Tapton Church Blog

This was the last Bible study of the Lent & Easter sequence so we went right to the heart of the matter and had a discussion about the resurrection.  It was an open and free ranging discussion in which we acknowledged that the resurrection is a difficult belief for many people these days.

I believe that the resurrection is a fact but not one that we can prove ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’. I haven’t always believed that Jesus really did rise from the dead in something like the way described in the gospels even when I first became officially part of a church in the 1990s.

Back then I thought of the resurrection as ‘an experience’ that the apostles had and felt that this was probably, in itself, inspired by God – but that in the telling of it there was a certain amount of exaggeration and mythologising. I changed my mind a few years later after patient study and reflection –  and more importantly positive experience of being with well educated, modern Christians whose lives had been changed by encounters with the risen Christ. 

Then one day I was reading the way the resurrection was referred to by apostles in the espistles and it struck me that they were referring to it in plain language and going out of their way to say that this was not some imagined or  internal pscyhological experience. This seemed to be quite different from the accounts in the gospels where there is a story book feel and style to the writing – unsurprisingly since the Gospels (and Acts) were explicitly written for a wider audience in ‘story’ form, whereas the Epistles (or Letters) are much more down to earth.

This nudged me firmly towards a belief that these writers meant what they said – but still I needed this leaning towards belief to be confirmed by both spiritual experience and theological study over the next year or so.

So my journey from doubter to believer was complicated, gradual and could only have happened because I was accepted into a church without having to pass some sort of ‘test’ as to whether my beliefs were strong enough.

We talked about the fact that not everyone has personal spiritual experiences to help them believe in the resurrection, and we looked at Thomas, or rather ‘doubting Thomas’ as he has rather unfairly become known.  In this passage makes it clear that not everyone will meet him in such a clear spiritual way, and so no one should feel inadequate because of this. Spiritual experience isn’t ‘earned’, after all what was Paul up to when he met the risen Jesus?

So not only should we not feel bad about it if we haven’t ‘met’ Jesus in this way, we should not boast if we have. It’s very easy to have faith when something happens to make it so real to you – and it takes tremendous faith to commit to faith without this experience. Jesus speaks highly indeed of such people.

So while I think the resurrection is, ultimately, essential to our faith – we need to be an accepting and wide fellowship, not giving a hard time to people who struggle with this.

And it would be a real tragedy to believe in the resurrection as a fact without drawing any conclusions from it.  Perhaps it would be better to be a bit flaky on the form of the resurrection but to understand what this means for how  we live our lives.

This afternoon’s service, which was well attended by all ages, featured contributions from many church members.  Usually in the ‘long prayers’ at the beginning of the service we say a prayer of adoration followed by a prayer of of confession, we then declare God’s forgiveness of us in Jesus, pray for God to be with us in the worship, and finish by saying the Lord’s prayer all together. Unsurprisingly this bit of the service has become known as the ‘long prayers’ since we run all these different prayers together into one long prayer.

But today we did things a bit differently. Keith led the prayer of adoration, Mary led our prayer of confession, I said the declaration of forgiveness, and Patricia prayed for the worship, followed by the whole church saying the Lord’s prayer together (the 1988 version). It was really great to hear all these different voices, all with slightly different approaches to prayer. We pride ourselves on being a church where the members all get involved in the life of the church, and this really came across in today’s service.

Everyone was given a laminate card with the words of the 1988 Lord’s Prayer on as most of us aren’t as familiar with the modern version. These had the words to the grace and the more traditional 1928 version of the Lord’s prayer on them as well).

Sheila gave us the Old Testament reading and Alison was due to give us the New Testament reading (the triumphal entry to Jerusalem in Luke 19:28-40) but I completely forgot to ask her to come up and read so it was missed out!  One or two people who were with us for the first time may have been a bit confused as I then spoke for ten minutes about a reading that hadn’t taken place!  So sorry for missing that out, especially sorry to Alison and anyone who was confused by it.

For my message I first of all talked about why a donkey was an appropriate animal for Jesus to ride into town on.  Its meaning actually changes during the period of history covered by the Old Testament – it starts out as a status symbol for a king at the time of Samuel (everyone else had to walk!) but by the time Zechariah is talking about a future king who will come riding an ass it is clearly meant to symbolise a king who is humble and peaceful.

I went on to talk about how the way we think of donkeys nowadays also make it a suitable animal for the story. Donkeys are mocked, (can you imagine a Rugby League team calling itself the Donkeys?) and sadly they are also abused. They carry other peoples’ loads too, and according to June Brown’s introduction to a local donkey sanctuary they are forgiving towards humans, even though they have every reason not to. All in all, the donkey still fits very well with Jesus!

I also reminded everyone that the crowd going nuts for Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem was wrong. They were waving and cheering because they misunderstood what Jesus was about. They thought he was going to lead a military uprising, they thought he was going to use his God given power to drive out the Romans, to take revenge and to slaughter their enemy occupiers. Instead he came to lay down his power, not to save his life on the cross, to take the way of the cross that the devil had tried to get him to opt out of in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry.

We reflected on the fact that Jesus rode into town on a wave of adulation, knowing that he would confused, disappoint and enrage these people very shortly.  Majorities can be wrong, and recent history in Rwanda, for example, shows us that mobs can be turned to great evil. As congregationalists we give power to the majority in church meetings – and there is no higher authority in our setup than the church meeting (although strictly speaking we pray that the church meeting will be guided by the Holy Spirit, and so we say that God is the ultimate authority) Palm Sunday is a good time for us to remember that being in a majority does not always make us right – and that ultimately we must do and say what is pleasing to God not to people.

Frank

The church held its Spring Fayre this afternoon. Queues were already forming when the fayre opened at 2pm, with lots of books, videos, CDs  and DVDs on sale as well as bric a brac and curiousities. There were refreshments and competitions all of which were enjoyed by thirsty bargain hunters, some of whom had come from the other side of Sheffield.

It was a really good afternoon, supported by many church members and adherents who made it happen.

Jonathan Youdan, who is minister at Mayfield Wesleyan Reform Chapel,  led this afternoon’s service.  His texts were Isaiah: 42:1-9 and John 13: 1-20. His text was “If I do not wash your feet you will no longer be my disciple.”

There was a really good turn out for this talk by Suzanne Bingham which was held in the main hall. It was a very interesting talk and was enjoyed by all.