The most important day!

From the Manse......

I remember during a conversation with a former colleague of mine a year or so ago now, he remarked how Easter Day was the most important day of the year.

He was of course spot on!

Don't let us forget that right from the very beginning the Christian community celebrated Easter; those events of the first passion were remembered and recalled each year – not so with Christmas. In fact, for the first couple of centuries, the early Christian Church did not celebrate Christmas at all.

At the very heart and centre of our faith, of all that we hold dear and believe, is the miracle of Easter. At the crux of all that we are about is a wooden cross outside the city wall that through suffering, torture and death, transformed all that we know and understand.

For out of the misery of Golgotha came the good news of the empty tomb and the resurrection of Jesus. The miracle of the incarnation (of Emmanuel, God with us) reached its climax and fruition as he came amongst and alongside us once more in our daily lives.

Unrecognised at first, until he said or did something, the reality of resurrection struck home and those first disciples shared the good news that he was alive!

For from those two wooden beams roughly joined together, God's resurrection power brought life out of death, hope out of despair, love out of hatred, light out of darkness, strength out of weakness, victory out of defeat and forgiveness out of condemnation.

As we travel together through the Sundays of Lent. As we reflect on those passages which speak of suffering, betrayal and the solemnity of this Lenten season we do so in the sure and certain knowledge that no matter what we have to face, no matter how dark the days, no matter what our own Good Friday experiences throw at us, Easter Day is just around the corner.

Easter Day, the most important day of the year!

With love and God Bless,

Keith.