Linda Dytham

A Reflection for Easter Day

by 
At Easter in 2005 whilst I was at Easter School in Salisbury as part of my Ordination training, 
I was privileged to hear the first airing of a new Oratorio entitled 'The Resurrection' 
by Simon McEnery; Words by Jeremy Davies. 
This is part of that work; the words I find deeply meaningful each Easter as I read them again.

Easter Morning

Alone in the garden of Eden, God spent himself crafting a race
Yearning for some selfless creature, to show in reflection, his grace.
Where justice and peace flowed like rivers, compassion like fruit on the trees
He made his companions just like him,Like lovers he wanted to please.

But right at the heart of creation God purposely fashioned a flaw
Deliberately giving free choices to creatures demanding yet more. 
The outcome of such trusting goodness might have drawn love in return
But pride lit the tinder of evil and God watched his universe burn.

But God who is love does not waver, he will not abandon his own
He follows them to the far country, though lonely, they’re never alone.
His love like a mantle enfolds them, he brings them home time and again.
He died on a cross on a Friday, enduring humanity’s pain.

And then in a garden on Sunday when the world again started to turn
God walks in the cool of the morning and waits for his children’s return.
He wonders if they will recall him, remember him after this time;
His hands, feet and side deeply wounded, his face still disfigured with grime

And then like the dawn of creation a loved one returns to the scene;
She seeks for the grave of her Master to weep where his body has been.
He murmurs her name like the dew drops, she turns to him, falls at his feet
Her love is the one thing he’s longed for, it heralds the cycle complete.

Though the garden of Eden’s grown over with tumbleweed, bramble and briar 
The gardener returns as he promised, the phoenix is raised from the fire.
The embers return to cold ashes; a new fire now bursts into flame 
 A new Alleluia is sounded. For Jesus, old Adam’s new name

These are the days of Elijah

by

THESE ARE THE DAYS OF ELIJAH                                                                                                                As I was sat social distancing, on the top of a hill recently, (my dog was much more than 2 metres away from me!!) there was a sense of warmth, beauty and calmness in this crazy time that we are living…….yet there were no sounds except the song of the birds; no aeroplanes in the sky; no sound of traffic, no people passing by. A quiet eeriness, and a feeling that although the world was at a standstill, God was still here.                              

Because the world was at a standstill, I could hear God more clearly. God was still God. He was still here even though nobody else was …….we are being stripped bare but God was still here and he was showing himself through his creation

And then the words came into my head: “Here on this earth these are the days of Corona” then straightaway, ‘These are the days of Elijah’  I took out my phone, the only link with human kind I had for an hour and a half, (my children say I should always carry it!) and found the song:

These are the days of Elijah                                                   
Declaring the word of the Lord,                                              
And these are the days of Your servant, Moses                      
Righteousness being restored                                                                                           

These are the days of great trials                                          
Of famine and darkness and sword                                          
Still we are the voice in the desert crying                              
Prepare ye the way of the Lord !

Behold He comes, riding on the clouds
Shining like the sun, at the trumpet’s call
Lift your voice, (it’s) the year of Jubilee
Out of Zion’s hill, salvation comes

And these are the days of Ezekiel
The dry bones becoming as flesh;
And these are the days of Your servant David
Rebuilding a temple of praise

And these are the days of the harvest
Oh, the fields are as white in Your world
And we are the labourers in Your vineyard
Declaring the word of the Lord!

This time now, more evidently than ever for me, is for Righteousness to be restored; for us as Christians to be those voices in the desert bringing a cry of hope and salvation and rebuilding a Temple of praise, not particularly in our churches, for we cannot do that at the moment but in peoples’ lives, in our communities and ultimately in the world.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Linda Dytham  March 2020