The Easter Message
Portsmouth Cathedral
Easter Vigil – 2004
A few weeks ago, I visited the Rainbow Centre in Fareham, not far from where we live. There I met about 20 pre-school children who were born with cerebral palsy – with part of their brain paralysed, because not enough oxygen could get to their brain while they were growing in their mother’s womb. What their teachers and supervisers try to do is help them to use the rest of their brain, the bits that can function normally, to make up for the rest – whether it’s learning to roll around on the floor in such a way that they can understand what is happening, or perhaps learn how to speak a few words.
As I watched these lovable, smiling children, I thought what a divine challenge they were: to the big powers of the world, whose only language seems at times to be about trying to smash each other out of existence; to the religious fundamentalisms, Christian included, who are keen to accept everybody, just as long as they agree with them on every single doctrinal point; and to those manipulative groups, not unknown even in the Church, who are determined to be oppressed minorities – except, of course, if they are bishops!
We are here tonight to celebrate Christ’s resurrection – which is about God’s determination to come back for more, even when we are determined to do away with him. We have done so already by kindling and switching on the Easter lights, in order to read the whole story of our arrival on this planet and our struggle for faith in the light of the Easter gospel; and we shall go on to celebrate its truth in bread and wine at the Table of the Risen Lord. But before we go there, something else must get in the way – the baptism of six new Christians, together with the confirmation, a booster dose of baptism, for around forty others. Easter is one of the best times for this, because their spiritual rebirth coincides with our celebration of Christ’s rising from the tomb. Several preachers of the early Church refer to the font as ‘womb of rebirth’. It is impossible for the rest of us not to be caught up in the contours of this whole service, which underneath all the colour and ceremony is very simple, and archaic.
But how? Think back to those children with cerebral palsy, who can learn to use the functioning parts of their brain to make up for what does not work. The same is true of the Easter faith. God is alive in each one of us, helping us to use what we have and what we are in such a way as to make up for what we do not have and are not yet, as well as what does not work at all, and what destroys rather than builds up. What is it that he helps us use? Not the brute force of aggressive power; nor the bully-boy tactics of religious fanatics; nor the self-centredness of those who want their own way at all costs. God has plenty of time for such people, but little use. The foundations of his kingdom are, quite simply, the mechanisms of his heavenly brain, the mind of Christ – which are faith, hope, and love; faith that can look back on the past, however murky, and still trust in God; hope that can look forward to the future, however fearful and uncertain it makes us; and love of the here and now, our world, my world, as it is - and as the arena of God’s redeeming power.
+ Kenneth Portsmouth
