This sermon was preached by Peter Salisbury at the 0930 healing communion service on 18th April 2010. The readings were Acts 9:1-6 and John 21:1-19. The title of the sermon is Redeeming our attitudes

Resurrection redeems everything
It's such an obvious thing to say, but unless Jesus is lord of all the world, unless he has redeemed EVERYTHING then he is not worthy of our worship.
Sometimes it's easier to include earthquake, fire and famine in that idea of everything, than our own attitudes and actions.
So as we focus on healing today, I'd like to ask you to think about healing your attitudes.
It may sound self-centred, but if we all healed our own attitudes it truly would change the world.
If we could heal our own attitudes then we could be agents for Jesus in redeeming EVERYTHING.
Tapes in the mind
We're all familiar with the idea that we have a tape playing in our mind, telling ourselves the same thing over and over.
For some people that tape says, “I am important, don't these people know who I am?”
For other people it says, “I am no good at what I do.”
or maybe, “I'm lonely”.
Whatever the tape says, it plays away in our heads, affects the way we relate to other people and traps us in certain patterns of living.
Getting old isn't much fun
One of the tapes I've heard a lot since moving to Lymington is, “Getting old is no fun”, or the more extreme, “There's NOTHING good about getting old.”
Of course the obvious reply is, “There's only one alternative.”
But it's such a destructive tape isn't it?
I understand a bit of the sentiment: for example the Easter Monday walk to Keyhaven might as well have been to the moon from my point of view.
When I was at university I completed a 55 mile sponsored walk with no stops, but now my limit for walking is about two miles before my joints start to lock up with the pain.
Getting old certainly has its drawbacks, but that's a long way from saying there's NOTHING good about growing old.
New tape
Long before Cognitive Behavioural Therapy came along, Christians have known the power of Christ to redeem our thinking.
The bible uses various images: rebirth, Christ within us, the fruits of the Spirit, putting on Christ, becoming a new creation, and of course the Damascus road for Paul.
Our own experience of Christ is that our lives can be redeemed, our attitudes can be healed.
We are given grace to love our enemies, to forgive those who persecute us, and to share what we have with others.
So as we approach the end of our lives we can ask for a fresh renewal in the Spirit.
As our physical ailments increase until finally they overwhelm us, what healing can we expect in our inner self, in our attitudes and character?
Healing of attitude
Start by looking for the things which you can do now which you never could before.
Perhaps you have time for reading or chatting to family on the phone, or praying.
But then also be realistic about your failing ability to be self-sufficient; it was only ever an illusion anyway.
Recognise your need for God.
And then: welcome to the kingdom of God, because Jesus said that you are in the kingdom when you know your need of God.
And the ultimate point of suffering is that it can bring us to KNOW our need of God.
Conclusion
As we grow older we learn that everything lets you down, even your own body.
We see shares plummet, cars rust, friends die, vicars come and go.
Either we moan, or we see that behind and beneath all the chaos and decay is the one unchanging God, still redeeming the world through Jesus, through us.
Either we moan, or we welcome a new freedom and peace in knowing our need of God.
And we can replace the moaning tape which says, “It's no fun getting old,” with St.Peter's declaration of commitment to Jesus, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”