This Easter Sunday message is written by John Dobson, the Dean of Ripon Cathedral. 

Happy Easter!   It seems odd to be wishing people a happy Easter this year, when social isolation leads to us all keeping apart from each other. It seems odd not to have the cathedral packed with joyful worshippers.  But all of this makes the message of Easter so much more important.

Many of us have been taking part in the great national cheer and applause on Thursday evenings. It’s good to see the country so united. This is a sincere, heart-felt expression of gratitude for essential workers. These include those in the forefront of the fight against the Covid-19 virus – NHS staff and other care workers; and others providing vital services – in supermarkets, food production and distribution, running schools, emptying bins… and so on. Some of these are certainly risking their own wellbeing in their self-sacrificing service of others.

We probably all cheered to ourselves when hearing that the Prime Minster was out of intensive care; as when we hear of friends and family recovering from coronavirus symptoms. Life is seen to be conquering that which threatens it.

Both these themes: self-sacrificing service, and life conquering those forces that would threaten it, go deep to the heart of what we celebrate this weekend.

Good Friday each year reminds us of the ultimate act of self-sacrificing service. Jesus gave himself totally for our sake. At a moment in history he showed that God does this all the time because of his love for us.  I believe it is this divine love we see doing its work through all those people we cheer on Thursday evenings.

Yes, this is a strange Easter. But Easter should always be strange. Who expects the dead to rise? Some disciples simply couldn’t accept it – do you remember doubting Thomas? Yet we believe the resurrection to be possible because God’s life-creating, life-sustaining love can be conquered by nothing, certainly not human frailty and death. So, life does conquer death.

In every situation in life, joyful and tragic, God’s love remains steadfast – on earth and in heaven. This is the good news that, if we accept it, can transform life and give us hope and courage in the face of all suffering and death. We do right to wish each other a happy, if strange, Easter.

An Easter Prayer:

Risen Lord, on this strange yet joyful Easter Day, help us to see that you have conquered human failings, put death to flight, and have assured us that we remain in your love on earth and in heaven.

In these challenging times:

banish our fears;

strengthen all working courageously in the NHS and other care providers;

uphold all working tirelessly in supermarkets and many other organisations to serve our needs;

and give hope to every situation as we celebrate again your resurrection from the dead.

For your name’s sake. Amen.

Read: This morning Ripon Cathedral will make history when its Easter Day service is streamed live on YouTube, as the building remains closed to the public because of restrictions caused by the coronavirus crisis.