Easter morning

We were up early on Easter day to drive to Bungwal for the service at a small wooden country church set on a hill overlooking a lake. It was a wild day - the wind wipping up the surf stretching along the coastline as we drove there. Inside the church, with seating for about 50, the light streamed through the windows which had panels of blue, red and yellow stained glass around central plain glass. The owner of the logging business that operated here in a big way 125 years ago brought over the stained glass and no doubt the bell from Scotland when he built the church for the Anglicans among those he employed as loggers. This Easter two priests shared the service - Jessica, a dynamic 30 year old woman and an older retired priest - a great combination. We started the service outside to light the paschal candle moving it into the small wooden porch to shield it from the wind. Then we all processed after the candle into the church. Jessica spoke about Mary at the tomb when Jesus appeared to her. When she thought he was the gardner Jesus spoke her name and she responded "Rabbi"! Jesus said to her "Do not hold onto me". Jessica suggested that in calling him "Rabbi" she was wanting him to be as he had always been and for things to return to what they had been. Jesus was urging her not to hold on to this but to see this was a new day and things were going to be different. A good message for us in this new decade. May we be ready to move on to the new things God has for us.