Stainglass window
Christmas 2011
3rd Dec Advent Party
12th Dec @ 2pm
Carol Service at Oak tree Court
16th Dec @ 2.30pm
Carol Service at Stratford Court
17th Dec @11am
Carol Singing outside Co-Op
18th Dec Nativity and Christingle Service and Carol Service
24th Dec @ 11pm (Service starts at 11.30pm
United Service at URC Etwall Rd
25th Dec @10am
Christmas Day Service
"The Right Questions"
Dear Friends,
Last week Sharon and I went to see "Jerry Springer; The Opera" at the Birmingham Hippodrome (Don't stop reading, or throw this newsletter away in disgust!!). I have to say that it was a very enjoyable evening. Personally, I was not offended, nor did I find it blasphemous. Rather, it raised in the minds of the audience some of the important questions. Someone once said that the Christian Church is very good at answering questions that no one was asking. In other words, it is seen as totally irrelevant by most people in our society. My evening at the theatre revealed the questions that non-Christians are asking.
The first half of the show concentrates on a Jerry Springer TV Show. For those who don't know, it's one of those American programs where members of the public parade their problems. The more shocking the better. It raises the questions about what sort of society we live in, where people feel they must go on TV and reveal their most personal fears and hurts in front of millions.
It is the second half of the show, however, that raises much more fundamental questions. just before the interval, Jerry Springer is shot by an angry guest. After the interval, he dreams he is in the after-life, hosting a show where his guests are Jesus and Satan, and he is trying to solve their problems of the universe! Four key questions in particular are raised through the course of events:
1. WHY IS THE WORLD IN SUCH A MESS?
If God is so good and loving, why is there so much pain and suffering around? It's a question not one of us can have failed to ask at some time. At one point, Adam and Eve come on as guests, and they give us a hint as to the answer- for each one of them fails to accept any blame for the way things are. Adam blames Eve, Eve blames Satan, and Satan blames God. It could have been lifted straight out of the opening chapters of Genesis. For what is wrong with the World is us, and our inability to accept the responsibility for it. The Bible points the finger firmly at you and me.
2. DOES GOD CARE?
Okay, maybe we do share some responsibility for what's gone wrong with the world. but does God Care? If he's so loving, where his he when we face pain and suffering and bereavement? Why doesn't he do something to prevent bad things happening to good people? It's another question we all ask: where were you God when I needed you? The Bible doesn't answer this like we might want it to (as I said in church a few weeks ago). Rather, the only answer the Bible will give us concerns Jesus. God came to earth in the person of a human being because he cared. That's the Christmas message. And he was willing even to die, because he cared so much. And that's the Easter message.
3. HOW WILL GOD PUT IT ALL RIGHT?
How is it possible that it will all be sorted out? Jerry Springer finds it impossible to reconcile Jesus and Satan (not surprisingly!). So what does the apostle Paul mean when he writes that God will "reconcile to himself all things on earth and all things in heaven" (Colossians 1:20)? We enter now the area of Christian hope. when we were looking at the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelations, last autumn, these questions came into our minds. Just what does it mean to live in a perfect world, where there is no sin, no suffering, and no death?
4. WHY IS THE CROSS OF JESUS SO IMPORTANT?
The show is so written that every time Jesus speaks (and I mean every time), he refers to his death on the cross. No matter what subject is raised, no matter what question is asked, he always brings the conversation around to his death. In fact Satan gets so annoyed at one point, he screams, "Enough! What is it about you and the cross?" It's a very profound observation, because the New Testament tells us that the death of Jesus on that cross is the central event in our universe, and there is no answer to anything without reference to that. The verse I quoted earlier, about God reconcilng all things tells us that he will achieve it through Jesus Christ, "making peace through his blood shed on the cross". This is why those early Christians chose a cross as their symbol of all that they believed, and why Good Friday is the most important day in the Christian year.
As we begin the countdown to another Holy Week and Easter, make sure you take time this Lent to consider these fundamental questions, and the answer that the Christian faith gives them.
Your friend and pastor,
Jonathan Calvert.