This morning we held an Easter coffee morning to raise funds for our Parent & Toddler trip to Flamingo Land this summer. Thanks to the efforts of so many people from church and from the Parent & Toddler group, we raised £430. Our thanks to all who came and supported and spent money on the raffle, tombola, bottle bag stall, table top sale and Easter egg hunts.

Bev, Zara and Julie baked buns and cakes for us to enjoy, and our thanks to Wath-on-Dearne Tesco who donated some of the Easter egg prizes for the Easter egg hunt.

There was lots of conversation as people browsed and chatted:

Guess the combined ages of these faithful members of our church!

It was lovely to hear the buzz of conversation in the room:

… even though I spent the morning in the kitchen!

We had some raffle winners too:

Our grateful thanks to all who helped to set up and tidy away, who donated items to the raffle, tombola and table top sale, who prepared Easter Egg hunts, who spent hours in the kitchen baking for us and to all who came along to spend money! Thank you so much.

At our Good Friday service last night we looked at how the cross spells the ‘Great Reversal’ for humanity. Palindromic words are those which are spelled the same backwards as forwards (‘minim’, or ‘level’, for example.) Some words, however, are different if they are read backwards: ‘stressed’ spelled backwards is ‘desserts‘:

There are many words like this in English (‘made’ and ‘Edam’, ‘tin’ and ‘nit’, ‘gums’ and ‘smug’, for example, but the word we looked at last night is ‘evil’, which, when spelled backwards is ‘live.’ Good Friday is the day when we remember the death of Jesus. It’s a day of profound sadness, for Jesus was an innocent man, killed (as far as the world is concerned) because of religious intolerance and not because He had actually committed crimes worthy of death. It’s a day when evil apparently triumphed, when a good man was crucified not for His own sins, but for the sins of the world. Eugene Peterson comments that ‘evil captured the headlines in Jerusalem two thousand years ago’ (‘On Living Well’, P 109), and it’s sad to say that that is still true today; reading any newspaper or watching the news reminds us that evil still dominates today.

But despite this, we call Good Friday good, not because an innocent man died, but because this was part of God’s great plan of salvation, a reminder that despite man’s evil, ‘this man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge.’ (Acts 2:23) At the cross, ‘God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.’ (2 Cor 5:19) Something positive, good, wholesome and redemptive was also going on at the cross, even as people felt hope had gone and evil was winning.

We cannot ever understand the death of Jesus Christ by staying at Good Friday. We have to go through this Easter weekend, through the confusion and agony of Easter Saturday, through the silence of the tomb and the apparent hopelessness of death, to see evil reversed and resurrection happening. Peter told the crowds on the day of Pentecost that the crucifixion was not the end of the story. ‘But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.’ (Acts 2:24) The word evil is now spelled right: we can live, because Jesus lives. He is raised from the dead; death could not hold Him. Life triumphs. ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16) Evil will not have the last word; eternal life has that privilege.

What is happening in our world right now might not be good. It might even be evil. Joseph certainly faced much in his life that was not good: his brothers selling him into slavery, ending up in prison because of injustice, being forgotten in prison when he had done his utmost to help others. But ultimately, he saw a resurrection of kinds when he was taken from prison and made second in command only to Pharaoh, when his actions were responsible for the saving of many, including his own family from Israel. Job faced pain, sorrow, bereavement and loss, greater than most of us can even imagine, but again, he saw a resurrection of kinds when God blessed the second part of his life even more than the first! (Job 42:12) Easter reminds us that no matter how bad things are (not just how they seem, how bad they actually are), we are on the winning side. Jesus lives, therefore we live. Evil doesn’t win. ‘Jesus’s resurrection spells the words right now so that we can speak rightly, sing in tune and live saved. Live, not evil, is the way to spell it. Resurrection recovers the original word, the Word become flesh.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘On Living Well’, P 110)

Christ took the punishment that should have been ours. He bore our sins. He wiped the slate clean, and now we can not only know the joys of sins forgiven but can have eternal life, free from condemnation and accusation. Now we can be children of God, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. (Rom 8:17) Easter sees the greatest reversal of all, evil turned to live.

Dearne Churches Together took part on the community Spring Fair this afternoon at Goldthorpe Railway Embankment, one of our favourite green spaces locally. The Dearne Area Team and Goldthorpe Railway Embankment Group organised a great afternoon out, with face-painting, an Easter bonnet competition and Easter egg trail. We were present with Easter crafts (a Holy Week colouring activity, making Easter baskets, colouring suncatchers and fuzzy felt pictures and wooden eggs and were also able to give out chocolates and Scriptur Union comics.) Karen Dunn from Furlong Road Methodist Church also told the Easter story.

There was something for everyone to do and we loved being part of the activities today.

We had a great Easter Family Fun Day, working with other local churches at Furlong Road Methodist Church on Wednesday 5th April. Although numbers were lower than usual, we had the opportunity to take part in Easter crafts, do a ‘Resurrection Rhyme’ trail to win a chocolate egg and learn about the Dearne Churches Together selfie board which will be part of the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival’s community art project for 2023.

As part of our consultation for that project, people were asked about what they like about fun days and Dearne Churches Together. One family commented that they liked coming ‘as we take all 4 kids and it’s nice to have family time and talk to other people.’ Another person said, ‘I really appreciate everything that is done as there is something for families to do and enjoy with their children, big or small.’ We are blessed to be able to serve our community in this way and love putting on these holiday activities.

Our thanks to all the church volunteers who helped with reffreshments, supervising crafts and organising activities and to the Salvation Army for providing lovely food for us all to enjoy.

I bought some new shoes recently. I tried them on in the shop and they fitted comfortably. I walked around there, admiring their snug fit. Yet no sooner had I got them home than I discovered the right shoe rubs my foot as the top of the shoe chafes agsinst my skin as I walk.

I’m not used to shoes chafing there; usually, it’s the heel that rubs. But even when I’m wearing socks or tights, these new shoes rub my skin raw. They will not last, I fear. The discomfort leaves me limping.

Just lately I’ve been meditating on Matt 11:28-30, drawn back to familiar verses perhaps because I do feel weary. I’ve been thinking about the yokes mentioned there. How yokes often rub against us, chafing us, restricting us, burdening us. The yoke of parental expecation. The yoke of other people’s opnions. The yoke of our duties and responsibilities. So often, we can feel hemmed in, constrained, chafed. Raw skin eventually bleeds and cripples us. There are many people who feel like that on a daily basis. They may not look as though they are limping, but inside, they are.

The Message version of these verses doesn’t directly mention yokes (an old-fashioned farming analogy that means little to modern Westerners.) It says, ‘I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.’

Ill-fitting shoes or clothes are uncomfortable, restraining and can actually make us ill (I always think of Keira Knightley’s character in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ gasping ‘I can’t breathe!‘ because of her corset before she passes out!) Life is not meant to be lived like that. Jesus urges us to come to Him if we are weary and heavy laden and find rest for our souls. He promises to exchange yokes with us, but His yoke is not ill-fitting. He doesn’t weigh us down with expectations and guilt, but accepts us and frees us. ‘Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly’, He says (Matt 11:30, The Message)

This is the life we all need.

Garry spoke about Dave the Donkey tonight, using the ‘Lost Sheep’ resources to tell the story of the first Palm Sunday and the role played in it by a donkey. Our own donkey (Dave the 133rd) introduced the story.

Palm Sunday reminds us how crowds are easily swayed; on that occasion, they hailed Jesus as a king, but less than a week later were answering Pontius Pilate and shouting ‘Crucify him!’ We need stability in our lives so that we are not easily swayed and easily influenced. Eph 4:11-14 reminds us that we are not to be tossed around but should be rooted and built up in Christ (see also Col 2:2-4, 6-7). God is looking for us to be mature, not like infants who exist only on milk (see Heb 5:11-14).We need to be reading God’s word daily so that it can cleanse us and help us to grow (see Eph 5:25-26).To be stable is to be built up and strengthened through the relationships and ministries of the church, but all this is built on the Word of God, without which we will be tossed about. With it, we will be rooted, strong and stable.