And so we finally come to what may be thought of – in some senses at least – as the most important Sunday of the year. If resurrection is just about a miraculous event that happened to Jesus long ago, or if it’s only about something that happens to some people at the end of time, then it has little real value, no matter how fascinating it may be. But, of course, resurrection is about far more than this. It’s the promise of God’s life available to us both now and forever. And it the call for us to follow Christ by becoming life-givers and agents of resurrection in our families, communities and our world. What a glorious and miraculous challenge!

May the empty tomb be more than an event for us as we worship this year, and may our worship lead us into a real and transforming encounter with God’s irrepressible life!

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Easter is not over! While we celebrated Easter Sunday last week, the fifty day Easter Season continues until Pentecost Sunday on 12 June. During this time the Lectionary invites us to dig deep into the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection. This season flows out of Holy Week as a kind of mirror of Lent which led us into it – the latter being a preparation for the powerful and challenging journey of Holy Week, and the former being an outworking of the Holy Week experience. This week the gift of the Lectionary is the gift of assurance – a confidence that our faith is not just a fantasy, or a distant dream, but is something real and transforming that we can experience and live each day.

May the power of resurrection life fill our souls as we worship this week, and throughout the Easter Season.

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The Emmaus Road is a compelling story. It is a curious way for Jesus to reveal himself to these two disciples, but it is also a moment that called them to a response. It is all too easy for faith to become an academic exercise or a "thing we do" on Sundays which has little connection with life. But if the resurrection is to be known and lived, we cannot just have ideas about it. We must respond to it – not just once, as to a once-off event, but in every moment, as to something that is a constant reality in the universe. It is this challenge that makes this week of the Easter Season both meaningful and pregnant with possibility.

May our worship this week lead us to encounter life such that we cannot avoid offering ourselves to life in response!

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If we have become accustomed to think of resurrection life as something that we receive and enjoy primarily as individuals, this week’s Lectionary readings will come as something of a shock. Through the interesting collage of metaphors – sheep and Shepherd, suffering and care, life and togetherness in the community of faith – we are drawn into recognising that the life Christ offers us is always shared. If we are to know the reality of the resurrection, we will discover it as we care for one another and share life in mutual compassion and protection.

May we be drawn into unity and communion with God and each other as we seek for life in our worship.

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