Happy EOSTRE?

One of the things I love  most about the Christian festival of Easter is that it is itself an illustration of what we celebrate on Good Friday and Easter Sunday:  REDEMPTION

In a recent guest article in the Washington Post, American Pastor Mark Driscoll wrote this about the origins of Easter:

It’s most likely that the origins of Easter stem from early Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of the British Isles during the first millennium who celebrated a spring festival in the month of April in honor of their goddess Eostre, who represented fertility and the arrival of spring, light, and the rising dawn.

When Christian missionaries first arrived in Britain from the Roman Empire during this time, they incorporated some of the pre-existing traditional festivities into the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which took place in the same season. Basically, since everyone had the day off and it was a fun time to celebrate, the Christians then were unsure exactly when Jesus rose from death and so they chose to add their celebrations to the day. Over the centuries, the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection overtook Eostre in popularity, although the name stuck as “Easter.”

So, it seems that Easter became an illustration of the theme it was established to celebrate!

According to the online Oxford Dictionary, one of the meanings of the word 'redeem' is to 'save someone from sin, error or evil.' This is exactly what happened to the pagan festival of Eostre when Christian missionaries arrived in Britain. A festival in honour of a false god was redeemed for truth and turned into something worth celebrating.


Driscoll says there is a principle illustrated by the redemption of Easter that's worth remembering:

When it comes to cultural issues like this, we as Christians should view them through a simple rubric: reject, receive, or redeem? In this case, the early missionaries to the British Isles sought to redeem Easter rather than reject it or simply receive it. As a result, it became one of the centers of Christianity for many centuries and Eostre the goddess was all but forgotten.

Happy Eostre? Nope! Happy EASTER! 

Don't be afraid of saying it!

Personally, I can't think of a better way of honouring what Jesus achieved through his death and resurrection than celebrating it with a redeemed festival. As we rejoice in Jesus' triumph over sin, Satan and death this weekend, we do so as part of a festival that is the perfect illustration of what he came to do: redeem men and women for God.

More to Life?

Last week we had the first of two special 'More to Life?' Sundays with guest testimonies.

Clover Todman shared very movingly about the death of his wife Sarah three years ago and how God sustained him through this. He gave me permission (actually he encouraged me!) to ask him some very direct questions about how he reconciled his faith in a loving God with what happened. He then spoke from Mark 10 about how we can be sure that there is 'More to Life than Death'. 

The interview I did with him and his follow-up talk should be on the sermon player on Woodgreen's website in the next day or so. If you weren't at Woodgreen on Sunday why not listen to it. And why not consider passing it on to someone else who might find it helpful? 

This Sunday I'm going to be interviewing Paul Andrew, who is Programme Controller for Heart FM. Is there 'More to life than Fame'? Lots of wannabes want to be famous these days. Shows like X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent have brought fame (and infamy) within reach of the average person. 

But is fame all it's cracked up to be? Paul has met his fair share of famous people, so I'm looking forward to hearing his reflections. Paul is also a committed Christian, so I'll also be asking him whether Jesus is still relevant in a celebrity age.

After the interview I'm going to give a short talk from the last part of Mark 10. As an introduction to that I've put together a compilation of quotes about fame. What do the people who know best - famous people - say about fame?

Watch it and judge for yourself, and then why not pass it on to a friend...

Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-52uGIGMg2Q&feature=youtu.be

Brazil Trip Video

If you weren't at Woodgreen last Sunday morning you won't have seen the movie report I produced on my recent Mission Trip to Brazil. 

Here it is...

Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK6ia248xF8&feature=youtu.be

Brazil: Interview with Pastor João

As promised in last weeks blog, this week I am including an interview I was able to conduct with Pastor João, the Senior Pastor of Dom Pedro Baptist Church in Manaus.

 

Dom Pedro is a church about the size of Woodgreen, with 3 Pastors and a strong commitment to world mission. It is also  committed to training up the next generation of Pastors and Christian Workers. As you will hear on the video, they have 18 young men  in their fellowship who are actively considering vocational ministry. They also run a seminary onsite which runs during weekday evenings.

 

As part of the Sunday morning service at Woodgreen this week, Peter and I are going to be reporting back on our trip to Brazil and showing a video of what we got up to.

 

This interview was too long to be included in it's entirety, so I guess it falls into the category of a 'bonus feature'.

 

Hope you enjoy it...

Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li5-pTm4paw&feature=youtu.be