Sharing some thoughts

This Sunday is sometimes known as Low Sunday – it’s the day when people often stay at home and don’t come to church... oh ! Well, this year, that’s a bit like any other Sunday of course…  But whilst we might be desperate to get back to our church buildings to meet up with family and friends, church has continued because of the event we celebrated last Sunday - church has continued because Jesus has risen from the dead, Jesus is alive !  In the reading from Acts (2:14a,22-32) we read this remarkable speech made by Peter – Peter of course had, not very long before, denied even knowing Jesus, but he was now ready to stand up in front of some of the people who had called for Jesus to die, maybe some of the people who had been responsible for killing him, and proclaim boldly that Jesus had been killed, but that he rose from the dead and that he and others were witnesses of that. Who could possibly deny the reality of the resurrection when faced with the boldness of Pe...

Alleluia, Christ has risen ! He is risen indeed, Alleluia ! D William Sangster, a Methodist who had been working on a renewal movement in this country following the 2 nd  world war contracted a disease which progressively paralysed his body, and even his vocal chords. But on the last Easter Day that he was alive, he painfully wrote a note to his daughter saying, ‘How terrible it is to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice to shout “He is Risen!” But it is far worse to wake up with a voice and not want to shout…’  Easter Day is the greatest day of celebration in the whole year for Christians, the day that Jesus rose from the dead, the day when death was destroyed forever and the day when victory which seemed to have been claimed a couple of days before by the forces of darkness, was suddenly claimed by love, by God. It is the day to shout, ‘He is risen’ ! But this year those shouts will be a bit different. Rather than joining together in our church buildings...

Today begins Holy Week, the most important time in the Christian calendar, the time when we are asked to walk with Jesus to the cross before joining in with the celebrations of Easter Day. It’s an emotional week if we follow it properly and this year the emotions are even a little higher as we miss seeing and touching loved ones and we miss the chance to gather as a church family. Palm Sunday is always a special day in church as we’re presented with our Palm Crosses. Often it seems to be a chaotic mess as we attempt processions with people travelling at different speeds and sometimes even in different directions. We often gather for the first part of the service outside the church building offering a wonderful witness to people who are walking past that something particularly important is happening. Today, as I said, is different, but I wonder perhaps if it doesn’t give us the chance to understand the mind of Jesus in this week a little bit more. The gospel reading ...