Moston Methodist Church

Minister – Rev Sharon Read

POSTED ON: 16 April 2020

Letter from our minister 16/04/2020


Thursday 16th April 2020


Happy Easter to you all,

I hope that however you marked Holy Week and Easter – you will have discovered new things and been reminded again of Jesus’ love for each and everyone of you. Our Easter lunch looked more like Christmas here at the vicarage with a box of ‘pigs in blankets’ discovered at the bottom of the freezer and a Christmas pudding & brandy sauce on the top shelf of a cupboard hidden before Christmas and missed. But it was still a celebration meal. We are enjoying our Easter eggs and surprises and leftovers will be made into Chocolate Cornflake cakes as snacks in the coming weeks.

Sometimes Christians describe ourselves as ‘Easter people’ – meaning that, although we might forget the festival most of the year (and are sometimes on holiday when the festival happens in our home churches), we live our lives knowing that resurrection changes everything. Whatever we individually believe about what actually happened that day when Jesus came back from the dead, it should make a difference every day to us.

I have been tidying up my office slowly since self-isolation and I was reminded last Easter that we were watching and waiting for news about the fire at Notre Dame de Paris and seeing images, particularly of the one with the cross glowing. One of the interesting things I read about this is that most if not all ancient cathedrals have lost their roof, sometimes several times over the centuries. The stonework below is usually ok, if stained and marked, and the roof has been put back in time, allowing the worship space to be used again and the witness of ancient ‘houses of God’ to continue. The wonderful craftsmanship of architects and stonemasons and others means what seemed an utter disaster is resurrectable. This year we find ourselves watching and waiting for news when live will resume beyond the coronavirus pandemic. With time on hands, many of us wonder of what this might look like or how our lives will change.

Sometimes though, when there is disaster something has to be rebuilt in another way, done in a different manner, rethought and rejigged. But the promise of resurrection – of new life out of something that seems too terrible is available for so many situations, and for each one of us.

Life brings some really tough stuff to us all – and we can’t see through to the other side of what seems to be the worst of life. God knows, through Jesus’ humanity what that feels like and walks with us through it. And God waits with us in the dark nights of despair and sorrow. And God is there too in the dawn, when it is still dark, although not as dark as things were, and the shape of a resurrected man can only be faintly seen in the gloom. And the hope of new life is always there – and God waits with us for it to arrive.

With love and prayers

Sharon

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