“Death has no power over him any more”
(Romans 6v9)
There is poem by the seventeenth-century English poet John Donne that begins: “Death be not proud, though some have called thee/Mighty and dreadful…” And it finishes: “one short sleep past, we awake eternally, / And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.”
Death died for us when we imitated the death of Christ in our baptism. That was made possible because of two short statements in the Gospel, “he has risen, he is not here”. On those two utterances at the tomb hang all our faith and our hope. The Church herself exists to proclaim that simple message – that the one who was crucified has risen, he is not here. Death has not had the final word; death has not held him. This most crucial revelation was entrusted to women in the first place, rather than to the male disciples, as was the first mandate to evangelise, to tell others of this wonderful, if initially terrifying, event. To be told that the final resurrection had begun here and now was an experience like no other. No wonder their immediate, though temporary, reaction was to flee and be silent.
But they overcome their silence, and the telling of their experience brings us together at Easter to make real for us and to celebrate all that is meant by “HE HAS RISEN, HE IS NOT HERE”. Now it is for us to proclaim that truth in our day and in our place, just as they heard it, Simply “he has risen, he is not here”, Death has died. Alleluia.
Services at St Bertoline’s
Holy Week & Easter
PALM SUNDAY
Parish Communion
with Blessing of Palm Crosses
10.30am
MAUNDY THURSDAY
7pm
The Last Supper – Holy Communion
GOOD FRIDAY
2pm
Service for the Day
EASTER DAY
Parish Communion 10.30 am
Lord, who by raising your Son from the dead brought light and joy to the world, bring all of us into the radiance of your presence, and empower us to share our faith and hope with all we meet”.
With Every Blessing Peter