Every year I write a plethora of sermons for Holy Week. I had one or two less to write this year, thanks to Fr Clive, but it’s still a lot of thought and a lot of typing. We use set readings of course, and most weeks come in a three year cycle, so it might, if you’re lucky, be six or even nine years before I repeat myself, because surely I can think of at least two things to say about each part of the Bible, you would hope. That’s why so many priests move on after ten years – you catch yourself saying what you said nine years ago and think ‘time to let someone else say something new’. Easter though is different, it’s the same readings every year, but because there are so many people who I only see twice a year, I feel an impetus to try and be jolly and brief, to provide an upbeat message of hope and new life, maybe even to bring chocolate eggs and fluffy bunny rabbits into it. Well, I did that last year, so it’s sin this year.

Jesus said to Thomas, “You have believed because you have seen. Blessed are those who will not be able to see but will still be willing to believe.” He came to faith of course, through the physical sight of Jesus being alive after being very much dead, but also because, maybe most importantly because, he came to see that the promises Jesus made when he was with them began to come true. That’s why we believe, because we see, amidst all the manure of the world and indeed the manure in the Church of God, that this man on the cross spoke a truth which is still unfolding in our time, to us and with us.

The real issue surrounding Easter is not what Thomas or the other disciples did or did not believe; the real issue for us is whether or not you and I believe this same story. Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Do you believe that he lived on this earth as an extension of the very presence of God himself? Do you believe that when he died on that middle cross that all of your sins were forgiven if you just put your faith in him and live your lives in a way which shows that clearly? The blessing is not to those who were disciples, but to those who bore witness to this having not seen it in Galilee and who do not doubt it, to those who never saw it, and yet they are willing to stake their lives and their souls on it. The blessing belongs to you and to me, and to anyone else who stands nearly 2000 years removed from Calvary and who continues to proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Easter is about real life, not escapist fantasy. Easter is about God's judgment calling the world to account and setting up his new, glorious creation of freedom and peace, summoning all people everywhere to live in this new world. Easter is about God's rich welcome to all humankind. That is the point of it all, we do our worship and we live our lives for others because Easter is about Jesus who announced God's saving, sovereign kingdom; who died to exhaust the power of this world's rulers; who rose again to be crowned as king over all things in heaven and on earth. God give us grace, this day and from now on, to live as Easter people, celebrating Jesus' love and joy at his table and making his kingdom and justice known in his world, to His glory.

What have you come here today to bear witness to? I hope that you are prepared to witness that Christ is lord. I hope you are prepared to witness that because of him your sins are forgiven. I hope you are prepared to say that you will walk by faith and not by sight. Follow Christ today even though there is much that we do not understand and may never fully understand. Follow Christ today as the way, the truth and the life. Follow Christ today, even though everything in your present world is not as you wish it to be. Say what Thomas said after he saw and touched Jesus; my saviour and my lord. Only your blessing will be greater than his, because you did not see what Thomas saw and yet you believed this day.

I cannot prove that Jesus was born of a virgin mother, but I believe it. I cannot prove that he made the blind see or the lame to walk or the dead to come back to life. I cannot prove any of that, but I believe all of that. I cannot prove that a prayer spoken in faith is heard by God. I cannot prove it, but my God do I believe it! I cannot prove that the days and days I spend in deliverance ministry has any effect, but my God I believe it when I see lives changed and evil fleeing.

Today we stand with Thomas who made his move from doubt to declaration. Today we can stand in the company of the man on one of the other crosses who, when he reached heaven, may have been asked ‘do you believe in the Creeds, in the Bible, in the doctrines of trinitarian revelation and in the deposit of faith given to the Church of God’ to which he would stand and say ‘I do not know what any of that means, but I know that the man on the middle cross said that I could come, and here I am’. Here you are, here I am, because the man on the middle cross said we could be, and that is, I can tell you without any doubt after years of standing in these peculiar little boxes, is the only thing that matters, love is what matters. Alleluia, Christ is risen!