Jesus calls us to believe that he is the resurrection and the life, not just in theory, but in relation to everything that is dead or dying within us.
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
An Open Table where Love knows no borders
Sermons on Resurrection (Page 3)
Being truly alive is a gift so extravagantly rich and wonderful that it can’t even be meaningfully contrasted with simply not being dead.
The resurrection awaits us. It awaits us now as we live into our experience of the love of God, growing in us and through us. The resurrection awaits us too, that moment when life as we know it is no more, and we enter fully into the life and love of God.
Because of God’s abundance, God’s never-ending supply of extravagant and eternal generosity, we are raised out of death and into God’s life: a life of gratitude, of loving, of belonging, out of which flows a life of service and a burning desire to participate in God’s passionate concern for the world.
Love is our purpose; we are not abandoned, not fearful, judgemental or self-righteous, for we are made in the image of God, who is gentle and wise, witty and loving, generous, forgiving, compassionate and kind.
We shall be ourselves when we are able to surrender ourselves to Christ and say ‘not my will, but yours’.
The crucified and risen Jesus teaches us to interpret the whole Bible through his eyes.
The message of Easter was that the disciples would find Jesus – not at the empty tomb – but going ahead of them into Galilee – on the mission field.
God meets us in the midst of our worst nightmares, calling life out of death, but seldom in the ways we might most wish for.
The resurrection of Jesus has made it possible for everyone to live fully, now, but not everyone feels ready to live.
The Holy Spirit is poured out on us so that the liberating presence of Christ may be with us all everywhere, freeing us from fear to live and speak boldly of the new life we have tasted.
The foundation of our faith is in a living Christ who enables us to understand the Bible, rather than in a Bible that enables us to understand a dead Christ.
The resurrection of Jesus is the most confronting and terrifying news imaginable, and all we can do (after trying to run) is surrender ourselves to his grace.
The gratuitous mercy made known in the resurrected Christ requires us to rethink the nature of God all the way back to creation.
United with Christ in baptism we cross the threshold from death to life, and in Eucharist we continue to touch the scars which nourish our faith and inspire our worship.
God’s promised protection can only be understood through the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
The promise that God will bring new life from a dead stump challenges our haste to chop down whatever seems to be in our way.
God is so totally about life, life and more life, that we have trouble comprehending anything of what God is on about.
When drought and death threaten to destroy us, God will bring us through the barren times and raise us back to life, for doing so is the defining sign of God’s presence.
A sermon for the Great Paschal Vigil preached by the Revd Andrew Woff