Welcome to our service at Lugarno Peakhurst Uniting Church. Today we have a special guest speaker, Rev Dr Cameron Eccleston, who is going to speak on the Easter story and does it actually make any difference.
“Christ is Risen”. Easter seems so far away, and yet we are in week 6 of the Easter season, and the day the Orthodox Church celebrates Easter Sunday. Sometimes the greatest story in history can seem so ho-hum. Does the Easter story actually make any difference?
In today’s lectionary reading from the Gospels, John 15:9-17, Jesus responds with a resounding “yes”. The Easter story does make a difference to our lives in two big ways. It tells us that evil won’t prevail but that love wins. Jesus death and resurrection overcomes the history of violence and revenge and proclaims “no more”. That love conquers all. Secondly, the Easter Story makes a difference in our status before God. We are no longer slaves but are friends. Our relationship with God is no longer transactional, but rather can be intimate.
Christ is risen, he is risen indeed, and that makes all the difference.
