I hope you`ll excuse me for a moment, while I finish my breakfast. I didn`t have time to finish it before I came out - I`ll be with you in a moment....(EAT THE YELLOW DAFFODIL HEADS.) ((Warning note: See the end of the Sermon)).
No! I haven`t gone mad in eating daffodils! And I don`t mind if, when you leave Church this morning, you tell everyone what I`ve done.
However, if you do, then the whole Congregation had better do it - and agree on what you`ve seen - because if you don`t then I don`t think that anyone will believe you.
I mean if ONE of you goes out from Church and says, "This Morning`s Preacher ate a daffodil in the pulpit for breakfast", I think they`ll probably laugh at you.
And if 2 or 3 of you say, "It`s true. Eric Sellgren ate a daffodil for breakfast, in the pulpit", well then there`s a better chance of someone believing you.... BUT YOU COULD HAVE GOT TOGETHER AND MADE THE STORY UP........... So they still might not do so!
But if every ONE of you goes out and says, "It`s true!. We saw it with our own eyes!"...... and if you were joined by everyone in all the Congregations of the Shaston Team today..... about 500 people in all..... then they certainly won`t be able to deny it.
And if in the next few days you go on to say, "When I saw him eat that daffodil, it did something to me inside - IT STOPPED ME from being afraid" ...... and they know that you were tied up with all kinds of fears, so that you hardly ever went out of the house, except to Church once a year on Easter Day, and that you totally avoided people - but here you are, out and about every day, and happily talking to all and sundry! Well, that will make them think, won`t it! They really WILL have to believe you when they see you walking cheerfully down the street saying, "Eric Sellgren ate a daffodil in Church, and it`s really changed my life"!
No! I haven`t gone mad. I just want you to see a point - a point about the Resurrection.
The Bible talks a lot about the Resurrection appearances of Jesus - NOTE not just ONE appearance, but MANY. And not just on ONE Day, but MANY DAYS - a period of 40 days in fact. It also says that Jesus appeared not just to one or two people, but to lots of people - to more than 500 people on many different occasions in fact......... and all of those people, every last man and woman of them were CHANGED.......fundamentally CHANGED, FOR THE BETTER......... NO LONGER SCARED STIFF OF DYING FOR THEIR FAITH IN JESUS.
It says that, not many days after seeing Jesus die on the Cross, they were out on the streets of the very city where He had been killed, and NOW they were saying:
"HE`S ALIVE! WE`VE SEEN HIM. HE`S RISEN FROM THE DEAD. WE`VE SEEN HIM WITH OUR VERY OWN EYES"....... and later they said, "WE`VE BEEN FILLED WITH THE VERY SAME POWER THAT FILLED HIM!"
Some of those who heard this startling message tried to wiggle out of it, of course. They tried to tell the 500 they were liars, or deluded, or that they had stolen the body, but lots of other people who heard the message of the 500 found that they HAD TO BELIEVE IT!
But that`s not the end of the story - not by a long chalk. What happened next was ecen stranger - as soon as anyone said they believed, and that wanted to experience the same change that had happened to the 500........................ two things happened:
a) First they DID begin to change - their FEAR died away, and they became full of life and joy.
b) Secondly, they began to say that they too had met the Risen Jesus.... no, not in the same way as the others, for, by now, Jesus had ascended into heaven to be with His Father..... but they HAD MET HIM! His Holy Spirit came to live within them, and they discovered that it was the Holy Spirit of Jesus ALIVE IN THEM.
He was ALIVE AS SURE AS EGGS IS EGGS, and the sheer joy of it began to change the world.
"Someone once said, "IT TURNED THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN" - but I think it turned the world the RIGHT WAY UP.
And this went ON AND ON. It didn`t stop when the Disciples died, or the 500 died. It went on for Centuries and Centuries, to more and more people, people who were saying "Jesus is ALIVE - today", and that very fact took their fear away.
I know that to be true. My father died in 1974. I`ll never forget my feelings at the time. At first it looked as if he might recover, but the years of bronchitis had taken their toll, and his heart couldn`t take the extra strain of influenza. One day it became perfectly plain that he was going to die. That night I went to bed in tears - ordained I might be, but I was still filled with doubt - doubt about the whole business of dying for Dad and for myself - full of doubt about what comes afterwards. Was there really a Resurrection from the dead?
I opened the Bible at random and began to read - and this is what I read (the words shot out of the page at me, as if I`d never seen them before). "Tell me this" says Paul, "Since you believe what we preach, why are some of you saying that dead people will never come back to life again? For, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ must still be dead. And if He is still dead, then all our preaching is empty! worthless! hopeless!....... If they don`t then all Christians who have died are lost!.............. And if being a Christian is of value to us ONLY NOW IN THIS LIFE, we are the most MISERABLE of creatures. But the fact is that Christ did actually rise from the dead, and has become the first of millions who will come back to life one day" (1 Corinthians 15 vv 12-14, 16-19. Living Bible Version)..
That hit me right between the eyes. It laid bare my doubts about the Resurrection. It laid bare my doubts about life after death. It made me face up to the shallowness of my faith. Then, as I lay in bed, peace began to flow through me. I knew now, beyond any shadow of a doubt that there is a Resurrection, and that Dad, because he trusted Jesus, was going to be raised to a glorious new life.
That night I experienced what the Bible calls "the peace of God which passes understanding". It was overwhelming, and it went with me right through Dad`s death the next day, and on and on through the years in between. I have faced death since on many occasions, in my natural family and in my wider family of the Church. It is never easy to be parted from those you have grown to love, but I have never been afraid for them, because I know they are safe with a Father who can be trusted.
And my certainly rests on two foundations:
1. That Jesus did actually rise from the dead, and has become the first of millions who will come back to life one day.
2. That the peace of God which goes far beyond anything we can understand, can be experienced in the direst circumstances.
Jill and I join with Simon and Becky to wish you the Happiest of Easters with Jesus alive in you giving you the peace of God in life and death.
(Oh, by the way, if you try eating daffodils only eat the flowers, not the green stuff - and NOT in front of the children!)
