VICAR'S LETTER
17
Sundon Road
Streatley
April, 2009
Dear
All
Our worship this Holy Week and Easter focuses on the story as told in The Gospel according to St. John. It is a gospel shaped by a clear set of beliefs about who Jesus was; what he had come for; how he achieved it; and where he was trying to get to.
Who was Jesus?
John answers this question in the opening verses of his gospel. Unfortunately, for the modern reader at least, these are not verses of limpid clarity. Reams have been written just to explain the first of them. In essence, however, what they seem to be saying is that in Jesus, the God who created the heavens and the earth and whose spirit dwells in each one of us returned again to his world.
What did he come for?
Jesus came to challenge us to choose light rather than darkness.
"Here lies the test: the light has come into the world, but men preferred darkness to light because their deeds are evil. Bad men all hate the light and avoid it, for fear their practices should be shown up. The honest man comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that God is in all he does." (John 3, 19 - 21)
How did Jesus deliver that challenge?
He challenged us by setting before us the sacrificial love that lies at the heart of God. He showed that love in his life. He healed the sick, he raised the dead, he washed his disciples' feet. He showed it most clearly in his death. He believed that, confronted by such love, people would be drawn to choose the light:
"When I am lifted up then I will draw all men to myself." (John 12, 32)
Where did he hope it would all lead?
What Jesus hoped was that by re-kindling the light of God that is in each of us, he would draw us back into oneness with God, with each other, with ourselves, and with all creation. That was his great prayer: "But it is not for these (his disciples) alone that I pray, but for those also who through their words put their faith in me; may they all be one: as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, so also may they be in us." (John 17, 20 - 21)
This state of union, Jesus called "eternal life".
John's gospel proclaims the coming of the light of the world. It shows us that light shining in the darkness drawing men to itself. It affirms the faith that the darkness will never master it. It is this creed and this faith that will inform our worship this Holy Week and Easter.
All best wishes,
Roger