Dear Friends,

"Oh to be in England, now that April's here".  Actually, it seems like April already, even in early March - I wonder what Browning would have thought of that ?  Will the daffs still be any good by Easter ? 

We don't seem to take too much notice of the weather, other than perhaps to wonder if there will be snow on the Alpine slopes, so are you (a) on holiday ?  (b) visiting family ?  (c) planning DIY or a blitz on the garden ?  (d) looking forward to the chocolate ?  Or do you actually look forward to celebrating Easter ?!

Easter is the Festival of the Christian year; it celebrates, for Christians, the formative and central event in all of history.  Yet for many it can be the celebration of something we either don't quite believe in, or something we cannot explain, or both.  How could someone come back to life again ?  How can we expect our worldly-wise family, friends and neighbours to get their heads around it ?  Better to stick to eggs and bunnies and celebrate the new life that we see around us in Spring (except that nature is now ahead of us, and for those in the southern hemisphere it's Autumn...)

Try a different story this Easter.  The Prodigal Son - Luke 15: 11-32.  I'm sure you know it:  two brothers; the younger gets their Dad to divide their inheritance and let him enjoy it while he's still young and fit; it doesn't last long, after which nobody wants to know him; he crawls back home and gets a rapturous greeting that he neither expects nor deserves. 

The welcome home is from his Father, of course;  his elder brother is decidedly sour about the whole thing (and you can sympathize with that - but we are invited not to).  The point is that "there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine righteous people who have no need of repentance" (heavy irony).

Why am I inviting you to try this story at Easter ?  It's one of those stories where you can try to put yourself in the place of anybody.  It's easy to be the disapproving elder brother; but surely we are the younger, the wastrel ?  Or could we be as forgiving as the Father ?  All of these by turns, I think.  But look again at the elder brother, for the traditional title of the parable (`The Prodigal Son`) suggests one who wastes their money, etc., but the word `prodigal` also means being `lavish`, not stinting on expense - which, of course, is what the Father does - and I am left wondering if Jesus is not the elder brother (our elder brother, remember) finally taking the line of the Father, and taking it to extremes.  Jesus, we are told, gives his very life that others might live - now that is as prodigal as you can get.  And it would all be wasted, if there was no Resurrection.

His disciples knew what he had done, and somehow - but we can never be sure exactly how - they knew that he was alive again.  God, like the Father in the story, gives us all another chance: "my son was dead and is alive... celebrate and rejoice".

Celebrate the Healing that God offers in a special service on Sunday 29th April at 6.30 pm, when Rev. Liz Knifton (from the Acorn Healing Foundation) will speak.