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Moseley Chimes
March 2008
As I write this, we are still in the period of Lent, learning through our praying together, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, to become more like our Lord, whose passion road we tread with Him, very soon. As Christians, we call ourselves ‘People of the Resurrection’ but to enter into Easter hope with all its new life, we must first tread the path of suffering with Christ.
Immediately before the resurrection, the followers of Jesus were a disillusioned and disheartened people, without hope, all the buoyancy and expectations of a life following him, were dashed. But, then came the resurrection and the appearances of the risen Christ restoring their faith; giving hope and assurance for the future, in place of their fears.
So, where does this leave us as we are encouraged to tread the path of Christ’s passion? We must admit we do have an advantage, we know about the resurrection. But, the question surely must be asked, ‘Have we experienced this tremendous event in our own lives?’ Has our prayer life, both corporately and individually, during this Lent, enabled us to catch a glimpse (even in the midst of our own private ‘Passions’) of the light and yes, glory at the end? We all need to hold that Easter hope in our hearts. After all, every farmer, as he sows the seed, has hope, and so it is for all of us.
However, we do not come to risen life naturally. If this were so, we would have discovered it for ourselves long ago. Risen life is a gift, the gift of Jesus, who through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives desires to seek us out and bring us home.
The great encouragement of the first resurrection community, I find, was that it was made up of such an unpromising group of people. None of the first disciples came to that community, naturally, they responded to Christ’s call. Indeed, they were grief-stricken, fearful, theologically confused, full of doubts and prejudices, locking themselves away from the world, or planning to return to their old way of life. But that is the very place where Jesus came and met each one of them. Each encounter, each word, each action, different for each, yet so lovingly given. And in the words of the hymn, ‘His touch has still its ancient power’. It can be true for us.
This is the good news of resurrection, it is the work of God that through Christ he patiently pursues such improbable people, so He seeks us too.
For the power of the risen Christ is with us today, in his body the Church, so we can go forward as a community with hope, developing new ideas to match our day, planning with trust and hope for the future. And in our personal lives we can have confidence that God’s power is greater than all our fears and problems, we too then, can plan with hope.
I end with the words of St Peter —
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us a new birth to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.