Activities

On Palm Sunday, 1^st April, Andy preached on Mark 15:1-39, about Good Friday, which he preferred to call “the darkest day” (v 33). The Light of the World came face to face with the powers ruling the world where darkness appeared to reign. Before creation, darkness reigned, and light was the first created thing. On the face of it, Jesus died because he had upset too many rich and powerful, as well as some of the ordinary people – Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent, but it was the baying mob that decided he should die. Pilate wanted to give the impression that he listened to the will of the people. The religious authorities saw Jesus as a threat. This account shows us what the world is really like: governments prefer to preserve their own power rather than do what is right. It is easy for us to point the finger, but if we had been there, whom would we have chosen? The “terrorist” Barabbas? One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. The crowd understood Barabbas, but Jesus was a mystery with his teaching on loving your enemies. Their rejection of God echoes through history. “Why doesn’t God do something?” we ask. But God has done something, here on the Cross. He takes all our hatred, selfishness, bitterness, the way we reject God every single day. Our “no” is met by God’s “yes” in Christ. The temptation is to rush on to Easter, to the resurrection, but we should follow Christ to Gethsemane and to the foot of the Cross. The light of the resurrection only dawns by means of his death.

Andy led Communion on Maundy Thursday when we remembered the first Lord’s Supper.

On Good Friday our combined service with the United Reformed Church was held in our church, with Andy leading and Revd Ray Adams preaching. Ray said that the sight of a person struggling under a cross was not at all unusual; the “pax romana” was a peace imposed by violence. In the early part of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus was active, and the action moved quickly; once we get to the crucifixion story, he moves from active into passive mode, allowing events to take their course and putting himself entirely in the hands of others. He did not perform a miracle to “save himself” because he had to go through the experience of being without God to win the world back to God. It was not that Jesus gave up; he gave himself up to others. Passers-by derided him, the priests despised him, his inner circle denied him; the only one to recognise him was the Roman centurion. The words first heard at his baptism were here confessed by someone not of the household of faith. Our challenge as Christians living in the power of the resurrection is to show how to trust the power of that suffering love. The voluntary giving up of power can be a demonstration of the way God has risked himself to overcome what is broken in his creation.

A good number took part in the Walk of Witness after the service, meeting the Palmers Green contingent in the car park of Winchmore Hill Methodist Church.

The family service on Easter Sunday was well attended. Andy said that the end of Mark’s Gospel is very abrupt. The last few verses in our Bibles are not found in the earliest manuscripts and some scholars believe they were added at a later date because it seemed unsatisfactory to the early Christians to end with the disciples’ fear. In Mark 1:1 the evangelist says that his account is the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The story did not end with Jesus’ resurrection; Jesus was going ahead of the disciples to Galilee, which was their home, where they lived their ordinary routine lives. The risen Christ meets us in the ordinary everyday routine of our daily lives, at school, college, work, wherever we may face various pressures. The Easter story is victory over sin and death, but the victory is still being worked out to this day. The risen Christ meets us in our “Galilee” and continues to work through the messiness of our lives.

Our service on 15^th April was conducted by Martin Wells who has been attending our church for some months. He preached on John chapter 20 from verse 19. This passage contains a number of resurrection appearances. It was significant that the first appearance was to Mary Magdalene: as women’s evidence was not regarded as admissible in those days, no one making up the story would have had a woman as the first witness. The disciples were fearful. Jesus understands our fear; he did not condemn Peter and the others for their fearfulness. Jesus appeared and greeted them “Shalom”. The disciples were convinced that Jesus had physically risen from the dead. The historical evidence is overwhelming and the fact that Jesus rose from the dead confirms the promise of the resurrection for us also. Jesus gave the disciples a commission, and this commission comes down to us as well; it is for all of us to use our individual gifts for the spreading of the gospel. Thomas missed out the first time Jesus appeared to the disciples. He may have had a very good reason for not being there, but we too miss out if we are absent from the fellowship. Jesus understands our doubts; the second appearance to the disciples was probably for Thomas’ benefit, but our belief is commended (v 29). Our position is not inferior to those who actually saw Jesus in the flesh.

In his sermon of 22^nd April, preaching from Ephesians 1: 15 – 23, Andy said that many people have a problem with the idea of resurrection. However, even though we may believe in the fact of the resurrection, we deny it all the time by the way that we live. Every time we fail to help someone in need, whenever we do not attempt to correct an injustice, we deny the resurrection. Conversely, when we stand up for the oppressed, offer forgiveness to someone or seek the wellbeing of communities within which we live, and especially of those who are hard to love, we are proclaiming resurrection. The two disciples on the Emmaus Road in Luke 24 were perplexed. They had given up everything to follow Jesus and now he was dead. Suddenly, they recognised him as the stranger who had walked alongside them on the road, and everything changed. The proof of the resurrection is not the empty tomb, according to American Baptist pastor Clarence Jordan, but the full hearts of his disciples. Power is often used to demean others, but God’s power brings life and healing, breaks down barriers and brings people together. It is Andy’s prayer that we may open our hearts to God and that he will flood our lives with new love so that we may “practise resurrection”.