Easter Day –‘Promised Day’
Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!
Halleluiah!
May Graham and I wish you Easter joy, peace and hope. May we all be
reminded of the joy of this day, the peace which Jesus brought and only he can
give and the hope he brings to lives, for that hope has the power to sustain us
through this troubled time and always.
Love and Easter Blessings
Caryl and Graham
Early on the first day of the
week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the
stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter
and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the
Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and
the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other
disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at
the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along
behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying
there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth
was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other
disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and
believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise
from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Now Mary stood outside the tomb
crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in
white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the
foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are
you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where
they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there,
but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you
crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said,
“Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will
get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in
Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me,
for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell
them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went to the
disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had
said these things to her.
This is the ‘Promised Day’ after the despair of Good Friday and Holy
Saturday the Resurrection brings us hope once more – hope is reborn in the
world with the Risen Christ.
Mary on her way to the tomb is in despair, that despair is deepened
when she sees the empty tomb, but her despair turns to hope when she sees her
Lord.
The disciples hiding in despair, have that despair deepened when they
see the empty tomb and think Jesus’ body has been stolen – tomb raiding was
after all an all too common practice in those days - but their despair turns to
hope when Mary tells them she has seen the Lord.
These first followers of Jesus on this day sensed that in some mysterious
and powerful way the living Christ was still with them and their hope was
restored. They were emboldened by this
experience and it inspired them to go out and transform the world.
On
this day of Resurrection it is right that we should take time to reflect, to pause,
to gaze, to wonder and to marvel on the Easter Story. Yet we mustn’t stay
overlong with it for the truth of the story is that Jesus is not there – as
Mark tells us He has gone before us to Galilee.
If
Easter is to mean anything today we must discover ways of following Jesus into
the world, with all its tragedy and sorrow.
The resurrection is not a happy ending to a sad story of long ago. It is rather the beginning of a new adventure
in which we are all invited to participate.
An
adventure which will be exciting and energising, maybe even a little disruptive
to our settled lives, as we are called to embrace a spirit of compassion,
forgiveness and peace not our own and to resist the forces of self-centredness
and death that destroy the lives of so many.
Our
hope was born on Easter Sunday and it contains the power to transform the
world.
Reflection (Stages on the Way)
It was on the Sunday that he pulled the corn.
They arrived with flowers, shuffling through the dawn as the dawn
snuffed out the last candles of night. Their faces betrayed their belief that
yesterday would always be better than tomorrow, despite what he said. He would
not say it again, so why bother to believe him on that score?
And the flowers, they too were silent witnesses to disbelief. Like the
grass, they were cut to be dried to death, cut off from the root, the bulb, the
source of life. He was the flower they cherished, the flower now perished whose
fate the lilies of the field, now tight in hand, would re-enact.
So when they passed the crouched figure at the edge of the road, they
thought little of him, scarcely seeing his form through their tears.
Had they looked even a little, they would have seen a man letting grain
fall through his fingers, dropping to the earth to die and rise again.
It was on the Sunday that he pulled the corn.
Prayer
Risen
Lord Jesus,
The
darkness and despair has passed and what was promised has come, you have risen
in love and in glory and we rejoice in your resurrection as those who have not
seen and yet believe. At this time of pandemic may those of us who feel in
darkness know the light of your presence; those of us who are fearful know the
touch of your hand; those of us in despair know that your hope can release
those fears. Amen.
Symbolic Action
Thank you to Cynthia who has restored our symbol of hope to our
community and the world by decorating our Easter Cross as we usually do on
Easter Day. Here is a picture of it taken this morning a powerful symbol of
Resurrection bringing hope to all who see it, particularly at this time of great
anxiety, fear and despair.
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