Articles - From the Vicar

April 2000

The doctrine of the resurrection - of Jesus' resurrection and, in the light of the Easter hope, of ours and of every human being - attempts to state that the story of human history is ultimately to be told in terms, not of death but of life, not of chaos but of God's unconquerably effective love.

From 'Theology on the Way to Emmaus' - Nicholas Lash

During the Liturgy on Easter Eve we shall bless and light a new Easter candle. It will be lit each Sunday during worship for the fifty days of Eastertide to remind us that the light of Christ has not been extinguished by the darkness of Good Friday. We have been given an entirely new way of looking at the relationship between death and life: no longer is death only the end of something; it has become also and far more importantly the gateway to new life - new life which has been won for the whole world and which is offered to us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He has become, as St. Paul puts it, the first fruits of the harvest of the dead.

It is the joy and privilege of Christians to share with our neighbours the resurrection gospel, the Good News of what Nicholas Lash calls 'God's unconquerably effective love'. We are called to share this love unconditionally both by word and deed; or (as one might say) to practise what we preach. The extent to which we fail to do this is a measure of our need to grow as Christians; the extent to which we succeed is a measure of what is possible through God's grace working within us.