March 2010

Dear Friends,

Easter is fairly early this year! The clocks jump forward! British Summer Time begins just the week before on Palm Sunday. Some have suggested that this is unfortunate; it will be more difficult to get to Church for the 8am Communion service and in any event as it's school holidays I'm off to see the family. Sorry about missing Church that day. I feel the same; I don't want to have to get up earlier and I'd like to spend the weekend with the family.

But can I say that of all the Sundays of the year Easter Sunday should be the one you spend with your Church family. How can I say this? Well, because Easter defines who we are, what we are and where we will be.

Christmas, the Incarnation, God with us, could be called the foundation of our faith. If Christ had not been born there would be no Christ to follow. Good Friday is also vital to our faith. If Christ had not died we would, as St Paul put it, still be in our sins. But the Resurrection is the climax of the Christian gospel. Indeed, without the Resurrection there would be no gospel. In the words of Michael Ramsey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, "The Gospel without the Resurrection is not merely a Gospel without its final chapter; it is not a gospel at all." Or in the words of George Carey, Archbishop at the turn of the century, "The fact is that without the Resurrection of Jesus there would be no Christianity, no Church, and certainly no millennium celebrations." Ramsey and Carey were in fact simply restating the thrust of Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 15, which Eugene Peterson graphically paraphrases in the following way: "If there's no Resurrection for Christ, everything we've told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you've staked your life on is smoke and mirrors ….. And if Christ wasn't raised, then all you're doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever …. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we're a pretty sorry lot."

But Easter is a day for celebration. If ever there is a day for popping the champagne, it is surely Easter Sunday. Or if champagne is not your thing, then on Easter Sunday let's find another way to party. Let's tie bunches of balloons (preferably helium-filled) to the pulpit, and hand out Easter eggs to the children. In one way or another let joy be tangible, and let the world know that Jesus is alive. The Resurrection is not part of the Christian faith; it is the very heart of the Christian faith.

So be in Church on Easter Sunday. Let nothing stop you. Let's worship our risen Lord with ringing hallelujahs, so that the whole of St Osyth knows that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, Hallelujah!

Happy Easter.

Yours,

Rev'd Tony Pugsley