When I was at primary school we had a glorious cookery lesson which has stayed with me ever since. We made bread. My memory is still full of the smell of the bread as it rose in the oven and our eager faces as we anticipated tasting it.
One of my friends camped out in front of his oven. He sat there for hours, peering through the glass because he was afraid that he’d miss out on the moment when the bread suddenly jumped into life and rose!
This is a great image of our celebration of recent Easter Day whether that was formally or within informal worship, with guitars or a robed choir. It is Resurrection Sunday. What a glorious day! It is our day of celebration when we gather as God’s people to glorify the Risen Saviour. We taste and see the fruits of the Holy Spirit as we gather in worship and thanksgiving – and this year, at Busbridge Church, we gave thanks for a particular couple who have lived the Christian life locally for many decades.
I read the other day that there are fewer Christians in the UK but there are more spiritually hungry people. What does a spiritually enquiring person find in Easter Sunday? That Christian faith is full of meaning, life, hope, purpose and the freedom from fear that is craved by all. Deep down, my experience of many people’s life stories is that they arrive at Christianity last on their spiritual quest because they haven’t realised that the deepest fears of life are met in Jesus Christ.
My school friend was like a reflection of much of life. He was afraid he’d miss out! So many people live in fear of not quite making the mark in their independence, autonomy, rights, experiences, relationships, or just missing out on stuff. The antidote to fear of missing out is one of our themes for the year from Mark 6:50. “Jesus immediately said to them ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid”.
Fear is deeply rooted in what went wrong in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:10). Jesus’ resurrection is the ultimate antidote to fear. The garden that represented death has become the garden of proof of life. It is no mistake that in the Garden Jesus’ first words after he’d risen were the ultimate corrective to Genesis 3:10. His words spoke freedom from fear. He said “why are you crying?” and the angels first response to the visitors to the tomb is “Don’t be alarmed”. Later Jesus speaks “Peace” to the disciples when he powerfully appeared within a locked room. I reckon they clung onto that word as they worked out what on earth was going on!
Easter Day is the high point of the Christian year and its smell and experience lingers with us as we head through 2023 as a Minster Church for all of Godalming and area. We gathered as the community of life to taste and see once again that there is only One Lord, One Faith, One Hope.
We no longer need to camp like my friend and his oven to watch and wait in case we miss out. We have arrived at the fullness of Life. Easter Day is Resurrection Sunday in the garden, but the story in the garden continues.