Friday proved to be a very cold and windy day here in Bo’ness, as I think it was all around Scotland. However, I’m glad to report that a good number of ministers got out on the streets and took the church to the people. I was delighted that my colleague Len Bennett who is a Pastor in the Apostolic Church came up to join us for our Good Friday Service. Len, was  carrying a cross he made over 20 years ago he had  70×7 printed on the cross and this he tells me has been a talking point over the years.  As we walked along the street together with  the cross we found people looking on, wondering what it was all about. We ended up standing outside TESCO for nearly an hour. Around 15 people took the bread and the wine and I believe that everyone who participated found the experience to be meaningful. I also ended up catching up with some people who I hadn’t seen around church for a number of years.I’m glad we did it and I’m also glad that I shared in the walk with the cross.  I think there is a whole new ministry that more of us could develop if we were more prepared to take the symbols of the faith out to the people on the streets.I was delighted to hear that John Sentamu once again this Easter has been baptising people in the open air. Perhaps this is something that we in the Church of Scotland can learn from. How cool would it be if we  could organise a large baptismal service in the open air for new believers? A kind of Church Without Walls Service. We could gather new communicants from all over the country who have never been baptised to profess their faith.Perhaps that is something we could all work towards for next Easter. It would be great to hear comments on this idea. I really think there is more milage to Church Without Walls than we might think!

Once again we used the idea of a Passover meal this year to help engage us all in the significance of the Passion. Putting the crucifixion in the context of the Old Testament story of the Exodus, is to place Jesus as the pascal lamb. It is to help us also understand the significance of Jesus being called the Lamb of God. The pascal lamb was to save the nation of Israel and bring them out of slavery.I believe we have a responsibility today to try and explain the significance of the  cross to people today. Those who are in the church and those outside. For many it is something that is a complete mystery, indeed for many it is a complete absurdity. Hence the need to not simply pass over the Passover but use he Passover to explain the context and meaning of the death of Jesus. The sacrifice of Jesus was a much more inclusive and universal idea.  It had to have a significance for his time and the people who he moved among, but it also has a significance for the whole of history. His death was to save the world and bring us all out of slavery to a new freedom. What happened at Calvary all those years ago still impacts the way people live and has a significance influence on millions of lives . As I’m writing this I’m watching on BBC the latest version of the Passion. Crucifixion is such a dreadful experience. All this calls us to reflect on the meaning and the purpose of the death of Jesus. Here we are two thousand years on and still his death is talked about and made into film material.The challenge for the Christian church today is to explain the death of Jesus so that it makes sense to 21st century people, who know nothing of the Jewish background or theology surrounding sacrifice and forgiveness. One thing I’m certain of is that forgiveness is still very much part of the agenda in the lives of 21st century people.