In 21st Century Britain we have to wrestle with a number of things that never caused our ancestors any issues – things that are meant to make our life easier. We struggle with zoom lag; we get frustrated when our printer stops talking to our computer for no apparent reason; we forget to unmute ourselves and everyone chimes out “You’re on mute!” I am sure you have other similar experiences. One addition to our life’s difficulties from devices that were intended to be labour-saving is ‘auto-correct’. It can lead to some funny outcomes, and can also lead to some embarrassing ones. But recently I experienced a very accurate auto-correction:
I was typing ‘Eastern Baptist Association’ and auto-correct changed it to ‘Easter Baptist Association’. What a spiritually perceptive algorithm! We are Easter people.
In Communist Russia they banned the celebration of all Christian festivals except for Easter. They got that one wrong didn’t they: leaving Christians able to celebrate the most significant moment in human history? If we were only allowed to celebrate one Christian festival a year, for me it would have to be Easter. Because we are Easter people.
We are Good Friday people who know the extent of the Father’s love for us and the cost of forgiveness.
We are Easter Saturday people who know that sometimes we wait in unknowing faith for God to act even when we don’t understand what he is up to.
We are Easter Sunday people who have Hope beyond hope because the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive!
And we are Easter Monday people who live our daily lives having met the risen Jesus…
I know that in ministry we come across many people who still live in Good Friday despair or Easter Saturday confusion. Our role as churches of believers is to embody Jesus for them so that they can see his scars and know that he is for them. In us they should be able to see the outline of his shape in the mist and wonder who he is. And as they walk with us they may be able to discover that they have been walking with Jesus without realising it. That commission to be Easter people has been the same since moment the angels told the women at the tomb to go and tell the 11 male disciples that Jesus was alive.
So, should EBA make a name change and drop the ‘n’; and even if we don’t, will people think we have by who we are and how we are with them?
When we began to think about our house move, one of the things that Tracey said that she was going to miss was the island in the kitchen (you may have seen it in various EBA videos such as this one). The kitchen in our new manse is considerably smaller …
4th October 2023
Prisons week runs from Sunday 8th October to Saturday 14th For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and …
10th October 2023
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.’ (Ecclesiastes 3:1) We live in an ever-changing world. We don’t have to look back too far in history to find the generation who would not have heard of every day words such …
26th September 2023
