Going Back to School.... at 43!

Tommorow morning I go back to school for the first time in nearly 26 years.  I'm wondering how it will go.  Will the children like me?  Will the teachers like me?  What will the school dinners be like?  Will anybody talk to me at playtime?  Will I be so absorbed that the day will fly by, or will I be itching for the end of school bell to ring?  (That's assuming schools still use bells in this modern age.  Perhaps they use digital ones)

Life as a Student Minister can be challenging.  Tommorrow morning myself and two other Student Ministers are going into a Junior School for the first day of a three day placement.  We are there not as evangelists or pioneers but to experience modern school life; to observe what goes on and to serve in whatever way the school wants us to - if they want us to do anything at all.  On Wednesday I have to take a school assembly, something I've never done before but may have to do a lot of in the not so distant future.  I'm excited by the prospect but also a little nervous.  I know that I can't do it on my own and pray that God will be with me.

Where Were You When The Rapture Didn't Happen?

Yesterday was supposed to be, according to evangellical broadcaster Harold Camping the day the Rapture took place, followed by the end of the world In October.  By 6pm (or 7pm BST) all true Christian believers would find themselves rising into the air to meet with Jesus.  Needless to say, today is now Sunday and the predicted Rapture didn't happen.

Where were you when it didn't happen?  I was at home eating a pizza and watching Doctor Who.  Imagine if the Rapture had happened then; I'd have been in front of Jesus with a slice of pizza in my hand and a mouth full of salami and motzerella cheese!

The Rapture didn't happen!  This meant that the ironing I'd put off in case the Rapture did happen had to be done.  At the same time it also meant that I got to see all of a very good episode of Doctor Who.  Had the Rapture happened on schedule I would have missed two thirds of it and missed a great cliffhanger.  I would also have been annoyed about the amount of work I'd put into three college assignments that would never be assessed.

It is easy to mock Mr Camping, as many are doing today, as the Bible's end time prophecies, found mostly in Revelation but also in some of Paul's letters and the Gospels, are notoriously difficult to understand and interpret.  As a Christian I believe that there will come a time when Jesus Christ will return and there will be a new heaven and a new earth but I don't believe that anybody can predict exactly when that will happen.  It could be today (maybe mr Camping was a day out in his calculations) or it could be thousands of years from now.  We just don't know and cannot predict because Jesus himself said that only God the Father knows exactly when these things will happen.

I hope the return of Jesus will be soon and try to live every day as if it is about to happen; which is what Jesus told us to do as the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night!  I look for the return of Jesus with anticipation and hope, but also try to do my bit for the world right now by loving the Lord our God with all my mind, heart, oul and strength, and loving my neighbour as myself.

The Road to Emmaus - Some Thoughts

I preached a sermon this morning that one of the church stewards said deserved a wider audience; so here it is.

For two thousand years, all across the world, Christians have faithfully proclaimed, “Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!”  This has been proclaimed confidently, with faith, with a firm conviction that Jesus indeed lives.  Yet two thousand years ago the two companions on the road the Emmaus did not proclaim “Jesus is risen”.  They had heard reports that Jesus was alive again but didn’t believe those reports.

Just over two years ago a ferry called ‘The River Dance’ ran aground on the beach in Cleveleys (near Blackpool) during strong winter storms.  I saw the BBC television news report about it the following morning, but somehow it didn’t seem quite real.  I read the report in ‘The Gazette’ (the local newspaper) and saw the photograph, but still it didn’t seem quite real.  Only when I went down to Cleveleys on the following Sunday afternoon and saw the forlorn sight of that beached ship with my own eyes did it seem real.

I’m sure that most of us can think of times in our lives when we’ve heard or read about things, but they only became real when we saw them for ourselves.

The two travellers on the road to Emmaus, Cleopas and an unnamed companion, had heard about something they couldn’t quite believe in.  They’d heard that some women had been to Jesus tomb and found it empty.  Those women were claiming that they’d seen a vision of angels who said Jesus was alive.  Some others had been to the tomb and confirmed it, but as far as they knew nobody had seen Jesus alive.  Cleopas and his companion had heard that Jesus was alive, but they couldn’t believe it; it didn’t seem real to them.

The companions are joined by Jesus, but they don’t recognise him.   The New International Version says that this was because, “they were kept from recognising him.”  The Revised English Bible has “something prevented them from recognising him.”  In ‘The Message’ Eugene Peterson translates this passage as “they were not able to recognise who he was.”

No translation gives us any real clue as to why they couldn’t recognise Jesus and I’m told the original Greek is just as ambiguous.  Why couldn’t these two travellers recognise Jesus?    The clues are in the rest of the passage.

The unrecognised Jesus joins them on their walk and asks them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They begin to talk about Jesus and about who they thought he was.  “He was a prophet.”  That is how the two viewed Jesus.  They had recognised that he was somebody sent by God but they saw him as somebody like Isaiah, Jeremiah or John the Baptiser; a prophet and not the Messiah.  They said that they had hoped that Jesus would be the Messiah, “the one who was going to redeem Israel” but their hopes had been dashed by Jesus death.  They’d heard the reports that Jesus had been raised from the dead but obviously didn’t believe them.

There are a lot of people in the twenty first century who have a similar view of Jesus, both outside and inside the church.  Even those who follow other faiths recognise Jesus as a prophet, as a great teacher sent by God, perhaps the greatest ever religious teacher; but they will not or cannot see him as Messiah or Son of God.  Because they have this view of Jesus, that he was a great religious leader but nothing more, they cannot believe that he was raised from the dead.

Cleopas and his companion were Jews who had almost certainly known Jesus for a while and heard him teach.  They were not among the twelve, but might have been among the seventy two Jesus sent out with his message.  As Jews they would have known their scriptures far better than most Christians know their Bibles today.  They knew the scriptures that said what would happen to the Messiah, they had almost certainly heard Jesus himself preach and yet they just saw him as another failed prophet; not the Messiah who would bring salvation to God’s people.  People today, too, can read the Old Testament, they can read the New Testament as well and still not believe that Jesus was and is the Son of God who rose from the dead on that first Easter Day.

So we have Jesus, Cleopas and his companion walking towards the village of Emmaus.  The two travellers tell Jesus about their feelings, about their disappointment that the man they thought was the Messiah who would save Israel was now dead and their confusion over reports that he had been raised from the dead.

Jesus’ response is to take them through the scriptures that they knew well, to help them perhaps to see those scriptures in a new way.  We don’t know exactly which texts Jesus used, but clearly the passages he chose and the way he explained their meaning made a difference.  As they were later to say, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us.”

Without the living Jesus to help us understand, the scriptures can seem confusing, contradictory even, hard to understand.  When the living Jesus speaks to us, maybe through the words of ministers and preachers or in our minds and hearts as we meditate, the scriptures come alive in a new way.

I am always inspired by the account of John Wesley’s conversion.  Reflecting on the experience later, Wesley wrote, “I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to The Romans.  About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed.  I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”  No doubt Wesley had read Paul’s Epistle to The Romans many times, he may even have read Luther’s preface to Romans many times, yet something that night was different.  Through William Holland’s reading of Luther’s commentary John Wesley heard the voice of the living Lord Jesus and found in it salvation.

As Jesus finished explaining the scriptures they reach Emmaus.  They still hadn’t recognised him, they still hadn’t realised their travelling friend was Jesus, but they invited him in for the night.  After Jesus exposition of scripture they were very close, but hadn’t quite got there.

There are many people in our churches today who are very close, but haven’t quite got there.  John Wesley called them ‘Almost Christians’.  Wesley described an ‘Almost Christian’ in the most glowing terms, as somebody who is of good honest character, a charitable person who is outwardly religious, a devout person who prays and goes to church and is attentive throughout the service.  An ‘Almost Christian’, says Wesley, is sincere, they really intend to serve God and do his will, for His sake and not their own.  They sincerely desire to please God in every way, yet they are only almost Christians.  Wesley confesses that, before his conversion on Aldersgate Street, he himself was only an ‘Almost Christian’. 

So what changed for Wesley?  How did he go from being what he called an ‘Almost Christian’ to being what he called an ‘Altogether Christian’?  What is the difference?  The difference is love for God, a love for God that fills heart, mind and spirit; and faith in Jesus, faith that he is the way, the truth and the life; faith that Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of sins and that he rose from the dead bringing us the assurance of eternal life.  As John Wesley himself wrote, “an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Jesus sits down to supper with Cleopas and his companion and breaks the bread.  As he does this, Cleopas and his companion suddenly realise who Jesus is, and as they realise he vanishes from their sight.  On the brink of understanding, it is the breaking of bread by Jesus that brings the final certainty of faith; they know that Jesus is their travelling companion and that he has indeed been raised from the dead, just as they had been told.

It is hard to accept, this idea of Jesus rising from the dead.  All kinds of theories have been suggested as to what happened on that first Easter Day.  The traditional Christian view is that Jesus’ physical body was literally brought back to life.  In Luke 24:39 Jesus himself says, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your mind?  Look at my hands and my feet.  It is I myself.  Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones; as you see I have!”   That physical body was changed in some way.  The risen Jesus could still eat food, as he demonstrated on more than one occasion; he could be touched and could cook fish.  On the other hand he could enter a locked room without opening the door; he seemed to be able to move from one place to another very quickly and even to vanish into thin air.  There was something essentially different about Jesus’ resurrection body.

Some Christians doubt a literal physical resurrection.  They would say that the resurrection of Jesus was a spiritual resurrection and that the meetings the disciples and others had with the risen Jesus were essentially inner spiritual experiences.  I have no doubt whatsoever that meeting Jesus was an intensely spiritual experience, as the account of the travellers on the Road to Emmaus proves.  They didn’t recognise Jesus for who he was until their spiritual eyes were opened.

I believe Jesus physically rose from the dead, but I believe that it was an overwhelmingly spiritual experience for those who met him following his crucifixion and death; an experience that was so profound that it changed them forever.

The significance of Jesus’ resurrection is a spiritual one, because it is through spiritual experience that we meet the risen Jesus today.  It happened to me in my early twenties at a Christian youth camp.  I was entranced by a powerful evangelist who spoke the simple message of the risen Christ we can know personally and at that moment, when the gospel message came into my heart as well as my mind, when the risen Jesus spoke to me through the voice of another I believed!  Ever since then I have wanted others to know that spiritual encounter with the risen Jesus for themselves, to share in that faith in Christ Jesus and love of God.

Our passage from Luke ends with Cleopas and his companion sharing that intense desire to make known the reality of an encounter with the risen Jesus.  Despite the fact that it is evening, that it is going dark and that they risked attack from robbers on the road between Emmaus and Jerusalem, the two companions set of straight away to Jerusalem to tell then eleven remaining disciples that they had seen Jesus.

As Christians we should have a burning desire to tell others about Jesus; about how he died for them on the cross to bring forgiveness of sin and then rose from the dead bringing us assurance of eternal life.  We can be used by Jesus to assure them that through faith in him, even though our bodies may fail and die, we can be sure that we will live on forever.

Jesus himself told us to pass on the good news of liberation from sin and the promise of everlasting spiritual life.  The final words of the risen Jesus, as reported in Matthew’s gospel are, “go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

In the passage in Luke that follows on from the account of the encounter on the road to Emmaus Jesus says, “The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.”

In the Acts of the Apostles, just before his ascension, Jesus says, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus does not call us all to be evangelists, any more than he calls us all to be ordained ministers, local preachers, church stewards or whatever.  But we can all be witnesses for the risen Jesus in the way we live our lives, in the love we show to others and by having the courage, if the opportunity presents itself, to be open and honest about our faith.  We never know, the risen Jesus could use us to bring that person to faith.

Like Cleopas and his companion we too may have, or have had, doubts about Jesus being the Son of God and rising from the dead.   Like Cleopas and his companion the risen Jesus comes to us and leads us gently to the truth of who he is; and like Cleopas and his companion we must be fired with enthusiasm to tell others about Jesus.  May the risen Jesus meet us and meet us again in glorious powerful resurrected life and bring us these blessings.

A Parting of The Ways!

Today I finished the ministerial placement I've been enjoying for the past six months.

For those of you who don't know, one of the things that we do as Student Ministers is to go on placement to gain practical experience of active ministry.

Strictly speaking I finished at the end of March when I preached a last sermon at Dolphinholme Methodist Church, but today I had the review meeting with my placement supervisor.  This was eye opening in a number of ways, but the two that struck me most were:

1.  The sense of loss I felt at leaving the Circuit.  Even though I was only with the Circuit for six months I felt quite sad when the final parting came.  I have got to know people, I have felt at home at several chapels, I have felt welcomed and wanted; I have felt very much a part of the Circuit and now I'm moving on.  I think I've had a very, very small taste of what it feels like to leave a Circuit after five years of ministry, another useful learning experience.

2.  The mutual beneficial touching of lives.  I found out in our review meeting today how many lives I've touched in the past six months; how many different people have appreciated in some way the ministry that I've undertaken amongst them.  It was extremey humbling to discover that appreciation from my Christian brothers and sisters and something I'll never forget.  I have also been touched by the lives of others, I have been encouraged by them, prayed for by them and uplifted by them.

I hope that I will go on from training to become first a Probationer Minister and, God willing, Ordained; but I don't think I'll ever forget my first placement and the loving Christian people whose lives touched mine for a while and who encouraged me and taught me so much.

Is Yorkshire Really 'Gods Own County'?

More than once I've heard Yorkshire described as 'God's own county'.  As a son of Lancashire I've questioned this every now and then, but truth to tell Yorkshire, or certain parts of it anyway, are very beautiful and very much make you think about the God who created everything.

I've been for a trip to the North Yorkshire Dales today, partly to visit some of our relatives on my wife's side and partly just for a day out.  The sky was a brilliant blue as we arrived in Hawes mid-morning with just one stray white cloud drifting lazily past.  The scenery on the way had been spectacular as it always is and it had been a joy to see the signs of new life in young Spring lambs and the signs of rebirh and renewal with leaves and blossom on the trees.  In Hawes we bought local dry cure bacon from the Elijah Allen store, surely the best bacon in the world and just had a walk in the sunshine.

Then more driving in warm sunhine and enjoying more fantatic scenery, visiting relatives and drinking many cups of tea (getting in some practice for all the tea and coffee I'll drink doing pastoral visits) before ending up in Thirsk for an hour where I browsed bookshops an charity shops and ended up very cheaply adding to my increasingly large library of theological tomes.

The next stop was Masham where the Joneva Sweet hop stocks the best vanilla fudge in the whole world; and finally a visit to the Brymour ice cream parlour where you can buy some of the best ice cream in the world!

Driving home, again enjoying warm sunshine and the amazing Dales countryside, I reflected that Yorkshire may or may not be 'God's Own Country', but that God certainly made it in all its wonder and glory and I thanked him in my heart for the wonderful food, the gorgeous views and the great day we had together as a family.

He Is Risen Indeed The Hope of Easter

It may be a week after Easter Sunday, but we are still very much in Easter and my thoughts this afternoon have turned to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, partly because I recalled a conversation I had with a bar man in a pub a few weeks ago who had been brought up a Christian but who couldn't accept various Christian beliefs; including the virgin birth and the resurrection.

Many people won’t believe that Jesus rose from the dead.  Those outside church say it is simply impossible.  The dead don’t come back to life.  Others within the church say that what the early Christians meant by resurrection wasn’t that Jesus physically came back to life, but that in the days and weeks following his death they could still feel his presence and therefore began to claim that he was still alive.  The idea that he physically rose from the dead came when later generations misunderstood what the very first Christians meant by resurrection.  This is, of course, utter rubbish.

I believe that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead.  I believe that resurrection was a physical one as well as a spiritual one.  I believe this because that is what the Bible says happened and because it is the only logical explanation.

Since the earliest days of Christianity the constant claim about Jesus was that on the cross he defeated death and that by rising to life he proved death a defeated enemy.  If Jesus did not rise physically from the dead then how is death defeated?

If Jesus did not physically rise from the dead, then where did the idea come from?  In the pagan Roman world the idea of physical resurrection seemed as ridiculous as it does to many people today.  Even in Israel there was no concept of individual resurrection.  Many Jews believed that all the dead would rise when God brought in his worldwide kingdom, but not that anybody would rise before that day.

Now I will say that Jesus did not come back to life on that first Easte Day.  Before you accuse me of heresy, let me explain.  Jesus did not come back to life: he was raised to new life, to everlasting life.  Jesus died and was buried in the tomb.  Then God raised him to new everlasting life.  He was physically raised, no ghost or spirit, but his body was different in some ways.  People didn’t always recognise him immediately.  He seemed to be able to move from place to place without limitation.  He was solid enough to break bread, cook breakfast and eat fish yet he was able to enter a locked room and appear as if from nowhere.

We can see some of the changes in the account of the first Easter Day from John's gospel. 

Mary is sobbing in the garden outside the tomb because Jesus body has disappeared and is approached by what she thinks is the gardener.  Even as he comes close she doesn’t recognise him; perhaps because she is blinded by her tears or perhaps because Jesus is changed, transformed.

“Woman, why are you weeping?” asks Jesus.

“They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

Jesus then simply says “Mary” and immediately she recognises him.  His voice, though renewed with the rest of him, is still recognisably the same as Jesus says her name in the familiar way.

Jesus then says to her, “Do not hold on to me.”  This puzzled me for many years until I realised that this was the risen Christ and she wanted to hold onto the Jesus she knew.  This was still that same Jesus, but a Jesus renewed and raised to everlasting life.

What does this risen Jesus mean for us?  Why is it important that Jesus rose from the dead?  It is important because it tells us that death is not the end.  It really isn’t.  We have a great and glorious hope that because Jesus died and rose again we too, when we die, will be raised to new life.

Many, many Christians do not really understand what this means.  What it definitely does not mean is that when we die we go to heaven where we will spend the rest of eternity.  Jesus in his death and resurrection defeated death and its power over us.  How is death defeated if we just die and go to heaven?

The truth is far, far more glorious and our gospel account shows us the truth.  Jesus died on the cross, his life was extinguished; his body was dead.  His heart had stopped beating.  Brain activity had ceased.  There was a time when the corpse of Jesus lay still and cold in the tomb.  Then, on that glorious Easter morning, life returned to Jesus body and he was raised to new physical life.

The evangelical writer John Stott puts it this way: “The Christian hope is not the immortality of the soul (a shadowy, disembodied existence), but the resurrection of the body (a perfect instrument for the expression of our new life).”

That is exactly what will happen to us one day, what will happen to those who have already died believing in Jesus as Saviour and Lord.  One day, unless Jesus returns during our lifetime, we will all physically die.  Our spirit, our soul, will then go to what Jesus on the cross calls paradise where we will rest.  Then, when Jesus returns, when heaven and earth are joined as one and God makes all things new; we will rise again in our own physical bodies just as Jesus did, bodies which are renewed just as Jesus’ body was renewed, bodies which are transformed.  We will be immortal, no longer subject to pain, disease or death; we will be like the risen Jesus.  The physical resurrection of Jesus points towards our own future physical resurrection in a transformed world ruled by God.  That is the Easter Hope!

Or is it?  The resurrection of Jesus isn’t just about us, about our own eternal life.  The resurrection points towards something I’ve already mentioned, the renewal of the whole of creation.  As evangelical theologian Bishop Tom Wright says in his book, “Surprised by Hope”;

“Jesus is raised, so he is the Messiah, and therefore he is the world’s true Lord;  Jesus is raised so God’s new creation has begun – and we, his followers, have a job to do!  Jesus is raised so we must act as his heralds, announcing his lordship to the entire world, making his kingdom come on earth as in heaven!”

Some Christians think that because God is going to renew creation there is nothing we need to do about the environment, about poverty, about suffering or any of the other ills of this world.  In fact the reverse is true because nothing good that we do as Christians is wasted.  God will take all the good things that we do and transform them so that they are even better and part of the renewed and conjoined kingdoms of earth and heaven.

Our Easter hope is a threefold hope.  The fact that Jesus was raised from the dead physically and then physically entered heaven means that he is still alive today, ruling earth as Lord and available to all who call themselves Christian.  The fact that Jesus was indeed physically raised from the dead means that we too can look forward with certainty to the day when we too will experience that glorious resurrection.  Third, the raising of Jesus to new transformed life is a pointer towards the renewal of the whole of creation.  That too is our Easter hope!

Some Thoughts On Doctor Who - The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon

Those who know me well know that I’ve been a Doctor Who fan since I was about five years old and watched Jon Pertwee take on the Daleks in the classic episode Day of the Daleks.  Anybody sitting in Poulton Methodist Church last Sunday will have heard the minister describe me as ‘the resident Doctor Who expert’; following is showing of the moment from Logopolis where the 4^th Doctor regenerates.

Given my fandom you can be sure of where I have been for the past two Saturday evenings at 6pm; in front of the television watching the new series of Doctor Who; and so far it’s been fantastic!

I loved the opening comedy scenes in last weeks episode, especially the Laurel & Hardy cameo and thought what a brilliant contrast they were with the deadly seriousness that followed.  Doctor Who, at its best, has always mixed comedic moments with moments of terror and it did it in spades last Saturday.  The death of the Doctor was totally unexpected, despite a foreshadowing that one of the series regulars would meet their death in the first twenty minutes; and a brilliant concept that has yet to be resolved.  Similarly the regeneration of the little girl at the conclusion of the two part story has left me, and I suspect, millions of viewers wanting to know more.

The mystery of River Song continues with all the evidence pointing towards her being the Doctor’s wife – the one thing she will almost certainly turn out not to be.  We also ee the Doctor’s first kiss with Dr Song, which for her is the last kiss they share and a very poignant moment.  For me the most mysterious aspect of River Song is her superior control of the TARDIS, pointing perhaps towards her having Gallifreyan origins since the Doctor can hardly have taught her how to operate the TARDIS with greater skill than he himself possesses.  We have been promised answers this season and I look forward to seeing the revelations to come.

The Silence were one of the best aliens we’ve had since the series returned in 2005.  The concept of an alien that can make you forget all about it the moment your back is turned is a chilling one and the visual realisation was superb and completely convincing.  I hope that we see more of them and the indications are that we will.

As a Student Minister I was also interested in the story from a Christian viewpoint.  Taken up in the moment I was swept away with the Doctor’s victory over the Silence; but later questioned the legitimacy of killing all the Silence present on earth.  The 10^th Doctor always gave his enemies the chance to surrender (which they never took of course) but the 11^th incarnation seem to be a touch more ruthless and I’m not always easy with the decisions that he makes.

On a brighter note there was also a theme of humankind being freed from something that was dominating their behaviour and stopping them from being truly human.  This is, of course, what the gospel says that sin does to us, it makes us less than God created us to be because it mars his image in us; so just as the influence of the Silence had to be removed from the world by the Doctor so the influence of sin has to be removed from our own lives by Jesus death on the cross in order for us to live as free and fully human beings.

I also thought there was a nice faith parallel.  River Song throws herself out of the window of a skyscraper in New York absolutely certain that the Doctor will be there to catch her, which of course he does.  Jesus sometimes asks us to take risk for him, to do things that from a human point of view seem to be absolutely stupid and too risky by far.  Do we trust Jesus to be there with us?  Have we the faith to take him at his word?