Celebrating the SonRise

This is a copy of my church magazine article for April 2012

What does Easter mean to you?

Does it mean Easter eggs and bunnies? Does it mean daffodils and tulips? Does it mean a long weekend off work? Does it mean the end of one school term and the beginning of the next?

For me, it has meant all of those things, although these days the long weekend is not one that I take off work! Yet the most important aspect of Easter for me is the SonRise!

In my childhood years, I used to go with my parents and my sister to the early morning Sunrise service that took place at Ness Point, Lowestoft. It’s not a scenic landmark, but it is Britain’s most easterly point. In 1999, Lowestoft Town Council put a lot of effort into advertising the town as the first place in the country on which the new millennium would dawn – until someone pointed out that due to the curvature of the earth, the sun would rise first over Dover! That’s probably still true in March and April. Even so, there was something special about gathering with other Christians on Easter Sunday, and celebrating the SonRise whilst seeing the sunrise!

After the darkness of Jesus’ crucifixion, and the seeming finality of his burial, the gospels tell us that some women went to anoint his body with spices, early on the Sunday morning. It was just after sunrise, and as they journeyed to the tomb, they wondered who would roll away the stone in front of it to allow them to perform this final act of service for Jesus. They had thought that this man might be the Son of God, but now he was dead. They reckoned without the power of God, who made the SonRise! Two angelic figures said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here: he has risen!’

Jesus, the Son, has risen! He is still the Risen Lord! He has conquered death! Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can know life. The SonRise gives me confidence that all of the darkness of my life, and the pain of the world, will one day be overcome. I hope it gives you that confidence, too!

The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah!

Time to begin again?

This is a copy of my article for our April Church Magazine

At the time of writing, I have just been looking at our church’s Easter publicity material. It includes a photograph of a beautiful butterfly, with the words ‘Time to begin again.’

Together, the image and the words give us a good description of what Easter is all about.

Of course, we know about butterflies and where they come from. They begin with eggs that hatch into caterpillars – quite ugly in my opinion, but you may beg to differ! They go through a process of metamorphosis, from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. In other words, the caterpillar is completely transformed into something new!

Good Friday is the day on which we remember the death of Jesus. He took upon himself the ugliness of our sin. When he had died, he was taken down from the cross, his body bound in strips of cloth and laid in a tomb. On Easter Sunday, we remember the resurrection of our Lord. Those who were first at the tomb were dumb-founded to find the body gone, but they did see the strips of cloth that had wrapped it. It was as if a chrysalis remained, from which a transformed Christ had emerged, victorious over death.

The point is this: ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Corinthians 5:21). From sin and death, Jesus was raised to life and because of this, all people may begin again.

Is it time for you to begin again? With Christ, your life can be transformed into a thing of beauty, like the butterfly that comes from the caterpillar.

If you have already made that new beginning, Easter is a time to be reminded that whatever you feel about yourself, you are new creation in Christ!

Yours in the Name of the One who brings life from death!