Jesus' resurrection

I am so glad that in our current preaching series, at the heart of Jesus January, after looking at Jesus as a child, then Jesus as an adult, today is the day we get to think about Jesus and the resurrection. 

Nearly 15 years ago, when I was away at the 3 day selection conference, where the church decided whether or not I was called to ordination, I was asked a question - What is the heart of your faith, which you will want to communicate as a priest? I answered, without hesitation - resurrection.  And now, as my ministry takes a step in a new direction, and as God lays a new call on my life, our theme is resurrection.

Before I say something about Jesus’ resurrection, let me say a little bit about the news that was made public this week. In June I will be consecrated as Bishop of St Germans, a bishop in the Diocese of Truro - which covers all of Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and 2 parishes in Devon. I don’t know where that service will be, but it will be at a Cathedral in London and you are all invited! Please put Wednesday 24 June in your diaries.

Once consecrated I will be a ‘Suffragan Bishop’, working alongside the Bishop of Truro, Philip Mountstephen.  A Suffragan Bishop is a full bishop like every other, but acts as an assistant to the Diocesan Bishop. So I will deputise when Bishop Philip is away, I’ll share in the pastoral care of the Church in the Diocese and in its strategic oversight,  and I’ll hold certain specific responsibilities for the Anglican church in Cornwall.

My portfolio will particularly focus on supporting and encouraging local churches - most of which are rural or semi rural; supporting the development of new patterns of ministry which are less dependent on ordained clergy, building a culture of confident 7 day a week faith, and overseeing some of the Church’s response to the needs of communities in Cornwall, especially around poverty, homelessness and deprivation. Cornwall is one of the poorest and most deprived parts of the country, so that will be a key focus.

It will be a big role, and one that I am excited, and a little nervous, to be stepping into.

What makes it possible, from my perspective, is the clear and powerful sense of God’s calling that I have experienced - and Lizzie has too - through the process leading to the appointment. 

Cornwall is a long, long way away. We have no family there, and have only ever visited for a holiday once or twice, when the kids were young. It is not an obvious place for us to move. But throughout the process of discernment, the interviews and finally the decision, I have had the powerful sense of God saying ‘yes’. I find it hard to put that sense into words. The best I can do is to say it’s a potent combination of joyful excitement and deep peace. It’s a sense of a path opening up before me, which I long to walk down. Of stepping into something for which I feel entirely unprepared, with absolute confidence that all will be well. It’s a sense of a huge decision having been made for me, without any struggle, and which I just need to trust. 

I have no doubt that this is God’s work, and for that I am overwhelmingly thankful.

Although I won’t start as Bishop until the end of June, we will be leaving on Easter day, which this year falls on 12 April. I will then have a Sabbatical, with time to help the family settle into our new life, to have space for reflection, a retreat, and practical preparation for the new role. 

Of course, all of this, blessing that it is, does mean that we are leaving these two wonderful, brilliant church communities and you, wonderful, brilliant people. There will be plenty of time for Lizzie and me and the children to say the things we want to say to you, both personally and together as a church, but for now, let me just say that it has been, and still is, the greatest blessing, honour and joy to be your priest and to have been able to be part of all this for the last 7 and a half years. What I have learnt, discovered and been given in Goudhurst and Kilndown will never leave me.  And the way you have loved us, all 6 of us, will shape our lives forever.

I am, of course, acutely aware that our move will be a huge change for you all, and that you may well have a mix of feelings about this news. If you want to ask more about the practicalities of what happens next, Ali, Simon and Barney will be here, with me immediately after the service, to open the discussion and answer your questions. Clearly there is lots to be done in the next few months to set things up, both for the interregnum - the period between my departure and the arrival of a new Vicar, and for the process that will lead to that new appointment - but as I said in my letter to you all this week, I am excited for the person that God is already preparing to come here, who will have the privilege and joy of being your priest after me. What a job!

There is much more to say, and there will be time for that over the next few months, but I want to share two thoughts with you now about Jesus and resurrection, two thoughts which would always be important to share, but which seem particularly significant today. 

First, it’s no coincidence that the way God chose to inaugurate his restoration plan for creation is through resurrection. It isn’t by chance that the greatest day in history was marked by the transformation of death to life, of suffering to peace, of defeat to victory. Resurrection, after all, has always been God’s way of doing things. It’s there throughout the Scriptures; enslaved Israel is set free from Egypt, exiled Jerusalem is restored, a man swallowed by a whale is given a second chance, dry bones in the desert are given new flesh so they can rise up again. Resurrection is how God operates - and so when He comes to restore all things, of course…it’s through resurrection.

And The Resurrection is God’s great masterpiece.  A once and for all moment that changed everything then, and still changes everything today. The moment when the impossible became possible, when death was defeated, when the end became a new beginning.

It’s like a mighty drum, which had been heard in the background until then, began to beat in earnest on the first Easter day. And that drum still beats on today in everything. A rhythm underpinning creation, a rhythm that calls new life into being.

And resurrection is how God works in our lives all the time.  The resurrection beats on in daily resurrections and transformations. That resurrection rhythm, in very real ways in everyday life, is God working to bring something new, something good and often shockingly unexpected, out of our suffering, loss and death. 

This week marks a moment of change in the life of this church community. And that change is just one change in lives that are always full of ups and downs, victories and defeats. Life is always changing

However you’re feeling today, about changes in church or about the joys and challenges that you are facing in your life, hold on to this. God’s resurrection drum beat is playing right now. The beat that he laid down at THE resurrection is playing for you today. 

Resurrection is what God does.

Second, Jesus’ resurrection is the conclusive proof of God’s faithfulness. 

We usually think of faith as being about us - we talk about ‘my faith in God’, or about us being faithful to God. But when the bible uses the word ‘faithful’ it is just as likely to be talking about God, as about us. Over and over again, directly and using metaphor and image, the bible says, God is faithful. God will never abandon or leave his people. God will never be shaken by human events. God will always deliver on his promises. Always. God is faithful.

And of course that has to be the case. Our faith in God is only worth anything if he is first of all faithful. If God isn’t unchanging, if he has off-days or moments when he changes his mind, he can’t be the One that we build our lives on. God’s faithfulness; his unchanging love and mercy, his constancy in all things is what defines him as God. That he is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, is of his very nature. And it’s because he is faithful that we can have faith in him.

And so, when God says that he will act to defeat the powers of sin, death and hopelessness, He does, because he’s faithful. And he does it in Jesus’ resurrection.

And when God says he will restore that which is broken and lifeless, He does, because he’s faithful. And he does it through resurrection.

And when God resolves to free us from the burdens that we carry, he does it, because he’s faithful. And he does it in Jesus’ resurrection. 

Resurrection; Jesus, risen from the grave, is the conclusive proof of God’s faithfulness to his world, to his people, to you. 

So today, however you’re feeling, make the resurrection the foundation of your life.

Resurrection says that God is at work right now, to bring something new, something holy, something good out of all the changes and trials of life.

And resurrection says - the faithful one is faithful, always.