Easter Day – morning
Sunday 1st April 2018
Easter Day – morning
Acts 10.34-43
Mark 16.1-8
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
“Build it and they will come” Who can tell me what film that line comes from?
(Field of Dreams) It’s a lovely film – do watch it if you get the chance.
Well, after our experience of Messy Easter on Good Friday I feel a bit like that! “Provide it and they will come”. We have done something similar to this now for three years in this church and each time more and more children and their parents have turned up to enjoy spending time in church – at least two hours would you believe! – and to learn together something about the Easter Story.
Putting on Messy Church is a labour of love. It takes effort. It takes people. It takes money – and please any of the helpers who spent from their own pockets to help provide our activities and food, do let me have your expenses…. It is important that we as a church recognise the investment in this activity that we need to make.
And believe me, it is not just the children who learn…. The researchers tell us that we are now meeting the third generation of people who have grown up without any strong tradition or knowledge of church. Just think about that for a moment…. three generations growing up not knowing the stories that most of us probably think “Oh, everyone knows that!”
Last year at the Scarecrow Festival, someone came into church, looked around and asked Alison “So what is this building used for then?” …. and it was a genuine question. They literally did not know what this place was for. How would you answer that question, I wonder? And someone on Friday asked one of our wonderful helpers, “So what is this all about then?” – No real idea of the significance of Good Friday or why the church should be getting involved with teaching our children its message… Happy no doubt to have the kids entertained for a couple of hours during the school holiday, but unaware that there was a message for them as grown-ups, too.
But we are here on Easter Sunday – April Fool’s Day – to celebrate and to remember one of the (if not the) greatest surprise that ever happened in the world. Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed. And that is no practical joke, but a truth that we can trust and believe in – because we know that he is here with us now.
Do you doubt me? Just look around you at your family and neighbours. He is there. There in the eyes of loved ones and strangers. And we come here as Christians not just today but every time we meet, to find him. To remind ourselves that he is real and he is with us and will never leave us. We return time after time, because we are not very good at remembering that. In fact we often forget. Forget that God has promised he will never leave us.
Mary Magdalene and the other women may have thought at first that someone was playing an almighty and very cruel practical joke on them that first Easter morning. They thought that their friend Jesus had left them for good. And now someone seems to have stolen away the body. They cannot even do the last act of love and respect they wanted to give Jesus. They would not have known anything about April fools of course, but they were left dazed and confused and tearful at first.
But here’s a thing. Although Mark tells us that they told no-one because they were afraid, they must have eventually gathered their courage together. Or else we would have no knowledge of the resurrection today!
John tells us how Mary, in her tears and confusion, encountered someone near the tomb. Someone she first took for the gardener tending the place. But someone she eventually recognised as her beloved friend and teacher – Jesus. And it was that meeting which gave her the courage to go and tell the others. No doubt once she began spreading that message – that good news, that Gospel, then the other women could back her up that there was no body in the tomb.
So what do you think? Were the women foolish and told no-one, or do you think that maybe after some initial hesitation, they were able to pass on the amazing news?
And what about us? Are we going to be fools this Easter day and keep the good news to ourselves? Or can we be brave and continue to pass the good news on to all whom we meet? If we do our bit to build the kingdom, will they indeed come?
“Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!”