Abbots Langley Methodist Church
Magazine
March 2008

FROM THE MANSE

from Revd. Gill Hulme

I have recently conducted two funeral services where young children were present. I know that this is a subject on which people have strong feelings, but personally I welcome the presence of children at such services. Among my mother’s generation, birth and procreation were subjects not talked about with children, among my generation death was not discussed. I’ve heard it said that adults have not wanted children present because they would see their parents and grandparents cry, and I wonder what on earth is wrong with that? I think we need to be honest with children and young people, to discuss emotional issues with them, and for children to realise that it is normal to grieve and to cry. In trying to protect them, we can at times, unwittingly hurt, or send out the wrong messages.

These thoughts came to me, as I was trying to find a board book suitable for under 4s to tell the Easter story. I finally found ‘Come into the garden with Mary’ which I hope to use with the pre-school. Because if we try to skip over the events of Holy Week and just concentrate on Easter Sunday, we are, I believe, doing our children a disservice. Perhaps the best way to approach Holy week with young children is to think about the emotions of the friends of Jesus at this time, even very young children can appreciate sadness and loss.

But it is a common temptation, not wanting to dwell on the suffering of Jesus. After all, who wants to think long and hard about Jesus being tortured to death, by a method used by the Romans for maximum humiliation?

Yet we move too quickly onto the resurrection at our peril. On the cross, Jesus showed exactly how much God loves us, and how God is at one with the suffering of His world. We speak of the atonement – a difficult concept, but made easier if we think of at-one-ment, God reconciling the world to Himself.

I came across this song from the Iona Community recently called ‘The Sorrow’:

Don’t tell me of a faith that fears to face the world around
Don’t dull my mind with easy thoughts of grace without a ground
I need to know that God is real!
I need to know that Christ can feel
The need to touch and love and heal
The world, including me!

When our faith is based on the cross and resurrection of Christ, it can indeed face our difficult and hurting world, because Jesus has walked that path for us. So I would urge you to set time aside during Holy Week to meditate on Christ’s Passion and death, and if you are able, to attend at least part of the Good Friday walk of witness, so that the joy of Easter Sunday can take on its full impact. Then we will be able to shout together in confidence ‘Christ is risen – He is risen indeed!’