This reflection by Rev. Carolyn Lawrance was originally published in the April, 2014 Monthly Letter

Dear Friends,

Easter is “the feast of the unexpected”. John Pritchard, an Anglican bishop, has written that “Christ arrives from death without warning and without permission. He disturbs every attempt to make God predictable and religion safe”.

The religious leaders who had opposed Jesus thought they understood the way God worked, how they could please him and who was excluded from his favour, but Jesus surprised them with challenge.

The outcasts and sinners thought they were beyond help, they had made their mistakes, they weren’t worth bothering with, but Jesus surprised them with grace.

Jesus’ disciples thought they had lost their dearest friend, all their hopes were shattered and they were fearful of the future, but Jesus surprised them with life – His resurrected life and a new kind of life for them, as they were filled with his Spirit and sent out into the world as his witnesses.

Jesus continues to surprise us and offers new life to all. It’s a life which challenges. As we follow him, we are challenged to change those things in our lives which fall short of God’s love and holiness and are challenged to put what we believe into practice in the world.

It’s a life of grace. As we confess our failures, we also become aware of how deep God’s love for us is, how great his generosity and how gracious his forgiveness, and we are called to show that same quality of grace in all our relationships.

It’s a life of Life! Jesus’ resurrection is the start of God’s plan to renew all life and he offers us a “taster” of that life, when his Spirit comes to live in us.

This isn’t to deny that life can be hard, circumstances can be overwhelming or sometimes we can just get in a rut, but those who experienced that first Easter became witnesses to the fact that there is another reality beyond our everyday existence. God surprises us with the unexpected, proclaiming in Jesus’ resurrection that sin, evil and death can be overcome and that we can have hope and life in all its fullness.

So are we ready for God’s “unexpected” to break into our lives today and every day? God isn’t predictable but he is faithful. Jesus is alive with us now and continues to challenge, to bless us with his grace and to empower us with his life.

Revd Carolyn Lawrence