It is a bit frightening to realise, but I have been involved with computers now for 25 years. When I started, we wrote programmes on punched cards. It has been amazing to see that there are so many changes happening in this field and in particular over the last decade. One of the changes that has happened, has been a change of attitude in the computer itself. I am not sure if the correct term is redundancy, but whereas once you had to be precise and accurate it your commands which you typed into the console, now there is generally more than one way to achieve the same result.

This I know is a point of confusion for older people encountering computers for the first time. They wish to learn the one thing to do and do it. This is a particular style of education that we had until the sixties. Since then there has been a move to what I call intuitive learning. Learning by doing, and deduction. This is perhaps one of the most marked differences between the generations, and an explanation as to why many grand children are able to programme VCR’s while their grandparents can’t. Intuitive learning, needs to be done in what can be called a safe environment. It is an environment where failure is possible, with the philosophy that failure is as much a teacher as success. Failure however must not be destructive. The learning environment is set up in such a way that failure will not destroy the participant.

Now I am not sure, but I believe that this is one of the reasons for the problems with some young people, who experiment with some destructive things like drugs, sex, alcohol and high speed.

This is the reason that computers are more robust, and allow the user to choose alternate methods to achieve the same result.

From the Christian perspective, there is an important corollary. There has been a tendency to assume one and only one way to faith. Perhaps this has been through the over emphasis on the verse from John 14:6 — Jesus said that I am the way the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father but by me. This does teach that the way we get there is only by Jesus, but the way that we find Jesus is not necessary the same.

If I was to survey this congregation, many of you will have found faith in different ways and as a consequence there will be many different experiences and expressions of faith. Fortunately, this is the character of the Anglican Church that there is acceptance of variety and there is no insistence on a common experience or expression.

Now although there is a sense of variety in our experience and our faith, there is a common element. It is this Easter Journey that we have travelled over the past week. This journey from Palm Sunday to Easter morn has the elements that we all must experience on our way to the assurance of faith.

We begin with Palm Sunday and here Jesus is exulted — a great leader, a great teacher. In Holy week, we sit at his feet and listen and learn as he teaches. Maundy Thursday is the night of intimacy. Here we share food with Jesus and it is the start of a relationship. Good Friday is crunch. The death of Jesus is there, the death of a friend, but there is the realisation that we are the reason for this. It is here that we recognise our own sin and our failure. Easter Morn is a new beginning. The resurrected Christ offers us new life and new relationship with him and the Father.

There is only one way — it is through the cross. We like Jesus must die to the old in order that like him we may rise to new life. This is the imagery of the baptism service — death and resurrection. Life through death. This apparent contradiction like so many of the faith is sometime hard to follow.

The expression I like to use for Christians, is Resurrection People, and especially at this time of the year. Just think about that for a moment — we are called to be the people of the resurrection. This is the singular fact that separates Christians from other religions. It is not that we follow a great leader or teacher or even claim that this person is God. What is different, is that we claim the Resurrection from the dead.

Now this might seem so unimportant to us as we have been brought up in a culture that knows of this, but Jesus early followers had a lot of difficulty understanding this. Even at the empty tomb, Mary and the other women, Peter and John could not see things in these terms, even though Jesus had taught them about this in private over the preceding months. Take a quick glance through the Gospel accounts and you find that Jesus failed to convince his disciples what it meant when he said this.

It is the resurrection that is central to our faith and the empty tomb rather than the cross that gives it meaning. The Resurrection was the sign of Jesus triumph over Sin and Death, it was the confirmation of his divinity and it was the opening up of the gateway for us to new life, eternal life in him.

We are resurrection people, because we live in response to that event. As resurrection people, the cross is behind us. Sure, we are not exempt from the pain and tribulation of this world, but rather live in the expectation of the next. We look beyond this present world towards the future, towards the kingdom.

This has been the reason for my emphasis this week on laying down your burdens, on leaving at the cross the hurts, pain and tears of the world and accepting the offer from Jesus of a new life, of a better life, of eternal life.

This may be the hardest thing that I ask you to do. It is not that you will necessarily forget the pain, suffering and hurt, but that the experience of the resurrection life overwhelms it and puts it into the background. As resurrection people, the past is not important only the future. The message of the resurrection is about new life, about new relationships, about new hope.

Where are you at this time? Are you still burdened with heartbreak and hardship? Is life getting on top of you? This day is about the end of all that. It is about an encounter with Jesus as risen Lord, which will change your whole outlook on life and your relationships with others and the world. May I be so bold to say that if we do not let go of these burdens, and move beyond the cross, then we will never reach our potential as resurrection people.

Let us then ask God to overwhelm us with the joy of this event that we might have the strength to lay our burdens at the foot of the cross. To forgive if necessary or at least to grow beyond these things, that we might dance with joy and celebrate our Risen Lord.