‘The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.’ (John 1: 5).
God our Father,
You oversee a world which is well-acquainted with darkness:
pandemic, isolation, separation, pain and bereavement.
You oversee a people whose lives experience weariness, frustration, anxiety.
There is need for the light of hope.
And You do not disappoint us.
You have come to us in a life that knew the darkness of human experience even to the point of spiritual despair.
And yet this life could not be diminished.
Not by rejection, denial, betrayal.
Not by death itself.
The light shone in the darkness and the darkness could never overcome it.
In Your promise of the Holy Spirit we see light shining into lives where deep shadows have fallen.
So we ask today for forgiveness if we have increased the world’s darkness by our thoughts, our words, our deeds.
So we ask for Your light to go before us to guide our aspirations and establish our priorities.
So we ask that whatever darkness seeks to engulf us that we may experience the light that flows from the promises of our Risen Lord.
We have no sooner offered thanksgiving for the light, the warmth, the colour and fragrance of Spring when the temperature drops, the light is dimmed, the trees and bushes drip with rain.
But while the environment is unsettled and changes; while people seem no longer what they used to be; while our personal circumstances can take a turn for the worst,
We can be sure that Your love is a constant, that not even the wildest force of nature can separate us from that love, that not even our disappointments in other people can separate us from that love, that not even the most heart-breaking of experiences can ever separate us from that love.
We know this in the resurrection of Jesus, the sign that You are not only with us in the darkest time but You are working in our darkest time to take us forward in Your good and loving purpose.
Let this sign be celebrated in Your Church today to strengthen faith, increase commitment to love and empower mission.
Let this sign be acknowledged throughout the world bringing the hope of renewal where there is cruelty, poverty, homelessness and injustice.
Let this sign inspire our nation to provide for the poor, to care for the sick, to open up opportunities for the young, to enable the elderly to feel secure.
Let this sign be a comfort to those whose health is fragile, who experience the nagging emptiness of bereavement, who look to the future with diminishing hope.
