Easter Sunday

Following the risen Christ is a vocation – a
calling. To follow Christ is to share the fate of Christ for the life of the world. This is not an
enviable position. Sharing the fate of Christ is about accepting the crucifixion that happens when opposites coincide: Jesus was crucified
between a “good” thief and a “bad”, at the place where heaven and earth meet, a male saviour, yet saviour to women.  Following the risen Christ has little to do with
saying the right things, believing the correct things about God and little to do with knowing the creeds off by heart.  It is about loving what Christ loves in the way that Christ loves. Loving what Christ loves in the way that Christ loves is so generous and inclusive, so kind and tolerant, that
crucifixion is a given.

Sharing the fate of Christ is about sharing the crucifixion, but also about sharing the Resurrection, which is sometimes the harder journey – as it may require more faith. The cross and resurrection together demonstrate what it takes to be used by God. It does not mean that you ‘get to heaven and others don’t’. It means you are already in heaven with everyone else and can see in a new and healing way.

 John 20:1-8

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;