Resurrection. Luke 24:1-11

Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen! Just as he told you he would.  

Read the gospel texts and you will see that Jesus had told his disciples again and again that he would suffer and die but then after 3 days he would be raised from death to LIFE. 

Perhaps he put it like this: Christ will die, Christ will RISE, Christ will come again 

He had told them that he would be raised from death to life but here are the women rushing to the garden tomb early in the morning on the day after the sabbath and they are here not to witness a resurrection but to embalm Jesus’ dead body. They are shocked to find the stone rolled away and the body gone! 

When the women bring the news of resurrection to the 11 and all the other disciples the news is not met with joy it is discarded as nonsense. 

Peter ran to witness the empty tomb and grave clothes and he went away wondering what had happened. 

Jesus had told them THIS would happen!! 

Christ will die, Christ WILL RISE, Christ will come again 

Perhaps it’s a bit like when my wife, Fiona was pregnant for the first time and various dads offered this ‘dad to be’ advice about babies and fatherhood and nappies and i listened and i heard but i didn’t really hear, i couldn’t really hear. You can never be prepared for all that. I still couldn’t get my head around the fact that there really were twin babies growing inside Fiona who would one day be in our arms and in the world - let alone taking nappies on board. I heard but i didn’t really hear

Is that what it was like with the disciples? they believed in Jesus, they had followed him, they had listened to him. But the words about his resurrection had not really …entered  them; had not captured them, had not affected their hearts and their hopes. The words.. they had heard them but they hadn’t actually heard them. The words didn’t change their lives. 

And It’s only when the shining angels graciously visit the perplexed women and say, “What are you doing here looking for Jesus? He told you he’s not gonna be here.” It’s only then that they begin to re-member - put together - his words. 

I wonder if it’s the same for us when it comes to Easter? 

[Some of us struggle to believe this stuff at all and i’ll come to that in a moment]

But many of us do believe in Jesus, we have followed him, we have listened to him. And we’re told by God in his word again and again that Jesus suffered and died and then after 3 days he was raised from death to life. Christ has died, CHRIST is RISEN, Christ will come again. We remind ourselves sunday after sunday. BUT these words about his resurrection .. they haven’t really entered  us; haven’t captured us, haven’t affected our hearts and our hopes. We’ve heard the words but we haven’t actually heard them. The words haven’t changed our lives. And we end up looking for the living among the dead and he is not there. HE IS RISEN 

We need a shining angel, the Holy Spirit of God - to redirect us and open our eyes to the significance of what we are being told!

What about those of us who have real difficulty believing that these events could even have happened. dead men simply do not rise. it’s impossible. and therefore this text must be a fabrication presumably intended to promote a religion after it’s leader had died. it might have some universal themes but is not to be taken literally.. 

Well. look. I agree that dead men do not rise .. normally. But if there is a God who governs reality we cannot rule out the fact that God could raise a dead person. 

Furthermore. If these texts as you suppose were fabrications written a generation after the events to promote Christianity then not only would it’s author not have had women going first to the tomb (women were not considered credible witnesses in the ancient world, as this story itself bears out); but also the author would surely have had the 11 disciples believing in the resurrection gospel at once, ready to be models of faith to lead the church into God’s future. The only real explanation for why these events are written in such a real way is the same explanation for why from this feeble few the church exploded across the roman world: something really happened. there really was a resurrection. Jesus Christ really is Alive. 

And so what does it mean? 

O spirit open our hearts to hear 

Luke tells us that it was in the very early morning of the first day of the week that the stone was found to be rolled away and the body gone. In other words - Because of the resurrection of JC there is a new dawn, a new day, a new start, a new week, a new world. 

the overturning of our greatest and most pervasive enemy - death. 

When Adam - the father of humanity - sinned; when he pushed God aside - the consequence was death. Death came… to all : All Adam’s race (the human race) who sin just like him; and even to our planet - the earth was subjected to decay. Death. Death.

Until Good Friday when ‘Christ died for our sins.’ 

Astonishingly while we were the sinners, while we deserved our death penalty… 

Christ died…. For our sins.

Like the little boy who with his magnifying glass on a sunny day concentrates all the suns rays into one laser beam of light that can incinerate dry grass or small creatures or his sister’s hair…

So when Jesus hung on that cross it was as if some cosmic magnifying glass redirected and concentrated all of the destructive consequences of our sins and all God’s holy anger against sin onto him - bringing him death for the wages of sin is death and there dying on his cross jesus paid off the debt of sin once for all time. And Sin and death were stripped of their power. And now here on the first Easter day we begin to see the results.. 

The day that death died. Like the first green shoot of spring forcing its way up through the frozen ground of an eternal winter. Like the golden light of the dawn ending the longest and darkest night. So Jesus bursts from the tomb of death. Not a ghost having entered some new mode of existence, no, notice the emphasis that Jesus’ body was gone. His body is raised. This is  life returning to this world. Jesus - bodily alive and strong, complete forever. The resurrection marked the greatest turnaround in history. Death has lost its sting. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Death has been defeated!!!!

in another place in the NT the apostle Paul describes the risen Jesus as the firstfruits of those who have died

We are to Imagine a farmer toward the end of the growing season daily, anxiously looking over his crop. Watching the skies for sun and rain. His very life depends on the success of the crop. If it fails.. his family will die. 

And then.. early one morning… the thing he’s been watching for: in one corner of the field which receives the first sunlight of the day tiny ears of corn have begun to form and appear in the stalks of the crop. The first fruits!! The first fruits means the whole crop is successful! He tears it out of the ground and runs home to his wife.. Just a tiny part of the crop but proof that a harvest will follow.. 

Jesus is not raised alone. His resurrection is the firstfruits - the guarantee of a great harvest of people raised from the dead. Jesus is like a needle, he has pierced through the great shroud of death to life on the other side and those who are joined to Jesus by faith, as the thread is connected to the needle, shall surely follow him through. 

Christ is risen from the dead and we and all this broken world will follow. 

THEREFORE 

2 things 

1. We do not grieve as those who have no hope

Death. it’s horrible, it’s unnatural. Have you had a loved one close to you who has died? Do you fear your own death? Are you stuck in grief? Whether untimely or at  ripe old age. Death is not the way the world is meant to be. To lose our lives. To lose the presence of a loved one is always agonizing.. 

But Easter says that death has ultimately been defeated. Where o death is your victory? Where O death is your sting. Jesus is RISEN from the grave. 

Many people reach out to Jesus as death approaches and we should long for all to know him because Jesus says ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

ill. We’re going to live forever. 

Do you hear this? Can you take it deep into your soul for yourself and your loved ones. 

Through Christ death is now merely a gardener and we are the seeds .

We will be raised and united eternally bodily with our loved ones. We will embrace. 

Our popular culture’s view of the afterlife is one, if any, of vague immateriality. Occasionally Harry Potter catches a glimpse of his deceased parents or Luke Skywalker glimpses a shimmering Obi Wan Kenobi. But these silent, transparent ghostly holograms what comfort do they provide - you can’t hug them. I want to hug. And the resurrection says - you will.

Jesus will wipe away every tear. he will reunite us on the day when death is no more.

In the face of defeated death we do not grieve as those who have no hope

and 

second thing 

We do not live as those who have no hope 

If Christ is not raised from the dead then the Bible tells us (1 corinthians 15) we should eat and drink for tomorrow we die. If this is all there is then maximise your happiness now! What are you doing here?? See the world, realise your dreams. You only live ONCE. Make a list - a thousand things i need to do before I DIE. 

The problem of course is we don’t even know how to live well with the one chance we have and time like sand is running through our fingers. If Christ is not raised from the dead we should eat and drink for tomorrow we die. But even this brief life does not go as we plan - i haven’t seen the world, i haven’t used my gifts, i haven’t realised my dreams…

But….. Christ has been raised from the dead. The tomb was empty. His Body was gone. His body was raised. The first fruits of the renewal of this world. This reality. The future is not some abstract ethereal heavenly existence. The future is this world restored forever. A new dawn, a new day, a new start a new ….CREATION.

And therefore - we do not despair 

see, listen.. take it to heart 

You don’t have to explore the world now 

the world’s not going anywhere ..

You don’t have to realise all your dreams now 

plenty of time to develop your gifts 

You don’t have to maximise your happiness actually 

You have an eternity when all things shall be made new 

So how then should we live in the light of this glorious resurrection hope for this world? 

Trust Jesus and tell people about him? Yes, absolutely. 

But also, if the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ means that this world, every part of it that is good, has a future. Then everything matters. Everything

whether you eat or drink or whatever you do - work, play, rest, love, nurture, rebuke, study, create, comfort, learn, teach, pray, weep, laugh - whatever you do. do it all to the glory of God. 

Do it all for others. cos you don’t have to cling to this life like it’s the only one you’ve got. 

Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen! Just as he told you he would.

Maundy Thursday reflection. John 13:1-17, 34-35

Last Sunday, Palm Sunday around midnight a 26 year old man was murdered on my street. Shot dead in cold blood as he got out the car in front of his mum’s house. Shocking, appalling… challenging. 

Where is the love of God that comes in to redeem our lives, our communities, our world? The love that really makes a difference. The love that enables us to love with courage? 

The problem is that there is something about THAT LOVE that also shocks and appalls and challenges us..

This is Maundy Thursday. There’s something about Maundy Thursday that makes you squirm. One of the ancient practices of the church on this day is to submit to having your feet washed. We’ve often talked about whether we should adopt that practice here - does it culturally translate? maybe it would make people feel too embarassed, too awkward. But you see - that’s the whole point! There’s something about the love of God that makes us uncomfortable but until we move beyond that discomfort and accept his love and our utter need to be served by it we can never become agents of real change in his world.. 

—

The term maundy in Maundy Thursday comes to us from the Latin root maundatum, or commandment, from Jesus’s words in John 13:34:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

The command to love of course was nothing new. But the command to love in the manner that Jesus has loved - that is new. And the command to love, having been loved first by Jesus - that is new. 

How is it that Jesus has loved us ‘to the end’ - that we might then love? 

v3 “Jesus, knowing that the father had given all things into his hands, that he had come from God and was going back to God, got up from the meal … and began to wash his disciples feet..”

—-

For the sandal-wearing disciples, washing your filthy feet was a common cultural practice, as common in their day as brushing teeth is for us. When you arrived at a home a basin of water was provided for you to do the necessary… Now it could happen that in a very well to do household a servant would wash your feet. But this would only be the lowest gentile slave. Jewish slaves were exempted from such a low task. Everybody knows washing dirty feet is nasty. It’s base.

It’s difficult to find a contemporary cultural equivalent for the washing of another’s feet in Jesus’s day. A number of years ago i travelled by train from Mumbai to Delhi.  Travelling by train in India, it is the lowest caste people - often those with disabilities - who clean the trains. They do it by crawling on their bellies across the floor and gathering up rubbish and food which has been dropped there with their clothes. And they are largely ignored because their work is so humiliating.

Do you get, then.. Do you get ..something of the utter, raw, appalling sigificance of what Jesus does here when HE takes off his outer garment and drops to his knees to wash feet?!!!  We hear the shock in the voices of the disciples who are SO embarassed by his actions.. Jesus, their master, their LORD - is crawling on his belly gathering their filth. 

The Creator on his knees. 

And this.. is only the beginning, this is nothing….

incredibly, He will go even lower still -- for contained in John’s account are allusions everywhere to Jesus’ imminent humiliating death.

The verbs John uses for Jesus laying aside his outer clothing and then putting his clothing on again are not usual. They are the verbs John uses elsewhere in his gospel for Jesus saying he will lay down his life only to take it up again at the resurrection. The footwashing, this whole scene, is a picture, a parable of the greater humiliation of God - mocked, spat on, stripped, bruised, bleeding, stretched out, naked, nailed to a cross. A slave’s death. The cross - where the righteous and pure son of God became sin .. so that sinners like you and me could be made righteous and pure..

‘You do not realise now what i am doing,’ Jesus says to Peter v7 as he washes his feet.. ‘But later you will understand.’ 

Understand the breathtaking servant love of our God.                 Who serves us  right at the point of our need - for cleansing, for forgiveness.                                             Who loves in humility. He gives up His rights and privileges.          Who loves in an utterly  costly way.                                  Who loves even under pressure – the cross was just hours away!             Who loves unconditionally – these men would, by the end of the night, betray Him, desert Him or deny Him.  Yet He lovingly washes all their feet, even Judas’s.  And He loves in self-forgetfulness – He doesn’t care that He loses face. He is not concerned for His own self-image. 

Here is the God who stoops, who serves, who gives everything, who gives his life that we might live. 

And Jesus says A new commandment I give to YOU: love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another.

How? I mean I’m an incredibly loving person … until it means inconvenience, or a loss of face, or until my love is not returned in kind.  And how often does my love evaporate when i’m under pressure from other quarters? As i have loved you, you must love one another??!! Are you kidding me???

But Jesus doesn’t just give us the manner in which we are to love. He also gives us the means by which we are to love. As I have loved you ..so you must love ..

See the order? First be loved.  Then love.  First know, realise, appreciate – then do. First receive Jesus’ love.  Then pass it on.

But receiving is hard for us. It humbles us. We like to provide for ourselves. You can’t love me, God. I haven’t had the chance to prove my own worth yet. And so we resist ‘You shall never wash my feet’ says Peter.But Jesus answers ‘unless i wash you, you have no part in me.’ 

It reminds me of those extraordinary moments I’ve witnessed where one cares for the physical needs of an infirm loved one.. maybe helping feed them or wash them when they cannot do it for themselves. For those of us who are able bodied, the idea of submitting to that would be startling, humiliating, weird.. 

But the truth is, spiritually we are infirm, utterly dependent. We can only serve like Christ if we are first served by Christ. We can only love as he has loved if we are first loved by him.. We must overcome that aversion, lay down our pride and let him serve us. Apart from me you can do nothing… nothing 

—- 

God knows about the murder of young men. Maundy Thursday reminds us that God the Father sent his only Son who willingly came as a lowly slave, to serve us, to be crushed for us, to free us from the sin slavery that leads to eternal death. 

Sisters and brothers, we are in receipt of incredible love.We have gathered here on this special night to experience that Love again. We are here to be fed so that we might go out and feed others.

 Tonight, let us remember to claim the love that Jesus gives, and to receive the command that comes through Christ’s self-giving spirit to share that love with a hungry, love-starved world. Amen

The Cross - Reconciled to God, each other, the world

LENT 5

Reconciliation. Colossians 1:19-20

Welcome to SBD.  Through the sundays of Lent leading up to Easter we’re focussing on one of the central events in the Christian faith, the cross of Jesus Christ. In these last weeks we have seen how the cross deals with our guilt (justification), our slavery (Redemption) and our shame (cleansing/expiation). This week we’re going to focus on how the cross deals with our alienation. We’re going to think about how the cross reconciles. We’re going to do that by looking at some verses from our reading in Colossians 1 on page … vv19-20.

What do I mean by alienation? Here’s an ancient story. 

Once a man and a woman lived in an unimaginable paradise. They had everything they could possibly want. They enjoyed an intimate relationship with God, with one another and with the world in which they lived. They had a freedom to know and to explore. 

But, they chose to betray the trust God had given them… Soon, instead of rushing to meet him, they hid from him; instead of selflessly loving one another, they began to blame and accuse; instead of developing the richness of their home, they experienced it as a place of frustrating labour. The story ends with an eviction. The couple are exiled to the east, from where no good thing can come. They are alienated from God, from one another and from home. 

The Jewish Intellectual Edward Said, begins his essay Reflections on Exile with these words: “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.”

Now, I am sure many of you are familiar with that story from the opening chapters of the Hebrew Bible. It’s a story which has been told by Jews and Christians for thousands of years. It gives an account of our experience of tense sadness in the world.  

See on the one hand we’re aware that the world is a place of great beauty and goodness. It is full of endless riches and feels like home. [Science museum - Testament to the work of human discovery and ingenuity for the common good - you can watch IMAX 3D film about life under the oceans ..extraordinary - coral reef, touch it.  - miracle: on a precise day once a year the coral spawns - new life… ] endless riches. 

But, we are also aware that the world is a hard place in which to make our home.  often something is wrong. We feel displaced. Something is wrong. [Our work in the world, without which we feel less than human, often feels nothing like discovery for the common good. And more like slog and frustration. It can easily become selfish. Those same coral reefs that regenerate every year cannot do so fast enough to counter their destruction caused by human greed.  Great beauty and goodness in the world but…something is deeply wrong

We’re aware too that human beings are extraordinary creatures with an intense ability to create and to love. This last week i cam across another amazing growing charity operating in Hackney. The happy baby community provides support for women who are pregnant or have small children and are survivors of trafficking. But, we are also aware that human beings struggle to get on. We argue, we fight, we wage war, we retreat from one another. [Syria: 450k dead in 7 years/national, racial, class pride - we flock with those like us, we love those who love us. Roots of Bitterness can set in. 

Finally, many people are aware that there is more to the world than meets the eye. There is a sense of something, maybe somebody, which is transcendent. [Walk the city. encounter churches, temples, synagogues, meetings in homes where - something transcendent is being sought] But, we’re also aware that the transcendent is elusive. We often ignore it or struggle to find it. When we encounter it we often recoil from it or reject it or hate it. [Last week have you found even yourself withdrawing from God?]. 

All this is what it means to be alienated from the world, from each other, from God. We live east of Eden.  

Now the story says that When alienation sets in there is need for reconciliation. Parties who are set against each other need to be brought back together. Severed relationships need to be mended and restored. The ancient Jewish prophets imagined humanity reconciled to God, to each other and to the world. They called it, Shalom, Peace. [Extraordinary set of images to imagine what that will be like Wolf/lamb; child/snakes nest] All things will be reconciled

Colossians 1:19-20 tells us that God has already done that comprehensive work of reconciliation through the blood of Christ shed on the cross. Have a look at it. 

Notice first God’s passionate desire for reconciliation. God takes the initiative. ‘God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ’ [Many of us when we fall out with each other. We specialise in the silent sulking approach, you don’t say anything but you let the other person know that they have deeply wounded you and you wait for them to come and talk to you] Colossians 1 says God does not sulk in a corner brooding over how mean human beings have been to him. Rather, he draws close. He holds nothing back. He is pleased to allow all his fullness to dwell in Christ who dwells with us in order that he might reconcile all things to himself. 

Notice too that reconciliation is costly. The God who draws close in Christ does so to shed his blood on the cross.  It’s about violent death. At one level we know that reconciliation is costly. If you have ever fallen out with someone then it will often take a lot out of you emotionally, spiritually and physically to restore the relationship. Have you ever felt that? And the greater the offence, the greater the cost particularly if you are the innocent party.

[Marilyn Robinson’s novel Home is the sister novel to her acclaimed Gilead. It tells the story of Glory Boughton - a teacher in her 40s who has never married and returns home to care for her dying Father. At the same time her youngest brother, Jack, the prodigal son, who has been gone twenty years, returns home seeking refuge and to make peace with the past. He is welcomed with love.. But reconciliation is costly. Old wounds are opened. Deep hurts and regret. And the fear of a repeat performance looms..

Reconcilation is costly. The greater the offence the greater the cost particularly if you are the innocent party. 

God was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things… by making peace through his blood  shed on the cross. 

God draws close as the rejected creator and lover in order to make peace with his creatures who have chosen to be… his enemies. 

21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of[g] your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—

Enemies? Now you might say.. hang on a minute. Isn’t that overstating the case? I might not be that interested in God but I am not his enemy. We may not be on speaking terms but I don’t wish him any ill. 

Maybe it’s only when we get up close to the God of the Bible that we realise we might be his enemy after all. See, what if I said to you that this God says that He alone is the way to spiritual life and you can contribute nothing, you must come to him. What if I said to you that this God demands that you serve him with every part of your life that he has given you? What if I said to you that this God says you can hold nothing back from him? He wants everything. 

Maybe you don’t feel quite so neutral towards him then. Maybe we say ‘no’ and we fight him for control of our life. Maybe it’s not so far fetched to say that we are his enemies in need of reconciliation. 

Neither is it simply a one sided affair. As if we don’t like God and that hostility on our part just needs to be overcome by some good PR.  We just need to see how great God actually is. No, the enmity is on both sides. Our human rejection of God, our taking of the gifts but rejecting the giver. Our human self-love. Living like we are God. All this that the Bible calls sin - has provoked God’s righteous, holy anger. 

We have rejected God in his world and he is perfectly within his rights to reject us. It’s a punishment we perversely welcome and deserve. 

But still he comes after us in love. Even while we are still his enemies he loves us and he gives himself for us. In the shedding of his blood he does the costly work of reconciliation. In Christ, God takes upon himself his anger against our sin so that we will never have to bear it. He takes our place. This is an incredible discovery.  

Once when i was at university and a foolish young man, I inadvertently had managed to offend this guy who was a bit of a nutter. Apparently he was on his way round to my house to ‘kill me’ some friends of mine waited outside my house to bar his way incase he came. All the time i was totally unaware that this was happening - I was sleeping in my bed (suffice to say the misunderstanding was cleared up). But look, we were in terrible danger, having rejected God, perhaps we weren’t even aware of it. But while we were sleeping soundly in our beds, Jesus met that danger in our place and dealt with it. In paying for our sins Jesus absorbs the deep brokenness and alienation which have invaded reality and he mends it. He makes possible a new relationship between God and humanity, within humanity and between humanity and the world. In all the circles of our alienation He creates and brokers peace.

The Apostle Paul says an extraordinary thing in Ephesians 2 – he says, “Christ is our peace”. That’s unique. All the prophets of the world’s religions in one way or another call their followers to live lives of peace; all the people of good will who do the hard work of reconciliation from marriage counselling to inter-community relations to international diplomacy invite people to make peace. But, here we are promised that there is a man in whom dwells all the fullness of God and he is our peace!

This is an extraordinary claim. 

[Imagine: Tony Blair – UN Envoy for Middle East – Jerusalem “I am your peace!” unimaginable. (actually maybe you could imagine it but would be ridiculous. no mere human being would make that claim.] Christ is our peace. An extraordinary claim.

Let me end by working that out in the three circles of alienation where Jesus reconciles all things to God. First of all he turns us from being God’s enemies to being God’s friends as we trust in him. Access to God! He allows us to draw near to God the Father with confidence. Important to hear that because Maybe some of us are fearful of drawing near to God. We think that we’re not good enough. Maybe some of us are working hard to try and get close to God. Maybe some of us have allowed ourselves to grow distant from God. Listen: Jesus is our peace. Rest in Him. There is hope. [This is the great reality of adoption. Through union with Christ the Son, we now have the same Father. Jesus taught his disciples to pray Our Abba. More intimate word than Father.. more respectful than Daddy. Dad. Pray to your Dad in heaven. This is who he is to you. You who were once God’s enemies as you rest in Christ’s reconciling work - you now are able to call him Abba]

But, secondly Jesus our peace restores us to relationship with one another. If you put two or more human beings together for any length of time then conflict will emerge. There are no exceptions. Our default is to  quickly blame each other.  Or retreat into our comfortable tribes. The good news of the Gospel is that Christ is our peace. If we rest in him and see the cost of our reconciliation then maybe we stop blaming the other and are open to forgive. Christ our peace can and does restore broken human relationships.  [CTC Europe. Prague, Urban church plants 50 different cities, 20 European countries. Our best friends - the Germans. Berlin and Hamburg guys.. Communion - moving because 100 years ago.. and again 75 years ago our ancestors were killing one another. And now we break bread together because Christ is our peace.]  

In the church of Jesus Christ,  God is creating a new humanity - a disparate people, enemies, people who are chalk and cheese - he makes us One in Christ. Jesus says doesn’t he: ‘Don’t just love those who love you (who are like you) - everyone does that. Love your enemies.. Love the different. Love those who are difficult to love. Then you’ll be true children of your Father in heaven.’ In our church, in your workplace, at the schoolgates - move beyond your comfort zone - talk to people you’ve never talked to before. Find out about them. Christ is our peace. We commit ourselves to the peace of our church and our communities and our world because of Christ.

Finally, Jesus our peace ultimately reconciles the whole created order to God – all things whether on heaven or on earth. His body in which God’s fullness dwells, is raised from the dead. He promises that in and through this body the whole material created order will be renewed. We will one day no longer be alienated in this world. It will once again be our home. So, in and through Christ our peace we anticipate that life now. We seek the good of the earth. We pursue shalom. Because we know in Christ who is our peace there is hope.

Christ is our peace. Through him God has reconciled to himself all things in heaven and on earth by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

Advent. Zephaniah 3 Jodi Hinds