In readiness for easter Morning

In readiness for Easter Morning

I’m not good at doing the whole thought for the day, though I have done some radio work in the past. 

Finding that balance of being honest and yet giving a word of hope is not easy. 

On my desk for all the years I have lived here in Sheffield is a pottery tile given to me when I left Wolstanton. 

The Lord will be with you wherever you go Joshua 1:9 

Mind you I prefer the cup by one of the youngsters when I left which reads 

Dear God please look after Mark as he makes his Journey to a new life!

Well I’m learning afresh to know what it means for God to be with me / us in this crisis and yes please look after me and all those I know.

When I lived in Staffordshire (the potteries) one of our churches had its own graveyard. My colleague invited her congregation to meet her there early on Easter Day. When they gathered she was nowhere to be seen. Then she suddenly appeared from behind a gravestone with the question ‘What are you doing looking for the living among the dead?’ ‘He is not here He has risen’. Well I can't be meeting anyone tomorrow morning but do send me your photos of the sunrise if you are up at that time.

Well yes its been one of the strangest Holy Week’s I have ever experienced. Normally the week in the past has been filled with busyness of extra services, making extra effort to make them as meaningful as possible. Not this time. 

I recall all those ‘Processions of witness’ over the years. Following the cross in St Ives Cambridgeshire where each church joined in as we made our way from church to church before finally entering the market place. Pushing Anna as a young child in her buggy we would make our way and folks would stop and stare in those days. As the years have gone by it seems harder to get such events organised and people to participate. Shops remain open, people go to work and you are lucky to get a glance as you walk in silence behind the cross. Perhaps next year the freedom and chance to walk together will be grasped by more people. We trust the 2 metre rule will be gone or boy will it be a long procession!

Then there have been the numerous Maundy Thursday meals. Sometimes they were shared with other churches, sometimes not. Yet always the moment when the silence fills the space and people drift away back to their homes in the dark. There is always something very profound as a minister to wait on others. To clear up everything when people have gone, and how difficult it is for some people to allow you to do that for them.  Perhaps next year more people will come to eat, drink and talk together than ever before. Grasping that freedom to be in each others company, and maybe the soup will run out !

Then of course there have been the various wooden crosses on Easter Day transformed with colour as we celebrate the good news that Christ is Risen - He is Risen indeed. Whether it was St Ives Cambridgeshire, Highlands in Leigh on Sea, Essex, Wolstanton in Staffordshire or Sheffield. The ritual of transformation has stayed the course of time. That is  of course the beauty and wonder of rituals. Their ability to give us the tools to express our faith often when words cannot be found. 

In these strange times I’d be lying to say I’m not fearful. To leave the house and get the shopping or check the church buildings or take daily exercise or whatever. It can feel like you are taking a calculated risk. Hoping not to come into contact with the virus. Yet you have to try and find a way to live in the face of that fear. So no need to be in denial. You can fear and still live life. I think Jesus knew fear but he embraced it as he went to the cross. 

So as I sit writing on this Holy Saturday to send later tonight I also recall the Easter Vigils, often staying up all night with youth groups. Then delivering worship the next day just slightly dazed from utter tiredness. Now I regret none of them.

However I am struck by a  couple of things.

Firstly the capacity of the Christian church to embrace the power of the web, be it facebook, YouTube, Zoom, Whats app etc to seek to give a sense of being Christ's community. That we might still be able to worship , to pray to Hope, to be Church. This is all good and it will continue for sometime to come.

Secondly I want to say however its just not the same. Being community means seeing people. Being with people. Face to face. When Jesus called people into discipleship he called them into a community. You didn’t get to chose who you would be alongside. They become your brothers and sisters by the fact Jesus called them into the community. They are the adopted sons and daughters of God. So when we begin to resume our life together physically, and we will, you might rightly be cautious. Worried  about shaking hands or getting too close. I guess to start with we must take that as the norm. But oh what a smile you can give to your brother and sister to show your delight at their presence. Perhaps this time of isolation will enable us to never forget at different stages of our life people can no longer come along to worship in a building. They can so easily become isolated and forgotten. Lets make a renewed effort to visit them, to take communion to them, to talk and listen with them, to be in communion with them.

so my own Easter blessing

Creator God

you love your creation.

With you

help us

to love it back to health.

Jesus Christ 

in whose footsteps we follow

to the cross and beyond.

Help us to face our fears

and gift us your peace

that we might live in peace.

Holy Spirit

whose power to comfort

is beyond all words,

move across the chaos of our world

and bring renewed Life.

God, 

Creator, Son and Spirit

Bless 

our world and our lives

with your healing

your wholeness 

this Easter.

Amen

© Mark Goodhand Easter 2020