My Dear Friends, Letter 4:
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (1 John 3: 16 – a text for the frontline!)
Thank you for taking care of one another by keeping in touch each week. We also want to send our special thanks to Carol for her work on the church website. Do visit the website and be encouraged. Use it to tell us how you are, to offer a prayer, send a photograph or to enhance your knowledge, learning and worship.
The Corona virus has touched every part of our lives. For some it has affected family members. For others, I am sad to report, the virus has brought death and, with it, grief, sadness and fear for some church members. We join them in that sadness and pray that God would bring them comfort and strength.
This week, Holy Week, is typically a busy one in church for worship leaders and ministers in particular. This Easter is no different. So I offer to you a Maundy Thursday reflection, entitled “The Look”: a poignant first person reflection from the perspective of the apostle Peter based in the main on his denial and betrayal of Jesus (Luke 22: 60-62).
I also present a Good Friday sermon, based on the Roman centurion’s declaration about the crucified Christ, “Surely, this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39). Some of you may (or may not) recognise these messages from the recent past. But I think they are worth re-visiting as part of the journey we take with Jesus this Easter. Those who listen to the recordings on the website should note that the full text to these messages is available on our website to help them pause, reflect and pray through this week-of-all-weeks…
As we speak I am working on a brand-new Easter Sunday sermon when we consider together again the meaning for us, now, of the Resurrection of Jesus. The journey of the man Jesus to the cross and beyond is, in a very real sense, like the journey we ourselves have to take each and every day. Jesus came (He comes) to identify with us and share in our pain, our waiting, our weakness, our lamenting and our loneliness. He is God but He is also human – He is like us in many ways. But our Christian faith presents us with opportunities to be like Him, too. That is the aim of all Christian discipleship after all – to be conformed into His likeness. We too have to set our faces “towards Jerusalem”, determined to fix our gaze on Our Father and His purposes, determined and Spirit-led, to face the future as Jesus did, with an attitude of thanksgiving and trust in God. Like He did!
We want the answers to so many questions: we want nothing more than to know when it will all end, if we too will have to suffer, and what it will be like on the “other side”. That’s human-nature, I suppose. Who could have predicted how the world has changed, how radically different our lives look and feel today? As much as we would like our all-too-fallible politicians to offer us an “exit strategy” there is, in truth, only one way to live, now or in the future. Cleaning the church at Sion I cleaned in the direction of the several banners which Irene hung earlier in the year and together proclaim:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3: 5-6)
God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change; the courage to change the things we can and the wisdom to know the difference.” (The Serenity Prayer)
Stay Home. Stay Safe. Stay Together. Stay with the Lord!
Every Blessing! MFR 06/04/20