An Easter cake with trick re-lighting candles is displayed. Children try unsuccessfully to blow out the candles.
Jesus is risen – there’s no conquering him – the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out!
We believe it, but we also want to believe it more from the heart and less from the head.
How can we get a better hold of the hope Easter offers and make it more our own?
Hands up if you were on the Horsted Keynes history tour Bob Sellens and I led on Monday with the School?
Do you remember we said Horsted Keynes was built around four elements? Earth, air, fire and water.
These primitive elements are a way into seeing how our community has grown up.
This church stands on ancient earth works as a site sheltered from the wind. The ironstone it stands on draws lightning fire from heaven down to a village built on springs of water.
On this earth mound the worship of the risen Lord Jesus replaced that of the pagans.
For 1000 years people have sheltered here from winds and gales through our building and the woods surrounding it.
Horsted Keynes and its vicinity lie on ironstone that draws lightning down from above. Saint Giles needs its advanced lightning conductor as much as The Crown!
Earth, air, fire, water. St Giles lies on top of a series of springs and that’s why streams of water flow out of our churchyard.
Earth, air, fire and water make up Horsted Keynes. The same elements serve the new creation Jesus brings at Easter.
When he came back from the dead he came out of the earth. The Jesus they buried in the earth was seen alive over the next six weeks by over 550 people on 11 different occasions.
The Jesus who rose from the earth changed the earth and made graves beds of hope. The Jesus who appeared to his disciples changed the air as he breathed the Spirit on them.
At Pentecost he cast new fire on them from above and released streams of living water in their hearts. Earth, air, fire and water are made new by what we’re celebrating this morning.
Christianity’s a new start. It’s a new creation that can run and grow in my life and yours making us beacons of hope.
In Easter services we use the elements of fire and water to proclaim this hope. We blessed a new fire last night from which the Paschal Candle still burns. We blessed the font from which we’re to be sprinkled shortly to remind us of the baptism that makes us Christian.
Easter’s about getting the out-of-this-world fire of the risen Lord Jesus to light our lives. It’s about getting the out-of-this-world springs of living water flowing out of our hearts.
We’re in church this Easter Sunday to get our hearts warmed. What we’re celebrating in the resurrection is truth to warm any one’s heart if they can but see it!
This is the day that the Lord has made says the Psalmist let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Our hope as Christians is built on this day of resurrection. Easter Sunday proves the Friday Jesus died was Good which means God’s, God’s who so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3.16)
God become man to break the grip of evil over those in his image and invest in their future so they could move from his image into his likeness as part of a new creation.
Good Friday is God’s Friday of hope for us. It seals his investment in our race. If today is God’s so is tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow. This is Christian faith. This is the meaning of Easter.
Jesus is like a candle we can never blow out. His light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never overcome him.
Christian faith is under pressure in Britain today. That’s nothing new. G.K. Chesterton remarked that looking over the last two thousand years there’ve been seven times when Christianity seemed to be going to the dogs. Each time the dog died, be that ancient Rome, the barbarian invasion or eighteenth century rationalism.
We’re an Easter people destined to rise again and again with Jesus. Even the first letter of the Saviour’s name has a springing back about it. J is I pressed down to come back up again.
So we Christians are hopeful people. This morning is our waking up afresh to such hope.
That’s why we’ll soon be getting holy water thrown in our faces.
From Saint Giles on occasion water flows down Church Lane. This Easter morning, as you leave St Giles, you’ll be flowing out as living water to bring hope to the world. Jesus says to us through St John let the one who believes in me drink...out of the believers heart shall flow rivers of living water (7.38)
It’s as if we were called to be a spiritual version of the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream brings warmth to Britain as it winds its way north across the Atlantic through colder and colder water. However cold the water around it gets the Gulf Stream itself remains warm. It maintains its own warmth in the midst of water that gets bitterly cold.
This is a picture of we Christians in Horsted Keynes today. By receiving God’s word and drinking of his sacrament we’re made to overflow with God’s warm love.
Christ is risen! His great warmth is with us. It’s our hope as we brave and cheer the icy world around us. Because Christ is raised we get raised. We’re no longer affected by the climate of negativity – rather we create around us a new climate. We’re thermostats and no longer thermometers.
This Easter eucharist is thanksgiving for Christ the hope filled one who builds unquenchable faith in hearts that welcome him as Saviour. To have hope is to believe tomorrow also is God’s, and tomorrow, and tomorrow since Jesus Christ is ever the same.
Alleluia Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia!
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