'People of the Passion with a Vision for Abundant Life'

During January we had a positive spiritual experience of Sunday worship to help us focus on God who manifests himself to the world. Much of this focussed on the Feast of the Epiphany culminating in Candlemas on the first Sunday in February. At this point the liturgy of the Church pointed us towards Lent and our Lord's passion.

Some years ago Stephen Barton wrote an excellent book entitled 'People of the Passion' and he introduces his first chapter with a suggestion that 'learning to read the Bible well is learning to be surprised'. He is essentially saying that for Christians, reading the Bible during Lent can be a time of seeing things that perhaps we have not seen before. Lent is a time for giving things up, letting things go and taking time out. He states that if we do these things it may happen that, by travelling lighter, we may be led along new paths of faith and understanding in our discipleship of Christ and in our worship of God.

I refer to the theme of this book ‘People of the Passion' as we journey towards Holy Week and Easter. We are invited by God to enter again into some of the struggles, humiliation, abuse, pain and death of Jesus. We are invited into deeper reflection and prayerful meditation, and, in so doing, to enter into the passion of our Lord, the Man of Sorrows. As we enter into this experience perhaps we may be surprised by what we discover.

As we do this we hopefully will begin to appreciate the pain that he suffered on behalf of all humankind. In embracing this pain and death our Lord, in fact, enters into the human experience of humiliation, sorrow and pain. The mere fact that God has been pained and suffered in this way, reminds us that God fully enters into our pain and struggles, and, in this paradoxical way, shows us the way to new possibilities, new hope, new life. This is wonderfully affirmed and celebrated when Jesus rose from the dead - the Easter joy! Like him, we can look towards new beginnings, new signs of life and hope and ultimately the promise of salvation and life in all its fullness!

This understanding of the Church as 'People of the Passion' is paramount as we attempt to be God's 'light' in the world as taught in scripture. There is always the temptation to dismiss Good Friday and simply focus on the great celebration of Easter. We must be reminded again and again, that there is no Easter without the Cross of Christ! Many years ago I was involved in a public procession on Good Friday and the theme of our march was 'The God of Good Friday' and 'The God of Easter'! This dual theme was chosen to emphasize both the cross and the empty tomb, which need to be understood together. Anything less than this leads to a cross-less theology of redemption and hope in Christ.

The passion of Jesus removes any notion of glib teaching about how to experience hope and new life in a truly authentic way. The abundant life promised by Christ does not simply come easily. There is no 'cheap grace' to use the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The experience of life in all its fullness and abundance comes at a price - at great cost to God.

In this day and age, we hear that many people in Britain and the rest of Europe are not interested in belonging to traditional religions, especially Christianity. We are told that people are interested in spirituality and not organised religion. Indeed this has been a major growth industry - bookshops sell many volumes on spirituality and self-help books that seek to enable people to get in touch with their inner selves and to experience peace within and without.

The story of Jesus and especially his experience of redemptive suffering is sometimes considered to be a scandal to many people. We see much suffering in the world around us, not least because of human injustice and wickedness. It is the cross that give hope to those who suffer undeservedly and unjustly. It is the story of Easter that deepens faith and enables those who suffer to be surprised by God and to embrace new possibilities in the future.

If we are to discern more clearly what God is like and how God is to be worshipped and obeyed then the experiences of Lent, Holy Week and Easter gives us some serious clues about what our faith is really all about. And perhaps we may have been surprised by God's amazing love for each and every one of us and all humankind. We are invited to be ‘People of the Passion'.

A Church that suffers with Christ is also a Church that is able to share in the pain of the world i.e. undeserved suffering, loss of a loved one, as well as torture, oppression, injustice and death. God offers to the world the hope of the glory of Christ in the midst of pain and suffering, in the resurrection!

‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit' - Romans 15:13

With my blessings for Holy Week and Easter!