A message from Stacey – April 2016

Dear friends,

During the Easter season, we sing “Hymn of Promise:”

In our end is our beginning, in our time, infinity;

In our doubt there is believing; in our life. eternity.

In our death, a resurrection, at the last, a victory,

Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

Living in the northern hemisphere, we experience Easter in springtime – a time of new life, promises, possibilities.  We see the flower, the apple tree’s blossoms, the butterflies.  Our brothers and sisters in the southern hemisphere experience Easter during the fall.  For them, the Easter hope is a promise, still unrevealed: the bulb, the seed, the cocoon.

But it is all a part of the cycle that God has created: life, death, new life; hope, pain, eternal life.  For the new to come, the old must die.  For hope to blossom, we must give up our tightened grasp of what is, so that something better can be born.  There is a moment of letting go, of accepting an ending, before the promise can become reality.  We must accept what appears to be defeat before a greater victory can emerge.

Our lives, as individuals and as a congregation, echo the parable of the seasons,  no matter where we celebrate Easter.  God urges us towards greater trust by allowing us to live the certain cycle of the natural world.  We believe that when we give ourselves to God, despite our anxiety, God will answer our trust with blessing.  As the hymn also says:  in our doubt there is believing, in our life, eternity.

Christ is risen!

Christ is risen indeed!

In God’s Love

Stacey