JourneyOnline
In our community we grew up given the understanding that Easter could be even more important than Christmas because it is the culmination of what God has done.
Christmas is an extended celebration but Easter is a huge event in our culture.
In Sri Lanka I remember every year we go out on the road at 5 o’clock in the morning and go on a procession with candles.
All the people come out of their houses and watch us going past singing Easter carols.
It is a remarkable event.
It is quieter in Australia compared to the way we celebrate in Sri Lanka, but Easter is still very important to us.
As Tamil people we have a very special service on Easter Sunday.
In our churches, as a minister, I consider it as a very important part of our Christian faith journey.
I give a lot of thought to the service I lead on Easter Sunday because it really has to come out as a special event for the people who worship with us.
In my mind the Easter story is the best story you can ever hear.
In the symbolism there is no negative; it is all positive.
Every aspect of human life takes a positive side in the Easter story.
Jesus appears to people in particular situations; he goes to particular people to prove the point that he was addressing every experience they were going through.
If they were going through a down experience he lifted them up as the risen Christ.
Easter is God’s love at its best.
We go through life with all sorts of negative emotions and feelings.
So often we feel let down, disappointed, we feel that no one cares for us, or we are filled with tears.
We go through that tomb experience; we are dead.
But Easter comes and the risen Christ comes into our lives and lifts us up out of that hole.
That is the message of Easter for me.
I have my own contribution to make to the Church here.
At Aspley Uniting Church I think there are only three families from non-English speaking backgrounds.
It is a quite Anglo congregation.
They are always looking for something different that I might say because I am from another culture.
Sometimes they enjoy it; sometimes they wonder what I am trying to say.
But because I have been in the Uniting Church for nearly 27 years it seems quite normal for me to just be another minister.
But every now and then I say something about my background.
