19th April 2026 

Resurrection Community

This Sunday, across our three services, we will be reflecting on two wonderful encounters of the Resurrection - on the road to Emmaus at 8am and 5.15pm, and by the lake at sunrise at 10.30am, where we also welcome Mabel and her family for baptism.

At Connect services, we often sing that, although we are all different, we're all "part of the big family of God". Baptism marks the moment when an individual becomes part of the community of faith, the community formed at and shaped by the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

Each encounter with the risen Christ, as recorded in the gospels, is both wonderfully unique and individual, and at the same time shaped by common threads. In these encounters over the forty days between Easter and Ascension, we see Jesus meeting with his shattered and scattered disciples in different ways, according to their own needs. He calls Mary, weeping in the garden, by her name. He invites Thomas, unable to grasp what has happened, to touch and feel the solidity of his resurrected life. He spends time helping Cleopas and his companion, arguing on the road to Emmaus, to understand from scripture the big picture of God's work in the world. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, recognises his beloved Master from a distance - but it is Peter who jumps in the water. For each of us, our encounter with the risen Christ must be our own - and, in his love, wisdom and grace, Jesus meets with each of us in just the way we need.

But Jesus is doing much more in these encounters than simply meeting his disciples as individuals; he is forming a community. Cleopas and his companion are walking away from Jerusalem, away from the emotions and angst of the upper room, to a village eight miles away; following their encounter with the risen Jesus, they run back to share the good news with their friends. John and Peter will both become great leaders of the community that is the early church. Cleopas and his companion, Peter and John all meet with the risen Jesus in the stories we will be exploring on Sunday, but community is formed as they sit at table or round a charcoal fire on the beach for a shared meal. 

As we welcome Mabel for baptism on Sunday, we recognise that her journey to faith, like all of our journeys to faith, will be unique. In the words of the baptism service "God knows each of us by name and we are his." But, in and through her baptism, she will become part of the community of faith, of those called to gather around a shared meal, with Jesus as the host. In this season as the APCM approaches, we pray that our unique encounters with the risen Jesus will build our shared community of worship, welcome and witness, and bring renewed hope to the wider community around us.