23 April 2025

The women who went to the tomb with their sweet-smelling spices on Easter Day did not change their minds in the face of the disbelief amongst the disciples. They remained silently hopeful – and look what their witness has achieved.

For 1600 years, the Easter Gospel has been proclaimed in Scotland, ‘Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.’ And nothing can silence the proclamation. The light of Christ has been passed on from these humbled women to us!

We still have it and we need to pass it on to others. We are the silent, hopeful remnant of a former day who have light to offer those who spurn our idle tale and seeds to plant,  to die before they spring to life again.

And we begin around the Holy Table with simple things – bread, baked and broken, wine, poured and shared. And the command of Jesus to remember him always in bread and wine. This is no idle tale. It’s the seed bringing life to the world.

When our hearts are wintry,  grieving or in pain,

Thy touch can call us back to life again,

fields of our hearts that  dead and bare have been:

Love us come again,

like wheat that springeth green.

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