We all met in the bandstand (welcome to Jon’s family who have not been before and Anthony).
After most of us tried ice skating on the frozen puddle we stood together in the sunshine.
Easter Sunday morning views of Riber Castle
This is the day:
When tears are wiped away,
Shattered hearts are mended,
Fears are replaced with joy.
This is the day:
When the Lord rolls away the stone of fear,
Throws off death’s clothes,
Goes ahead of us into God’s future.
This is the day the Lord has made:
Death has no fear for us,
Sin has lost its power over us,
God opens the tombs of our hearts
to full us with life.
This is the day – Easter Day!
Christ is Risen
Hallelujah!
Easter Eggs – Fairtrade of course!
Have a guess how many chocolate Easter eggs are sold each year in the UK.
(Answer, more than 80 million.)
Easter Eggs are an Easter tradition – why?
Christians have been very clever at taking over existing symbols and making them their own. Eggs were used in Pagan times to symbolise new life and fertility in a spring festival. So early Christian missionaries used the symbol of the egg to tell the story of Jesus death and resurrection.
Throughout history there have been lots of different stories that have added eggs into the Gospel stories, but the main Christian symbolism of the egg are as follows:
- The egg represents the stone that was rolled away from the front of the tomb.
- The egg should be empty as it represents the empty tomb.
- The hard shell has to be broken to demonstrate that the power of death was broken through the resurrection of Jesus.
- Eggs represent new life through Jesus. The new life Jesus had when he rose from the dead and the new life that is offered to us when we become Christians.
Eggs were traditionally given up during the fast of Lent – so they are used once again when feasting to celebrate that Jesus had risen.
Chocolate is used today as it is a real luxury and again something some people give up during Lent.
It takes the whole crop from one cocoa tree to make 16 Eggs of this size.
To make The Real Easter Egg one cup of Fairtrade chocolate (125g) is melted to 28 degrees (like a warm bath!). The liquid chocolate is dropped into two half-egg moulds which are pushed together and spun, very fast, for 20 seconds. When the two moulds are separated, the hollow Real Easter Egg is released. So Chocolate eggs are made by melting chocolate and placing it in a mould.
The Jews were expecting a messiah very different from Jesus .
His life and teaching broke the mould.
He spent time with the poor, needy, sick and socially unacceptable.
Jesus death and resurrection also broke the mould –
smashing the power that sin and death have over us.
We broke the egg and ate some remembering that today we celebrate
Jesus is risen
Nurtured, cared for, loved
So Jesus died for us and nurtures us through our lives.
Paul gave out the sunflowers, now growing – with a plant label which read – nurtured, cared for, loved (Seeds having been planted a few weeks ago and they were thriving).
Michele shared a brilliant piece of sand art by Joe Castillo on a youtube clip
HAPPY EASTER!
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