Sermon by Fr Peter Wolton, United Benefice of Holland Park, Easter Day, 1 April 2018
Sermon by Fr Peter Wolton, United Benefice of Holland Park, Easter Day, 1 April 2018
“This is
about the primitive desire for blood, for sacrifice, for the ritualistic
shaming of those who have sinned”
A
description of events in Holy Week?
You probably
think I am speaking of Good Friday in Jerusalem 2000 years ago. And you would
be wrong.
These are
the words of the journalist Matthew Syed of The
Times this Holy Week.
He was
writing about the response to actions of three cricketers.
For those of
you who are not followers of the game, three Australian cricketers tampered with
the cricket ball during a match against South Africa, rubbing it with sandpaper.
It caused a
national furore, with questions in parliament, sobbing press conferences by the
players and many pages of press coverage, both in Australia and elsewhere.
The cricketers,
who include two of the world’s finest batsmen, one of whom is the captain, have
been banned from playing for their country for at least a year.
What has all
this to do, you might be thinking, with Easter Day?
For me, it
is the present day reminder of how easily people can, to use a phrase “fall
from grace,” how fickle is the crowd, how quickly a crowd can turn against a
hero.
But a huge
difference is that the cricketers were guilty of what they were charged with.
In Jesus’s case during his trial, Pilate said again and again “I find no case
against him.” But Pilate was manipulated by the crowd into giving the order to
put Jesus to death.
The
cricketers recognise that they have betrayed the trust that had been placed in
them. They hope that eventually they
will be forgiven and can resume their careers.
But for all
their misery, they probably have not plumbed the depths of despair and
self-hatred that St. Peter experienced after he had denied Christ three times.
So what has
all this to do with the cricketers?
The Easter message
is one to console and inspire - the three cricketers and us.
For the
truth of Christ’s resurrection is that out of death comes life, and that sins
are forgiven.
The
Resurrection– the story of an empty tomb, as we have just heard from the Gospel
of St. Mark, in what are clearly eye witness accounts of the two Marys – is a
message given with all the encouragement and freshness of an early spring
morning.
Who are the
Marys told to go and find to tell the news but the thrice denier Peter?
Peter is hauled
from the darkness of the pit, into the early morning light that today lightens
every dark corner of the world and illuminates our own souls.
What Peter
saw gives him faith and strength and tools so that he would later be able to
proclaim: “All the prophets testify to him, that everyone who believes in him
receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
The example
of Peter tells us and all who are in trouble (that includes banned cricketers),
that we are forgiven and loved by God and because of this, it is possible to
rebuild our lives.
The story of
God taking on human flesh in the form of Christ and conquering death is the key
to transformation of ourselves and those we meet.
Each of us are
given the choice to put Christ at the centre of our lives. We have the power to
grow the Kingdom of God on earth – to narrow the gap between Earth and Heaven.
So let me
conclude beloved congregation, and banned cricketers far away, by praying that
we hear the Easter message, understand and rejoice in it and that we go forth
and act on it.
Fr. Peter Wolton
April 1 2018