Prospect
The Rev'd Robert Warren
John 20:1-18
What have you witnessed?
It's the sort of question a police officer or a judge might some
day require of you - that you describe, audibly or in writing, the details of
what you have seen or heard at a particular time and place. Memories play tricks and entropy takes its
toll even on recall. Sometimes it takes
the collected memories of a series of witnesses before the real story can be
reconstructed or the reliable core of the story can be established.
Know this, though: a small
number of disillusioned and failed followers of an itinerant prophet from
Nazareth were transformed, in a very short time, into agents of hope. They transformed their world and went on to
refashion ours. Resurrection not only
"was" something - with reference to God's raising of Christ on the
third day - but it "meant" something. We know its reality not only in the
collecting of testimonies from the four Evangelists but by the history of what
followed.
When you throw a stone into the centre of a pond the ripples
travel out to the edges. Truth is spoken
to the powerful by humble people who, seemingly, have no fear. The great persecutor of the early church
becomes one of its chief apostles and advocates. The boundaries which separate the wealthy
from the poor, the Jew from the Gentile, fade away. God has not only raised Christ from the dead,
he has raised us as well. This power
over death and meaninglessness is extended to the lives which we lead.
What the disciples saw, and heard and touched with their own
hands will be the subject at hand this Sunday.
That is only the beginning. The
Sunday readings between now and the day of Pentecost move into what this unique
event means for his followers. Christ in
his resurrection is "the first fruits" of a harvest to come. "Christ is risen....and so.....". What has happened now to you (and what will
happen in the future) is part of the story.
The invitation to live abundantly has been extended to us as
well.
