In order to keep track of the news, I subscribe to The Week, which claims to report “all you need to know about everything that matters”! It’s a magazine that provides a snapshot of all the main stories and what the newspaper reporters said about them.  It also has a lighter side, for example a column headed, It must be true, I read it in the tabloids. And in last week’s It wasn’t all bad column, I read:

“The latest gang to explode onto the mean streets
of South London carries not guns, or knives - but plants.
The 500-strong group, which calls itself the Guerrilla
Gardeners, congregates at night, armed with trowels
and bags of mulch, and under the cover of darkness,
plants shrubs and flowers in neglected patches of
Council soil. “It’s anarchic but in a nice way,” said
one member who’d recently joined the movement.”

Acts of kindness, done in secret; not showy; not merited or deserved; not for glory (save God’s), but purely and simply for the good of the other are catching. So discovered a writer by the name of Anne Herbert. Through doodling on a placemat in a Californian restaurant she accidentally started a movement called “practicing random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty”. A man sitting nearby thought it was a wonderful concept and copied it on to his own placement. And suddenly people all over were copying the phrase down and doing what it suggests. Those who commit random acts of kindness do things like take a beautiful plant into a police station to brighten up the place; or let the person in the supermarket queue go in front of them; or smile at a stressed-out bank clerk.

According to Anne Herbert some of the things that have been done by those who have caught the spirit of practicing random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty include:

- shovelling the snow from a neighbour’s pathway, when no one was looking

- or writing to an old school teacher to let him know what a difference he’d made to her life.

The idea is: “Anything you think there should be more of, do it randomly. Kindness can build on itself as much as violence can.”

As Easter people, this is partly what our Christian faith is about - doing acts of kindness, committing acts of beauty - irrespective of the condition of those we seek to help, without questioning whether or not they have deserved or earned our affection, time or our care. In the same way that God loves us unconditionally, our acts for others should set no conditions.

After the long readings of the passion leading up to Easter, today’s Bible readings are almost rudely abrupt. But they focus us on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in a very sharp and precise way. In the brief space of these five verses from John’s Gospel (Jn 20.19-23), we have the very heart of our Christian faith. Right here, John describes the birth of the church and its reason for being: and when I say ‘church’, I mean Christian people gathered together - ourselves - not the building.  Right here, John describes

This is an interesting point, because it reminds us that (unlike Luke and Acts) John does not wait until Pentecost for the gift of the Holy Spirit!  Rather, on the first Easter evening, Jesus appears to his disciples and gifts them with the promised Holy Spirit.

The gift of the Spirit is more than the resurrection: it is empowerment for the future. The early church had no difficulty believing in the resurrection, but the gift of the Spirit gave them more. Jesus’ commission to those early disciples is unparalleled anywhere else in scripture. His words could not be more direct: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

God sent Jesus. Jesus sends his disciples. John’s report of this post-resurrection appearance is very precise. He leaves us in no doubt that as believing readers, we are also sent, we have been given a commission, we have been given a power and an authority to go out as Jesus went out, to do good to others without judgement or criticism, the power to act with confidence and strength knowing that God stands behind us, and the authority and the privilege to actually make a difference in the lives of others, a difference that counts - now - and forever. And that is mission! The manner of our “sentness” - our mission, as a church and as individuals, is between ourselves and God to work out: that is to say, He does and will call us and equip us in many and varied ways. But the fact is, when we believe in the risen Christ, we are “sent” in the power of the Holy Spirit and on God’s authority.

Today’s readings form and authorise community. They invite us to reflect not upon the miracle of the resurrection itself, but upon the community that is the astonishing outcome of that miracle. I say ‘astonishing’ because the Gospel reading shows Jesus coming unexpectedly into the company of the bewildered, frightened disciples. In that moment of fear, they are no community. They have lost every dimension of community - except their shared sense of fear, which is no basis for community. This is hardly surprising, given the preceding events. Little wonder they were meeting together behind locked doors for fear of the Jews: for all they knew, they were next. Then the intrusion of Jesus into that fearful space re-gathers and re-constitutes this community. Fear is banished. Three times the newly alive Jesus says, “Peace”. Peace, not as the world understands the word. Peace that is much more than a greeting. This peace is reassuring; it summons a new life of “belief”, a life of faithful, obedient living.

Earlier in John’s Gospel [15.9b & 11] Jesus had connected joy with the promise of seeing him again. In this sense, it is similar to the joy we experience when a dear friend returns after a long absence. But Jesus makes it clear that joy is more than that. It is ‘his own joy’, flowing from the love he shares with his heavenly Father and leading to completion.

‘Remain in my love... he says ... so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.’

Then the reading from Acts is affirmation of the joy, power and well-being that this first Christian community receives when, by the grace and gifts of God, it is freed from fear. We are told, “the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul”, they shared everything they had with one another and “there was not a needy person among them”. This is the ideal to which we are called.

Walking in the light of Christ is to practice kindness, forgiveness and love, such as is demonstrated in this first Christian community in the book of Acts.  The challenge for us to live as true Easter people will be to strive for:

- a community in which every person is full of joy and hope

- a community in which every person shares with one another and gives praise to God for His love and His goodness

- a community in which every person is able to witness to the power of the Risen Christ in their own lives and to bring others into relationship with him

- a community of people who are of one mind and of one heart.

My prayer is for this church - with other Churches Together in Epping and District - to become such a community - a fellowship - that is full of God’s blessings, because it is full of God’s Spirit - because it is full of faith in Christ and what it means to live in the power of his Resurrection.  We have been commissioned to do acts of kindness, forgiveness and love wherever God has placed us in His kingdom.

In the context of mission, a question that often arises is: is there a difference between mission and social work or welfare?  (It is a question that I was asked when I worked for The Mission to Seafarers, and I used to say it was a bit of both.)  Mother Teresa was asked it of her work in the streets of Calcutta. Her response was:

“Non-Christians and Christians both do social work, but non-Christians do it for something, while we do it for someone. This accounts for the respect, the love and devotion - because we do it for God. That is why we try to do it as beautifully as possible. We are in continual contact with Christ in his work, just as we are in contact with him at mass and in the blessed sacrament. There, Jesus has the appearance of bread. But in the world of misery, in the torn bodies, in the children, it is the same Christ that we see, that we touch.”

The first Christian community was so dynamic, so loving, so sharing, so united, because it lived wholeheartedly for the Risen Christ.

The first believers knew with every fibre of their being that God’s love conquered all - even death itself - and they were eager to share that love with others - that they might know the fullness of life and its eternal nature: the gifts of peace, love and joy that await all who truly believe in Christ Jesus; won for us all at such cost upon the Cross.

When we get it right - when we manage to live in community as we are called to do - we demonstrate God’s kingdom values. I would rather think of our Christian acts of kindness and forgiveness and love and beauty, not as random or senseless, but rather as spontaneous - done out of our love for God and because He loves us.

So going back to Anne Herbert’s idea about random acts of kindness, I vote we start a new movement!  (Or should I say, resurrect an old one?!)

Our strap-line will be:

“Practicing spontaneous acts of kindness and love”

and our motto:

“Anything you think there should be more of, do it spontaneously out of love for God, and to show His love to others.  God’s love multiplies.”

Whether you choose to become a Guerrilla Gardener or through an act of love that is less bold, as Easter people, God will use you to bear fruit for His kingdom.

Through you - through me - the Risen Christ will bless those we meet along the way with the message of peace, joy, forgiveness, fellowship and eternal life through faith in Him, with thanksgiving.

Amen.