Easter 4

This sermon was written in the run up to the General Election called by Theresa May and is very much in note/script form.  I'm putting this up in the Coronavirus lockdown; so the quotation at the end  by Rowan Williams seems even more a vision of hope than normal.

07/05/17                            King Sterndale                               Easter 4

Acts 2:42-end                1 Peter 2:19-end                        John 10:1-10

Though I'm an election Junky - listen obsessively to the news - I'm rather less so than I used to be - because increasingly politicians sound like a caricature of v. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.  vote for our opponents and they’ll lay waste to the country -vote for me and abundant life will be yours - it seems like overkill for a general election and as time goes on the balance of the talking has shifted (it seems to me) so there is a greater concentration on the opponent’s potential disasters than what actual good the speaker will do - we’re encouraged to act out of protectiveness than to consider the common good.

I want us to look at this verse not because it’s a neat summing up of electoral rhetoric but because it shows up the difference between how we see things and how God does. How differently he views the abundant life.

election promises focus on our health wealth and happiness - low taxes, high pensions better health care - may well be good things but a very different view of abundance from Jesus’s - he doesn’t offer ease of life, length of life,  success in life - that’s not his view of abundance - indeed if I had to choose one place in the gospel where Jesus recognises it, it’s in the story of the  widow with her two mites…

if he doesn’t mean accumulation by abundance what does he mean by having life, and having it abundantly.?

First it’s about out knowing God - Jesus came so that in him we would be children of God - and that is our central identity - everything else is secondary - this matters very much and we - the church - often get it wrong - when church arguments obscure the fact that every other christian is our brother and sister and should be treated as such something has gone wrong - once we accept it and deal well with those we disagree with, we begin to share in that abundant life.

Then as children of God we have a purpose in life - we are part of our Father’s kingdom and we are called to be salt and light in His creation - to preserve it and to bear witness to his welcome to us all. 

A purpose we’ll never grow out of, or retire from and from which we’ll never be laid off,  which makes sense of everything we do, which weaves every act of kindness, every word of reconciliation into God’s abundant life.

And knowing God gives us perspective - what matters in life - not what advertisements tell us but what has always mattered - family, friends, hospitality, generosity and the recognition of someone bigger and better and more than we are that is the wellspring of our worship - these all work with the grain of God’s kingdom and are part of the abundant life Jesus offers us

Does he deliver on the promise?

 Yes he does - Peter thought so So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’ 

With all the antagonism that he would face as a follower of Jesus Simon knew there was nowhere else he could go.

The saints bear witness to the joys they have received through Jesus’s gift of life. We know it too - even when we don’t always call it by name  - when we get something right in the way we live even if it’s cost us something - then we know it too.  

Knowing God, sharing his purpose, beginning to see just how much he has given us to enjoy …. 

When reading the Gospels you sometimes get the impression that if anywhere in ancient Galilee you heard a loud noise and a lot of laughter and talking and singing, you could be reasonably sure that Jesus of Nazareth was around somewhere nearby. Jesus created fellowship wherever he was. And it is one of the things in the Gospels that is remembered as most distinctive about him, because even then some of his friends were embarrassed by it. The indiscriminate generosity and the willingness to mix with unsuitable people were already, in the first Christian generation, just difficult enough for the Gospel writers to scratch their heads and cough just a little bit about it. But they could not deny it or suppress it. It was too vividly remembered. Jesus sought out company and the effect of his presence was to create a celebration, to bind people together. 

This is abundant life.