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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues.

Look up to Heaven

The empty tomb connected an earth-bound Mary with God’s heavenly view.

 

Context

It’s fair to say that the planned launch of Artemis II has come at an odd time. In a week which has seen more deadly rockets blasted around the Gulf region, it’s strange to note that there is this one rocket that has not been pointed at an earthly target but is instead being sent up and away from this world and into space. Artemis II is significant in the world of space exploration as it will take human beings back towards the moon. And whilst this time the rocket won’t land on the moon, this mission will be a vital part of the preparations for establishing a lunar base and human exploration of the planet.

The Artemis mission also has a few ground-breaking elements. The crew will include a woman and a person of colour and the flight may well take them further away from the earth than any other human has ever been, and it will give four more people a perspective of the world very few share.

But, whether you think this is a good or bad idea, think it represents value for money or is an expensive white elephant, love the idea of exploring the beyond or think we should stay focussed on the earth, it’s undeniably a moment. Blasting rockets into space is always dramatic. Even though we stay on the ground they somehow connect us to a world beyond ours. Whether you like spacecraft or loath them, they make us look up and think bigger. Space missions point us all to the heavens.

The Easter story is another, far more powerful and far more significant moment when we are invited to look up and think about worlds beyond our own and, rather than point to the heavens, this story points directly to heaven. When Mary discovers the empty tomb, she is confronted with the reality that the earth-bound Jesus she knew and loved is actually the King of the cosmos. The empty tomb is the ultimate moment of connection between this world and the next. And, unlike a space mission which allows only four astronauts to catch a glimpse of the universe, we are all invited to look up and catch a glimpse of the God of heaven and earth through his Son who died and rose again. Like those heading to the moon, Mary’s story changes our perspective forever and points us permanently heavenwards.

• What resonates for you in this story of heaven meeting earth?
• How does looking up to heaven impact your earthly life?
• When is it important for you in your faith to engage with the story of Jesus’ resurrection?

 

Prayer idea

Give everyone an outline image of the globe and a pen.

Invite people to write their own prayer on the image of world. Encourage people to think about Mary’s encounter with the God of heaven and earth and shape their prayer in the light of her story.

 

Fiona Dorman is a freelance leadership consultant and mediator.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

Who would have thought it possible? Not long before dark on Friday they had watched as his dead body was lifted from the Cross and put in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb. Then it was a waiting game. It should have been a prayerful sabbath but it had felt impossible to think positively about God in any way. How could a loving God have allowed an innocent man to endure all that Jesus had suffered? Their world had changed. The things that they held dear had been proved to be baseless.

Yet they were wrong. They had gone to the tomb and found it empty. The angel had told them to return to the others and tell them that Jesus was risen. The earthquake had shaken the earth but the action of God had upended their world. It had appeared that there had been a day in which God had been inactive. But God had been active, and in a way that nobody had really expected.

As we view the world this weekend it is easy to feel as desperate as the women did on that Saturday between Jesus’ death and resurrection. There is so much violence, conflict and suffering. Where is God? What is God doing? For us it is like that Saturday. We cannot see God’s activity but we must trust that God is at work. It may not be on Easter Sunday but one day we will find our world shaken up and transformed. There will be peace. There will be justice. There will be food and shelter for everyone. God is at work and at work for good. It may be quiet. It may be unseen. But the Easter message is that God will bring life and love for all people.

Stuart Wild is a Methodist minister in Lytham St Annes on the Lancashire coast.

 

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