New Beginnings

Easter Day 2006, April 16. For a selection of readings see here Isaiah 25:6-9;Acts 10:34-43;Psalm 118:1-2,14-24; 1 Cor 15:1-11; John 20:1-18; Mark 16:1-8

Today, as every Easter Day, we are given the opportunity
to reaffirm our Christian commitment.
We are asked:
Do you turn to Christ? and we will gladly reply
I turn to Christ.

But this is not enough
because following Jesus, turning to Christ,
is not some weird magical incantation
we are asked also three questions
about what we will do
to put this into practice
Do you repent of your sins?
Let's be blunt
each one of us has sinned.
We have all decided that we would hurt other people
and hurt them
We have all told lies and cheated.
We have all chosen to not love when we had the choice to love.
To repent of our sins means we now choose
today to not do that.
We choose to admit our past failing
and today, on this day of new beginning,
Easter Day
we promise to live our life differently.

Do you reject selfish living?
We live in a world of incredible selfishness.
At the very least and at the most obvious
we in Australia live in total luxury
while in parts of Africa
thousands of people are starving.
We also make many decisions
day by day
when we effectively say
I choose to prefer myself
at the expense of another person.
I am not here talking about the fact
that we have a degree of good fortune
thanks be to God
But that sometimes, even often,
we choose to neglect the needs of the most desperate
and look only after ourselves.
And we name that as OK.

When we reject selfishness
we must find ways to be kind, to be generous, to share
We cannot combat selfishness and not share.

Finally we are asked a serious question
Do you reject evil?
We might ask ourselves: but what is evil?
And it is not an easy question.
But it revolves around the way we view other people.
Each one of us is made in the image of God,
and therefore we should treat all other people
with equal dignity and respect,
but do we do that?
When we see people as commodities rather than individuals,
when we think only of people as sexual objects
when we see anyone as disposable
we are assenting to evil in the profoundest way.

When we see our government treating people
as though they have no individual worth
or with carelessness
and are quiet
or even agree that that is how they should be treated
are we not assenting to evil?

When we are silent, when we should speak out,
or when we trivialise the lives of others
and say that they, their problems, their aspirations
are not worthwhile
we diminish ourselves, and each other.

Evil is hard to pin down.
Evil is dangerous because it is slippery.
Evil will and nail the loving Christ to the Cross.

The message of Easter is that Christ can and does
put an end to evil.
Never allow yourself to believe otherwise.

Can you turn to Christ, today?
Will you turn to Christ, today?
Do you turn to Christ?

Because Christ turns himself to you.