The story is told of St Christopher
that he searched the world over
for the strongest king to serve
he rejected one after the other
even the devil
and finally he is told to serve God
and to do this by helping people across a dangerous river.
One night a small child comes
and Christopher carries him across the river
he senses the burden getting heavier as he crosses
and it is only as he gets to the other side
that he realises he has been carrying the Christ child.
It is a nice story, and has a good moral.
These days it is regarded as legendary
rather than an account of an actual event.
This does not make it untrue.
It rather points us to the fact
that we are called to serve Christ in the work we do in this world
and that we often don't realise that Christ is there.
It is an Easter encounter
we don't realise at first that Christ is alive and there amongst us.
He surprises us by being in the ordinary place.
The disciples have to learn this.
They are often easily distracted and, well,...just plain 'thick'
Not unlike you and me really!
What is on offer by Jesus is not some fairy tale encounter
nor is it some pious ritual.
It is a glimpse of glory,
it is sharing of the vision of the open heaven and God reigning in power, peace and love.
St Stephen, at his martyrdom, is able to blurt this out.
Things often become very clear to us in the valley of the shadow of death.
For most of the time it is a struggle, like Christopher,
to not insist that God does things in the way that we want them done
and rather to open ourselves to the mystery of what God might be offering us.
Not what we vainly want but what God might be trying to invite us into.
In the halting passage in John 14 again, often read at funerals, Jesus promises a prepared-place.
He is of course speaking imaginally
But rather of the fact that there is a place.
This is a comfort to the dying and the bereaved, I suggest, to know that whether we live or whether we die God has a place for us.
But as we read on we discover that the place is not so much a location as a relationship....
How can we know the way? and Jesus says to you and me
I am the way and the truth and the life
I think once we grasp this we are, indeed, on the way.
This is what Christopher found.
It is not discovery of the answer it is by entering into relationship with Jesus.
This is the relationship which will reveal to us the life of God himself
We Christians believe that this shepherd, this Jesus,
this way, this truth, this life
uniquely draws us into the life of God.
This is not an exclusivist claim it is the promise and hope of relationship.
I will know God, and God will know me.
I will know and be known. It is a glimpse of glory.
This week
- Where is Jesus telling me about himself?
- What do I tell Jesus about myself?
- How does this mutual revelation change us both?
- How do I change my life to better live that experience
- What will I do this week as I live out of this relationship
- .......love.....forgiveness...reconciliation all seek resolution in practice
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