We are here to help people love and worship God. We aim to be, and encourage others to become, committed and active disciples of Jesus,
who love God and worship him, who know the power of the Holy Spirit and who show God’s love in every part of their lives.
Easter isn’t a day, it’s a season, and this year it lasts from Easter Sunday, 31st March right through to Ascension Day on Thursday 9th May. Those who know me will think that I only keep the full Easter season as an excuse to eat chocolate for 40 days!
But Easter is important. Easter matters. It is at the very heart of the Christian faith and hope. Easter is a reminder that God is God and we are not; and because God is God there is always hope, even in times and situations that seem hopeless - perhaps especially when times seem hopeless.
Easter is about resurrection, and resurrection only happens after you have been crucified, and it only happens as a gift or a miracle.
When we watch the news from around the world and at home we feel as if we are living in times where hope is a very rare commodity. It is so very easy to despair.
We see the terrible situation of the ordinary people of Gaza caught up in a war that seems to be being waged on the whole population; we think of those young people, so full of hope and life, murdered or taken hostage on the 7th October. We see the ongoing war in Ukraine and we pray for a peace that seems elusive. We see innocent men, women and children murdered by terrorists in Russia.
We might think of the deep divisions that have opened up in our own land in recent years and wonder how we can ever be united as one nation again.
Despair, hopelessness threatens to engulf us.
And this is why the Easter hope is so important today. Easter is the hope of new life. As Christians we celebrate Easter not only as something from history, but as a hope and a promise for all times, especially for the hard times.
At Easter we remember that this is God’s world and that God has not and will not abandon us. Easter reminds us that God brings life out of death, joy from despair and hope for those who no longer have hope.
Our Easter “Alleluia” is God’s promise that death and despair do not have the last word; Easter is hope, and we are an Easter people.
God bless you this Eastertide.
St Mary's Church, Priory Road, Ecclesfield, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S35 9XZ, United Kingdom
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