Dear all,
My Mother is 101 years old and she recently stated, “I have never known anything like it!” None of us have experienced anything like the recent weeks’ upheaval caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, and this is true across the world. It reminds me of the verse from the 139th Book of Psalms in the Bible where the author exclaims, “where could I go to escape from your Spirit or your sight?” We truly live in a “global village” where speed and reach of travel plus instant communication means what happens in one community rapidly affects a community on the other side of the planet.
2020 may well be the first Easter when Christians across the world will not be able to gather to remember and mark Jesus’ suffering, death and subsequent resurrection. Certainly here in Melksham and across the UK we will not be gathering in churches or even small groups; we will not be walking through the town to witness to the events of Good Friday and we will not be meeting in churches on Easter Sunday Morning, whether at sunrise or later in the morning. For many of us it will be very strange. It will certainly be memorable.
And yet the whole experience makes the point more effectively than ever before that the events of that first Easter, although happening in Jerusalem, were of global significance! Jesus took the sins of THE WHOLE WORLD on His shoulders; He died FOR ALL, EVERYWHERE, who would believe in Him. Perhaps ironically, because of the upheaval, there won’t be a place in the world which doesn’t notice something different this Easter and people are caused to stop and think, “What is this Easter thing all about, anyway?”
The challenge for those of us who claim to be followers of Christ is to be able to explain simply what indeed it is all about and how it can effect the life, now and in future, of everyone who is prepared to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Son of God and Saviour of the World – however they decide, or are allowed to, spend the Easter weekend. Perhaps we have greater opportunity than if we had been meeting in our groups, churches or cathedrals! God does indeed have a way of bringing good out of seemingly bad situations.
Alan McFall
Chair, Melksham Family of Churches
