Today we gave out Easter gift bags to almost 70 families in Goldthorpe, Thurnscoe & Bolton-on-Dearne.

It’s been good to see some of the artwork done by children already:

Holy Week:

The journey from adulation to resurrection via the ugliness of betrayal, denial and death.

It starts with a ‘triumphal entry’,

Cries of ‘Hosanna in the highest!’ and a green carpet of palm fronds and cloaks,

Crowds singing the praises of a king.

We should have known something was awry by the arrival on a donkey, however.

No noble steed, no purple robes,

Just the quietness and humility of prophecy fulfilled.

A week of teaching, prayer, anointing and eating,

Crammed into just a few days,

With simmering resentment, naked hatred and bungling bluster from ignorant disciples

The backdrop to the tumultuous events that would change the world.

Jesus washing his disciples’ feet,

Underlining yet again the radical nature of a kingdom which didn’t measure up to the zealots’ idea of revolution.

He walks with steadfast purpose and anguish of heart towards the cross,

While his followers bicker and quarrel and fall asleep in the garden,

Naïve confidence soon scattered by the shock of betrayal from within and the presence of Roman soldiers.

Fleeing, running, bewildered and afraid,

They watch from afar,

Squirming in panicked fear as recognition dawns in the eyes of the servants,

Outright denial coupled with oaths, shattered by the crowing of the cockerel.

In the middle of this hustled chaos,

Jesus remains silent,

Dignified in the midst of ridicule and scorn.

Injustice screams from every trial,

But he remains silent,

The innocent lamb about to be sacrificed even as the Passover lambs are slaughtered.

This is what they all foreshadowed,

But none realise the significance of what is going on.

Another rabble-rouser about to get his comeuppance,

That’s all they saw.

Anguish, agony, abandonment

Form the backdrop of that Friday.

Mother and women watch in heartbroken silence.

How can this be happening?

Why isn’t God stepping in?

The cry of dereliction from the dying man’s lips echoes the misery of the hour,

Then the final words ‘It is finished’ and ‘Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.’

Death has arrived.

It’s all over.

Except death leaves behind a plethora of jobs still to be done,

Anointing, burial, official paperwork to be filled in.

Joseph and Nicodemus sort that out,

The body is sealed in a tomb.

The women, loyal to the end, ponder how they can fulfil their last anointings with a stone blocking the tomb’s entrance,

The numb bewilderment that follows death swallowed up in necessary activity that leaves no comfort.

The misery of death forces us to pause here before moving on.

Lazarus was left days before resuscitation, but no one seems to have thought of miracles anymore.

The Miracle Maker was gone

And with him, hope and joy were also absent.

Then, into the dark of the early morning,

Light bursts forth.

Angels dazzling in their brightness bring news of an empty tomb,

The stone rolled away to display burial clothes but no body.

What was going on?

Where was the body?

What malign plan of the Romans was this, to rob their friend of dignity in death?

A risen Saviour, mistaken for a gardener, concludes this most bewildering of weeks,

And starts the next chapter all at the same time.

Jesus, no longer dead,

But alive, and alive forever more!

We see hope resurrected,

Mingling with ongoing confusion and bewilderment,

Finally giving way to joy that bubbles up and cannot be stilled.

Holy Week:

A reminder that beginnings don’t always determine endings,

That it’s not wise to close the book until the final chapter,

That the journey has its twists and turns, its heartaches and its joys,

But God is in them all,

God with us, Immanuel.

Stephen spoke tonight from Matt 21:7-9, looking at two aspects of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This event is recorded in all four gospels, and is therefore of importance to us in our understanding of the events leading up to Jesus’s death and resurrection.

The crowds lay down their garments and palm branches in homage to a king. They recognised Jesus as king (perhaps not understanding the heavenly nature of that role, but still seeing in Him the embodiment of a ruler.) We know with hindsight the eternal nature of Jesus’s kingdom and need to come before Him laying down our whole lives before Him. We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and the appropriate response is thankfulness, reverence and awe. (Heb 12:28) Our offering is not clothes or palm branches, but God asks us to offer our bodies, our whole selves, to Him. (Rom 12:1) True worship means giving ourselves to God, who is looking for responsive and humble hearts. (2 Chron 34:27)

The crowds also shouted ‘Hosanna!’, a shout of praise and acclamation which means ‘save’ or ‘rescue’. We may feel frustrated by current restrictions on us in church services which limit shouting and singing, but Christ sees our hearts and knows the cry of every heart, even if it is unspoken. Our king is before us, coming towards us, mighty to save.

Rev 7:9-12 gives us a glimpse into the future, a glimpse into heaven, as we see people holding palm branches and crying out that salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Here, we see the fulfilment of the ‘Hosanna!’ we first heard on Palm Sunday, a crying out in praise from the masses who fell down on their faces in worship and awe. This must be our response too, asking God to take us just as we are and calling on Him to save us.

Holy Week is an important time in the Christian calendar, as we prepare our hearts for Easter.

Our Lent readings from Matthew’s Gospel will continue every day this week on Facebook live, starting on Monday 29th March at 6 p.m. It’s good to read the Easter story each day so that our hearts take in afresh the enormity of all that happened.

Our Easter services in church (and on Zoom and Facebook live) will be on Maundy Thursday (1st April) at 7:30 p.m., Good Friday (2nd April) at 6.00 p.m. and on Easter Sunday (4th April) at 10.30 a.m. and 6.00 p.m.

We will also be giving out Easter gift bags from Market Street on Wednesday 31st March along with Dearne Churches Together. Please pray as we distribute Easter crafts, booklets, puzzles and chocolate to 88 families in total.

Finally, we will be giving out the hearts collected as part of the ‘Whispers of Love’ project to residents and staff in care homes and distributing these in Thurnscoe, Goldthorpe and Bolton-on-Dearne as part of our ‘Take Back The Streets’ prayer meeting on Saturday 3rd April from 10 a.m. Please join us to pray and then scatter to distribute these hearts as symbols of God’s love for our communities.

Garry spoke this morning about Joseph as a type of Jesus, our suffering Saviour. Joseph was sold as a slave to Potiphar (Gen 39:1-2); he went from being the favoured son of Jacob (even though he was not the oldest) to being a slave. In the same way, Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father, became a servant who pointed the way forward as being the One who came to serve and not to be served (see Matt 20:20-27). He fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy of the Suffering Servant (Is 53) and in Gethsemane proved His servant heart by praying for God’s will to be done, not HIs own. The One who in truth was over all was secure in His identity and therefore was willing to serve all (see John 13). Not only did He wash His disciples’ feet, but He even washed the feet of the one who would betray Him.

Joseph had no choice in the matter of becoming a slave; Jesus, however, willingly chose this path (Phil 2:7, Heb 12:2) In the Parable of the Wedding Feast (Luke 12:35-40), we see how being a servant does not mean being servile. It means being willing to serve and being ready. The servants were called to keep the lamps burning and to wait with expectation and anticipation for their Master’s return. In that parable, the Master was willing to share the spoils of the wedding feast not only with favoured guests but with his slaves, the lowest of the low, and in the same way, Jesus shares His riches with us, giving us access into all the riches of God.

On Palm Sunday, we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when He was hailed as the coming King by the crowds. Yet Jesus knew what lay ahead of Him: rejection, crucifixion and death before resurrection (see Luke 18:31-34). He was willing to tread this path for us because of His great love for us and He continues to lead us in the way of servanthood.

“Lord, how can we tell people of Your love during a pandemic when we are in lockdown and have to stay at home?”

That question weighed heavily on my heart at the end of last year and the beginning of this one as the news seemed so very bleak and church outreach seemed so very difficult. Working with other local churches, we decided to build on our Advent project when we had distributed 48 knitted angels around Goldthorpe. What if, we mused, we could put hearts out into the community and aim to put some in Thurnscoe and Bolton-on-Dearne as well as Goldthorpe, to represent the main areas represented by our churches? We decided to aim to do this by Easter (Valentine’s Day seemed too near!), as a prophetic gesture to remind people of God’s love. Each heart would have with it a label giving an Easter message and would be left in prominent local places for people to find and take home.

And so the ‘Whispers of Love’ project was born, the title for the project coming from the famous hymn ‘Blessed Assurance’ with its line ‘echoes of mercy, whispers of love.‘ Surely, surely at this time of fear, unrest, confusion and uncertainty, what we all need are God’s whispers of love.

Fast forward to the end of March, a week before we are due to distribute the hearts, and what can I say? My original (largely unspoken) target was 300. I reasoned that we could surely make 100 hearts for each of the three villages – after all, we were in lockdown, so some people had time on their hands! In February, we decided that we should offer hearts to residents in local care homes, who at that time were not allowed any visitors at all, as well. Every single home we contacted embraced the idea with an enthusiasm that staggered even me. And so the number of hearts needed rose… but by then, hearts were coming in on a regular basis. Knitted hearts. Sewn hearts. Decoupage hearts. Wooden hearts that were painted. Card hearts decorated with buttons and jewel stickers. Foam hearts. Cross stitch hearts. Key ring hearts. Beaded hearts. Hearts painted on pebbles. Painted glass hearts. Cards with hearts on. The sheer variety of hearts was astounding. Schools and after-school clubs joined the project. Young children took to this with enthusiasm. Older people said that they had found it therapeutic to have something positive to do in lockdown.

Today, as I’ve collected heart-making kits from a friend at Encaustic Art Plus in Elsecar, we have reached the total of just over 1000 hearts. I’m staggered, but I’m also thankful. Thankful for all the people who have embraced this project, thankful that we can do something to spread God’s love in our communities at Easter. May these whispers of love reach far and wide, a reminder that God’s word is never chained, even if we are. (2 Tim 2:9)