"If you love me you will keep my commandments"

Sermon preached by Fr. Tony Noble*
In St. Paul's Church, Port Adelaide

John 14:15-16: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments; and I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate to be with you forever."

To get to Australia I flew from San Diego to Los Angeles. When I got to Los Angeles, I had a short wait. When I got to the gate from where our flight was to leave there was some delay with another flight. There was a long line at the next counter next to me as people waited to be put on another flight, because their flight had been cancelled. Suddenly a rather angry passenger pushed his way to the front of the line. He said to the gate agent: "I have to be on the next flight - and it has to be in first class". "I am sorry sir", she said, "I am happy to help you, but I have to help all these people first. Then I am sure we can work something out". The man was not satisfied and said, in a loud voice, "Do you know who I am?" Without hesitating, the agent smiled, grabbed the microphone and said: "Your attention please. We have a passenger here at gate 14 who does not know who he is. If anyone here knows his identity, would they please come to gate 14 immediately."

Do you know who I am? In this Easter season when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, many people find it hard to believe because they are not quite sure who Jesus is. "Do you know who I am?" Jesus said to the apostles on one occasion. It was St Peter who said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God". For those who do not understand or believe it, the Easter celebrations in church seem a bit strange, and unbelievable. And it is not just those who don't go to church. There are many who go to church who still can't quite grasp that Jesus rose from the dead - because they really are not quite sure who he is. In the American church some preachers ponder this in their sermons on Easter Day.

The presiding Bishop of the Episcopal church is one of those who believe that Jesus is one of many ways to God, as she said in her very first sermon. So it was no surprise that in her Easter message she made no reference to the resurrection of Jesus. This was her Easter message - and it was full of references to world hunger, justice and peace. But mainly she referred to the death of winter and the rebirth of spring. Not very helpful here in Australia where the seasons are reversed! But in America the death of winter and the rebirth of spring are very helpful at Easter. It is far easier to talk about bulbs sprouting and lambs leaping - and the birth of hope after the death of despair. Of course to non-believers that is quite believable. Everyone looks at spring and sees rebirth.

The fact is, the resurrection of Jesus is unbelievable, and it can only be understood and discovered by faith, and not by images that come from spring.

As a teenager growing up in Semaphore I believed in Jesus - though I was hard pressed to understand or explain the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I suppose I was a typical Anglican. I loved God and worshipped him and understood Jesus - but some of the details of our faith were beyond my grasp, including the resurrection. Until Holy Saturday night 39 years ago, when I attended the Easter Vigil in this church. The ceremony of the lighting of the Pascal Candle, together with the incense, the bells and the midnight Mass, suddenly made the Easter event real to me. I believed that Jesus rose from the dead. I knew the Lord had risen indeed from the experience of the liturgy and from the great symbols the church presents to us in the Easter Vigil.

The Christian faith centres on Easter, so it is not surprising that we proclaim this event - difficult as it is to believe. Everything about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is based on his resurrection. If Jesus indeed rose from the dead, everything else is completely believable - but the resurrection is where it all begins and on what it all hangs.

Of course, it is so hard to depict. How do you depict the resurrection? The church uses fire and water on Holy Saturday, and the Pascal Candle remains alight all through the Easter season to symbolise the risen Lord Jesus Christ. We also use the symbol of the triumphant Lamb of God based on the great images we find in the Book of Revelation. But these images don't describe the resurrection. For there is no description of the resurrection in any part of the New Testament. St Matthew comes closest in his Gospel, describing how an angel rolled away the stone and sat on it. It is almost as poetic as bulbs sprouting and lambs leaping. But it's beside the point.

The tomb was sealed, and Jesus was not supposed to get out. But he did! Easter is all about the empty tomb - and who is missing from it.

Nevertheless some preachers suggest that the resurrection is really about the effect it had on the apostles, and their transformation from sadness to joy. If that's what it is about, then what we are celebrating is the resurrection of the disciples - not the resurrection of Jesus!

Yes, the apostles were transformed, and St Matthew tells us that when they met the risen Christ they worshipped him. Their experience reveals the truth. But it is hard to find a symbol for something that is really only a miracle in the end, and quite unbelievable. It is far easier to find symbols about the other parts of Jesus' life.

For example, Christmas: Everyone loves a baby and the star - and we have cards that illustrate that in abundance. Even Good Friday's cross is easily understood as a symbol - for we all know about pain and suffering and death. But Easter is different - and we don't wear silver images of an empty tomb around our necks.

Because it is unbelievable, people in every age have said it is just a myth - like the fertility gods who rise again every spring. There has never been a time when people did not believe it was just a myth. Especially in this century. This generation cannot deal with something that cannot be proved or touched. But if Jesus is the Eternal Word and the Son of God, then eventually he would have to return to heaven and not die like you and I.

We celebrate the Ascension this Thursday, May Day. The Ascension always brings to my mind when I was a young boy going shopping with my mother in the city and going to Myers, and waiting for the elevators. The door would open and there would be the woman attendant, who seemed fixed firmly to the stool. She would say "Going up" - and we would get in and go up.

Sometimes the ascension is a bit like that - something from the mysteries of one's childhood. Many people find that image of Jesus going up quite difficult. But if he was to go to heaven without dying, how else was he to leave earth?

If Jesus had not ascended, if he had remained on earth we would just be left with a human Jesus. And if he had not ascended, the Holy Spirit would not have been poured out on the infant church and Jesus' work would not have been completed. And his church would not be his body - we would just be a club for people who like that sort of thing.

But Jesus did ascend. And because he ascended, he is with us forever. Not just in our hearts and minds, but through the presence of the Holy Spirit in the church, which is his body. And particularly in the Eucharist, where he comes to us time and time again and gives us his body and blood in that Blessed Sacrament. Indeed, when he promised he would be with us forever, it was particularly in the sacramental rites of the church - when he comes to us in that personal and intimate way - which words cannot describe because of its beauty and mystery.

So we come, Sunday by Sunday, sometimes during the week. And we come so that by receiving the body of Christ we might become the body of Christ. By receiving the consecrated bread and wine, his body and blood, we might somehow be more and more enveloped by his great love.

For the Eucharist, the Mass, is ultimately the tangible realty of his love given to us personally. And that is why Jesus said: "If you love me you will keep my commandments".

* Fr Tony Noble SSC is currently Rector of All Saints' Episcopal Church, San Diego