"You are!" An Invitation to Have our Imagination Run Wild
Easter is a time to have our minds blown by and for our imaginations to run wild with the possibilities of what the reign of God might look like. I wonder what that means for us as we commemorate ANZAC Day and offer a place for our city to commemorate the Battle of Pukehinahina Gate Pa. These dark and sad stories would seem to be the exact opposite of Easter. And yet amid the violence are moments of compassion that arose out of the deep wells of faith within people like Henare Wiremu Taratoa, Heni Te Kiri Karamu and Rawiri Puhirake. Mind blowing Easter shaped possibilities. Strangely in Easter we go back to John’s version of the last supper. In our gospel reading (John 15:1-8) Jesus comforts his shocked disciples with his last “I Am” statement – “I am the vine and you are the branches”. As they and we hear this we are invited to hear all the previous I Am statements like, bread of life, living water, light of the world. Look them up. And then Jesus says “You are”. The only time he