Click here for Astrid's video message2ND SUNDAY OF EASTER – John 20:19-end - Acts 2:14a, 22-32When I was at school and had to revise for a test or an exam, some of my friends would describe the ways in which they were going to revise. It ranged from learning until late at night, to getting up early in the morning, to even, as some might prefer, putting their books under their pillows at night, so that the information would transfer, as by magic, into their heads. And there may have been some who said they never revised but were lying. Sometimes, we would revise together, pushing each other on, as we recited the things we had to remember, so that we could reproduce them at the exam. I was never one for getting up earlier than I had to; I used to opt for the staying up late if necessary. But one thing was clear: putting your books under your pillow at night wouldn’t get the information into your head; that was a myth, of course! But how do we learn best? It seems that we all learn in one of several ways: reading, hearing, doing, or a combination of them. And the best way of learning – the one that secures the information the most, seems to be that of experience: the more we are ‘in’ and ‘into’ something, the more we retain the information. Learning, the gathering and storing of information, is something that we need to be active in, or it won’t happen, or not at best.In today’s readings, the information that the message conveyed, was quite simple, and consisted of only 7 words: Jesus Christ has risen from the dead! But how people were taking it in, differed quite a lot. For most of them, the success of really hearing these 7 words, depended on their ability to listen and then to allow the message to seep into their understanding. For many, it didn’t happen overnight; they literally had to sleep on it. For Thomas, one of the twelve, it took more than just hearing the message: he also had to see it and touch it. John doesn’t record whether he actually reached out his hand and touched the risen Jesus as he had been invited. The fact that Jesus spoke so directly to him might have been enough at that very moment. But it’s true that, so often, we don’t accept what we cannot see or touch. That may well be the reason why so many people actually doubted the seriousness of the present pandemic: it was only rumour from abroad; it hadn’t really reached us, and therefore it wasn’t taken in as something real. Now, of course, it can no longer be denied: it has ‘touched’ us only too well!Now seeing, hearing, and touching are very important in life. And as we cannot touch those outside our own homes, we may feel deprived in our human experience. The Church is a Body - and as such relies on touch for learning. The sacraments of the church are all to do with touch: baptism, anointing and laying on of hands for healing and commissioning, sharing the Peace and the body of Christ, welcoming and encouraging; it all depends on touch. Our fellowship is diminished now that we cannot share in this way. But let us not become discouraged. The most frequent instruction in the Bible is not ‘Be good; be holy, don’t sin, don’t lie’, but rather: ‘Don’t be afraid.’ The Bible says those former things too, but what it says most is: ‘Don’t be afraid.’ ‘Fear not’. Did you notice what Jesus says each time he appears in the Gospel for today? He says, ‘Peace be with you.’ He says it three times in this passage from John 20: Peace be with you. Peace be with you. Peace be with you.‘Have you believed because you have seen me?’, says Jesus to Thomas, ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’We may not see each other or be able to touch now in the normal way church works, but we are still able to hear the living Word, Jesus Christ, as he speaks to us:Do not be afraid. Fear not. Peace be with you. Open your Bible and read those words anew. Learn them. Believe them through the risen Lord. The Peace of the Lord be always with you. Amen.
Click here for Astrid's video messageEaster – Matthew 28:1-10I was in New Zealand last week! Indeed I was; I’m not lying! No, I didn’t go there by plane, as if there was still a plane for passengers to go on. And I didn’t close my eyes and pretend, or had a dream about going to New Zealand. So, if I’m not lying and if – as you might think – I haven’t lost the plot, how did I do it? Well, it was quite different, I grant you that, but it was because my sister, who lives there, had sent me a link to a virtual service of their church on internet, and it was live! It was a meeting of each member, from their own home, all joining in at the same time, so that they could actually see one another as they were in front of their computer screen. And at the given time, I joined! As I could see some people – not all at once – and see their movements, and hear every word, I was really there! Isn’t that amazing? There was one problem: with this technology, only one person can speak at a time. As soon as more people speak together, the screen goes mad and breaks up. So, it had to be orchestrated, and there were a few glitches, but it was a great experience. I was where thought I would never be, and couldn’t be, in the present world crisis. It was a true gift, a bonus. When I couldn’t be there, I actually was.So, Easter Day, the day of the Resurrection; when something happened that we never thought could happen: that says in the words of our acclamation: ‘Alleluia! Christ is risen!’ and the response: ‘He is risen indeed, Alleluia!’ It doesn’t sound now in our church buildings, but we can still say it as a Church, no matter where we are: ‘Alleluia! Christ is risen!’ … ‘He is risen indeed. Alleluia!’ We can say it together, even though we are each in our own home. The Resurrection of Christ and the hope that we have through it, isn’t proclaimed in church buildings alone, but in the lives of God’s people, when they respond to his call. God dying on the cross for our sins sounds like foolishness to some: a bit like me saying that I was in New Zealand last week, when I couldn’t have been there physically at all. And yet it was true for me.But if we tried to put God in a box, pressed him into a mould of what we think God should look like, we would utterly fail! How could he be God if we didn’t accept that his ‘foolishness’ is greater than human wisdom? You know the story of the man on the roof of his house during a flood, and praying, ‘God, please save me.’ Soon a rowboat came by and offered to take him to safety. But he said, ‘O No, God will take care of me; thanks.’ The waters kept coming until he was in to his waist. Then a helicopter appeared with a rope ladder, but the man said, ‘O no, God will save me.’ Then the man drowned and when he stood before God, he complained, ‘Why didn’t you save me?’ And God said, ‘I sent you a boat and a helicopter. What more do you want?’Our church buildings may be shut, and we may say that it shouldn’t be like that, but the Church is still open, in us, as renewed children of God. Christ died on the cross, and we may say that it shouldn’t be like that, but he came back to life, so that we could be with him for ever. Death is an outrage; it is ugly; too often people die when they shouldn’t. But God came in Jesus, to put an end to death, to kill it, to open the grave and show the victory over it: As strange as it may sound, and as incomprehensible as it may seem, what the apostles proclaimed and the prophets foretold: ‘Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!’ He is standing at the open grave with an outstretched hand, and saying: put all your weight on me, and trust me, and receive the gift of eternal life.Yes, these days may be scary and weird. We would never have believed it could be like that. But God is with us. And we are together, in the new life that Christ gives, even today. So, I give you now 5 lettuces: Let us rejoice! Let us thank God. Let us enjoy an Easter egg; or two. Let us accept the love of God in Jesus, and praise his name. Let us shine like light in the darkness, as beacons of hope. God has done it: ‘Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!’ Amen.
Click here for Astrid's video messagePalm Sunday – Philippians 2:5-11 & Matthew 21:1-11‘Hosanna now to David’s Son! God’s blessing on the coming one! Hosanna in the highest! (Matthew 21:9b)What challenges we are facing today! I got an email saying that the flight that I had booked for later this month was cancelled. No surprise under the present circumstances, but who would have thought, when I booked a few months ago – is it only a few months? – that such plans were to be thwarted in just a matter of weeks. Most of the entries in my diary, which was getting quite full up to and including summer already, can now be crossed out; and what’s the point of a diary when you can’t go anywhere anyway? But a cancelled flight is a small price to pay compared to the plight of many others, who have seen their routine or even some possibly life-saving operations cancelled or postponed, or whose homes were recently flooded. Although I cannot now see my family, I know that there is the possibility of my seeing them at a later date which is a blessing. Hope keeps me going. And the fact that I still have a few toilet rolls left. As long as the basics are covered, why should I complain?Palm Sunday is when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. No royal aeroplane got him there; he hadn’t arrived by a special train or a coach, not even, more in line with the times, on horseback – after all, a king or a triumphant warrior would arrive with a certain pomp. Jesus, though, was carried on a donkey, an animal of humility and service. The crowds were ecstatic: finally, finally, the good times were coming; to replace the bad times under Roman oppression. An old prophesy was being fulfilled and the people were responding with shouts of acclamation, cutting branches from the trees and waving and spreading them on the road. Hosanna! God saves! This is a king in line with the famous King David! He will return the nation to the days of old; he will make us great again! In other words, the crowds were celebrating the arrival of a new king, but only one who would be king on their terms; who would do what they wanted. Even more so at a time when they felt they had no control over their lives. Whenever we find ourselves in a pickle, we may well do the same. We want our problems to be solved, but we don’t always want to be part of the solution. We want to be saved, but we are not always prepared to pay the price in service and humility. We don’t really like to be changed ourselves in the process. Jesus intends to answer our cries for help and all other prayers and he doesn’t wait until our motives are pure, or when we have sorted ourselves out and we feel we can look him in the eye. After all, he has come to seek and save the lost; it’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.But as on the day when Jesus was cheered by the crowds when he came to them on a donkey, we need to understand our need at a deeper level; not expect Jesus to do a ‘quick fix’ (although he can and does in certain places). Our greatest calling is to ‘love the Lord our God, and our neighbour as ourselves’ (Matthew 22:37-39). That means going deeper in our care for one another, and accepting the lesson that we are all learning now: that the basic need of humanity is love and food. Queen Marie-Antoinette infamously said ‘if the people don’t have bread, let them eat cake!’ I wonder what she would have said today about toilet rolls…. So, what if we have to learn a new way of existing as human beings in – and after – the present crisis? What can we learn from Jesus’ humility and his offer of a new life, untainted by the selfish tendencies that human beings are prone to? How does our ‘Hosanna!’ ring?Astrid
Rev Dr Leslie Griffiths; Lord Griffiths of Burry PortA prayer written for Premier Radio.In the darkest and most worrying moments of life, people of all ages and every culture have raised their prayers to almighty God. We do so now. This prayer is framed by words written 3,000 years ago, words from Psalm 88.Lord, our God, by day we call for help,By night we cry aloud in your presence.Let our prayers come before you.Hear our loud entreaty:For we have had our fill of woes,Which have brought us to the brink of despair.For those who are suffering from this dreadful disease, all who have lost loved ones, all those whose loss or suffering have been turned into the statistics we see on our daily news bulletins;For everyone living in fear, shut into their homes, somehow surviving on the streets; for those afraid their jobs or their livelihoods may be at stake, for those whose fear is turning to panic;For policy-makers, front-line workers, health workers and care providers, and all those working so hard to develop a vaccine;For the over 70s, those with underlying health risks, for pregnant women; for good neighbours and loving friends, for those closest to us in this time of need;Will your wonders be known in the region of darkness?Your victories in the land of oblivion?Dear Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
