Love is an indefinable quality. We can describe it, yet can never capture its true essence. This can only be encountered through experience. What’s more, love is never static. It is either growing or dying. 

As a teenager I turned up at university with little idea as to what I wanted in life. No career aspirations and little motivation above personal enjoyment. It was to my great surprise that I encountered Jesus within just a few weeks. More surprising was my willingness to commit to following in His footsteps. 

The Covid-19 pandemic made us all conscious of our mortal fragility. It spotlights a deep, underlying concern that impacts all of society; health and wellbeing. This is reflected in the huge sums invested by drug companies right through to the pressure placed on GP surgeries as we prepare for the worst and hope for the best. However, we are far more than physical beings. There is within everyone of us a longing for meaning.

This week we shall explore spiritual formation, the heartbeat of discipleship. This is Waverley Abbey’s core mission: seeking to live every day with Jesus. It is a journey on which we deliberately and consciously open up our lives for a deeper connectedness with God.

Understanding and belief are different. Belief is the acceptance that something is true without proof. Belief is faith and offers understanding with legs on. Faith carries us somewhere, whilst understanding leaves us motionless. The first disciples understood Jesus as risen, they had tangible evidence, yet they needed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, born of obedience and prayer, to believe.

Grace is the remarkable gift we discover in Jesus. Peter, so confident in his faith, stumbled when denying Jesus at his arrest. Now, embarrassed by his betrayal, he returns to fishing, his hopes dashed, his spirit broken. However, the great news is that his friends stuck with him. We live in a time when many are aware of their fragility. 

Thomas is forever associated with doubt, when in fact he was full of belief. He did demand to place his finger in the wounds to establish this was really Jesus, but when he encountered Christ he immediately acknowledged him as Lord and God.

For a second time Jesus speaks peace over the disciples. When something is repeated in scripture, it is a clear assurance of its truth. We see this throughout the psalms, and it strengthens faith. This peace is confirmed by the gift of the Holy Spirit. This third person of the Trinity, who is God, resides within us to lead us into all truth.

When confronted by our fear we often find comfort in the companionship of friends. We are made for relationships, and perhaps the hardest test to endure is being robbed of those we love and trust. Last October, having lived separated from her family for seven months, my mum succumbed to her 95 years and died. I am left wondering, if normal visitation had been allowed whether she might have continued longer?

It’s said that ‘seeing is believing’. The inexplicable must be seen for what others say can’t be trusted. We need tangible proof. Yet here Peter and John reach the tomb and believe on the basis of what they can’t see, Jesus’ body. There is the evidence of the carefully folded shroud, but it required faith to accept Jesus is risen.