Erice Fairbrother: Love offers hope

Easter matters.
Does it? Really? Easter happens this year in the context of disasters and devastation in our country on a scale that has taken us by surprise and given much food for thought.
Where is God in all the horror of the Pike River Mine, the fear of the first earthquake and the terror of the second? Where is God as the economy looks like having a negative effect on jobs, on the most vulnerable in our society?
Easter proclaims new life. New life for many right now seems a remote possibility.
As I have been thinking about the reality of the context of Easter this year, I am reminded of the words of the dean of the broken Christchurch Cathedral, following the February earthquake:
This is not an act of God,
This is the earth
Doing what it does.
The act of God is how
We love each other,
How we reach out to one another.
They are words that have helped many. We all certainly needed some wisdom as we struggled with the terrible devastation that brought such grief.
Life does throw up hard things in our lives. We can be overcome with worry and despair about such social issues as violence and abuse.
In our own lives we find ourselves struggling with grief, with difficult family situations, with despair and loss of confidence.
We also, at times like that, can find ourselves asking similar questions about where God is in our lives.
The answer comes to us in those words of Peter Beck.
We find God in the love and support of those who surround and support us; in places that work in the area of prevention and change. People who work for the prevention of violence in our city and schools, TMAPS - Tauranga Moana Abuse Prevention network bringing together all the agencies working to prevent abuse across every social group in our city, Relationship Services, Neighbourhood Watch, and our family and friends. Good people are all around us, being the heart and hands and love of a God who cares about us in a world that can threaten to overcome us.
God knows what it is like. At this time of the year Christians in Tauranga and around the world remember that Jesus came and lived as one of us.
He experienced being a refugee after being born in poverty.
He grew up to experience taunting and put-downs, betrayal, violence and even torture and death.
The good news is that God didn't abandon him (even though Jesus thought he had at one point) but gave him new life.
Which becomes a source of hope and a promise for all of us. That we too can expect new life, new beginnings, new hope, when we let the story of Easter become the story of our own lives.
Does Easter matter? Yes, more than ever. It is in Easter we find new possibilities, new life, new hope and a love that never lets us down.
Blessings for the holiday, and for the joy and peace of Easter.
Erice Fairbrother is vicar of St John's Otumoetai.