Living hope!
Kirsten Rosslyn-Smith, Vicar at St Peter’s Shared Church
What gives you hope? A huge question I know – but I wonder if new life brings a sense of hope to you? It does to me!
It’s this time of year as March comes round and the bulbs start poking their heads through the ground, bringing bright colours that we may naturally feel a little more hopeful.
The yearly rhythm of new life shows us that out of the death of winter new life comes. This is reflected in the seasons of Lent and Easter too.
Many people give things up for Lent, probably most commonly chocolate! My grandmother used to give up smoking which was a hopeful thing, stopping a habit in order to have new life… it didn’t always work – by Easter she’d be desperate for a cigarette! Lent begins on 5th March this year!
Last year someone I have never met paid for my lunch at a café – sort of ‘paying it forward’. I was really touched and wanted to do the same for someone else.
But it got me thinking of hope, what can we do to bring hope? I wonder if there are other things that we can do on the way to Easter that will generate hope for people? Last year someone I have never met paid for my lunch at a café – sort of ‘paying it forward’. I was really touched and wanted to do the same for someone else. That sort of thing restores hope – hope in human kindness. I wondered what had made them do it too?
What would you like to do to bring hope? Perhaps sowing kindness or being generous in what we do – this needn’t be money – generosity can be in the form of a thoughtful note or even biting our tongue sometimes! Or offering a helping hand? All these kinds of things sow hope. One year my mother-in-law made a cake each week and waited to see who it was for or who needed it – this encouraged both her and the person who received it each time.
Many people give things up for Lent, probably most commonly chocolate!
These things – you could call them random acts of kindness – breed more hope in others. It’s a way of living out hope. If Lent is about sowing hope, then Easter is about a real and lasting, living hope – the realisation that death does not have the last word, that there is a bigger and deeper hope than the usual life-cycles that we all live through. And that hope is for every and any season – in darkness and light, in joy and sorrow.
If Lent is about sowing hope, then Easter is about a real and lasting, living hope…
Always there, never failing. This is what we celebrate at Easter: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the promise of new life in Him! Freedom, real and living hope, making a difference every day. Here is a blessing of Hope – ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him that you may be filled and overflow with hope’.
Hopefully see you soon!
Kirsten
Vicar at St Peter’s Shared Church
Sunday 30th March
Mothering Sunday Service
10.00am Celebrate your Mum, with posies for giving out to women who have made a difference in your life.
Sunday 20th April
Messy Easter Celebration
Join in with Messy Easter Celebration at 10.00am on 20th April followed by the Egg Hunt on the Green for all the family.
For early birds! 7.00am at the top of Bellfields Green Welcoming Easter Day service.
For other services in Holy week and Easter including Palm Sunday check out our website or Facebook page.
