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.

Today the local churches joined together for an Easter March of Hope, starting off from the coffee morning:

A very obedient dog:

Setting off:

Singing on the main road:

Outside Asda:

Continuing on:

We worship an invisible God, but there are many visual things we do to try to help us to capture all He has done for us. Some of these things include displays commemorating Easter in our local churches:

At the local parish church: