From Saturday Morning prayer – the Ester Bonnet parade on Zoom before our rather solemn service with much prayer for those in our thoughts for various reasons.
I am giving Zoom a miss next week as far as I can, and will be walking the newest addition to the Seth household who is travelling down from Bristol today.
Apparently he is a bit of a handful…. but we are looking forward to the challenge and the delights of having a dog again.
It may have influenced my choice of the Easter Picture further down the page! 🙂
and on the dog theme here is Jac’s story on the diocesan website A story about Percy, God’s dog – Truro Diocese : Truro Diocese
Clicking the title will take you to an interesting piece in The JC (The Jewish Chronicle) sent to me by an old friend from college days, Pauline, who worships at Hatch End Reformed Synagogue.
For me, I do not think of the condemning crowds before Pilate as being Jewish, I think of them as representing countless numbers of human-kind across the millennia who when faced with oppression and injustice can be manipulated by religious or political organisations.
When you look around our world today it is repeated over and over again with mobs, factions, rioters, violent extremists all looking to blame, to shame and often to maim. The resurrection of Jesus gives us hope that somehow we can rise above, be something more forgiving, more loving and caring, more discerning about what we are told. The general populace is swayed by the media that tells us what to think, the loud voices of the tabloid press, the stirring up of anger by the likes of Piers Morgan and by the well oiled machine of spin that is the stuff of Government.
I feel rather sorry for Judas….. a man who took his own life realising that he had got it so badly wrong. A zealot who was probably manipulated himself to think that what he was doing was for the best- I just don’t buy the “dishonest thief who stole from the common purse” picture, that is a Piers Morgan type catch-all simplification. How could anyone be around Jesus as a disciple with that intent? But I can believe that he thought that precipitating action by his hero would bring down the powerful oppressors. How deluded was he and how desperate he must have felt!
From the Easter hope we need dialogue, understanding and above all the love of the risen Christ. Not only between the world’s religions, between countries and continents but between ourselves. When women are still not seen as equal to men, when we discriminate on the grounds of race, colour, creed and sexuality and when we cause hurt to others because of our views, whether or not we have been manipulated into thinking them, we are not being loving.
Simply, the message from Jesus is to love everyone and that through the resurrection and the gifting of the Holy Spirit we do have the wherewithal to do it. as the canticle from the Northumbrian Daily Office puts it
Christ, as a light
illumine and guide me.
Christ, as a shield
overshadow me.
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
Happy Easter One and All.
Jim
One of my favourite Ester images from Craig Aitcheson
Contact – some thoughts from Sandie Massie, a Reader from the Lizard Peninsula
It’s hard to believe that Easter has arrived again, yet so much has happened to each one of us over the last year. We have had to find a new way of living and being, which has caused us to miss one of the most precious gifts; that of human contact. Yet isn’t this what Easter is really about? Certainly not about chocolate eggs and fluffy bunny rabbits, or indeed ancient rituals of worship – traditions that did not exist in Jesus’ earthly ministry. Why did Jesus become God Incarnate, God in the flesh, in human form? To be the living sacrifice given once for all for the forgiveness of sins? Yes, most certainly; but Christ also came to make contact with humankind. During his earthly ministry, Jesus touched people – literally. He touched the eyes of the blind and covered the ears of the deaf. He breathed on the dead to bring them back to life. He laid hands on the sick and the lame to restore normal function. He made contact with people.
In particular during Passiontide, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and held out bread and wine to them at the Last Supper. He touched and healed the ear of the soldier wounded by Peter at Gethsemane. He locked eyes with his mother and with John, the disciple he loved, as he hung on the Cross, committing them to one others’ care. Contact – even reaching out to the men hanging beside him at Calvary. And then he was gone; taken down from the Cross and laid in a tomb. He was out of reach, out of touch, out of contact.
Then came the miracle of miracles- Jesus’ resurrection from the dead as good triumphed over evil. And what was the first thing the risen son of God did? He made contact with Mary Magdalene and some of the disciples. Later he invited the doubting Thomas to place his hand in Jesus’ wounded side. He shared a meal of fish with his disciples on the beach.
Later he ascended into heaven to be with his Father. But Jesus kept in contact with humankind. The Holy Spirit came and touched Jesus’ followers; and it’s the same today. That same Holy Spirit is here with us to keep us in contact with our Saviour and our Father.