Seeker

Easter Day 2020 feels like no other I have experienced. I am not yet feeling an overflow of Easter joy as I have experienced on some Easters in the past. I am feeling tired and conscious of others I know who are completley exhausted. I am feeling grief, some of it is my own and some is the grief of others who are recently bereaved. These feelings will pass, the long period of lockdown, of hiding away at home, will pass. There is hope. Once again, I am drawn to my favourite gospel account of the resurrection of Jesus, from John's gospel. I am struck again with the emotions which are there or implied - fear, bewilderment, grief. And then the slow dawn of recognition, that something not yet understood has changed. Death does not after all have the last word. Even through tears it is possible to see Jesus and know his prescence and love. "Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from t...

Experience teaches that death wins. Experience teaches that life is what you make it, so get what you can while you can, because it will be over soon. And the Easter message says, “ Really? How can you be so sure?” Death is real. We humans are not immortal. Jesus certainly died. Roman soldiers were efficient at barbaric executions. Jesus was buried, the tomb sealed and a guard set. There were eye-witnesses of this. There were no eye-witnesses of Jesus' resurrection. By that I mean no-one saw him rise from the dead. So why didn't the Christian story end with the crucifxion? Jesus'  disciples, who ran away in fear of their lives when Jesus was arrested, gave just one answer. They proclaimed that 3 days after Jesus was crucified, died and buried, God raised him to life. They preached it because they were witnesses, not that they saw it happen, but they saw an empty tomb, discarded grave-clothes, a stone rolled aside. And they met Jesus, in a garden,...

Easter Essentials by J. Barrie Shepherd Strip away the perfect lilies massed along, across the chancel steps, the bright reflecting sight and sound of brasses, and the white and gold of paraments and stoles. Set aside two thousand years, almost, of holy words and gestures, the jostling flotsam of an epic tidal surge of global custom and conviction, conquest too. Try to ignore this new spring sunlight, the steady warming of the soil, the waking birdsongs, green and early fragrant air. Reject all this and you are left with a report, some blood-stained bandages in a vacated garden cave, several startled temple guards, a gaggle of bewildered witnesses, and through all this a dawning hope, so strange yet sure it drives you to your trembling knees, groping for fresh syllables and sounds to shape this ever new, yet ancient cry. The Lord is risen...risen indeed! Image Credit: Flickr, CC License  

Here's a  new poem for Easter by J.Barrie Shepherd found here . Easter Essentials Strip away the perfect lilies massed along, across the chancel steps, the bright reflecting sight and sound of brasses, and the white and gold of paraments and stoles. Set aside two thousand years, almost, of holy words and gestures, the jostling flotsam of an epic tidal surge of global custom and conviction, conquest too. Try to ignore this new spring sunlight, the steady warming of the soil, the waking birdsongs, green and early fragrant air. Reject all this and you are left with a report, some blood-stained bandages in a vacated garden cave, several startled temple guards, a gaggle of bewildered witnesses, and through all this a dawning hope, so strange yet sure it drives you to your trembling knees, groping for fresh syllables and sounds to shape this ever new, yet ancient cry. The Lord is risen...risen indeed! Ima...

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Is there anything else to say today? Well, you could wonder what that means, or try it in a few other languages - see Christ is Risen . Or you could read the story of what happened early in the morning of that first Easter Day. Try John 20: 1 - 18 or Mark 16: 1 - 8 .  Or you could read the page about Jesus' Resurrection on the Christianity website. What does Easter mean to you? Image: Resurrection by Carol Von Canon, CC Licence