Sermon

12th April 26

Most of you will know that I had some time off last summer for some operations on my leg.  As a result, I was unable to swim for eight months, and have only been able to get back into the water recently, thanks to some remarkably waterproof dressings, designed for the purpose.  

There’s a small group of us who go to the adult swim sessions at the Pavilion on midweek afternoons and we all know each other fairly well.  Of course, I hadn’t seen any of them for months, and met Jane for the first time since my operation in the changing rooms a few weeks ago.  She looked shocked to see me, then paused and dashed over to me, arms outstretched to kiss and hug me.  She then told me that two of the afternoon regulars had told her and the others that I had died!

That experience made me look afresh at last Sunday’s gospel reading, where it suddenly dawns on Mary Magdalene that her interlocutor is not the gardener but the risen Christ: the same Jesus who she saw killed on the cross three days earlier, and whose body she had seen placed in the tomb.  I guess that her immediate reaction would have been like my friend Jane: to rush over for a kiss and cuddle.  But Jesus has to stop her: “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father”.

St John’s gospel continues with the reading that we have just heard.  Again, pretty familiar stuff as Jesus meets for the first time with his male disciples who we are told were “glad when they saw the Lord” and, finally, with Thomas who hails him: “My Lord and my God!”.

As soon as they recognize the risen Jesus, his followers are excited; they are exhilarated; they are transformed.  I have to say candidly, that I don’t often see this reflected in Christian art where, at best, some of them are mildly pleased.  Put yourselves in their places: they had seen Jesus arrested, tried, tortured and killed. They had been terrified: indeed, many of them had run away before the same fate befell them.

OK, they weren’t yet quite ready to go out and tell the wider world what had happened.  They would have to wait for a few days before they received the strength and courage to go out and do that.  So, today, we think of them, enjoying the company of the risen Jesus and, no doubt, learning from him just what he and the Father had in mind for them next.

As for them, so for us.  After the events of Holy Week and Easter, we can be tired. We need to make time to enjoy the company of the risen Jesus until, like those disciples, we are ready to receive the power from on high to go out and preach the good news, for Jesus is risen, Alleluia!

Amen