Lent is over and Christ is Risen! Happy Easter! Rip open the chocolate eggs and carve the leg of lamb. Is that all that Easter is now? Just a 2000 year old quaint story – a myth that has little meaning. Obviously, given my profession, I don’t think that is all it is. The eggs, family meals and lamb are all an added bonus.
However, what we celebrate today is the single most important date in history. In short it is a game changer. It is what we celebrate in the baptisms of Renex, Noah, Stanley and Lucy and with Alex, Christian, Lily and Andy taking their first bread and wine at the Eucharist. For in Baptism and the Eucharist we enter into a relationship with the person of Jesus Christ who was the game changer.
Humanity is built with an awareness that it is cut off somehow from God through its ability to continually mess up and every other religious code starts from a position that humanity will try to bridge the gap to God in its own efforts. Christianity rather looks to God to help bridge the troublesome chasm between humanity and God. God bridged the gap by sending his only begotten Son because he loved the world so much – who opened his arms on the cross and breached the gap between us and God – then, now and forever. That is what we celebrate. Happy Easter
Steve