Pastoral Letter 6

Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,

I greet you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who was crucified, was dead and buried, but He rose again to give us hope, so that a bright future is prepared for us and a blessed eternity.

As we prepare to celebrate Easter this year, not in the usual way we are used to do, but instead, on our own or with our spouse and the household, I pray that the Grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

With this my sixth pastoral letter, I remind you of the events of our Lord, Jesus Christ, in the last week of His earthly ministry. During that solemn week, He was handed to the authorities, suffered and died on the cross of Calvary, but He rose victoriously conquering death and lifted the curtain that used to separate us, the sinners, from the Holy God the Father. He opened the way and gave us free access to the Father through His body, which was broken for us.

So, with this email and the attached Order of Service as an alternative, I ask you to follow the Order on Easter morning at 9:30am as you have done in the previous three weeks, by reading the script, the Prayers, Responsive Reading, Bible Readings and sing the hymns and think about all those who are worshiping with you at the same time. I am attaching the hymns in music and video format, to make it easy for you to sing along. Just double click on the attached file and your computer will do the rest. I am including an extra hymn to be played at the end of the service – enjoy the music.

Though we had communion last Sunday, being the first Sunday of the month, I would like to suggest to you to do it again. Easter Sunday is fitting to remember what our Lord and Saviour did for us. So, I ask you to take a small roll of bread and some wine or juice in a cup, put them on your table and pray to God the Father seeking His blessing. Break the bread, eat it and drink from the cup with conviction and faith. Do this in His name and in remembrance of Him.

Please remember to make your offering, which is one of the best ways to express your gratitude and thanks to God for keeping you safe and being with you at this very challenging time, as day by day, week by week it is becoming more difficult.

I will call this Sunday to those I missed last Sunday and I will continue writing to you every week with a similar message and urge you to do the same, until such time when we will be able to meet again on our church premises.  Please keep writing and keep communicating with each other, with phone calls and keep everyone informed with any new developments that happen with you, your family or any congregation member that you know is having any problems.

Keep on praying and leave everything in the hands of our great God, who is our refuge and strength.

Krikor

Your Minister

NOTE:

Pray for all those who are feeling alone at this difficult time, especially those who live on their own, single, in their homes.

Please keep praying for everyone. Pray for those who are lonely and in need. Remember your brothers and sisters, the members of our congregation, the neighbouring congregations, the UCA, your neighbours, your friends, our state and the territories, Australia and the whole world. Seek God’s care and protection.

Message Summary

See and Believe!

John 20: 1-42

I am not sure if you heard any good news this week.  Usually the news we hear is bad news.

If we read the newspapers or listen to the radio and TV we usually get bad news. News about drugs, wars, conflicts, sickness, the list goes on and on. Also, we hear about the political issues, debates, scandals, corruption, etc.

Currently the main news we hear is about the pandemic, which is spreading worldwide, contaminating millions of people and causing thousands of deaths. And the truth is that this will go on for a very long time and will cause much more pain, suffering and death.

But as we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we come upon some Good News. Finally! Good News. That’s what the word Gospel means: Good News. The Bible is full of Good News.

You know Good News lifts us up, transforms our life, and makes life worth living.

The apostles and the women were eyewitness reporters to the greatest news in the history of the universe.

The resurrection story is the foundation upon which our faith and hope is based.

It is simply, yet profoundly, summarised in three points:

– Christ has died.

– Christ has risen.

– Christ will come again.

These familiar words about Christ have echoed through the ages, affirming our belief. We generally hear these words within the bounds of a church, in a gathering of the church or on a church notice board.

This week our notice board reads:  We have new life in His death and resurrection.

But what if we were reading this story for the very first time? If we do not know the ending of the story, we bring our assumptions and knowledge to this story, much like Mary.

As we see in our Gospel reading for this morning from John—it was Mary Magdalene who went to Jesus’ tomb early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark and was an eyewitness to the fact that the stone had been removed from the entrance. She came to the tomb fully expecting it to be as she had left it. Instead she found the stone had been moved away, so she ran to find the disciples and tell them what had happened. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him” (John 20:2).

She was puzzled with what she saw and in her distress, she didn’t look into the tomb to see the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Scripture does not say she looked into the tomb, unlike Peter and the other disciple, who came to the tomb when Mary told them that the stone had been rolled. Mary assumed she knew what had happened by her first impressions.

When Peter and John arrived at the tomb, they went into the tomb, and they saw and believed. Seeing the empty tomb and the folded cloth and linen was proof that He was not there and evidence for what He had told them earlier about His death and resurrection. They needed something more to be His real witnesses, as Mary did also when she came for the second time with the disciples. In the reading, Jesus appeared to her, but she again did not see the truth of His resurrection until Jesus called her with her name.

Also, for the disciples, the empty tomb was not enough to make them understand that He had risen, and He was alive and well. That is, until He appeared to them when they were gathered together in fear, away from the eyes of the people and the authorities. Jesus appeared to them to give them the peace they needed in their distress, fear and anxiety. They needed a boost to make them stand up, go out and proclaim the good news of His resurrection. They were called to tell the world that He offers new life with His death and resurrection.

That was the good news, that they were called to spread the word and tell the people. In Acts 10, Peter is an eyewitness news reporter, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ who is Lord of all.

Peter reports: “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen…He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives the forgiveness of sins through his name.” (Acts 10: 39-43)

And the next verse informs us that while Peter was giving this eyewitness news update, “the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.”

Peter shared the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection, because he saw and believed. We can easily say that if we too see Jesus alive, we will believe. But let us remember that we are surrounded with many witnesses and as Jesus says: “Blessed are those, who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 19:29). We, the church, are in the group of those, who believe in Jesus to be our Lord and Saviour and accept him to be the head of the faith community.

Sometimes we have trouble seeing the Good News and seeing the Lord. He tries to communicate with us in many ways and still we do not recognise His voice. He speaks to us through His powerful Word, through people and through the things that happen to us. He even calls us by name. In Mary Magdalene’s case He said: “Mary” and that was enough to open the eyes of grieving Mary.

His appearance was the visual proof of His resurrection and the reason for Good News.

Mary and the disciples shared the Good News about the Resurrected Lord with the rest of the world.

When the disciples came running to see what Mary was talking and crying about, they were able to go directly into the tomb to see for themselves. Indeed, Jesus was gone. The stone no longer blocked their way or their vision.

What is blocking our way to see Jesus?

A person reading this story for the first time would have great difficulty believing a person could be dead but then risen again. He is the good news in all the bad news we have around us.

The question is: Do we see? Do we believe? What is the real message of Easter to us?

May we, in this hour, read with new eyes and hear with new ears the good news.

May our rocks of certain unbelief and distrust roll away to reveal the joy anew, and may we be transformed.

What can we do, as a church today, to be reporters of the Good News as well?

How can we “get the word out” and be Christ’s active church?

What can we do to “get the word out”, seeking people who are marginalised, poor, sick, outcast, those who doubt and those who are hurting, especially in the prevailing current situation?

There’s too much bad news in this world and people need Good News. The church stands to give that Good News. We should extend a helping hand to the needy and to those who are in pain.

Sometimes just a phone call, a few comforting words or a visit can help to bring hope in someone’s life.

The world, the people around us, need to hear about the Good News. We should do our best to give that Good News. If we do that, we will play our part as the children of God who represent Him in the world. We can make a difference, even if it is one life that we touch with the news of our Lord and Saviour and the promise of salvation through Him.

Mary, Peter, John and many others did their part. They were not perfect; they had their weaknesses, but they did their part. Now it is time for the church to do its part.

Let’s be one of the Good News Churches!

Let’s live into what it means to be people of the Resurrection doing the work of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is done in heaven!

Let’s spread the truth of Easter, that Jesus is Well and Alive and is with us until the end of the world.

Amen!