Messy Church is this Wednesday, April 13th, starting at 5pm. Our theme is New Beginnings.

Spring is a time of new beginnings. From the seemingly dead earth new growth pushes upward to the sun. From the coldness and greyness comes green and then purples, reds and yellows of the spring flowers. From death, comes life. We emerge from the cocoon of winter boots, hats and coats into the returning warmth of the sun, the breezes laden with the glorious smell of new growth. Spring is glorious.

In our life of faith, Easter is our spring. From the tragedy and pain of the crucifixion, to the tomb suffused with death, to the joy of the resurrection to life, Jesus’ story reflects our experience of spring. In our Christian story it is the beginning of a new chapter in God’s relationship with us, God’s children. Just as spring is full of hope, so too does the Easter story bring hope into our lives.

Jesus understands us completely because Jesus has lived through the worst that life can bring. He has known the fear of what is to come. He has experienced humiliation at the hands of those who unjustly arrested him and mocked him. He has known the pain of betrayal as his friends abandoned him and denied him. He has known physical agony on the cross. He has known the isolation and coldness of death. Jesus has also known the joy of rising to life again. There is great comfort and hope in that story for us. There is nothing that we experience that we cannot take to Jesus, secure in the knowledge that Jesus understands. There is the hope that even in our darkest time, in the worst circumstances there is new life waiting. Even death is not the end, there is new life waiting for us.

Commitment and Promise

In the Easter story, in the commitment that God renews with God’s people, we are reminded of the ongoing love that God has for us, of the promise of God’s presence in our lives, of the part that we are called to play in the life of the world. It is a new beginning and our stories, as people of faith, are woven into the fabric of God’s Easter story.

Easter does not end with the close of Easter day. Easter is ongoing in our lives. Easter is with us when tragedy strikes and we confront the deaths of our hopes and dreams and plans. Easter is the promise of new life from the ashes of tragedy. For us, followers of the way of Jesus, Easter is our hope, our joy, our song of survival. God is with us.