Dear friends,

This news update comes with Easter blessings and all good wishes from me and my family! I do hope that you can take some time out to rest over the bank holiday and some of the week ahead.

I’m taking a few days off on annual leave in the next week. I won’t be responding to emails until next Sunday, with the exception of Tuesday, when I’ll be working as normal. If you need to get hold of me urgently while I’m on leave please text my mobile on 07484735284, and I’ll ring you as soon as I can.

With love and kind regards,

Reverend Anthony

Many thanks to everyone that has made this Easter Day such a special one! All our church buildings have been wonderfully decorated with beautiful spring flowers, and we’ve all been fed and watered this morning with wonderful Easter-themed refreshments. Such a lot of effort goes into making our churches beautiful and hospitable places. Thanks again for all the hard work. The photo above shows just one example of all the effort that goes in behind the scenes: thanks to Sarah Mainwaring-Parr for the amazing Easter garden in St Hilda’s, Egton. It will be there all week for you to enjoy (if you haven’t seen it), along with our ‘Dotty the Donkey Trail’ and other interactive Easter activities.

The Week Ahead

Tuesday 2nd April

10:00-12:00 Community Cafe at Goathland Village Hall

2:00 Funeral and burial of the late Judith White at St Mary’s Goathland

6:30- 9:00 Sharing Space (contact Reverend Anthony for details)

PLEASE NOTE THERE WON’T BE HOLY COMMUNION IN GOATHLAND THIS WEEK

10:30-2:30 Vi's Community Cafe at St Matthew's Grosmont

1:30-2:30 Play Space at St Matthew's

9:00-10:00 Holy Communion in Lealholm at St James'

10:45-11:45 Holy Communion in Goathland at St Mary's

4:00-5:30 Fellowship Space “At Home” at The Hollin's Institute in Grosmont (see attached details.)

Our Survey

If you haven't replied to our survey yet, please could complete it online by clicking this link. Please bear with us as we analyse all the responses. Members of the Advisory Council will be in touch with everyone who has replied, and a series of drop-in sessions are being planned at The Vicarage in Egton, where you can talk to Reverend Anthony about your responses.

Sermon for Easter Day: The Gardener

Please follow this link for the Readings that go with the sermon Reverend Anthony was planning to preach this morning. He ended up talking about different things in Lealholm and Egton, but he hopes these reflections will be useful for you.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock, and redeemer. Amen.

It was an easy mistake to make. Mary Magdalene had gone to the garden very early in the morning. It was no surprise to find a gardener there. It would have been much cooler in the early morning before the fierce sun made active gardening all the more impossible. It was the time to be tidying up, sweeping the paths. Who else would have been there at that hour, amongst the tombs?

Mary Magdalene was most probably there to get away from everything; to try and find some peace amidst her darkness. So much had happened, so fast. The last supper, the arrest, the hasty trial, the rush to execution, so much fear and grief in such a short time. And then add to all that: the confusion of finding the tomb empty. And Peter and John had been absolutely no use whatsoever: having a look, going away again, making no effort to find Jesus. But Mary Magdalene could sense something; something that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. She stayed. It was quiet, and empty. After all the noise, the rush, the emotion: now there was nothing, nothing but the still air, the dark space in the tomb. And, away in a corner of the garden, the gardener doing whatever gardeners do.

He had rescued her. She had been ill, despised, an outcast, a woman with no future in society, stared at in the street, living on the edge. He had drawn her into his circle of disciples, his new community: a place where people, who were nothing to the powers at be, were valued as precious and of infinite worth. All created as equal in the image of God. Under his gaze she had blossomed. She had learned of the new world where God reigned, where all the rules and regulations that had oppressed her were overturned: where the poor were rich and the humble exalted, where the sick found healing and the anguished found peace, where even death could be challenged. But they had come for him, just like the powerful do for those who stand up against them. A familiar story that resonates down the centuries: the powerful extermination of those who challenge the powerful. A familiar story we see graphically brought home to us in the news, thinking about what’s still happening in places like Ukraine. And a familiar story from over 2050 years ago that we journeyed through last week: persecution, lies, ridicule, torture, crucifixion, murder – assassination.

They put him to a cruel and horrendous death. And now he had gone, leaving behind this empty space; this nothingness. There was no going back. But Mary Magdalene could sense something; something that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. He had loved her, and, once you have been loved, the world is different for ever. She had a job to do, she knew that. There was his mother to help look after. There were the rest of the disciples to support while they decided what to do next. And, somehow, there was a future to find, a way of hanging on to it all: the new world of God's reign was too precious to lose.

The gardener was nearer now, disturbing her peace.

Suddenly she was angry: someone had taken the body away, denying her a last look, a quiet goodbye. Roman soldiers perhaps? The religious authorities? Misguided disciples? The gardener might know. She hoped so. And then there was the voice.

"Mary," he said.

The voice that had called her home into his family, was calling her again. And she realises.

Even through her tears, she knows him. He is the gardener. She should have known, of course. How could she have believed for one moment that death would defeat him? Hadn’t he shown her that love was stronger than death? Surely, she should have understood. Surely, she should have felt, in the quiet, in the emptiness, creation holding its breath; waiting for his reappearing. But it was an easy mistake to make. It was no surprise to find a gardener in a garden in the early morning.

Even through her tears, she knows him.

He is the gardener.

She should have known, of course. She had sensed that the garden had been transformed: no longer the patch of scrubland carved from the dusty city. Now there was a new creation. And the garden was that wonderful garden from long, long ago, when the first humans enjoyed the fresh dawn of the world: a place where fruit fell from the trees and God walked in the cool of the evening.

In the cool of the dawn by the tomb God walked again, the world's gardener, coaxing from the dust of death the growth of fresh new life. God walks in the garden with Mary Magdalene in the cool of the morning. But like Eve, Mary Magdalene had to leave Eden. She would have loved to have stayed, enjoying his company all to herself. But there was a whole world out there that didn't know that Eden had returned. Most wouldn’t believe her, but some would. They would take the message of the new creation to all the nations until the seeds of Eden had been planted in all the world.

I think Mary's wonderful story helps us to see the resurrection of Jesus through a unique set of eyes: She was…

someone who’d found Jesus to be immensely significant;

someone who grieved his loss desperately;

someone who’d the courage to believe the resurrection message and act on it;

someone who took the news of death's defeat to the rest of the traumatised and sceptical disciples.

And through Mary, and John’s retelling of her encounter in the garden, we too receive that news. Death no longer has the last word. The seeds of Eden are here too. Those seeds are in us; in each other; in this place. There is new life: eternal life for us and all those who are willing to grasp it.

Love has proved to be stronger than hate, life stronger than death.

And love will continue to be stronger than hate. Life will continue to be stronger than death. Today the gate of Eden is open wide for us; and all are welcomed into the wonderful garden, to walk with Jesus in the cool of the new day.

Alleluia, Alleluia, give thanks to the risen Lord!

Together, let’s share his love in this place.

Amen.

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The Reverend Anthony Bennett

Interim Minister – the Benefice of Middle ESK Moor

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These two books, edited by Jane Williams, are continuing to be very helpful with planning my sermon writing:

Williams, J (2009), Ed., ‘Lost for Words, A Sermon Resource for the Anglican Three Year Cycle,’ Redemptorist Publications, Chawton, UK.

Williams, J (2011), Ed., ‘Lectionary Reflections, Years A, B and C.’ Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, UK.