Welcome to Weobley & Staunton Joint Benefice

In our recent Lent course in Weobley we enjoyed delving deeper into the gospel accounts about the resurrection. One thing that shone out in many of the accounts is the way in which Jesus was unrecognisable to those who had been closest to him. Mary Magdalene thinks he is a gardener at the tomb. Two disciples trudge along the Emmaus Road for seven miles without knowing who walks alongside them. And Thomas only comes to full  recognition of Jesus identity when he has physically placed his fingers in Jesus’ wounds. The writer Esther de Waal observes that after the resurrection Christ presents himself to each person in a way, and at a time and place appropriate to each.  It is never a case of rejecting the ordinary (a lakeshore, a garden, a dusty road) but rather of penetrating through appearances, going beyond the familiar.

This holds true for us also. We may expect the risen Christ to be grand, remote or strange, when in fact He is present with us in everyday life. John’s gospel ends with Jesus’ appearance to the disciples in Galilee, preparing breakfast over an open fire while they are out fishing. It’s a wonderful, earthy depiction of Jesus presence in an ordinary task. The challenge before us is to be fully present in our everyday life, so that we experience the wonder of the resurrection as a daily reality. 

Rev’d Philip 

This coming Sunday, the 5th of Lent, marks the beginning of Passiontide, as we prepare for the unfolding of events that will lead to Jesus, arrest, crucifixion and resurrection.

Passion is an evocative word, calling to mind the ways in which us humans can be stirred by emotional forces deep within us. It also has connotations of things beyond our control. In John chapter 12, we observe Jesus nearing Jerusalem, and he stays in the home of his friends Lazarus, Mary and Martha in Bethany. There his feet are anointed by Mary with extremely costly perfume. It’s an extravagant act, performed by someone who is overwhelmed with emotion, and Jesus recognises it as an act of love, preparing him for ‘the day of burial’. The disciple Judas decries this act as a waste of money, claiming the perfume should have been sold and the money given to the poor. We know, however, that Judas was only concerned with his personal control of the community purse, from which he regularly stole. Later in the story we see how Judas’ desire for wealth gets the better of his judgement and leads him to betray his master.

At this point in the narrative, Jesus appears to be in the eye of a storm, and we know that he will soon be caught up in events that appear to be out of his control, at the whim of the angry emotions of the Pharisees, a baying mob and cynical Roman governors. However, John’s narrative portrays a Jesus moved by a deeper purpose:  He states “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.”  It is this calm, purposeful self-giving love that now entrances us, as we prepare to welcome our Lord through the gates of Jerusalem and follow again the passion of the Easter story.

Rev’d Philip