Collect and Readings for The Fourth Sunday of Easter – Genesis 7, Psalm 23, 1 Peter 2.19-end, Acts 2.42- end, John 10.1-10
The Prayer for today
Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life: raise us, who trust in him, from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, that we may seek those things which are above, where he reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Rocks are solid things, which makes them very strong as foundations but exceedingly painful and obstinate to kick. They do not give. This makes the rocky image given us by Peter, himself nicknamed ‘the rock’, such a splendid one for helping us visualise the utter faithfulness and solid assurance of Jesus. Being built up on such a foundation is an exciting prospect for the household of faith. And the building depends on those living stones in every generation which continue to be added to the great living temple of worship and praise. Like stones we are to be strong in our faith, a faith that is not merely existing but fully and dynamically alive. What a Church it can be, when it is firmly set on the foundation of Christ and built through his power alone with the offered lives and gifts and sufferings and struggles of millions and millions of ordinary human beings!
We have a wonderful example of just one of those living stones to inspire us today. As we watch the young man Stephen, standing gazing into heaven as stones of hatred, misunderstanding, misplaced zeal and righteous indignation are hurled at him, we can see how his faith fixes him securely, even as he is being put to death. His loving forgiveness of his enemies proclaims the reality of his faith – it stands the worst testing and still holds.
How does he do it, we may ask? Perhaps we find ourselves feeling not so much inspired as dampened by people who seem to have such great faith when we are trying to muddle along and are woefully aware of how inadequately we witness to Christ most of the time. Perhaps we feel more in common with Philip, as he tries hard to understand what Jesus is saying, but is thinking on a completely different plane, unable to put the signs and clues together and come up with a meaningful answer. It took the death and resurrection of Jesus for things to suddenly start making sense to the disciples, and that is still true for us today. Still, it is the death and resurrection of Jesus which enables everything else to make sense.
In the light of Jesus’ death and resurrection we can grasp that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. It is through believing in this Jesus, who gave up his life in total self-giving love for us and lived out for us in human terms the loving nature of almighty God, that we too can die to sin and be brought into a new life relationship with God which is valid both in time and eternity. So, the Way is not a code for behaviour but a relationship with a person. And that is a basic to our human experience and need as a child / parent bonding which is also present from birth, rather than the codes of behaviour which are only later acquired.
It is a living, personal relationship that Jesus offers and hopes for us to accept. The relationship will never end, but will continue getting deeper and more satisfying, and continue developing and strengthening us in our faith, throughout our entire life.
Some things to reflect on:
• Why are we sometimes more inclined to go for a code of rules than a personal relationship with the living God?
• We are told that Saul was minding the coats of those stoning Stephen to death for blasphemy. How might he have viewed what Stephen said, both at that time and after his Damascus road experience?
God bless
Rev’d Fiona Robinson
