2008 Letter No 04

Each month Bill writes a pastor's letter for our monthly church magazine called 'The Messenger'. Here is the letter for April 2008:

I am writing this letter as we celebrate Easter, and I cannot bring to my mind any truth other than the fact that Jesus Christ is risen. And yet by the time April comes, and this message is read by others, Easter will have passed.

And yet Easter never passes. We are an Easter people – we live in the light of the resurrection rather than in the shadow of death. Every Sunday we recall that Christ is risen, and we celebrate our new life in him. We gather to worship in his name – not in the name of a dead hero, but in the name of our living Lord. That truth is burning in my heart at the moment, but we are forgetful people. We might remember to come to church. We might remember to read our Bibles and to pray … but we can at the same time go through life as though Jesus were not victorious. We can go through life as though we were on the losing side, rather than as eternal winners through Jesus Christ who died for us … more than that who was raised to life for us.

When I remember and rehearse these truths I am struck again by the great and humbling privilege it is to be a minister of this gospel. I am reminded of a Member of Parliament in a previous generation who was also a Christian minister and preacher, and who never forgot which one was the higher calling. Words in the House of Commons could not compare with the glories of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ.

And it is not just preachers who have a humbling honour. The eternal, holy, awesome God who created the Universe by speaking it into existence has invited each one of us to be his royal child, to be co-heirs with Christ. We are invited into the family of God. The apostle Peter goes even further in describing us as participants or partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). We who are in Christ enter into the very life of God himself.

What does this mean for how we view ourselves? Last summer, when Kerrion, Silas and I were taking a fortnight’s holiday in Barmouth, we attended the local Elim Pentecostal Church in the town. On our first Sunday there the pastor of the church was preaching. She had had a poor experience of human fathers when she was growing up and had struggled with feelings of worthlessness as a result. But she found liberation and wholeness in her relationship with our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ. As she was preaching she spoke as if to the devil himself, saying, “Satan, address me by my title. Don't call me stupid. I'm a daughter of the living God. Don't dare call me worthless. I'm a daughter of the living God." And so she continued in that manner. So don’t let anyone tell you that you are worthless. That is not the Father’s opinion of you. He has made you his child, to become a partaker of the divine nature through Jesus Christ.

And what does this mean for how we view one another? I remember reading a wonderful article by Archbishop Desmond Tutu more than twenty years ago. One particular image has stayed with me. Desmond Tutu referred to the practice of some High Anglicans and Roman Catholics of bowing before the consecrated bread at the communion table. They bow because they believe that God is specially present in the bread, and in bowing before the bread they understand themselves to be bowing before Jesus Christ himself. You do not have to agree with the practice of bowing before the bread on the communion table to understand and appreciate Tutu’s next comment. He said that if we bow before the bread on the communion table because we discern in it the presence of Christ, then we should likewise bow before one another because each Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit and the presence of Christ is within each one of us. It was in part this deep understanding of the value of every person in Jesus Christ that gave Desmond Tutu the strength and commitment to oppose the blasphemy of apartheid.

We belong to the Father through the risen Christ, and the Holy Spirit gives us life. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!