2011-04-24am Sermon John 20 (Easter Day)

110424am 10.30am John 20:1-18

Do you know who you are? Your parents gave you your name and it was named over you when you were baptised. You are who you are because God calls you by name. You are a person. Do you know what a person is? Some people think, I am a solitary individual, I am number one, it's about me, it's my life, my rights, my way or the highway, I'm special, I'm everything! Other people think I'm nothing, I'm just a cog in a machine, part of the faceless crowd, I'm dispensable, replaceable, I'm just one of the masses. No, a person is made in the image of God, able to be there before God and be there before other people.

How do we know this? Because Jesus rose from the dead. That shows that everything he said and did is true: we are made by a loving Heavenly Father, who sent Jesus to bring us back to himself, who suffered and died, so nothing we do or suffer is beyond his love to sort it out, who rose from the dead to give life back to us.

Some say, what's the proof? Well, there is lots of evidence, and that's very important. It makes complete sense to believe. But for the unbeliever no proof would be enough, and for the believer no proof is needed. You know it when you meet with Jesus, as Mary did in the garden.

How can we meet him? Christians need to do three things: read the Bible (or have it read to you), come to church and pray. We read the evidence, the stories of the witnesses who saw him first hand. We meet others who have also met him, and we meet him in each other – we recognise them as persons made in his image.

And very important, we meet him in the quiet of our inmost hearts when we pray. This is what makes Bible and Church 'work'. The only way I know is to sit in silence for a good long time each day. Yes, talk to him, yes read with him, yes talk with others about him and to him, but in the end sit in silence before him.

What's it like? Not easy! We get distracted, our thoughts run riot, we fall asleep! But it's through patiently doing it day by day by day that we know and feel that he is really there, that he loves you, that you needn't be afraid, that there is real peace and joy for now and for ever.

That's where you find yourself as a person – you also find yourself in living and working and laughing and loving and serving and sorrowing and running and jumping and playing... but this is vital, you and God in the quiet.

Do you notice how few words are spoken in the Gospel today? Peter and John find the empty tomb and say nothing. Mary has the briefest conversation with the one she thinks is the gardener, but then he says one word: Mary. And she says one word: Master.

If it had been me I would have started gabbling, What happened? Where've you been? What's going on? Blah, blah blah... but when you start to realise Jesus is there, and you are there before him you don't need to say much. She knew who she was, because Jesus called her by name, Mary. I'm Mary. And she knew who he was, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Afterwards there was a lot to say, to tell others – but when Christians speak, we are most convincing when it comes out of a good time of quietness before the Lord. (Someone said the church is like a swimming pool, the noise comes from the shallow end!).

Sometimes when you ask them to be quiet, children giggle and grown ups whisper. We're good at being quiet when someone else is talking, but less good when no one is talking. We've been brought up that it's rude to ignore people and not say hello. But when we are doing silence, we're not ignoring each other, we are recognising that someone else is here: Jesus is present.

[[Pascal said, 'All the misfortune of men comes from one thing, which is not knowing how to stay quietly in a room.' ]] People today need to know who they are, society needs to know what a person is. You find yourself before God, when you meet the living Jesus who calls you by name. I know of no better way than to read, come to church, and above all pray: sit in quiet with him and let him come to you.