We believe in The Life everlasting

John 20. 30 – 21.14

John is bringing his Gospel – his story of the life of Jesus – to an end, a glorious climax, as he describes the resurrection and the encounters that people had with the risen Jesus. And as he tries to wrap the story up, he is using words and themes that have been there throughout the Gospel. In particular, the word “life”. With a great literary flourish, he writes, “Jesus did loads of other things, which I am not going to write about. But this book is written so you may believe, and by believing, have life in his mane.” It’s a carefully crafted echo of what he said at the beginning of the book: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. To those who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1 verses 4, 12)

And in referencing the first verses of the book, John effectively references all the other times he has mentioned “life” in the book. And John uses the word “life” more than any of the other Gospel writers!

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  John 3. 15f “Everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”
• John 4. 15 the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life
• John 6. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.
• John 10. 10. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

So at the end of his Gospel, John once again talks about his gift of “life”. It is “Eternal life”. Literally “The life of the ages” or the Life of the age to come. This is the life we believe in. The Creed uses the same words as John, ζωὴν αἰώνιον. The life of the ages.

The first thing to note about this life, is that it is everlasting. So Jesus promises that “he will raise us up in the last day.” In possession of the “life everlasting”, we face our own mortality, believing in the “resurrection of the body”. We are confident in this because Jesus has promised that we have life. We have eternal life. So we are able to anticipate our own resurrection and know that we will live for ever.

Image: G Lilly

But the second thing about this life, is that it is abundant. It is life to the full. It is not just “Pie in the sky when you die”. It is also “Steak on your plate, while you wait!” And it enables us to do so much more than “Wait.” My Dad, bless him, used to be terribly morbid at times. He would say, “Roll on death; retirement’s too far away”. As a Christian, he loved to sing these old hymns: “In the sweet bye and bye, I will look on his beautiful face.” But what about the hymn that says “The men of faith have found glory begun below. Celestial fruits in earthly ground, for faith and hope may grow. The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets, Before we reach the heavenly fields, Or walk the golden streets.” Isaac Watts got the balance. Life everlasting is the life of the ages, the life of the new age, the life of the Kingdom, already received and begun in us today.

We are not just waiting. We live the life of the Kingdom, today. Steak on your plate, is the power of the Kingdom, the continuing Presence of Jesus with us by his Spirit, life to share with those around us, today.

The Life everlasting is a two way traffic. It promises us entry into a safe, solid and lasting future in God’s presence: resurrection, and life for ever. And it promises us that future, the safe, solid and lasting future in God’s presence, invading our lives now.

So as John finished his Gospel, someone asks him “Did you put in about meeting Jesus on the beach?” and John is persuaded to write an extra chapter – which serves to illustrate some of the qualities of the Life of the Kingdom as we experience it today. Indeed, William Temple wisely suggests that the person who persuaded John to write a wee bit extra was right. Because “the victory was won; but its fruits had still to be gathered.” (Temple) Luke tells that story in the Acts of the Apostles. John does it by writing this last chapter of his Gospel, before finally concluding with “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” Those many things, were done by Peters and Andrews and Johns and Sallys and Maureens and Allans throughout the history of the Church. I want to use the first story of John 21 to illustrate what the present-day life of the Kingdom is like.

1. 

   Image: Eilif Peterssen, Public domain

   It is experienced in the challenges of everyday life. Peter and his friends, struggling to come to terms with the events of Holy Week and Resurrection day, went fishing. The Greek word has a particular force: “I’m going off fishing”. It seems almost as if Peter has decided it is time to get his life back. Maybe it was an expression of a sense of failure; a sense of doubt or uncertainty; of not knowing what the future might hold; maybe a bit of economic necessity. It is in that fishing trip, that wasted journey, that the Risen Jesus had something to do for and to say to his friends. Jesus had a deep conversation with Peter when he addressed Peter’s failures. Peter, like us, was keen to compare his ministry with that of John. But Jesus says “never mind him. You follow me.” What is our context for the experience of eternal life begun today? Lots of fear and failure. But Jesus calls us to follow Him
2. It is about miracle. Night-time was the best time for fishing. When the sun starts to heat up the water, the fish go to the bottom to stay cool. So the first miracle was that there were any fish to be caught. The second miracle – I believe – was that Jesus knew exactly where they were. The third was that the nets didn’t break despite the size of the catch. It’s at that point that John realises that the stranger on the shore is Jesus. We are promised power. That power reveals who Jesus is. And sometimes the power of God is revealed in ordinary things: in addition to the miraculous catch, Jesus has a few fish grilling on a fire on the beach. We can expect the miraculous, and we can expect God to be at work in ordinary things too.
3. It is about mission. Jesus chose to perform his miracle, in the context of a fishing expedition. He had done it before, when he first called Peter. And on that occasion, he had told Peter, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!” We have the life of the Kingdom, worked out through our struggles, in the power of the Spirit, in spectacular ways and ordinary ways – so that we can engage in the Mission of the Kingdom; so that we can bring other poeple to that same life everlasting that we have. Some scholars suggest that 153 was believed to be the number of species of fish. A huge underestimate we know; but that is what people believed then, And it is also a “triangular number” (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12+13+14+15+16+17) I believe that the number 153 is there because it was exactly the number of fish that the disciples caught. Possibly John missed the significance of that number; but I believe that Jesus knew. It suggests that Jesus wants all people to hear the Gospel and be caught up in the Kingdom net.

One last thing. John has a clear purpose in writing his gospel. It is so that those who hear it read, may believe. It is believing in him, that is the key that opens the door, to this amazing “Eternal life.” Although he plays around with the word order, he finishes as he starts. To those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God. These things are written that you may believe and believing may have life in his name.”

That life is about our lives. It is about God’s power. It is about mission. To those of us who have that life Jesus says one simple thing, day by day. “Never mind anyone else. You follow me.”

© Gilmour Lilly April 2017

Mark 11: Jesus disrupts everything.

Introduction
We have a whole load of things that we would call routine… some are the routines for our day: you get up at 7, you have breakfast at 8 you go to school at 8.30, you have lunch at 12.30, school finishes at 3.30.  You do your homework, you watch TV; you have tea at 5.30; you go to bed at 8.   Others are things we call normal.  It rains, the sun shines.  The electricity works.  Mum does the cooking.  Your friends all turn up for school.  But what if something breaks the routine: you wake up late and don’t have breakfast before school.  School finishes at dinner time; the electricity doesn’t work, it rains all week, your best friend stops coming to school… Or you move to a new house, maybe a new house in a different town.  Routine gets challenged and changed.  

Jesus disrupts the routine….
Suddenly the whole city of Jerusalem is in an uproar… people  shouting, celebrating, vandalising the palm trees…. I guess for some of the local employers, it would be a matter of shouting “get back to work!”  For people carrying on their business, “Hey, coming through, you’re blocking the street here! We have to get these sheep and these doves up to the Temple”  For some of the ordinary people, “Get out of the way, I want to see what’s happening!”  For the authorities, Do you hear what those kids are saying?”  (Matthew 21. 16  I love the New testament in Scots translational: “Do you hear what thir loons is saying?”  

Jesus Declares the Kingdom
As he rides into Jerusalem, fulfilling Old Testament prophecy (Zechariah 9. 9)  and generally behaving like a celebrity.  Welcomed like a loved King he lays claim to be just that: a King.  The promised, coming king.  The one who comes in the name of the Lord.  The beginning of an age of salvation is recognised by the crowd who shout out “Hosanna!  Lord Save!”  It’s a quote from Ps 118. 25, and was used in both the Passover and Tabernacles festivals.  The people are beginning to get hold of the idea that Jesus is the rescuer, the saviour who will bring them out of “captivity” and through the “desert” into a new and better time.  

And the more Jesus does, the more people are asking, what right does he have to do this? The next day,  as Jesus enters Jerusalem again, he passes a fig tree growing by the roadside,  comes looking for fruit on a fig tree , finds none, and curses the tree “May nobody ever eat fruit from you again!”  It seems kind of peevish and immature.  But we are missing the point.  It isn’t the time of year for figs, and Jesus starts pushing the leaves aside, peering into the tree, as though searching for fruit: his disciples are watching; it’s an acted parable.  Jesus co0mes as “Lord “ of the fig tree, with the right to look for fruit on it; just as he comes as “Lord” of Jerusalem, with the right to rule. 

Then he goes straight to the Temple, and drives out the people who are selling animals and birds (for sacrifice) and changing Roman money into Jewish money (that would be acceptable as offerings to God.   He quotes the Old Testament as he refers to the Temple as “My house” (Isaiah 56. 7; Jeremiah 7. 11).  God’s house, but his house.    No wonder people the next day after that, are saying “What right do you have to do these things?”  So Jesus declares that the Kingdom has come.  HE declares that He is King.  

Jesus defines normality.
As he rides into Jerusalem, Jesus is taking himself nearer than ever to the day of reckoning, when he will die on he Cross. As he rides in to Jerusalem, he makes some enemies. The next day as he clears all the traders out of the temple, he makes even more enemies. HE says “you have made this temple a den of thieves.”   He doesn’t mean pickpockets – he means armed robbers. “You have made this temple hang-out for the mob.”  It’s all intentionally moving towards the cross. And through the Cross,  he redefines reality and reconciles people to God.

This king is humble, riding on a donkey.  No longer is greatness and kingship a matter of some propel throwing their weight around. No longer is humiliation and suffering something to be avoided – it is his way to victory.  He clears the temple so it can be “A house of prayer for all nations”, not just for Israel. The Kingdom is an upside down kingdom where victory comes through sacrifice, where small people are important, where life comes from death.  

Jesus has made miracles almost a matter of routine.  There’s a hint of the miraculous even in the provision of the donkey.  No longer must the blind and disabled beggars sit and beg.  No longer must the demonised live in torment. 

And all of that demands faith. 
Remember the fig tree Jesus cursed.  The next day it had withered to the roots.  We already learned that  Jesus was bothered about something more important than simply getting a few figs to eat.  The point becomes clear: ‘if you believe, you can say to this mountain, “be thrown into the sea”…  When we are pursuing the purposes of the Kingdom, our faith is a powerful thing. 

Even at this stage, as he moves his ministry into the lion's den that was Jerusalem, as he disrupts the routines of the city, as he declares the Kingdom, and defines reality by the upside down values of the Kingdom, as he faces the Cross… he wants to point out the powerful effects of faith.  He demands faith from his followers.  It takes faith to go with the disruptive flow of Jesus ministry.  It takes faith to welcome his Kingdom.  It takes faith to follow the upside down realities that the kingdom defines as normal: to be humble instead of pushy; to give instead of grabbing; to know that on the Cross Jesus has carried your sin so you don’t have to; to move mountains emotionally, physically or spiritually.  Palm Sunday demands faith.  

Conclusion
So Jesus comes to us to disrupt our routines.   The little things that we are comfortable with.  Going to work; going to the shops… watching TV or spending time on social media… going to temple, making your sacrifice, ignoring the gentiles who can’t pray because their place in the temple is full of market stalls.  Going to Church and having everything just the way we want it… 

Do we need to allow Jesus to disrupt our routines?  How about fasting a day a week – from food, from chocolate, from tea or coffee, from social media?  What about stopping and thinking – just thinking – before buying things like clothes? What about spending an hour a week doing something kind for other people (maybe for someone difficult to like), or intentionally getting to know one or two people better so you can encourage people in the Church, or getting to know someone who doesn’t know Jesus? 

He defines "normal"   Sacrifice becomes normal.  Co-operation instead of competition becomes normal. Humility becomes normal.  Trust becomes normal.  Dependency on God instead of an “I can do it” attitude becomes normal. The supernatural becomes normal.  Caring for others rather than our own group becomes normal.  

He declares the Kingdom – and declares himself King. Why should we allow Jesus to disrupt our routine?  Who does he think he is?”  He is King.  He has the right to our obedience, our service and our worship.  

He demands faith!   Faith to accept who he is; faith to accept his forgiveness and grace. Faith that the king's new “normality” is possible.  Faith that he can bring you through.  Faith that his Kingdom will triumph in the end. I want to offer you some faith prayers.  Say the one that is most appropriate for you today.

• Lord Jesus, by faith I receive you as King. I receive your gift of forgiveness and new life.
• Lord, increase my faith.  
• Lord, I acknowledge you as my King, and I dare to believe that the norms of your Kingdom can work in my life.
• Lord, you are welcome to disrupt my routines and define “normality” in my life.
• Lord, I need to see some mountains moved.

© Gilmour Lilly April 2017

Forgiveness: Matthew 18. 21-35

Conflict is part of life.  In every relationship, every group of people, there are disagreements.  It happens in families; it happens in schools and factories and offices.  It happens in clubs – and even in churches.  And sometimes it has to happen – whether it’s carrying out the rubbish or complying the Protection of Vulnerable Groups guidelines, sometimes people need to be challenged.  So we all know something about this thing that happens when relationships are strained.   Peter the fisherman turned disciple certainly did.  Excitable, impetuous,  the sort of guy who would say what he thought first and ask questions later –  I dare say he attracted a fair share of criticism.  Later on he even had a bust-up with Paul. So he knew what it was to be offended at someone, as he asks “How often do I have to forgive my brother?  Seven time, maybe?”  He thought that was pretty good.  The Rabbis recommended forgiving 3 times. Jesus says “no, seventy times seven” – 490 times, but of course the point is that you will lose count before you get anywhere near that number.

So to get the point across about forgiveness, Jesus tells a story… about a king, and two servants.    Bear in mind the story is not an allegory – so we’re not supposed to try to find meaning in every detail. And it’s not  a factual narrative either – so we shouldn't try to guess what the servant was thinking.  It is a parable – and what we are meant to do as we hear it is figure out the one main point.

In the parable, the first servant was released from a ridiculous amount of debt;  “ten thousand talents.”   A  talent was worth “about 20 years of a day labourer’s wages”.    Let's do some sums.  The Minimum wage is £7.20/h, that means £288/wk, or £14976/yr. One talent was twenty years worth of minimum wage, or £299520; and the servant in the story owed ten thousand talents – £2,995,200,000.  When the first servant says “I will pay you back” he was desperate – and offering the impossible.  It would take him two hundred thousand years to earn enough to pay the king back – and the Romans hadn’t invented the National Lottery yet. But  the king cancelled the debt.  “You don't’ need to pay it back.”  That is God’s heart; that is God’s love.  That is like our situation.  That is how we have been treated by our heavenly Father.   

That is what the cross is all about.  The cross cleans us up.  The Cross destroys our criminal record.  The Cross pays our bill. The Cross gets Satan off our backs.  The cross breaks the hold of sin in our lives.  It sets us free. It ransoms us .  Through the Cross,  God bears the cost of forgiving us our sins. As the passage says the first servant owed his master nearly £3 Billion,  and as there are over 7 billion people in the world today, that means that if we were trying to but a monetary value on it, the cost God bears in writing off our debt, our sin, for just our generation is £21 quintillion (£21x1018 ).  But of cousre money is only an illustration. 

There are a number of things we are not supposed to do.   
1. Some of us carry a lot of shame.  We have done things, said things, been places, been in relationships, that leave us feeling a great deal of shame and embarrassment.   What we owed, to use the picture from the parable – was an amount we could never pay back.  But we are not supposed to live with the embarrassment, the shame, the guilt, over the debt we owe. God wants to forgive us, so we need to come to him and receive that forgiveness.   Yet even after we have trusted in Jesus,  some of us live with shame and guilt, all the  time.  Most mornings I pray three prayers: One is “Come Holy Spirit.”  The second is “Set a watch over my lips.”  The third is called The Jesus prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God have mercy on me, a sinner.”  I need to pray the last one because I am aware of the ways that the second one hasn’t been answered!  It may just be the consciousness of stuff inside us that is just difficult to tame. Or it may be about big mistakes and sins. We truggle with guilt. But we are not meant to be living with guilt.  God forgives us.  

2. And we are not supposed to try to trade with God.  We try to make a deal with God.  “I’ll try harder;  I’ll give to OXFAM; I’ll go to church.”   But simply, that’s not going to swing it.  We just don’t have what it takes to pay God back, to make amends.  We need to receive God’s forgiveness.    But God cancelled the debt.  “You don't need to pay it back.”   That is God’s forgiveness.  We need to receive it.   

But Jesus isn’t talking about cheap grace.  In the Bible, God’s forgiveness has  a transforming effect on our lives.  “Because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him”  (Romans 12. 1 GNB)  Forgiveness leads to surrender, through the process of love.   Jesus once was invited to a posh meal – and in Jesus’ time, if you invited a guest of honour to your house, your guests would eat the food, but other people could come in and listen to the conversation.  So this woman turned up and poured ointment on Jesus, and began crying and washing his feet with her hair.  Jesus said that how much we have been forgiven reflects in how much we love.  (Luke 7. 36-50)  If we love him, we keep his commands.  (John 14. 15)  

That is the only deal you can make with God.  You receive his forgiveness and his transforming Spirit into you life.  And in so doing, you surrender your life to his forgiveness and his transforming Spirit.   God makes us different to the world round about us.  It means being shaped by the character of a forgiving and loving God.  

The servant in the story as he is coming out from his interview with the king, bumps into another servant, who owes him a hundred denarii; a denarius was the usual daily wage of a day labourer (£7.20/hour =£57.60 so 100 days = £5760). So it wasn’t a few pence – it was a serious debt. The cost of a good second-hand car. But it was only a tiny fraction (0.0002% or two millionths!) of what the first servant had been forgiven.   He attacks, threatens and finally imprisons the other servant.  And as a result, the master backtracks and un-cancels his debt.  For someone who has received God’s huge and costly forgiveness, the most inappropriate thing, the most unfitting thing that we can do, is to harbour any unforgivingness, resentment, ill-feeling or grudge, towards another human being.  

Now, we sometimes struggle with "forgiveness". It seems harsh that someone brought up by a real "wicked step-mother" & half-starved as a small child, should have to forgive those who caused that harm.  It seems harsh that the person who suffers through medical negligence or drunk driving should forgive that doctor or drunk driver.  It's as though you're asking me to say "it doesn't matter."  But forgiveness doesn't mean "it doesn't matter." It does matter. Perhaps that's why Jesus said the second servant owed over £5,000. It is a big deal. Forgiveness says "what you did was really wrong, and caused real pain & maybe lasting damage. It was serious, but I forgive you. I give up the right to get even. I give up the right to feel resentful. I give up the right to keep hurting you back. I give up the right to know you're losing sleep over what you did. I give up the right to damage your reputation."   For us, as for God, there is a cost attached to forgiving.  But the cost of not forgiving is so much worse.  

Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who was imprisoned in Ravensbruck concentration camp for hiding Jews during the Nazi occupation.  Her father and older sister died in that camp.  She was starved, humiliated and tortured.  Then after the war at a Church Service, she recognised a man walking towards her to shake her hand: he had been one of her guards.  Overcome with feelings of hatred, she hesitated, then stretched out her hand towards the man: it was then, in the act of obedience, that the feelings of resentment and anger left her.  

If there is a behaviour that has the potential to loosen our grasp of salvation, to rob us of the benefits of our relationship with God, it is unforgivingness.. It can imprison us. It can torture us. It can cause us to be obsessed with the person we have come to resent. When we don' t forgive someone, it can be like allowing them to live rent-free in our heads. It can make us physically ill. the person who said "Not forgiving someone is the drinking poison & hoping the other person will get sick." If you are struggling with something physically or emotionally, it is always yourself "is there someone I haven't forgiven?" Especially if there is a connexion between a trauma event and the dis-ease. 

So the Creed says “We believe in the forgiveness of sins.”  And as be believe it, we need to live it!  I want to say that all of us can walk out of this building today, knowing that we are forgiven.  Maybe you’ve lived by trying to make a deal with God.  Maybe despite being a Christian you are still living with shame over stuff in the past and present.  God wants to forgive you.  Maybe you are feeling resentful today because of something that happened, maybe years ago: you need to let it go.  Maybe you carry pain because of something that happened to you.  The fact that you are forgiven, can release you to let it go, and healing can come.   

 Forgiveness isn’t a feeling it’s a choice; and it needs to become a habit as we do it over and over again. 

© Gilmour Lilly March 2017

We believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints

Opening Activity: Discuss in small groups

Church…. What is it?

Reading 1: Colossians 1. 15-29

We move on to the second part of the creed. The first part is all about God - Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Who God is, what God does... Now we look at what happens when we encounter God... Church, Forgiveness, Resurrection, and Eternal life…These are all outworkings of believing in (and knowing) God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit...

At first glance, “The Church” seems the odd one out in all this. We begin by saying we believe in God, father Son and Holy Spirit. We end by saying we believe in forgiveness, resurrection, eternal life. But in the middle, we believe in this “Church” business … Sunday services, Missionary prayer letters and tea and biscuits.  From the sublime to the ridiculous! 

The word “Church” in our Bibles translates the Greek word ecclesia – assembly. Literally, the group called out. In ancient Greek cities, when an important decision had to be made the town crier would call everyone – at least all the adult free men – to meet. The same thing happened for great festivals and sacrifices in the Old Testament: the people would assemble to worship. That is the word Paul uses in our reading…And he uses the word in the singular: the Church; the assembly; the worldwide body that has Jesus as its head. And Jesus uses the word in the same way when he says “On this rock I will build my church”. (Matthew 16. 18)

So what is the Church?

• Not a place, but people. I shouldn’t have to say that. But I will anyway. (After all we still have a sign outside that calls this building “Church”.) When the King James Version talks about “robbers of churches” (Acts 19. 37) it is actually wrongly translating a totally different word that really means temple-robbers.
• Not just any people, but God’s people. And in fact, God has always had “his People” and has always chosen to relate to and enter into covenant with “his People”. Although it translates the word assembly, our English, Scots and Germanic word “Church” or “Kirk” comes from the Greek word “Kurios” meaning “Lord” and it was invented because Church is the people who belong to the Lord.
• The Church is not just a collective noun for "all the Christians in the world." The, Church, the people of God, is an entity in its own right. It is a “Thing.” The Church is there. Philosophers sometimes talk about “nominalism & realism” in the use of language. "Geography" is the name we give, to the study of what we know about the physical features of places on earth, and how people have developed and used its resources. Geography doesn't exist - it isn't REAL. Mountains,oceans and cities are REAL. Church isn’t just the name we give to the vague idea of a group of Christians. It is real.
• The Church is not an institution or organisation but an organism. It is a living thing. It’s not just for people. It is people. Of course it needs an element of structure, leadership, and so forth. The structure – the leadership, the particular way a group of Christians do something, is not in itself the Church. Any more than some of our family traditions are the same as family. When I was a kid we always had Christmas at home, we always had our tea at 5.30 when Dad came home from work, and we always did what Dad said even if we tried it on with Mum… But that was simply the way we structured our life together. We were family. We belonged together.
• The Church is not merely a natural, human thing but a supernatural and spiritual thing. It is not merely something we do in response to the Gospel, But something God does, as we respond to the Gospel. (1 Cor 12. 13: “In one Spirit we were all baptised into one body”) It is an ongoing, living miracle of unity and reconciliation. What Paul means in verse 20 is that through Jesus we are right with God – and we are are as a consequence all reconciled with one another – Jews and non-jews who used to be considered aReading 1:s outsiders are now insiders to a relationship with God and therefore to the people of god. (Eph 2. 14-17 ¹⁴“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”) The Church is Christ’s body. It is a result of what Jesus has done on the Cross. It exists because of what God has done.
• It looks not inward but outward. The Church has spiritual authority derived from Jesus who is over all things "whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities;" but its authority is not about grabbing but giving; not about self-advancement but self-sacrifice. Not coercive or exploitative but generous. Paul says he completes "what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church". That doesn't mean there is more to do to put us right with God. What it does mean is that Jesus continues to suffer as his body, the Church suffers. Before he was a Christian, Paul made the Church – and Jesus – suffer. Now as a missional leader his not afraid to take his share of Jesus' sufferings. The Church's victory in mission is accomplished through sacrifice. When we were in Gloucester there was a Pastor who advertised his healing ministry with the question "Why suffer?" Of course it's a rhetorical question. But the answer is simple. "Because Jesus suffered". The world wide church does triumph, & heal & grow, But it does so through living sacrificially and generously.

When the emperor Constantine became a Christian & tried to “Christianise” the Empire (about 300 years after Christ) it made life a lot easier for the Christians. "No more persecution, guys!" But what resulted was a disaster – because the Church became an institution, it became humanly resourced, and it moved away from the Jesus way, the outward looking way of sacrifice & generosity, and instead began to me coercion & conquest.

So we believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints. One Church, that belongs to God (that's what “Holy” means), and exists all over the world (that is what “catholic” actually means – the “hol” in catholic is the same as the “hol” in holistic and hologram and in our world “Whole”). It is the Church across the whole world. The Hcurch is “The communion of saints.” It is the shared lfie of the saints. We may not always be that saintly but we are all “saints. We belevie in one church which is the shared life of all the disciples of Jesus all over the world. We are all apart of it; we all contribute to it; we all benefit from it. And the Church never loses a member by death. The communion of the saints, lasts forever. The church is not only on earth but in heaven. What a privilege to be part of that amazing community/family/body.

But what is the practical, concrete difference that believing in this Church makes to our lives.

Paul – and Jesus – also use the word ecclesia in another way. ways. Paul speaks about the churches, and refers to the church in a city, the church in someone’s home. You will find that in Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonian.) Jesus talks about sorting disputes between his followers by taking them “to the Church”. That has to be a locally focussed gathering of people. It is in the local Church that we our faith in the holy catholic church, the church all over the world, finds solidness, becomes thick and visible and practical. Anglican Renewal Ministries was a Church organisation that had as its strap line at one time “To be real it’s got to be local...”

If we believe in the church, the holy, catholic church, the Communion of saints, then that affects how we live in the LOCAL CHURCH...

The local Church must be

• people of God not a building.
• A real thing; not just a name for something we do together
• organic not organisation; family not an institution.
• Supernatural not merely physical...As Chris said last week "it is the Holy spirit that makes the difference between a meeting of the Church & any other meeting". The Spirit makes it a community of love and reconciliation; the Spirit makes it a community of practical care; the Spirit makes it a community of healing.
• generous and sacrificial not exploitative or manipulative.

The Church began, with 120 people receiving the Holy Spirit in power, and going out to speak about Jesus; four thousand responded by turning to God and being baptised, and becoming the first ever local church. The life they lived in that local church in Jerusalem was a miniature version , of the one holy catholic church. We hear about their life together in our closing reading.

Reading 1: Acts 2. 42-47

© G Lilly March 2017

From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

Rev 22.12-21: From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I am coming.  
“I am he Alpha and the omega” (v 13) : Jesus who is speaking, is God the son.  He judges with the full authority of God himself. Remember what we have already stated about Jesus: he is “LORD” , the Word who became flesh,  and was born of the virgin Mary.  He was crucified, dead, buried.  He rose again and ascended to the father.  

This Jesus is coming back.  The same Jesus. who in his life on earth enabled people to see God’s glory.  The Jesus who was born in Bethlehem; the one who lived he kingdom. The Jesus who died for our sins, (John has already seen is the Lamb that was slain); this Jesus who has risen again and is the victor – he is coming back.  

We can expect his demeanour to have changed.  He comes as the Lion of Judah, with all the power of God, in full victory. But the Lion still looks like a lamb (Rev 5. 5-6)  so his values are unchanged. We can expect the coming Jesus, the Judge of all the earth, to be passionate about God’s Kingdom; to be opposed to all impurity, oppression and violence.  To desire to bring healing.  The fruits of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Rev 22.2)   

Jesus of Nazareth, the Jesus of History; and the Alpha and the Omega, the Lion and the Lamb, the Christ of faith are one and the same.   He has the authority of the Alpha and the Omega; and he has the values of Jesus.   And he is coming back.

I am coming soon.   
A matter of timing.   What does “soon” mean?  “See, I come quickly!” (Phillips)

Image: © G Lilly

is a good translation. The Greek word suggests a sudden or rapid event rather than an imminent one. If the hearers around 70AD thought it meant “in the next couple of years” or even “in the next seven years” they were wrong.  How do we square “soon” with the millennium, the seven year tribulation?  Some of these values have to be symbolic.  Because if they are all to be taken at face value, they contradict one another.  It is more consistent with the rest of the New Testament – where in Mt 24. 41f for example, Jesus talks about two women grinding wheat: “one will be taken and the other left” – to say that we don’t know the day or hour when the Lord will come.  I am all for keeping this simple.  Jesus says he is coming again – today that has to be sooner than it was 2000 years ago.  But “suddenly” is the same every century.   We need to be ready.

My reward is with me…v. 14f 
Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead.   Rev 20. 11-15 describes judgement day.  The lamb on his throne; books are opened.  Some are registered in the books. Others are not, and they are thrown into the lake of fire.  Judgement separates people into two clear groups. He rewards people according to what they have done. Michael Wilcock says that means “What they have done with Jesus” and “what they have allowed him to do through them”.   

1. Inside.  “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.”   Rev 7. 14 talks about the people who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  It is in an encounter with Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that we become clean.  

Now “Wash their robes” is present tense.   So Jesus is not just talking about a single act in past time but a continuing action. “All cleansing from sin whether the sin of unbelieving days or the sin committed by disciples of Christ is accomplished only by the blood of Christ. Eternal life and a blessed destiny are found only through the atoning work of Christ.”  (G E Ladd)  

There has been a lot of attention on court decisions in the past few weeks, on both sides of the Atlantic.  This is  a legal judgement.   Those who wash their robes have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city.  The sad history of humanity involves eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and being thrown out of Eden, unable to eat the fruit of the tree of life.  But that curse has been reversed.  Through what we do with Jesus, we are in – healed, for eternity.

2. Outside are the dogs, those who practise magic arts, the sexually immoral,

Dogs_and_heat by Iwoelbern PD the murderers, the idolaters” and liars.  Outside means outside the city.  Outside of the City, separated from god, is a dreadful existence: Rev 20. 14, and 21. 8 describe it as a lake of fire and the second death.  A lake of fire, a second death, locked out of the city, are different ways of describing the same thing.  John finishes off by using – as we should too – one simple word for the dreadful consequences of not doing the right thing with Jesus: Outside.   

"Dogs adn Heat" by "Iwoelbern"  PD image

Dogs in ancient times were often half-wild creatures that appeared to scavenge what they could find, and nobody wanted.  Not the pampered pooches of today!  For Judaism they were unclean animals, the lowest of the low, and  represented the gentiles.  But for John dogs represent the godless of any nation, in contrast to men of all nations have washed their robes and made themselves white.  

Five groups are specifically singled out
Sorcerers – There a number of ancient practises that people still use today, that involve using supernatural forces to do one or more of three things.   To help you remember (and avoid) them  I will call them three K's
1. Kontrol – trying to harness or channel “Spiritual power” or energy to control things in the physical world: various forms of healing such as Reiki; and the use of charms and incantations to gain protection or prosperity – or to hurt other people.  God has given us prayer in the name of Jesus, spiritual authority in his name, and a scientific world that includes medicine and skills like counselling.  To look in places other than science or the Bible and the Holy Spirit for healing or power is to toy with sorcery
2. Knowledge – trying to find out the future through things like tarot, palm-reading and astrology; I saw on FB this week, someone posted a “what age will you die?” app.  That seems like a laugh if it says you will live to be 99 (which is the result my friend got)!  But scary if it suggests you won’t live past your next birthday.  So if it’s on the internet and it says it can tell you who your soulmate is, whom you will marry, whether you’ll get pregnant this year or who or what you were in a previous life, avoid it.  It’s the thin edge of the sorcery wedge! 
3. Kontact – trying to get in touch with people who have died.  Losing someone you live is a terrible thing.  We spend ten or maybe fifty or sixty years getting to know someone, making a place for them in our hearts, and then they are not there.  Learning to live with the gap they leave is incredibly hard – and as a Pastor I can tell you there is no good time to lose a loved one.  We need to let them go.  To keep trying to contact the dead, is to have our finger on the self destruct button.
Fornicators – are those who indulge their sexual appetites, with the same sex or with the opposite sex.  Those who give in to our society’s prevailing tendency which is to say “if you feel like doing something, do it.  
Murderers – literally people with a thirst for blood.  
Idolaters – people who worship (literally hire themselves to serve)  idols.  People who sell their inner lives to anyone or anything other than God himself.
Those who love and practise lies – in particular the lies that the Roman Empire, or the world we live in today, try to pass off as truth. 

So there’s a judgement: a clear division between those on the inside – who “wash their garments” expressing trust in what Jesus has done for us; and those who haven’t, who are outside – with the actions and attitudes of the “World” still sticking to them.

So what?
Remember, to faith is more than simply thinking something is true: it is the solidness of things hoped for.  We believe that from his place at the right hand of the Father, Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead. What solid difference does that make to our lives. 
Mission:  “The spirit and the Bride say come (v. 17); let the one who hears say come.  Who are the spirit and the bride talking to?   The answer is in the second phrase which says let him who is thirsty come. In other words it is the mission of the church in the power of the spirit to say come and drink the water of life.
Warning. v 18f and not to add anything to or remove anything from the prophecy.  We can add, when we stick our interpretations over the top of the pages of this prophecy.  There have been dozens of different interpretation of revelation.  We make it complicated.  The world is in a mess, and the Church has a battle on its hands in every generation.  But Jesus is the Victor and Jesus will return to judge.   And we can take away, when we ignore it completely or try to  reducing its big themes to the level of a comment of the state of the Roman world.  Take it seriously
Expectancy.   We respond “Amen, come Lord Jesus.  Maranatha is an ancient prayer of the Church. To cry “Come, Lord Jesus!”  is to remind ourselves that however much we look to see God’s Kingdom come on earth, in the here and now, we look forward to the final triumph of the Kingdom, when Jesus returns and judges the living and the dead.  
Grace. And we experience the grace of the Lord Jesus.  The future is there; the future is bright. It is filled with Jesus and his Kingdom.  But we don’t live in the future. We live in the present.   We live for the future. But we live in the present. And in the present we receive the grace of God: his favour; his joy-bringing presence; his gifts.

© Gilmour Lilly February 2017

Ephesians 1. 15-23 and 2. 1-10

The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.

The whole of this reading, in Greek, consists of three sentences. Chapter 1. 15-23; Chapter 2. 1-7, and 8-10. Somebody is very excited! As Paul writes to his friends in Ephesus, to encourage them in their faith, he knows about the cultural melting pot they lived in. The temple of Diana or Artemis, the goddess with the Greek name but with a history that went back way before the Greeks arrived in Asia Minor. The Greek Artemis as a hunter. The Ephesian one was a mother goddess, a fertility goddess. So there was a strong Pagan influence. There was the Greek influence. All the philosophical ideas that had developed in Athens, over hundreds of years, were there in one form or another. Questions like “Do we really know anything? Is the world as we know it real or is it a copy of he real world?” (A bit like the idea of the film “the Matrix”) Or the idea that “the universe is layered like a sheet of plywood or a slice of puff pastry so we need some secret knowledge to get to the supreme being at the top” And then there was Roman culture which liked to copy Greek education and art but expressed Greek logic in a highly organised and centralised empire. And all of these elements were present in Ephesus. This stuff was hitting them all the time, just as a soup of weird and wonderful ideas hits us all the time through TV. Facebook and conversations with friends and family. No wonder they needed to have God’s Spirit to give them wisdom and revelation and understanding of his great power as Paul prays for them.

And as he prays, the backdrop is – Jesus! Jesus raised from the dead and seated at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. No wonder Paul is excited! In our mixed up world we say “The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.” For Paul these are not separate things but past of a huge, continuous journey of triumph and hope. Paul is speaking about a pair of historical, physical event that took place on the earth but affected the heavens.

Jesus is

• Risen from the dead. God raised him from the dead. An event on earth that demonstrated the meaning and effectiveness of Jesus’ death. That showed that whatever forces were at work against Jesus, against God’s kingdom and rule, were now spent forces. Paul speaks about the resurrection with the confidence of an eye-witness, based on his visionary encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus, and on repeated encounters with Jesus in the power of he Spirit. Peter as an eye-witness makes the same statement: “ God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.” (Acts 2. 32) The four Gospels each describe the resurrection with the immediacy, un-doctored candour and local colour of eye-witness accounts that tell the same story without having to iron out the slight differences in perspective. People saw him. He appeared. But he didn’t have to. Paul as we have said runs the resurrection and ascension together as one continuous flow: as far as he was concerned, the place where Jesus was raised to was heaven. But God has always cared about the physical, created world; so the Jesus who became flesh and died a physical death at a place and time on earth, was raised at a place and time on earth.

• Ascended – “far above all “rulers and authorities and powers and lordships”… (v. 21) Paul lists the variety defeated cosmic powers to show the scope of the victory God has secured. Yes, sin is dealt wit, the price is paid. But Satan, sin and death are defeated. Jesus is bigger than all the people and institutions who hold power and claim authority in our world. He is above all of those powers. Paul’s language suggests angelic beings who had authority over nations. We began to understand through the last few chapters of the book of Daniel that there is a connexion between our earthly battles, and heavenly battle between spiritual “princes.” Paul tells us that Jesus is ascended, therefore, is above and over all of these princes. They are arranged in subjection under his feet.

Jesus is the one “in whom all things hold together.” (Col 1. 17) The ascension of Jesus to the Heavenly Realms means there has been a shift in the Cosmic centre of gravity: the central figure is now not on Earth but in heaven; so what was above us is now below us. We are seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (2. 6: literal translation: “God raised us together and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”)

• seated at the right hand of the Father – with all things under his feet. The right hand of the father is a place of special Honour. It is a symbol of sovereignty, that belongs uniquely to Jesus. There has never been anyone like Him and there never will be anyone like Him. As Paul says in Philippians 2, God has bestowed upon him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow. Jesus shares his authority with us. But not his sovereignty. We are seated together in the heavenly places in Christ – but Paul very carefully doesn’t say we are at the Father’s right hand. We too must bow our knees in wonder and adoration before this Jesus who is seated at the right hand of the father in glory.

So Jesus is risen; ascended, seated at the father’s right hand. He is is head over all things for the Church which is his Body, the fulness of him who fills everything in every way. 4 small words but big concepts:-

• head -- Christ's rule and authority over all things. The Greeks sometimes thought of the world or universe as like a body. Paul doesn’t go there – but he does say that Jesus is head over all things... -- which is bigger than the church but of course includes the church
• Church, Christ’s body. Jesus is head over all for the Church. The AV translates literally “gave him to be the head over all things to the church” Jesus exercises that headship for the benefit of the Church. In Corinthians, the Church is a local body; in Ephesians and Colossians it is the Christian community in its totality.
• Fulness was another of these words for the Greeks dripped meaning. Sometimes they talked about God as fulness. Paul says all God’s fulness dwelt in Christ (Col 1. 19) and the Church is the fulness of Christ. The Church is meant to be full of God. There’s a connexion between the Church and the universe – and that connexion is Jesus.

So, to say “We believe the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty” is an immense statement. We will look at hat it means to “believe in the Church” next month. But for now, we note that to believe that Jesus is risen, ascended and seated at the Father's right hand, affects the Church; it affects all of us.

Paul, remember, is praying and giving thanks for the Church in Ephesus. And specifically, he is giving thanks because he has heard of their faith in Jesus. Now when we talk about faith in Christ, we mean that Jesus is the person we trust. When Paul wanted to say “Jesus is the person we trust” he talked about faith “towards Jesus”. (For the Greek Scholars, either using the word “pros” or the objective Genitive.) So when he mentions faith in Jesus, he doesn’t mean Jesus is the one we one we trust. He means Jesus is where we are. He is not only the object of faith; he is the environment of faith. Paul has heard of the faith they exercise in their relationship with Jesus. So where are we. We are “in Christ”. We are “seated in the heavenly places in Christ”. In our union with Jesus, we are in a place where all the enemy’s powers, all the evil forces that are at work in the nations, are under our feet. There, in Christ, is where we are called upon to exercise faith.

To believe Jesus is risen, ascended and seated at the father’s right hand, is to take our place of authority in him. It is to use that authority in prayer. It is to receive God’s grace and his gifts by faith (2. 9). It is to do the good works that God created brought us into being for, and that he has already got ready for us to walk in (2. 10). In Christ, you exist for a purpose. That purpose is already prepared for you.

Photo © G Lilly.

Part of that purpose is to over come strongholds that set themselves against the word of God – in three areas: Political (where there are movements that have values that are quite the opposite of the values of God’s Kingdom; Cultural (there is an increasing gap between the culture we live in and the Church’s attempts to witness for Jesus); and Personal (often our thoughts are out of line with God’s word, we are negative and despairing about ourselves, and need to take our thoughts captive so they come in line with Jesus).

In Christ, discover that purpose and by faith, grab hold of it.

© Gilmour Lilly February 2017

He Suffered under Pontius Pilate…

Was crucified, daed and buried, he descended into Hell

Matthew 27. 11-26; 32-37; 45-54

The Story

In Jesus, the Word – who was God, in the beginning with the Father – became flesh. Fully god and fully human. So today we look at there that eventually led. It led to suffering under Pontius Pilate. It’s a very human story, full of very human. weaknesses. Pilate was the Roman Governor of Judea. Aristocratic, used to being obeyed; unafraid to use violence (he was eventually recalled to Rome for violently suppressing an uprising in Samaria); slow to understand to sensitivities of the Jewish religion: a pragmatist who was more concerned about what worked than about what was right.

Christ & Pilate by Nikolai Ge. PD Image

And around Pilate, were these Jewish leaders who had handed Jesus over for their own interests. Pilate knew about that – even if he didn’t understand the finer points of Jewish law. Then there was his wife – possibly a bit superstitious; when she had a dream about Jesus, she sent a message to her husband, warning him not to be involved in executing that innocent man.

So, for a few hours, this was Jesus’ world. He was the victim, in the petty world of political connivance, power-seeking, prejudice and crowd-pleasing. It’s not so different from our world today in the week when the inquest into the Tunisia shootings hears stories of victims; in the week when stories come to light of families split up by the USA’s ban on immigrants. Eventually Pilate gives in to the baying crowd, washes his hands of responsibility for the matter in a meaningless gesture, and hands Jesus over to be crucified. That, in the end, is the world of Jesus – the Word, who was in the beginning with the father, who was full of grace and truth, who brings life and light, who demonstrates God’s glory.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate. Was crucified, dead and buried. Like his deity, and like his humanity, his suffering and death were real and complete. He was really crucified: he suffered one of the most unpleasant forms of execution ever contrived. And he really died. Muslims believe that Jesus just passed out on the cross… blood and water suggest that Jesus had died before he was pierced by the soldier’s spear.

But we can’t just leave it there. As he died, some things happened.

1. Shortly before he died, he said “My God, why have you forsaken me?”
2. Then, Matthew tells us that as Jesus died, there was an earthquake;
3. the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom
4. and tombs were opened. Some dead bodies were raised and in the tumult after the resurrection of Jesus, they appeared to people in Jerusalem.

The point:

So what is that all about? These verses tell us that

1. Jesus suffered the hellish experience of separation from God the father. Sin separates us from God. Sin separates you and me from God. It separates our kids from God; it separates our neighbours from God. It means we live our lives, out of touch with God. And if we die with our sin still attached to us, we remain separated from God forever. Jesus was carrying our sin, when he died on the Cross. So as he died, the Father turned his face away. As he took our sins, Jesus experienced the separation from god that we all experience as the result of our sins.
2. The earthquake tells us that Jesus’ death had truly cosmic significance. He died for our sins, but he died to undo the damage the fall has brought to the whole of the universe: to heal a broken world and bring God’s Kingdom. With the death of Jesus, the new age of the Kingdom is breaking into our world.
3. There was a curtain in the temple – as there had been way back in the days of the tent in the desert – that separated the Holiest place, from the rest of the building. The curtain represented the separation between God and people. Coming to God was a matter of fear and formality: Israel understood the otherness of God and the seriousness of sin and the only way past that was through detailed sacrifices. The tear from top to bottom opens the way up – starting from God’s end not from ours – for people to be in God’s presence.
4. And death itself is beaten. It has no sting any more. It can’t hold the saints – people who have faith – any more. Eternity, eternal life, a future and a hope with God, are now a possibility. Jesus has opened up the future, a bright and good and living future, by his death on the cross.

The Creed sums that up in the statement that Jesus “descended into Hell.” Eph 4. 9 says “He descended in the the lower parts of the earth”. That doesn’t only mean that he suffered but that he triumphed and conquered: he led captivity captive (Eph 4. 8). He preached freedom to the souls held in prison. (1Peter 3. 19) The Christian group Phatfish sing “I thank You, for the cross, where You bled, for the cross, where You died, for the cross, where You've broken Satan's back.” Charles Wesley put it “Christ has burst the gates of hell! Hallelujah.” Christus Victor. Christ the Conqueror. Remember that when he broke bread with his disciples, Jesus declared himself to be not the scapegoat or the sin-offering, but the passover lamb. His death on the cross, his descent into hell, was a victory of even greater magnitude than the victory over pharaoh in he days of Moses. It deals with our sin; it opens God’s presence to us; it seals the triumph of God’s Kingdom and gives us everlasting life.

The problem

Jesus said “I will build my church and the gates of Hell (Hades) shall not prevail against it.” But look at us. And look at our world. Oppression, violence, inequality, greed, selfishness, are everywhere. As they were in Matthew’s world. And as they were in the world of the early compilers of the Creed. The earliest creed “Jesus is Lord” had to be asserted against the backdrop of an empire that demanded “Caesar is lord!”.

The Difference

But Matthew tells us the earth shook and the tombs were opened. The early Fathers said “We believe..” And to believe is to act.

1. It is to face our struggles with courage and dignity. Jesus knows what it is like to be struggling, to be a victim, to be misunderstood, mocked, misjudged. He knows what it is to suffer, and to die. And we are to have the same mind, the same way of thinking he had; although he was God he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself. (Phil 2. 5f) Psalm 73 wrestles with the problem of why the the world is full of injustice. And in verse 16 the writer says “W

   

   Christo Crucificado by Velaquez. PD Image

   hen I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task until I went into the sanctuary of God. For us, looking at what Jesus suffered puts our problems into a different perspective.
2. It is to receive forgiveness and grace. A few weeks ago I was messing around at home imitating Edith Piaf singing “non, je ne regrette rien...” and John said to me “Dad, she sang it so you don’t have to!” Jesus cried out “My God, why have you forsaken me?” so you don’t have to. To believe it is to put your trust in him today.
3. It is to come with thanks and trust, through the veil, into Gods’ presence. “Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown though Christ my own!” Enough of hanging our heads in shame and embarrassment. Enough of distance between ourselves and our heavenly father. Jesus’ death makes us god’s children. We approach with boldness the throne of grace.
4. It is to seek the Kingdom, in our world. It is to be people who pray, not just pathetic, insipid little prayers that nobody would notice whether they got answered or not; but big prayers, prayers of faith. Prayers for the sick. Prayers for revival. Prayers for the lost. Prayers for peace and reconciliation among the nations. And in these days I need some of that. The world is looking increasingly messy. But We are called to live for the Kingdom, until the Kingdom comes. And we continue to pray for the coming of that Kingdom.
5. It is to have the perspective not only of the Cross but of eternity. We fear nothing. Not even death. Death itself is defeated.

© Gilmour Lilly February 2107