Hallelujah! Jesus is risen. Our Bishops share their Easter messages.
Jump to: Bishop Steven | Bishop Mary | Bishop Gavin | Bishop Dave
Bishop Steven Croft
Alleluia, Christ is Risen.
Today the Church celebrates new life: the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. This is an event of global, of cosmic significance. Because Christ has been raised, those who belong to Christ will share his resurrection. Because Christ has been raised, life triumphs over death. Because Christ has been raised our lives are lived today in the horizon of eternity and love.
Amid all the turmoil in the world at in recent weeks, two news stories stand out as we proclaim this resurrection. The first story is about outer space. The second is about inner space.
The outer space story is not the one about Katy Perry and four other women who made an eleven-minute journey in the Blue Origin rocket to the very edge of space. It is the story of the discovery made by a team of scientists in another place about the possibility of some kind of life on Planet K218 1B.
K218 1B is 700 trillion miles from Earth, 124 light years away. Professor Madhusudhan and his team have analysed the light signature of the planet. They have detected signs of molecules which on Earth are only produced by simple organisms such as algae. This light signature has been detected by the James Webb Space Telescope, itself a miracle of engineering, sent a million miles out into space way beyond the moon.
There are many questions still about the results. But potentially they give the clearest answer yet as to whether life on earth is the only biological life in this vast, possibly infinite universe. All kinds of claims are being made about the implications for humanity and for faith.
But here’s the thing. The discovery is remarkable. But it reminds us this morning of how vanishingly, impossibly rare life is in the vastness of the universe. At the very most, it looks as though our nearest living neighbours may be 700 trillion miles from Earth and are likely to be at best, plankton. Far from the rich variety of alien life imagined by Star Trek, we inhabit a largely barren universe.
Only on Earth are the full wonders of life: skies full of insects and birds; oceans and rivers teeming with fish; forests with trees which live for hundreds of years; mangos and bananas; fruits of every kind. Farms and gardens bursting with life from the seas of Antarctica to the jungles of Borneo. The further we reach out into space, the more remarkable the Earth is revealed to be. Katy Perry chose her song well in space: I think to myself what a wonderful world.
In a few minutes time we will proclaim our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed, first crafted 1700 years ago. These same words will be said or sung all across our world on this Easter Day. We will dare to proclaim that we are not here by accident or chance. That Almighty God is maker of the heavens and the earth. That the Son of God took flesh and became a single human person. That he was crucified. That on the third day he rose again. That he will return to judge the living and the dead. That his kingdom will have no end. We will declare together our faith in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life and our hope of resurrection.
The life of our world is infinitely precious, held in love by Almighty God who fills all things with his grace and who sends his Son to this world full of life so that even death might be defeated and reversed and conquered.
According to the gospels, the resurrection of Jesus happens in a garden, a new Eden project. Mary Magdalene comes to grieve, bringing spices to anoint the body of Jesus. In the first light of dawn, she sees first the stone rolled away. She runs to tell Simon Peter. Simon Peter and the beloved disciple run to the tomb. They see the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth which covered Jesus headed rolled up in a place by itself. Signs of an orderly departure.
Simon Peter and the beloved disciple leave Mary alone in the garden. There is a gentleness then to the discovery which will transform Mary’s life. She looks first into the tomb and sees and hears two angels who ask here “Woman why are you weeping?” She turns and sees Jesus but her mind will not admit the truth that it can be him. “Woman why are you weeping?” Jesus the gardener asks, tenderly.
Mary’s love is evident in her answer. But then Jesus speaks her name: Mary. Life and light break through the grief and tears. She turned and said to him in Hebrew: Rabbouni, which means teacher. Jesus gives her a commission – to be the first apostle, to bear witness to the disciples: I have seen the Lord.
There is such a deep humanity in the story, such a complex understanding of grief and its reversal which enables Mary to speak to us directly and invite us into the same experience of faith and trust in which sorrow is turned to joy; despair to hope and life to death. In just this one encounter we witness the depth of what it means to be human.
The message of resurrection will go out from this garden through Mary’s witness and will transform the entire world, Easter by Easter, and today this message comes afresh to all of us.
In all of this vast and ancient and barren universe, or the fraction we can see, there is one planet where Almighty God has made a garden full of life for just a few thousand years of history, a moment in the long story of creation. In this garden of life, God has made humanity in God’s own image to wonder and to love and to know God’s grace. When we fall and wander from that grace, God sends his Son for the sake of the whole cosmos, to share this planet for a lifetime, to reveal the best of what humanity can be, to give his life for the sins of the whole world. In one moment in time, in one place, a garden within a garden, death has been conquered and new life is offered to the world, perhaps in time to all worlds.
And so we come finally to my second news story not about outer space but inner space. The healing and mending of human hearts. The research which was published just last week by the Bible Society which tells of the Quiet Revival. An unseen turning of the tide of faith in our land. The unexpected 50% increase over six years of those who claim to attend Christian worship at least one each month, an increase led by the young and most evident among younger men. A profound search for meaning in the growing outward and inner deserts of the world. Life in all its fulness.
Last night in this Cathedral we witnessed the confirmation of four young adults, signs of this new thirst for faith and meaning and this turning back to Christ.
Hear the testimony of the Church today in creeds and songs and lives transformed. Hear the gentle call of Jesus to come to him, the Way, the Truth and the Life and follow.
The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.
Bishop Mary Gregory
An idle tale?
The 1990’s sitcom One Foot in the Grave featured the incurably disgruntled Victor Meldrew whose stock answer to international news or local gossip was ‘I don’t believe it’; the second syllable of ‘believe’ elongated to underline his incredulity – ‘I don’t be-lieeeeeeeve it’, he would say.
In churches up and down the country this Easter, worshippers will listen to an account of the very first Easter morning retold by a writer known as Luke. It features a whole host of Victor Meldrews!
Luke tells us that a group of women go to tend to Jesus’ body that first Easter morning. When they get to the tomb it’s empty, and instead of finding Jesus’ body they’re met by two men in dazzling clothes (two angels?) who tell them that Jesus has risen.
Remembering that Jesus had told them that this was what would happen to him after he died, the women rush back to Jerusalem to tell Jesus’ friends their amazing news. ‘I don’t be-lieeeeeeeve it!’ the friends reply, dismissing the women’s account as ‘an idle tale’. But one man, Peter, decides to see for himself. He leaves his friends behind, runs to Jesus’ tomb and discovers that what the women have said is true. ‘I do believe it!’
What do you make of what the women say? Are you a Victor Meldrew, unable to believe it? Or could you be like Peter, and go and see?
This Easter, after the traditional breakfast of chocolate Easter eggs (or is that just me?), why don’t you go along to your local church to experience Easter; to learn more about what Christians believe about that day; to encounter the risen Jesus for yourself? You’ll be so welcome!
This Easter, be less Victor, more Peter!
Bishop Gavin Collins
Easter is the great turnaround. In fact, it’s the greatest turnaround the world has ever known, as we move from death to life, despair to joy, defeat to victory. Jesus died in agony on the cross on Good Friday, but was raised to new life – resurrection life – on Easter Day.
And the central message of the Christian faith is that Jesus is so full of life, and so full of love, that he pours out that new life – that victory over death – into the world even today, and that all who look to him will find themselves restored, resurrected, raised with him to the joy and renewed life that we see all around us at this time of year, with spring flowers in gardens, buds and blossom on the trees, and new-born lambs gambolling out in the fields.
That’s a great message! And it’s a joyous message that the church proclaims, especially at Easter-time. But it’s not an escapist message: It’s not a message that if we look to Jesus, all our problems, and difficulties, and struggles in life will somehow miraculously disappear, that they’ll suddenly be taken care of! – No: We know that the pain, grief and suffering in the world is far too real and far too persistent for that to be the case.
Rather, the Christian message is that we can look to Jesus, the one who most fully faced up to and embraced and took upon himself all of that pain, and hurt, and grief, and suffering. He took it on himself when he was abandoned by his friends. He took it on himself when he was tried by a prejudiced court, and when he was mocked, tortured and beaten. He took it upon himself as he allowed himself to be led out to be crucified – the most barbaric and cruel form of execution ever devised by humanity. And, above all, he took it on himself as he gave up his life and died, cut off from the love of God, his Father, the one with whom he had been perfectly united since before the creation of the world.
In Jesus, we can bring the fulness of all the difficulties and struggles and confusions and hurts that we may be going through in life, or that are affecting those who we love and those who we pray for. – We can bring them to Jesus, the one who faced the reality of sin and death head on, and who, after he had died on Good Friday, was laid dead and beyond hope in the tomb.
And yet Jesus was so full of life that not even death itself could keep a hold of him! – He was raised to resurrection life on Easter Day, and he now pours out that life, that love, joy and hope, on all who look to him. – Indeed, in John’s Gospel, Jesus said that the very reason why he had come was so that he might give people: “…life, and life in all abundance – life over-flowing”.
And so, may I wish you a truly Happy Easter, whatever difficulties or sorrows you might be facing this Easter-time: May I encourage you to bring them with all openness and honesty to Jesus, the one who died on the cross and who was raised again to life. And as you do so, may you, too, know the life and the joy of Jesus’ victory in your life, and in the lives of those who you love and pray for, this Easter-time: Amen.
Bishop Dave Bull
On the very first Easter day, a group of young women gathered at the grave of a friend they had seen buried just a couple of days before. They were broken by their grief. Their lives were shattered by the loss of someone they loved so much and thought they would never ever see again. They were mourning.
It's a sight that we see so often on our TV screens, isn't it? And perhaps we wonder, where is God in all of this loss, in all of this pain? Perhaps he's dead. Perhaps he was never there. And yet these women on that first day were met with the most astonishing question. Why are you looking for the living among the dead?
They were told: he is not here, he has risen. And for Christians, Easter is about the fact that God is not dead, he's alive because Jesus rose from the grave on the third day and is alive today so we can know him for ourselves. It doesn't change the fact that loss happens, and that it hurts, and that we mourn and grieve for things we have lost, whether it's things in our own lives or people we've loved and lost. Maybe it's mourning for a time in the past in our own lives where we were happier or healthier. Maybe it's mourning the changes that happened in the world, the loss of a time when the world seemed simpler or safer.
For Christians, because Jesus is risen from the dead, hope always surfaces again. Loss and pain and grief cannot hold out the hope that is bought by Jesus' resurrection from the dead. It's a bit like trying to hold a football underwater in a swimming pool. You can do it for a while but eventually the ball will burst to the surface again. This is what Easter means for Christians, and it changes the way we approach everything.
So, whatever or whoever you are mourning today, I pray that hope will burst to the surface. Because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
Perhaps you can visit your local church and find out more and make this a very happy Easter?