Dear Friends in Christ,
Our Lenten season here at Sparling has been one that was marked with grief. The loss of senior members of our Congregation and the loss of family members and friends who have touched our lives has deepened the sadness we feel as a community of faith. And so it is that our Lenten journey together in 2011 has been very much about our lives, our mortality, hopes and dreams. While Lent often steers us to an inward examination of ourselves and our relationship with God, the events of this year have made our Lenten journey more about our relationships with each other and with God. Together we have journeyed through much pain helping to bear one another’s burdens.
But our faith informs us that death does not have the final say. After all, this is the primary truth revealed in the Resurrection. Easter is a season of hope – hope that amid the pain and injustices of life we can see that God is doing a new thing in our lives and in creation. (Rev. 21:5). Easter is when we see the power of God over death, evil, pain, sorrow and the breaking in of God’s kingdom.
On the first Easter morning, the sorrowing women come to anoint the body of Jesus and are greeted with the astonishing words of the angel: "Why do you search for the Living One among the dead? He is not here. He has been raised up." (Luke 24:5-6). What marvelous "Good News." The confidence of Jesus in His Father is rewarded with the ecstatic conquest of Easter. Death is conquered – which means our own deaths are not the end but rather a doorway to the life that God has promised. Easter is a time of great joy. Christ, our hope, is risen! Imagine the joy of the apostles, the women, the disciples, and of Mary, His Mother. All of them ready to go around the world singing His glory and announcing His message of redemption and salvation.
We are the children of God. Today this victory is ours if we embrace with faith the Easter event - Jesus risen from the dead for you and for me. Accepting this truth and living by the hope that the physical death of our loved ones and friends, indeed even ourselves, is not the end, allows us to be people who live the Easter message every day of our lives. In the Risen Jesus, God comes into our lives. He shapes our destiny. He cares for us, loves us, heals us, strengthens us, walks with us in all the circumstances of our lives. The challenge of Easter is to decide whether we want to live in the Risen Christ or not. The life and joy and peace of Easter are ours for the asking. Let us ask God today to move us to accept the Easter message into our hearts. Let us ask Him to make us Easter people - people who are God-centered, people who follow Jesus, people who serve the Church.
We need this celebration now more than ever because we need to concentrate on the values, the faith and the truth that Easter reveals to us. We need to know them, be convinced of them and live by them. We should not allow the trials and challenges of this life destroy our hope in the life guaranteed to us by the Easter Good News.
In peace and with the joy of Easter blessings,
Rev. Scott R. MacAuley
Pastor, Sparling United Church
