Ascension 2015: Setting Out With a Caring God

Readings: Isaiah 49:8-21;  Luke 24: 50-53; Acts 1: 1-11

Earlier this week, on Thursday, it was the feast of Ascension. We Baptists aren’t great at marking Christian festivals at the best of times. But Ascension is perhaps one of the most easily overlooked. There are some quite practical reasons for this. It falls on a Thursday and nothing religious happens on a Thursday, does it?

It is also quite close to two other festivals which do occur on Sundays – Easter and Pentecost. I suppose many find it easier to see the relevance of the Resurrection and the birth of the church.

It might also be because we no longer have that three tier heaven-earth-hell worldview. Humanity’s been through the clouds to find not heaven but the outside universe. In our modern era can we take seriously the idea of Jesus lifting off vertically into heaven, with his nail scarred feet sticking out of a cloud? I mean where has he gone?

Of course we use the idea of moving up in a different way. We speak of someone ‘moving up’ in the world. They’ve done well for themselves. They’ve moved to a different social class. Fair enough, in Harrow that might involve going to live on the hill. But they may not live in a physically higher location. In the same way of climbing the ladder, on ‘moving upstairs’ in the business world. Again we’re talking about status, rather than physical location.

However we visualise the events of the Ascension, that’s the important thing. It’s about Jesus status, rather than his physical location. Ascension marks the moment of God’s final acceptance of all that Jesus had done. Having completed all that God had sent him to do, Jesus is received back into the Godhead and exalted as Lord of all.

The theologian Tom Wright suggests that when you see it that way it’s not surprising Ascension hasn’t taken off (geddit?). For Ascension makes a statement to those who think they control our world and its destiny that there is one over them, one to whom even they are ultimately accountable. That’s not always the most comfortable thought.

Tied in with Ascension message of the sovereignty of Jesus Christ is the promise of God’s purpose for the world. In Acts, as Jesus ascends we get the promise that he will come again to dwell amongst his people and make his rule complete. From this comes the commission to the church to spread the news of God’s rule and invite others to accept him.

Ascension’s not just a nice, optional add on. For Jesus it’s the ultimate goal of all that went before and without it Pentecost makes no sense.

Yet for those guys stood on the hillside as Jesus is taken from their sight, at Ascension a tension remained. Assured as God’s purposes for the world are, it was the moment when they set out on a journey into an unknown future.

But the Ascension would be formative in turning this bunch of doubting and perhaps misguided disciples into an agent through which God would seek to establish his Kingdom.

 

Introducing The Stories

All our readings today were about people responding to promises which in one sense were assured yet still involved setting out on a journey with God into the unknown. Those setting out had good reason to feel overwhelmed at the prospect of what lay ahead of them. Yet the reassurances each received were also quite similar.

Isaiah 49

The Isaiah passage was addressed to exiles in Babylon. Israel then Judah had collapsed. Babylon conquered Jerusalem, or Zion. They destroyed the temple. Most of the people were taken captive. Only a rump, not considered worth taking, were left behind. Almost everything that gave this people their identity as a nation was stripped from them.

It would be hard to exaggerate the crisis these events caused in the life of this nation. And as we would  they sought answers as to why it had happened.

Some thought that God had lost, or that God had just given up on them or forgotten about them.

Others saw it as a result of their national sins. They were being punished. They asked themselves if there was any way they could put this right. For them it was very difficult. Because there whole way of relating to God was wrapped up in the world of sacrifice and the temple. And the temple was miles away, in ruins. It seemed hopeless.

Against this backdrop the prophet brings words of comfort. He tells them that their sins have been ‘blotted out’ and that they are going to be restored as a nation. Despite their inability to offer sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, God was going to act of his own free will and restore them. Far from giving up on them, their cities, towns and temple would be rebuilt. Their people would be re-gathered once again in their Holy City.

This message was a shock as well as a comfort to this demoralised people. But it happened – Babylon itself was conquered by Persian king called Cyrus. Cyrus operated in a very different kind of way. For a start he did not force people to live in exile. He released those whom Babylon had taken into captivity.  That included the Jewish folk to whom Isaiah was speaking.

As we picked up the story this morning, Babylon has fallen. Freedom to return home has been announced. Just as exile had been viewed as a punishment for the sins of the people, so restoration was proclaimed a sign of restored blessing.

But more than that, the prophet claimed that the return from exile was the sign of a new commission from God. This people, who were at present despised, would be honoured. Kings and princes throughout the world would acknowledge that God had chosen them. With this is mind they were to set out for home where they would rebuild their land. God himself would guide their journey home like a shepherd guiding the sheep

And how do you think they felt?

Actually, I’m not sure reluctant would be quite the right word, but it comes close. Underwhelm, maybe. The majority of them had been born in exile. They might not have considered Babylon ‘home’ but it was all they knew. Going home meant three months on the road, travelling 500 miles across hazardous terrain.

Their destination was a land which lay in ruins and needed rebuilding. Grand, sweeping visions and promises of triumph and honour were all very well, but they were difficult to grasp amidst the pain and isolation from God which had been part of their collective consciousness for as long as they could remember.

Far from jumping for joy, they responded by arguing ‘The Lord has forsaken us, the Lord has forgotten us.’ How can we set out in faith with a God like that? There were tensions between God and his people and they needed to be resolved if this people were to have the courage to set out on their mission.

God’s response is stark. He hasn’t forgotten them. God, being the God he is, can no more forget his people than a mother can forget the baby suckling at her breast. But it’s the second image God uses which drives the message home. ‘I have engraved you on the palm of my hand’ says God. I have etched you there. Your name is scarred into the palm of my hand.

It’s a potent image. But this was the image of their God which they were to carry with them on that long, arduous desert journey back to their homeland. When they talked about God acting in the world they spoke of him stretching out his hand. Every time God stretched out his hand to act in the world, their name would be before him, constantly reminding him of the promises he was making to them that day.

When they doubted whether God loved them, when they doubted whether God would act for their good, they were to remember a God who carved their name into the palm of his hands.

As they set out their world to all intents and purposes was no different. Troubled times lay ahead but God had not abandoned them. God would not rest until the people were decked out like a bride, settled like a mother with all her children around her, until all Zion’s children had come home and the city was overflowing with them.

The images the prophet uses to describe God’s intentions are a little mixed, but the sense is of God’s love and tireless commitment to them. As they set out on the journey and mission to which they were being called, they were to carry this image before them. With that image in mind, when they set out in faith they could do so knowing they were setting out with a caring God.

New Testament

Just as the Babylonian exiles were setting out on a journey into an unknown future, so were the disciples in our New Testament reading. Forty days had passed since the Resurrection. The intervening six weeks had been a bit of a roller coaster of emotion to say the least. From the last supper, through Gethsemane, their desertion, Christ’s arrest, his trial, his crucifixion and his burial.

Before they had even really had an opportunity to begin grieving, Jesus had risen from the dead and over those forty days, Jesus had gradually explained why events had unfolded as they had. He gave events that had made no sense when Jesus predicted them, or when they unfolded, new meaning.

You might think these should have been exciting times. It was no wonder they should ask if he would now restore the Kingdom to Israel. They’d grown up with a picture of a conquering King sweeping aside all their enemies. That had taken a knock when Jesus was crucified. But now he was risen. Rome had tried to kill him and that didn’t work. They’d done all they could do to Jesus and it wasn’t enough. If Jesus could defeat death what couldn’t he do?

It was clear that Christ’s Resurrection wasn’t the end of his work. God’s purposes were still going on. He told them that the good news that Jesus had preached in Israel, was to be taken to all creation. Yet something was different. The emphasis had shifted. No longer were they to be mere learners, observing what Christ was doing, as they had been over the course of Jesus ministry. They weren’t simply going to be roadies in some kind of ‘Risen Christ Road Show.’

This time the emphasis was on them. Christ was handing the mission to them. ‘As the Father sent me, so I am sending you’ he said. He told them it was they who were to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins. It was they who were to go and make disciples of all nations. They were to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.

That was a daunting prospect. It was one thing to be part of the mission of God when Jesus was standing next to them. But although the ascension meant that through the Holy Spirit Jesus could in one sense be present everywhere, in another, very tangible sense, ascension emphasised his absence. When they looked around them, it looked like they were on their own.

This band of disciples could be forgiven for being worried. Their track record was none too glorious. They had failed once before – very recently in fact. The scene of their collective failure at Gethsemane lay on the slopes of the very mountain on which they stood. They failed when Jesus was with them. What chance had they without him?

Amongst the things that would by now have been making sense were Jesus’ words about persecution, trial, being hated and betrayed, even by those they loved. Whilst Jesus spoke of all authority having been given to him, the authorities that seemed fairly comfortably in control of things around here, and who had killed Jesus were already slandering them, claiming they had stolen Jesus’ body. So the mood wasn’t unqualified euphoria.

When Matthew described this scene he says they worshipped him, but some doubted.

Some doubted!

I must confess when I read that part of me thinks Jesus must have been wondering ‘what more do I have to do?’

But another part takes heart from it. For Jesus doesn’t have a go at them from doubting. Despite their doubts Jesus makes room for them in the Great Commission…

… But he doesn’t let them duck out of it.

As Jesus looked out upon the disciples I’m sure he could sense the trepidation in their faces. He knew that they didn’t think they could do it without him. He knew they were right. So not only does he reassure them of his promise of the Holy Spirit but he told them to wait for it to arrive. He assures them that God has a purpose for his world and they are part of it. Only when that happened could they step out in faith on the mission knowing he was with them.

Then it was time for Jesus to go, but there was one last thing to do. One last image to leave them with. Luke’s Gospel tells us what it is. Jesus raised his hands and bless them. And as he blessed them he was taken from their sight.

He raised his hands.

And as he did so they saw it.

His raised hands were the parting image with which he left them. Hands etched with the marks of Christ’s love. Hands with scars which showed he had gone through death yet not even that could prevent God fulfilling his purposes for them and their world. This was the image they were to carry before them as they stepped out into their future, fulfilling their commission. Leaving them with the image of the scars of love etched into his hands Jesus ascended into heaven. As he departed, their journey began but that image was to remind them like the exiles before them they were setting out with a caring God.

Down below them Jerusalem probably didn’t notice. Their world may have seemed unchanged. Whilst they quickly came to see that this moment confirmed Jesus as Lord of the Cosmos, their future contained troubled times as much as blessing. Ten of the eleven remaining disciples would be martyred. Yet they travelled with an image of a God who would not abandon them, who would not rest until his purposes were complete. They journeyed remembering that the marks of the love that their God had for them, scarred into the hands of Christ. The God who could keep a promise by overcoming death was capable of fulfilling his purposes. He was surely capable of his keeping his promise of the Holy Spirit to guide them in fulfilling their mission would come to pass.

So far from setting off  back down the mountain, depressed that the one they had followed was gone from them, they carried this image down the mountain and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, praising God.

Conclusions

We are the inheritors of that blessing and that commissioning. We share that invitation to set out on a journey of faith with a caring God. And, as for them, the ascension plays a vital role in the belief that setting out with him is either possible worth it. If what we read is to be believed our world spirals for catastrophe. If global warming doesn’t get us, nuclear proliferation, international terrorism and the battle for increasingly scarce food, water and natural resources will.

The world seems to go on as it always has. We can question whether Easter has made any real difference to the world. We’re told our world is collapsing around us and we might even admit that humanity’s at least part of the problem. In clearer moments we may question whether humanity, certainly if it maintains its current mindset, is even part of the solution.

Yet the message of the ascension is that this destruction is not inevitable.  Because of all Jesus has done, he has been exalted as Lord of all. God still has a plan to renew his broken world. He’s begun it in the resurrection of Jesus. And Jesus is just the beginning. What God has begun in Jesus he will do for his whole creation.

He invites us to join him. To allow him to make us part of that new creation and to invite others to join in. It’s not about hiding from, overlooking, or denying darkness, pain and brokenness in the world. The early disciples who first proclaimed Jesus Christ is Lord were every bit as much aware of that as we are today. We too live in the tension of a promise that’s assured but not yet complete.

When we set out to follow Christ in our world, we too are still setting out into an unknown. For each of us in some way, in different ways, it involves a re-orienting our lives from the way the world tells us make sense, to the way God designed us to be. For all of us it involves fixing our eyes on what we can’t yet see, trusting that what is unseen is eternal.

As plans go, the church might not seem the brightest idea, if God’s ultimate purpose is the renewing of creation. To many it’s history has been stained with Anti-Semitism, Crusades, Inquisition, empire and apartheid and slavery. Like the exiles in Babylon, if we don’t have a sense of collective failure, those who oppose the church will only be too happy to remind us of it.

Or perhaps, like the disciples on the Mount of Olives our sense of failure is much more personal. We’ve set out to follow but let God down – many, many times. Even if God does have a purpose for his world can that really have anything to do with us?

Yet it was to a bunch of faltering, doubtful disciples, who to be honest still didn’t really grasp what God was doing in Christ, that Jesus left his mission to be a community that reflects his rule and to encourage others to be part of it. It was a bunch of faltering, doubtful disciples whom he included in God’s future. But they would only find out what that entailed as they set out on the journey with him. And we’re just the latest bunch of faltering disciples, a mix of good and bad, faith and doubt, with all our foibles to be part of this. But we’re very bit as welcome to be part of it as they were.

As he sends us he stretches out his hands to bless us and promises to be with us to the end. As he sends us he promises never to forsake us. How can he forget us? His love for us is ever before him, scarred into palm of his hands.

Palm Sunday Parade Service

This was a Parade Service for Brownies, Guides and Rangers. The basic structure of the talks came from Scripture Union’s All Age Lectionary Services book (Year C).

Reading: Luke 19: 28-40

Introductory Talk – What do we follow?

This morning when we came in you were given a cross like this one. Does anyone know why?

This is called a Palm cross. We give them out because today is a day called Palm Sunday. Does anyone know what Palm Sunday is all about?

Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter. Palm Sunday is the start of a special week for Christians called Holy Week. On this week, on Thursday  we will remember how Jesus was betrayed by one his friends, Judas Iscariot. Then he was arrested and given a false trial. We’ll also remember how Jesus’ other friends deserted him, and perhaps his best friend, Peter, denied even knowing Jesus. Then on Friday we’ll remember how Jesus was condemned and killed by being nailed to a cross.

When that happened both Jesus’ friends and those who opposed him thought he was finished.

But next week we’ll remember how that wasn’t the end of the story. God raised Jesus from the dead.

But today is Palm Sunday.

Today we remember how, on the Sunday before Jesus died on the cross, he rode into Jerusalem and how the crowds followed him and cheered him on and greeted him like a king. They laid their coats on the road and waved palm branches. And they shouted Hosanna. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. It was the kind of greeting they would have given a great king.

This morning I want us to think about those crowds who followed Jesus that day and would have followed all the events that happened for the rest of that week.

But that got me thinking what sort of things do we follow? They might not be big things, they might not be important things, they might not be religious things… Any thoughts?

An example… A few weeks ago, lots of people tuned in every night to follow the story of who killed Lucy Beale? More than 10 million people tuned in to find out who the killer was. Quite a few of them probably didn’t even really know who Lucy Beale was, but oddly that didn’t stop them following.

What sort of other things do people follow?

I thought of a few. Some of you might be following The Voice. It’s the big live final next week and lots of people will be following it to see if their favourite wins. Can anyone stop Lucy O’Byrne? They’ll tune in to find out.

Others might recently have been following what’s going on with One Direction. What happened to them this week? That’s right Zayn Malik left. He wants to be a normal 22 year old – albeit one with however many millions he’s earned since they were on the X Factor in 2010.

Or some of you might be fans of Top Gear. You might have been following what’s happening with Jeremy Clarkson. He got sacked this week. And that’s such a big story that two weeks on a row it’s been a question on Question Time.

Or over the next few weeks some of us might be following the General Election. I know it might seem like they’ve been fighting this election since around 11 May 2010, when they formed the coalition, but Parliament breaks up tomorrow and the General Election really begins for the next six weeks. And lots of people have been following the story of whether there are going to be leaders’ debates, how many of them there will be and who will be on them. I thought I was following it, then realised the first debate had happened, and I totally missed it!

Still others over the last few weeks will have been following the Six Nations rugby. Just last Saturday lots of people followed all the twists and turns as Wales, Ireland, England and France all had a chance to win the tournament. Some of you commented that you thought I was very restrained in not mentioning it last week!

Well this morning we’re going to be thinking about some of those who followed Jesus into Jerusalem that day and those who would have followed all that happened to Jesus in the days that followed. We’re also going to ask what we can learn from them and what it might mean for us to follow Jesus.

Followers on the Road Part 1

When Jesus challenged people to be his friends, or disciples, one of the things he often said to them was ‘follow me.’ What he meant was that he wanted them to go with him wherever he went, watch what he did, listen to what he said and learn from it, so that they could do the same and teach others to follow Jesus too.

But this morning we are thinking about the crowds who were following into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, and who would follow all that happened for the rest of the week.

This morning I want to talk about four types of people who were following Jesus. They all begin with the letter C.

The first group are the confused disciples.

Some of these were Jesus closest friends. They went everywhere with him and had done so, maybe for as much as three years. They had heard Jesus say the most amazing things and tell so many great stories to help describe what God was like and how much God loves us. They had seen Jesus do lots of amazing things. Healing the sick, walking on water, feeding great big crowds with only a little food… They had really begun to believe that Jesus was someone special, sent from God. It was only a matter of time before everyone realised that too.

Or so they thought.

Now they arrived in Jerusalem for a feast called Passover. This was a people who hoped that God was going to rescue them from the Romans. And that feeling was particularly high at Passover. For Passover was a time when they remembered how God has rescued them from slavery in Egypt.

To the disciples it looked like everything had been building up to a moment like this. Jesus had seemed set to go to Jerusalem for some time now. And they were finally approaching the great city.

Then just as they were approaching Jerusalem, Jesus told them he had made plans for how he was going to enter the city. He was going to enter on a young donkey. He sent two of his disciples up ahead to fetch the donkey.

Then they set off. Crowds of people joined the disciples to follow Jesus into the city. They began shouting and throwing their coats down on the road. They began waving palm branches and lining the road with their coats and palm branches. They were welcoming Jesus like a conquering king.

The disciples must have thought that finally everything was falling into place. Yes there had been plenty of crowds before, but not like this. They were all shouting and singing about Jesus being a king who has come in the name of the Lord.

And they probably thought Jesus should have been thrilled. But he wasn’t. He seemed really sombre and serious. What was going on?

What’s more, as the week goes on, it looks less and less like things are going to work out as they planned. Not everyone wants to welcome Jesus. Jesus himself over the next few days talks about being rejected. He starts telling his closest friends that they are all going to desert him, betray him, or deny they even knew him. They had followed Jesus everywhere, and believed that Jesus was someone special sent from God. They couldn’t imagine life without him. Yet things weren’t working out remotely as planned.

In short the disciples were very confused.

Then there was a second group watching on. They were the Critical Leaders.

The Jews had different groups of leaders called the Pharisees and the Sadducees. For a long time they had been watching Jesus with suspicion. Wherever Jesus was, you could be sure to find them not far behind, keeping an eye out for what he was going to do next.

They could never guess what he would do. Jesus didn’t seem to care about the kind of things they cared about. They had a great big long list of things they did to please God, but Jesus wasn’t really interested in their lists. There were different types of people these leaders avoided, because they thought God would want nothing to do with them. Yet these were precisely the sort of people Jesus hung out with.

These people knew their Bibles and they knew that there was a prophecy in their Bibles, written more than 5000 years beforehand, that spoke of God sending a special king, called a Messiah. Zechariah said that one day this king would come to them riding on a donkey. Jesus didn’t do this just because he was tired and wanted to rest his legs on the journey. He didn’t just think this would be a really cool way to arrive in the city. These leaders knew that Jesus was sending a coded message that he was God’s special king. It was a message that they would get, but the Romans, who knew nothing about Jewish Bibles and obscure Jewish prophets, wouldn’t.

And they were worried that the crowds seemed to be quite excited about Jesus. As Jesus came closer they started complaining about the racket these followers of Jesus made. They didn’t want Jesus drawing too much attention to himself. So they asked Jesus to tell his followers to stop making such a noise. But all Jesus said was ‘if they were quiet, the stones would cry out.’ They couldn’t even work out what he was on about.

The sad thing was that the Pharisees and Sadducees were the very people who should have recognised who Jesus was. They knew their stuff from their holy books. And they saw Jesus in action often enough. They were always there amongst the crowds. Always following him around. Like the first group, they saw Jesus do amazing things and heard him teach so wonderfully about the love of God.

But they weren’t real followers. They were so busy trying to find fault in what Jesus was doing, too busy trying to trick him, catch him out or ask him a question he couldn’t answer, that they weren’t able to see what we was really doing, hear what he was trying to tell them. And they ended up rejecting Jesus. Because all they could do was criticise, they missed out on everything Jesus came to offer them.

So amongst the crowd that day were some confused disciples and some critical leaders. There were another couple of groups, but we’ll talk about them in a moment.

Followers on the Road Part 2

So we’ve been thinking about some of those following Jesus on the road to Jerusalem and following the events of the first Holy Week. We’ve thought of who? Confused disciples and Critical leaders.

But there was also the curious donkey owner.

We’re never told whether he joined the rest of the crowd on the way to Jerusalem. But he must have been pretty surprised when two people showed up in his yard, began to untie his youngest donkey and getting ready to walk it away. Then when he asked them what they were doing they simply said ‘The Master needs it.’

So far as we can tell he did not object. Maybe he already knew Jesus, or at least knew something about him. It seems that lots of people were aware of who Jesus was in Jerusalem. Else a crowd would not have gathered quite so quickly.  But he might have known stories about the things Jesus’ taught, the amazing things he did, the way the critical leaders kept trying to trip him up, but he kept outwitting them.

Jesus had good friends, Mary and Martha who lived near Bethany. He might heard a story about a notorious, if tiny, thieving tax collector called Zacchaeus, from nearby Jericho who had lunch with Jesus then started giving money to the poor and repaying folk he’d cheated. This incident was not far from where a man called Lazarus lived, and Jesus had brought him back to life. So even if they had not already met, it seems likely he’d have heard of Jesus.

And if I’d been him, I’d have been curious and would have wanted to meet this Jesus. I’m sure he’d not have been the only one. Amongst that crowd there would have been those who had heard about this Jesus but would have been seeing him for the first time. They too would have been curious, wondering what Jesus would do next.

So we’ve had Confused disciples, Critical Leaders and Curious donkey owners. But perhaps there were others in that crowd who were Certain Followers. Some of them might have heard his teaching, been amongst those whose lives had been changed by Jesus and they had no doubt that Jesus was the King God had promised to send them all those years ago.

But there were others who were equally certain that they did not want Jesus as their king and they sought to destroy him. They could form quite a crowd too, because when Jesus was arrested the following Thursday night/Friday morning Pilate, the roman governor in Jerusalem tried to release Jesus. He could find no fault in him. But this crowd were certain they wanted rid of Jesus and they kept shouting ‘crucify him, crucify him’ until Pilate agreed.

And when Jesus was crucified, killed and buried, they were pretty certain they’d won. Those who had followed Jesus were certain that they had been wrong. If God had sent Jesus into the world, surely this would not have happened.

But, as we’ll remember next week, the following Sunday, what we call Easter Sunday, that would all change again, as some women go the tomb where Jesus was buried, and can’t find the body. But instead they meet some men, or angels, who tell them He is not here, he is Risen, just like he said they would. Then over the next few weeks they met Jesus several times, and became as certain as they could that Jesus was alive, that he was the One God had sent to save us. Jesus explained to them, that because of what He had done, we could be his friends and followers, that we could have a real relationship with the loving God who made us, and that one day, we can be with him forever.

So amongst the crowd that day there were at least 4 groups. Some were confused, some were critical, some were curious and some were certain.

But even today there are those who at one time or another find themselves like one of these groups. There are times when we can find ourselves confused. And we can be confused whether we are new to the faith and only know a little bit about Jesus, or even if we have been followers of Jesus for a long time. We all have things that we don’t understand sometimes. When we face tough times we can wonder whether God knows about it, or if he cares.

But the message of the Easter season is that God does know about us, and God does care about us. And even when we can’t understand it, God does know what he doing. When early Christians remembered how God raised Jesus from the dead, one of the things they came to see this taught us was that there was nothing we face, from which God cannot rescue us. Nothing can separate us from his love.

Or perhaps there are some who are critical. Not everyone who asks questions really wants answers. Sometimes people just try to make believers look a bit stupid. Or perhaps our questions are real, but because we can’t get nice easy answers, we can assume it all doesn’t make sense. Or maybe we look at other people and say ‘well, if that’s a Christian, I don’t want to know.’ And sometimes that’s a perfectly reasonable thing to say. But like the critical leaders, we need to be careful, lest our critical attitudes stop us from the important thing of knowing Jesus for ourselves.

Maybe there are those who are curious and would like to know more. Have a chat with me afterwards. We would love to  help you discover more about Jesus. Come along next week and hear what happens next on the story. Come along and see the folk being baptised and sharing how they have discovered Jesus for themselves. Come along and meet Jesus in the bread and wine of communion. Jesus promised us that if we seek him, we will find him and that it would be worth it.

Then there are those who are certain of what they believe. They not only know about God, but have a real living relationship with Jesus. It doesn’t necessarily mean they have all the answers, but they trust that whatever they face God will be with them and that with him they are safe.

But there’s one thing we have in common whichever group we are in. God loves us and came for us. My prayer is that whether we are confused, critical, curious or certain, that we will use this Easter season to meet with the Risen Christ and by his Spirit, may he assure us of God’s love and the victory he won for us. May we know him as our King and Lord.