We also had two birthdays to celebrate, the first on Easter Sunday:

The second is an even-more-special-than-usual birthday, and was celebrated with a very special cake!

The question is often asked ‘Which came first? – the chicken or the egg?’ Garry spoke on this topic tonight, reading Heb 1:1-4 initially and then going on to talk about how our answer to this question will largely depend on our worldview. If we believe the Biblical account of creation, we will believe that the chicken came first, created by God. If we believe in evolution, we will believe that the egg came first.

Evolution and the Big Bang Theory are taught as fact in schools in the UK, with scientific advances backing these theories trumpeted in the news. Last March, newspapers reported that physicists had found a long-predicted twist in light from the big bang that represents the first image of ripples in the universe called gravitational waves, cited as direct proof of the theory of inflation. A new study demonstrated that this BICEP claim was wrong (see here for further details), but this was not widely reported at all. Despite many theories posited by theoretical physicists (including dark matter, wormholes, multi-verses and strings), these are not yet proven and scientists’ claims to ‘create life from scratch’ (see here) do not actually involve creating something from nothing. Ultimately, evolution is not scientifically proven. Experiments involving mutations to explain how evolution works fail to explain away the loss of information involved in genetic mutation and both experiments using flies and fish ended up with flies and fish, not a new species…

If we accept that belief is involved in either the view that God created the universe or in evolution, we are still left at Easter to ponder the significance of the egg! Why is the egg a symbol of Easter?

1. The egg shape looks like a stone, reminding us of the tomb in which Jesus’s body was placed. His death was unlike any other death, for He sacrificed Himself, the one who had done no wrong dying for those who had.

2. The egg when broken reminds us of the empty tomb, for although Jesus died for our sins, His body is no longer in the tomb! Jesus is not like Buddha, Krishna or Mohammed; He is risen, just as He said.

3. An egg represents new life, and Jesus arose with a new body, with the ability to give new life to people. He will never die again and all who accept Him as Saviour have new life.

So… we may believe the chicken came first, but at Easter, the egg definitely has priority… especially if it’s chocolate!

A variety of Easter bonnets and head bands was on view tonight:

Eggs are a feature of Easter, so tonight’s family service looked at the subject of ‘Which came first? – the chicken or the egg?’ We had a variety of games and activities featuring eggs:

We had an egg and spoon race:

We also had a race with a balloon being carried between the knees:

One game was ‘pin the tail on the bunny’:

One game involved teamwork and balloons:

There were a variety of chocolate prizes to be won!

The resurrection is absolutely fundamental to the Christian faith, as Paul makes clear in 1 Cor 15. Dave spoke this morning from Phil 3:7-11, looking at what it means to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. Christianity is not, after all, based on abstract philosophy or theories but is a relationship with a living person.

Paul is by no means the only person who wanted to be in relationship with God. Jer 9:23-24 reminds us that we boast not in our achievements or prowess but in the fact of our relationship with God. Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God (John 17:3), and both Peter and John also emphasised that knowing God is key for us (see 2 Pet 1:2 and 1 John 5:20). Knowing Jesus is more than knowing facts about Him, however. It involves putting our faith in Him, spending time in prayer and following Him in obedience.

Eph 1:18-20 talks about the incomparably great power for us who believe; the power which caused the resurrection to happen is available to us. This power enables us to know our sins are forgiven (Rom 4:35) and also to conquer sin, putting on the new self and understanding that we are no longer slaves to sin. (Eph 4:22-24)

God gives us the power to be His agents of change in this world (see 2 Cor 5:19-21) and to be conformed to His likeness, perfected in His love (2 Cor 3:18). Do we want the same things Paul did? What are our hearts set on? Knowing Jesus and the power of His resurrection is all that really matters.

Some people have asked why we wanted to spend a large part of the Easter holiday weekend (over 4.5 hours) watching a film of Matthew’s Gospel. After all, we have all read Matthew’s Gospel before; there’s nothing unfamiliar about this story, so what is the point of giving up time in this way to do something so familiar? Why do people enjoy the experience of film? Is it just the ‘shared experience’? Or the popcorn and ice-cream? (all enjoyed by us as well!)

We live in a society which takes the written word largely for granted; it’s been available in printed form for hundreds of years. We can forget, therefore, the oral nature of Jesus’s teaching; how He communicated through spoken language and interacted with people. Film is a medium which attempts to recapture that.

‘Language originates in a living voice,’ Eugene Peterson says. ‘In its purest form it is spoken and heard, not written and read. Mouth and ears, not pen and ink, are the prerequisites of language.’ (‘The Word Made Flesh’, P 272) Children hear people speak to them long before they learn to speak themselves; they learn to speak long before they learn to read and write. As we heard the words of Jesus spoken with expression and intonation and watched His interaction with His disciples, with the crowds and with the religious leaders, familiar words came alive in new ways. The humanity of Jesus – His joy, His affection for people, His compassion and His understanding – all became very real as we watched and listened. The polarity between those who accepted His message with rejoicing and those who were offended by Him was very evident.

The difference between this film and so many others based on the life of Jesus rests largely on the words themselves. Of course, there was interpretation (what clothes were worn, the expression used, the visual ‘filling in’ of the story), but the words were entirely Scriptural. As such, those very words are infused with God’s power, for His Spirit inspired them and they are alive and active. Our prayer is that these words find a resting place in our hearts as we have heard, listened, watched, and that finding a resting place, they bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance and obedience which is the hallmark of discipleship.