In a sermon preached at Canterbury Cathedral on Easter Sunday, Archbishop Justin said the resurrection of Jesus “changes our view of the universe. Once we have seen the reality of the risen Jesus nothing else should be seen in the same way as before.” Anglican Communion News Service has his sermon:
…Cathedrals and churches make great statements, but without words. Witnesses are those people who know Christ; lay or ordained, old or young, gender, politics, sexuality or whatever irrelevant – all are equally witnesses. The resurrection happened, and it changes our view of the universe. Once we have seen the reality of the risen Jesus nothing else should be seen in the same way as before.
To witness is to be a martyr. I am told by the Coptic Bishop in England that the Coptic Christians murdered in Libya last month died proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord. They are martyrs, a word that means both one that dies for their faith and one that witnesses to faith. There have been so many martyrs in the last year. On Maundy Thursday, three days ago around 150 Kenyans were killed because of being Christian. They are witnesses, unwilling, unjustly, wickedly, and they are martyrs in both senses of the word…..
Today are we still witnesses that say, “Jesus is alive”? St Peter says we are living stones: the church is a gathering of martyrs, of witnesses to the love and goodness of Jesus. Every action we take, every inaction, every agreement, every disagreement in which love is maintained, everything we do and say, or refrain from doing or saying, everything witnesses. As living stones we support each other to be witnesses, as do the stones of this Cathedral.
The building around us, itself a gift of God, burns with the glory of God when we burn with the fire of His love and cry out in witness…
The stone at the tomb was a silent witness; we are living stones, speaking witnesses: let us be clear, gentle, loving, peaceful – yet bold, fiery witnesses who in a dark world sing our song of light: “The Lord is risen, Jesus is alive, all creation is transformed.”
Read it all at Anglican Communion News Service
posted by Ann Fontaine
Rembrandt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons