Do you ever meet people for whom everything seems to work out well? They have lovely children, a beautiful home, secure jobs and every good thing that this life seems to be able to offer. I remember such a couple from a previous church. On holiday recently we bumped into them unexpectedly on a Sunday.

How surprised and delighted I was to see them sitting just a few feet away. I went up to him just as the service was about to start and asked if they remembered who I was. To my delight they recognised me immediately.

After the service we went to lunch with them at their kind invitation. When we had known them 17 years earlier they had no children but the two we now met were charming and involved in the Sunday school and CYFA. I asked the older daughter how a church can gear itself to be welcoming to 15 year olds. (Her answer centred on fun, friends and a contemporary feel – all things that this church in Guernsey seemed to facilitate rather well) As we were talking and catching up on the missing years we heard how the wife had suffered for years with severe M.E. which left her constantly exhausted, barely able to walk 5 metres. This had led on to periodic bouts of other illnesses. Life had certainly not been a bed of roses for them. In my mind’s eye I had thought of them striding forward from one degree of success to another. How wrong I was? Somehow, by the grace of God, despite their difficulties their faith was radiant and they were so warm and friendly.

Suffering hits most people in one way or another. For some it can be acute and prolonged. As I write this I have seen some terrible images of an earthquake in New Zealand. Hundreds have been mown down by ‘government’ forces in Libya. We can become hardened to the suffering all around us because there is so much of it?
Sometimes we cry out, ‘Why O God is there so much suffering?’ More personally we may cry out asking God why there is so much suffering in my life or the life of someone I care for.

Easter represents God’s victory over death and also the promise of his victory over suffering in the world to come. When I first became a Christian aged 17 one of the first aspects of the faith I enquired about was the truth of the resurrection. The evidence is compelling. Many learned books are available to set out the evidence that this incredible event is in fact credible after all. Never have I doubted the fact that on the third day the tomb was empty, not because of a resuscitation or because of Jesus’ body being stolen, but because Jesus had risen.

Sometimes understanding the purposes of God in one’s own circumstances can be difficult. I’m often not sure why God does this or allows that, but one thing I am sure of is that Jesus rose, and because he has risen so God will again break into human existence to bring resurrection in our experience. My Father has been dead almost 11 years and my mother 6 years, I look forward to the great wedding feast when the groom will be united with his bride and I’ll be able to sit there seeing once again my mother and father. I look forward to seeing those faithful souls who have suffered in this life with new resurrection bodies. Everything will be made new.

Is this just a pipe dream? Well it would be if we didn’t have the solid concrete evidence that Jesus has risen and is alive today. In the hard moments of life I am inspired to persist because Jesus is also with us now. His last words in Matthew were to the effect that he would be with us always. So if you feel the realities of life are not smiling upon you, remember that Jesus is not a dead figure of history remembered in a dusty book, but your risen Lord who is alive and working today with the promise that one day all things will be made new. Jesus sends his Holy Spirit to live within us and enable us to be friends with him now.

Perhaps you might like to know a little more? Why not join an Alpha course or a Christianity Explored course that we run two or three times per year. If you are interested please contact the church office on 732823.

Robert Lovatt - Vicar