I’ve often been a bit puzzled by the fact that I enjoy Holy Week more than Easter. After all, Easter is the time of celebration. So I’ve given it some serious thought this year. I really like the Easter stories. There’s Mary in the garden, with Jesus saying her name, and in that instant, she recognises him. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus recognising him in the breaking of bread, and Thomas at first doubting, but then declaring to Jesus “My Lord and my God”. Then there’s the wonderful scene on the beach where Jesus is cooking fish over a fire and says “Come and have breakfast” before having a private word with Peter and restoring their relationship. All those are beautiful stories. So, what don’t I connect with? I’ve come to the conclusion it’s the hymns. Where do you find any of those stories in our hymnbooks? For some reason the Easter hymns talk a lot about triumph and victory, but not a lot about our personal relationship with God. An exception is “Now the green blade riseth”. The last verse is particularly lovely:
When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Jesus’ touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.
The whole hymn is based on the words of Jesus “I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24). It is no coincidence that we celebrate Easter in the spring, the time when our gardens spring into life and warmth and light return. The message of Easter is that the pain and darkness are part of the plan. You cannot have the resurrection without the cross. Paul writes “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope”. (Romans 4 5:3-4). Hope without suffering is mere optimism. It has never been tested and has no depth.
Giving up things for Lent was a practice, in both senses of the word. At Easter we do it for real. We allow ourselves to die, to be raised up by meeting the Risen Lord, in preparation for the Pentecostal fire that will set our hearts ablaze. The promise is to us as individuals, and to our churches. We have known pain and suffering, and we are called to allow them to be transformed, along with our egos, our habits and our preferences to receive the new life in Christ.
A new chapter in the life of our parish is beginning as we welcome Rev Steve as our vicar. It is time to ask God to show us the way forward, to try new things, and maybe let some old things go. You cannot have new life without change. Let’s go forward in a spirit of openness and trust, an alleluia people, witnessing to hope in world torn by conflict, self-interest and indifference.
I finish with the words not of a hymn, but an anthem.
Risen Lord, give us a heart for simple things:
Love, laughter, bread, wine and dreams.
Fill us with green, growing hope.
Risen Lord, make us a people whose song is Alleluia,
Whose sign is peace and whose name is love.
Risen Lord, give us a heart for simple things
And to sing Alleluia.
Rev Sue
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 