Easter this year is going to be a tough place for my little church to go this year.  We had hoped that after all the sickeness and death last year, this year might be kinder to us, but no.  Sometime in the next few hours the fourth church-connected person in a month will die and another family will begin to grieve a lost loved one.  On Easter Saturday I will be leading as short act of worship as a tree is planted in memory of someone who died last last year - and knowing that another funeral is just over the horizon.  In my own family Easter is a strange time because my Dad died on 'the Wednesday after Easter' (it happened to be 18th April but it is its relative date that seems to be recalled).

So, there is a good challenge for me in preparing Sunday's service - to acknowledge the pain and suffering of those who mourn, to celebrate the resurrection of Christ and tohold the two together creatively.

I am so glad I'm using Mark's gospel account this year - with its untidy ending it better serves the needs of my people who must live with the reality of loss.  We are going to have some Easter eggs look for some authentic hope - but we need also to find a place to acknowledge the struggles.

In God's own mysterious way, someone last week gave me a hint of how I might think about doing this by allowing people to offer to God not only their gifts but their sorrows.  I think I will use some Easter-egg shaped cards and invite people to symbolise their sorrows and struggles on them and then gather them with the regular money offering - by offering to God our pain and our dedication together perhaps we express something of resurrection hope in the midst of real pain?