Love, as strong as death: Easter Sunday Evensong: Usha Hull.
 
Song of Solomon 3.2-5, 8.6-7s Revelation 1 12-18

In his book ‘Miracles’, CS Lewis tells us that God descends to re-ascend. He says, ‘God comes down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity. Down into the very roots and sea-bed of the nature he created. But he goes down to come up again and then brings the whole ruined world up with Him.’

And he goes on to create this further analogy. ‘One might think of a diver, first reducing himself to nakedness... then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down into green, warm water, into bleak and cold water, down into increasing pressure, into the depth of ooze and slime and old decay. Then up again, back into colour, and light. His lungs almost bursting till, suddenly, he breaks surface, holding in his hand the dripping, precious thing he went to recover. He and it are both coloured now... they have come back into the light. Down below, where it lay colourless in the dark, he lost his colour too.’

If colour and light are symbols of joy and life, then you might say that Good Friday was a day devoid of colour, a day of darkness, when goodness and love were immersed in ooze and slime and old decay. And Easter Sunday, today, is a day when the whole ruined world breaks the surface with our Lord and with Him bursts into light and colour.

The early Christians knew all about a world full of darkness, ooze and slime and old decay. Among the disciples 10 of the 11 faithful apostles were martyred for their beliefs. And many of these deaths were horrible ones.They died by stoning, by hanging, by crucifixion. They were cast into boiling vats of oil, fed to the lions for entertainment, beaten and beheaded.

The author of the Book of Revelation, that we heard from earlier, is said to have been St John the Apostle. John, thought to have been the ‘beloved disciple’ was the brother of James. James had been killed by the Jewish authorities. John, for his beliefs was banished to the Isle of Patmos, an island off modern day Turkey, where it is thought he wrote the Book of Revelation. He was the only apostle who escaped a violent death.

The book of Revelation was written at a time when the early Christian Church was facing severe persecution. The Church, although a growing movement, was by comparison with the Roman empire a pitiably small group of believers, set against all powerful and mighty foes. To all outward appearances, their situation was hopeless and almost all believers were victims of suffering in some way, first from the Jewish authorities and later by the Romans. Small wonder that the early Christians had reason to be afraid. The book was addressed to the seven churches in Asia Minor in the form of a letter. In the Bible, the number seven is a number of completeness, and in addressing the circumstances of these seven churches, John was in fact addressing all the churches.

The book of Revelation consists of visions, often vivid and seemingly bizarre, but always deeply symbolic. For instance, in today’s reading, the ‘man who looked like the Son of Man’ is Jesus himself. His white hair indicates his wisdom and divine nature, his piercing eyes symbolise judgement of all evil and the golden band reveals him as the High Priest who stands before God to intercede for us all. Similarly the sword in his mouth symbolises the power and force of his message and the seven candlesticks are the seven churches among whom Jesus stands, beautiful, powerful, majestic, victorious over life and death yes, but also comforting, and recognisably human.

‘Do not be afraid,’ he says not once but twice in the reading we have just heard, for I am the First and the Last, the Living One, who died and who is alive now for ever more, who has the keys to death and hell.’ To the early Christians this said that the Jesus who loved them was the one who ultimately held their lives in his hands, not Rome. To those who were living in fear and dying for their faith, this must have been a powerful message of hope, of comfort and reassurance. Indeed, throughout the Bible, the message from God to his beloved children is, ‘Do not be afraid.’

‘Do not be afraid for I am with you,I have called you by name, you are mine’ says God in Isaiah 43, ‘Do not be afraid for I the Lord am with you,’ God said to Jeremiah. ‘Do not be afraid,’ the angels sent by God said time and again to Zachariah, to Joseph, to Mary, to the shepherds on the hillside at Bethlehem. In coming down into time and space, from the heights of absolute being, God tells those who believe in him that he holds us in the palm of his hand, that his love for us is personal and enduring, and that through his beloved Son, we too will break into the light of eternal life. Do not be afraid, God tells us, for he is with us, nothing can separate us from his love, a love that is as strong as death.

This personal love that God has for us is told in poetry in the Song of Solomon. It is a song of love between a man and a woman that is also a symbol of God’s intense and enduring love for his people. ‘Many waters cannot quench the flame of love, neither can the floods drown it... For love is as strong as death.’

After the terrible events of Good Friday, to the frightened, bewildered followers of Jesus, the reality of what had happened was to them was shattering, total, irreversible. And then came the resurrection. They met with the risen Christ. It was the absolute certainty that Jesus was there in the flesh that changed this band of deeply fearful people into the fearless evangelists they were to become, willing to put their own lives on the line, to die the most horrible deaths and show the world what the God of love had revealed to them, the love that was as strong as death. After meeting the risen Christ in all instances, they were never the same again. Their lives were dramatically altered, their personalities underwent change, they powerfully influenced events around them for the better.

The book of Revelation held a profound message for early Christians, but it is also a book that speaks to you and to me through time and space. It tells us that the risen Christ stands among us now and for all eternity, victorious, and with a love that is as strong as death. It is a love that bids each one of us not to be afraid, that asks us to trust and have faith, that accepts us in all our weakness and failings, and ever hopes for our love in return.

‘Do not be afraid,’ the Lord tells us. I personally know that I have been afraid of many things in my life. Along with the vast majority of the human race I am afraid of the unknown, of change, of death, of loss, of failure. I am afraid for people I love, that they will encounter suffering. I am afraid of the suffering I may encounter, of change of lifestyle, of illness, of bereavement. I strongly believe that frail beings as we all are, it is a natural human condition to feel fear. But I also believe that if I were to let fear form a barrier between myself and God, if I were to let it stop me from becoming the sort of person God would like me to be, if I were to let it prevent me from doing the things God wants me to do, then I will have shown a lack of faith.

When we come before God in prayer, what he asks of us is absolute honesty. What are your fears, your worries, your burdens? Bring them to him. What is it you feel God might be asking you to do? Pray about it. How does fear create a barrier in your life to being the sort of person God would like you to be? In the silence of your hearts, lay it before him

Jesus knows our fears and our weakness. His is a powerfully reassuring love, and the message of the resurrection is one of resounding victory. Death be not proud,’ wrote the poet John Donne. ‘Oh Death, where then your victory? Where then your sting?’ wrote St Paul. And God does not let death win. In the failures and the little deaths of our day to day lives he is ever seeking to win us through to the absolute joy that is the resurrection.

With the resurrection, the risen Christ lives on among us. He lives in our hearts, speaks through our words, reaches out to others through the touch of our hands. He has come into the murky depths of this world, yet risen triumphant into the light, carrying us with him.

I end with a little story about fear and its overcoming. Many years ago, before I learnt to drive, I had long wanted to attend the dawn service on Easter morning. But the area I lived in was not considered a safe one, and I was afraid of the walk in the darkness from my house to the church. Then one Easter, I decided to take the walk anyway. As I opened my front door, a bird began to sing and all fear left me. As I walked in the darkness to the church, more birds joined in the dawn chorus. And as I walked, I reflected that a bird will sing with joy in the darkness in the certainty that the light will come.

A great light has shone among us. Let us give thanks with joy.

Amen