Sunday Worship on the Second Sunday of Easter
Welcome to our Worship on the second Sunday of Easter. Our Parish Eucharist is at 10 am at St Thomas' Church, and Revd John Faraday will be preaching and presiding. If you can't be with us in person, you'll find everything you need to worship from home here on this page.
Our first hymn this morning is "Now the Green Blade Riseth"
A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 4, verses 32-35
Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Reflection
Imagine a large construction site. The whole future of half a city depended on the work being done because in a few short years there would be many acres of extra housing and factories. The purpose of the work was to provide extra sewers to cope with the extra demand on the system. It is the kind of work which does not make headlines in the long term. (People do not demonstrate when drainage work is proposed). It may cause slow traffic and seem to spoil the view while the work is being done. People may not always appreciate this work but when it is done they are happy. Then they forget that the work ever happened, but they will benefit for the rest of the time they live in the area.
The work, which took several years from drawing-board to completion, started well. The design team, the supervisors, the contractors engineers and construction team all cooperated and accepted each other. There were occasional disagreements but they were sorted out well and the work continued, until one day when distrust crept in. Nothing seemed any different to the people who passed by, but the site itself was not a happy place to work. The quality and quantity of the work suffered too.
That is the kind of situation that nobody likes but all too often happens in the ‘real world.’ We all have our own personal likes and dislikes. We all have our own abilities, strengths and weaknesses. We have people we can get along with and those we find it hard to work with. It is the kind of problem which should never happen but all-too-often it does, and is the nightmare of anyone who tries to make things work and get things done.
You would think that the Early Church would have the same kind of problem, but in fact we read of a very different situation. That Church grew from nothing! Jesus had a group of twelve disciples and some other followers who liked what He said. Most had fled when Jesus was crucified and thought that their dream was over.
When He rose again it was the most joyful situation they could imagine. They revelled in the fact that even death, the greatest enemy of mankind, couldn’t hold Jesus. When Jesus ascended they still felt unable to found the Church as He had directed them. Jesus, the Son of God was completely Holy and God-like while they were faltering humans. However, the gift of the Holy Spirit, ten days after Jesus ascended, changed the whole situation! Those fearful disciples immediately became bold and able to speak clearly about their Saviour Jesus.
The Church started to grow rapidly. Even the disciples had a range of abilities and personalities, but add that to the literally thousands of people who were becoming Christians and you would expect immediate clashes. It was full of human beings and so you would expect them to clash over all sorts of issues, but something very special happened. Our Bible Reading from The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 4 verses 32-35 sums up the situation.
It tells us that ‘The whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul.’ They remained individual people with their own personalities and abilities (I believe that individuality is one of God’s most special gifts!) yet they realised that God had called them not just to be forgiven but also called each of them to be a part of something much greater – His Church.
When they considered the amazing way God dealt with themselves and each other they were able to show Christian Love in a way that gave them great joy and stunned the world! This meant so much to them that ‘No one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.’ With the size of today’s Church this may be impractical, but how many problems would be eased if we didn’t hold too tightly on to our possessions. How much are we prepared to share?
We read that ‘With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.’ This was largely what fired that great movement of the Church in those early days. The apostles had an advantage over us! They could speak of Jesus from first-hand. They were talking about all that they had seen and heard. They had seen the work of Jesus. They had seen Him crucified and they had seen Him risen. The Holy Spirit gave them the courage and the words to make their message plain to their hearers.
However, we still have an important part in this work!
This was a huge message that was to change the world. People of every continent and language would eventually hear this message and be changed by it for the better. Christians everywhere would seek to be honest, reliable people who would try to help others to be close to God and each other. Through the power of the Holy Spirit they would seek to conquer the world, not with weapons and worldly power but by the love of God. We should ask God to help us to play our part of this great work.
This sounds a very big aim! There are Christians who have high positions in the Church, in education, science, commerce, politics and so on. (Please pray for these people). But most of us are ‘ordinary’ people in ordinary situations. Yet God can do great things through ordinary people like you and me! Yes, we may do our best in the things we think and say and do, but we know of our mistakes and failures all too well. But the God who worked with power-mad James and John, and with blunderer Peter (and so many others down the ages) can and will do great things with us! I am sure that most Christians will achieve so much more than we could ever imagine or realise.
May God bless you as you serve Him today and each day.
Today's final hymn is "Alleluia, Alleluia, Give Thanks to the Risen Lord"
