Dear Friends,
Happy Easter to you all! I hope you are enjoying the longer days
and the warmth of the Spring sunshine.
This week, as part of my online teaching commitment, I was in
conversation with some ministerial colleagues. Holy Week is a
busy time: one friend had eleven services and a wedding. I
haven’t had many extra services, but I have had the teaching to
do, and a trip to Birmingham as follow-up from the recent
Assessment Conference. Not surprisingly, many of us were
planning to take some leave after Easter. Some were going to
exotic places; Jamie and I are taking the dog to a cottage near
Skegness for some walks in the bracing air. We all need a
break.
Perhaps because of this extra activity, it’s easy to slip into
thinking of Easter Day as an ending – Jesus is alive! All is well!
But of course Easter is only the beginning. For the disciples, the
resurrection begins an intensive seven-week period as they
meet the risen Jesus and expand their understanding. They
grow in courage and purpose until, on the Day of Pentecost,
they are ready to receive the Holy Spirit, poured out onto them
and transforming them into apostles and preachers. That, in
turn, is the beginning of the early church, and the roots of all
that we now inherit.
In the secular world, Easter is also a beginning, the first of a
string of holidays: Easter weekend itself, the usual May Day and
Spring Bank Holidays (1 st and 29 th May), and this year the extra
Bank Holiday on 8 th May for the King’s Coronation. After a long
and, for many people, very cold winter, it’s good to have
something to look forward to.
The Coronation Holiday could be more than just another day
off. King Charles is encouraging everyone to use this extra day
as an opportunity to volunteer, to do something good for the
community. His hope is that this will bring people together, and
perhaps rekindle some of the kindness we saw during the
pandemic. If it works, it could have a transforming effect on
local neighbourhoods and on the country.
Transformation is not easy. Making a sustained difference to
communities takes a lot more than one day of volunteering,
requiring many groups and authorities to work together. The
disciples might well have given up and gone back to their day
jobs, not wanting to take on the extra responsibility. It was
something about the time they had spent with Jesus that
compelled them to go forward, no matter how costly it could
prove to be.
The Christian life is one of transformation. We are offered new
life in Christ, and called to grow into his likeness. Sometimes
that means facing uncomfortable truths about ourselves. But if
we ever feel that it’s all too daunting, let’s remember the last
commandment of Jesus: love one another. We are here to
support one another in faith, and to be supported always by the
everlasting love of God.
As we walk on in our post-Easter lives, may we know God’s
love, calling us to new life in all we do.
Every blessing,
