Kallen saarnoja keväällä 2002

< Epiphany and Lent 2002
 

September to November 2002 >>

A new reality broke into this world, into the history of mankind on that morning after Sabbath as the sorrowing ladies went to the tomb. They wanted to see that their friend would be buried in a proper way, a friend who had suffered a painful death on the cross. Actually he should not have got a tomb  but should have been put in a mass grave because his death was the punishment for a crime against the state. But he had been laid into the tomb.

Now the tomb was empty. The ladies who saw it and the disciples whom they asked to see it did not yet understand what it meant. They saw only an empty tomb. But soon they saw more: they met the risen Lord — or is it better to say: the risen Lord visited them.

When he came they first did not recognize him, but having recognized him they got a new direction and a new dimension for their lives. We can notice that when we remember what and how they were before and how afterwards.

Let us first look at Peter: the fisher from the Sea of Galilee had courage in his words but when it was the hour to take sides he disowned his Master. But afterwards he was ready to go to the capital of the world and to follow his Master until into the death on cross.

Or let us look at Thomas who doubted many things — among them the resurrection. Later he did not doubt any more: the tradition tells that he preached the gospel in India.

They — and the other disciples, too — changed as the risen Lord came into their lives. They started to live out of the power of the resurrection. And they were in no means the last ones who got the courage to live from the resurrection: in all generations since then there have been and there are people, men and women, whom the risen Lord has spoken and met and who because of that follow him.

We belong to those men and women, don’t we? We live the life everlasting already in the middle of this life and this world. We live the other reality, the reality of resurrection, already in this reality. We live because our Lord has risen from the dead and because he has opened us the life everlasting. He has opened us the life and the kingdom of love. So, even though we will die one day, we do not any more live under the fear of death but we are free to serve and to love and to transform the reality around us, just as our Lord, once crucified and then risen, did.

Let us in the power of Holy Spirit thank him and the heavenly Father and affirm our Christian faith!

Some two weeks has passed since the morning when the tomb was found empty. The fishermen who had followed Jesus for about three years have come back to the Sea of Galilee, the Sea of Tiberias. In a dark spring night they went out with their nets to fish but did not catch any fishes at all.

Something similar had happened some three years ago: they had fished all night long without a catch. And then a rabbi from Nazareth had called them to follow him, and said that they  would catch men in the future.

As the morning was broking and they were coming back to the shore they saw someone on the shore. The one gave them instructions where to throw the net. Just as the One had said three years earlier. And just like then the net was overfilled with fishes.

Now they knew it was the same Lord who had called them once standing now  on the shore. But he was not any more a rabbi from Nazareth but the risen Lord who had conquered the death.

When I read the gospels telling about the time after the resurrection of our Lord I find an atmosphere that could be very Finnish: a mixture of joy and melancholy. Perhaps it is just my Finnish way of interpreting the gospels. Or is there some truth in it?

Let us think how they have been described: Mary Magdalene in the garden with the empty tomb — “They have taken my Lord away” — Cleopas and the other disciple on the way to Emmaus who stood still and their faces downcast as the risen Lord asked them what had happened in Jerusalem; Peter, John and the others who stayed behind locked doors as long as they were in Jerusalem; Thomas who doubted. And the fishermen of the Sea of Tiberias. They knew their Lord had prepared a meal for them but the gospel does not tell about any outrages signs of joy as they met him.

Why, then this atmosphere of melancholy? Was it not the best thing ever happened to them that they met their risen Lord? Is it not the best thing ever  for us to meet the risen Lord and be called by him? Does it not give a new meaning for the life of an individual?

The disciples sorrowed. the Master who had led their lives for three years and who had wandered several times from Galilee to Judea and back again with them was not any more with them.  It was not the same to have the risen Lord  among them. Even though they were happy, everything was so different. A new reality had broken into their lives, into the world. What would it mean for the world and for them?

So, today’s gospel is not just a story or report on a meeting of some fishermen and a stranger by the Sea of Tiberias.

I already pointed to the similarities between this gospel and the way Luke tells about the calling of the first disciples. On that spring morning almost they might have expected to get a second call from their Master and Lord. Already the first call had changed their lives: they had left their families and their work. How would this second call, the call of the risen Lord change it furthermore?

It is very rare that the Bible gives exact figures of larger amounts. But this gospel gives: 153 fishes they got. If some of the disciples were educated — and at least the sons of Zebedee were — they must have notice the number which is the same as the number of different species of fishes according to the Greek knowledge, the scientific knowledge of that time. Was there a hint on what their call would be? Should they from now on reach the whole world, not only Galilee and Judea?

We know that they later went to the whole world known to them: Peter to Rome where he was later crucified, James, a son of Zebedee, went to the most western area of the known world, to Galicia; Thomas went to southern India. With one exception they followed their Lord and Master also into the death for their faith: only John died a natural dead in his old age, the others beginning with James became martyrs.

Meeting the risen Lord changes the life. He, the Risen gives a new meaning for the life of each individual he meets and calls. And a new meaning brings changes along: changes of values, changes of lifestyle, changes of life sphere.

A change is easily regarded as a danger or as a threat, but the change the risen Lord offers is nor a threat nor a danger. He is with the people whose life he changes. He was on the shore and he had prepared a meal for the fishermen:  he shared with them bread and fish. Also today he shares the bread with his own people, with us.

Even though the fishermen were unprepared as they met the Lord by the Sea of Tiberias, he did not send them into the whole world unprepared but he sent them to wander with him, to preach his gospel, his good news that the sin and the death have been conquered and the life everlasting is open for those who follow him. He sent them to share his bread, the bread of the love of God.

And he did not send only them but people, men and women from every generation since then. He sends also us.  We might be like the fishermen: we do not recognize our Lord immediately, but even though he prepares and has prepared the meal of the eternal life for us.

It is the best thing in the life to meet the risen Lord and to be called by Him. When He is present in our lives we do not need to feel danger nor threat but we can be sent as his messengers over the borders of any kind — cultural, geographical, linguistic... As the fishermen of the Sea of Tiberias once were sent by the risen Lord.

Let us pray:
Almighty Father,
who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples
with the sight of the risen Lord:
give us such knowledge of his presence with us,
that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life
and serve you continually in righteousness and truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Today we celebrate our service at on extraordinary venue. Where we stand now used to be the bishop’s church, the cathedral of Finland in he 13th century. It was a small church, but a cathedral anyway. The seat of the bishop of Finland was moved from Nousiainen to  here in 1229, and it was here until the consecration of the nowadays Cathedral in year 1300.

In the history of the Church in Finland, in the history started 1155, almost 850 years ago, a period of 70 years is a short one. We could say: the seat of the bishop and the centre of the Church was here for a while but it is not any more here.

But today we have not gathered here to commemorate the building that once stood here nor the seat once situated here for a while. Nor are we here to commemorate the moment when it ended to be here. No.

But we are here in order to commemorate the moment when our risen Lord ended his being with his disciples. To commemorate his ascension into the heaven. But are we here because he would not any more be with his people?

Look at the place we stand on. You can’t see a church, but you can see some ruins and a memorial cross paced here some decades ago. There is not a building called church here but there are something of it left here. This is still a holy place.

As surely as we can say that this is a holy place we can say and know and believe that our Lord, once crucified and then risen, is still among us. And indeed can we say and know and believe it even more surely than we can recognize that this place with its ruins and a memorial cross of a church is a holy place.

The ascension of our Lord was in no way an escape from the world. He then returned from this world into the other reality we call heaven. Being in the heaven on the right side of the Father allows him to take part in the heavenly properties of God.

As long as he was in flesh he lived under the limitations of this world. So, when he was in Galilee he was not able to be in Jerusalem, and while he was in Jerusalem he was not able to be in Galilee. But since he had ascended into the heaven he has been able to be present in many, unending many places simultaneously.

I think there are at least two important benefits we have thanks to the ascension of our Lord. From then on He is seated at the right hand of the Father and there He prays unending for His people, for us.  He is the ambassador of His people in the Kingdom of the Heaven and so He reminds the heavenly Father of the full connection of human beings with the Creator through Him, the connection made by Him through His crucifixion and His resurrection. But He is not only the ambassador of His people; He is also the coregent of the Kingdom of the Heaven. After His ascension He got back the unlimited powers He had given up in His incarnation.

And there we have the other benefit: He is with His people wherever they are. He is there where His gospel is preached. He is there where His word is read. He is there where two or three have gathered in His name. He is present when His people break the bread of His body and share the cup of His blood. He is with His people, He is with us today, now here in Koroistenniemi and in the same time He is with our beloved ones around the world.

He is with us, here on the earth, and He is in the Heaven. Here we wait for His coming back in the glory, and He waits for us there. He gives us courage and faith to follow Him in this world until He comes and takes us into the reality where He prepares rooms for us.

Let us pray
Grant, almighty God,
that as we believe your only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ
to have ascended into the heavens,
so we in heart and mind may also ascend
and with him continually dwell;
We pray this in His name. Amen
 

Finland is known as “The country of thousands lakes”, and with its 180 000 lakes this is country of not only thousands but of tens of thousands  lakes. Here, in Southwestern Finland there are not many lakes, but rivers of different sizes. We have plenty of water available. So it is hard for us to realize and to imagine how a real lack of water influences people’s life.

But there are countries where there are practically no water reserves left. People have to dig in sand to get some water or collect the humidity of air. When it happens to rain they have to collect every possible drop in cisterns or barrels. They need water, the whole life on this earth needs water. And we need it regularly, every day. Without nourishment, without daily bread we can live for some days, but not without water. So water is really one of the conditions of life.

Last months we have had to follow the conflict in the Middle East. There are many reasons for the conflict but one of them is water. It is vital and it is hard to get and it is expensive. Already in the biblical time that part of the earth was a dry one. Places with water were already then valuable, and of a special value was “living water”, water of a spring or of a river. It is healthier than water from a cistern, it refreshes better.

That is the context in which we can see and Jesus’s words in today’s gospel. “Whoever is thirsty should come to me and drink.” So he points at basic needs of people but he does not speak of the basic physical needs. No. He speaks of the basic need of the soul and of the faith: As there is no life without water, there is no faith without Spirit.

You may have seen how a desert can become green and full of life after a rainfall, after having got water. Where you could not expect to see any life there are suddenly flowers and grass. Without water there are no visible signs of life. There might be some seeds in the sand. And if there are, when rain pours water to them, they start to grow, they become visible, they become alive. That is amazing.

It is very similar with the Spirit of God and faith. Without Spirit there is no faith. There might be some knowledge about the existence of God or even knowledge that God acts in this world and in history of mankind, but there is no faith. There might be even the Holy Scriptures. There are  readings about God’s action in the history of His chosen people and about a carpenter-rabbi from Nazareth and his followers, but without Spirit they are only readings, because there is no faith.

But when God pours His Spirit upon one He has chosen, he or she gets the gift of the faith. The knowledge of God is transformed to faith in God. The readings are not any more stories about ancient times but they are living and life giving words of God. They are not any more stories about what once happened but they tell what is happening in the life of that chosen one.

When the Spirit acts and gives faith in God, the carpenter-rabbi is then revealed as he is: the Son of God, God in the human flesh. His crucifixion becomes part of life, his crucifixion becomes to bridge over sin that has hold Adam’s children apart from God for so long. The resurrection of the Lord opens the life everlasting for the one God has chosen and gives His Spirit. And when the Spirit acts the faith becomes alive.

But when Jesus spoke these words it was not yet so far. His disciples  had not yet got the Spirit and Jesus had not yet been glorified. Through the gospels we see how difficult it was for the disciples to understand what Jesus really said and did. After his resurrection, when they had met him as the Risen Lord they understood more, and then, when the Spirit as poured upon them on Pentecost the words and deeds they had heard and seen during three years became actual and real for them. They knew then that they had walked with the Redeemer of the world and that the redemption concerned and concerns all people. They knew the that it was their task to bring the good news further among nations and through times until the Redeemer comes back in the glory.

We need the same Spirit of God. Without him and his work in us we have no faith. But when he is present and when he works in us the whole  redemption is actual and real for us, too. He gives us life. So, as we need every day water for our physical existence in this life, we need every day the presence of God’s Spirit for our spiritual existence in the life everlasting, in which God has taken us in the holy baptism.

Let us pray.

O God the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ
with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven:
we beseech you, leave us not comfortless,
but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us
and exalt us to the place where our Saviour Christ is gone before.
We pray this in His name.
Amen.