5th April The ups and downs of Easter Sunday


Lying in bed at 11pm listening to the rain lash against my bedroom  window and the howlign wing upturn three of my bins, sending than carrearing down my drive and into the garabe door with an almight bang did not bode well for the 6am sunrise service today. And I couldn't help but wonder how many people in a similar situation would simply forget to set their alarms for an early start. Unfortunatly as I was leading the service I didn't have that luxury.

Thankfully we were greeted by a calm almost cloudless day with a fantastic picture of the moon hung in the pre dawn sky and thoughts of the 4 astronaots on board the Artemis rocket curren;t about to disappear behind its far side. The assembled masses although a litel slow to arrive did swell so that by the 6am start there was a good nemuber present from across the various denominatins of Hucknall, Linby and Papplewick. As for the service itself, which I thought was a really good start to the day,  well we reclaimed the Easter egg for Christianity ( E= Empty, G= Good News and the final G= Go)

As for the 10.30am service well I think the last said about that the better. Maybe it was my fault that I chose to retell the Easter story not through a traditional sermon but through a game of 'He is Risen' bingo. Whatever it was the singing was pretty dire, the mood felt flat and I couldn't wait for it all to be over. All of which goes to reinforce why Easter Sunday is one of my least favourite services to lead.

Thankfuly events picked up later that afternoon when a reduced gathering watched the final film in our 'Faces of Jesus' series that has run throughout Lent with 'Risen',  a thought provoking film showing the manhunt by the religious and Roman authorities to find the body of Jesus thus disproving the 'rumour' that he had risen from the dead. A good end to what had been a rather up and down day.

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