Easter – and the possibilities of transformation?
When we read when we read the Gospel accounts of the resurrection we note how varied these experiences were. There is always a mystery, a greater depth, new things to uncover about the transformation possible because of Easter. If we delve beneath the surface of these Easter encounters, we do not find human strength and resolve ,and certainly no blasts of the trumpet or an elaborate liturgies. Instead we find fragility: people who are often at their lowest point, whose whole world has collapsed. In the case of the disciples it is because they believed Jesus to have disappeared for ever. And for us we always come to an Easter celebration with pressing questions that we want to put to God’s today . These questions may not be answered immediately or in the way that we want or expect – but Easter is not about putting a heavenly lid on this earthly experience : it is about interpreting earthly experience in the light of Christ. So it is vital that we bring those questions and trying not to hide behind them amidst all the confidence and triumphalism Easter.
This holding together of life and death , light and darkness , sorrow and joy is one of the reasons why this piece of work given to me by my friend Nigel Dwyer is so important . in his workshop he produced an image of the resurrection in the symbolic clarity and likeness of that glass egg but surrounds it with a crown of thorns . it is all placed on a copper base which refracts the light and holds the reality of that Crown in place . It is almost as if the clear brightness of the light in the egg bursts out of the dangerous sharpness of the points on that crown of thorns .
So let us bring OUR questions , our Fears, are vulnerabilities into the Easter narrative . we are offered freedom to accept and live God is risen life of encounter, renewal and forgiveness . This piece of art reminds me that Christ encounters us all in our fragility and in our love today and every day .