1. Good Morning. Let’s pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the mediations of our heats be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments. We are now in the Church season of Easter and it lasts 50 days. This is the first of 6 Sundays before the 7th Sunday which will be Pentecost Sunday when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the earth. It’s also the Sunday when we celebrate the beginning of the “What?” Yes, the “Church.” But more about that on Pentecost Sunday – June 12.
Over the next 6 weeks then we’ll be focusing on the lives of the people of this newly forming movement – these followers of the Way – these people who followed the resurrected Nazarene – that Prophet Jesus Christ who was crucified but then was resurrected. In fact people all over Jerusalem were reporting sighting Him. These sightings went on for 40 days!
Can you imagine what the atmosphere in Jerusalem must have been like in those first 40 days immediately after Christ’s resurrection? Crazy wonderful I suspect!
And then there was silence – no sightings of Christ for 10 quiet days after the 40 and then Pentecost Sunday and all heaven broke out – literally!
So over the next 6 weeks we’re going to seek to look at and hopefully recover that sense of the amazing immanence of Christ in our lives. You see, those first Christians believe beyond the shadow of a doubt that Christ died and then arose and since He arose they too would arise and that death had been thoroughly defeated and the door to eternity has been swung wide open for them – those who love and follow the one who opened them – Jesus Christ!
What we see is a timidity and fear transformed into a magnificent boldness – courage. We see a truly enthusiastic faith that was so so attractive that their numbers were growing exponentially.
And why are we doing this?
To enable some, perhaps even most of us, to renew our love for Jesus Christ and then with a little help from the Holy Spirit to “Step out” and reveal Him to the world around us through our words and our very lives!
Today is the first Sunday after Easter Sunday so in our readings reflecting this early time in the life of the Christian Church we can expect a spirit of rejoicing and a coming to terms with the proven reality that death has been defeated and the door to Eternal Life have been swung wide wide wide open!
Think about what you might expect to hear in the Scripture readings today.
In our First Reading from the Book of Acts we see the life of Christians just days after Christ’s resurrection.
This was true too in our Gospel Reading when Jesus revealed Himself on Easter Sunday to 10 of His apostles minus Thomas and then to Thomas just 7 days later. These are the very very early days of the Christian church!
In our Second short Reading from Peter’s first letter to the followers of Christ scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia which today is Turkey we see Christians some years – as much as 25 or more years - after the resurrection and we hear the studied reflections of what Christ’s resurrection meant to a still young but maturing Christian movement.
The style of this writing indicates that this short reading was actually a hymn of praise!
And our Responsorial Psalm is obviously a song of praise and thanksgiving. Listen again to the words of our response,
“Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love is everlasting!”
But to really get in touch with that joyful experience I’d like us to focus in on St. Peter’s First Letter to the Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor or today’s Turkey.
As I read this try to discern what it was that emboldened the lives of these very early Christians. Now remember the time when this letter was written was probably as many as 25 or more years after Christ’s resurrection.
Please listen as I read it once again but this time from “The Message:”
1Pet. 1:3 What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus!
Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, 4 including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! 5 God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.
1Pet. 1:6 I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. 7 Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
1Pet. 1:8 You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. 9 Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation.
Now these verses give expression to a vibrant, vital Christian community and the key to their vitality, their joy –was what? Did anyone pick up on what it was that caused these people to live so ecstatically?
(Elicit responses from the congregation)
THEIR LIVING HOPE IN THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF JESUS AND THEREFORE THEIR ASSURANCE THAT THEY TOO WOULD EXPERIENCE A BODILY RESURRECTION.
Now let me read St. Peter’s words touching on all of this once again but this time from the tried and true NIV translation and see if you can tell me what it is:
1Pet. 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Please focus with me on the opening verse – verse 3 and more specifically on these words:
“God has given us a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
God has given us a what? A living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!
So the key to their joy was a living hope in what – in the historically verifiable reality of Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead – from the dead!!!
Reading on: You have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, (aÓgallia¿w - to be exceedingly joyful, exult, be glad, overjoyed) though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
Listen to what St. Augustine had to say about this living hope:
St. Augustine 354-430 In Ascension p.407 he writes, "For Truth never lies. In fact if Truth deceives, where are we to go for counsel? ... He Himself says: 'Feel me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. ... Whatever was touched was real; whatever was perceived was true. Man was touched; God was perceived." Like Thomas, will you come and touch Jesus and cry out, my Lord and my God?
OK let’s really zero in on this idea of a “Living Hope” for this is the key to living a vital, joy filled, fruitful Christian life.
St. Paul spoke of the
"... hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.... (Tit. 1:2).
Only in Christianity is there such a promise of glorious life beyond the grave.
The hope of eternal life is very important, and as St. Paul once said –
“if we Christians have hope only in this life we are of all people most miserable (1 Cor. 15:19).
The early Christians were so filled with hope in Jesus and in life eternal that they could willingly offer themselves as martyrs for the Lord. They knew there was another and far better life awaiting them.
Living hope as a fundamental religious attitude was unknown in Greek culture.
In the final analysis men had to stand without hope before the hostile forces of guilt and death. Sophocles’ chorus lamented, “The highest remains, never to be brought to life.” Seneca called hope the definition of “an uncertain good”.
Perhaps we should pause a moment and think of what this eternal life will be like.
1. It’s a life that goes on, and on, and on. It is not just a matter of longevity but a sublime quality of life as well.
2. In this eternal life there will be no more death, disease, pain, suffering, sorrow, or tears.
3. There will be no more worry about food, clothing or lodging.
4. In this new life we will have an eternity to probe the richness of Jesus – the mysteries of the universe.
5. We will always be close to God, completely fulfilled, gloriously happy and sublimely content.
These bodies of ours will be restored in unbelievable splendor. The last enemy, death, will be finally destroyed.
This fact seems to have brought great excitement and boldness to those earliest Christians and it should do the same for us today.
But we not only have this hope but as St. Peter wrote – we have a “living hope.”
We have a living hope because we believe in a living Christ!
Is Jesus Christ – the resurrected Jesus Christ - real to you or is He just one idea amongst all of the other ideas that fill up the library in your head?
We live with a living hope because we believe in a living Jesus!
As I wrestled for the full meaning of having a “living hope” I came to the conclusion that this idea doesn’t seem to speak to us moderns as powerfully as it did to those first Christians who went to their death in the security of that living hope. But this just doesn’t seem to work for us today.
So join me in my meditation.
Imagine that you suddenly had all that you could possibly hope for – you have it right now.
What is it?
· A villa on a Greek Island!
· A billion dollars and your own private jet to take you anywhere in the world you wanted to go.
· The guarantee that you will live healthy until you’re 150 and then you will die in your sleep!
· You name it – it’s yours.
Elicit ideas from the congregation.
OK! Now imagine that you have all of this and then Jesus appears – the resurrected Jesus appears and as He walks towards you everything that would soon or later become an idol to you – everything that would eventually trap you in its own form of hell.
So as Jesus walks towards you everything that would ultimately rob you of your heavenly joy and peace – simply fell into dust as He passed it.
Now Jesus is standing before you – you are face to face with Him – what is left of your hoped for things?
Nothing but Him! He gives you and me what we were created for – to live in His loving Presence – period!
Is Jesus – the real and resurrected Jesus – your living hope?
If not then what you are now hoping for will sooner or later fall into dust! For it is a dead hope! It will return to dust but Christ won’t!
His love will always haunt you until you surrender to Him!
Now imagine that you stand along before Him and suddenly you experience a love and peace that completely overwhelms you! You can no think of nothing more that you would ever want!
All other wants have dissolved in His sublime Presence.
Imagine now that you begin to bow before Him – but as you go down He reaches out to you and smiling says – No No! my beloved. Now be begin eternity together – we have some many adventures before us.
This is what becoming a Christian leads to – an eternity with our beloved Lord.
It’s begins right now. This is what you and I have but what of all of the billions of people who don’t – can you step out with me and commit right now to share Jesus with others every day – not only with your bold words but more importantly with you peaceful and loving life!
Let’s pray . . .
May we always live in the joy and hope of the resurrection and never lose sight of its truth for our lives."
