We are here to help people love and worship God. We aim to be, and encourage others to become, committed and active disciples of Jesus,
who love God and worship him, who know the power of the Holy Spirit and who show God’s love in every part of their lives.
God of glory,
by the raising of your Son
you have broken the chains of death and hell:
fill your Church with faith and hope;
for a new day has dawned
and the way to life stands open
in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
This prayer is the alternative Collect for Easter Day. It is a newly written prayer for the Church of England, but for me it very succinctly sums up the meaning and importance of Easter and of Christ’s resurrection.
Easter is hope. Hope that breaks into despair; it is hope that comes not from ourselves but from beyond us. It is hope that arises when the worst thing imaginable has already happened. For this reason it is something new and unexpected.
In Jesus who is God with us in our flesh and bones, the eternal God has taken to Himself the pain and the defeat and the brokenness of the life of His creation, and in doing so has brought healing and new life.
The sins and failures and disappointments of the past have had their hold on us broken. They no longer define us or our future. New life, life that is not constrained even by death itself is open to us and to all.
As the ancient theologians of the Church put it, in Jesus God became human so that humanity could become divine. What God began at Christmas with the incarnation is fulfilled at Easter with the Cross and the empty tomb.
Because of Easter Christians are a people of hope, a people defined by the resurrection and within it the defeat of death and evil and the promise of eternity.
The way stands open to us. The new life has arrived for us to live, and Jesus our risen saviour invites us to take a step of faith, to entrust ourselves to Him and to begin to follow the way, begin to live the new life. For, as Saint Augustine wrote, ‘We are an Easter people, and “Alleluia!” is our song.’
May the risen Christ bless you this Easter.
Tim.
St Mary's Church, Priory Road, Ecclesfield, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S35 9XZ, United Kingdom
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