From the Vicar_April 2013
Posted by on Saturday, March 30, 2013 Under: Vicar's Monthly Letters
Dear Friends,
Last month I wrote about the Cross and what it means to me. But after Good Friday, comes Easter, and in the church we celebrate Easter for several weeks.
Sometimes it seems to me that in this country we cope better with suffering and pain than we do with joy. Suffering does bring out the best in us, the stiff upper lip and stoical endurance; we're good at gritting our teeth and coping. But JOY! That's a different matter! We can't quite trust ourselves to let go and experience joy: "It surely can't be true; something must go wrong. If it hasn't already, it will very soon. Don't dare let yourself go!" We saw that with the Olympics last year. "Something will go wrong; it always does". So when there were problems with G4S and security beforehand, "We always knew that things would go pear-shaped!". Only afterwards did people say, "Wasn't it great! And - surprisingly - things didn't go wrong!"
Easter is about joy coming out of pain. Jesus was stronger than death; he came back to life. That is the amazing claim at the heart of our Christian faith, and everything stands or falls on that. It means, then, that all the pain and grief and suffering that we experience - and there is a lot of it in this life, isn't there! - is not the last word. Stronger than that is joy and triumph and hope and life and light. Jesus went through death and came out on the other side, into victory and joy, and he wants us to do the same. Celebrating Easter, then, for Christians is a taste of the final joy we will have in the next life, and that will go on for ever!
It's a risk to believe, isn't it! All we can do is test it out as we go along. It's a risk, but what a reward: to be part of God's triumph, and to dare to let ourselves go out and experience JOY. No wonder people sometimes say to me, "I wish I could believe!"
Have a wonderful, joyful Easter!
Chris
Last month I wrote about the Cross and what it means to me. But after Good Friday, comes Easter, and in the church we celebrate Easter for several weeks.
Sometimes it seems to me that in this country we cope better with suffering and pain than we do with joy. Suffering does bring out the best in us, the stiff upper lip and stoical endurance; we're good at gritting our teeth and coping. But JOY! That's a different matter! We can't quite trust ourselves to let go and experience joy: "It surely can't be true; something must go wrong. If it hasn't already, it will very soon. Don't dare let yourself go!" We saw that with the Olympics last year. "Something will go wrong; it always does". So when there were problems with G4S and security beforehand, "We always knew that things would go pear-shaped!". Only afterwards did people say, "Wasn't it great! And - surprisingly - things didn't go wrong!"
Easter is about joy coming out of pain. Jesus was stronger than death; he came back to life. That is the amazing claim at the heart of our Christian faith, and everything stands or falls on that. It means, then, that all the pain and grief and suffering that we experience - and there is a lot of it in this life, isn't there! - is not the last word. Stronger than that is joy and triumph and hope and life and light. Jesus went through death and came out on the other side, into victory and joy, and he wants us to do the same. Celebrating Easter, then, for Christians is a taste of the final joy we will have in the next life, and that will go on for ever!
It's a risk to believe, isn't it! All we can do is test it out as we go along. It's a risk, but what a reward: to be part of God's triumph, and to dare to let ourselves go out and experience JOY. No wonder people sometimes say to me, "I wish I could believe!"
Have a wonderful, joyful Easter!
Chris
