense is that his rose from the dead.

Don’t please expect me today to tell you how or in what sense this happened…. After all church history from then until now has differed widely on this point.

We do realise that for the early disciples like Peter, Stephen and Paul it seems the empty tomb was not very significant at all. The fact that Jesus was crucified was important and the proclamation that his life continued after three days was also significant.

How this was accomplished is unknown, how Godly or manly Jesus was is also not clear except by beliefs and doctrines set down by his followers since. You might say it was all a matter of opinion.

But you and I are here because the opinion we do share is that Jesus Matters now, as well as then.

As Christianity broke out into the Greek world and Roman Empire it was certainly more prevalent to speak of divine beings coming to earth. For the Jewish nation this notion was too difficult to swallow.

Paul seems to come down on the notion that it was after Death that Jesus was found seated at the right and of the Father, but thousands of years of controversy and discussion have probably clouded the issue.

So we are left with the “now” for us.

It has been said that the one thing we can be certain of is the now. It is the now where we can make a difference.

The past we can do nothing about, the future is yet to be, it is the present where we live. It is most real part of time for us all.

It is into the now time that we say Jesus lives alongside us. This is what has to transform what and who we are.

This is celebrated in the church not just at Easter but hopefully each time we gather together….  indeed Sunday became known as “The Lord’s Day” precisely because of this transforming power of the life of Jesus that conquers not just his own death but even the death of our very selves.

Paul Bloomer last Tuesday spoke many times about his pictures most movingly as the conquering of light over the darkness. For Christian lives the light (of Christ) has to win over the darkness of “death and destruction”. Paul portrayed this many times in his images, but we all know I expect the feelings of the times when this victory is won in our own lives.

The Passion gospel graphically portrays the times the struggle of light and dark, of death and life, are played out in the story.

The Easter Gospel likewise is constantly telling of the opposite,

 the times when life wins

and the light shines through the darkness. Weary fishermen are transformed, strangers and sceptics come to believe and are made welcome,

bedraggled disciples are filled with fresh life and hope..

and even criminals are promised a part of the kingdom too.

It is from beginning to end a story of transforming power. Of the way God breaks into our lives and makes them real today. NOW.

It is a story that is lived through our own lives TODAY … NOW.

Jesus Christ is Rise today alleluia

Now is eternal life, if Risen with Christ we Stand.

We are Christ for our world today. alleluia