April inevitably recalls in our churches, especially on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. The first, leads us to reflection on the untimely, undeserved, yet seemingly unavoidable crucifixion, then, that initially unbelievable event, which demonstrates clearly, that God cannot be defeated by human power, evil or even physical death, assuring us that good CAN emerge from evil, and joy from sadness.
What is even harder to explain, yet vital to us, all these years later, is that our belief in the risen Jesus and the power of God’s Holy Spirit can guide and strengthen us as if to ‘die’ to the self-centredness, often described as sinfulness. This enables us to move on in life, as if we are ‘taking us our tentpole’, (one suggested translation of the words mostly rendered as ‘taking up our cross’), here and now beginning and growing into a transformed life, embodying God’s way of compassion, justice and peace.
Soon we will be celebrating Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit, sometimes described as ‘Something Wholly Other’, experienced all these years later, across the globe, deep within us, enabling us to grow in God’s wisdom as people of faith and concern, to distinguish between God’s strength and human strength, between good and evil and to follow the path of truth and life, the way of true happiness, playing our part in building God’s kingdom on earth.
Transformation
God’s inexplicable power transforms the crucified ‘defeated’ Jesus,
the broken recipient of humanity’s worst hatred into the glorified risen Lord,
beyond the scope of human evil, calling us into his realm of love.
God’s inexplicable power transforms very ordinary powerless people,
even those burdened with wrongs, inflicted by self or others
into glorified wholeness – if we come with open hearts.
So we pray.
Inspiring, Transforming, Strengthening God, with awe and reverence, we cease from our busyness to be still, taking time to attune our deepest selves to be in harmony with your ever-constant presence at the heart of the universe, communing with you in the vastness of a moment of sheer silence, ready to receive and transmit the on-going energy of transformation of our inner being, not just in Holy Week, but throughout our lives.