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Dear Friends
A few years ago the Moderator of the General Assembly invited a journalist who was not a member of the church to do an investigation of the Church of Scotland. He was asked to give his opinion on how the church was faring, and also to make some suggestions as to how it could do things differently. The book which was published as a result of this investigation was called 'Outside Verdict' and it was written by a journalist. Harry Reid, a former editor of 'The Herald'. It is a fascinating book, and one of the many suggestions he makes is that the Church should celebrate Easter much more than it does! He was surprised by how 'downbeat' we can be in the church about this incredibly special season of the year.
There is little doubt that all the commercial pressure these days is aimed at Christmas, and to a large extent it may be that the church has followed suit. Clearly you cannot have Easter without Christmas, but to focus so much on the birth of Christ and almost push to the side his death and resurrection is to rob our faith of a great deal of its meaning. Easter is an amazing celebration! It is the triumph of life over death, of hope over despair, of good over evil. It is worth shouting about because we most certainly need a lot more life, hope and good in our world today.
A poet by the name of Steve Turner has written a powerful little poem with the title, 'Christmas is really for the children'. In the second verse of the poem he says, 'Easter is not really for the children, unless accompanied by a cream filled egg. It has whips, blood, nails, a spear and allegations of body snatching.' Christmas is undoubtedly easier to deal with, than Easter - perhaps especially where children are concerned. But, as Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians, without Easter, without resurrection we have no hope;
1 Corinthians 15:12-14
Now, since our message is that Christ has been raised from death, how can some of you say that the dead will not be raised to life? If that is true, it means that Christ was not raised; and if Christ has not been raised from death, then we have nothing to preach and you have nothing to believe.
Harry Reid in his book, 'Outside Verdict' quotes one person he interviewed as saying: 'If Christ had simply lived, and then died on the cross, there would be no Christianity. It is because he rose from the dead that we have Christianity.' That hope is at the heart of our faith, and we have an opportunity once again to shout about it, this Easter. This year we have a joint Good Friday Service with Wrangholm Kirk, which will be held in Holytown Parish Church on Friday 6th April at 7.30 pm. And then, of course, we have our Easter Day celebration on Sunday 8th April at 10.30 am. I encourage you to come to both of these services, to make this season an enthusiastic celebration of the hope God gives us. And a final word: Easter Day will be an all age service; it would be great to see as many children and young people there as possible!
Hope to see you in church!
Every blessing.
Iain
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