Dear Friends,
As you read this, we are still in Lent and Easter is but far off on the horizon. We started Lent four weeks ago when we were brought face to face with our own mortality on Ash Wednesday. From there we have journeyed on, continuing to reflect on ourselves and our relationship with God – facing deeper truths about our own inner life and motivations, whilst also acknowledging God’s mercy and understanding.
I thought it might be hard to write about Easter at such an early time, but in fact I realise that, unlike those first disciples who didn’t know what was ahead of them, we always walk and live in the light of the resurrection. We are blessed to be resurrection people whether it is in Lent or Easter. We are resurrection people when we have ash placed upon our foreheads and when things get so hard that we cry out to God about life’s unfairness and cruelty. We are resurrection people when we celebrate the times of rejoicing and feel that all is well with the world. We are resurrection people simply because we carry the hope of Easter.
Easter hope doesn’t make sense if it is kept only to the end of the story. The last few pages of our lives are not where hope suddenly makes an appearance. Rather, our hope comes from the gift of our baptism and is the source of our joy throughout our lives. And each year it propels us through the struggles of Lent and difficulties of life and is actually what gets us to Easter. We know what is going to happen. We have already been given the answer: We hope in the risen Lord; we hope in God’s victory over death; we hope in the empty tomb and the new life it gives. And that is a hope and a joy which stays with us however we are feeling, whatever is happening, whatever season we are in.
There are many in this world today who have lost their hope – in our own country and elsewhere. And, yes, life is unimaginably hard for so many. Yet our Christian faith tells us that even in the deepest darkness a light flickers: the light of life, which is born of the certainty that we are infinitely loved, shines and cannot be overcome.
We aren’t meant to dwell in Lent; rather Lent propels us to Easter. We hope in what we cannot see. We hope for a world that is just, peaceful and compassionate. We have hope for this world because it is God’s creation. We hope in the resurrection even when all we see around us is death.
So let us keep moving forward this Lent. Our Easter story is essential to our faith and life. Despite what we may see in the world, God is still here. God is still at work in all places and at all times. God is labouring in and through us. And when we hold hope, and work for that hope, then we take the world a tiny step closer to its fulfilment.
So live in hope and from hope this Lent and Easter time. Carry it, hold it, and rejoice in it this Easter Day and for all time.
with love, Liz
