Easter sunrise and surprise

After forecasts of a snowy, frosty Easter, the sun has surprised and delighted us by rising. The sky over Oxford is brilliant, cloudless blue, and birdsong floats from a nearby tree. Twitter and Facebook are full of Alleluias and stunning photos of sunrises. Yes, Christ, the Sun of Justice, has indeed risen - Alleluia!

A week ago this didn't seem possible, as we shivered in sub-zero temperatures and wintry gloom. On Palm Sunday a crowd of us froze in an under-heated college chapel during a superb performance of Handel's Messiah. We joked hollowly about the wintry conditions re-creating the usual pre-Christmas setting, but despite the cold I was very aware that it was almost Easter.

It was strange to sit in a March, pre-Easter dusk and hear words I always associate with Midnight Mass. Strange, and yet good. Easter is a time for being surprised, of encountering the familiar in the unfamiliar, and here I found myself reflecting that yes, not only at Christmas but very much at Easter too, so very much now, the people that walked in darkness has seen a great light...

Happy Easter everyone! May we all continue to be surprised and delighted by signs of hope and new life, and find Jesus, our only hope, in the unfamiliar and unexpected.

(Oh - and may Oxford win the boat race!)