Looking For A God Something Like Me
Luke 24:1-12 Jn 20:11 20:28 21:3 Lk 24:15 Lk 24:30 Lk 24:42
When I was seven years old we moved to a new estate on the outskirts of Worthing. We were one of the first to move into our brand new bungalow and in the early days I loved watching the workmen put the finishing touches to the other properties in our road. The front doors didn’t have any locks on them so when no one was looking I’d wander in and take a look at all the empty rooms imagining the families who would eventually move in and the friends I would make with all their children.
Then came a really exciting time when the removal lorries started coming bringing with them all the belongings of our new neighbours. I’d stand and watch the unloading expectantly. I saw wardrobes and kitchen cabinets, bookcases and beds – and then I noticed sets of golf clubs, walking sticks, and sewing machines, piles of classical records and gardening equipment. I went running to my Mum in despair.
“There’s no children coming” I cried “ It’s all grown ups, There’s not going to be anyone like me!”
One day my growing despair was lightened. Out from this removal van came a child’s bicycle and then some cuddly toys, but my hopes were immediately dashed when a dolls house was carried down from the van. This was worse than anything – there was going to be a girl!
I’m not surprised people had trouble with Jesus. You see they had notions of a spectacular sort of God coming down. They were brought up on stories like Noah’s flood, the parting of the Red Sea, the falling of the walls of Jericho. Their God as a pillar of fire, a heavenly warrior. A great king. If this God was ever to make an appearance on earth, you’d recognise him all right he was going to be powerful, he was going to be strong, he would be irresistible.
The problem with Jesus was that he was so unimpressive. A carpenter’s son from Nazareth simply didn’t fit the bill. Three years of ministry with just a dozen or so committed followers., and saying the wrong things almost every time he opened his mouth. The people were looking for a crackerjack of a Messiah not a dimly burning wick. They gave him enough chances to impress but he never took any of them. Even as he died they cried “Look come down from the cross now and then we might believe you”.
And now we have this Easter Story. This life changing moment for us all. True, Matthew’s Gospel does mention an earthquake, but apart from that, this Easter morning is a quiet sort of day. Nobody can describe the way he was risen and those who are in on the secret are terror stricken and tongue tied. A single stone is rolled away and Jesus quite simply is gone.
“There’s not going to be anyone like me” I cried to my mum when I discovered that we had moved onto an estate with no other children around, and I think it’s a bit like that and our search for God. We hear about him as majestic. We hear about him as Almighty, and God is those things, he truly is, but the magnificent truth of His coming amongst us as Jesus Christ, is that there I see someone like me. Jesus Christ is a God I can be with. A God to touch and talk to and in his resurrection, He’s moving into our neighbourhood, not just as a house guest or as part of a nationwide tour, he is here for all eternity.
Making a first move into a church building can be a time of dread and people are asking the same question as I did all those years ago – Will there be anyone like me? Anyone like me amongst the people in the pews? Anyone like me in the character of the God proclaimed here?
The church can say yes to both questions and we draw upon the evidence of those first resurrection days to see the truth of it. Consider the things you do and feel as you go about your everyday life. Working. Eating. Travelling. Socialising. Then there are the joys of finding and the despairs of losing. Now my Alleluia’s ring out this morning because this is where I find my God.
Is there anyone like me? – take any of the Easter stories you like and see how we live them out in our neighbourhood, down our road, in our lives.
The risen Lord knows where to find his people, but do you have the courage to acknowledge his presence.
The disciples were fishing all night and caught nothing – Jesus stands on the beach and calls out from afar. He comes to their place of work and offers his presence there.
Two followers are walking home to their village and a stranger joins them. As he talks to them they feel a specialness in the man – He offers his risen presence in their travelling.
The man is invited to supper and there is bread on the table. Elsewhere he comes to followers in a room in the city and there is fish on a plate. The bread is broken and the fish is eaten, and they recognise his presence there at their meal times.
Mary is in the Easter Garden bereft with loss. Jesus meets her in her weeping and offers his risen presence there at the heart of despair
Peter jumps into the sea and swims to Jesus – crying – “It is the Lord”. Thomas cries out “My Lord and My God”, when he realises that all this talk is not just an idle rumour – he offers his risen presence at the heart of joy.
If all your life you have been disappointed with images of God because he is portrayed as so very different from anything you are or ever could be, if ever you have laboured under the misapprehension that you are not good enough for God to grace your life with his presence, if you’ve ever been content with an image of God as an old man with a beard safely tucked in a far away heaven, well, this resurrection today shatters the seal on more than one tomb.
“Alleluia! He is Risen!” The test of faith is not just believing in the mechanics of a great thing that happened two thousand years ago, it is believing the way in which the miracle and wonder that spreads to each and every humdrum life and each and every workaday place, where we, his people will take the time to recognise it.
A church building plonked beside the A25, surrounded by offices and shops needs to thank its lucky stars that it is situated so close to where the risen saviour walks.
RH 4.4.10