St Cuthberts Saltcoats Parish

Dear Friends,

The Manse   April 2009

I want to think about both Easter and Pentecost after reconsidering Christmas. The modern church seems to be bogged down at Christmas. It has been all but impossible for us to escape the sheer commercialism of the advent season. The social and family pressures upon parents especially, to come up with an expensive and stressful Christmas, are massive. It is a time for the children, we are always told, but at what cost?

Well at the cost of the Christmas message for one thing; it is all but lost outside the church. But if we are bogged down at Christmas do we stop dead after Easter? Every Easter we remember the death of Christ and celebrate his resurrection. Easter is a great time to proclaim our faith because the Christian faith focuses on Easter. It is the death and resurrection of Christ which are the dual focus of our beliefs about Christ. In his letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul wisely commented that ‘if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. - - - If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If it is only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.’ That is to say that if Christ is not risen from the dead, then his death was quite meaningless and no more significant than the deaths of the two men who died beside him. Without the resurrection, Christ is not our Saviour. And so our sins are not forgiven. Christians who have died before us are simply dead; lost forever. And if we go on believing we are the most pathetic and pitiful people!  Thank God that the resurrection of Christ happened. ‘Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep - - - - In Christ all will be made alive’.