A brief account
I have just come from our Mother and Toddler Easter service. It usually consists of an Easter Egg hunt, an action song or two, a story…and a brief thought for the adults. When it came to the latter, I decided to put my radio training to good use, put a two-minute timer on the screen for everybody to see, and try to explain why Easter matters in 120 seconds. The script used is below the timer.
Twice in the past two weeks, I have come to work with not one, but two ties. That might not seem significant in itself, but perhaps if I show them to you, you will see why. Yes – twice in the past two weeks I have had funerals to conduct. In fact, last week I was singing “jump, jump, jump, jump for joy” with the Busy Bees at 11…and 3 hours later I was pronouncing the last words over someone’s mortal remains. Life and death, death and life – its all in a day’s work.
The truth is, I could NOT do this job without a belief in the resurrection. Without believing that Jesus really DID live a blameless life, really DID die for others on the cross, and really DID come back from the dead – I would quit tomorrow and do something else instead. If there is no resurrection – there is no point. Easter is proof that Jesus meant everything he said – and that he had the miracles to prove it. Once you start believing that – everything changes.
The other day I was out taking assembles at a primary school on the theme of Easter. It was a beautiful Spring morning, and everything was looking at its best.
Just take a look at THIS grave though .Unlike the others – no-one has kept it clean and tidy. In fact, no-one has kept it all. The ivy has crept and crept and crept over it until everything is obscured. I don’t know how many years it takes to do that – but it must be quite a few.
It seems a shame, really – but look carefully and you will see that there are some tiny daffodils poking out from the midst of it. Did someone plant them there specially, I wonder – or have they come by accident? Either way, they are a defiant little gesture of Spring. Life in death, light in darkness.
Why does Easter matter? Because it fills me with hope and every day I get to pass that hope onto others – THAT is why it matters.
