Easter energises us spiritually. The stone was not rolled away to let Jesus out. His resurrected body didn’t need that, as his later appearances were to demonstrate. No, it was rolled away to let us in; to show us, as it showed the disciples, that the resurrection is not wishful thinking. It is a reality, then, now and always. Jesus did not come back to life; he was not a survivor. No, the resurrection is so much more than that. Jesus moved through death and defeated it, once for all, so that we need have no fear of it.

The resurrection is not just an interesting incident to read about; it is a reality; it is a life-changer; it is the fulfilment of all Jesus spoke about during his ministry; everything Isaiah and the prophets envisioned. When God’s love and man’s sin battled at the cross, God’s love won and continues to win in the risen Christ.

So, brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome to our gathering of the forgetful and the doubtful, the far from perfect community of disciples that is united with the women and all followers of Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection. His resurrection has happened to us and God is at work in each of us now, working to accomplish salvation. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead in that garden has begun God’s new creation.

Alleluia! The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

This post is the final section of the sermon preached by the Rev Carol Latimer at St Serf’s, Burntisland on Easter Day, 20 April 2025. You can read the whole sermon at this link.

The post title, chosen by your webmaster, also reflects a line in the hymn we sang on Good Friday – “There is a green hill”.

Photo by Pisit Heng on Unsplash.

Last Sunday we celebrated Candlemas, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and Rev Sheila Cameron reflected in her sermon on the watching and waiting of Simeon and Anna. Here are some of her thoughts:

The story of Simeon and Anna meeting the infant Jesus is a story about patient waiting finally rewarded, and it’s also a story about vision. … There are times when we all wait for promises to be fulfilled; and as people of faith, we look for signs of God’s presence and purpose in our lives. And we’re encouraged in our waiting when we have a clear vision of what could be and must surely be. Luke shows us through both Simeon and Anna that, if we hold on to our faith even when nothing seems to be happening for us, it will be rewarded in God’s good time, and that the Holy Spirit of God will be revealed in us and through us, his faithful people.

…

We’re all called to times of waiting for God to answer our prayers, times when our faith is sorely tested. The story of Simeon and Anna tells us that we should never give up hoping for the Lord’s appearing. Sometimes we have to wait a very long time but, if we wait in faith, our faith will eventually be rewarded. … If the things we pray for really are the things God wants for us, then we can be assured that our prayers will be answered in God’s good time. We may not get everything we desire, but we’ll get what in the sight of God is right for us. May the things you hope for be the things God desires for you, and may God sustain you with wonderful visions of things to come in all your times of waiting. Amen.

Do read the whole sermon, which is available at this link.

Our picture of someone watching and waiting is by Ümit Bulut and comes from the Unsplash platform.

Last Sunday was Trinity Sunday, so Rev Sheila Cameron joined the many preachers struggling to define and explain the difficult concept of the Holy Trinity! Here are some of her thoughts:

Our three-personed God should not be seen as one person wearing three different hats, or operating in three separate modes, but as a unity of three persons who have co-existed from the very beginning … inseparable in the creation, the redeeming and sustaining of the world.

… A(nother) helpful image of the Trinity I’ve come across is that of light: think of the light produced by a candle, where the three elements of wax, wick and flame come together simultaneously to create light. No one part can provide light without the presence of the other two; all three parts need to combine for the whole to realise its purpose of bringing light into darkness.

… We say that God is love, and this is another image that demands threefold participation: for divine love, like all loves, cannot exist without the threefold interaction of the one who loves, the one who is loved and the love itself that binds them together. And through the beloved Son, Jesus Christ, in his relationship with God the Father, we too are drawn into that fellowship of love with God and with one another.

I’ve come to see that our three-personed God contains everything our human nature requires in one true God who is creator, redeemer and sustainer. The created world of which we are a part is a place of poignant beauty: poignant because it contains pain and imperfection, loss and unfulfilled longing. But our faith teaches us that we’re moving onwards towards perfection, the perfect creation that exists in the mind of God the Father, and we believe we can do this only through the gift of Jesus, the Son. … Our ultimate destiny is union with God in glory and divine perfection. We need to be redeemed, forgiven and reconciled to our creator and to one another; and in the absence of the physical Jesus we need to be sustained and blessed in our daily struggle by that third person of the Trinity, God’s Holy Spirit – dwelling within us, among us, and in our world.

Do read the whole sermon, which is available at this link.

Our picture is of the floral arrangement at Rosyth Methodist Church created for Trinity Sunday by Val Leslie.