Easter 2020, reflections on sabbath and Resurrection ........


It was impossible only a few weeks ago to imagine this Holy Week.

I had at that time agreed with Michael that Donkey Oatey would lead our Palm Sunday procession and there was some conversation in our Local Ministry Group about what services would be offered as we journeyed through Holy Week.

It would have been impossible to have ever imagined that we would be facing the isolation of a multi - national lockdown, where our Church would be closed and that we would be celebrating Easter in isolation.

But here we are. Our grief is a grief that is shared as we  make preparations for ways of allowing our hearts to sing in this strange land in which we find ourselves stranded, our securities gone and our fears disturbing us.

We grieve and God in the person of Jesus grieves alongside us.

As our Holy Week begins, instead of Palms and Crowds singing Ride on, Ride on in Majesty we see Jesus riding into the silent City, a City devoid of people, a City where there are no crowds to shout Hosanna., a City where there are no crowds to shout Crucify.

A week or so ago we found ourselves standing with Jesus at the entrance to the tomb of his friend Lazarus. He grieved then as we now grieve at the loss of our former lives. Now we are 'groaning', just as St Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit 'groaning' within us,  so we 'groan' with the pain of creation.

I have been posting prayers on Facebook each day since St John's was closed.

But my prayers are not prayers to bring this Virus to an abrupt end in order that we can proclaim the greatness of God. My prayers are a recognition that God is in the midst of this with us. Prayers that seek to hold people in the love of God. Prayers that recognise our own sinfulness as individuals and as nations.

This Holy Week I will continue to seek silence in order that God can pray within and through me, prayers as tears, tears as prayers, prayers as a lament for what is happening.

If we read the Bible critically what we discover is that God also laments. As Jesus' tears washed down over the City that did not know the things that belonged to its peace so God's heart reaches out to be with us in a time of global need.

There is no Christian explanation for what is happening, what the Church must attempt to do and during our pilgrimage through this strange and bewildering Holy Week as we walk with a Christ figure who is isolated to death, and whose cry of Eloi, Eloi Lama Sabachtani echoes from the cross on which he is hung, is to lament for the world, for our lost innocence, for our pain, for our sense of isolation.

It is as the spirit laments with us, even in our self isolation, that we can become agents of the change that is needed, where both the presence and healing love of God can be made known.

It is clear that the small things we have given up for Lent now seem trivial compared to what we have given up because of the Virus. Each other's company through six feet of separation, concerts, meals out, visits to the pub, even the Church itself.

The Eucharist is still being celebrated, bread broken and wine spilt, but it is being celebrated for the parish and congregation rather than with!

If this virus has us in the grip of fear for ourselves, for our families, for our friends from where, as the Psalmist asks, will our help come?

As Stephen Cottrell, The Bishop of Chelmsford, who is to become Archbishop of York, wrote in the Spectator; there is nothing good about this virus but that does not mean that good cannot come out of it.

There was nothing good about that first Holy Week. There was of course betrayal, hand washing, a Via Dolorosa. So as we have knelt before the Cross on Good Friday's before this, as we have remained in watch on Holy Saturday hardly daring to believe in the promise of Resurrection, only to celebrate Joyfully on Easter Sunday with the shared words:

 He is Risen, He is Risen indeed.

That ultimately is the promise that lies at the heart of the Gospel.  On the first Easter Day, it was the women who were witnesses to the Resurrection, who told the Disciples that Jesus would go before them to Galilee.

Galilee is both an actual geographical place but it is also a metaphor, as the disciples seek to return to their fishing and their former lives, they were challenged to become agents of Good News.

After the virus has been contained we must not simply go back to our former way of living. As nature reminds us the earth has responded to our isolation, the air is cleaner as cars and airplanes are parked. People have responded to the plea to stop panic buying, food is now left on supermarket shelves for others. There is recognition of who we rely on to make community, deliver our food, maintain the environment, the importance of the social fabric for our health and our well being.

After this strangest of Holy Weeks and a Lock Down which is proving to be an extended Sabbath we look for Resurrection in a life renewed and refreshed.

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