This is the great shout of the Church worldwide during the Easter season, and it always pleases me to hear normally well behaved adults making a great deal of noise in church, and sometimes even smiling as they do so. But apart from shouting in church, and eating too much chocolate, what difference does Easter make to the man, woman and child in the street? Falling conveniently in spring, Easter is the time when we rejoice at the promise of new life. All around us we see buds swelling, lambs frisking in the fields, birds nesting, flowers blooming, and our hearts are lifted because of the sheer beauty of it all.

And then we look in the mirror, and see someone who is a year older, a year more tired and care-worn - “Not much new life about me!” you might say; perhaps you’ll even recall a verse from a well known hymn – “change and decay in all around I see….” The point is, even though we age physically (and at the same time develop and grow, flourish and blossom spiritually, mentally and emotionally) we move towards a new kind of life which commences as we leave this earthly one.

Christians are “Easter People” because we share with Jesus the victory he won over sin and death; we no longer have to be slaves to those destructive things but are released, set free. Our belief and trust in God (which is NOT the same as understanding everything about God) means that we can have hope in all that Jesus promised.

So then, is it “jam tomorrow”? Yes it is. But it can be jam today as well. Eternal life is exactly that, eternal, and it has no beginning and no end, so all that we look forward to can become a reality now if we want. Maybe it will be a bit hazy, or possibly even watered down, but new life, living earthly life in a new kind of way, can happen now. We are able to experience real joy, and hope right now. We are able to make the Kingdom Values of God – honesty, righteousness, love, peace, justice – realities for those we love and for our brothers and sisters around the world if we want.

Knowing what our future holds means we can live the present in a different way. Knowing that we are promised eternal life, not because we have earned it but because God loves us unconditionally and unceasingly enables us to see other people in a different light; they too are loved and saved by God; they are our brothers and sisters; so we treat them differently.

The Christian Faith is not a private thing but is a faith lived out as a member of a community. The more people who catch on to the truths of the Christian faith and specially to the real meaning of Easter, the more new life is likely to become a reality in our small communities, in our nation and throughout the world.

If we could change the lot of some of those people around the world who suffer so greatly, if we could share a little bit more, if we could reduce want, war and misery, well that would be worth shouting about.