Vicar's Talk April / May

Dear All,

What a long winter we've just been through. In fact as I write this to you it feels as though it is never going to end.

I do have conflicting feelings and thoughts regarding winter. On the one hand I think of the warmth at home, the long drawn nights with a roaring fire and a cosy blanket, a hot drink and maybe a nice brandy or a good whisky. On the other hand there are wet dark evenings and mornings, feeling cold and being unable to get warm.

So the jury is still out on deciding about winter (even at my age). However when it comes to spring, wow, I get so excited; colours and signs of life everywhere.

In addition, spring speaks of the nearness of Easter, release of energy into weakness and victory of life over death. Every year I tend to spend a lot of time preparing for Easter, and over the years the time spent in preparation made the celebrations of Easter day immensely enhanced and extremely engaging.

I suppose it is the same as everything else in life - the more you put in, the more you get out. In our spiritual life we often seem to think that spiritual growth and vigour will just happen to us by itself. While I do not want to give the suggestion that nearness to God depends entirely on our efforts, I also want to protect us from the notion that God does it all for us. It is about a partnership in pursuit, acknowledging the wonderful generosity of God in reaching to me but also realising that to get more out of the spiritual life with God we need to actively seek him by spending time with him and being in his company.

The disciples’ walk with Jesus was so intense that they left everything and spent three entire years with him. That is commitment! That shows how serious they were about walking with him, resulting in the disciples feeling the intense sense of joy, disappointment and victory as they went through life with him.

First and foremost our call is to be with him, spend time with him, invest in him and not just by serving him and doing things for him. For as we do that we will find a new sense of purpose, a new sense of excitement about who he is and this will inevitably result in serving him. In addition, as we take time to ponder and prepare for the main feasts and key Christian events of the year our celebration and connection with him will be as immense and as transforming as that of the early disciples.

Don’t you long for the sense of a walk with him that is so fresh and so full of joy and intimacy? Take the time to prepare, to be with him and celebrate.

A happy and blessed Easter to each and every one of you.

Jesus is Risen!