Dear Friends & Neighbours,
I love a good story …don’t you?
I grew up loving Beauty and the Beast, C.S Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the Last Battle and I love the classics like Pride and Prejudice, and Emma and then there’s The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings… and The Shawshank Redemption… and so many more; some of them are stories I’ve read, some of them are films I’ve watched. In all of them the characters and the storyline are really important. Right from childhood most of the fairy stories we’re read or told are to do with the struggle of good overcoming bad so the hero or heroine can live a new and better life. Cinderella escapes her difficult homelife to marry the prince, Pinocchio become a real boy, the ugly duckling becomes a swan and even Scrooge is reformed.
Stories are good for us… and stories that demonstrate good winning over evil, people being saved and characters becoming the best version of themselves… (especially when they are true) are transformational.
At Easter we’re reminded of the most amazing and transformational story since the story of the first Christmas. Throughout Lent and then in Holy Week Christians re-remember the story of the first Easter. We remember the journey Jesus made as He headed towards Jerusalem. We remember His Last Supper with His friends, and then how He was arrested, and on Good Friday we remember His crucifixion; and then on Easter Sunday we celebrate with joy His victory and His resurrection. Through the amazing story of Jesus we learn how God sent His only son to earth, how he battled the powers of darkness, how He taught about love and forgiveness and how in the end when there was no other way, He died in our place for all that we had done wrong. If the story had ended there it would have been not only sad it would have been tragic. But it didn’t! On the third day Jesus rose from the dead… He overcame darkness and death to bring us forgiveness and new life. New life here and now which enables us to truly flourish and new life for the future too.
Now that’s got to be greatest story ever… and one worth celebrating. 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16-17
If you’d like to celebrate with us in church, we’d love to see you.
Have a very Happy Easter
God Bless
Rev Cathy