Happy Easter!!!
Alleluia Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed Alleluia!
I trust you have a great Easter with family and friends. The importance of rest, public holidays and cherishing people and places that are important to you can never be stressed too much. Neither too, can the realities of the Christian faith. The resurrection of Christ effects everyone and everything, it is not just a private set of opinions that govern a particular set of people that happen to form in club like ways around a church building. The Christian faith that is celebrated at Easter time is timeless truth, a public truth and an all-encompassing truth. The defeat of death means not just that the end of the road is fixed, but that all journeys along all roads of life are transformed with divine life. Only in that sense can Easter be said to be happy. We celebrate the life that Christ has for us each day not just at the end of our days.
One of the saddest things that was said to me recently in a Christian meeting was by someone who had travelled and interviewed a number of people working in churches. They discerned that most people had felt they had wasted their time! Such a depressing outlook on life might be the result of a long, tiring slog or little or no rewards or returns, but it also evidences a facing and a living of the realities of the Christian faith. If Christ has been raised, and we work with him and for him, then nothing can ever be in vain or a waste of time. We don’t just have light at the end of the tunnel we have a light to lighten our paths.
Christ is Risen is not just a hymn, chorus, song or creed - it is a fact which should and can permutate every aspect of life. You can tell when it is present and sadly when not! May we be those who are able to say Happy Easter because this is our experience. Christ is Risen and He is Risen for you!
Yours in Him,
The Revd Canon Mark Brown