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The Rector Preaches his Easter Sermon
 In
the April Edition of the Beacon, out today, you will soon
realise that we have something in common with the Easter
Story today.
We believe that during the recent earth earthquake to hit
the UK, reading 4.8 on the Richter scale, that the Reredos
of this Church was cracked – it may not have been a major
earthquake which announced the arrival of the angel to roll
away the stone of the tomb but it certainly shook this
Church. Our insurers have accepted liability but we may take
the opportunity to restore the Reredos at the same time.
The last major earthquake to hit Norfolk was in 1931 which
was 6.1 on the Richter scale. The epicentre was Great
Yarmouth. There was damage to property and to the Parish
Church.
Earthquakes and earth tremors were not that uncommon in the
time of Jesus and it was such an earthquake that heralded
the great event of the resurrection of Jesus which is
recorded in all four gospels and in St Paul’s first letter
to the Corinthians chapter 15.
However, in the Bible, Jesus was not the only one to be
brought back to life. In the Old Testament we read of Elijah
the prophet raising the window’s son from the dead and in
John we read of Jesus raising Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter
from the dead. And of course Peter one our patron saints -
raised Tabitha.
So what is unusual about Jesus’ resurrection? Lazarus and
others who had been raised from the dead were allowed more
years to live and that it. Eventually their bodies would
wear our and their hearts stop, and all would die. But
Jesus’ resurrection was to eternal life.
The story of Holy Week and Easter so beautifully portrayed
in the recent BBC production entitled ‘The Passion’, is all
about redemption.
No wonder high in the East Window of this Church is depicted
the symbol the resurrected lamb, the Resurrected Christ. The
lamb is shown as a symbol because it was at Passover every
day during the festival a lamb was slaughtered in the Temple
to atone for the sin of the people.
The idea of atonement or repentance for sin may not be the
most popular subject for Easter Day but that is what the
events of Jesus’ life has been leading up to.
From the announcement by John the Baptist in the wilderness
‘Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’
we see Jesus undertaking a ministry calling for people to
change their ways.
The BBC film ‘The Passion’ showed quite clearly the
tackiness of life in Jesus’ time, the unfairness and
injustice leading up to the injustice of releasing a guilty
man Barabbas and convicting an innocent one Jesus.
But replace Jesus on the cross with a lamb and you have the
symbolism. As the slaughtered lambs at the Passover Festival
atoned for the sin of the people, so Jesus’ atonement on the
cross for sin was offering us a wonderful new path which is
possible for all.
No wonder the Christian message goes down so well in the
poorer parts of Africa, South America, India and even China
one of the largest growing Christian Churches in the world
where life can be so unfair, and injustice very obvious and
the divide between rich and poor so apparent. The Christian
message provides a wonderful future free from the
difficulties of the present world.
But with this freedom from sin comes a wonderful gift of
everlasting life. The women at the tomb knew little. They
were told news of the resurrection of Christ but were so
frightened but eventually this wonderful news would be a
reality and gradually the Church would understand that this
cruel death had freed them from sin and they could begin
again.
Sacrificing lambs would soon come to end as the Roman
destroyed the Temple in AD 70, and a new world would begin
as Christianity gradually took hold and swept through the
world with this message that Christ had died for our sins
and we now have everlasting life.
Today in the world this simple basic Christian message needs
to be told and retold to each generation. And so today we
launch our new website
www.fakenham parish.org.uk.
– It is still in the making – it will be revised and added
to in the coming weeks but we must thank our webmaster
Daniel Gibbins of the Church Website Design Project for his
hard work. With this website everyone here has a wonderful
new opportunity. We have a new way of sending our message to
Fakenham and throughout out the world.
Today we must use every method to promote the Christian
Gospel. We have some wonderful news which could change
people’s lives for ever. We may all fear dying as Jesus did,
this is natural response, but we should never ever fear
death itself. The Festival of Easter with its wonderful
flowers and colour, even on this cold day, herald’s new
life. Let’s go out from this Church today and tell people of
this new life which is for everyone upon earth.
The Reverend Adrian Bell, Rector. |
