12 April 2009

Sacred Heart Middlesbrough

“Seeing is believing”. It’s something that we can take for granted surely? It’s a phrase that we use quite a lot to put an end to an argument or to force a point home. After pronouncing this magic formula, the spell is cast and all can rest in certainty. Its even used in today’s Gospel. The other disciple who ran to the tomb with Peter, when he entered the tomb, the gospel says: “he saw and he believed”.
But what did they see, Peter and the other apostles? To what were they really witnesses? Well, we know what they didn’t see; for there were no witnesses to the resurrection itself. In fact it was what they did not see that convinced them!
Outside the tomb were the linen clothes with which Jesus had been bound for his burial. Peter entered the tomb first, even though it was the other disciple who had got there before him. He was the one appointed by Jesus as the leader, and therefore it was only right and proper that he should be the first to see and witness. He enters and sees the cloth that had bound his head and face. Of Jesus, they see nothing; the body is not there. Then and only then did the other apostle enter and confirm what Peter had seen. It was always necessary to have two witnesses to prove the case. Whereupon it began to dawn on them what Jesus had been saying and teaching them through the scriptures; that he must rise from the dead.
So seeing is believing? But it was what they didn’t see which caused the disciples to believe; it was the very absence of the body of Jesus which opened their minds to the possibility of the resurrection. And whatever they thought had happened in the tomb during the night of the first Holy Saturday, other events confirmed their conviction that Jesus, who had been killed by hanging him on a tree, had been raised by God to life three days later, and was seen, not by the whole people but only by certain witnesses God had chosen beforehand. In today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the same Peter who had entered the tomb first and seen that the body was not there, says; “Now we are those witnesses – we have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead – and he has ordered us to proclaim this to his people …that all who believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through his name.”
The apostles of Jesus were convinced that he was no longer dead that he was alive and they had met him, they had encountered him in the ordinary everyday events of their lives; they had eaten and drunk with him. And they had done that many times before his death. We can take it, therefore, that they were not mistaken, at least on their own evidence. They knew him very, very well. They would not be fooled by an impostor or a “Jesus-look-alike”. They knew; they were utterly convinced that it was Jesus and he was alive.
In many ways this is the situation in which we find ourselves; we have not witnessed the actual resurrection, we do not fully understand it, but we are called, just like the Apostles, to be witnesses to the presence and action of the Risen Jesus in our lives. Indeed, his presence and action in our ordinary everyday lives is what should bring about the conviction, the certainty that he who was killed by hanging on a tree is now risen and alive in us and in our world. To enable the apostles to be powerful and effective witnesses, Jesus sent his Spirit to be their support, encourager and to transform them.
So we have everything that the Apostles had as they began their mission. We are called to be witnesses of the presence and action of the risen Christ in our lives and we too have the gift of the same Spirit to support, encourage and transform us. There is now nothing to stop us, like the first disciples, going out and proclaiming the good news to all of creation. We are going to receive Trudi Donovan into full communion with the Church and she will also be confirmed. As we witness her confirmation may it call to mind our own reception of the fullness of the Spirit. I know we are only just celebrating Easter, but already we cannot help but look forward to the renewal of the Spirit in our lives. And so I pray for all of us:
Father of light, from whom every good gift comes, send your Spirit into our lives with the power of a mighty wind, and by the flame of your wisdom, open the horizon of our minds. Loosen our tongue to sing your praise in words beyond the power of speech, for without your Spirit we could never raise our voice in words of peace or announce the truth that Jesus is Lord, who lives, and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen. (Alternative Collect for Pentecost Sunday – Roman Missal)