An Easter Message

During the Stephen Lawrence inquiry some years ago, an incident occurred at the end of the questioning of the five suspects. There was a very angry crowd outside who were ready to give those arrogant and uncooperative young men a good hiding as they left the Inquiry. A major incident was quickly developing.

Like a fool I agreed with Chief Superintendent John Godsave of the Met. to go and calm things down. Amongst the throng I noticed four angry young men with iron bars concealed down their trousers, waiting their chance. But of course the danger was that, if they succeeded in taking vengeance, they would end up in trouble. I said to them, "It's understandable that you are angry, but violence isn't the answer." They replied, "Bish, we don't believe in God." And I said, "It doesn't matter. God believes in you." They laughed and eventually walked away. They didn't use their iron bars. I admit that I was scared.  But God has no-one except you and me. As Martin Luther King Junior said, "to respond to violence with violence is to increase the darkness on a night already devoid of stars".

Those four young men were in danger of making the mistake of treating belief in God as an optional extra. What matters in the end is that God believes in each one of us. That is why he sent His son Jesus Christ to die for us. Jesus is not to be found among the dead, as part of an ancient dusty religion. The message of Easter rings out across our land this morning – in the words of the old hymn – Jesus Christ is risen today.

I've always thought Christianity is a religion of prayer and parties. We celebrate the joy of the risen Christ today not because we should but because we can. 

Later  today I will be standing waist high in an open air pool in the middle  of  York  City  Centre  where I will be baptising into the faith those  people  who  will  newly confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord of their lives. These will join the often silent and overlooked majority of people in this country for whom today is a day of celebration and joy.

The story is told of the Church of England Priest who was filling in for a colleague one Sunday morning at a baptism service. The priest was presented with one of the adult candidates, a young father. The priest asked the man approached the young father and said solemnly, "Baptism is a serious step. Are you prepared for it?"

"I think so," the man replied. "My wife has made the deserts and we have a caterer coming to do the starters and the main course for all of our guests."

"I don't mean that," the priest responded severely. "I mean, are you prepared spiritually?"

"Oh, sure," came the reply. "I've got three cases of wine and a box of malt whisky in the garage."

According to a recent poll conducted by Theos, a public policy think
tank,  57  per  cent  of  Britons  believe  that  Jesus  was executed by crucifixion,  buried  and rose from the dead. The fact that over half of
Britons  believe  that Jesus rose from the dead is particularly striking and  demonstrates  that  our  society  is  not  as 'secular' as we often imagine it to be, despite frequent chattering claims to the contrary.

The  reality  of the resurrection is not just a personal encounter – it's  also  collective.  It changes societies, cultures and communities. For the physicality of the resurrection of Jesus is a community-evoking, a   community-  forming,  a  community-authorising  event.   Our  belief shouldn't  just  be  based on the miracle of the resurrection itself but upon the astonishing outcome of that miracle: the community it creates -and has already created in this country.

Our identity  as  a  nation owes more to our Christian heritage than many  care to admit. Writing in the eighth century,  the Venerable Bede 'the  father of English history', wrote not only of how the English were converted,  but how the Gospel played a major socialising and civilising role  in  this  country  by  uniting the English from a group of warring tribes -  and conferring nationhood upon them.

But  God's  Good  News  isn't  just  for  the chosen few: it is for everyone,  whether  they  hear  it or whether they don't, and its impact upon  our  character as a nation is inescapable.  Whilst it is of course true to  say  that such virtues of kindness to neighbour, fair play and common  decency  are not unique to the Christian faith, just as they are not unique to Britain, it is equally true to say that these virtues have become  embedded  into our social fabric and heritage as a result of the Christian faith and influence on society.

The  Christian  faith  has woven the very fabric of our society just as the  oceans  around  this  island  have  shaped  the   contours  of  our geographical identity. It is time for us to acknowledge that. As we have seen  in  recent attempts to define Britishness, attempts to unpick this seam can lead to an unravelling, leaving us in the unenviable situation of being unable to agree on who we are as a country and as a people. Bereft of common values, and without a shared heritage, the danger of splintering  of  our society into a million microcosms of individualised materialist  desires  and  unconnected  narratives is a destiny which we must resist, both for ourselves and for our country.

For  me,  the  vital  issue  facing  the  nation is the loss of this country's  long tradition of Christian wisdom which helped give birth to the  English  nation  and  the  loss  of wonder and amazement that Jesus Christ  has  authority  over  every  aspect of all our lives. Nothing is needed  more  by  humanity  today  than  the  recovery  of  a  sense  of 'beyond-ness'  in  the  whole of life to revive the spring of wonder and adoration.

This challenge is  for each of us, not least for all those who bear the  name of Christ and who are charged with spreading His message of an inclusive  and  generous friendship, where each person is affirmed as o infinite worth, dignity and influence. Today's call is for Christians to live and be good news to everyone - to be an 'Easter people' as Augustine said. It would be fantastic if people not only said  of Jesus Christ, 'What sort of man is this' but said of us, his followers, 'What sort of people are they? Their gracious actions, and the language on their lips is of God's goodness and love. Let us get to know them. There is something extraordinarily normal and wonderful about them.'

Through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ there came into  the  world  a  new power that transforms human character and human communities; and liberates us from anxiety, fear, meaninglessness, transience, evil, ignorance, guilt and shame.

But just  as  we,  as individuals, are in need of salvation, we must also  realise  that  the  culture and institutions we create are also in need of redemption, not simply of modernising.

Jesus  made  it  clear  that  he  is  the  friend  of  the  poor,  the
marginalised,  the vulnerable. I would remind people who are judgmental and moralizing – those with faith and without - that  only  God is holy, perfect and just. I would urge them  to  go  and  find friends among them, among the young, among older people,  and  those  in  society  who are demonised and dehumanised; and stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

I  would  say  to Christians: Go and find friends who are Buddhists, Hindus,  Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, agnostics, atheists – not for the purpose of  converting  them  to  your  own partisan, dulled reflection of God's glory, but for friendship, understanding, listening and hearing. I would say to Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, agnostics, atheists, go and find friends amongst Christians, not for the purpose of converting them but for the sake of friendship, understanding, listening, hearing.

God is at work in our nation today quite beyond the limits of our budgets, structures and expectation.  His  gospel  has  the  power to transform  our  individual  and  collective  lives,  our  families,  our communities  and  our nation. Joining in with God's work is a choice for each of us. If you want to join in that work come to York this afternoon and join me in the pool. It would be my delight to welcome you in.

Link to the Mail On Sunday article 'The real meaning of Britishness: An Easter message from the Archbishop of York'