The excitement of Easter is over for another year, the services
where we reflected on the depth and mystery of Christ’s passion are behind us,
the Easter hymns have largely been sung and now in the fourth week of the
season preachers like me are struggling with whether to put them into a service
or not. The Easter eggs are eaten and we are all considering how to loose the
few pounds we gained in eating them….
If we are not careful what we will be feeling is a huge
anti-climax, all that preparation, and now with a few exceptions for we still
look forward to Ascensiontide and Pentecost we are facing that huge swathe of
the Christian year known as Ordinary Time…
And yet because of the resurrection our lives should be anything
but ordinary, the whole story of Christ from end to end and ongoing through the
church is extraordinary…
HE IS RISEN!!!
THE SPIRIT HAS COME!!!
Despite all of our difficulties and trials, despite our ordinariness
we worship an amazing God, and through his life in us we should become
extraordinary people, people with a story to tell as real as Mary’s was that
first Easter morning, as real as Peter’s was when the Spirit was given at
Pentecost, for our faith is a living faith. The wonder and mystery that God
would choose to dwell amongst us, born as a babe in Bethlehem, the astonishing
way that Jesus taught, healed and lived, the depths of love he revealed through
the cross, and the sheer power that overcame death to bring about resurrection
life should make us catch our breath and fall to our knees, and there is more
for that Holy Spirit God’s gift, God himself was given to the church to guide,
inspire and equip us ….
And this was not a one off, for his story is an ongoing story,
told again and again until it becomes part of us, and it should infuse us with
life….
But so often we find our feet trapped in the miry clay of
ordinariness…
Time then for a vision to lift our eyes…
This passage from Revelation is set after a catalogue of suffering,
terror and tribulation has been described in previous Chapters- multiply the
series of disasters that cross our news screens week by week by several hundred
and you start to get the picture. The picture was so terrible that it drew
forth the harrowing question; “Now that the day of wrath has come, who is able
to stand?” (Rev, 6:17)
And so we are given a vision to re-kindle the fire within us, a
vision of the risen Christ, a vision white robed worshippers falling before him
such is the depth and passion of their worship… and these robes are not
insignificant, just as the Prodigal son was given a robe not simply to keep him
warm but as a sign of restoration, his return to his family as a son not a
slave so these worshippers are given robes, a sign that they belong to this
place where every tear will be wiped away, and the “lamb that was slain will become
the shepherd and guide them to the waters of life…”
This is rich imagery, imagery that we may find helpful and may
find difficult, a lamb who becomes a shepherd is an impossibility for all but
God…
To see Jesus as the lamb is challenging, and yet that is the
picture we are offered here, it reminds us of his sacrificial love, reminds us
that he endured the cross for us, reminds us of those images we may want to
turn away from…. but it also reminds us that he overcame, for he is here, the
lamb has become the shepherd once more, the resurrection was real!
HE IS ALIVE!!!
And so the words of our Shepherd come to us freshly infused with
life: “My sheep know my voice” he says in the gospel reading… “My sheep know my
voice…”
Just think about that for a moment, how many people’s voices do
you instantly recognise? A loved one calls and does not need to say who they
are because you know them, and they know that you will recognise them…
“My sheep know my voice.”
And yet I wonder if we do… if despite the fact that we may have
heard the stories over and over, that we could tell them easily, I wonder if we
recognise his voice today? Do we know how to listen to him, to really listen
for him as he speaks deep into our lives through the Holy Spirit? Do we have a
relationship with Jesus in which we feel secure, protected and personally known?
Ask yourself that question again; do I have a relationship with
Jesus in which I feel secure, protected and personally known?
For that is God’s plan for you, you are one of the reasons that
Jesus endured that cross, and it is from that secure place of being personally
known that you can become a part of his revelation to the world, for sheep who
know their Shepherds voice dwell in a place of safety.
In
Jesus' day, real sheep were in constant danger of being snatched away by
thieves and wild animals.
So
the assurance that the metaphorical sheep of Jesus' followers - us - will not
be snatched away is powerful.
The
implication that there are "snatchers" should not be overlooked. We
face many real internal and external threats to our relationship with God. But NOT
from God.
I
think the plain message of Jesus is that this assurance is extended to all of
creation with no one and nothing left out. We may get life wrong, others may
harm us, accidents and disease may take our life, but nothing will snatch us
out of the caring, restoring, life-giving hand of God.
This
is the God who clothes his followers in white robes.
This
is the God who will wipe away every tear from our eyes…
This
God is so deep and so high that his plan and purpose is too much for us to take
in, and yet he knows us intimately, loves us unconditionally, and calls us to
follow him….
And
in following we can know him, can learn to know his voice, can live in the
truth that he is risen, and that truth can and should find its way into every
fibre of our being bringing us to life in him.
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