In this congregation, we generally follow the liturgical calendar, and this week brings us the seventh Sunday of Easter.
During these last fifty days, we've been celebrating the time when the risen Lord took the light of Christ to the world and extended his kingdom through resurrected hope.

In our Gospel reading, we hear Jesus talking to his Father, God, about his followers on earth and it includes the words:       “….because they are yours.”

He was letting us know that we are God’s people, and the events of Easter tell us that we are saved by his death and subsequent resurrection.

But, I wonder, is it enough for us to just know all that and then just sit back smugly, trusting that Christ has reserved a place for us in God’s Kingdom?
Earlier in John’s gospel, Ch. 13, Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment, when he tells them to:
“Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

But will that be enough?
Can we just love others and that’s it?
I don’t think so.
If we’re to be the people Jesus wants us to be – to be like him – then we have to tell them WHY we’re loving them.
Telling them about the love that God has for all of us, his children, and offering them the same gift that he’s given us. 
In other words, we have to be God’s disciples, as well as his children.

So, why are we hearing this particular message from John's Gospel today, so long after Easter?
It seems out of order, and we hear Jesus is praying what’s generally known as the High Priestly Prayer.

But we know that it must have occurred before his crucifixion.
There's not a single reference to the resurrection in this passage.
Perhaps it has to do with the fact that this week is remembered as “the Ascension of Jesus”, when Jesus ascended to Heaven, after his resurrection.

But I see the main point of this out-of-order Gospel is that Jesus was serious when he called you and me.

We know that the concept of a “call” is paramount to discipleship.
After all, we fill our churches with all kinds of programs and curricula to help us identify, understand, and respond to God's call.

But, these days, statistics show that fewer and fewer people have any affiliation with a community of faith, and mainline denominations are shrinking at a rate that calls the future of these churches into question, all of them accounting for less than 20% of the population.
Worse still, these gurus indicate that no one is getting it right.
Evangelicals are bringing people through their doors in record numbers, only to watch them also leaving in record numbers.

In fact, faster than their mainline Christian counterparts.
These statistics are hard to hear and the picture they paint is not affirming.
But what these studies actually tell us is less about the death of the church and more about its future.

I'm sure that when the disciples heard the High Priestly Prayer all those thousands of years ago, they would have turned to one another thinking this is not what we signed up for, this is not why I left my nets upon the shore, this is not why I have left my family.
Hearing Jesus' words, accepting that the difficult hour had come, those were not words of comfort but words of change, accompanied by the fearful unknown.

The beauty of this out-of-order Gospel proclaiming the cross during our season of the resurrection, comes raging right back into our lives, right back into our calls when we hear Christ's words once again.

If we had heard this prayer before Good Friday, we might have mistakenly heard it for that day alone, for that appointed time.

But on this side of the prayer, on this after-Easter day, when we go back and listen once again, we hear the whole prayer and realize that what starts as Christ's obedience to change, ushers in our obedience to change.

The point of Jesus' plea today is not only his obedience to the past; the point is his hope for our future.
This is not merely a prayer that Jesus throws up into the heavens so that his work on the cross might be fulfilled.
No, this prayer, heard on this side of Easter, is a prayer for you and me, for the Church, that we might realize the faith Christ has in us, the faith Christ has in our call.

​We may have faltered.
We may have made every conceivable mistake. 
We may have so messed up that indeed the world begins to see us only as a hierarchical assembly of dressed up, religiously educated and out-of-touch people.
We may indeed be just as the modern media describe us
or
in this moment, seemingly out of order liturgically, we might hear the studies and census stats out there, for what they really say about us, and in that moment also hear Christ's praying for us. 
“Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

The disciples probably had no idea what was happening when Jesus prayed this prayer the first time.
But, brothers and sisters, we do.
We know the whole the story, and we get to hear Christ's hope, Christ's call, Christ's obedience to us on this side of the cross and the empty tomb.

Thanks be to God for this out-of-order prayer.

Thanks be to God that Jesus is still praying for us.

​And thanks be to God for those who hold us accountable.
May we hear all their voices, and once again, accept our call.

My prayer for this week is taken from 1 Peter 5:6-11. 

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.  Discipline yourselves; keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.  To him be the power forever and ever. Amen”

Pastor Rick

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to walk with Jesus in Palestine 2,000 years ago? To hear his stories and teachings and to be able to ask him to clarify what you didn’t understand.
Today’s passage continues directly on from last week's lesson, where Jesus reassured his disciples and told them that the way to the Father was through him.

We’re at the sixth Sunday of the Easter season and at the point where Jesus is preparing his disciples for a time when he will depart this earth to be with his father.
He’s told them about his betrayal by one close to him, how Peter will deny even knowing him.

And now, in this farewell address, as Jesus summarizes his teachings one last time, he also reassures his bewildered disciples that they will not be left on their own, to fend for themselves, to rely on their own resources and their own wits.
He teaches them about the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – the 3 in 1.
Jesus tries to get the disciples, and all people who become Christians, to understand the interconnectedness of all three parts.

You may have noticed that church art often shows episodes from Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.       
But portraying the Spirit is more challenging.
Yes, the Spirit's dove may hover above Jesus on stained glass windows, but the Spirit often remains on the margins when it comes to proclamation - and I see this as a problem.

​On the one hand, some people equate the work of the Spirit with a particular kind of experience, such as excitement in worship, or speaking in tongues, etc.
Others are content with a kind of vague spirituality that seems to be mainly a sense that there is something "out there" that we cannot name.       
So, what does the gospel say about the work of God's Spirit?

In this week’s passage we read how Jesus anticipates the Easter passion when he says, "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you" and "because I live, you also will live" (14:18-19).
The Easter message is that life, rather than death, has the final word, and this is crucial for our faith.
In John's gospel, faith is seen as a relationship with a living being.
For there to be authentic faith in Jesus, people must be able to relate to the living Jesus, who is not absent, but present, because otherwise, faith is reduced to the memory of a man who died long ago.

Coming to faith is a bit like falling deeply in love with another person.
We don’t fall in love in some abstract, esoteric way.
Love comes through many close encounters with that person and the same is true of faith.
If faith is a relationship with the living Christ and the living God who sent him, then faith can only come through many encounters with them and the Spirit is the one who makes this possible.

John calls the Spirit the paraklētos (a Greek word similar to Advocate, literally "one called alongside").
It’s a term for someone who is with you as a source of help.

In modern contexts someone may serve as an advocate in the court system, while other advocates may lobby politicians in an attempt to get them to act on behalf of a certain cause.

In Australian terminology, it might even be likened to mateship, where one person will do anything for another and even act on their behalf, if the situation arises, and is required.

A quick reading of John may give the impression that the Spirit is the Advocate who brings our case up before God in the hope that God will do something merciful for us.
But in fact, the direction could also be considered to be the reverse.
The Spirit is the Advocate who brings and explains the truth of that love and life to his people in this time after Easter, which makes faith possible.
God wants us to love him, serve him and honour him, but that’s not what ultimately saves us.
It’s because God loves us so much that Jesus came to earth as a human, in the form of Jesus of Nazareth and remains with us forever, as the Holy Spirit, our paraklētos.

Jesus and the Spirit have similar functions. For example:

• Jesus and the Spirit both come from the Father and are sent into the world
• Jesus communicates what he has received from his Father and the Spirit declares what he has received from Jesus
• If Jesus glorifies God, the Spirit glorifies Jesus
• Both of them teach, bear witness to the truth, and expose the sin of the world and in both cases,
• The reaction is the same:    the world refuses to recognize and receive Jesus or the Spirit.

The Spirit continues the work of Jesus, without taking the place of Jesus.
As the Word made flesh, Jesus reveals God through the life he lives and the death he dies, but the Spirit does not become incarnate and is not crucified for the sin of the world.

The Spirit discloses the truth about Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, but does not replicate them.
After Jesus returns to the Father, the Spirit remains; but this does not mean the Spirit replaces Jesus.
Rather, the Spirit discloses the presence of the risen Jesus and his Father to the community of faith.

You might like to think of the Spirit as the one who strengthens us, comforts us, guides us, inspires us.
It’s the Spirit who enables us to interpret the signs of the times in ways very different from the ways of the world.
It’s the Spirit who works through us for the transformation of the world.
It’s because the Spirit has already been given to us that, in the midst of our journey of life, we are able to live the promises into fulfilment. 

We may be considered foolish by those who live in the world without this hope, but it’s just that they don’t understand the Spirit of God.
John's community would also have been an embattled and uncertain church, in need of reassurance and promises, like those first disciples and us today, in need of reassurance.

Maybe, though, we all need to know exactly what the expectations are.
We want to measure up, fulfil our obligations, make the grade, do what's right, please God.
So, what does Jesus tell his disciples to do?
He tells them to keep his commandments  -  and we all know what those are.
What mattered most to Jesus was love, and it's no surprise that "love" is in the very same sentence with "obey my commandments."

Could we, instead, interpret it as "Because you love me, you will keep my commandments"?

Love prompts us to pattern our lives after the model of Jesus, the one we love.
This means we will live with clear consciences, with gentleness and reverence.
The love that comes to us through the Spirit will overflow into the lives of others. 
We will be agents of God's love in the world....Our lives will be evidence of the presence of the Spirit in our midst.

But is it our love of Jesus that redeems us?
As I said earlier, it’s the other way round.
I believe that it is because HE LOVES US, that we’re saved.

And that God wants us to have a LIVING relationship with Him.
He loves us unconditionally and in order that we may walk with him now, here on earth, he gave us a living reminder, the Holy Spirit, so that we might commune with him.

Does my interpretation challenge you to look at the spirit in a different light?
I hope so, and I trust that you will reread the Gospel passage, asking God’s presence on earth to help you discern what it means for YOU personally.       

Pastor Rick

“I go to prepare a place for you. … I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”
It sounds so wonderful, doesn’t it?  It’s like what we imagine heaven to be.
If that’s so, then it’s a future place, a place that we’ll “go to.”

​Well, that may be part of the promise that Jesus was making to his disciples.
The other part is in his answer to Thomas: “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

Yes, we have been assured of eternal life, but we’re also told that we’re already housed by God, fed by God and carried by God.
We already have a foot in that place Jesus prepared for us if we but look around, look within and listen. But as nice as that sounds, it’s often difficult to see evidence of Jesus in the world.
If everybody truly believed that God is with us, wouldn’t “the world” be a different, better place?

Jesus often talked to his followers, and others who would listen, about the Kingdom of Heaven (also called the Kingdom of God) and he said that it was here already.  
It’s here and now – and also that we must join in the process of building it – stone by stone, using Jesus as the initial cornerstone.
This cornerstone, sometimes called a capstone, is the first one laid when building a mighty edifice and it’s imperative to set it accurately, as it’s the one on which all levels and strength of the building rely.

But let’s stop for a moment and reflect on whether we have really progressed all that far from the kinds of things that were happening when our church was still in its formative years.

Today’s reading from Acts brings a dangerous and dark shadow over our Easter joy.
Stephen, even though he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and evidently giving witness to what a life lived in imitation of Jesus should look like, is stoned to death by an angry crowd.
They covered their ears and shouted.
Isn’t that a frightening image?
We see a maniacal crowd, hostile to goodness, with their anger and frustration feeding off each other.
They couldn’t imagine that God would become manifest in Jesus, live among human beings, die on the cross and rise victorious from the dead.
Today, we might think to ourselves, “How sad. They had Jesus right in their midst and they missed him. We certainly wouldn’t have made that mistake!”

Yet, look at what happens today.
Groups of lay people, priests and nuns are brutally murdered by guerrilla groups with machine guns or machetes, just because they are working for freedom, or education, or because they belong to the wrong tribe or faith group.
Groups of innocent schoolgirls being kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam, just because they are girls, who are at school, and who have been brought up in Christian families.

So where is this Kingdom of heaven?
For that matter, where is Jesus?
Has he gone to prepare a heavenly place for us and forgotten to come back?

Do our hearts become troubled when we hear these stories?
Yes, of course they do.
We wonder just how we can build our faith to the point where we can make it a different world – one where we can see God, even in the midst of hardship.

If we look at Peter’s letter to the early churches we believe that, yes, we can drink that pure, spiritual milk that God offers us.
That’s where we can begin our spiritual life again, knowing that the Lord is good.
We’re offered that nourishment in many ways – through prayer, through the words and symbols of our liturgies and through examples of those who love others, believing that God’s love is for all people.

Perhaps the most powerful way of growing in the spirit is through our sharing at the Communion table and believing that Jesus left this symbol with us so that we could touch him and know that he IS in us.

There’s the power and the mystery that explodes within us - if we just open our hearts and minds to all that God reveals to us.
There’s the well of power that helps us continue looking for ways to build the Kingdom here on earth - while we wait to take our place in the world to come.

Peter reminds us that we’re chosen, we’re a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God.
How many of us, I wonder, really believe that?
If we don’t believe, how can we begin to grasp the meaning of those words?

When people DO begin to believe these words, they find themselves doing amazing things.
We might first think of those people like Stephen –and countless others in the years since - who have given their lives for what they believe.
They’ve added their stones towards the building of the Kingdom.

But then we also have to think about ourselves.
People are called to build the kingdom in different ways, through teaching, writing, through the example of our integrity and genuineness.

Jesus never promised a safe and trouble-free life for those who follow him – far from it.
He was always very honest about the fact that “the world” would most often cover its ears and shout, and sometimes even throw stones.
But if we try – if we believe that we are chosen, that there is truth in the saying that one candle brings light into the darkness – then we ARE building it - piece by piece.
We ARE adding stone upon stone, and we will feel the difference in ourselves.

We need to be careful, however, not to fall into the trap of thinking that we have to complete the building of the Kingdom - either all by ourselves, or at least in our lifetime.
Our human desire to be successful, complete and wholly satisfied, can be a stumbling block for us - just as rejecting Jesus at Easter was a stumbling block for Peter.

The Kingdom here will never be finished, it just continues to grow.
We’re a part of it - a critical and unique part - but we’re not the whole.
There’s always more to learn and more to offer of ourselves to others.
Evil will never cease trying to destroy the goodness of a holy place.
And so, there is a need to continue building ourselves up, but also to work together, pray together, become that holy nation, that holy community, right here - with those sitting around you.

​Each and every one of us is called.
Each and every one of us is invited to follow Jesus - who is our way, our truth and our life.

The Good News (or Gospel) is that Jesus is with us and has promised never to leave us.
We are holy, we are chosen, and we are God’s beloved children.
I’m asking you now - are you ready to lay your stone at the feet of God and help to build his Kingdom? 

Can you think of how you might fulfil the role God planned out for you? 
It doesn’t have to be as dramatic as Stephen’s, maybe just by praying for healing and restoration in the world.
Maybe you can help those less fortunate ones in our community by volunteering your time.
Or invite a lonely neighbour over for a cuppa and a chat.

There are many ways of achieving the Kingdom, it all involves building it up, one stone at a time.

Pastor Rick

​This Sunday is sometimes facetiously called "Sheep Sunday" by irreverent preachers, because on this Sunday, every year, the lessons are similar to the scriptures we read this week.
This week’s Gospel reading gives us John's description of Jesus, the Good Shepherd and the Psalmist's song: "The Lord Is My Shepherd" gives us a sense of security.
So, I wondered, as I read these words, why sheep - why not eagles? 
 
I can picture us as eagles, soaring high up in a gorgeous blue sky, instead of being in a mob of daggy
sheep, wandering aimlessly in some dusty paddock in the outback.
 
The prophet Isaiah writes ... "They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not
faint" (Isaiah 40:31).
 
That’s more like it.
That's what I’d like to read on a plaque on my office wall.
Why not call ourselves “eagles”?        
Why do we have to be “sheep”?

But then, I have to be honest with myself - and think that maybe it's because our prayer of confession
got it right when it says: "... we have erred and strayed from God's ways like lost sheep.
Too often we’ve followed the desires of our own hearts ..." and so on and so forth.

We seldom soar like eagles, but all too often we act like sheep.
I’m sure that at times we’ve all erred, and we’ve all strayed – just like lost sheep.
I know that and you know that.
And the Bible tells us that, using it as a metaphor for the reality of our lives.
Lives we live together in our families, at our work, in our community, in the church - every day.

It’s interesting that the sheep metaphor finds its meaning in the fact that sheep are communal, by
their very nature and we don’t even have a different singular word for one sheep.
The term is always understood to be both singular and plural, as in: one sheep and a flock of sheep.
 
I'm a bit sceptical of anyone who writes about the love of God for his "sheep," and how to cook lamb chops, in the same book.
But maybe Jeff Smith’s book “The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast: Past, Present, and Future”, has it
right.  Jeff, who also happens to be a Methodist minister, as well as a good cook, says the meaning of the metaphor is simply that you and I together, like sheep - plural - are a community, a flock of faith in which we are cared for by God, as the shepherd who cares for sheep, and that's what God intends.
We're in it together, and together we’re shepherded by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

That's a good corrective to the excessive individualism of our day, that leaves so many of us feeling very much alone, even when we’re in the presence of our God.
More like a sheep at the mercy of a predator, than a lamb in God's arms of protection.
Protection is provided in Jesus' story by the sheep being together in the sheepfold - not just in his willingness to go out into the wild to find them.

The nineteenth century Princeton theologian, Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, whose work was to have great influence on the original people called "Fundamentalists," apparently considered this to be true:
"That in Jesus Christ, God was 'saving the world and not merely one individual here and there out of the world.' That in Jesus Christ, God came as a shepherd, to his sheep”.

And we can see that the language in John's gospel is reminiscent of the 23rd Psalm.
What is eloquently sung there about the Lord's care, guidance, and protection of the flock is here, in John, reaffirmed in terms of Jesus.

I did a little research and found a book called “Approved Practices in Sheep Production”, which says that in caring for sheep, and I quote: "Most important is that ...continuous attention (is) required. Sheep are often quite helpless and fall easy prey to predators, especially dogs, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, and eagles. They might even fall prey to such hazards as wire fences, or to ditches and gullies in which they might lie and suffocate unless aid came quickly. Parasites and disease are also ever-present problems to guard against."

The book says that sheep have a lot of problems - well, so do we!
The book says that sheep face a lot of dangers - and so do we!
The book says that sheep are best tended together - and so are we, says the very clever book we call the Bible - with its image of God as our shepherd.

The image of the sheepfold and us as the sheep, is not intended to make us feel sheepish, dumb, or individually unimportant.
Rather, it’s intended to reinforce the importance of all of us, to the shepherd.
The sheepfold, then, whilst constraining and confining and sometimes crowded, is not claustrophobic. Rather, like with children, the setting of boundaries gives us security - by knowing how far we can stray, and being aware of the dangers of going outside of the boundaries.
It frees us to live life as God intends: to live each day to the fullest - just what Jesus meant when he said,
"I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).

In our world, where the closest most of us will ever get to a sheep is in a book, or on TV, or by touching the wool in our suits, skirts, slacks, or socks, we still need a shepherd who will lead us and guide us and occasionally prod us - to show us the way we should go.
 
And the good shepherd, who gives his life for the life of the sheep - for your life and mine - that we might live and have life abundantly, is Jesus Christ.
Aren’t we blessed!
Are YOU feeling blessed today?
 
It’s often said that we are blessed to be a blessing, and that means that we should use all the love and grace that God has given us, to go out into our world and share that love with others.
 
Let them know that God wants to have a personal relationship with them, too.
Then, we need to let the Holy Spirit work with them to bring them around.
Do your bit and plant the mustard seed, knowing that it will be watered and nurtured, with the help of the Holy Spirit, so that it, too, will grow into a mighty tree.
 
Think about that, as you go about your daily business next week, next month, next year and then do your best to take advantage of the opportunities to witness, that God puts in front of you.
 
Pastor Rick

​It’s hard to understand how two faithful disciples of Jesus could have travelled with him, side by side, mile after mile, without recognizing him.  
Maybe disappointment had blinded their eyes and hearts to the truth.
 
In Jerusalem, the pilgrims had learned the devastating news about the death of Jesus.
Despite having heard stories about the women and some of the other disciples reporting that Jesus was still alive, they continued to focus on his death, as they had hoped that he was going to be the one to bring redemption to the oppressed and subjugated people of Israel.


But, at this point in time, Cleopas and his friend had concluded that he was not the one.
They didn’t understand how he could now be alive, or how the transformation of life Jesus had begun, could continue.     For them it was still Good Friday, and so they left for home.
 
But their experience along the road and at dinner in Emmaus, changed their sorrow to joy and hope.
When the pilgrims heard Jesus blessing the bread for the meal and saw him break it and give it to them, they suddenly began to understand.
And as they recalled the glory of Jesus in his last days, remembering the insights they had gained on the road, when Jesus had recalled for them the great stories of Israel’s past and compared them with himself, their understanding deepened.
These actions provided a telling insight into the reality they had earlier missed.
 
Although Jesus then disappeared from their sight, they now knew they had experienced the presence of the resurrected Jesus.
By living out their disappointments, while somehow remaining open to what seemed impossible, they discovered for themselves that what the women at the tomb had witnessed, was actually true.
 
Luke’s story about the disciples on the road to Emmaus is also very instructive for us in current times.
Like the disciples in this account, we, too, can miss the resurrected Jesus in our midst.
And, like them, we can use our experience in recalling the deeper truths of scripture to transform our lives.
For example, our experiences in church on Sunday mornings and at other times in worship, help us to repeat again and again the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
We recall the scriptures and place them in the extraordinary context of Jesus, our Christ and we recall his powerful moment at the Last Supper, when he gave his closest followers bread and wine, his body and blood, to provide nourishment and meaning and direction for having a fulfilled life.
 
For us, in so recalling, we’re there on the road with Cleopas and his friend.
In so recalling, we’re there with the disciples at the Last Supper.
Instead of experiencing stress after the trauma of having our Lord killed, we recall and relive the most glorious reality of knowing the resurrected Jesus and feel that we are now as much in the presence of God as were the disciples of olden days. 
 
You might remember, from last week’s message, I pointed out that we didn’t have to have been there with the disciples, to believe in the risen Lord.
Because we have faith, we know that the stories we hear from the bible are real and meant for us.
 
From today’s gospel account we experience two examples of reliving the resurrected Jesus.
Both are critically important, and they are: word and sacrament.
They help us to recall who and what we are, as followers of Christ, no less “in the story” than were the two men on the road to Emmaus.

On our journeys of faith, we find truth in action, living out the reality of bringing Jesus into our presence.
Again and again, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we can overcome our discouragement, our sense of being lost, and we can go to where the re-birthed action lies.
The resurrected Jesus shows us that the forces of evil and destruction won’t prevail over the power of love.
Again and again, we recall that we are the body of Christ – and so in our lives, in our actions and in our words, we can reach others, helping them understand the presence of the resurrected Jesus.
As Jesus did with the bread and wine, making it into his body and blood, God in our midst empowers us to discover, in the ordinary, what is truly holy.
 
The encounter of two disciples with the resurrected Jesus came in the commonest, most familiar of ways. They came to know him walking and talking on a road, sitting down with him to eat and pray.
We are able to encounter him in common, familiar ways.
The resurrected Jesus is with us, available to us, within us – always, as we live our daily lives.
 
When Cleopas and his companion began to realize that they had experienced the resurrected Jesus, they recognized that their hearts had been burning as he talked and taught them on the road.
They responded to their experience by going back to Jerusalem to tell the others what they had seen.
Can we also recognize the resurrected Jesus in the experiences of our lives, feeling our hearts burning?
Yes, when we open our hearts and our minds, the action of our lives, to the challenge of the resurrected Jesus, in order to live out in our time what he lived and died to prove.
We should then be open to using the life-giving force of renewal and newness to tell the gospel story.
 
When we encounter the resurrected Jesus in our midst, will we respond in joy and faith and commitment, as did the two men on the road to Emmaus?
Will we respond by moving from where we are, renewed by the resurrected Jesus and ready to meet the world head on, ready to face the risk and change that his presence allows?
 
The disciples discovered on the road to Emmaus that Jesus could be, and was, alive again, that God’s work, which was begun in him, could go on forever among his followers.
 
Let us pray too that we can become like them, so that our hearts will burn with the desire to use the power of the resurrected Jesus.
Will we use this burning as a light to recognize that God loves us and use it to help us reveal God’s love to others, continuing his ministry through our acts of compassion and caring to help heal a broken world?
 
I trust that your answers to these questions will be “yes”, and that you will take positive steps to working out what direction your “new life” in Christ will take.


As Nicodemus learned many years earlier, when he questioned Jesus about how we could have “new life”, we don’t have to return to our mother’s womb and be physically born again.
Spiritual rebirth can occur at any stage of our life, and it may just be that today will be your “rebirth” day.
 
I pray that, if it is, you will have a long and happy life in your journey with the risen Lord and you may encounter many days when your faith is refreshed along the journey of your life.
 
Pastor Rick