MIKE Easter in Lockdown
Below is something from our resident vicar - Michael Johnson. It seemed very necessary to ask him for a contribution during the Easter weekend and I am grateful he said yes.
MICHAEL JOHNSON
I like Easter! After the months of winter and the privations of Lent, Easter comes as a joyful sign of hope that things are getting better all the time.
I don’t like Lent. It is a time of self-discipline. I tell myself that this is good for me. I give up things - a bit: this year it was alcohol, but only during the week. Hard, but it could have been harder. It is a time of self-examination, of reflection, of doing that most uncomfortable of things, looking at what I’m really like, who I really am, and all the things that I don’t want you, even you, to see and know. Yes, I know that these things are good for body, mind and soul in the long run, but no fun at the time.
In church, the music is austere, the words are uncomfortable, and the building is stripped of anything moveable which enhances and provides beauty. At the beginning of Lent, the days are short, the nights, long, the weather, cold, wet, windy.
It ends with remembering Jesus’ poignant entry into Jerusalem, a move which was inevitably going to lead to his death; the Last Supper, arrest, torture, a fake trial with dodgy witnesses and finally, crucifixion.
Trump’s latest gaffe in wishing the American people a ‘happy Good Friday’ stands as a reminder for all who have a firmer grasp on the Christian story, that this was anything but a happy day.
With the long-awaited Easter morning heralding the end of the lockdown of Lent, there comes renewed hope that life and faith (and, for me, these two are intertwined) will be more celebratory. The promise of new life at Easter is, for me fulfilled every year with joyful worship, Easter hymns and celebration with family and friends.
But, this year is so totally different. The lockdown after Easter day will not be Lenten, but it will be a lockdown nonetheless; harder for some than others, disruptive for all; debilitating for those with covid-19; tragic for families across the world who have lost loved ones. Lockdown is unpalatable, but necessary.
So, the question is, where do we find the new life that Easter is supposed to be all about? The answer lies much deeper than simply what I feel about passing from one side of the milestone of Easter, to the other. It lies, in part, at least, in the new discoveries that we are making about how to live, how to relate and even more important, the sort of world that we are living in. It is found in the national appreciation of the NHS, in the daily acts of kindness shown to neighbours, in people being much more friendly as they pass in the street (whilst carefully observing 2 metres of social distancing, of course), in much more frequent communication with friends and family, in reassessing our values and what is really important for us, the whole of humanity and the planet.
Lockdown is changing us. The challenge of Easter is to embrace the new life that resurrection offers, and to resolve to hold on to the best of what we are discovering now, when lockdown is lifted.
