Sunday 12 April

Day 28 of Lockdown and it's Easter Sunday. A day to both celebrate and anticipate life that overcomes death. One of the best reflections on resurrection I have heard is from Frederick Buechner, who said: 'Resurrection means that the worst thing is never the last thing.'

I have known many 'worst things' in my own life and the lives of others. Suffering and abuses at the hands of others; loss of children or of beloved partners; loss of homes and livelihoods; loss of security; loss of community and connection; loss of freedom, or of trust. As I bring all these things to mind, the truest thing I know is that these things do not get to have the final word. Somehow - and from our vantage point, we don't always see how - resurrection life will be made known.

I am grateful for those stories I can already tell of the ways life has been restored to people or places where, at times, it felt that all was lost. Even while we wait for the grand unveiling of resurrection worked into every story, there are resurrection stories already being told. Healing, restoration, reconciliation, peace-making in the lives of individuals, families and communities. Thank God for these glimpses that give us hope of more to come. (In this video, Tim tells a particular story - just one of millions that could be told - of tenacious life in a place of death.)

I love the phrase in Ted Loder's Easter poem. He writes of 'resurrection madness.' It is a kind of madness to keep believing in the power of resurrection life - some days it feels more mad than others - and yet there is a visceral knowing that, beneath all the pain and all the brokenness, it is the truest truth. Resurrection madness will have the last word.

Lord of such amazing surprises

as put a catch in my breath

and wings on my heart,

I praise you for this great joy,

too great for words ...

... but not for tears and songs and sharing;

for this mercy

that blots out my betrayals

and bids me begin again,

to limp on,

to hop-skip-and-jump on,

to mend what is broken in and around me,

and to forgive the breakers;

for this YES

to life and laughter,

to love and lovers,

and to my unwinding self;

for this kingdom

unleashed in me and I in it forever,

and no dead ends to growing,

to choices,

to chances,

to calls to be just;

no dead ends to living,

to making peace,

to dreaming dreams,

to being glad of heart;

for this resurrection madness

which is wiser than I

and in which I see

how great you are,

how full of grace.

Alleluia!