Third Sunday of Easter 2019

Lectionary readings: John 21:1-19 and Acts 9:1-20

Our reading from Acts began with Saul searching for the church in Damascus. And this begs the question, how would you know you had found what you were looking for? Or, to put it another way, what makes the church the church?

How would you answer that question?

You still hear people speak of a Damascus road experience, to describe a moment that stopped them in their tracks and resulted in their setting out on a different direction. But the original Damascus road experience was more than that. It was fundamental to Paul’s understanding of the church from thereon in:

that the risen Jesus chooses to fully-identify with the imperfect community we call the church, and to live his life through them.

That is to say, what makes the church the church is Jesus living his life through us. We are the body of Christ.

Now, this is a suburban church of suburban people. And the suburbs shape us in particular ways:

the suburbs unconsciously shape us to be overly-settled;

they shape us to be cocooned from social injustice;

they shape us to live isolated behind our own front doors (an Englishman’s home is his castle—in which he may find himself a prisoner);

they shape us to be fearful of others, to see them as competition;

and they shape us to become deeply invested in unquestioned privilege.

I’m not saying that these things are inevitable. Nor am I anti- the suburbs. But I am saying that over time suburbs shape community in these ways. And because we are called to be the church in the suburbs—people who live here but are shaped, instead, by Jesus—we need to be aware of these processes at work.

Within the body of Christ, we discover the antidote:

living among an overly-settled community, the body of Christ is a body that moves;

living among a community that is cocooned from social injustice, the body of Christ is a body that listens;

living among endemic isolation, the body of Christ is a body that shares;

living in a competitive community fearful of losing out to others, the body of Christ is a body that cares;

and living in the midst of unquestioned privilege, the body of Christ is a body that learns.

The church is the church when the body of Christ is a body that moves, listens, shares, cares, and learns.

a body that moves

Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20:21) and “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Our Gospel passage today ended, “Follow me.” and we see here today that the early church was known as those who ‘belonged to the Way’. A people on the move. They had already spread from Jerusalem to Damascus; and Damascus was the crossing-point of the Silk Road and the Spice Road: the jumping-off place to go and make disciples all the way to China and India.

The church doesn’t say, you need to come to us. Where is God calling us to go next, within the parish? What doors are open to us?

a body that listens

The disciples in the boat don’t recognise Jesus immediately, but as they listen and respond, they realise, ‘It is the Lord!’ And in Damascus, as the church prays in the face of persecution [fun fact: ‘Saul’ means prayed for—and he was!], Ananias hears the Lord’s voice, and responds, ‘Here I am, Lord.’

When might we come together to listen to God in corporate prayer? For a start, let’s join in with Thy Kingdom Come, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York’s national call to pray between Ascension Day and Pentecost. We have resources to help us do that as families at home and together, gathering here.

a body that shares

After a frustrating night’s work for them, Jesus called the disciples to share breakfast with him. Ananias is sent to Saul in order that he might regain his sight. The good news is good news. We’re not meant to keep it to ourselves. It is for sharing.

Who will we tell about Jesus? Part of the Thy Kingdom Come movement over recent years has been to choose five friends to pray for and share the joy of knowing Jesus with.

a body that cares

Jesus’ repeated instruction to Peter, drawing on the imagery of the Good Shepherd, is to care for his people. Did you notice in our reading from Acts that Ananias calls his would-be persecutor Brother Saul? That is stunning care. Many would see Saul’s new-found vulnerability as an opportunity to exploit to take revenge.

Who are we coming alongside and spending time with, perhaps to our surprise?

a body that learns

Jesus calls both Peter and Paul to learn, and in particular to notice and come to hold lightly the privilege they enjoy. In both cases, suffering—that which we experience as done to or for us, rather than those things we do to or for others—is key. It is no different in the suburbs where we pride ourselves in our independence and competence, and struggle as these things are stripped away by growing old. But in our vulnerability, God is glorified.

What are we learning about Jesus now, and how is that re-shaping our lives?

What makes the church the church? Jesus, moving, listening, sharing, caring, learning, in and through us. I wonder which of these five functions of the body of Christ each of us most identifies with, and how we might grow to maturity of faith together?