Crosslight - Edition April 2020

“ The situation is tapping into
our fears, but what allows us
to tap into hope?”
Reverend
Denise Liersch
Vic Tas Synod
Here we are, moving through our deep
Christian stories from Holy Week, to
Good Friday to Easter. From stories of
abandonment, betrayal, forgiveness
and love, to Good Friday violence and
despair, to Easter hope and new life.
All of these stories we know so well are
stories of God in Jesus that resonate with
our own life stories: both the best in us
and the worst in us.
In this period, we hear stories of
Jesus’s friends falling asleep when he
needed them, denying, abandoning
and betraying him and each other. We
hear stories of the destructive power of
mobs and the cruel exertion of power
and repression by an occupying force.
We hear stories of one-time followers,
fragmenting and dispersing in their
disillusionment, or huddled in fear.
We also hear stories of women who
remained by Jesus’s side through thick
and thin, of friends who risked all to
provide for respectful burial and blessing
of Jesus’s body. We hear of those who
prayed in hope and in unrelenting love,
and of those who were brought back
together as they encountered the living
One of God.
In the past few weeks, we’ve been
living with our own stories of anxiety
and fear in various ways. As I am writing
this, in the middle of March, four weeks
before Easter, we are living in a time
of uncertainty. Having come through
unprecedented bushfires and thinking
recovery might be starting, we are now
in newly uncharted territory.
There is bulk-buying and hoarding,
abuse of supermarket staff, anxiety
about jobs and income, fear of
businesses going under and failing
financial markets, worry about children’s
education and care of elderly loved ones,
and concern for those whose resilience
to these challenges is low.
But we also hear of people exchanging
phone numbers to keep in touch, sharing
supplies with elderly neighbours and
checking in on them, and other random
acts of kindness.
The situation is tapping into our fears,
but what allows us to tap into hope
instead?
I’ve been reflecting on how the
resurrection stories are ones where
Jesus’s followers found hope as they
encountered him in their deepest points
of despair or disillusionment. Jesus
doesn’t fix everything for them, but they
experience him in “close encounters”,
still with them in their pain … and this
changes everything.
They experience God in this Holy One,
breaking into their lives and rekindling
a sense of hope. This is the Good Friday
and Easter story we still tell today.
The story of the breaking in of God’s
redeeming love keeps going.
The heart of a society is known by how
well it includes and cares for the most
vulnerable: widows, orphans, strangers,
those left on the edge. The gospel writers
call us into loving God and neighbour as
ourselves. In the coming months, there
will be many who get left on the edge
and who could fall through the cracks.
But there is One who brings hope in a
different way of living amidst the turmoil
and anxiety. Just like Jesus’s friends in
the Easter stories, we are called into this
Christ life, that brings hope and renewal
into our lives and communities. This is
our resurrection hope.
Editor’s note: Due to the rapidlychanging
nature of Covid-19 news,
Crosslight has not reported on the
topic in this issue.
Keep up to date at www.dhhs.vic.gov.au
and www.dhhs.tas.gov.au
For Synod-specific updates, go to www.victas.uca.org.au
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