Address
Ampthill Road
Shefford
SG17 5BD
contact@sheffordmethodist.co.uk
WELCOME TO THE
‘Hope’ and a Happy Easter
Reflection from Rev. Lorna
The first Sunday of April is Easter Day. Hooray! A day that after dark times and death, brings hope and new life.
I always think it’s easy for us to miss just how unexpected this hope and new life felt to those who experienced it. We approach the story of Lent knowing the outcome of Easter. We know that Jesus will not remain in the darkness of the garden tomb. We know that he is risen. We know that the disciples are in for a suprising time of resurrection appearances where Jesus offers words of peace, shows them the scars of crucifixion and even sits down to eat with them. We know there will be chocolate eggs and celebration!!
The story we often hear after Easter that sticks in my mind though is about two disciples leaving Jerusalem after Jesus’ death. They’re walking along a road that leads to Emmaus feeling pretty miserable. A stranger starts to walk with them who seems oblivious to what’s happened. They share their story with him and we feel their disappointment as they say they had hoped for something different. Imagine their surprise then when at the end of the story, they realise they weren’t wrong to have hope, that the stranger is Jesus and he is alive! It gives them new life too and they go around telling everyone about it.
I think it’s fair to say we’ve had some disappointing and probably even miserable times over the past year. There may well have been things we hoped for that didn’t or felt as if they didn’t happen. Yet the story of Easter is a story of finding new hope, new life, new beginnings.
My hope this Easter then is that, even if it comes in ways we don’t expect, we can all find our own new hope, new life and new beginnings. Happy Easter. God of hope, we give thanks for the Easter story of hope and new life. Help us to recognise the signs of hope in our own lives and communites. May we enable hope to thrive in those places by the power of the risen Christ. Amen.
Every blessing, Lorna
Julie, our church organist and pianist, has been recording some piano pieces based on worship songs:
Hymns Of Comfort
My Jesus, my Saviour
There is a Redeemer
Cornerstone
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord
Rhapsody Chorus from Peterborough have recently recorded this version of The Lord's Prayer
Christmas Music
What child is this( advent)
Silent Night
The Angel Suite
A Christmas Celebration
In dulce jubilo
https://youtu.be/Xt8bhG6N_i0
The Virgin Mary
https://youtu.be/kqB2cZBWR-A
To know and love God more fully and to encourage others to do the same
