Easter Day 2017 saw our little churches in Dunfanaghy and Carrigart filled to capacity and even overflowing with worshippers of all ages.  We enjoyed the hearty singing of classic hymns such as ‘Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son’, supplemented with the majestic ‘In Christ alone my hope is found’.  We even rocked out to the contemporary ‘Jesus is the name we honour’.

We were greatly honoured with the presence of this year’s Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland Rev Dr Frank Sellar.  Of all the places they could have chosen to be that Sunday we were thrilled he and his wife Claire agreed to celebrate Easter with us here in the most NW Presbyterian parish in Ireland!

Dr Sellar read from 1 Corinthians 15 and preached a wonderful message of encouragement and challenge.  It focussed on the hope Christians have through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, just as had been predicted in the Old Testament scriptures.

It was a timely message in the wake of the harrowing attacks on Coptic churches in Egypt the previous weekend.  Someone has estimated a figure of 90,000 Christians worldwide martyred for their faith during the last year.  There seems widespread uncertainty and unease generally around the world.  With the rise of apparently random, senseless murder and the mounting body count of innocent civilians including children, hope feels in short supply!

Yet while the West appears to have lost its soul along with its morals, the Church of Jesus Christ continues to grow at a phenomenal rate in countries like China, Nepal, and to many people’s surprise Iran and Afghanistan!  In some of the most challenging circumstances humanly speaking, individuals and families are discovering unique comfort in the redeeming love of God. 

There’s a lot of talk these days about ‘fake news’.  People wonder now about the selection, authenticity and balance of what we are being told.

How refreshing to hear this ‘good news’ from around the world, and to be reminded of the timeless ‘Good News’ of the Gospel, that Jesus Christ died so our sins can be forgiven and was raised that we might share His life eternally!
Let us humbly trust and pray with thanksgiving for His grace to renew and transform our families and communities everywhere.

May His Kingdom come!
 

He knew.

Knew ahead of time that the welcome celebrations were shallow, that behind the scenes jealous officials were already plotting his ‘removal’, that before the end of the week the cheers would turn to jeers and he would be unfairly, brutally executed.

More, he knew that in the short term his mission would seem a failure, for his own countrymen would not accept his message or leadership.  His influence would spread far and wide elsewhere before winning the hearts of his homeland.
Perhaps worst of all he knew his people’s stubbornness against their God and their Roman rulers would end in violent disaster within a generation.

And so, not for the first time, Jesus wept.

‘As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, Jesus wept over it and said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes.  The days will come when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.  They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.  They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognise the time of God’s coming to you.’ (Luke 19 v 41-44)

With great courage Christ tried to warn them, driving the crooks from the Temple courts, welcoming children and penitent sinners to prayer, challenging the hypocrisy of dead religion.  But Jerusalem rejected and killed their Messiah and forty years later in AD70 the city was destroyed, its population massacred, just as their Prophet/King had predicted with tears.

From a distance cynics might ask, if Jesus knew all this beforehand what was the point?  Of Palm Sunday, Good Friday, any of it?

But if we’re willing, some of us instead see in these tears and in the arms outstretched on the cross the depth of Divine love for a world spoiled and cursed because of sin.  We see One Who genuinely loves us, and was willing to die for us.  We see the birth of hope, the promise of life.

We see amazing grace.
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Jesus knows everything about each one of us but comes anyway, with the offer of grace, and peace. 
We can’t afford to turn Him down again.