Maybe I ought to explain the title first. It comes as a snippet of an overheard conversation with a child and went something like this: “ Mum, what are we celebrating at Easter.” “ Oh darling, we’re celebrating chocolate.” According to Supermarket data each of us will consume two and a half Easter eggs this weekend, but one in four of us doesn’t know what the Easter egg symbolises. Here are some of the answers they received in the survey. 1. Why do we have Easter bunnies? Because on Easter day the Easter Bunny led the disciples to the tomb of Jesus. 2. Why do we give each other chocolates at Easter? Because it was the first thing that Jesus ate after the Resurrection. The real history of the Easter Egg is a little more prosaic. Both eggs and chocolate were forbidden foods during Easter, so it made sense to bring them together to celebrate Easter and they became symbols of the Resurrection. Our Easter story has a mix of both bitter chocolate and sweet chocolate. The Bitter As the Angel meets with the women at the Garden Tomb he tells them that: You are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen’ Matt 28: 5/6 I don’t think the Angel needed to remind them of the Crucifixion it was fresh in their memory, but he did need to tell them that they could not move on until they had come to terms with the crucifixion. Jesus' resurrection body still carried the scars of the crucifixion reminding the disciples of their part in his betrayal and death. So the first and most painful part of the Easter drama, even for those he greets as friends is to recognise Jesus as the victim of their sin. In his wounded body, they see the face of those they have betrayed and wounded. He is also the victim of all the world’s injustice and betrayal. We see in his face our share in the wounded and silenced, the excluded and judged, the victims of war, and the victims of famine. We see in his face our own faults and failures. The presence of the risen Jesus painfully exposes humanity's failures and frailties. The Sweet But Easter is good news, for in exposing our share in his death the risen Jesus makes peace and reconciliation possible. The accounts of the resurrection record that Jesus often met with his disciples to share a meal with them, breaking bread together as we do in Communion, as a sign of a restored relationship. The wounds of Jesus bring us peace not only with our God but with our friends and neighbours. We are reminded this Easter that we are celebrating 25 years of peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, but that process has involved the exposure of the crimes of the past on both sides of the divided community and indeed on the part of the police and army. Only through the recognition of accountability for crimes, both past and present, has it been possible for the people of Northern Ireland to come together and prosper. The wounds of Jesus remind us that the past cannot be buried but must be exposed to the healing light of truth in order for reconciliation to take place. Alleluia, Christ is risen! So we return to the significance of Easter. The Resurrection gospel teaches us that the recognition and acceptance of our share in this world’s pain and sorrow takes place in the presence of the Risen Jesus as we see his wounds. The Resurrection gospel tells us that Jesus returns to those who he is closest to because it is their task to tell the world of the possibility of peace and reconciliation with God and with each other. The Resurrection gospel tells us that Jesus, who came to the disciples with the marks of the nails still on his feet and hands, has taken the sting of all the world’s evil. The Resurrection gospel tells us that the wounds of Jesus are a sign that love is able to overcome this world’s darkness and heal a wounded world. That is why today we cry: ‘Alleluia, Jesus is risen!’ Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. we pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, That you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen Best wishes Rev Simon Brignall I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
“A picture is worth a thousand words”, a phrase attributed to Ibsen who knew how to use words, it captures what I want to say about this week's painting. The Scorpion, one of a series of 8 paintings titled ‘Christ in the Wilderness’ tells the story of Holy Week from the entry into Jerusalem to the Resurrection. Let me take you through the clues that Stanley Spencer gives us in this moving portrayal of Christ as he looks toward the Cross. The Scorpion makes reference to two passages in the gospels: Luke 11: 11 – 12 ‘Is there anyone among you who if your child asks for a fish will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion.' ‘See, I have given you all authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the powers of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you.’ Luke 10: 19 Renouncing Authority Taking the last passage first we come to the decision facing Jesus as he enters Jerusalem at the head of a crowd hailing him as their Messiah. “Hosanna to the King of David” they shout, recognising him as their true King and rightful leader. Jesus could have taken a political route and challenged the Roman authorities but instead chooses to go not to the Antonine Fort, where the Roman garrison is based, but to the Temple. Having given ‘All authority’ to the disciples he now renounces all authority and power and chooses to embrace the scorpion rather than tread on it. Accepting the Father’s gift ‘What Father would give their child a scorpion rather than an egg?’ Jesus asks. The answer is God the Father. We see Jesus contemplating the scorpion in his open hands. They are held as if he is receiving ‘Communion’, the bread of life, but instead, it is the sting of death. The scorpion has already stung him, we can see that his hands are swollen and red, and there are other scorpions by his feet ready to pierce them with their sting. Yet he looks almost lovingly at them. The last great struggle that Jesus faced was at Gethsemane, on the night that he was betrayed. All night long he pleads with his Father to spare him from the ordeal he knows he must face. “ Father if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done” Luke 22: 42 Having renounced all authority he now accepts his Father’s will, not as a punishment but as a gift through which he will receive ‘all authority over all the powers of the enemy As we receive Communion this morning we will be holding our hands out to receive the bread of life and drink from the cup that the Father gives us. It will be life-giving because Jesus himself has taken away the sting of death and become for us the means of new life. It will not only be the means by which we are in communion with God, but also in communion with others for by his death Jesus has not only reconciled us to God but to each other, even our enemies. On the Cross, Jesus reaches out to the thief who hangs beside him and forgives those who drive the nails into him. ‘Love your enemies’ Jesus said, but that can only happen because Jesus has taken away the sting and made forgiveness possible. In the dark All the key events of Holy Week take place in the dark. After Judas leaves the room during the Last Supper, John remarks that it is night. The gospel writers all comment on the dark night when Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. The trial of Jesus in front of the High Priest takes place in the dead of night and finally, darkness covers the land at noon as Jesus cries out ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’ Matthew 27: 45 The sky behind Jesus in Spencer’s painting is already beginning to cloud over as darkness approaches and we are reminded that the light shines in the darkness just as at the dawn of creation. The New Creation And so from the old Creation to the New Creation. Spencer has shown Jesus swatting in a curious position, and some commentators have suggested that it looks as if he is giving birth. (Poor Middle Eastern women would often swat when giving birth). And of course, this is one of the meanings of Christ’s passion and death: it is a birth, a recreation. Out of the darkness, a new light shines. St Paul takes up the theme of labour and birth as he describes the re-creation of the world through Christ: ‘We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope, we were saved.’ Romans 8: 22-24 It is the labour pains of the New Creation that we see in Jesus as he holds the scorpion. By his wounds, we have been healed. We see him waiting, patiently suffering, hoping for the things that cannot yet be seen. Rev Simon Brignall Holy Week in Coln St Aldwyns, Hatherop, and Quenington. Wednesday 5th April 6.30 pm Vicarage Cottage Barn. Passover Supper Good Friday 7th April 7.00 pm St John the Baptist. Readings and Hymns with extracts from Stainer’s Crucifixion Easter Sunday 9th April St Nicholas, Hatherop. Easter Holy Communion. Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. we pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, That you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen -- Rev Simon Brignall I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
40 years after the pop group Abba broke up they are back on stage live at the Abba Arena in London but not as 70-somethings but as their youthful selves. It‘s a wonderful show and we were there on Friday night dancing and singing along with 3,000 Abba fans. It’s all done, of course with the new digital technology that enables us to create virtual images that look and sound as if they are truly alive. So convincing that after a few seconds, you really believe that this is for real and you have somehow been transported back to your youthful self! Eternal life and eternal youth have always been a dream that we have tried to realise and we continue to do so. The story of Lazarus’s resurrection gives us an insight into what eternal life might really mean not after death but before death. The story of Frida Kahlo tells us that even in life we can experience resurrection not once but three times. At the age of 18 Frida was seriously injured in a bus accident by a metal bar that pierced her pelvis and broke her back. It was whilst miraculously recovering that she discovered her talent as an artist. Lying in bed with a mirror she repeatedly painted herself. After she had recovered she married the Mexican artist Diego Rivera and shortly afterward travelled with him to the USA. Here she was very much in the shadow of her famous husband. Tragedy was to strike again when she lost a child through miscarriage and suffered a period of depression but again illness and pain were to prove her strength. She began painting again and this time was recognised in her own right as an artist holding exhibitions in New York and Paris. On her return to Mexico, her marriage to Rivera came to an end and the pain of her broken body became unbearable. She had to wear a metal corset to enable her to stand but eventually became bedridden. This, however, did not stop her from working and some of her most well-known works are from this period from 1934 – 49. Frida died in 1954 aged 47 and was forgotten as an artist until the Feminist movement of the 1970s claimed her for their own. Since then her reputation and recognition have increased, indeed some speak of ‘Fridamania’. Annie our daughter is a devotee! The story of Lazarus is, likewise, a story not of life after death but a story of life before death, a life that Jesus gives to us that lasts beyond death. We notice this in John’s account. Jesus speaks about life before death, rather than life after death. The focus of his ministry was health and wholeness, the complete healing of the body, mind, and spirit. Notice that Jesus delays his journey to Bethany where Lazarus lies dying. It appears that death is not the issue here, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory” John 11: 4. Notice that Jesus' response to Martha when she rebukes him for not being present before his death is to talk about life, not death. The new life we know through Jesus Christ is a life that begins before death. “I am the resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live... and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” John 11: 25. The life that Jesus spoke about was a life before death, but what did he mean by that? His encounter with Mary suggests that the life he speaks about begins before death and survives the death of the body. It is a life that we can know as we put our trust in Jesus. “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” John 11: 40. Irenaeus, one of the great theologians of the early church described the glory of God as “A Man fully alive” He rightly points out that Jesus refers here not to some future life but to the life of God in us now. It is this life that Lazarus receives. In raising Lazarus to life Jesus makes clear that the life he now receives is about the quality of life as well as the security of life beyond death. We do not need then to dream of eternal life it is available to us now. We do not even need to imitate eternal youth for as Paul reminds us, ‘Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day’ 2 Corinthians 4:16 The life eternal breaks in and takes over so that the glory of God can be demonstrated in our lives now. The most convincing evidence is the transformed lives of those who, like Mary and Martha the sisters of Lazarus when in the face of his death, continued to hold fast to the promise of life in Jesus Christ now. ‘Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him’ John 11: 45. Rev.Simon Brignall I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
We don’t often read scripture as subversive literature but it is there hidden in plain sight. In particular, the many encounters where Jesus is in dialogue with feisty women. Women who refuse to be ignored, women who answer back, women who defy the conventions of the day by demanding to be recognised. The Samaritan woman who Jesus meets by Jacob’s well is one such woman. She is certainly a woman of some character, like the Wife of Bath, she has had five husbands and the man she lives with now is not her husband. Jesus comes to the well at midday, the hottest time of day, and is thirsty. Usually one would not expect to find anyone there at that time of day but this woman is a social outcast, no respectable woman would want to be seen with her. Jesus asks her for water, and she challenges him. ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria’ John 4: 9 Not only is Jesus creating a scandal by talking to this woman but breaking the long-held rules of racial segregation as Jews and Samaritans had no dealings with each other. The Samaritan woman continues with another provocative question: ‘Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well?’ John 4: 12 Clearly, she is not going to submissively agree with this strange man. Again she raises the temperature, to divert attention, I think, from the thorny topic of her ‘Relationship status’. ‘Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem’ John 4: 26 Theological talk was reserved for men and yet she broaches one of the most divisive issues of the day, the correct place where God should be worshipped. An issue as divisive in Israel today as then! Women, like this, step out of the pages of the gospel throughout the ministry of Christ. The Syro Phonesian woman, the woman with an issue of blood, the woman who gatecrashes a dinner party to anoint the feet of Jesus with her hair, the women who risk arrest by going to the tomb of Jesus when the other disciples are hiding away in the upper room. All defy convention and custom by calling into question the religious taboos of the time. This is subversive literature looking at life from the underside. Artemisia Gentileschi was a woman very much in this mold. A student of Carravagio she was a prodigious talent but her art is a statement of her fierce independence as a woman in a man’s world. Of the fifty-seven known works, forty-nine are of women, and of her religious paintings, none feature the Madonna or any woman in the role of submissive obedience. All her women, Judith, Esther, Bathsheba, Jael, Cleopatra, and her own self-portraits are of women in control! Controversially it has been suggested that this was the result of the trauma of rape and the subsequent trial in which she and not the rapist was tortured so as to verify her testimony. The rapist was never punished and Artemisia had to flee Rome to escape. Could it be that the four paintings that she did of the ‘Judith slaying Holofernes’ owed something to this experience? I don’t think Artemisisa ever found peace and happiness in her life but carried the trauma of her experience to the end. She stands for the many women through history who have raised their voices but did unlike the Samaritan woman had no one to answer their questions. We do know the happy ending of the Samaritan woman’s story. John records that though it is Jesus who asks her for water it is she who is thirsty for answers. She draws water for Jesus but it is she who finds that her thirst is quenched as Jesus offers ‘the water gushing up to eternal life’ John 4: 14. She comes to the well for water but in reality, she is thirsty for truth. Each generation is asking anew questions that are raised by the conventions of the day. Often the voices raised are angry at past wrongs, present abuse, or perceived injustices. Often the victim's voice goes unheard or ignored but if like the Samaritan woman, we are to find healing then the anger must be listened to before the healing can begin. ‘Where are we?’ ‘Who are we?’, ‘What’s wrong?’, ‘what’s the remedy?’ Past generations have assumed that the answers to these questions were self-evident. Jews and Samaritans both lived in a world where the answers seemed self-evident. Both lived in a secure world, satisfied that they had the answers to life’s questions. These answers however did satisfy those who chose to defy the institutional religion of their time. To the Samaritan woman and many like her, Jesus reached out with not new answers but with healing for the hurts of the past and hope for the future. Where are we? Not Jerusalem or Samaria, neither East nor West, whether on the right side of history or the wrong side we are all equally loved before Jesus. Who are we? Whether victim or abuser, whether oppressor or oppressed we are in need of healing by Jesus. What’s wrong? The unheard voices, the untreated wounds, and the hidden crimes all come into the light of Jesus Christ. What’s the remedy? Anger and protest have their place but healing comes as we seek not angry independence but forgiveness and healing for ourselves and others. Behind this discussion lies an important question, ‘What is God like?’ Is He a God confined to a particular shrine, place, or culture? Is he a God who does not hear the raised voices of the angry? Is he a God who knows nothing of the pain and anguish of the victim? No! He is the God who we know in Jesus Christ who comes to seek us where we are, to listen to us as we ask questions, and to gently reveal to us where our wounds need to be healed. The God who offers us the water of life. He is the God who comes to us in spirit and truth as we worship him. Rev. Simon Brignall Please pray for Elizbeth and her family as they mourn the passing of Ray. May he rest in peace and rise in glory Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. we pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, That you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
