Today, on the world stage, many people will be remembering the life and ministry of Pope Francis, which raises a very good question, namely what it was the motivated him, gave him the power and the message that he had, and enabled him.  Many would simply offer a glib explanation, something like, ‘oh, of course,  he was a priest’ or ‘he was a man of God’, but what, in reality, does that mean?  What difference did it make in his life?

I ask those questions because they could equally be applied to us, to each one of us: what is it that motivates us or enables us?  Are we simply Christians or 'nice people’--if that is how people see us--but what difference does that make?

Those two apostles, Peter and John, were pretty eloquent in saying that it was Jesus, Jesus crucified, risen and now alive in them, that made the difference.  No wonder they couldn’t help but tell the story.  So, then, what about us?  Is that same story important to us, and if so, why?  And if so, how can we tell it, whether by word or by example, that is, by the way we live?  Something to think about.

There is something very peaceful and calming about spending time on a beach or shoreline in the early morning hours--when the sun is just beginning to rise and the early morning mists have not yet fully lifted or evaporated.  (I remember such a time, not exactly from the beach itself, but higher up--from the Mount of the Beatitudes overlooking the Sea of Galilee.  It was so very peaceful and so very calming.)

So imagine Jesus choosing such a time and place for one of His decisive post-Resurrection encounters with His disciples: what a wonderful time that would have been for the seven of them!  (Especially after all that they have recently been through!)

Now, imagine Jesus coming to us, how He likewise wants to bring peace and calm to our lives, and perhaps all the more so after what we have been through.  Jesus is there for us, meets us there, and wants to feed us, not necessarily with physical food, but with His presence.  Thanks be to God.

Today’s Scripture and meditation speak a great deal about sight and seeing correctly and plainly, particularly about Jesus, who He is, and what He does in our lives and the life of the world, but let me suggest yet another tack where this also applies, namely about looking at ourselves, at ourselves correctly and plainly,  and seeing what God has to say about them.   While we might rightly see things that are amiss, that God might want us to deal with and correct, there might well be many things that He is pleased with, and that He wants us to celebrate, rejoice in, and use even more, to His glory and honour.  Yes, to see ourselves as God sees us.

Today’s reading is yet another bit of follow-up to the greatest event of world history, namely the Resurrection.  And here we discover a couple of amazing outcomes of it.  Firstly, its impacts, its promise, is extended to all the peoples of the world, which given the insular character of the Jewish faith up until that point, was quite remarkable.  And secondly, and this is astounding, it is extended even to the people who denied Jesus and were complicit in His death.  As Jesus Himself said from the Cross, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”  Forgiving like that, bestowing salvation upon such people as this is clearly alien to the nature of this world, and yet that is exactly what God does.  Wow.

Something that I am always grateful for is something that is a mainstay of our liturgical churches, that is, the church year.  With the church season of Easter, we do not just ‘mention’ the Resurrection in passing, that is, just on Easter Sunday, but continue to celebrate it and its impacts for a full 50 days--until Pentecost, in fact.  That reminds us that the Resurrection is not just a one-time event, but an event that continues to reverberate throughout history and continues to impact each of our lives.  That is because its central premise is that we died with Christ on the Cross and then rose again with Him.  That means that the power of death, sin, shame, guilt and Satan are dead and buried, broken forever.  It means that we can live again in the glorious risen life of our Saviour if we chose to do so.  That said, the choice about whether to let those things remain dead is ours to make, and likewise, whether that resurrected life will be ours as well.  It is us.  Christ has done His work; we need to say ‘yes’, to buy into it.

What a glorious day!  Jesus has been raised from the dead, ‘the first fruits of those who sleep’, meaning that no more shall death reign supreme.  Its power is broken and so too are its associated ‘partners in crime’, sin, shame, guilt and Satan.  Their hold over us is broken, dead and gone in Jesus’ grave, and now, in Christ Jesus, we are alive for evermore.  Today’s Scripture passage from John relates just one set of stories about the resurrected Christ, but all the gospels say the same, “Jesus is alive and is forever more.”  Thanks be to God.

The book of Lamentations from the Hebrew Scriptures as long been a book of the Bible that I largely avoid, given that it is so very dark and so devoid of any hope or resolution.  But then a funeral family suggested that I look at its third chapter, and wow, what a surprise!  In the midst of the desolation and in the midst of Jeremiah’s deep sorrow and grief over what is taking place to his nation and his people, there is this note of hope.  There is a future after all, and there is a God who steadfastly stands in it, ever ready and willing to help those who put their trust in Him.  Such is our God.  Thanks be to God.

Critics and audiences were initially quite mixed in their reception of Mel Gibson’s 1904 movie, “The Passion of the Christ”, both because of its terribly graphic nature and its supposed theology.  And yet, at its time, it was the highest-grossing R rated movie of all time, and actually occasioned the conversion of several of its production crew to the Roman Catholic faith.

But what tremendously impacted me about the movie were two things.  Firstly, there was the terrible suffering and anguish it brought to Mary, the mother of Jesus.  I had never before considered how horrible it must of been for her to witness these things.  No mother should ever have to go through that, I thought.  But, then, there was the other thing, namely the terrible pain and suffering purposely inflected upon Jesus.  I had often visualized it in my mind’s eye, but the movie made it so much more real, so much more graphic.  To think that Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, suffered all this intentionally on our behalf, intentionally simply because He loved us so.  But that is exactly what today, Good Friday, is about, about God’s great love for us.  Let us never forget it.

Today’s passage and meditation touch on something that is rather difficult, rather trying.  Jesus commands us to love, not just in word and intent, but in action.  And so it is to be something that we do and do intentionally and deliberately.  In my growing up years, I came a prayer that read, in part, 'help me to love that other person, even when I don’t like him’.  That brought me up short as I’d always thought of love as an emotion, as a feeling.  But Jesus here was speaking of it as an act of will, as a decision, that is, to will and to want and to work for what is best for that other person.  However, that is quite a difficult road to follow.  Thankfully, we have God’s help in it.

Today’s passage, once again, is one of the Servant Songs from the book of Isaiah and describes the unwavering devotion of that Servant to carrying out God’s will, a will which, by the way, is all for us.  As that Song relates He is there solely to encourage and sustain the weary--that is, us--with the very words of God.  How incredibly good that is!  And, He will not allow anything to deter Him from that task.  And, of course, that Servant is none other than Jesus.  Oh, what a wonderful Saviour He is.  Thanks be to God.

Earthly glory, acclaim, prominence, prestige, and public approval are things that are writ large in the wider world stage and yet they are not at all what Christ mandates as our goals or ambitions as Christians.  In fact, just the opposite.  What He taught, and what He exemplified, was the way of lowly and humble servanthood and the way of the Cross--as a pattern for each of us.  And that in dying to ourselves, we might live for Himself and others, and live eternally to His glory, and ours as well.  It is not at all what we might expect or desire, but it is the only way that leads to life that is really life.

today’s account of the servant of God we hear of Him working quietly and stealthily until the work (that is, justice) gets done.  This, surely, is something to fondly look forward to!

the sad ‘creature’ Pontius Pilate we see God working mysteriously and behind the scenes with even the most disastrous and terrible of circumstances

In Isaiah, we hear God’s words about ‘doing a new thing’ (Isaiah 43:19) and His admonition ‘not to remember the former things or consider the things of old” (verse 18).  In many ways, these words certainly apply to today.  We have a ‘new thing’ in terms of missions: no longer are the missions ‘out there’, but here at home in our universities and all through our communities.  Countless people from other nations have landed on our doorsteps, some from countries where missionary endeavours are restricted or forbidden.  And, we have a ‘new thing’ in terms of openness to the Christian faith.  While many are turned off or resistant to formal ‘religion’, they are wide open to community and belonging, to sources of help and well-being, and even to something vaguely called ‘spirituality’.  And is this sense of being dubious about ‘religion’ good in some ways, for far too often formal religion has been a matter of external practices, of dos and don'ts where we try to reach up to God or try to please God.  And is this not the polar opposite of what true Christianity is about, namely God reaching down to us to show that He loves us.  And is not this something that almost everyone is seeking.  So, yes, I believe that we are in the midst of a ‘new thing’.  Hopefully, we can capitalize upon it.

Scriptural passages that pronounce blessings or promises or prophecies, especially when found in the Hebrew Scriptures, are often a bit problematic--problematic in the sense of knowing whether they also apply to us. After all, they were written originally for a very specific audience, place and time, which may be entirely different from ours. However, in today’s passage there are three things that I think that we can rather positively think as applying to us as well, firstly, Jeremiah’s appeal to the exiles to be good citizens wherever they live, secondly, that they should seek to know God, and thirdly, that He promises them hope and a future. I think that these words apply to us as well.

What I take from the seeming change of mind of some of those who heard Jesus speak and saw His actions, is that nobody’s opinion or thinking is set in stone.  Even the stubbornest and most intractable people can change.  Take the future apostle Paul as a prime example.  So, that means that what we say or do certainly can have an impact--even if it doesn’t seem to be the case at the time.  So, let us keep on living for Jesus: you never know that might happen as a result!

Today’s passage from John’s Gospel picks up on two difficulties that some of us have, or, at least, if you have any ‘stubborn Englishmen’ in your crowd. My father was, for the greater part of his life, one of those folks who insisted that he was fully capable and could do it himself. There was, for the most part, little interest in asking for help. Today’s passage on the Good Shepherd emphasizes the opposite: namely that we can’t do it all ourselves, and that we need help, and in this case, the best help of all, which is Jesus. Yes, some of us have to learn it the hard way, but trusting, depending upon Jesus, letting Him help us and guide us, really is the best way.

Some people’s heads are hardly than a rock; they are that stubborn and resistant to reason or change. Possibly it is almost useless to try. But what if we were simply to love them. Those outrageous, seemingly ‘impossible’ passages in Matthew (Matthew 5:38-48) and Luke (Luke 6:27-36) suggest that we are to love the stubborn, the incorrigible, even the nasty, regardless of how they behave. It seems pretty difficult, but maybe it’s worth a try.

One of the old board games that my brother and I used to play as kids had a card entitled ‘Opportunity Knocks’, which often proved to be very helpful indeed.  I like to think that our world around us has plenty of its own ‘Opportunity Knocks’ cards, chances for us to do good to others, to put in a good word, to be cheerful and welcoming, to make amends, to be gracious and courteous in traffic, and to steer someone in the direction of God or the church.  Often it doesn’t take very much, but who knows its outcomes!  Sometimes a cheery word can make all the difference in a person’s day.

In today’s Scripture passage, God promises to do a ‘new thing’, so what is the new thing that you would like God to do?  I, for one, would like to see a cessation of the countless instances of wars and strife around the world.  But then, I have to ask myself whether I have ardently and persistently prayed for such a thing.  I have to admit that I haven’t, and therein maybe a problem.  Perhaps the same goes for the evangelization of the world, starting with my own community: have I actually prayed for this, earnestly and faithfully?  The same might be said of other ‘new things’ that we might wish for: have we really got down on our knees and asked God to bring them to pass?  I think that this might be something that we need to do.