Easter Sunday

Today is a morning of hope. Hope is not about everything being good and right and happy. Life is not like that! It is often painful, uncomfortable and messy. Even if at the moment our lives are content we just need to raise our eyes a little to see the pain of countless others in our world. But today is a morning of hope. I have appreciated travelling through Lent with Maggie Dawn's book "Giving it up", which I commented on in Lent 2010, today I share her view on hope...

" There are seasons in our lives when Lent is a more comfortable place to live, because it reflects our struggles and our doubts. There may be circumstances in your life that make you feel entirely out of step with the joy of Easter Day, but even if joy hasn't materialised for you yet, it's still a promise of things to come that will unfold in time. Easter is a promise that the absence of God has been penetrated with light, and the silence of the early morning is no longer hollow but hopeful..."

On Thursday at Woodside Primary the P6s hung their hopes, dreams and prayers for Easter on an "egg" tree. Big hopes for the world, big hopes for their lives. Whatever your hope today may it be touched by the light of this day of hope.

Jen

In our midst

Holy week began with me thinking about how we listen to the children in our midst. It has continued with opportunities to be with young people as they explore this week in a variety of ways.

On Monday at the SU group at St John's primary the children were fascinated by the Easter Garden that one of the leaders had lovingly created. They asked many questions as the bible story of Easter day was read and the garden explored! What's behind the stone? Why has Jesus turned into a gardener? Did Jesus move the stone himself? Can I make one of these? I've never heard of Palm Sunday tell me that story!

On Tuesday the P7s of Chatelherault Primary visited the Easter Code at Cadzow Parish Church. There was a peaceful, happy and reflective atmosphere as they experienced the sharing of the passover meal, the serving of feet washing, the struggling of Gethsamene, the seeking of the crowds, and the sacrifice of Good Friday.

Wednesday lunchtime, as always, is time for Cafe Haven at Larkhall Academy. This week a wooden cross stood in the corner as the young people drank their hot chocolate, chatted, laughed, and played connect 4, Jenga, and card games. A number of them took up the invitation to take a black armband from the cross to wear in remembrance of the death of Jesus. Some tied it to their wrists, some used it as a scrunchy, others tied it to their bags. The presence of the cross reminded me of these words by George Mcleod...

“I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the centre of the marketplace as well as at the steeple of the church.

I recover the claim that Jesus was not crucified on a table between two candles but on a cross between two thieves, on a town garbage heap, at a crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan that they had to write his title in Hebrew and Latin and Greek, and at the kind of place

where cynics talk smut

and thieves cursed

and soldiers gambled

because that is where he died, and is what he died about, and that is what Christ’s follower ought to be about.” George McLeod.

May you know his presence this Holy Week.

Jen

Do you hear what they say?

It's quite strange when a member of your family is a minister of word and sacrament and you go to hear them preach, you know them well, all their idiosyncrasies, strengths, weaknesses, and when it's your big brother, a lifetime of memories! Although strange it was also very moving and reassuring to be in my brother's church this morning as he led the Palm Sunday Service, when you know someone well it makes the whole experience powerfully authentic.

I was left thinking about the messiness of that day at the start of Holy week, a week that was going to get increasingly messy, as Steve Turner says in his poem "Christmas is really for the children"...

"It has whips, blood, nails,
a spear and allegations
of body snatching.
It involves politics, God
and the sins of the world.
It is not good for people
of a nervous disposition."

And yet children circulate around the story of Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem, culminating, in Matthew's account, of the "indignation" of the chief priests and teachers of the law, as the children shout praise to Jesus in the temple. Shouting in a holy place, giggling, laughing, being unpredictable, being absorbed in the moment, as the noise, excitement, and experience of the street tumbles into the Temple?

How do we cope with children's behaviour in our "holy" places,at our "sacred" moments? Do we let them be integral to what we do? Do our children tumble into our church services, able to express their thoughts and feelings, able to grow spiritually.

Are children an inconvenience - maybe this is unlikely in our culture today, but are they merely a form of "entertainment" in our services? To look cute, to give us the occasional laugh, or do we give them their place to praise God, to express their faith, to share their stories, to praise and pray? Do we listen to the children in our midst; that was Jesus' question to the religious leaders - do you hear what they are saying? Are we listening? That might involve losing some of our dignity in the process!

Jen