Introduction

This talk was given at St. Peter’s Church on May 11, 2025. Revd. Mark Fletcher explores new creation in Christ, drawing from Ephesians 2:1-10 and CS Lewis’s Narnia to demonstrate how God’s grace transforms believers from spiritual death to resurrection life. He challenges listeners to live as transformed resurrection communities, courageously bearing witness to Christ’s life-changing, death-defeating power in everyday circumstances.

My favourite book when I was growing up was a book by CS Lewis called The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I loved it. I read it so many times, but then I think I probably went for many years without reading it, and when I came back to it, I discovered that it had a depth to it that I don’t think I fully understood as a child, and it is a wonderful story.

It is full of joy, but it is also a kind of rich theological reflection on life, on the state of the world, and on the cross and the resurrection. It speaks a deeper magic that undoes the power of death and evil. In this Easter season, we speak about the power of the resurrection. We speak of it as an event which turned the course of history, but it is also a personal event which can change the course of our lives and address our deepest needs.

At Easter, we declare death is swallowed up in victory. Where, oh death, is your sting? And that promise of Christianity is wonderful. But of course, our society is in absolute denial about death. And so the most foundational promise of Christianity is addressing a need that our society would rather avoid facing.

We don’t want to hear about it. We are uncomfortable even talking about it. But it can’t be avoided. You know, the quote by Benjamin Franklin who said, “in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” And that has not deterred a good many people from trying to dodge one or the other, or both.

I don’t know if you know, Google have established a biotech company called Calico, which is a lovely name for a company until you discover it’s actually shorthand for the California Life Company and its goal to address the problem of death. By contrast, the scriptures have a habit of often reminding us of our mortality.

Do you remember that moment at Ash Wednesday where we say to one another, “from dust you came and to dust you will return”? We cannot avoid this foundational reality of what it means to be human. It has to shape our lives. It is worth remembering, actually, though, that death was never intended to be part of God’s plan for us. It’s an aberration.

Death only comes into the story in Genesis chapter three as a result of human beings’ rejection of God. That’s why it seems so wrong. Do you know what the shortest verse in the Bible is? “Jesus wept.” And it’s at the graveside of a beloved friend. And even Jesus, who has the power to overcome death, is so angered, so grieved at death.

Death is an aberration. It was never intended to be part of the plan. So what is the Bible’s diagnosis of what is wrong with the world? Well, as Paul writes in this majestic epistle to the Ephesians, verse one: “as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world.”

The Bible says there are two forces at work in this world: sin and death. And all of the corruption and brokenness, all of the selfishness and greed and violence of this world, all of the decay like that eternal winter of Narnia, are caused by those two things. We cannot escape their effects, and this is not just some of us.

This isn’t pointing the finger. This is the human condition. As verse three says, “all of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature.” And we live with the consequences of that. The picture painted by scripture is that the judgment of God is expressed in him letting us have our own way and allowing us to see the consequences of our actions.

God says, “have it your way.” And the result is all of the bitterness and anger, the betrayal, the hatred, the violence, and the division of this world. But if that’s the diagnosis, what’s the cure? Is there any hope? We love to think that we could fix this. That’s what human beings do. But our attempts at doing better, our attempts at morality, are never really any more than a sticking plaster.

Political reform or scientific advances are wonderful things, but they cannot address this foundational problem. Some issues are too great, even for Google to answer. As Albert Einstein said, “we cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” No, there is a solution, but it is an extraordinary one.

The solution is the intervention of God. Because the story of the Bible is not the story of the judgment of God, but the story of his mercy. That lovely verse four: “because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.” The death of Jesus is the ransom that sets us free from our slavery to sin.

The resurrection of Christ breaks the power of death. The power of sin and death is broken at the cross. And so if we are in Christ, if we are Christian, then we too can experience the power of the resurrection, not just at the end of our lives, but starting now. Verse five says “God made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.”

Do you see that? It’s present tense, not future. Because of Jesus, you no longer need to follow the ways of this world. By faith in Christ, the power of sin and death can be overcome. By his spirit we are being changed into his likeness from glory to glory. “For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith and this not from yourselves. It is the gift of God.”

You see, the intervention of God is grace. It is the gift of God. Great 17th century theologian, Jonathan Edwards, once said, “grace is but glory begun, and glory is grace perfected.” Can you hear what he’s saying? That this thing that we experience in the here and now, the power of the resurrection of Christ transforming our lives, is a little taste of eternity. In the resurrection, eternity has begun. Christ is the first fruits of the new creation. And the moment that you choose to be part of that, the moment you choose to be Christian, that power goes to work in you and our calling.

Our calling is to live out that eternity in this world, to bring eternity to bear on this broken world. Verse 10: “For we are God’s handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” In Christ we are commissioned to go to the ends of the earth and around the corner to declare the good news. We commit ourselves to living in the light of eternity. We believe that in Christ change can come even in the darkest circumstances, and we want to see the power of the resurrection at work in ourselves and our lives, in our families, in our relationships, in our churches, and in our communities, and in our nation and in our world.

Communities like this are resurrection communities, bearing witness to the life-changing, death-defeating power of Christ. Do you remember at the end of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe that the children tumble back out of the wardrobe back into kind of ordinary life once more and they have to go back to everyday things – to school and to exams and to uniforms – but of course they are never the same again.

They are never the same because they have glimpsed eternity. They have a new dignity, a new courage. There’s a lovely line that says, “once a king and queen of Narnia, always a king and queen of Narnia.” Once a son or daughter of God, always a son or daughter of God. And so they stand taller. They are less afraid.

They have hope, even in the darkest times, and though sometimes they would lose sight of Narnia, they never forget it. So because of Christ, because of Easter, because of the resurrection, do not be afraid of anything. For Christ has overcome. And though trials will come, we look them in the face and say, “I will trust in him who has conquered death.”

So invest in Google startups if you like, but my suspicion is they will only ever extend the lives of the already very rich. But if you invest in the kingdom of God, not just your life, but the whole of creation, will experience the power of resurrection. Life is and always was a gift from God to be received with joy.

He says, “trust in me and I will give you life and life in all its fullness in this world and in the next.” So let’s be still for a moment. And hear that invitation, which stands for each of us to be part of this, to bend our wills, to bow our knees and our hearts, and to seek first the kingdom of God.

Amen.