Have you ever heard the expression ‘the audacity of hope’? If it sounds familiar, that may be because it became famous a few years back as the title of Barack Obama’s autobiography. But the phrase itself appears to have originated in a sermon by pastor Dr Jeremiah Wright. And again, to add another layer, in that sermon Dr Wright was reflecting on a painting by an artist called G.F Watts, titled Hope.

Hope shows a woman sitting on top of the world, playing a harp. In her case, the top of the world is not a comfortable or privileged position. The woman’s clothes are in tatters, she is cut and wounded, her head is bandaged and her eyes blindfolded. Even the harp that she holds is damaged, it has only one string remaining. It’s a picture of despair, a reminder of the pain in the world. Perhaps there have been times when we can identify with the pain and helplessness of this lonely figure - when we lose a loved one, when faced with illness, when a relationship breaks down. Times when we feel like our world is ending.

And what about the globe on which she perches? Its appearance is bleak, a murky colour. We can relate. There is so much darkness in our world. We cannot ignore the realities of war, poverty, inequality and environmental destruction. We live in a time of increasing upheaval and division, with hateful rhetoric becoming more widespread. That is the reality of our world, the world represented in the painting.

And yet, it is titled Hope. The woman clings to her harp, her grip strong. A ray of light illuminates her face. Her head is inclined towards the harp, as though hearing the remnants of music, and the solitary remaining string hints that it will be played again. Dr Wright described the painting as follows: ‘With her clothes in rags, her body scarred and bruised and bleeding, her harp all but destroyed and with only one string left, she had the audacity to make music... To take the one string you have left and to have the audacity to hope... even though you can’t see what God is going to do - that’s the real word God will have us hear.’

Hope is at the heart of the Easter message. Easter is a time of hope and new beginning, a time to throw open the doors and let the light in. As followers of Jesus, we enter into the story of that first Easter morning. When we join the disciples in today’s Gospel, it is ‘still dark’. The disciples are experiencing deep sadness at the loss of this friend and teacher in whom they had placed so much hope. When Mary Magdalene and the others visit the tomb, Jesus is not there. Sometimes we feel the absence of God in our world. Yet out of this uncertainty comes faith and hope. The disciples ‘see and believe’, and they begin to look at the world in a new way. The resurrection of Jesus is God’s affirmation that victory does not rest with the world’s victors, but with its victims. This Jesus who is raised is the one who challenges the status quo and tells us, ‘The last will be first’, who sides with the poor, the mistreated, the ignored. We are challenged to model our lives on this vision of Jesus, to shine light into the darkness and bring hope to an uncertain world.

The resurrection tells us that even the most desperate situations can be redeemed. God has made all things new. Where do we see signs of hope in the world? We reflect today on the many shining examples of people and movements who are working and fighting to change the world for the better. Where can we ourselves be signs of hope - what are the situations in the world around us that we are called to bring light to? This Easter morning - like the disciples, like the woman in the painting - we begin again, we play on, and we dare to hope. The writer Bonnie Thurston puts it like this: ‘We disciples are to be like the women at the tomb. We follow. We see differently. We are given a new vision and a message to declare. If we fall or fail, it only matters if we don’t get up and start over. We begin again. And again. And again.’