Easter-what's it all about?

In Sydney there is the Royal Easter Show and the Easter Racing Carnival at Royal Randwick.

In Lightning Ridge there are the Annual Goat Races. Yes, that’s right, goat races!

But I have jumped ahead of myself.

Our 2004 Easter pilgrimage to Lightning Ridge began on Thursday evening in the centre of Sydney. With Buspa at the wheel, our bus made slow but steady progress through the holiday weekend peak hour traffic, collecting passengers along the way. By the time we reached Katoomba in the Blue Mountains there were 17 of us. Following our meal at Katoomba we drove through the night to Bathurst where we thankfully bedded down in our comfortable motel.

The next morning we shared in a very moving and meaningful Good Friday service at the Cathedral in Bathurst before we hit the road once more. The rest of the day was spent travelling, with frequent refreshment breaks.

We were not the only ones headed for Lightning Ridge that weekend. People came from near and far to spend Easter at The Ridge. We arrived at our motel wondering just what the days ahead had in store for us.

This brings me back to the goat races. First thing on Saturday morning we visited a Walk In Opal Mine where our interest in all things to do with opals was aroused. Then it was back to the crowds in town to experience the Easter activities of Lightning Ridge.

 If you have ever wanted to run helter skelter down the main street of town pushing a wheelie garbage bin, then this is the place for you!

The main street was blocked to traffic. At one end the marshals were busy lining up the contestants with their garbage bins ready for the next heat of the wheelie bin race. The other end of the street was a hive of activity. Frisky and often reluctant goats were being harnessed to small blue carts. Excited children in crash helmets were eager to try their hand at the reins, hoping if at all possible to keep their goats on course and make it to the other end of the street. Oh foolish hope!

And where, you might ask, was the Christian presence in all this mayhem? Well right there in the thick of it, in his orange SES overall, was the local BCA man – ready to ward off any goat that preferred to run with the spectators rather than along the road — possibly not the sort of thing that was covered in his theological college training!

For the Maude family in Lightning Ridge, ministry involves quite a lot more than would be expected in many parishes. Truly, as Paul would say, they need to be all things to all people.

We saw this attitude in action on Easter Day. The small church was absolutely packed on Easter Morning for the service. Just how many people were regulars and how many were visitors like ourselves, I could not tell. I can only report the enthusiasm I witnessed later in the day as I heard Danielle and Rick discussing different ones who had turned up for church for the first time that morning.

After the church service we went with many of the congregation to a mining lease on the edge of town. There in the muddy waters of the puddling pool Rick baptised three of his flock while we stood on the bank and prayed and praised the Lord. It is a tribute to Rick’s ministry and of course to the work of the Holy Spirit, that these three, a young woman and an older couple in their seventies, had reached the point in their walk with the Lord where they wanted to make a public declaration of their faith in such a humble way. It is perhaps the most meaningful baptism I have ever witnessed.

So, what is Easter all about? More than ever this Easter the word sacrifice has come to my mind.

I have seen the sacrifice of human pride in the puddling pool. I have seen the sacrifice of human comforts in parish ministry. I have seen the sacrifice of human love in reaching out to others.

All these separate sacrifices remind me of the supreme sacrifice and incredible love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

That is what Easter is all about.

NOELENE SEIDL