All Saints Church, Worcester

Morning Communion - Acts 10:34-43 and John 20:1-8

40 Days of Purpose: Celebration of all we have learned

I like victories - last weekend was therefore a good one - Worcester Rugby Club's victory gained them promotion to the premiership - England cricketers' victory gave them their first series win in the West Indies since 1968 - even my football team Leeds United experienced victory against Leicester, and this season that is rare indeed!

Yes, last weekend was a good weekend for victories, but let me tell you - this weekend is a bigger and better one! And that's what we are here to celebrate today! It's a Victory Weekend all right!

It may not have seemed as if it was going to be a victory weekend - on Thursday night when Jesus was arrested, on Friday when he was crucified and laid in a borrowed grave. It didn't seem very victorious on Saturday when, bound by Sabbath rules, those who loved him had to wait to anoint Jesus battered and bruised and lifeless body. It didn't even seem like victory at first on Sunday morning when the tomb was found open and it looked like a case of a stolen body! But as John, Peter, Mary and others saw and believed, the message began to sink in. Then as the news was shared around, the sense of victory grew! Eventually each Easter morning came to be met with the great Christian cry - Alleluia, the Lord is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

Many have tried to interpret the death and resurrection of Jesus and a variety of ways of explaining what it was that Christ was doing have come about. [Some see it in terms of justification, some redemption, some reconciliation etc. All reveal different facets of the splendour of what God was doing in Christ on the cross.] Theologian Gustav Aulen understands the cross as a great victory! [Christus Victor is all about seeing what Jesus achieved on the cross as the greatest of all victories -] a victory revealed, affirmed and declared by his resurrection from the dead on the third day!

This was the purpose of all that Jesus came for, lived for, died and rose again for! It wasn't all for nothing, it was for the purpose of winning that great victory and through it winning us back to God for ever so that we too might live out victoriously the full purpose of our lives! And that's what we have been thinking about over the last few weeks - our 5 purposes for living. And they all connect in with this message of Jesus' purpose fulfilled at Easter time.

Our First Purpose is that we were Planned for God's Pleasure - to worship him.

What greater incentive have we to worship than all we have just re-lived this week: [that God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.] If you've followed through the Holy Week liturgies and heard the excellent daily addresses from Brother Reginald, if you've been to see The Passion film, if you have found some other way of entering into the mystery of this time, then surely our experience of the passion of God for us is enough to stimulate our passion for him expressed in lives of worship.

Recently, God has been prompting me to pray for an outpouring of passion for God across this City. How will that be? We don't see the people of this city queuing up to come to church today do we? Well I don't think we can expect the people out there to begin to catch this passion for God until we have become more thoroughly infected ourselves. So it has been my prayer in this season we call Passiontide that a tide of passion sweeps across the churches of our city including this one!

Officially Passiontide is over and Easter has begun - but let's pray that the tide of passion continues and deepens as we respond in worship to the God who was passionate enough about us to die for us! I have been moved by the number of people who have spoken recently about their experience of coming to worship here being one that evoked an emotion in them beyond that which they could possibly have imagined. Let's be encouraged about that. Let's be open to that for ourselves too!

Amongst Jesus' last words to his followers was a rather challenging command - that we love one another as he loved us. He wants us to share the same passion for each other as he has for us.

This is our Second Purpose: that we were Formed for God's Family, to enjoy fellowship with one another.

The power of the cross is such that not only does it make possible a new vertical relationship between God and humankind, it also forges the possibility of new horizontal relationships between us across all our human barriers which are a miracle of God's grace. One person who wrote about the emotional experience of worship here also found the sense of fellowship after the service just as overwhelming!

So let's keep loving one another and looking outwards to include others in that fellowship. The picture I have for that is of an outward facing circle - if we form a tight circle facing inwards then it is hard for others to break into! It's more clique than fellowship. An outward facing circle allows for just as close contact with those around us in the circle but also allows us to draw others in to share in the wonder of belonging. What a joy it was to celebrate that truth by welcoming into our fellowship in a new way young Tom and not so young Bob last month. I am reminded of a prophecy from a few years ago which I still long to see fulfilled: that when the Father's love is experienced in the Father's house, the prodigals will come running home.

The cross also speaks into our Third Purpose - that we have been Created to Become like Christ.

The cross sums up the character of Jesus in so many ways. It sums up his life of obedience because he went all the way to the cross in obedience to his Father. It sums up his passion for us because he opened wide his arms for us on the cross. It sums up his humility because he endured that lowest form of execution associated with both sin and curse. It sums up his trust because although it was not the way he wanted to go, he was able to say yet not my will but yours be done and to trust that in God's will even the pain and the shame of the cross might turn to healing and victory.

As we hear the call to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus, keeping our eyes fixed upon him, we too will find ourselves growing in obedience, in love, in humility and in trust finding that the character of Christ is being formed in us. We need one another to do this and that is why we express our belonging in God's family and our need to grow more like Christ through our belonging in small groups as well as this growing congregation - because there not only can we worship together and build our sense of belonging but we can also take steps forward together in developing our discipleship.

And these are also places where we can get our hands dirty in service. As Jesus prepared for the cross he got down on his knees and washed his disciples' feet. So he set for us the model of servanthood which is expressed by the ways in which we serve one another within the church -

Our Fourth Purpose is that all of us have a unique shape in order for us to Serve God by serving one another.

Each of us have been given life experiences, human talents and spiritual gifts which are not to be locked away in some store cupboard but to be used in joyful and humble service of one another.

And then finally all of this is good news isn't it? We have a God worthy of our Worship, we have a family to which we can belong, we have a Saviour to follow on life's journey and we have gifts and ministries to share with one another. All this adds up to Good News and ...

Our Fifth Purpose is that we have been Made for a Mission - and that is to evangelise the world.

Jesus' death on the cross and his glorious resurrection are not just good news for us. This victory of which I have been speaking is not just for us. It is for the whole world. Jesus is the best news in all the world and since he died, rose again and ascended in heaven we are his body on earth to live out and speak out the good news of his victory. Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit so that we might do that with the same power with which He was raised from death to life.

Five Purposes for living - now comes the challenge: John 13: "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them." The blessing doesn't come in knowing the purposes of life. The blessing comes in doing the purposes of life. And that's our challenge as individuals and as a church from this day onwards!

I enjoyed the sports victories of last weekend, but there is no guarantee that they will last. Worcester may struggle in next year's premiership. England's cricketers will have to play Australia again one of these days. And there is certainly no guarantee that a win for Leeds will be repeated. So whilst I will continue to enjoy these little victories when they come along, I will focus more on the victory of this weekend. All the worst that the world, sin and the devil could throw against the Son of God was thrown against him. He took it all on and experienced death itself. But now he is alive and reigns on high - so let's give him our worship, let's share in our belonging to him, let's allow ourselves to be conformed to his character as we serve one another and tell the world that Jesus reigns and that he is alive for evermore!

Let us pray…

"Since life is preparation for eternity, I want to use my time on earth fulfilling God's purposes for me. I was planned for God's pleasure, that's worship, so I commit myself this Easter day to get to know and love God better. I was formed for God's family, that's fellowship, so I commit myself this Easter day to show love to other believers. I was created to become like Christ, that's discipleship, so I commit myself this Easter day to make choices to grow my character. I was shaped to serve God, that's ministry, so I commit myself this Easter day to serve God by serving others. I was made for a mission, that's evangelism, so I commit myself this Easter day to share the Good News. Amen"