An Easter Message from Bishop James - April 2021
‘From closed doors to open doors, from the stone across the tomb, to the stone rolled away.’
Sitting in the garden at Bishopscourt, with the sun shining, with daffodils out in the garden, with the birds singing, it is almost possible to forget everything that has been going on.
It seems slightly unreal to think about it, but of course a huge amount has been going on for these last 12 months.
Recently, we had the National Day of Reflection. I was there with Dean Phillip and with the High Sheriff of Kent, tying our yellow ribbons to the railings outside the Cathedral. We were remembering lives lost, people bereaved, people who have been very ill and are still facing the effects of that.
Remembering also the economic and employment effects of all that has been going on and perhaps particularly the way in which we have been cut off from each other.
Our communities are not what they were.
Our family relationships have been dissected as it were, as we have distanced ourselves from one another. It is interesting to reflect on all of that language as we approach this time.
But here we are now and though there are still many challenges and the future is uncertain, and certainly as we look across The Channel and indeed across the wider world, we see infections rising in a number of places. Nonetheless here, with vaccines being rolled out, we dare to begin to look forward to a different kind of future.
Somehow, there is something very appropriate about that being at Eastertime. We are moving from a day of being, as it were locked away, to a day when things may open-up. The stone was rolled in front of the tomb and sealed and then on Easter day, the stone is rolled back.
The imagery of these days has not been particularly good has it? Things closed, church buildings closed in many cases, though some have valiantly worked to keep them open at least to some extent. And of course, other places of gathering closed as well: museums, art galleries, theatres, concert halls, football grounds. It has seemed weird. Doors have been closed in so many ways and we have been shut away.
At our Easter, doors are opened, the stone is rolled away. Easter, yes, it is an end - and this year it is an ending of what has seemed like a 12-month Lent to some people - but Easter is a beginning as well.
So, the question arises for us, what is it into which we are going to be moving?
I do not mean that just in terms of the practicalities of being able to get out and about again, because my hope and prayer is that as we emerge from this long Lent and the doors are open, the stone is rolled away and we begin to live new life, that out of these days we will live life that is better.
In the New Testament there are contrasts, particularly in St Paul between the old life and the new life. The old life which you take off, the new life which you put on, and all that is tied up with resurrection imagery. So, what will be the new life that we put on?
Yes of course, renewed life of worship and of prayer, but also a new life of gathering together, whether in our congregations or with family and friends. That renewing of relationship where we have been literally separated from one another, cut off from one another, and once again pray God, at the right time, we will be able both physically and literally to embrace one another again.
But also, because of some of the things that we have been experiencing through these days, we have become aware of where we would like the future world to be different.
Maybe some of our patterns of working life will be different. We will be able to live more balanced ways of life. We will not be cramming quite so many people into trains to commute up down to London and spend days in offices with thousands of other people. There may be different patterns, more human patterns, frankly.
Also, what about the world in which we live? We have become aware of patterns of injustice during this time. We pray that this new world might have ways in which we address that, where we look at issues of justice and fairness and equity in our society and make changes.
We have become aware of terrible things like domestic violence during these days; pray God we work in relation to that. And of course, this has been a global pandemic which spread rapidly across the whole world largely because of the kind of world we live in with rapid communication and all of that.
Are there things we would wish to have different in our world as we care for God's creation in new ways and try to live more balanced lives as those who are the custodians the stewards of that which God has entrusted to us?
This is coming I think for us, at an appropriate moment this Easter, as we begin to look forward. As we think about the new life and what that might hold. As we move from closed doors to open doors, the stone across the tomb to the stone rolled away.
Pray God that in this season, we may find both God's blessing in the presence of the risen Christ with us, coming with us through all that we have been through and into these new days.
Pray God also that the new life of Christ may inspire us to live and work in new ways, that the world which we now shape will be one which truly reflects the resurrection life of Jesus Christ.
May God bless you all this Eastertide.
Bishop James Langstaff
Bishop of Rochester