Grace and peace to you from God our Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
Last night the Lockdown was extended till the end of the month. In a brave and decisive and well-articulated statement by the President, he acknowledged our sacrifice and called us to endure longer and adapt to a new reality. As the Church we are called to be transformed and to lead a wave of transformation as we bring (live) Kingdom values into the world. We ourselves need to be at the forefront of this behavioural change and reform the way that we live in the world. All creation groans in eager anticipation of the revelation of the Sons of God (Romans 8:19-23). We are called to rebuild the world one person, one family, one community, one society at a time.
After every fall of any civilisation Christians, by their self-sacrificial lifestyle rebuilt the world. In Christ is the only way it can be done. A new Creation is God’s mission and we are co-creators with God, in Christ. Therefore, I call on you to give of yourself to this work.
I ask you to submit reflections and thoughts and questions via email or WhatsApp to assist the leadership in developing a Reintegration Strategy. This will enable us to provide you with what you need, in terms of spiritual support to overcome the stress of the lockdown period and the momentous task ahead of us in rebuilding a healthy vibrant society, going forward.
Our offices will, of course, remain closed until the end of April and we will continue with our online support. We will need to address staff Salaries and food parcels and overcome our financial constraints as well. To this end we will reduce wherever we can, I will not take a Vehicle Allowance this month, and only my Instalment and Insurance will be paid; and as you should have gathered I will not take an Easter Offering this year. A priority remains paying the Assessment so that Clergy stipends can be paid.
This Easter we focus a lot on the death of Jesus, and we need to realise what He took to the grave with Him.
He took a self-righteous, and a hard-hearted way of life to the grave, and He raised a heart of flesh, a love thy neighbour as thyself way of life, from the tomb;
He took a peace for some through oppression way of life, to the grave, and raised a “Think of others as more important than yourselves” way of life, from the tomb.
He took a power to rule over others, way of life to the grave and raised a power to serve others way of life, from the tomb.
He took a fear of sin, way of life to the grave and raised a Freedom from sin way of life, from the tomb.
God rolled the stone away from a self-centred life and raised a life that has been given in humility and obedience, even obedience to death on a cross. What will God put to death in you this Good Friday? What will you leave behind you in the grave this good Friday, so that God can raise you afresh on Sunday?
Jesus laid down His life, and so, must we. There are many things that the circumstances of our generation need us to lay down at the foot of the cross this Easter. May the journey to the cross give us the strength and wisdom to do so.
I commend to you the Stations of the cross on our WEBSITE. Take some time, look at the pictures, listen to the meditations, prayerfully construct your response and journey with Jesus.
I end by saying again – join the women! They followed every step of the way. They did not try to dictate how the story should play out and what Jesus should do. They did not demand anything for themselves. They did not seek to influence the narrative. They just stayed close to Jesus, feeling His pain, enduring with Him, participating in the narrative right to the end, and to them, Jesus appeared first. Stick with Jesus my dear people.
Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive all power and wealth wisdom and might, honour and glory and praise!
May I take this opportunity to say a special thank you to Vanda for the huge amount of work that she did in putting the WEBSITE meditations together, and to the contributors for those meditations. And to each He gave gifts (Eph 4:8) praise God!
Be assured of my prayers for you.
Rector.
