Lent

Pc Beth Watts is based on Newham Borough, a few weeks ago LCPF asked her how Lent and Easter was important to her. This is her reply:

For Lent I’ve not given anything up this year; instead I’ve been memorising Bible verses, inspired by Terry Waite and Dr John Wycliffe Coleman, who were both held captive for several years, and relied on their recall of Bible verses and the Book of Common Prayer during their long periods of solitary confinement. I suspect that committing the verses to memory will be of benefit in a state of freedom too!
I usually spend Good Friday watching the Passion play in Exeter, Devon. There’s something quite striking about walking around the city, witnessing the dramatic events leading up to Jesus’ death on the cross with people of different backgrounds; certainly a mixture of people who believe that Christ is the Messiah, and many who don’t – much like the crowd who witnessed His death at Calvary. Despite the gritty portrayal of Jesus’ suffering and death, the Passion play doesn’t show what is really the culmination and climax of the story; Jesus’ resurrection. On the third day after His broken, lifeless body had been taken off the cross and prepared for burial, Jesus’ previously sealed tomb was empty, and He was talking to women in a garden, living and breathing, as much alive as you are now.
As claims by religions go, this one is pretty wild. For Christians, Jesus’ resurrection means that sin and death have been utterly defeated, and that we too will one day be resurrected, because the immense debt of our sin has been paid for by the one person in history who was utterly sinless, and He has conquered death. The significance of this cannot be overstated; Christians believe that after our earthly deaths, we will live forever, with Christ. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?…Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55 and 57) A future without death is one full of hope, purpose, and exponential potential. I find that exciting, and challenging too…