When Jesus Came to Birmingham

On a number of occasions, people have remarked to me that Easter is early this year. Some have gone on to ask me why that should be. Well, the official answer is that in the Western Church Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after 21^st March. This means the earliest date it can fall is the 22^nd March: the last time that happened was 1818! Still, this year comes close with Easter Sunday being just one day later on the 23^rd.

For those of us with children this has lead to problems. Some schools are having the week before Easter and the week after as a holiday; some are having the two weeks afterwards. To complicate things more, some are not going on holiday until April. In our extended household, we have all three!

The Easter holiday, are for many of us, the first chance to get away, and rightly so. The weather may not be perfect but we are afforded the opportunity to do many of the things denied us throughout the winter month. The Church Calendar reflects this feeling of optimism, as we move from the season of Lent into the Feast of Easter. – Notice I said Feast, Easter should be a time for rejoicing and enjoying ourselves.

But as we move from Lent into Easter there is one more event on the way – Good Friday. The day we remember Jesus dying by crucifixion, the worse form of execution the Roman State

There is a poem by G. Studdert-Kenedy that sums up much of what I am saying. It is entitled, When Jesus came to Birmingham

When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged Him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed Him by.
They would not hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried, 'Forgive them, for they know not what they do, '
And still it rained the winter rain that drenched Him through and through;
The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall, and cried for Calvary.

Jesus died and rose so that we could face God with a clear conscience. He took on himself all those things that put a barrier between God and us. Surly such an act deserves our thanks? So I would like to ask you this question, where is Jesus for you this Easter? When you sit down to plan your activities think of including some time for Jesus. There are a number of things going on at St. David’s both before and after Easter and, if they don’t seem right, other churches in the locality may have something to suit. Jesus did so much – please don’t leave him in the cold this Easter Season.

Dave

Showing Hospitality

Shortly after writing my post on disaffected young people, I watched a television programme called "The Secret Millionaire". It is not the sort of programme I would normally watch but I noticed that the millionaire in question was visiting the very area of Liverpool where I work with those youngsters. The idea of the programme is that our millionaire would live incognito among the people, looking for worthy causes to which he could contribute.

Now the area has a bad reputation, being on of the most deprived in the UK. Many people keep away from its streets and yet I have always found the inhabitants very open and friendly. I am glad to say that impression came over in the film. Thankfully, the area is undergoing regeneration, although this seems slow and some elements are controversial.


Way back in the late 60's I attended church in the district and it was at that church I met and married Gill. As a young man I evangelised in the neighbourhood, played in a band in the church coffee bar and helped run the youth work. Imagine my surprise when our millionaire visited our old church. Since our time the church has gone through a transformation. Gone are the old pews and furniture to be replaced by modern chairs enabling the space to be used in a more creative way. - But back to our story.

Our millionaire was invited back for a meal by one of the families attending the church. They had no idea who he was, they simply thought he was someone with little money living on their own. Without going into detail the family had got into debt and were working hard to pay off the monies they owed. All of this meant that they could not raise the deposit for a house of their own.
Our millionaire was taken by their attitude and visited on a number of other occasions before 'coming clean' and telling them who he was. To their surprise he handed them a cheque for the deposit on the house. Three months later the family moved into the home for which so long they had dreamed.

During the programme I was reminded of a verse from the Bible. "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." (Hebrews 13:2) Who are those people I meet each day? I could walk around the area I have mentioned believing all the people are layabouts and scroungers - after all that's what the press seems to call them - or I could see them a God sees them, people who he loves and for whom he died. Some may even be there for my benefit.

As a Franciscan I am often told that Francis was converted before the cross at St. Damiano, some others think it was when he was on the road to war. Francis, on the other hand, sees it as being when he put aside all the hate and revulsion of many years and kissed the leper - for him that was the moment of release.

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