Ministers Message

Lent-Easter Letter

Death does not get the final say. God’s resurrection, life-giving power bursts through the darkness like a glorious sun-rise and God’s say is final and for always.  God defeated death on that day, and God has continued to offer new life and resurrection hope every day ever since and always will. 

With this powerful hope - which is the essence of the Good News we have in Christ Jesus - with this everlasting hope as our firm foundation, let me risk exploring what happens if we look at Tony Campolo’s message from the other side (I am reminded of Joni Mitchell’s song, I’ve looked at life from both sides now…).

(Easter) Sunday’s coming… but Friday’s first.

John 12:24-26 is one example of the biblical principle that death is a necessary gateway to new life:

I tell you the truth, a grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die to make many seeds. But if it never dies, it remains only a single seed. Those who love their lives will lose them, but those who hate their lives in this world will keep true life forever.

Here are some sobering reflections (and when better than Lent to reflect on sobering things?), and I word them in the first person because we each need to ask ourselves these questions:

1. What needs to die in me, in order for me to truly know the fullness of the new life that Jesus wants for me, offers me, has died to make possible for me?

2. What needs to die in me, that might be causing me to be a stumbling block to the ability of others to experience new life in Christ?

3. Is there anything in me - my thoughts, attitudes, behaviour, habits, or speech - that needs to die because it prevents me from being a life-giving presence as a member of the Body of Christ?

4. What things in our church - activities, structures, mind-sets, behaviours, and ways of being / doing church - are no longer life-giving?   Might they be seeds that now need to die in order for us to see growth?  

5. Am I guilty of wanting to keep these things alive - indeed actively working (and/or insisting others do) to keep them on “life-support” - through great expenditure of time and energy, because we are afraid of the uncertainty of death - and have forgotten to place our hope in Christ?  What needs to die in me in order for my church to be a life-giving place for others?

6. Who in our churches is dying - no longer finding their life and work within the Body of Christ life-giving - because of our corporate unwillingness to let dying things die?  Have I been guilty of happily letting others take the load of “life-support” work?  What demands / expectations/ desires in me need to die in order for me to be more open  to encouraging, supporting and enabling others to let go of dying things that are a burden they should no longer need to carry?

If we resist all change,  seeds remain seeds, and there can be no new life! 

So I challenge you to reflect deeply on these questions.  They are not easy.  It’s scary to go through the Friday of death, and make no mistake it does involve suffering and profound grief - of course it does!  But never forget, as much as we can say Sunday’s coming… but Friday come’s first - it also remains eternally true that when we find ourselves in the pain and grief of the dying of things we have loved and cherished… It’s Friday… but Sunday’s coming!

May God bless you and guide you,  may God’s Spirit agitate you in your reflections, may God bring you (and our churches) through every dying moment into new life in Power and Grace!

Brenton