Easter Sunday 9 April 2023 - Are you hungry? (Rev Rebecca Apperley)

I’m going to start today with a question, not to answer out loud, but just to ponder internally: are you hungry? Not physically hungry I’m sure – you’re probably stuffed full of chocolate egg like me. But are you hungry for more of Jesus?

On some level each of us are here, continue to be here in this place, part of this church whanau, because we are hungry for Jesus. For something more. Even though you might not know it or be able to articulate it. [If you’re not usually a “church person” or see yourself as particularly “religious”, we’ve all made a choice to be here today. Even if you only come once a year – or perhaps once in a lifetime - you’ve made a choice that most of society doesn’t make].

For those of us who’ve journeyed together as a church whanau over holy week, we’ve been locating ourselves within the story of Jesus’ last few days…

We’ve walked with Jesus on Palm Sunday as he witnessed prophetically to systems of power and oppression and gave us a glimpse of what servant leadership looks like.

We’ve eaten and drunk together, washed feet as Jesus did at his last meal with his friends. We’ve recognised feelings of betrayal, abandonment, confusion, shame and fear.

We’ve been active participants in the story of Jesus’ death as we heard the story of Jesus’ death, and dressed the cross in flowers as if we too were anointing Jesus’ body for burial.

And now we are here at the resurrection – in John’s beautiful version of mistaken identity – which I read somewhere has more running in it than all the gospels put together.

In all that we have heard over this last week, ultimately God’s character, the very nature of who God is, is revealed in Jesus’ dying and resurrection. Sometimes when I’m reading the Bible I ask God what parts of Jesus’ character does he want me to see at the moment? Normally my favourite is the challenging, kick up the butt ninja Jesus, but today I get the sense that we are being invited to notice something different, something that the world really needs: the gentleness and kindness of God in Jesus.

This is not an insipid, Sunday School Jesus kindness with plenty of baby animals (though I’m a sucker for a baby animal). But this is the sort of gentleness and kindness that breaks through despite the most horrific suffering and pain and even through death itself. The gentleness and kindness that on the cross connects sons and mothers and betraying friends and criminals and soldiers and you and me. That gentleness and kindness is expressed for each and every one of us in order to bring us back into relationship with God again despite all of the darkness within ourselves. Jesus reveals himself to Mary in the gentleness and kindness of speaking her name. Mary, who even though by all accounts the adventure they all thought was happening with Jesus is over, hasn’t given up on the love that she has for Jesus. She is still hungry.

I’m going to come back to that question: are you hungry?

If you are, even in only a tiny way, here is my challenge to you: ask God to feed you. Ask to be fed. It is why Jesus died, and why he rose from the dead. Ask for our church whanau together to be fed. Ask for the deepest yearnings of your heart because if God can come back to life, to live in us, to change and transform billions across the world, he can do it for you, for us.

What I was struck by as I was reading again through the gospels this week is that when people who are hungry interact with Jesus, they don’t usually even ask a polite question – um, Jesus, would you mind terribly healing my child / making me see / curing my skin? They commandJesus:

· Save us Lord! We are about to die.

· Take pity on us, Son of David.

· If it’s really you, order me to come out on the water.

· Explain this to us.

· If you want to, you can make me clean.

· Don’t you care that we are about to die?

· Even Simon Peter: Go away from me, Lord.

This week I was reminded of the story of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar sitting at the side of the road amongst the crowds as Jesus walked past. His hunger was for healing of sight and ultimately healing of his place and mana in his community. Amongst all the legs and dust around him at the side of the road he had a choice – he could shout at the top of his lungs and get Jesus’ attention, or he could think ‘Jesus might find me again at some point and heal me then.’ He chose option 1: to bellow as loud as he could.

This reminds me that it’s OK to ask Jesus to fill the spaces within our lives that are hungry. In fact, it’s our imperative to make the move. God will never force us. The gentle invitation of the cross is what we are given.

So what is your question, or even command, to Jesus, today? Where are the places and spaces in your life where the stakes are highest? Maybe you feel like you’re losing hope – hope that relationships might get better; hope for a world that seems more and more broken; hope that our church might grow; hope that God is even real at all.

Can I encourage you this week to take some time over the next week to pick one gospel. Find all the times Jesus is asked a question, or commanded with a request. Notice for those who are hungry that the answers these people receive are almost always a version of ‘welcome home’. For Mary, meeting Jesus in the garden, her welcome home was simply hearing her name. This welcome home for each of us is ultimately why Jesus died and rose again.

If today, you notice that you are hungry, even just a tiny bit, for more of Jesus, I encourage you not to lose this moment. Please as we go into prayer and Eucharist do talk to one of the prayer team, or the people around you, or even after our service today to Richard or I. In that hunger, God is revealing himself to you and really is inviting you. Please do take up that invitation to be welcomed home.

Let me pray:

Prayers: envelope – what is your question / command to Jesus.