Faith Matters: A new beginning
Writing this month, Ruth Bushyager, Bishop of Horsham, reflects on the reality and impact of the Easter story – Jesus’ death and resurrection.
On a local Sussex Facebook group for free-cycling I saw a post where a lady was asking for “Something for Easter”. What she meant was that she was seeking items to decorate her home, and various generous people offered her cardboard bunnies, plastic eggs and ribbons. As a Christian I could not help but want to share something far more lasting.
This week lots of us will enjoy chocolate treats, a bank holiday, and maybe spring-themed decorations. But there is something far greater on offer for anyone and everyone who seeks it. There is a single, improbable, truth at the centre of history. Easter is all about a man called Jesus of Nazareth, who was executed on a Friday afternoon outside Jerusalem and who, on the third day, walked out of his tomb alive and well. Jesus was raised from death by the God who made the universe. Death, our great enemy and the one certainty we all share, had been defeated.
For those who do not share my faith, this may sound like ancient mythology or wishful thinking. I understand. Yet billions of people testify to finding their own lives transformed by this event. We all know that the world is ruined by evil and human selfishness, and none of us are immune from knowing tragedy and grief. The Easter story offers the possibility of hope that the darkness and sorrow of the world is not final. It insists that love is stronger than hatred, forgiveness stronger than sin, and life stronger than death. It is not a promise that nothing bad will ever happen again; it is a promise that these things will not have the last word.
In Sussex, in our villages and towns, many of us carry hidden sorrows: failing health, broken relationships, quiet despair. Easter does not wave those away with a magic wand. It simply says: come and ponder the empty tomb of Jesus. God can bring new beginnings into anyone’s story.
This Easter morning the bishops will be in Chichester Cathedral joining with Christians all over the county to celebrate the hope and eternal life found through Jesus. In a way, I suppose, Easter really is something suitable for ‘free-cycling’: it is a gift that we can freely receive and that can be endlessly passed on to someone else in need.
Would you like to join in the celebrations at the Cathedral or a church near you this Easter? Find your local Anglican church at www.achurchnearyou.com – the site enables you to easily see what services are being held by churches in your vicinity. You’d be very welcome!