Easter Day 2007c John 20:1-18 St Mary’s Pinchbeck
Some of you may know that my first profession was that of a clinical psychologist.
One of the things psychologists are asked to do is to predict peoples behaviour:
What will this person do in that situation?
Is this offender likely to re-offend if released?
Is this person, with a history of mental illness, likely to attempt suicide if discharged from hospital?
And any self respecting psychologist knows that the best predictor of future behaviour.
For example, if the person has been released / discharged before and reoffended / attempted to harm themselves, then they’re quite likely to do it again.
Scientifically, the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour.
Thankfully, God is not a psychologist. God’s image of people isn’t confined by what has identified them in the past.
God expects of people what no one, as yet, has discovered of them. He is able to draw out of them future behaviour that no-one could predict based on their past behaviour.
1. From our gospel today we could take Mary Magdelene as an example:
Mary had seven demons – attesting to the fact that she had somehow, in her past, had a weakness or vulnerability that had led to the demons taking their hold on her.
Yet she was chosen by God to be the principle of continuity at both Cross and Tomb:
she
saw Jesus die;
she
knew where he was buried;
and
was the first to see him after the resurrection.
She was also (in John’s account) chosen to bring this important message of the resurrection to the disciples.
God loved her enough to make of her what others would not have.
2. Perhaps another example of God expecting something that could not have been predicted from the past is in the Isaiah reading this morning:
In the new heaven and new earth of which Isaiah writes, the wolf and the lamb will feed together. In other words, they will no longer be known by their past behaviour, by what has gone before: but they will be known & identified by God’s newness.
So for God, the way of the past, the way things were, is
not necessarily the way that things will be.
This is so for individuals and for the whole of his creation:
God
did bring about something new in Mary Magdelene
And
he can and will bring about something new in you and in me.
3. The resurrection is of
course another example.
No body could have predicted
the resurrection on scientific grounds.
No one could have
expected it to happen based on what had happened in the past – certainly
the disciples didn’t – hence they felt abandoned and defeated after the
crucifixion.
Yet the resurrection that
we celebrate today is the turning point; the universal moment, of what God has
done in the world.
God has brought about something altogether new – he has overcome the way of things; the power of death and of evil.
The British theologian,
Arthur Allchin writes that,
All things were altered
by by Christ’s passion, past and future, East and West … time and space.
With this new potential
that God could see in Mary (which perhaps he created in her, or at least
drew out of her) came a
stronger, more courageous Mary, ready to stand alongside and to follow her
Lord.
In the gospel passage today, we see Mary witnessing to the disciples – evidence that she had overcome the grief and tragedy of previous days.
I wonder what does God see in you that perhaps others have not yet discovered in you? Even perhaps what you haven’t discovered in yourself!
God pardons you and me
absolutely and loves us absolutely. This should be enough to draw out of us,
faithful love and service.
He knows what we have
done previously, but when he looks at us he sees more deeply and knows our
potential in him.
He draws out of us what we, and others, might not predict or expect. Just as he created something new out of nothing at the resurrection, he creates something new in us if, like Mary Magdelene, we open ourselves to him.
We hear again today this
story from almost 2000 years ago. But we’re not really just hearers. Not
observers. We are the cast, because the story doesn’t end on resurrection
morning, it continues:
It continued with Mary Magdelene when she went and
witnessed to the disciples about what she had seen and heard
It continued when you were baptised and when you
Confirmed for yourself the promises made at your baptism
It continued when this church was re-opened to
public worship last Sunday
I know that God can see the potential for ministry
here at St Mary’s
What happens next is up to us
The potential that God
can see in you requires some form of response
What happens next is up
to you
We’ve been busy continuing our ministry in the community over the past few months despite the church being closed, through housegroups, MU, children & youth ministry, bellringers, prayer group and so on, but still we have lots of plans for the future that we can develop with God’s blessing. God has been drawing out this potential in us over the past few years.
I’m sure you have a part to play in ministry here at St Mary’s. Whether you’ve played a part in ministry here in the past or not it doesn’t matter – like Mary Magdelene when she stood at the foot of the cross, you can still be a part of the future. I hope you can spend time praying about what that future might be. I hope the reaffirmation of baptismal vows that we are doing in a moment will help to remind you of God’s call to you and that this call will be real for you today.
So Mary’s was a journey to wholeness and healing; but in the light of the events of the resurrection morning it was also a journey to ministry. May we see God’s drawing out the potential in us, as a journey to ministry as well, and may we respond with faith and love as she did.
We pray,
Most generous God, no human words or costly gifts can ever express our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us in Jesus Christ your Son; grant that we may give you the one precious gift that we have to bring, the offering of our loyalty, love and service. Enable us to live in love for others as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. We ask this through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.