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“Christianity takes it for granted that whether you succeed or fail,
you’re valuable. God’s view of you doesn’t depend on how you do – it’s
always the same love, always giving you a second chance. And you can
face failure without fear and rage.

You’ll still try your
best but you’re also free to see that if you can’t get what you wanted,
you still have your dignity before God, so you still have a future.

This is the sort of thing the Church gives space for – a realistic picture of who you are, based on a vision of who God is.

You
may not know exactly what, if anything, you believe about God. But the
presence of this building and this community of people simply reminds
you it could be different – you could find a new perspective on who you
are and a new connectedness with other people and the world.

‘Haunted by religion’. Yes, in the sense that no one seems to want these possibilities to be outlawed or forgotten.

Haunting,
of course, isn’t the best word for this; it’s about ghosts from the
past. But one thing the Bible says about Jesus when He has been raised
from death is that He tells his friends He isn’t a ghost. He is simply
fully alive again.

It could be that this Easter you realise
that what felt at first like no more than a ghostly – if friendly –
presence turns out to be alive here and now. And that’s when Christian
memories and sympathies turn into faith.”

- Rowan Williams Easter Sermon