Sheringham: St Peter

St John tells us this morning that “many believed” (John 10.42).

Jesus attends the festival of dedication, which was a national celebration rather like our owncelebration of VE day of 80 years ago.

The festival of dedication marked 170 years since the Maccabean uprising, during whichthe Temple had been liberated after occupying armies had defiled the Altar, enabling its re-dedication to God.

St John turns this appearance at the festival into an event to identify Jesus as the one whom God has dedicated to serve us in the Temple of theHoly Spirit. The link is made between the rededication of the Altar and the dedication of Jesus as events move towards his arrest and death.

This in turn raises questions: people are asking him are you the Messiah? Specifically: how long will you keep us in suspense? Really meaning: why do you keep annoying us?

And it is annoying when we are left to our own devices to work out who Jesus is and find faith for ourselves. Wouldn’t it be easier if therewere to be some certainty?

St John rehearses the questions that arise as people deal with their doubts for coming to faith in Jesus:

do you belong to my flock?

do you hear my voice?

do you follow my way?

do you know that this is the way to a greater quality of life?

do you realise that the purposes of God are achieved through faith?

Questions, questions…

and it’s always do you, (do I) – yes, we have to work it out for ourselves.

Yet the solution is always the same, as Jesus said to the disciple Thomas:

“Do not doubt but believe”.

Many people around us are sometimesprompted to ask questions of us. Positive results are not guaranteed: some folks will throw bric-bacs, others will ask questionswithout necessarily believing the answers, butothers will join us in faith.

It is easy to mistake all this soul searching as being an unnecessary complication to an already complicated and confusing life experience. Why not shut down faith possibilities - throw stones in frustration, move on, crucify the idea?

And many do just that, some even attemptingto suppress Christian ideas; but these attempts never succeed. Faith in Jesus always escapes suppression; there are always enough people around to keep the possibilities of faith alive.

The reading takes us back to the river Jordan where it all began with a baptism, to a memoryof John the Baptist’s prophetic words:

“Behold the Lamb of God”;

a lamb destined to die as the faithful celebrated another festival – the Passover.

St John writes that it is all true: that death, that resurrection, that faith in a God who is one with Jesus and one with us, has the power to liberate us from the challenging and confusing scenes of the life in which we find ourselves.

When we look back to our Baptism, our Confirmation, we can see that it is our faith in resurrection that has sustained us in life.

St John writes with the purpose of sharing his belief in the new life of resurrection and encourages his readers to come to a belief in resurrection for themselves.

As a result, he states: “Many believed”.

Lets make sure that as we continue to live the resurrection life, we go for a similar result. We are counted among the many who have come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing we have life in his name.

With this Gospel reading in mind let us re-dedicate ourselves to faith in the new life of resurrection, to love others as God loves us, and pray that many will come to believe.

The Revd Malcolm France

Sheringham: St Peter

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