Easter

I got me flowers to straw Thy way.
I got me boughs off many a tree;
But Thou wast up by break of day,
And brough'st Thy sweets along with Thee.

Yet though my flowers be lost, they say
A heart can never come too late;
Teach it to sing Thy praise this day,
And then this day my life shall date.
George Herbert

In his book Resurrection, Archbishop Rowan Williams notes that all the New Testament Gospels are silent about one event: the resurrection. Jesus' life is historical and describable; the encounters with the risen Jesus are (in a different way) historical and describable. The resurrection itself, however, is an event beyond description; it is "an event on the frontier of any possible language". Rowan Williams goes on memorably to remark that, "however early we run to the tomb, God has been there ahead of us. Once again, he decisively evades our grasp, our definition and our projection." George Herbert, whom the archbishop quotes, captures the mysteriously elusive essence of the resurrection in his poem Easter which you can read in full above.

The resurrection of Jesus constitutes the very ground of our faith. The Easter event gives meaning to the mystery of Jesus' incarnation, meaning to the urgency of his teaching and preaching, meaning to the desolation and apparent failure of the cross. At Easter we glimpse the beginning of God's new creation and we, God's Easter people, are given Gospel energy to live and to serve in the light of our risen Saviour, the 'pioneer and perfecter of our faith'.
Alleluia Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!