Pastor Ken Keyte
By Pastor Ken Keyte, Cambridge Baptist Church
During our recent church services at Cambridge Baptist we have been taking a few minutes to hear someone from our congregation share their faith story. We have heard a different person each Sunday describe in just three minutes what their life was like before meeting Jesus; how they met Jesus; and the difference Jesus has made in their lives.
The template for their faith story comes from how the Apostle Paul described his faith story in Acts 26:1-23. There Paul shares with an audience what his life was like as a devout Pharisee before he met Jesus; how he met the risen Lord Jesus on a journey to Damascus to persecute Christians; and how Jesus had turned his life around and has been helping him ever since.
Although the circumstances of the faith stories we’ve been sharing in church are very different to Paul’s, nevertheless each one is a compelling testimony that Jesus whose life, death and resurrection we remember at Easter, has indeed risen from the dead and is still turning people’s lives around today! Do you have a faith story to share?
Murray Smith
By Murray Smith, Pastor, Bridges Church
During Easter, Cambridge people and countless others around the world who identify with Christian faith, will contemplate the crucifixion of Christ and his resurrection from the dead.
The cross is a common symbol. Visible in cemeteries, accident sites, on buildings and architecture, it inspires artworks and is popularly worn as jewellery. The fact crosses are frequently an adornment or fashion statement is odd given the original purpose and intent. I mean, crosses were an instrument of execution implemented by the Romans, until banished in 337AD for being too cruel. I haven’t seen anyone accessorising with a gallows necklace or little electric chair earrings.
So, why on earth has Jesus’ death on a cross in the first century AD, been perpetually ‘commemorated’ and what’s its relevance for us today? Jesus’ death was unique – it is God’s way for us to be reconciled to Him. Through wilful wrongdoing and sinfulness, mankind became estranged from God. Although guiltless, Jesus received a penalty that was rightly ours, in His own body. Motivated by unfathomable love, He became the substitute – his suffering, death and resurrection is our means of a new beginning.
The joy of Easter is in accepting our need of salvation, then starting afresh.
Jeff Parker
Jeff Parker, Pastor, Elim Church Centre
Easter – yah! two extra days off – a long weekend! What shall we do?
Before you answer that question – can I encourage you to think for a moment about the first Easter. It too was a long weekend in many ways.
On Friday Jesus Christ, the one who brought healing and hope to so many was crucified on a Roman cross. Saturday, His closest followers were distraught, His enemies satisfied. But Sunday it all changed – He rose from the dead – came back to life. Hard to believe and yet historically sound when we look into it.
Maybe in your life you feel a bit like it’s Friday or Saturday. Things are tough, it’s been painful, maybe you’ve lost hope for the future just like some of Jesus’ followers did after His death. But when everything changed on that first Easter Sunday and Jesus rose back to life, He also made a way for you to come back to life, to find new hope, to step into a relationship with God that changes everything.
Why not visit one of our Cambridge churches this Easter Sunday and find out more about God’s incredible love and purpose? Now that would be a smart thing to do this long weekend!
Jennie Savage
Rev Jennie Savage, Vicar, St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Cambridge
One of the church creeds has the line “I believe in the resurrection of the dead”. Whether this phrase is taken as a metaphor or literally, it makes a difference in our approach to life.
Resurrection faith is a willingness in the face of overwhelming odds to entrust ourselves to the God of life and love, despite the range of oppressive forces encountered in the world. Resurrection faith is a radical trust in the God who follows the horrendous Friday and the lonely Saturday with the joy of Sunday.
Easter Sunday, although unique in its climactic nature, is not an isolated event, we have had glimpses of it over and over again. We have seen in our own times the fall of dictators and dividing walls. We have seen people across the world unite to help one another in the face of disaster, and where God has opened new doors in our lives when others were closed.
Easter is wherever the Spirit of God comes back in the broken hearts of people and they begin the dance of life, with futures resurrected by the Lord of life. May the joy and hope Easter brings, be part of your daily life.
Leonard Danvers
Monsignor Leonard Danvers, St Peter’s Parish, Cambridge.
This Sunday we will celebrate the great feast of the Resurrection of Jesus. Resurrection is something built into the very fabric of nature, something we see most days of our lives without making the connection between what we see and our belief in the Resurrection of Jesus and our own resurrection. That we don’t make the connection may be for a variety of reasons.
Somehow the world of religion has become for many a sort of fairyland, another world from the real, everyday world we live in. But this isn’t true. For if the truths of religion and the values of religion were different from those of the everyday world – then religion would be a great deception.
The pattern of resurrection is found all around us. Plants grow to maturity, die and rot away. The lucky ones get put into compost bins, and become food for the next generation. And the seed, which seems to die, seemingly lifeless and invisible in the soil, doesn’t really die – instead it becomes the source of new life, springing up again as a new plant. Insects die, but soon the air is teeming with more of these irritating creatures, hatched from the eggs that were left behind. All this is at the level of nature. But God’s creation doesn’t stop at that. He goes beyond that, creating a new life out of death.
What the Resurrection of Jesus tells us is that God’s creation and our destiny are both far more wonderful than we thought. The signs of this fact are there for everyone to see, visible to our minds and eyes if we care to use them. Albert Schweitzer once wrote “Christ comes to us… as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside. He came to those who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same words – follow me – and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfil for our time. He commands. And to those who obey him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal himself in the toils , the conflicts, the joys and sufferings which they shall pass through in his fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience who He is.”
This Easter may God lead you to just such a transforming faith in his Son. Jesus lives. He is Risen. Peace is the first gift of the Risen Jesus to his disciples. May this peace be with you always and a happy Easter to you all.
