Easter Message

 

New life is breaking out everywhere! It is of course spring – at last. But I am not just thinking of that. I am thinking of how a man who lived like us and died like us was seen again by his friends fully alive in a new sort of way. How that gave them hope that the darkness of sin and death were not the last word on life. How they found a new way of living for now, and a trust that this life was theirs for ever, in a way that even death could not take away. How they set off to spread that life right through the world. How it reached these shores. And how men and women and children in every corner of our counties will be celebrating it this Easter Day.

I have been saying prayers these last weeks for lots of people I don’t know, who have poured out their hearts on the “Say One for Me” website. This is when Easter becomes our own reality. Not every relationship will be put right or illness cured, but because of Easter we can say with confidence that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And in the strength of that love we can give love to others, and change the world.

So our task as an Easter people is simply to take this Easter life out into every corner of our communities, and give it away. Give it away in the smile and good morning to someone we meet in the street that turns co-existence into community. Give it away in the conversation with a shop assistant that turns finance into friendship. Give it away in the gift to a good cause that turns our bank balance into their blessing. Give it away in the letting go of some long-held grudge that turns resentment into reconciliation.

So shake off the old, put on the new; once again choose Christ, and choose life.

I wish you a joyful Easter!

+ David