Teleological ethics and Easter - a simple sermon.

The Easter story tells us a deep truth about life:
life with all it's ups and downs, joys and sorrows is hard to understand at the time; only in retrospect wth the benefit of hindsight can we understand the significance of things.
The disciples didn't grasp the necessity of the crucifixion. They did not understand why he washed their feet, nor why he shared bread and wine with them, nor why the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty on that first Easter morning. Only afterwards did the disciples finally get the drift of what had been going on and what Jesus had been doing.
God is at work in the Church, and in the world, but we can be slow to recognise him. Sometimes only a while later do we look back and have that eureka moment when we discover truth and understand the past.Small trivial events or conversations can have life-changing effects.
We don't know how what we say and do affects others. Hidden consequences are as common as visible obvious or even intended consequences. Making moral judgements solely on the basis of likely consequences is as flawed as making them on someone's intention with no regard to the intention. 'We may not know, we cannot tell...' goes the hymn, and awareness of our ignorance is a necessary precursor to learning and change.

As we celebrate the Easter message, we rejoice that Jesus is alive, that the tomb is empty, the grave clothes set aside, and Jesus was walking and talking among his friends he had come back to life again, and he does so today, not through physical presence, but through the sending of his Holy Spirit to set us free from our sins and all that imprisons us. The Spirit of Christ helps us recognise those attitudes and behaviours which limit and prevent us from growing in the Christian faith, those things which we have identified as we prepared for Easter throughout Lent, and the truth sets us free from them.