Christ’s death and resurrection bring forgiveness to those with broken and ruptured lives and hope for a more just and humane society, the Bishop of Bangor says in his Easter message this year.
Rt Rev Andy John will be preaching at Bangor Cathedral on Easter Sunday at 11am.
EASTER MESSAGE
One of the areas I have become familiar with is a lane near the old railway from Bangor to Tre-garth. It is what the politicians would call a greenfield site with grasslands on either side of the lane. Towards the bottom of the lane however there has been some serious and illegal fly tipping – I noted two broken TVs, a CD player (smashed to pieces), several tyres, countless bin bags with who knows what inside and even a menu from one of Bangor’s restaurants! In effect it has become a rubbish dump. As we approach Easter and reflect again on the events leading to that day, it might bring us up sharp to recall Jesus was killed on such a site, a rubbish tip. Christians have long mulled on this extraordinary event and tried to express some of it in our hymnody for example–
‘Ere he raised the lofty mountains,
formed of the seas, or built the sky,
love eternal, free and boundless,
moved the Lord of life to die,
foreordained the Prince of princes
for the throne of Calvary’.
(‘Come ye faithful’, Hupton and Neale)
and in some poetry too,
‘On a bare
hill a bare tree saddened
The sky. Many People
Held out their thin arms
To it, as though waiting
For a vanished April
To return to its crossed
Boughs. The son watched
Them. Let me go there, he said’. (‘The Coming’ RS Thomas).
Although we will never exhaust the depths and riches of the cross and resurrection, we know these events continue to have a visible and real impact on the lives of millions. Because here is where forgiveness is offered to broken and ruptured lives, here is where hope is restored and it is here, through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection that whole societies become more just and humane. And this is why I want to invite you once again to bring these things into the very centre of your life this Easter – don’t let them rest on the margins. As we approach a general election, we will hear a lot about ‘change’ and ‘hope’ – these are words which should resonate deeply within us because we know that Christ’s is the triumph and victory. In the ancient acclamation, as people of hope and joy, let us celebrate together: ‘Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come in glory’.
