A double baptism

What a wonderful morning! The joy was palpable in church as two adorable baby boys were baptised. Here's the reading and sermon:

John 13:31-35
When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

This is a joyful day! The angels and all of heaven are smiling down on us, because of the love that has brought these two beautiful children to this point, and the willingness of these parents to accept the offering of life in Jesus Christ for their families.

Some may wonder about baptising babies, when those babies aren’t able to consciously affirm their baptismal vows for themselves. But since the earliest days of the Church it has been the case that families and communities, including babies and children, were often baptised together; and so the Church is inclusive in this way.

These days when our society emphasises individualism, it can seem very counter-cultural to encourage a community-centred approach to life. But in reality, this is what Christianity is supposed to be – a community of people who encourage each other to be faithful to God, and who support each other for their mutual flourishing. And that’s part of the role of parents, grandparents and Godparents and the church community as a whole. It’s the ethos that ‘it takes a whole village to raise a child’. We all need the support of others on this journey of life and especially the journey of faith. Because in essence, that is what Jesus wants for us and he promises also to be there for us, when we trust him and seek the guidance of his Spirit.

In our bible reading, Jesus gives a new commandment to ‘love one another’. Not with the limited kind of ‘love’ we usually offer to others, but with unlimited and unconditional ‘love’, as Jesus loved. When Jesus walked the earth, he demonstrated how we should ‘love one another’ to the point where it becomes costly – to the point where it is sacrificial.

And perhaps the hardest part is that loving one another doesn’t just mean loving those who are easy to love. Being part of a church community means that we’re brought together with some people who we find easy to be around and to love, and others that can be quite challenging (for all kinds of reasons!). And again, it is counter-cultural to choose to be part of such a community.

In the early Church, when it was dangerous to be a Christian, baptism was the ritual through which you entered the world of excitement and risk that was the Christian church. Where is that excitement and risk in the Church today? Well, following Christ and participating in God’s mission in the world is as exciting and as risky as we’re willing to make it.

But Church certainly isn’t meant to be an exclusive ‘club’...Increasingly we are realising that the most healthy, vibrant and growing communities are those that include – that bring diverse people together – to worship, to learn from each other and to learn to love one another. This isn’t easy; because in varying degrees we all have the human traits of selfishness and possessiveness.

But God’s kingdom is about the reconciliation and renewal of the whole of creation. That’s what God is up to, and that’s what God wants us to help him with! And the way that comes about has everything to do with today – with baptismal vows taken seriously. ‘To follow Christ means dying to sin and rising to new life with him’! And to do that we need God’s Spirit.

The Spirit is already at work in the world and in each one of us, whether we’ve accepted him into our heart or not – but to consciously invite God’s Spirit into our life means we can cooperate with God’s Spirit.

And those of us who have been following Christ for a long time find that this needs to be a conscious choice each and every day, to invite the Spirit’s presence, to listen for the Spirit’s guidance, and to receive the Spirit’s comfort. Many here today will confirm the times when God’s Spirit has helped us through the pain and the suffering that is still a part of living in this world. We can cry out to Jesus, who is the spring of living water that enables us to carry on in times of struggle; who refreshes us so that we can find the way to love others – as he has loved us.

Through their baptism, [these children] are part of the body of Christ, which is the Church. A Church with vision, a Church of the resurrection, of love, of the God who lives among us, must be a Church that blurs every line, and invites everyone into the grace and love of God – and a Church that challenges the lines that exclude and oppress.

Here today, we pray that as [these children] grow, they will grasp with both hands the promise given by Jesus, who came so that we might have life in all its fullness. We pray that they will want to participate in the reconciling mission of God in the world, something to which he is calling each one of us. And for all of us, we pray for the living water of Jesus Christ to flood us and to make us new. Amen.

The Parish Profile

I've been working hard on an assignment for the 'continuing education' aspect of my training. It's the Ordained Ministry Audit, otherwise known as the Parish Profile. I might be the odd one out, but I'm so enjoying the analysis of statistical data about my parish from the 2001 census! I'm combining the census information with other research from local websites, magazines etc., and I feel I know the place so much better now. I only wish I had done this much earlier! I have come to appreciate my curacy parish placement more now because I see the great opportunities that exist for the church (and myself as an ordained minister) to make connections with the community.

One fact that stands out is that out of a population of 14,450 people, over 10,000 of them stated on the census that they are Christian! Considering the attendance figures from the 5 churches in the area, there is something going on here that demands attention. The vast majority of those 10,000 people are not found in our churches. They are believing without belonging. I have my views on why this is the case, and it is a huge challenge to those of us who have found a home in church. I just can't get this out of my head, and I can't let it lie unattended to. It's my passion to engage with these non-belonging believers. Many books have been written on the subject, but I want to listen to these people myself. We've got to put ourselves out there!

A break and a baptism

I've been blessed with a wonderful week off after Easter, and the timing couldn't have been better. It was my daughter's 14th birthday on Easter Sunday, and we celebrated on Tuesday by going to 'Go Ape' in Delamere Forest, whereby we clambered around in tall trees with harnesses on, sliding on zip wires and tarzan ropes. Great fun! Both she and my son have been off school for the Easter holidays. The weather has been really nice, too, so I had the satisfaction of gardening a lot, which I love. Both kids have recently got new bicycles as well, so the whole family has been cycling. I feel refreshed by this break from work, and ready for this month's big project, which is the 'Ordained Ministry Audit' (or parish profile, in other words). It's due at the end of the month, so I will have to get cracking. It is an analysis of the parish, the church(es) and the community, and ministry within that context.



The other exciting news: today I did my first baptism! That was really nice, and I love it when the church is full of people who don't normally attend - what an opportunity to witness through welcoming them and through worship. The little girl was nearly 2 years old, and she didn't cry, so that was a relief!

Easter Day

Isaiah 65:17-end; Acts 10:34-43; Luke 24:1-12

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " 8Then they remembered his words.

9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.


I cannot imagine how frustrating that morning must have been for Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women. Faithfully delivering the good news of the resurrection, and it all seemed like nonsense to the apostles! They hadn’t seen it, so they didn’t believe it!

Eventually, of course, the apostles did witness the appearance of the risen Lord for themselves - they even ate with him. The resurrection had a huge impact on the apostles and the disciples.

After the horror of Friday’s crucifixion, and through the sheer emptiness of Saturday, the disciples were then graced with that intensely joyful experience of the presence of Jesus, resurrected on Sunday. Such was the impact of the resurrection on the apostles and disciples that they were enabled to carry out their commission to take the gospel to all nations with conviction.

In our New Testament reading from Acts, Peter says ‘God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen’ – they saw the Lord in his resurrected bodily form. He looked the same, yet he was changed; he had flesh and bones, he could eat and drink, yet he was transformed. By seeing this Jesus, this Lord, the life and the faith of the disciples was transformed. Everything that seemed to go wrong on Good Friday was counteracted by the Resurrection. Good Friday was indeed good! Everything Jesus had said and done during his three years of ministry was affirmed. As St Paul says ‘... if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins’ (1 Cor 15). The cross was a victory, not a defeat.

Jesus said to his startled disciples, ‘“Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” The disciples felt the impact of the resurrection by touching Jesus. Later after the ascension, he continued his presence among them, by sending the Holy Spirit.

And the impact of the resurrection can still be experienced by us today because the Holy Spirit continues to make Jesus present today. With the Holy Spirit, we can begin to recognise the resurrected presence of Jesus even in everyday small events. We can listen and learn how to be faithful. We can recognise his presence with us even in dark times.

It’s the promise of transformation to each of us and it’s a promise for the whole of creation. From our Old Testament reading this morning, from the prophet Isaiah, we hear: Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. No more weeping and crying; the wolf and the lamb will feed together; the lion will eat straw like the ox. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

In the new creation, everything negative and destructive will be excluded. And all that is good will be incorporated into the new creation. This is God’s vision, looking to the way of peace, justice, righteousness and faithfulness.

We aren’t capable, though, of comprehending how God will make all things new. The theologian Brueggemann puts it this way: ‘Yahweh’s coming newness is not contained within our present notions of the possible’. But with the death and resurrection of Jesus the new creation has begun, and occasionally we catch glimpses of renewal. And we now long for its completion. We pray: ‘Maranatha’ – come Lord Jesus. We’re living ‘between-the-times’, in the fullness of God’s grace, but not yet in the fullness of God’s kingdom. And we live in hope.

In his Ecumenical Easter letter, Archbishop Rowan Williams writes that ‘[our] hope is rooted in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. His rising from the dead shows the world that death does not have the last word – whether the death of love, the death of security, even physical death itself. On the first day of the week, the first day of the new creation, God walks once again in the garden and begins to re-shape the whole world of our experience and our possibilities; the Second Adam wakes under the tree of the cross and promises fresh life, freedom and forgiveness, to the entire human world.’

Those of us who really hear the gospel message have a kind of 'insider’s advantage' on what God is doing with time and history. The transformation of creation has begun, and we experience that transformation in our own lives when we meet the risen Christ through prayer, through scripture, in the breaking of the bread, and in the face of one another.

This time last year I was on retreat with fellow ordinands in Whitby. We spent Holy Week with the nuns belonging to the Order of the Holy Paraclete. After a sombre and most moving week, the joy of that Easter morning was plain for all to see, because several of the nuns came to chapel with bunny ears, with others ringing bells and shaking noisemakers!

Most of us really feel the joy of this Easter morning. It’s not difficult to experience a sense of joy with the arrival spring, and when life is going smoothly. But let’s be honest – we all go through times when the very idea of joy is not even credible. But Jesus will always understand that human frailty. That is why he came in the first place. That is why he died and rose again for us. That is why he will come again! At the very end of history, the trumpets and cornets will sound again; the choirs will sing their hallelujahs, the dead will be raised, and you too shall be changed. This is the Gospel Truth; and this is what Easter morning is about. The renewal of all creation has begun, and Jesus Christ is Lord; let him rule in our hearts this day and for evermore. Amen.

Passion Sunday - 5th Sunday of Lent

John 12:1-8 Mary anoints Jesus

In addition to fasting and increasing prayer and scripture reading, another traditional practice of Lent is to increase our alms giving – giving out of thankfulness for what Jesus has done for us. How much to give? It’s a question many of us ask ourselves as we try to budget our income to cover all requirements. What if, out of the corner of your eye, you noticed that the person sitting next to you in the pew put onto the offertory plate a cheque made out for £20,000?

I know I would be fairly shocked if that happened today!

But what happened in our reading from John’s gospel this morning was as shocking as that. Against all concepts of rational behaviour, Mary poured out a pint of pure nard oil onto the feet of Jesus. A pint of pure nard was worth a year’s wages! Whatever your annual income, there it was, in the form of oil, poured out, onto a pair of feet! And most likely running off all over the floor!

This was six days before the Passover, in the town of Bethany, at a dinner being held in Jesus’ honour. Martha – dear Martha – was serving the food, as she had done on another occasion we might remember, when she begrudged Mary for not helping. Thank God for the Martha’s of the world who do the work, who prepare the meals, who have the gift of hospitality.

Lazarus was reclining at the table with Jesus. Lazarus and Jesus were close friends even before Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead, as John chapter 11 reports. And that wasn’t exactly an everyday occurrence. Can you imagine the impact being ‘raised from the dead’ must have had on Lazarus, and on his sisters Martha and Mary? They must have been overflowing with love and gratitude for what Jesus had done! And this shows very powerfully in the scene we heard about this morning from the beginning of John 12. Mary pours out her extremely expensive essential oil on the feet of Jesus, and then wipes them with her hair.

An extravagant act of pure love. And Judas thought it was too much. Way over the top. Why wasn’t that expensive oil sold – the money could have been used for the poor. No one would have noticed if Judas had helped himself to just a bit of it... Judas, mocking the extent of Mary’s attention on Jesus.

Some people mock the devotion of Christians to Jesus. Some people mock our worship of Jesus. Some Christians mock other Christians who worship Jesus in ways that differ from their way. Psalm 1 verse 1: Blessed is the man who does not sit in the seat of mockers. Here in Bethany at this dinner held in Jesus’ honour, Judas was sitting 'in the seat of mockers'. There can be times when we play the role of ‘the spoilsport’, spoiling a sacred and special moment of another. If some want to raise their hands in praise, let them raise their hands. If some want to be still in praise, let them be still. It is all acceptable to the Lord when it is done with the motivation of heartfelt worship.

This was a special moment between Mary and Jesus – Mary seemed to know something that other people hadn’t fully realised – she seemed to know that Jesus was soon to die. What was Mary’s motivation to do this extravagant sacred act? Maybe her deep love and affection for Jesus grew from their relationship where she had learned so much from him about God and love. Maybe it was because Jesus had given her brother Lazarus back to her. Maybe it was that she knew he was going to die very soon, and she wanted to make a last loving gesture to him.

We sense that Mary was giving her most valuable possession to Jesus. We, too, are to give our very best to Jesus out of our love for him. As we hear this story, we sense that Mary’s loving gift to Jesus was a symbol of her inner love. And we sense through this story that we are invited to be the same kind of person, the same kind of disciple, to love Jesus affectionately and intimately and give him the very best of ourselves.

In Luke’s version of the situation, it is an unnamed woman who wets Jesus’ feet with tears, dries them with her hair, and covers his feet with perfume. In Luke’s version, this woman is referred to as ‘a sinner’ several times. The motivation for her loving gesture to Jesus was that Jesus had forgiven her for her many sins. Jesus then tells a parable of a man who was in debt for five hundred days of labour and another man who was in debt for fifty days of labour. Both debts were forgiven. Jesus asked, “Who was more appreciative? The man who was forgiven five hundred days of labour or the man who was forgiven fifty days of labour?” The answer was obvious: the man who was forgiven five hundred days of labour. Jesus said, “Whoever has been forgiven much, loves much. Whoever has been forgiven little, loves little.”

The reason this unnamed woman was so generous to Jesus with her tears, her tenderness, and anointing Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume was that her sins were great and Jesus had forgiven her all her many sins. And many of us can understand the woman’s feelings towards Jesus and his abundant forgiveness, because we feel the same way.

Nothing compares with knowing Jesus and the loving forgiveness he paid for with his life. It’s the same message in the first reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Paul had all he needed, but he’s ready to write it all off for the sake of knowing Christ. That passage from Philippians 3 breathes the same spirit of “unreasonableness” that Mary demonstrates in anointing Jesus with pure nard; of being prepared to give everything for the love of Christ.

How can we, in our own situation and personality and century, be a bit more like Paul and Mary in our devotion? Both their lives had been deeply touched by Jesus, so much so that they wanted to give their best for him. Can that be possible for us?

Does our worship reflect a sense that our lives have been deeply touched by the living Christ? Sometimes our worship (and I include myself) can be a bit lack lustre – it can lack passion. Sometimes our personal circumstances are such that it’s all we can do to ‘go through the motions’. Other times we have no such excuse, yet something stops us from worshiping in spirit and in truth. Is it self-consciousness? Mary certainly didn’t let self-consciousness get in the way of expressing her love for Jesus.

Is it our culture? Our culture doesn’t exactly support extravagant showings of devotion to Jesus. We live in a ‘can’t-be-bothered’ culture – a culture of indifference. But the fact that we’re here in Church today means we’re not entirely indifferent to what Jesus has done for us and for the whole world.

Of course often times in church our heartfelt response is genuine, but simply isn’t outwardly apparent, but its inward appearance is seen by God, and that's what matters most. Perhaps like Lazarus we’re simply reclining with the Lord, or like Martha we’re serving him without a fuss, or like Mary had done previously, perhaps we’re sitting quietly at the Lord’s feet, learning from him. And all of this is acceptable to the Lord. Enthusiasm doesn’t have to be ‘loud’; enthusiasm is sometimes still and quiet.

But an emotionally charged response is also acceptable to the Lord; let us never sit in the seat of mockers if we happen to be in the midst of that kind of response! The motivation behind the response is what God sees. God knows whether our response is made in order to glorify him or to glorify our self.

God’s response to all that is wrong in creation was to send Jesus, who laid down his life for us. That was an irrational, extravagant response. Jesus tells us in John 10 that he came so that we may have life, and have it to the full!

How can we respond? I mentioned at the beginning that a common Lent practice is to increase our almsgiving – our financial giving to the work of the church. This is a good and important response of thankfulness for what the Lord has done. It’s something that we do secretly – no one should know how much we are giving to the church. But much more important is the giving of our hearts to the Lord.

Over the next couple of weeks as we move closer to Good Friday, and we focus even more on the cross, you may want to respond from the heart in an extravagant, costly, sacrificial way in worship of the Lord – and please don’t feel you need to hide that away so that others won’t see! I know it’s scary, and I know it can make us feel like outsiders in a world where we are mocked or treated with indifference. But we’re not called to hide our love for the Lord!

I finish with a prayer from St. Anselm: O God, we pray that we may so know you and love you, that we may rejoice in you. And if we may not do so fully in this life, let us go steadily on to the day when we come to fullness of life. Meanwhile let our minds meditate on your eternal goodness, let our tongues speak of it, let our hearts live it, let our mouths speak it, let our souls hunger for it, and our whole being desire it, until we enter into your joy. Amen.

A Fruity Faith

Luke 13:1-9
It’s the third Sunday of Lent, and I do hope that any Lenten disciplines you’ve taken on are going better than mine! Lent is often observed by giving up luxuries to remind ourselves of the spiritual nourishment we receive through dependence on God. We heard this morning the parable of the fruitless fig tree, and that made me wonder whether anyone has given up fruit for Lent? Somehow I doubt that fruit is as frequent a source of distraction from God as chocolate can be for some people. On the contrary, I think a ‘fruity faith’ is something to aim for!

I don’t actually eat a lot of fruit, despite the fact that my home state of California is known affectionately as ‘the Land of the Fruits and the Nuts’ - and that’s not just because of its people! California has what’s known as a ‘Mediterranean Climate’, with long, hot, dry summers and short, cool, rainy winters, modified of course by altitude and latitude.

Many of the foods grown in California have been growing for millennia in other places that have also got that type of climate, like Israel and Palestine, and this includes figs. Figs are actually really interesting fruits (once you get to know them)! They were one of the very first plants to be cultivated by human beings for eating. Figs have no pits because each fruit has inside it flowers and seeds that grow together inwardly into a fleshy mass, with a skin on the outside holding it all together. Fig trees usually bear two crops of figs per year: the early harvest isn’t as plentiful as the main, later harvest, but that early crop is always eagerly anticipated as a positive sign of good things to come.

Because they are so common in the Middle East, fig trees, fig leaves and fig fruits often feature in the bible. In chapter 3 of the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together as coverings for themselves after they ate the ‘forbidden fruit’ from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In Deuteronomy 8, figs are one of the good things available for God’s people to eat in the Promised Land. And in the Song of Solomon there was a fig tree in the garden, where the emergence of its ripe fruits symbolised the fruition of love...

So this morning we heard in our reading from Luke 13 the parable of the fruitless fig tree: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' " 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "

Essentially this parable is saying that we are created for a purpose - like the fig tree, we are to bear fruit. But it also tells us that Jesus gives us time to grow and time to bear fruit as he feeds and nourishes us with loving care. From Galatians 5, we know what kind of fruit is promised to grow in our lives, for ‘...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’.

In Mark’s and Matthew’s gospels, Jesus also sees a fig tree without fruit. But in that instance, He curses the tree for its fruitlessness and it withers away. If we allow the practice of our faith to stagnate, we may discover that our faith itself has become dried up and withered. We have to keep returning to God, and to allow God to lead us into new areas of faith. Then we can grow and bear fruit.

Maintaining our faithfulness to Jesus Christ is the essential thing. As Jesus says in John 15, ‘Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing’.

Well, we’re finally approaching spring and those of you who are keen gardeners know that preparation is needed for potential growth to be achieved. Fruits are seasonal –for much of the year, the trees will be storing up energy. Our faith and our spiritual growth also go through seasons. As it says in Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament, ‘To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven’.

Sometimes we’re dormant for a season, in need of rest, in need of nourishment from the caretaker. Sometimes we have bursts of growth and reach up for the sky! Sometimes we bear fruits that we aren’t even aware of, because the Spirit’s work can be very gentle. Other times the fruits are obvious to all.

Through our Growth Action Planning, the GAP process that we began towards the end of last year, we have been preparing as a church for potential growth. We are taking steps forward together to enrich our prayer life, to deepen our faith and to reach out to our community. Nourished by Jesus Christ, those of us who are able, who aren’t in a dormant phase, must keep up the momentum that has begun within us personally and together as a parish. We’re in this for the long haul, but we eagerly await the first fruits of this season, and look forwards to the future with expectation.

If you haven’t given up fruit for Lent, I’ve actually brought some figs along this morning which you are welcome to try after our worship. I’m hoping that perhaps when we see figs in the shops or when we read about them in our bibles, we will remember that we have been created for a purpose, to bear the fruits of our faith, both personally and corporately, within ourselves, in our community and in our world, trusting in the loving care and guidance of our Lord Jesus. Amen.

Reflecting on Funerals

I remember when I was on the ordination training course asking former students who were into their first year of curacy how they felt about funeral ministry. It’s a common question amongst ordinands in training – how will we respond to the inevitable and regular taking of funerals? The answer given by all the new curates and experienced clergy that I’ve ever asked has been that funeral ministry is very special, very much a privilege and a blessing, and a unique opportunity to minister to people at one of life’s most deeply challenging times. And now that I have begun taking funerals myself, I have to agree.

Every funeral is different, because every person is unique. It’s fairly peculiar to the Church of England (as the national ‘established’ church) that we often take funerals for people who have had only a very weak link with the church. Anyone within our parish boundaries can have a funeral service led by a Church of England minister, whether they ever attended church or not; whether they were baptised or not.

Some funerals are more difficult than others, of course. In my experience that can often depend upon whether the family are a cohesive unit or not, but obviously a funeral for anyone who isn’t elderly carries an added sense of tragedy. Recently I conducted a funeral for someone who was under the age of 40, who died in tragic circumstances, and whose family situation was quite fragmented. That was the hardest so far, which affected me for several days after, though I never knew the deceased person or his family before the funeral.

To me, a ‘good’ funeral is one where I can really sense a good support system within the family itself, which I know will help carry them through the weeks, months and years ahead. The minister has got a pastoral obligation to follow up with visiting the bereaved, but family and friends are going to be the more frequent providers of care and attention. I have to say at this point, though, that the church can be a real lifeline to people who have lost loved ones. I think also that it is so good for a church to offer some form of bereavement support group, something which I know has been very helpful for members of my own family after my brother-in-law and stepfather passed away last year. Hopefully we will be able to set up something like that soon at the church I’m in now. It certainly seems needed.

Death is such an enigma. On the one hand, we know it is unavoidable, part of life, and will come to us all. On the other hand, we are so shocked by it. St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:55 that because of the resurrection of Jesus after his death, death’s sting and victory are no more. This gives us assurance and hope for the afterlife, where there will be no more tears or sorrow. For now, death still jars us and shocks us. We weep for love lost. We are still bound to suffering in this world. It doesn’t feel right, and it isn’t right. But I believe that is why Jesus came, why he suffered, died, was buried, resurrected and ascended into heaven. I believe wholeheartedly in the everlasting life offered in Christ Jesus. And that is the only possible comfort I can bring to others who mourn.