Sharing some thoughts

Easter is the greatest festival in the Church calendar – some may prefer Christmas, some perhaps harvest or even Pentecost, but without the celebration of Easter there would be no Christian faith and no hope… We live in a sometimes frighteningly politically correct society – only this week I was reading that in Florida an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter and Pentecost holidays. He hired a lawyer to bring a discrimination case against Christians and Jews and the observance of their Holy days. The argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no such recognised days. The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the Judge suddenly shouted, ‘Case dismissed !’ The lawyer immediately stood up protesting against the ruling saying, ‘Your honour, how can you possibly dismiss the case ? The Christians have Christmas and Easter and other days – the Jews have Kippur and Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have n...

We have thought of the pain that Jesus carried to the cross. We have thought of his suffering. We have thought of a sacrifice willingly made for us. But as well carrying his pain to the cross, he also carried the hopes of people everywhere. There were the obvious people – his mother, the disciples and his followers… These are the people we immediately think of – Mary of course never gave up believing in her son – she stayed with him along with Mary, the wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalene and John, right to the cross, but many of the disciples did begin to doubt. Who can blame them ? They were afraid – whatever they thought of Jesus, whoever they believed him to be didn’t seem to matter much when his life and ministry were judged by the standards of the world – he was broken. He was defeated. The hopes they had were shattered as Jesus carried them to the cross. And there were the hopes of many others as well – perhaps those people who had shouted ‘Hosanna’ as Jesus entered Jerusalem a week ...

The reading from Isaiah is the most incredible bit of prophecy. Isaiah of course was a great prophet, cherished by the Jewish scholars, and yet his words, when Jesus came along, were conveniently ignored. Here are just some of the phrases from that reading we heard : ‘He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted’ – he was raised an lifted on the cross, exalted by God the Father, and ultimately by Christian people serving him imperfectly through generations. ‘Just as there were many who were appalled at him – his appearance was so disfigured that he seemed no longer human – so will the crowds be astonished at him.’ As Jesus died on the cross on that first Good Friday, many were appalled at how he looked – many of the disciples didn’t go and watch – some perhaps afraid for their own safety, but all surely unwilling to watch someone they loved die such a horrible death. And yet those who were there were astonished – the condemned thief, the centurion, Mary, the mother of Jesus, the ...

Peter really does have a rough deal in the Bible – he was one of the closest followers of Jesus, and yet, so often, we hear of him getting things wrong. There was the transfiguration, later there would be the denial of even knowing Jesus – and tonight is another of those occasions. Gathered together for what we know to be the Last Supper, Jesus, we are told, showed the full extent of his love. He did this by washing the disciples’ feet. Peter is horrified by this – he waited until it was his turn and then protested ‘you will never wash my feet !’ He would never let the master be his servant. Then in language that has long reminded the church of baptism, Jesus says, “But if I don’t wash you, then you won’t belong to me.” This changes everything for Peter. If foot washing is a sign of being part of Jesus, then he wants to be drenched – soaked from head to foot. Peter doesn’t perhaps understand properly, but he’s getting there – he knew something special was happening as Jesus washed his ...