EASTER SUNDAY

The fact that I had no homily to prepare last week – it was Palm Sunday and we read the story of the Passion – meant that I had two whole weeks to reflect on what I wanted to say today. And yet, for several days, nothing happened. My mind was blank with not even the flicker of an idea passing through it. For those four days, Easter and the Resurrection meant nothing to me and, although, on reflection, it now makes sense to me, it was quite a disturbing experience at the time. But what I have come to realise is that those four days of blankness were what would be known in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius as a ‘tomb experience.’ This is an opportunity to enter in some way into the period of emptiness, uncertainty and waiting which lasted from the death of Jesus on Good Friday to his Resurrection on Easter Sunday morning and which, it could be argued, the modern world, with its almost religious atheism, is living through in a more extended way. It’s an important time, and I am glad it happened to me.

The turning point, however, the first stirrings of the Easter experience this year, came on the Thursday, the day of the G20 meeting in London. Given that our reflections during Lent have had as their constant background the current economic crisis, something which is central to what it means to live a christian life in the world today, this should not have surprised me. But it did. And it began early in the day when, in his introduction to the meeting, Gordon Brown spoke of how the world leaders, faced with poverty in developing countries, would ‘not walk by on the other side.’ Coming from a man whose father was a Church of Scotland minister this reference to the Gospel may not have been surprising. But it touched me quite deeply and I felt hope stir in me. And there was another one later when John Snow, wondering out loud about whether the meeting would achieve anything, asked if Lazarus would walk. ‘Umm’ I thought to myself, ‘that’s two references to the Gospel. And again I felt a flicker of hope inside me. But what really moved me came later in the day when the meeting was over.

Again, it began with Gordon Brown. As host, it was his job, when the discussions were over, to address the world’s press. And he began with these words. ‘This is the day when the world came together to fight the problems we all face.’ And on Newsnight, Jeremy Paxman, in an un characteristically positive note, began the programme with the words, ‘This is the night our children will look back on as the beginning of a new age.’ And while, to many who heard them, these words would have no special meaning, for me, and I’m sure for others, too, around the world, they were a powerful echo of the cry that accompanies the lighting of the Easter Candle; ‘This is the night when Jesus Christ rose triumphant from the dead.’ And when President Zarcosy of France began his remarks with the words, ‘Never did I magine that...’ I knew that the tomb experience was over and Easter day was dawning. He was speaking, of course, about the agreement to regulate the banks, but, like Caiphas when he said that it was fitting that one man should die for the people, he, along with Gordon Brown, was using words whose meaning went far beyond the immediate and obvious. They were, for those who had ears to hear, prophetic words about the possibility of resurrection and new life in the midst of the difficult situation the world currently faces.

But, I can hear some of you say, all that stuff is just words. You can’t believe a word politicians say. They are always promising things which come to nothing. To compare the G20 to Easter is, surely, naive in the extreme. There is no guarantee that anything will ever come out of it or that it will make the slightest difference to the way the world is run. It would be great if it did, but will it? To which my answer is: yes, you are right. The G20 may or may not make a difference. If people act on it, it will. But if we choose to carry on as if it had never happened, it won’t. And its precisely for that reason that it is so like Easter.

What we have to understand about the first Easter Sunday, you see, is that it was a day filled with confusion and uncertainty. Initially, practically nobody believed what had happened and not one single person witnessed the actual moment of Resurrection. There was no choir standing by to sing the Halleluia Chorus from Handel’s Messiah, nor were there any great public appearances in the Main Square in Jerusalem, no triumphant waving to the crowds from the balcony of the town hall. The only people who met the Risen Jesus, in fact, were his own disciples, most of whom had not long since run away and left him in his moment of need. Hardly the kind of people to whom you would entrust the task of teaching all nations. In fact, looked at in the cold light of day, a betting man faced with a decision about whether to put his money on the G20 to solve our current problems or the early Church to reach the ends of the earth would put his money on Gordon Brown and Co. every time.

But the key thing is this. To recognize that each of them has, within itself, the capacity to achieve its objectives. But it all depends on the choices we make. If the governments and peoples of the world implement the decisions made in London last week, we can change the world. But they and we may not do it... Jesus has risen. He is alive and present among us. But while this truth is the key to making sense of all human history, it will make not the slightest difference unless we – each one of us – chooses to live out of it. The Resurrection is not magic. In one sense it changes everything, but in another it changes nothing, opening up possibilities which the world and each one of us as individuals must embrace and, through the power of the Spirit, make our own.

Every day is the day that the Lord has made. Every day is Easter for those who choose to live by the teaching of Jesus. Every day, in all we do and in all that happens to us, we have a chance to make Easter a reality. And if we do, like President Zarcosy, we will discover things we never imagined possible.


BIDDING PRAYERS


Faith in the Resurrection is not, first and foremost, faith in an event. It is faith, above all, in a way of living. It is about putting into practice the teaching of Jesus as described for us in the four Gospels, the truth of which is confirmed by the fact that Jesus did, indeed, rise from the dead and is present now among us. And so we pray that this parish, through the power of the Spirit, will be a community committed to living the Christian life as described by Jesus.................Lord hear us

Faced with issues like the financial crisis and global warming, many today are filled with pessimism and fear. But for those who believe in the message of Easter, there is ultimately nothing to fear. ‘Do not be afraid’ and ‘Peace be with you’ are recurring themes in the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection. With God, all things are possible, provided we are willing to go where he leads. And so we pray that the men and women of our time will come to understand this.................Lord hear us

History shows us that every crisis is also an opportunity. After years of living in ways that were always unsustainable, the eyes of the world have been opened to recognize difficult and painful truths about the way we have been living. We simply cannot go on consuming the world’s resources the way we do. We cannot keep living beyond our means, spending money we don’t have. And so we pray that this crisis will, in time, be seen as a blessing, the beginning of something new...................Lord hear us

In his introduction to the G20 meeting last week, our own Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, promised the world’s poor that the rich countries of the developed world would not pass by on the other side. Gordon Brown himself has, over the years, shown a deep commitment to the developing world, and we pray that he will have the energy and courage he needs to challenge us and lead the people of Britain further along that road than we have, up to now, been willing to go..........Lord hear

When President Zarcosy of France said, at the end of the G20, that things had happened which he had never imagined could happen, he was reminding us that God is a God of Surprises. God does not think as we do and works in ways beyond our understanding. His providence is at work deep within history, not controlling events, but always, even when it takes what seems to us a very long time, turning them to good. And so we ask him to surprise and astonish us now............Lord hear us

The Resurrection was witnessed by no one. There were no fanfares, no drum rolls, no heavenly choirs welcoming Jesus from the tomb. There were no public appearances and only men and women of faith were able to recognize him. They met him as they discussed their cares and concerns along the road. They recognized him when he called them by name. They knew him in the breaking of bread. And so we pray that we, too, will recognize him in these very ordinary ways...........Lord hear us