Amazing Grace
During the first week of April we hope you'll visit the Cry Freedom community exhibition at Lode Chapel. We also hope you'll go and see the film 'Amazing Grace' which opened at cinemas on 23rd March. It tells the story of William Wilberforce, a key campaigner for the abolition of the slave trade. Also depicted in the film is John Newton, a slave trader who became an Anglican vicar and famous hymn writer - indeed, he wrote the hymn which gives its name to the film. But what is grace - and what's so amazing about it?
Do you remember Andrew Walker - the 18 year old A-Level student who was killed when two young racists embedded an ice axe in his skull as he waited at a bus stop? His mother, Gee, listened to the harrowing details of the attack in court and within minutes of the trial coming to its conclusion offered words of compassion to her son's killers saying "I forgive them". That is grace - a love which is offered to those who don't deserve it!
Some may be surprised how Gee Walker was able to forgive; others may think she is a fool for even trying. There will be those who label Andrew's killers plain evil; others will seek to show them the type of love they may never have experienced. Some may hold on to bitterness and anger and allow it to eat away at them; others may let go and instead hope that some light may be found in the darkness.
John Newton was involved in the slave trade in which Africans were removed from their homeland, crammed into ships for long voyages to destinations where they were sold like 'things' rather than humans. He became a Christian, began to realise the shameful error of his ways, and joined the abolition campaign. But how can a man involved in such an evil trade ever live with himself? The answer - grace!
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see."
The truth is that when each one of us examines our own life we find things that we are ashamed of - words we wish we hadn't said, actions we've regretted, and thoughts that appal even us! The amazing message of Easter is that God knows exactly who we are (warts and all) - and still offers us His grace.