Rambling Rector

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From the Rambling Rector.

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Easter Again!

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Easter is upon us and it is a time of hope, the weather is improving, the days are getting longer and we all have a spring in our step. Yet on the face of it, Easter is all about Jesus being killed, anything but a happy event.

 

The date of Easter changes every year which confuses a lot of people. Good Friday and Easter Monday are bank holidays with variable dates which affects things like school holidays. The date of Easter was decided in the year 325AD at the first world council of churches in Nicaea. This was the same council that produced the Nicene Creed, a unified statement of what Christians believe which we still say in church every Sunday. The council decided on a unified, variable date, stating that Easter would be the “first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox.” The Eastern Orthodox and the Western Churches both follow this rule, but come up with different results due to using different calendars, Julian and Gregorian. These calendars have different dates for the full moon and the vernal equinox. If you would like to know more about this complex difference, it is probably best to do some research of your own as space does not permit, and the Rambling Rector would prefer to focus on the events of Easter rather than the date.

 

At its heart, the Easter story is about God’s love for all human beings. Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice when he was executed on a cross and rose again. This he did intentionally. During the Easter story, Jesus moves through suffering, sacrifice, and apparent defeat to  new life. This gives us hope and an example to live by. It highlights a lifestyle that is dedicated to the well being of all, of putting other people's interests above our own. That is why Jesus is often referred to as the servant king. That is why the Easter story is the central Christian proclamation that out of darkness comes redemption, and that death does not have the final word, even though the gruesome events of Easter are not normally the sort of events that are celebrated. The events leading up to Easter Sunday centre on the false arrest, rigged trial and execution of the person that we revere as being God. Good Friday often feels anything but good, other than in retrospect when we realise its purpose and that the resurrection follows. Jesus rising from the dead is the Good News showing us that there is life after death and is a fundamental part of why Jesus became a human being.

 

This death on the cross provides the path for our forgiveness of sin. When we do something that is not loving to somebody else, we call that sin and sin is wrong. Jesus reduced all the rules that existed in his time down to two – Love God and Love Neighbour, so short yet very difficult to do. In fact so difficult that nobody in history has succeeded. Acknowledging that we get things wrong is a means of being forgiven and that is something we do in church every Sunday, usually near the beginning of the service as it puts us in a right relationship with God and provides a reason to celebrate and worship.

 

‘Every Saint has a past and every sinner has a future’ is a saying attributed to Oscar Wilde. This captures something deeply humane and very Christian in tone because it reminds us that nobody is fixed in their worst moment, and nobody is disqualified from becoming better. The people we admire most—spiritually, morally, or personally—didn’t start perfect. They struggled, failed, learned, and changed as we all do. Grace, forgiveness, and transformation are always possible. 

That is why every time the Rambling Rector stands at the altar he says “at the Lord’s table all are welcome.” So if you feel that you are not worthy, come to meet Jesus, you may well be surprised at the welcome you receive.

Bring your heartache, bring your tears, bring your worries, stress and fears.

Bring your troubles, hurt and care, bring your doubt, dismay, despair.

Bring your weakness, bring your shame, bring your faults and sense of blame.

Bring your aching deep inside, all the emptiness you hide.

Bring your all, lay bare your soul, Christ is here to make you whole.

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Happy Easter.

Rev Chris

 

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