Happy Easter, everyone!
Whether you are full of joy, or like the first disciples full of questions and fear and anxiety, may you hear Jesus’ voice as he enters the room and says “Peace be with you”.
I’ve always found today to be a strange day. Friday has gone, and Sunday is coming, but it isn’t here yet. Where should we find ourselves on Easter Saturday? Where does it fit in our spirituality?
Here’s the next of my videos on words from John’s Gospel. Today: “Solemnity”
Today, I am sharing my Good Friday video, as I continue to explore words from John’s Gospel.
We call it ‘good’, but why? It feels pretty bad lots of the time.
You may have noticed there is an election coming up, and campaigns are brewing. I think that’s important, and I am following it all quite closely.
You may also have noticed that Easter is upon us, and Christians are turning their thoughts even more closely to remember the most crucial part of our faith: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If you’re especially observant, you will have noticed some articles which bring these two things together. A few key political leaders have spoken of Christian faith generally and Easter specifically. If you haven’t seen them, I’m talking about articles by David Cameron and Michael Gove.
The bottom line is this: I take issue with some of what has been said about the faith I hold to, and when I feel my faith—and Jesus who lies at the heart of it—have been misrepresented, I choose to speak up.
A few disclaimers first, before I begin:
As I’ve thought about this, I think there’s a problem on the surface, and a deeper problem underlying it.
On the surface: it isn’t correctAs I read David Cameron’s article, I found a lot of it frankly baffling. Having heard and read a lot of his political speeches and statements recently, and having been following his party’s campaign, a lot of what I read was very familiar. It was about the values that underpin his worldview, values of making work pay, of building a better society, of fairness, equality and so on. It has become familiar rhetoric.
What baffled me, though, was the way he so readily equates this worldview with his understanding of Christian faith. With no explanation or elaboration, Cameron says:
And for me, the key point is this: the values of Easter and the Christian religion – compassion, forgiveness, kindness, hard work and responsibility – are values that we can all celebrate and share.
And then concludes with this:
Easter is all about remembering the importance of change, responsibility, and doing the right thing for the good of our children. And today, that message matters more than ever.
Simply put, I don’t believe these statements are accurate at all.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe that compassion, forgiveness, kindness, hard work and responsibility all flow out from the Christian message, and that doing the right thing for the good of our children is a good thing!
But to say that these are ‘the values of Easter’ and that ‘Easter is all about’ them is just untrue. They are some of ‘the values of’ the Conservative Party, and much of his campaign is ‘all about’ them. But Easter is not.
Easter is about Jesus Christ, who is not mentioned once in the article. Easter is about Jesus’ death at the hands of those who hated him, and his resurrection from the grave, conquering death itself. Victory through sacrifice, humiliation, servitude and submission. Hope through struggle and pain. This is the message of Easter. Not ‘the importance of change’.
So the surface problem in my eyes is that Cameron has misrepresented what is the heart of the Christian faith. He has articulated it as a faith all about ‘doing the right thing’, where ‘the right thing’ is determined by his own worldview and set of values. I honestly believe he is saying Easter, and Christian faith more generally, is something other than it is.
My objection is this: he does not have the right to do that.
To be clear, neither do I. Neither do you. Nobody does. It feels as though Cameron wants to tell Christians he’s behind them and values them. But on his own terms. He fully admits to being ‘a bit hazy’ on the details of Christian faith, but he still states unequivocally what the heart of my faith is.
But there’s only one person that can tell me what the heart of my faith must be, and his name is Jesus.
I get that there are parts of my faith which are a tough sell politically. And Easter is one of them. It is a story of sacrifice, self-denial and service like no other. And it calls us all to similarly deny ourselves, and commit to a life of sacrifice. It is a story of grace which tells us no matter how hard we work we can’t do it ourselves and need to trust in something we have never earned. It’s counter-cultural stuff.
As a passionate believer in the church, I say this: we need to remain counter-cultural if we’re going to have an impact at all. Cameron’s articulation of the Christian message is very watered-down and sanitised so it can’t meet with objection from anyone. But the gospel isn’t like that. Jesus wasn’t like that. He upset the status quo and people killed him for it.
Everything which Christians do (including all the things Cameron praises) flows out of what we believe about this Jesus. You can’t have one without the other. You can’t have the stuff we do without letting us have the Jesus for whom we do it. Any articulation of ‘the heart of the Christian message’ without Jesus at the very core is wildly inaccurate.
Please don’t ask us to accept it isn’t. That’s not your place, and you don’t have the right.
As I continue to post up here the videos I’ve been making for Easter week, today’s word from John’s gospel is this: “feet”.
I have to admit, this one is my favourite. It contains one of my favourite cheesy preacher lines, which I came up with a few years ago when preaching on this passage. Enjoy!
As in the last few days, I am posting a video I’ve made focusing on one word from John’s Gospel. I’ve been very gratified by the responses to these videos, as people have found them very helpful in their devotions as they journey through Easter week.
Today, the word is “light”. There is great hope here, but also a call to live life in the open.
This is the third of the Easter Reflections I’ve made for Gold Hill, reflecting on words from John’s Gospel. Today, a bit of a challenge to us, as we meet people who wanted to follow Jesus but didn’t.
Hope you enjoy.
This is the second of my Easter reflection videos that I’ve made for Gold Hill. Like yesterday’s, it is based around one word in John’s Gospel.
Today that word is “Life”. What sort of life is it that Jesus offers? And how do we attain it?
I hope you enjoy it.
As part of my ministry at Gold Hill, I’ve been putting together some Easter reflections for people to use during Easter week, from today through till Easter Sunday. I decided it would be a good idea to share them here, too.
I’m not going to write a lot about each one, just share them simply. Each is based around a word found in John’s Gospel, as John writes about the first Easter week.
Here’s the first: “Donkey”
I’ve just got home from being with some of the wonderful young people from our church on an all night prayer event. It’s part of a 24/7 prayer initiative across churches in our community. It was an amazing time, and I am learning so much from the faith of these young guys and girls. They are incredible.
We spent from roughly 2am to 3am praying for people across the world who are suffering, especially suffering persecution for their faith. We heard information, facts and stories and prayed into situations. We lit candles for lots of different countries in the world, and re-lit them when they burned out.
And part way through, Riodhna Duncan spoke up.
The purpose of this post is simply to share what she shared. Riodhna is one of the greatest prayer warriors I’ve ever met. The way she prays is a challenge to me, and an inspiration to me. Her persistence in prayer moves me and urges me on to pray more fervently. Riodhna is 15.
She is a gifted writer, and is often inspired by God to put thoughts or ideas into prose. With her permission, I’m going to share what she wrote last night, what she encouraged us with last night, as we prayed for people suffering persecution and death for the sake of Jesus. I found it very moving, and I think it’s an important message for us to hear.
So this is Riodhna, on prayer:
If every prayer we prayed saved a life, would we not pray with every breath we gave? Would we not fill our days praying upon praying for the fixing of these broken, countless sufferings. Why do we not?
Why do we not believe that our prayers will change anything, any prayer we make, however simple—with few words, to complex—with many—these prayers are, may we never forget the true meaning of them.
We pray not out of being told to, but to ask our Lord Father above to help those who are in such turmoil, and so lost. We pray for those who we may never be able to help by ourselves, but who we can help with the power of you. Let us never forget, the true meaning of our prayers, our feelings, and our worship to you Lord, the one who conquerors.
Thanks, Riodhna, for allowing me to share this here.