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April 2021

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In DONCASTER, EASTER, PAUSE FOR THOUGH, ST MARY'S, TICKHILL

A Gospel reflection – The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd

 

As we begin to move on from the Easter narrative we have this wonderful image of Christ as the Good Shepherd.

With all the programmes on farms and the countryside we’ve had on television recently, and the knowledge that we have lambs being born locally, it is not difficult to appreciate the wonder of new life and the care that is taken with the livestock. Total commitment. On call 24 hours a day. Facing all the challenges new life brings. So it is for a good job to be done with this profession and within any sphere.

So, Jesus demonstrates His love for His ‘flock’ by giving His life. ‘Greater love hath no man….’ He is always looking for bringing in other ‘sheep’ who recognize His call and is prepared to die so that the flock may remain secure. Our Lord compares this calling with the hired hand who is only into shepherding for the money and lacks loyalty, running away at the first sign of danger. Under the hired hand the flock is in jeopardy from wolves. Under the good shepherd, the sheep bask in the reflected love of their Creator, offered to them by the Son.

John Marsden

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In CHURCH, DIOCESE, DONCASTER, EASTER, ST MARY'S, TICKHILL, Uncategorized

A Gospel reflection – the appearance of Jesus after Resurrection

A Gospel reflection – the appearance of Jesus after Resurrection

 

Today’s gospel reading describes one of Jesus’ appearances after the resurrection. How was he greeted? Not with the intense joy we might expect; the gathered disciples were ‘terrified and amazed’. We have to forget two millennia of Christianity and get into the minds of those present. It is unsurprising that all the gospels describe the initial disbelief of those who first encountered the risen Christ,

To gain some understanding we need to recognise the Jesus’ resurrection was something totally new and different from the resuscitation of Lazarus and the boy from Nain. Jesus’ earthly body had been buried. The resurrected Jesus had been transposed into the glory of heaven.

St.Paul (in 1 Cor.15) describes this as four changes:

What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable,
What is sown is contemptible, what is raised is glorious,
What is sown is weak, what is raised is strong,
What is on earth a natural body, what is raised is a spiritual body.

We can’t visualise this difference any more than those disciples could immediately understand what stood before their eyes. But, in this Easter season we can add our gratitude for all that God did and does through Jesus.

John Hoare

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In CHURCH, DIOCESE, DONCASTER, EASTER, PAUSE FOR THOUGH, ST MARY'S, TICKHILL

A Gospel reflection for after Easter

A Gospel Reflection

 

After all the pathos and drama of the Passion of Our Lord, and the excitement of His Resurrection we have the intimate narrative of Christ’s meeting with the disciples. It’s almost as if the dust was beginning to settle after a period of intense activity, or bits of the jigsaw were starting to fit into place after the jumbled chaos.

As the lockdown changes to greater freedoms so we begin to reconstruct as if building a new jigsaw. Next week sees the recommencement of the 10.30 am. Service in church ( with the same guidelines as previously ). Hopefully we would be more able to begin emerging and reconnecting with life in general.

Today we find the disciples fearfully together behind locked doors. Alone. Confused. Waiting. And the risen Jesus speaks with reassuring words, “Peace be with you.” Their Lord, and ours, breathes the Holy Spirit into them, bringing courage and hope for their futures.

The absent Thomas struggles to grasp what has happened. When Jesus appears for the second time the crucifixion scars convince Thomas, who makes a huge leap of faith declaring, “ My Lord and my God.” He had seen the light. Many of us have spoken about being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel as the vaccine rolls out and also infections fall. So the risen Christ brings peace to us too as we lean on the knowledge of God’s goodness to His creation, intimately concerned for each and every individual.

John Marsden

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In CHURCH, DIOCESE, DONCASTER, EASTER, ST MARY'S, TICKHILL

A message for Easter

Happy Easter

 

The Rev. Canon Ian Smith, Area Dean of West Doncaster, writes

Do you have a favourite Easter hymn or song? If you do could you look it up and read the words please? We are possibly first attracted by the tune it has or an association of the hymn with a place or people special to us. But it may be the words and the combination of tune, people and place. It is so for me.

‘This joyful Eastertide’ was introduced to me in Woking in my very happy second curacy. Oh, getting the twiddly bits right was demanding but then the tune was one I could hum. Written in 1894, its words repeat ancient Christian truths; ‘Had Christ, who once was slain, ne’er burst his three-day prison, our faith had been in vain’ is virtually a copy of 1 Corinthians 15 verse 14.

The other verses remind me I can rest and die in a sure hope because of Jesus and his victory over death; that I should have no more to do with sin because of his resurrection and that the amazing truth, that ‘now hath Christ arisen’, can be repeated in the chorus, louder and louder. What Easter hymn do you like most and why? What does it teach you?