Easter Day 2025 St Andrew’s Milngavie
Today we celebrated with much joy the Great Festival of Easter.
Accompanied by John, in a sunny and beautifully decorated church, we sang in full voice the traditional Easter hymns reminding us of the wonder of the Resurrection. This was followed by further celebration over coffee, an Easter egg hunt, Robin’s spectacular Simnel cake and Veronica’s very pretty Easter Fairy cakes.
Thank you to all who have supported and helped with the services throughout Holy week and Easter Day.
This Week
Tuesday 10am – Prayer Group in the Garden Room
Wednesday 2.30pm Book Group – Caroline’s
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in Friendship House.
Readings for next Sunday – Second Sunday of Easter – Acts 5:27-32 Revelation 1:4-8 John 20 :19-end
Today’s readings – Acts 10:34-43, 1 Corinthians 15:19-26, John 20:1-18
According to the press recently there has been a revival in the Christian faith. Apparently since 2018 there has been a 4% increase in church going especially among young people. While that may seem like a modest increase, it is certainly a cause for hope and encouragement. It is also a call to us to pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to continue this upward trend because it is essential that the Gospel continues to be proclaimed to generations to come.
As we celebrate Easter today, we are reminded of why this is so important.
I always love the celebration of Easter. After the challenging and solemn journey of Holy Week, the arrival of Easter Day is always such a joy. On Good Friday after the service, we prepped the church for today, Helen prepared the Easter Garden, always a charming reminder of that first Easter dawn.
And…we might wonder what it would have been like to have been there – to experience the events of that morning in the garden with the risen Christ. Would we have recognised our Lord? Would we have been afraid? Would we too have run away?
What we celebrate today was such an extraordinary event, and as such it was totally beyond the understanding of all the disciples, even though Jesus had told them repeatedly that it would happen, that he would be killed and that on the third day he would be raised from the dead. Yet not one of them believed it would happen. Not one of them took Jesus at his word.
When Mary got to the empty tomb on that Sunday morning, she realised that something was wrong. She thinks that someone has stolen the body. So, she runs and tells Simon Peter and the other disciple. They look inside and then they go away in amazement back to their own homes.
Mary is again left alone by the tomb, weeping, then she finds the courage to look inside the tomb and she sees two angels dressed in white. Then – still weeping – still in shock – still unbelieving – Mary turns around, and she sees Jesus standing there and she supposes he is the gardener.
He calls her by name, “Mary” – and it is then – suddenly – that she recognises Jesus – and she realizes that Jesus is alive and standing in front of her. She goes to embrace him and cling to him, but Jesus tells her not to hold onto him but to go and tell the others what she has seen.
We are told in the gospels that they do not believe her at first – they were so shocked at what Mary was telling them. Indeed, each of those first disciples took time to be convinced of the resurrection either by Jesus himself or by the overwhelming testimony of others who had seen him.
But Mary’s initial disbelief and that of the apostles is reassuring for us because in many ways we are like them.
In scripture throughout the gospels, we hear the message that Jesus proclaimed. We witness the miracles that he performs in other people’s lives, listen to the parables.
But when it all becomes more complicated and other worldly, we can struggle. It can be very hard to believe in what Jesus has said about being raised on the third day, and even harder to believe that not only was he raised – but that we too will be raised, that death does not in fact have the last word – a fact which underpins the whole of our Christian faith.
“Why do you weep?” Jesus asks Mary. We all feel like weeping at times and there are always many good reasons to weep. We weep for our families, our friends, for our world and for ourselves…..
But today – Easter Sunday, the empty tomb, the angels, Mary’s encounter with Jesus and indeed the existence of the church itself, it’s all a reminder to us that while there are many reasons to weep, there is also a great reason to rejoice.
From the cross Jesus rose to new life, he overcame death in the triumph of the resurrection. This surely holds the key to hope and salvation for us because the resurrection is proof that through Christ all things can be made new, situations turned round.
From despair comes hope.
From death comes life.
From decline comes revival.
With the resurrection new and fresh beginnings become possible.
Isn’t this the Good News story which everyone needs to hear today!
Happy Easter to you all!