Colour Supplement

Articles by Christians around the world

Sunday 24 February 2008

 

The assurance of hope

a letter from Revd Jim Cox, Vicar of St. Andrew's Church Taunton

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

As you read this we will be approaching one of the great high-lights of the church’s calendar: Holy Week and Easter. With the onset of spring, as the bulbs and blossoms proudly display their colours and the days are noticeably longer, Easter inevitably brings a sense of new hope.

 

And of course hope is an important part of the Easter message. Hope is a word that can be used lightly, but actually is the solid assurance that all is well.

 

The cross and resurrection are properly understood as God’s way of finally dealing with sin and death, and we are familiar with hymns and prayers that speak of sacrifice and the price being paid. And while sin is not a word that is used much outside the church – or inside it for that matter – Easter marks a new relationship with God and a new assurance that God loves us and God can rescue us out of any pit of despair.

 

A friend of mine was once part of a discussion for joint services between an elderly Anglican congregation and a local Pentecostal church. The one wanted Prayer Book evensong the other wanted to just “praise the Lord”. The conversation went as follows:

 

I don’t understand it – you want to spend the whole time praising the Lord?

Yes.

But you might not feel like praising the Lord.

I will.

What if you’ve been waiting for a bus for hours?

I just praise the Lord.

What if you’ve been standing in the freezing rain the whole time?

I just praise the Lord.

What if when a bus finally comes it’s too full to get on?

(one felt she was drawing on painful personal experience at this point.)

I just praise the Lord.

Well, b - - - - r me!

 

This is not a denial of the realities of the pain of this world - the woman speaking had been at the forefront of the struggle against gun crime in our cities - but it does demonstrate an assurance of hope. In classic Pentecostal style it says: “Satan, you may think you can get me to curse my God by these trials, but I know you are already defeated and I will praise my God.”

 

This is the assurance of hope. And it is part of what we celebrate at Easter.

 

Praise the Lord!

Jim           

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