Last night I went to Holy Trinity Church at Dulwich Hill to sing in a festival of light. The occasion was the lighting of the new fire and the lighting of the Paschal Candle for the parish. It was an interesting and thought-provoking ceremony. Many of the people had never been to an Easter Vigil, and many of them were strangers to the Christian Church. We lit the fire outside, in much the same way as we have done today; the Exsultet was sung and we processed on to the church. We sang and prayed and when the service was over I began to think, as I always do on such occasions, "Is this all? Have we finished?"

I was in the choir, and we had been practising for weeks. Once we had sung our songs; that was it. All the preparation had brought us to this point, and then, it seemed, we stopped. I suppose actors who have rehearsed for a play feel the same when the play has finished. And those who have prepared for any great event. It may take weeks or months, even, to plan and make arrangements, and then, in a few hours it is over.

The feelings are difficult to describe. Disappointment, or relief, sadness maybe, or delight because everything has gone so well. There is grief perhaps, and shock, because something that we were focussing on has gone, and there is an empty space in out lives that needs to be filled.

I wonder how it was for the women who went to the tomb of Jesus, so early on the first day of the week. According to Luke and Mark, the women were taking spices to complete the embalming of the body; but Matthew simply says they were going to see the tomb. Perhaps they needed to see again the evidence of Good Friday, the stone-sealed tomb where Jesus lay dead. Perhaps they were going to make certain that what they saw had not been a dream - that the terrible events of Friday had really happened. The preparation of Jesus' life was for his crucifixion, and now this had happened, his life was at an end. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary needed some time to understand this. They were like the actors when a play is finished, like choristers when the concert is over. They would have felt grief for their dead friend; they may have been puzzled, disappointed, angry even. What do you feel when a good thing comes to an end?

But of course it was not the end. Suddenly, for the two women, life, which had been stopped when Jesus died, started again. But it was not the same life starting up again as if someone had pressed the pause button on a DVD player. Life was suddenly completely different and new. Matthew makes that clear. The visit to the tomb was like an earthquake and like lightning. It was terrifying - the guards shook with fear and collapsed. An angel descended from heaven and rolled back the stone. The door of the tomb, which the women thought could not be moved, was thrown to the ground and the angel sat upon it, as if to say, "There, I defy you to make sense of this!"

But the two Mary's didn't have time to sit down; events were moving rapidly. Listen to the words Matthew uses. "Come," says the angel, "see the place, then go, quickly, and tell." And the women ran quickly, full of fear and joy. But before they had gone far, suddenly, there was Jesus, and they came to him, held his feet and worshipped him. But again, they cannot stay with Jesus, the action continues. "Go and tell," says Jesus, "tell my brothers to go to Galilee." The gospel is full of action: Come! See this! Go and tell!

So what about us and our lives? Have we been preparing all Lent for this Easter Day? I know the Choir have been preparing for Holy Week, and I know that you have been preparing for today, cleaning and setting up the church and the hall, cooking and making food for the feast. Today might be for us the climax of our forty day preparation, but the message of the resurrection is that today is a new beginning.

Christians are people of the future, not of the past. The two Marys of the gospel may have been looking for some quiet time by the tomb of Jesus, but the resurrection sent them running towards the future. Their orientation was changed from thinking of the dead to telling the good news to the living.

That must be our orientation as well. The resurrection gives an exciting future to all who hear of it, and we at St Luke's are called to that future. I am excited about the future here. We have a great community of faith here, with people ready to live their faith. We have a rich and exciting life of worship and a fellowship which is loving and welcoming.

We have plans for making what is good, better. We have identified the need for a small group ministry to share faith, give pastoral support and grow the church. We've taken the first steps to develop this and shortly we will be doing more.

The resurrection is not just something that we celebrate at Easter time, it is an event which shakes our lives like an earthquake, fill us with energy and life and sets us new directions. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid." and later Jesus said the same thing.

Let us not be afraid to be caught up in the resurrection life of Jesus; to be ready go where God guides us; and to work with God to change the world.