Monthly Message (March 2008) - Easter

Dear Friends,

Easter, like spring, is early this year. And it occurs to me that spring, and the complicated web of influences and imbalances that are changing the earth’s environment in our time, are one of the most pressing areas in which we need to be telling and hearing again the Easter story.

But then there are many places in our world, issues or times in our lives, when we see how accumulating events contribute to difficult times …. And wonder if there can be resolution, healing or new beginnings.

The stories of Easter which we shall tell and live through this month are some of the most poignant stories of human folly and circumstance and the hand of possibility that God holds out to us.

The tension mounts around Jesus. He lives a life of welcome, makes room for the smallest and the weakest, recognises people not by their achievements or their purity but by their need and their kindness. He attracts curious crowds who are enthralled by his vision of God’s will for them and the world.

But in all the good news he is being and bringing there are some who see him as subversive, on the wrong side in his definition of right and wrong and dangerous.

On Palm Sunday … we’ll tell of the jubilant reception in Jerusalem, when the people thought that in Jesus riding a donkey they were welcoming all they’d ever hoped for or needed. Whereas others, predicting catastrophe, became convinced that he had to be stopped! The bitter sweet procession into Jerusalem echoes with foreboding.

On Maundy Thursday (20th.) we’ll sit reflectively around the communion table sharing the Last Supper with Jesus and his friends. In the bread broken and the wine shared we taste those solemn moments when Jesus chose to give himself as the peacemaker into the life and death clashes that lay ahead. Then, by candle light we’ll share the service of ‘Tenebrae’ – a word that means ‘shadows’. Telling the unfolding story of Jesus’ arrest that night the candles will be put out one by one and we accompany him into the darkness. In this very beautiful and poignant ritual of staying with Jesus … we recognise too the Jesus who stays with us into our darkest times.

Good Friday brings us to the cross … that harsh, painful, silent place where we are drawn to meet with the God who faces and lives in all our catastrophes with a peaceful compassionate love that does not give up. This is love that keeps giving even beyond the end we so fear.

On Easter Sunday the resurrection of Jesus is celebrated as a burst of life … a confident shout that God can give possibilities beyond our wildest hope …. An affirmation that new life is within the extraordinary gift of God who will not give up or be overcome in his love for us and the world.

To live through Easter we’re challenged to see and believe in the God who can bring about change and whose passion is for renewal. The God who from under the weights of the world brings out hopeful new beginnings for us, for the people we live with and for the planet.

Yours,

Tracey.

P.S – On Easter Sunday, as a sign of resurrection life, we will ‘dress the cross’ transforming the bare wood with flowers. You are invited to bring a flower from your garden and add it to the cross.